I'm not sure how long it is going to take to solve this one.
We had a fire in the main computer core. We aren't quite sure how, but at some point an automated recovery routine was activated. That routine was supposed to pull all of the air out of the compartment with the fire. Unfortunately, someone screwed up and clicked for the air to be evacuated from the room the operator was working from. Which was the command center of the ship.
This had the unfortunate effect of killing everyone on-board who had administrative access to the computer system. I was promoted to Commanding Officer from an automated line of succession routine. But my promotion's access credentials require authorization from the System Administrator. And, unfortunately, there was not automated line of succession for the System Administrator.
We did eventually get the fire put out. And we did manage to switch over to a backup computer system. But something in the fire or the transfer scrambled our library computer records. The computer has been bending over backwards to try to wiggle some way it can allow us to continue to perform day to day functions with ordinary user access. But restoration of files from backup media (and authorizing administrative access) still require someone with higher credentials than anyone on board is in possession of.
Thankfully, most of the technical documentation we require to keep the ship running was in hard copy form.
If you are reading this ticket, and if you have somehow gained System Administrator Privileges. Please consider the following on your to do list: