Whatever Can Go Wrong

[Cancer]

Re: Whatever Can Go Wrong

 

Something in the seat cushions has a very low vapor pressure so it's gone unrecognized here on Earth, but in a closed/circulating environment it accumulates to slow toxicity. Choose your symptoms according to the scenario you like to run: paranoia/violent tendencies; slow degradation of abstract thought capacity; induction of leukemia or other cancer; triggering of intermittent involuntary psychic powers. Or for non-biological problems, it's a catalyst that makes the onboard electronics decay.

[Arac-4105]

Re: Whatever Can Go Wrong

 

Silly suggestion: Carmen Miranda's ghost appears (maracas drive crew crazy)

 

Serious suggestion: Despite regular exercise from the crew, their bones still lose mass and turn so brittle that pushing buttons regularly breaks fingers.

[tkdguy]

Re: Whatever Can Go Wrong

 

Silly suggestion: Carmen Miranda's ghost appears (maracas drive crew crazy)

 

Wasn't there a story about Carmen Miranda's ghost in a space station? At least that was the title.

 

Edit: Found it!

 

And I love the song!

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Whatever Can Go Wrong

 

And then Carmen Miranda turns into John Wayne.

 

(I've been in this play too long....)

[Zeropoint]

Re: Whatever Can Go Wrong

 

Any complex system can suffer a failure which will put it out of action until repaired, and it's unlikely that serious failures can be completely corrected in the field. This allows for a bit of short-term excitement, and ratchets the tension up a notch for the duration of the mission.

 

Fire on board a ship is a serious thing. While a spaceship has (maybe) the ability to put out a fire by venting the compartment to space, they don't have unlimited reserves of air. Desmoking a space will be very difficult with no external atmosphere to use. On the other hand, isolating the compartment may allow the fire to die out as it uses up all the oxygen in the space . . . poorly trained crews may cause a reflash if they open the doors before the materials cool down.

 

Prolonged exposure to FTL effects may have a previously unknown effect on the crew.

[The Monster]

Re: Whatever Can Go Wrong

 

Sensor array goes haywire:

a) a paper clip fell onto the primary magnetometer

a misdirected data feed from the Space Battles video game

c) accidentally activated Command Traning Simulation 34A

d) unmapped microscopic black hole passes close by

 

Speaking of microscopic black holes, one of those passing near/through the ship can cause all kinds of mayhem...

[Rapier]

Re: Whatever Can Go Wrong

 

The food supply gets ruined and the only thing to survive was frozen bean burritos.

 

You think a filter is gonna remove the fart-stink of an entire crew living off bean burritos?

[Nyrath]

Re: Whatever Can Go Wrong

 

Fire on board a ship is a serious thing. While a spaceship has (maybe) the ability to put out a fire by venting the compartment to space' date=' they don't have unlimited reserves of air.[/quote']

Yeah, NASA tragically found out the hard way that while 100% oxygen atmospheres have some advantages, it is a little too close to swimming in napalm.