Submarine Substitution
Nova finally managed to get her neck above the water line. She gasped. Her eyes were burning from the seawater. On the horizon she could see the sun rising, and only when she shielded her eyes could she find a small spit of land.
Mustering up the last of her strength, she hobbled in that direction. Her arms felt weak and she could feel something stabbing her in the leg, but finally she managed to collapse onto the sandy island.
What now? The submarine accident had happened suddenly. Everyone had been blown away, but had anyone else survived?
It seemed unlikely. A small section of the craft had washed up on shore beside her. She dragged it in to see what she could use for survival. A few days of food was good. The first aid kit helped her get the metal rod out of her leg. There was also a small 3D printer which apparently had solar panels on top. It was still in the box.
Her phone refused to turn on. Minutes of water, salt, and ocean pressures applied to it meant she wasn’t surprised when the screen remained blank.
So where was she? And how could someone find her?
The first day was full of panic. The next was one of boredom. After walking a lap around the sandy beach for the umpteenth time she finally decided to unbox this machine.
It was state-of-the-art from what she could tell. As soon as the noon rays hit the top, the little OLED panel welcomed her with excessive enthusiasm.
She scrolled through the list of manufacturer-included items: a toy boat, a scaled-down train, a radio…
Wait.
She opened up the instructions. It was able to produce a radio transceiver. It didn’t seem high-quality, operating only on the CB channel, but nevertheless might be her way out.
The only problem was one of material. The included plastic resin wasn’t going to produce a strong enough signal to stretch for the necessary miles.
As she set down the machine in disappointment, her arm touched the hot metal of the bloody rod from yesterday. A realization came to her.
Using some of the equipment, she managed to disassemble enough of the submarine remnants and feed it into the machine. She felt a great deal of anticipation as it began producing her salvation layer by layer.
By the time she heard the click and the fuzzy sounds of another person, she burst into tears.
This prompt was based on this week’s SpecTech prompt, about rapid manufacturing and machine adaptability. I’m not sure if it fit the prompt perfectly, as they seemed to prefer more of an industrial concept. But I decided to go with something more referential to the ill-fated Titan submersible.