Controlling Damages

Posted on Wed May 3rd, 2023 @ 8:42pm by Lieutenant JG Hank Solomon & Ensign Bek'a ir Az

1,997 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: House of The Dying Sun
Location: USS Eclipse - Main Engineering
Timeline: Pre-departure

[Main Engineering]

As Hank stepped into the main engineering room of the USS Eclipse he got stucked by its high-tech atmosphere. “Here’s my kingdom” he thought with a smile on his face. The room was a massive, multi-level chamber in many ways similar to the ones he was used to but this…this was different. It was “his”.
The room was dominated by a large, cylindrical warp core that glowed with a bright blue light. The warp core was surrounded by a complex web of catwalks and support structures, which were manned by teams of engineers and technicians who worked tirelessly to keep the ship's systems running smoothly and prepare her for space.

The walls of the engineering room were lined with a dizzying array of consoles and computer terminals with blinking lights and flashing buttons monitoring the ship's engines, power systems, and other critical components.
Hank walked slowly from the main entrance towards the warp core, nodding a salute here and there and admiring the technical beauty of the ship’s core.

Closing in to the ensign on duty at the main control station he saluted her and asked for an update.

“Good morning, ensign.” he said in a cordial tone.

Hank was met by a bright smile and wide eyes. "Good morning sir! Everything looks in order so far. We're running external diags after the bombing to make sure we're secure and no damage." The stream flowed from her like she was in wonder of it all.

Hank nodded "I guess the ship was moored and linked to the Starbase when the attack occurred. Any energy feedback? Overcharged or underpowered systems due to the Starbase's attack?" he inquired further while entering his ID and password in the nearest console.

She shook her head. "No sir. We're pre-departure so the umbilicals were all retracted, we're just locked into the mooring in preparation for release at the Captain's order." Bek'a touched a few places on her console. "No reports of fluctuations in displays or systems, checking logs now for anomalies... Sir, you're so right. There was a surge on Deck 6... in the Main Deflector Control. We might not have noticed that until we were underway... Fortunately we have dual dishes so we would've been spaceworthy still, but without the extra level of safety and sensory depth. Could the umbilical still be attached?? I can suit up and go external to confirm?"

The male lieutenant scratched his head thinking about the problem at hand. "I guess the umbilicals were plugged in as the attack occurred, and now they are disengaging them as part of the pre-departure procedure. I would avoid any EVA if possible, we can just contact the Starbase control for an extra check anyway." he offered.

Pondering her words he nodded. "True, but given the actual situation I would prefer the ship to be in perfect shape when we leave the bay towards Klingon Empire" he recalled the blueprints of the ship on the main screen of Engineering "hmm hmm hmm" he started looking at the detailed schematics drumming his fingers on the console.

"Run a diagnostic to see what kind of damages we should expect on the Deflector" he asked the Ensign while closing in to a locker and getting his tools belt. He took one more and, turning, smiled to ENs. Bek'a offering her the other tool-belt.

"These might be useful on our trek to Deck 6," he smiled.

Bek'a was out of her chair almost immediately, standing to and snatching up the tool belt with obvious glee. She took a moment to do a quick inventory, snapped on a curved PADD to her forearm, then secured the tool belt in place. "Ready when you are sir!"

Hank nodded and led the way out of the main engineering and towards Deck 6.

As the two walked along the main corridor headed for the turbolift Hank spoke up.

“First assignment?” he asked.

Bek'a was, almost, skipping. She was just managing to contain her exuberance by running through damage control procedures in her head. At least she wasn't humming as they strolled along. "Yes sir, how can you tell?"

The male lieutenant tried to contain a laugh while boarding the turbo lift and calling the correct floor.
“Just had a fifty-fifty chance” he said, crossing his hands behind his back and noting her willingness to hit the damaged system to fix it.

“Relax ensign, we’ll fix it in time and, anyway, systems are redundant so not a big deal” he winked at her. “You know, it’s sort of a first posting for me as well…first time I cover the Chief Engineer position” he explained as the TL reached the designated floor.

"Really?" Bek'a would've thought the focused officer was a veteran. "Congratulations. I hope to serve faithfully and true... sir!"

Hank smiled “You already are” he confirmed her.

[Deck 6 - Main Deflector Control]

The two walked along the main corridor to then stop halfway.

“Here we go” he knelt and unscrewed a panel from the drywall. “Do you suffer from claustrophobia?” he asked with a reassuring smile as he crawled inside the Jeffrey Tube that would bring them to the panel of the system to be checked for damages.

Bek'a laughed, almost a chirp sound. "I can wriggle into tight spaces, no problem." She watched the LT slip into the opening as she curled her tail around her side pouch by reflex and grasped the sides of the hatch to hop in herself.

Bek'a sat a bit sideways, leaning against the wall as she looked at her PADD. "Doesn't look like the surge broke anything, really. Just some realignment here, and here, and re-sync." She pointed out each component to the Chief on her display, then looking at him for confirmation before pulling anything apart.

The senior officer maneuvered with less agility than his ensign inside the JT to face the control panel.

“So it appears…” he pondered, breathing the air out slowly as he visually inspected the various components the female pointed at.

He manually deviated the power out of the circuitry so as to allow for more safety working on it. “I’ll realign the first one and you the second one?” asked the colleague “We’ll work out the phase once we’re done."

Bek'a nodded, rather emphatically, and with the perpetual smile she seemed to constantly project except for when she was studying the circuitry and measurements.

"I can take that one," she said, pointing at one of the components. "It's deeper and my hands are smaller." Her eyebrows rose, wondering if she'd overstepped or not.

The lieutenant nodded “Sounds like a plan” and swapped position with Bek’a towork on the piece of equipment to realign. He took out of one of the pockets of the tool-belt an engineering scanner and connected its terminals to the component. Set the scanner to act as a VNA and started working on the component swapping tools from time to time.

Bek'a watched her boss work, but the angle was wrong without getting in his way, so she rolled the soles over on her boots and inverted to grip the rung above with her feet while she watched more over his shoulder now without crowding him.

Once she was finally satisfied with his corrective actions she slipped over a bit into the space vacated and reached down into the panel with a probe to make sure it wasn't hot. With that confirmed she carefully reached in to the rearward module. Bringing her pouch forward with her tail, she pulled out tools with her other hand as she needed them, replacing each in turn until she finally withdrew her hands and settled herself back on the curved ceiling of the JT.

"I believe we're ready to give it some power and sync it up." She resumed her smile, excited to have performed her first repair on the ship! She logged the action on her PADD so anyone else monitoring that noticed the power fluctuation would know they were actively working on the circuit.

“Indeed” he said satisfied, moving the engineering scanner at the end of the circuit to monitor the phase as power gets re-applied. He checked the colleague’s hands were not on the circuit before applying power once again.

“There’s a few degrees of misalignment on the two phases” he said after consulting the little monitor of the tricorder. “Could you please tweak that capacitor up there?” he pointed at it but given his height and position he couldn’t reach it.

Bek'a gave it a look first from her inverted position, then focused on making the adjustment by minute changes until the Chief let her know it was there. At his nod she gave it some room, just in case.

The Lt. nodded "that is perfect," he acknowledged. "Things should be back to normal now. We can leave this sarcophagus," he concluded, smiling.

As he completed the sentence he turned into a crawl position to quit the Jeffrey Tube but he miscalculated his height and heavily bumped his head on the ceiling of the tube.

"Auch" he yelled seconds before swearing against the designer of the ship for building it for dwarves.

Bek'a managed to not giggle at the Chief's lament, but she moved after him as he headed for the exit. Once back in the corridor she looked up at the commander, "What is a dwarves?"

As he stumbled out of the JT Hank massaged his head where he hit the ceiling. "A dwarf is a very little person" he started to explain "usually they don't exceed the meter in height. They were famous humanoid creatures of fairy tales. They usually live in the forests" he looks to her to see if she grasped the concept "whoever designed Jeffrey Tubes must have thought of a crew of Oompa Loompa's or dwarves for the maintenance of the ship" he grunted still massaging his head on the place of the impact.

Bek'a smiled at the description. He could be talking about her, and her kind. Not exactly but closer than he probably intended, and she wasn't mythical. And she wasn't quite sure what an Oolpa Looppa was. She smiled her usual radiance and avoided asking the add'l question. "Ah, I see. Maybe we should get you a safety helmet next time then?" Her eyes wide with the question.

"They're all pretty confining," she said as she rolled her foot to the side slightly, the sole of her shoe swinging over and she stepped on it to secure it back in place. She did the same to the other foot as her tail wrapped back around the pouch on her side so it didn't get in the way.

"A helmet, huh?" he pondered her words "yeah, could work but would eat up more space as well....something to think abou for sure" he admitted.

Bek'a made a note via her PADD to research later. There had to be some safety gear available that would compress well for storage. "I entered and closed out the work order for the repair. Is there anything else on your agenda to accomplish before departure?"

He scratched his chin "Not that I recall, we should be fine." he watched her "Anything you want to review or that, in your opinion, needs our attention?"

Bek'a rubbed her chin, her tongue peeking out a little on one side. "hmmmmmmm, not that I can think of right now. I was just starting to review when you came into engineering, but I will definitely send you an alert if I find something!" Her excitement level just shot back up as she practically skipped back to engineering. . .

The senior officer nodded "I'll be in the mess hall if you need me" and said so he waved goodbye and headed for the main hall.

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Lt. Hank Solomon
Chief Engineer

Ens. Bek'a ir Az
Damage control technician

 

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