Engineers Worth Their Salt

Posted on Fri Jul 31st, 2020 @ 4:48pm by Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri & Captain Jack Solomon & Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Coleman & Lieutenant Alekela illm Meaho'ōla

2,658 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 107 – Recovery
Location: USS Endeavor - Engineering
Timeline: MD1 - 1600

[ON:]

"OK people, listen up?!", the duty shift engineer, PO1 Samuel Woods, waited until those engineers were listening. "Now that Endeavor is underway we have to fix what the team at Starbase 23 couldn't. I need two teams to get it done. This comes straight from the bridge folks. First, the warp reaction chamber has a power loss and we don't know why. This is more than just a leaky matter disbursement fluctuation. We all know that a power loss is a tip of the iceberg. Last thing we want is a problem with our engines when we are engaged in battle."

PO2 T'Lin hardly looked at Woods as she worked on a panel. That did not mean she was not listening but she did not see why one actually had to confront a person in order to pass information along.

She nodded as she finished and then straightened.

"If I may," she said in that cool passionless Vulcan voice.

"After analysis, as you can see from the function ds2= – (a2 – BiBi) dt2 + 2Bi dxi dt + gijdxi dxj, where a is the lapse function that gives the interval of proper time between nearby hypersurfaces, Bi is the shift vector that relates the spatial coordinate systems on different hypersurfaces and gij is a positive definite metric on each of the hypersurfaces. There appears to be an imbalance in in the positive effect of the hyperspatial surface. This would suggest perhaps a misalignment in the injectors."

Woods nodded, "The Chief will be here in a few minutes. T'Lin, check out your idea. The complete repair log is on your PaDD." Samuel was the team lead but by no means was he in charge of Endeavor's engines. That was the Chief's job.

"Very good," T'Lin acknowledged.

Having received the latest report from the USS Endeavour, Jack had decided to beam over from the Ark Royal to see how repairs were progressing to the Nova Class starship. Despite being one of the smaller starships in the fleet, Admiral Bremer needed every ship possible as they headed towards Starbase 400 and the move to take back their home.

Heading into Main Engineering, he could see several Engineering officers organising their workload and made his way over to the console that they were stood around. He made his way up quietly as he listened to what repairs they were looking into.

Woods continued, "Second team, aft shield grid is unstable. We've run every diagnostic in the book and we haven't found the cause of the imbalance. I don't need to tell you that going into battle in that way is just like painting a target on our ass, 'shoot here'. I need a git 'er done team on it pronto."

PO3 Nachamura raised her hand and said, "What if it's something in how the shield bubble is formed? Maybe in the aft shield generator?"

Woods shook his head 'no', "Shield geometry isn't my specialty. But we tried that earlier. Hey? Did anyone actually do an eyes on check of the emitters?" Samuel asked.

"Thats a very good question... Did anyone check the emitters?" Jack spoke up and asked, enjoying the sudden look of shock on their various faces. He stood waiting for an answer.

Nachamura looked at Solomon and said, "I didn't know you were onboard sir. Coming in to check up on us and make sure the ship didn't implode before the battle itself?" She let out a bit of an awkward laugh before turning back and staying quiet after realizing her joke didn't quite land.

Woods was surprised too, "Officer on deck!" he called in a loud voice. Several people came to a stop to acknowledge Commander Solomon's announcement. "Sorry Commander Solomon. I did not see you come in sir. To answer your question, sir, I was just asking the same thing. I don't believe we have had the opportunity to perform a physical inspection of the emitters. Sir!" he ended with a crisp cut to his words. Sam looked at Nachamura and wondered how she could pull off such a stunt. He didn't dare smile even if her joke was mildly humorous.

Nachamura stood at attention with the rest of her fellow officers and waited to see what Solomon said.

Jack stood and smiled for a moment as everyone signalled their salutes to him. He almost felt like he was back at the Academy again when cadets salute an officer or instructor. It took him a moment to get used to before answering them back. "At ease," he said. "So where do we stand on these tasks? They need completing otherwise this ship isn't going to be ready for combat..."

T'Lin had heard the call of officer on deck and had come to attention briefly after rechecking her figures and fairly convinced the that there was a misalignment.

She waited while the talk was on the shields but a warp core not providing sufficient power would be just as problematic. Finding a moment, she approached the commander.

"Sir, PO2 T'Lin," She introduced herself briefly. "There appears to be a power loss from the warp core. I have been looking at how the warp bubble is forming and tracing back through the hyperspatial surfaces." She offered the PaDD with the equations. "I believe sir, that it would indicate perhaps a misalignment of zero point three degrees in the injectors."

Jack nodded as he listened to T'Lin and realised that she was onto something that would affect the Endeavor in a serious way, an issue that needed to be rectified as soon as possible. He looked at her before answering.

"Agreed, so get on that and start looking at injectors, if necessary, take the Warp Core offline and get them realigned. This starship needs to have all power available before we go into action," he explained.

Turning to look at the others, he carried on, "We also need those Shield emitters looking at and locking down so if people need to be out there on EVA, in suits getting them back to specs, then that needs to happen and fast," he explained.

T'Lin made a nod of the head. "Yes sir," she replied with that still cool Vulcan way.

She then went to do exactly that. She knew that taking the warp core off line was going to drop them out of warp space but it should not take too long and the ship could catch up. There were a couple of other tests that might help confirm her suspicions before that though. She knew the captain would not be happy about loosing warp.

Sam Woods said, "I'll call the bridge and let them know we need to drop out of warp. Nachamura, let's suit up to go EVA and take a look at the emitters."

Nachamura said as she followed Woods, "I hate suiting up in those things. But, I'm as ready as I'll ever be."


ENGINEERING - AFTER WOODS AND NACHAMURA SUIT UP

=A= Engineering to Bridge =A=, Woods tapped his commbadge.

=A= Engineering? This is the XO. What's your status on the repairs? =A=, LTJG Matthew Plumeri answered.

=A=Commander Solomon from the Ark Royal is here sir. We believe we have a way to correct the engine imbalance and get us back to full warp geometry. We also need to take a look at the shield emitters on the aft section and we have to do that EVA. Requesting permission to take the engines and the shields offline. =A=, Woods answered.

=A= One moment... =A=


ENDEAVOR - BRIDGE

Plumeri looked over at Coleman. He was working at the Science II station. He logged off when Woods made the call and now walked over to stand next to Coleman. "Captain? Engineering. Commander Solomon from the Ark Royal is lending us a hand with our warp imbalance problem and our aft shields. They want us to drop out of warp long enough to make the repairs. I think we should do it, Captain. If Solomon made the trip over here then he must think that this is the way to fix our issues. I recommend we do it? I can contact the Fleet and let them know we're falling behind but will catch up?"

Coleman sighed but understood the need for it. Looking at the Operations Officer, he said, "Signal the fleet and let them know we have to come out of warp. Helm, bring us out of warp and coordinate with Engineering about us falling back."

ENGINEERING - ABOUT 30 MINUTES LATER -

Woods and Nachamura had just finished repairing the aft shield emitter. Sam called it in,

=A= Commander Solomon? Try it now sir? We've replaced the aft focusing drum completely. =A=

Jack ran another diagnostic program on the Aft Shields once the team had confirmed they had completed their work. He waited as the system ran the program and then smiled as the results came back, showing that the Aft Shield grid was back up and running as full power.

He ran a further diagnostic on the Shield mutations and frequencies to make sure that the entire spectrum was available and smiled once more, before tapping his combadge.

=A= Solomon to Woods and Nachamura, nice job out there, get yourselves back inside, the Aft Shields are now ready and up and running. Solomon out =A=

Sam grinned, =A= Copy that Commander. We're on our way back. =A=

ENGINEERING - WARP INJECTOR ASSEMBLY

It was not the most pleasant task in the world. It was difficult and delicate all at the same time. It was as T'Lin had surmised that a slight misalignment of the injectors. What she was not as happy with was that the misalignment was closer to zero point four degrees. She would have to see where in the hyperspatial surfaces she had not accounted for something.

Finally checking, rechecking and one last time, the diagnostic instrumentation indicated that the alignment was correct.

T'Lin and the rest exited the area and she waited while the shield team was working with the commander.

"Commander Solomon, sir, we are ready to bring the warp core back online."

With the shields issues sorted, Jack made his way over to the Auxiliary console near the Warp Core and started running a checking the final numbers. Once he was happy with what he saw, he looked over at T'Lin.

"Alright, keep your fingers crossed, let's see if this has sorted the issue..." he said.

From where he stood, Jack ran the Warp Core startup sequence and waited to see the results of the Warp Injector Assembly responses as part of the Core startup sequence.

"Nicely done, we can now bring the Warp Engines back online," he said as he went to shake her hand. Jack was impressed with the team on the Endeavour and made a note to put them up for commendation on their work.

ENDEAVOR - BRIDGE

Coleman was reviewing the various reports from the Engine Room, but he realized it had been quite some time since he heard from anyone. Looking over the railing to the Science Station, he looked at Plumeri and asked, "You haven't heard anything from Engineering, have you? I don't want to get too far behind the fleet or anything and don't want to push the engines too hard to catch up. Can you call down there and see how they're doing?"

Matt nodded, "Sir, right way." Plumeri tapped the COMM panel at his workstation,

=A=Engineering? This is the XO, can I get a status report please on warp engines and shields? =A=

T'Lin went ahead and answered, =^=Bridge this is PO2 T'Lin, the injectors are realigned. With the Commander Solomon's permission we can bring warp back online.=^=

Jack ran the sequence in full and watched as the sequence continued and as the final part was complete, the Core suddenly lit up and shone in its expected blue light. Once it started humming with a regular beat, Jack looked over at T'Lin.

"Good job! I'm impressed, you guys are ready to catch up to the fleet now," he reported. Jack logged himself off from the Aux console as the Warp Core hummed in rhythm as expected. He did admit to himself that it had been too quiet for too long.

Nachamura said, "The Shield Generator is still fluctuating, but it is within normal parameters. We should be able to take a beating, assuming that we don't get into a fight with a Galaxy Class Starship or anything."

Woods cast an appreciative glance towards her, "Right, you do good work Nachamura. I mean, I'm surprised is all. I never took you seriously" Sam said to his colleague.

Nachamura looked at Sam and said, "Next time, don't second guess me. Okay?"

Sam nodded, "It's a deal" he said as he nodded. "Commander Solomon, "We're as ready as we are gonna get. I'm ready to tell the XO that we're good to go." He looked at Solomon for confirmation. The shield generator grid was all green lights. Now, so were the warp engines.

Solomon gathered everyone around as they finalised their reports on the work that had taken place. "Listen up people, the Endeavour is a very lucky starship to have such dedicated Engineers on board here. Hell, if I can ever transfer any of you to the Ark Royal, I will," he joked. "You've done a good job today, exactly what I expect from all of you. Keep up the good work and make sure this ship runs like clockwork now."

Jack waited for any last comments before stating "Dismissed" and then turning himself to leave Engineering and head over to the Transport Room. The Ark Royal was waiting and he was happy that he'd gotten his hands dirty.

ENDEAVOR - BRIDGE

Woods informed the bridge, =A= XO? Engineering. Warp speed and aft shields are restored. =A=

Plumeri pumped a fist, "Yes!" =A= Very good Engineer =A= Standing to face Captain Coleman, "Captain? Engineering reports we have warp speed and aft shields are back online."

"I guess we better punch it and let the fleet know that we're ready to get back on mission. Helm, set us back on course for the fleet meeting spot. Ops, let the fleet know that we are ready to resume our course," Coleman said, issuing the final orders to get back on mission.

Looking back at Plumeri, "Thanks for making sure that we didn't blow up in the middle of the battle. Let's get back onto the mission!"


BACK IN ENIGINEERING

Sam caught up to Jack, "Commander Solomon? Thanks for helping us out. Endeavor is a small ship. We kept getting pushed to the end of the line back at SB23. I guess we should have been more vocal. Thank you Commander."

"Its no problem, I'm always happy to help. And should the Endeavour find itself falling behind or getting shuffled down the order, let the XO or CO know I'm happy to provide assistance where I can," Jack said.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, the Ark Royal awaits, I'll let you get on with your duties," Jack said as he turned to leave.

Nachamura got up and said to Solomon, "Thanks for your help and advice, sir. We'll see you on the other side of this battle. We'll see you back on Starbase 400."



[OFF:]

LTJG. Matthew Plumeri
ACSO/XO
Science Officer/Historian

&

Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Coleman
Chief Science Officer/Commanding Officer
Starbase 400/USS Endeavor

&

PO1 Samuel Woods
Engineer
USS Endeavor
NCC-72802
(NPC Plumeri)

&

PO2 T'Lin
Engineering mate
USS Endeavor
(NPC Alekela)

&

PO2 Xelina Nachamura
Engineer's Mate
USS Endeavor/Starbase 400
(NPC-Coleman)

&

Commander Jack Solomon
Chief Engineering Officer/Commanding Officer
Starbase 400/USS Ark Royal

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