A Battle Unseen

[Elena1012]

Logbook Entry: 04:13
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December 31st, 5658
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Syarokhna, Vrosnok, Nadiyan Confederation
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Rada Doǔnar walked down the hallways of the nuclear power plant. The yellow hue of the lights, buzzing over her head, never failed to disappoint. Just like this forsaken power plant. Rada tried to get the city to approve extra funding, or at least get the government to approve it. Instead, all they told her was to screw off and figure it out on her own. She tried to keep her composure. She was angry and upset. Who wouldn't be. She was managing a goddamn nuclear power plant. The hallway lights flickered as she kept replaying the rejection in her mind. See! This is what she was talking about! Who could work in these conditions? Let alone operate a nuclear power plant without risk? And what did asking for help get her? A goddamn inspection. The local government wanted to inspect the power plant. She was going to lose her job at this rate. She stopped in front of the door to the control room, and tried to calm herself. She opened the door, faking a smile to the rest of the skeleton crew.

"Morning, Boss." Lydia Kamienskaja said as soon as Rada opened the door. Lydia didn't bother getting up. Either she was too apathetic for this job or something else. It wasn't even morning. Lydia gently frowned after not getting a response. "How did the request go? Is the government going to give us a budget boost?"

 There it was. Rada froze in her steps. She had to calm her nerves. She breathed in deeply and breathed out. "No. They told us that we'll have to manage because of fiscal concerns, and that we'll have an inspection soon." 

Rada continued walking and sat down on the swivel chair behind the control panel. The diagnostic panel for reactor 3 kept flashing. She didn't bother looking. It always did that. Always some new issues that they barely could contain. The sensors were too old. Or the frostbite outside was too bad. It was bad enough with the weather.

Lydia was surprised and shocked. She questioned why and kept talking to herself as Rada didn't bother replying. It was frustrating. Lydia never knew when to stop talking, Magdusya Sapieha was a new employee who was so.. idealistic. She was the one who encouraged Rada to approach the government. And now here we are. Everyone in this skeleton crew was competent, sure. But Rada had to admit that everyone here had flaws.

Just as she was about to glance at the flashing panel, the phone rang. Rada got up, sighed and went to pick it up. It was the Inspectorate. The inspector would arrive "soon", whatever that meant. They'd want to inspect the power plant, see if the facility was still working and run a SCRAM Test. If the inspector deemed the inspection to be a failure, Rada would lose her job, the skeleton crew would be replaced and the facility would be shut down. The phone call ended, and Rada put the phone down. No word she could think of would come even close to describing the frustration and rage she was having from this. It was ridiculous. Deny her request to help the power plant and then blame her if the inspection fails. Amazing.

She returned to the chair and sat down. She had to calm her nerves. All of this was ridiculous. The reactor 3 diagnostics panel stopped flashing. "Magdusya, go and check out steam turbine hall. Make sure everything's working. We got an inspection soon." She didn't bother looking up, as Magdusya quickly nodded and left the room. The biggest worry Rada had was if the SCRAM Test failed. If the control rods had any issues or the turbines, it would be a disaster. She'd lose her job. It couldn't get any worse than that. This was going to be hellish. If she was lucky, that inspector wouldn't get here because of the snow. Apparently some snowstorm was coming. Maybe it'll help her out and keep the inspector out for a few days longer.