Keeping Things Real

Posted on Fri Oct 9th, 2020 @ 6:54am by Lieutenant Rachael "Ripcord" Yamaguchi & Lieutenant Xalanth

2,623 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 107 – Recovery
Location: Main Engineering - USS Essex
Timeline: Unknown - After the battle.

Lieutenant JG Rachael Yamaguchi gently ran her hands over her face as she let out a soft sigh, she was dirty, hot and sweaty and it was only by chance that the Essex had not been destroyed in the battle due to a warp core microfracture in the dilithium housing which would have caused a warp breach, that by itself would have been downright catastrophic but it was the Chief dying and Ripcord being sent down here to handle matters.

"Yeah. I have the best job in the galaxy." Ripcord muttered softly.

One of the Engineers walked over to her, as he handed her a PADD. "The repair schedule that I drew up ma'am."

"Ensign. I prefer to answer to my callsign. Let it get some use..."

"Oh?" the man answered, sure of what to say as he hesitated in asking.

"Ripcord," Yamaguchi answered before she turned her attention to the PADD in her fingers which were covered in grime and ashes from the ship's battle damage. "All the coils in the starboard nacelle are fused?"

"Yeah. That last energy surge that went through the system..." he explained. "Fortunately you caught it and vented it out the back of the nacelle."

"Yeah, otherwise it would have detonated, demolishing the nacelle and probably the rest of the ship too... What a day..." Ripcord sighed softly. "I'll talk to the skipper and find out when the memorial service is for our fallen brethren is... alright."

"I appreciate that Ripcord." the man answered as she handed him the PADD back. "We'll need to fabricate the coils ourselves, the Starbase and everyone else is also in the sea world of pain we are..." she sighed softly. "Our work will never end."

"We need to male the coil assembly from scratch?" the Ensign inquired.

"Yeah... It'll take me about four months." as she sighed. "The good news is that once I get the fabricator online... I can make coils for whoever needs them... But this ship is going to be in the yard for quite a while..."

Just then the door opened to Engineering, the place looked like the site of a small warzone, this sound cut off what the Ensign was going to say.

Ripcord watched the newcomer, he didn't look like one of the Engineers that she had been tasked with overseeing. "Can I assist you?" she inquired in a polite tone of voice, she had no idea who this man was, but when he got closer, she saw that she did recognize him. "El-Tee... What's up?"

Xalanth was tired, thirsty and he wanted something to eat, but he could bury all that down in the deeper regions of his mind. He still had a job to do. Detected out in his body armor and with a security tricorder in his hand the lizard still the fearsome creature that the pact boarding party's had quickly regretted fighting. Despite this, he gave the group a polite smile on his reptilian face. Even with the smudged warpaint, there was something reassuring about it. "Don't mind me doing a standard security sweep in case the pact left anything behind. " He said calmly.

"Do not let me stop you, big man," Yamaguchi answered as she slowly climbed to her feet. "Located anything yet?" she inquired, while she made conversation.

" An electronic mine on deck three and an escaped Reman slave on deck five. He'd bitten his tracking chip out of his arm with his teeth. " Xalanth replied as he began his sweep and physical search with his equipment.

Yamaguchi watched him in silence for a moment, she didn't wish to be a distraction as he worked. A few moments went by before she commented. "Essex has only been in the dock for about two hours... " she commented in a quiet tone of voice.

The lizard nodded as he continued his work moving into one of the engineering storerooms to give it the once over. " Going to be a very long day. Then we'll have to start security sweeps and repairs on the station. That going to be a very long time to make it safe. Need to find some time in between that to send a message to my family to let them know i'm okay."

Yamaguchi nodded her head in agreement. "The Starbase alone will require months of repairs... Much of the fleet also got trashed in the space battle... So it'll be slow going for a while while we gather what we need to fix what got trashed." she paused. "I have time... do you want me to forward them a note for you?" Yamaguchi inquired.

The dragonan paused for a second as he thought through something in his head. " just tell them I'm alive and that I'm sorry I won't be able to read a bedtime story to the girls for a while." He replied with a sense of pain clearly in his voice.

Rachael raised an eyebrow, she knew next to nothing about the being in front of her, as she picked up a PADD. "I'll need your spouse's contact information and then I can draft that note for you... Along with the one I'll be sending to my own child." before she handed him the blank PADD.

"T'para and Leilani are with are four girls Yazar, Travla, Lersi and Amrar back as part of the federation ambassadorial team back on my people's home. My third Fulvia is currently undercover in the pact. I have no idea where she is." The lizard explained as he filled out the detail along with a quick heartfelt message. It was only as he finished that he remembered his family was rather odd on the galactic scale. "Sorry... I keep on forgetting. My people, marriage is polygamy and i keep forgetting it's not the galactic norm," he explained.

"I understand but you owe me no explanation on why you do what you do big man." Yamaguchi smiled warmly at him. "My mother is the reverse, she is mated to my father and she can't leave him, even if she wishes it... She's Halanan and they mate for life... " she explained as she accepted the PADD from him. "I'll send this off right away."

"Thanks. My own people believe that when a new life is brought into the world it's soul is split into seven pieces. One can only be whole when all of them have been reunited. Though it more likely the priests worked out that male to female birth rates was one to six so came up with that to stop us murdering each other over mates." The lizard replied as his scanner showed it was clear. Turning he moved to the next room. " Do you have any children Ripcord?" he asked politely.

Yamaguchi nodded her head. "I have a daughter..." she answered with a gentle smile. "Oh, she gives me grey hairs but... I miss her..." she paused. "Sounds like something my mothers people believe in... When we leave a place, we leave a part of us behind and a part of that place goes with us... Go anywhere on the Starbase when its quiet... and just listen, soon you will hear every word, whisper and thought that has ever permitted those halls..."

"I know that feeling," he replied with a look that only a father could give. " The hardest thing about the following weeks will be not always being able to read to them. " He said as he entered the next room and began his search.

Ripcord regarded him with a sad look in her eyes. "For me... Its worse then that... I'm psionic and so is my daughter... She is used to a certain level of contact from me and vice-versa... Its been hard without her around..." she paused as she tapped the display twice, she was rewarded with the pannel coming back online. "Ahh, finally..." she sighed. "Are you psionic?" she inquired of the reptilian being nearby.

"No the kings of my people wiped anyone with psionic abilities centuries ago during the great purging. No one on my planet has enough DNA in them to bring it back. Three of my daughters may have some psionic abilities. T'para is half Vulcan and Leilani is Betazoid though Yazar, Travla, and Lersi show no sign of having them yet." He replied flicking through a few different channels on his scanner.

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow at hearing of the great purge but she dismissed it when she listened to the rest of his response. "Your daughters will become psionic with puberty. Its going to be educational for you." Ripcord couldn't resist teasing him about it. "Like Saki is now learning how to be psionic from others... I can't teach her... Because this place is a warzone..."

The lizard nodded as he finished the scan and search of this room. " Indeed. I'm glad my girls are safe back on my peoples homeworld at the Federation embassy. True the marauders and the wildlife don't make my home the most safest place on the planet, but the federation embassy in the biggest city is safe enough. Besides my Dad's looking after them. " The lizard said before he realized he was rambling again. "Sorry about that. I do worry about my girls when we're apart and it causes me to ramble a little."

Yamaguchi knew exactly where the man before her was coming from. "No its fine. If I can help others with their burdens then I can at least say I've helped someone today," she commented.

Yamaguchi then went to work, looking for what she needed to send a message, she regarded him while she did so. "There is nothing wrong with sharing one's burdens..." she commented. "Lets see... Here we go." as she went about filling in the contact information and the other information as needed. "Is there anything else you want to say before I send this off?" Yamaguchi asked.

" Just tell them....." Xalanth began before his scanner started bleeping like crazy as he moved it over an area. " Subspace disruption here. It may be a pact Houdini. I suggest you move back to a safe distance. " He said to Yamaguchi

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow, she had heard of the Houdini mines from the Dominion War, both of her parents had regaled her with tales of those horrible things on many occasions, she rose to her feet and began to back away, slowly but she left the PADD behind.

Xalnth with the confidence yet the concern of someone who had done this many times before flicked a few switches on his scanner. With a sound that could only be something exited subspace, the black orb was ripped into reality. "Old dominion stock by the looks of it. Electromagnetic one from the blue lights. I'll have her disarmed in a second. " He said as he got the scanner to broadcast the jamming signal as he drew a kit from his belt.

Ripcord admitted the now disabled Houdini mine. "Impressive..." she answered. "I wonder if I could keep that as a souvenir... after the warhead is removed, of course."

"Sure just let me check the electronics as well. Can't be too careful." The the lizard responded as with hands that seemed to calm for this situation slowly opened the maglock on the top of the mine before he started unscrewing the lid. The solid electric magnetic bomb in its core hummed as it was withdrawn from its core before with a simple cut of two wires went silent.

"There. Just as I thought old dominion war stock. Probably been sitting in a warehouse for years. The pact must be that desperate if there bringing these things out." The lizard said calmly as he checked the mine again making sure he'd not missed anything. "Are they any main power conduits running through this room?" he asked looking to ripcord.

Ripcord regarded him. "Just Essex's warp core." she explained, and the mains behind the back bulkhead..." she explained. "But both were powered down upon arrival..." she added. "There is a second power conduit behind that wall... and a third over there." she indicated the front set of double doors. "Outside in the hallway."

"So plenty of things this thing could have damaged if it had gone off." He replied as he placed the disabled core down on a table. " Luckily I caught it." he said before breathing in deeply. "If they have these on the station cleaning it's going to be a nightmare."

Ripcord nodded her head. "Mmm... I'm going to have to do some research... But I have an idea..."

"If it helps get rid of any of these things left on the station I'd like to hear it," Xalanth responded

"We could try a magneton flash scan... But there are two issues with it. The power required and the effects of it. Everyone on the base will have their ears ringing afterward, it'll also take a lot of power..."

" That would drain most of the ships remaining power including what's left in the batteries wouldn't it?" The lizard asked. Engineering wasn't one of his strong points.

"More or less, this effort will drain Essex's last reserves and I'll need some power from the Starbase too. The health effects could be more serious for some than for others... But if I apply this right. I can burn out their cloaks and reveal all of the Houdini mines on the Starbase." she paused before she let out a sigh. "Then they become even more dangerous as I won't be able to disarm them but we will be able to see and interact with them." Ripcord paused. "But there is another issue... I might set them all off..."

" And that could blow open more of the station's compartments if any of them have a big enough payload and are near a wall." The lizard added. " It sounds like t could work, but it seems very risky. I'd need to take it up with the commanders before we could give this the go-ahead."

"Then I'll leave it with you." Yamaguchi paused. "If I can tailor the frequency and the energy needs correctly... I can do it," she commented. "It's just a matter of math."

"I'll let you know when I get the word back." The lizard responded. "Now I need to check the rest of engineering. Anything that's been behaving oddly recently?" He asked

Yamaguchi shook her head. "Not that I could see or tell." she paused. "But then Essex is crippled and she's not going to be leaving the docks any time soon. It's hard to say really..."

" Well looks like I'll have to make sure I check every spot in case they beamed something over during the battle. " The lizard sad pulling out his scanner. It did always help if someone had noticed something was wrong or out of place. " It's going to be a long day."

Yamaguchi regarded the reptilian bearing before her. "We have several thousand personnel present. Along with several hundred ships around... We can use them to assist us."

" Well, we can have any personal with security clearance and training reassigned to helping clear the ships and the station. " The lizard added. " I'll finish clearing engineering then take the suggestion of your to the captain and fleet command. "

"Very well, if they got questions... I'll be happy to answer them... Also, make sure to mention that I will refine my idea and see if I can actually make it work without blasting holes in the side of the station."

"Don't worry I will. " the lizard said as he headed for the door to the room.

Yamaguchi watched him go in silence, she turned her attention back to her work.

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