Whack-A-Mole

Posted on Sat May 26th, 2018 @ 10:09am by Executive Officer Valiyi Uhin & Jasper Offermans & Jeassaho Kea (*)

Mission: Mission 7 - Sabotage
Location: Engineering - Warp Core
Timeline: MD 01 2400
1608 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

“Bringing ANTIMAT ratio 1:10,” Deacon yelled from inside the claustrophobic confines of the radiation suit as he manually adjusted the annihilation reaction from within the intermix chamber, “Suit and tricorder rad counters still in the green. Plasma temp 2.5 MK, conduit pressure 60,000 kPa system stable. Opening Matter/Antimatter injectors to 70%, Chamber temperature and pressure incre,,,,,,”

Before he could finish the klaxon rang, yet again followed by the computer reporting latest system imbalance “Warning Pressure in Primary Gravimetric Field Displacement Manifold exceeds safety limits by 3000%” as the auto emergency systems vented the superheated plasma into space.

“NO! NO IT ISN’T!” Deacon cursed, “It’s not even at 15% working pressure! You piece of go’se” Deacon cursed as he brought the ANTIMAT ratio back to idle. It had been over eighteen hours since the Warp Drive decided to go wonki and they were no closer to getting the drive back online.

“Computer, shunt power back to EPS system,” he ordered as he left the chamber. No reason everyone had to sit in the dark breathing in stale air Deacon said to himself wishing Selina would wake up.

“Anyone, Any idea where THOSE readings came from?” He asked looking around at his crew. They all knew it couldn’t have come from the pressure sensors in the primary manifold, because they’d disconnected all of them more than two hours ago.

Jeassaho rolled her eyes at the computer. "She's drunk... absolutely drunk." She repeated for what felt the tenth time about the computer. Nothing was making sense. Nothing was connected yet the readings were still there, still being a pain in the rear.

"She's a'somthin' alright." Angus popped his head out from behind a console, throwing a clump of chips and wires out in front of the crew. "Found this too. Told what's her face with the scaley head I shoul' be workin' on this here console, but nope, she's gotta do it the hard way."

Deacon stared and the jumble of wires wondering whether to be impressed with or frightened by Angus. "Are those extra parts, or do we need them?"

The woman in the group shook her head. She just didn't want to know what all the clump was it was either really good or really bad. "I dread to think." She said looking frustrated and tired.

Angus merely chuckled, the only one seemingly unphased. "On a Cardassian ship, maybe they're necessary, but Lady Rosie here's been workin' on such minimal power an' crew for so long, those'd be extra. I wouldn't be pullin' it all out like that if it wasn't."

Jeassaho wasn't convinced but she looked at the Chief Engineer waiting for him. They had grown accustomed to each other over the last few weeks, it had been hard for Jeassaho as her and Selina didn't need to speak aloud it was easier but she liked Kane.

"Ok, Let's test the console out then," Deacon replied attaching some leads to the console inputs from a tricorder, "And as much as I'd love to suck up another couple thousand RADs of Anti-quad penetration, I think I just give it some data to chew on."

To the amazement of both Deacon and Jeassaho, whatever Angus did allowed the pressure sensors to accept the simulated readings. The data ghosts then fooled the system into thinking warp plasma was making its way through the system, energizing the warp coils. Smiles cracked on everyone's faces as it looked like they may have licked the problem. But the smiles soon faded as both the nacelles went into a maintenance cycle, venting non-existent plasma into space. If that happened at warp, with both nacelles, the ship would have been torn in two.

Deacon cursed as he reviewed the readout, "Well according to this, that maintenance cycle was authorized from the Captain's ready room on deck two, the morgue on deck seven, transporter room 3 on deck seven, water reclamation center on deck nine, and the movie theater on deck twenty-six." shaking his head he sucked air through his teeth, "Anyone see the problems with that?"

"We don't have a deck twenty-six." She said softly shaking her head as she kicked the console. This was just the final straw in how odd the ship was acting, it had started with them dropping out of warp drastically. "Well, Gregnol wouldn't have done that. What time?" She asked trying to look at the readings herself. "He can't have authorised that at that time."

"No, that was the first one," Deacon replied looking at the 05:45 timestamp, he then looked at Jea narrowing his eyes, How would you... he thought some pieces started to fall in place, but before THAT picture formed Deacon had another realization, "Oh my furry lord, I'm an idiot and you're beautiful!" He yelled kissing Jea on the cheek, "Don't tell Reessem I did that," he said tapping the tricorder like a madman, "or anyone else." he added glancing at Jea with a knowing look.

"I never looked at the first maintenance cycle, just thought it was some mechanical glitch. Now it's still a just as screwy, the command supposedly came in from six places at once," Deacon said, "But listen to the list;

- Bridge Engineering Station, deck one
- Turbolift Maintenance Garage, deck five
- Livestock Hold 3, deck six
- Transporter room 3, deck seven
- Bussard Collectors, deck twenty-one
- Pediatrics Ward, deck twenty-eight

"Anything sound familiar?" he added hoping he didn't sound insane.

"What the hell." The woman said giggling at the soft kiss. "I won't tell Reessem... and we will discuss some stuff later over a beer when we sort this mess" She added as she listened to the list. " Transporter room 3 isn't operational but we definitely don't have a deck 28 either." The ship was drunk there was the only way to describe it.

"Got me, boss." Angus brushed the clumps of wire to one side as he shrugged. "Didn't think a Connie'd ever need a pediatrics ward either, considerin' the number of kids on a ship like this tended to be less than ten, but hey, if that's what the computer wants t'think..." A frown appeared on his features. "What was goin' on in Transporter three anyway? Other than nuthin'?"

"Well for a broken down transporter room it sure as hell comes up on my radar more than it should, "Deacon said as he started to tap the tricorder again. "Remember that lovely dip I took through the emergency battery stacks last week, Selina wanted me to track down a problem. Six of the stacks looked like they were off the grid. Two guesses where they were slaved to." Deacon then uttered a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sigh,"Before you answer that remember how I thought the transfer conduit alarm was just tripped by crashing out of warp yesterday? Here's that activation log for that" He said handing Jea the tricorder. The display read;

<< Nacelle Observation Pod, Starboard Nacelle
Nacelle Observation Pod, Port Nacelle
Observation Lounge, deck 3
Main Crew Quarters, stateroom 14, deck 4
Security Complex, deck 7
Transporter room, deck 7
Communications Bay, deck 8
Fire-Control Sensor Array, deck 10

Jasper had been walking the halls getting all sorts of readings and noticed activity in the transporter room. That particular room was the one he and the others had been trapped in. The man knew the room needed serious repair and with that much activity something must be going on. Cautiously he rounded the corner and then activated the door leading to what he thought should be a rather inactive room.

"You two seeing the same thing I am," he asked?"

"Yesterday... today... it is the same thing." The woman commented on with a sigh as she blinked barely able to read the readings after being up a long time. "What are you thinking?" She wondered softly as she tried to connect everything. She needed coffee, she needed stimulant... By the deities, she would give for simply some English tea for the boost.

"Too random to be coincidence," Jasper stated with a sigh. He tilted his head for a moment, "can we search the computer system for any files that have been modified since our visiting Azzia?"

Deacon furrowed his brow as he tapped his tricorder. "Wait a minute, I think I have,,,,," Deacon's looked turned to momentary surprise then extreme personal insult, "Tzao gao!!!" he cursed as the tricorder display blanked out and reinitialized "Good call, Jasper-man," he said in a slightly angry tone staring at the new display, "Someone put in a rogue AI program that has been playing 'silly bonkers' with our systems. Just reinitialized my tricorder making it a medical scanner," turning the tricorder towards his ad hoc crew, he laughed, "Screws with data inputs too. According to this; Jea here is a male kingon with a thyroid problem, Jasper-man you're tellerite suffering bipolar disorder and Angus you're a horta,' Narrowing his eyes slightly, "A pregnant horta. Muzeltoff, it's a Gorn."

Flipping the now useless tricorder on the console he sighed, "Lady and gentlemen, looks like it's not mechanical failure, someones screwing with us," Going from face to face Deacon wonder if he looked as racked-out as they did, "Look guys I have to take this to the Captain. I won't stop you from coming with me, but we all need sleep. Right now we're a group of mistakes waiting to happen."

---

Jeassaho Kea
Engineer
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)

Jasper Offerman
Operations
SS Mary Rose

Deacon Kane
Engineering Chief
SS Mary Rose

Angus Ap Owen
Engineer
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Uhin)