Engineers To The Rescue

Posted on Sun Mar 14th, 2021 @ 6:44pm by Ka'see 'Cassie' Anderson (*) & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Jinx Jorasco & Laurier Cami

Mission: Mission 12 - Railway
Location: Refugee Ship
Timeline: MD 04 14:00
2391 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure

As Liha and Jake finally left, Cassie looked at the people left with them to work on the engineering side of things. The ship was so silent, for it meant to be bursting to the seams with people, it made her so cautious and flinch every time the ship lurched and moaned, as if to remind them that they needed to fix her.

“So how long are we giving them before they kill each other? I just need to know so we can send someone else to go and do their job,” she wondered as they headed towards the turbo lift that would take them down into Engineering and hopefully something they could easily fix in the wrong bodies.

"Not the lift. Better to take the long route until we know enough to be sure we won't get stuck," Burnie said, and motioned them toward the ladders, swinging onto one and sliding down firefighter-style with feet and hands on the outer uprights. He considered Cassie's comment as he waited at the bottom for the others. "As to Liha and Jake, I think we don't have to worry about murder, at least as long as they're in each others bodies."

Cassie frowned, not really wanting to take the ladder, but she had to surmise he was correct. They did not know just how bad the ship was. “Show off, Michael,” Cassie muttered as she watched herself shoot down the ladder. She had no faith in her ability to do that, so every step felt like the ladder was going to give way under her. “Can you do that in your own body?” she asked as she reached the bottom and pulled out a flashlight to try and see something through the darkness they were now in. “Anyone see anything helpful?”

"I'm not showing off, I do this all this time. So much that I can do it even in somebody else's body," Michael replied with a laugh. He moved his light along the passageway, trying to remember what bits of Romulan he'd picked up over the years. "Over there; that's the symbol for engineering. It should be right down that corridor."

Cassie said nothing other than roll her eyes, glancing back at the pair that were silently following them as they bickered ever so slightly. It was refreshing to have a relationship like that with someone. It had been like that with Ryder and David Jameson once upon a time. It was just nice to have something that was not the clinical environment of a lab or the sympathisers wanting to offer comfort for being married, but her husband having left on a fool's errand.

“And of course you do, Burnie. You both alright back there?” she wondered from her fellow swappies, surprised it was them that had come along to fix the engines.

"It smells bad," Cami grumbled. She was worried that with Dixoho's lung condition she might not cope all that well with the atmospheric differences. For the benefit of everyone else, she was playing it off as the sweaty and oily smell of the old freighter. Ironically, being on an old ship like this was probably the most familiar environment she might find outside of Rosie's engines. She'd grown up with ancient ships and their various characteristics, and this one wasn't much different.

“I’m good,” Avalon said. “So many more things to hit my head on up here, though,” Jinx-Avalon complained. She ducked a pipe and dug into the supplies in a pouch around her belt. She offered Cami one of the set of rebreathers she had brought in case the ship’s interior environment was bad. Maybe it would help her.

Cami took it eagerly and sucked in a breath or two. It helped, as much as she hated to admit it. "Thanks. Shame it doesn't stop the smell too."

Cassie nodded. It smelt bad, but nowhere near what she thought it would smell like if she was in her own body, which was a relief. It had been nice the last few days to not be drugged up on medication that would dull her sense of smell. “Looks like we are here,” Cassie said, as the sign that they had followed was now on the door plating. Cassie pressed the door release and the door opened painfully slowly to reveal the inner workings of the ship and two men arguing over how to fix it. One was tall and Romulan, and the other Human-looking by the way they yelled in Federation Standard. They turned as they realised they were being observed.

“Who are you? None of you is Kaylin’s crew, though you look vaguely familiar,” the Human said, indicating Burnie. He narrowed his eyes trying to place him; he must just have one of those faces.

Burnie studied him through Cassie's eyes. He didn't recognize the man, but then he'd learned that thinking with Cassie's brain didn't mean he could access the bits of memory lost in the accident. Still, there was something about the man that looked somehow familiar. "We're assisting Kaylin's crew. That's Mr. Burnstein, our chief engineer."

“So you are here to help?” the Romulan finally asked, having remained quiet. “Then help,” he said, indicating the mess of engineering.

"That is the intent." Burnie looked at Cassie in his own body. "Based on what you were saying on the way here, I guess we need to check the plasma regulators since emergency auto-shutdown has the engines cold. But the rest of this... Half the consoles look fried, so let's get those repaired so we can bring the engines back safely. Hitting another mine because we can't control a lurch on restart would not be good."

With the fact they were now allowed to help out of the way, Cassie moved to a console and looked at it, taking in what Burnie had said about checking the plasma regulators. “So, you hit a mine, but bounced off of it intact?” she demanded, surprised and impressed at the same time. Emotions were so illogical now that she was exploring them more and more. They were conflicting all the time. Why could you not just feel one emotion at a time?

“Yes, but it fried our engines. We’ve been drifting ever since,” the Human murmured, joining Cassie as well as Burnie. Well, that was awkward. When she just needed to follow Burnie's advice, she decided, as the man decided to carry on talking away about the experience of how they had been drifting for days with the ship barely responding despite everything they did.

"Obviously," Burnie remarked dryly. It might not be in character for Cassie, but these people didn't know her anyway. He lifted a panel and nearly cringed at the sight within. "First thing is to get the controls to respond. All of these chips need to be replaced. Good thing Liha had told us what to bring," he said, opening a case and pulling out a couple dozen Romulan versions of isolinear chips.

Jinx-Avalon knelt down and pulled off an access panel. She gave a low whistle at the burnt out EPS connectors inside, and pulled out a hypospanner to start loosening and removing the seals. “At least the damage seems fixable with what we have so far,” she told the others. They wouldn’t need to go back to the Mary Rose to use the industrial replicator, at least not yet.

Cassie just shrugged at the man, starting to take out the Romulan version of isolinear chips. Everything was cool to the touch where she had thought it would be hot, but with the engines off for so long everything had had enough time to cool down. “It is very lucky, to be fair. Very lucky that they had not drifted into any of the remaining mines, nor that first mine was most likely a dud.” It was the only logical thing she could think of with how they had avoided more damage. “How long do you think it will take to bring it all back online?” she wondered of Burnie as she saw a strange light out the corner of her eye.

"Amazing luck, really. Could almost make you believe someone out there was looking out for them," Burnie said as he dug deeper into the console and pulled out an optronic coupler to start adjusting the plasma distribution manifold. "And if that luck holds, we should have this back online by -- Gah!" He dashed across and hit a switch to shut down a console just as it started to spark. Patting out the sparks that had landed on his shirt, he frowned. "So much for luck..."

The human that had been on the other side of the compartment rushed to help put out the sparks but stopped as Cassie stared at him. In Burnie's body, it most likely would have looked a bit scary but Cassie did not want him touching her even if it was Burnie currently in her body. "Okay? We good?" She checked quickly from Burnie as the human retreated to another compartment quickly with a muttered excuse.

After getting past a moment of 'what was that about?', light dawned and Burnie frowned at the guy's retreating form. "Fine," he said. "If he comes back, do you want to slap him or shall I?"

Jinx-Avalon yanked out the EPS coupler she had been working on and winced. “Ancestors! I haven’t seen something fried so badly since I last tried making eggs!” she said, putting the burnt out unit aside. She dug through her bag of parts for another one. “How old is this ship, anyway?”

"Thirty...forty years?" Cami replied. "There are pieces of all kinds of other ship modules just bolted-on here. Wasn't built to fly like this originally," she declared. In her younger days she might have been impressed or intrigued. Right now it was more of an annoyance, and even a problem to overcome in restoring things.

As things started to settle down, Cassie turned as another light started to bother her again just out the corner of her light. This time she had no idea what the blue light was as it hit her hard, knocking her into a console hard. She turned over to see the light affecting everyone as they all stumbled to the floor. “What…” she whispered as she felt a gasp of air leave her body and her point of view changed quickly from looking at herself to looking at Burnie. “You… you are there and I am here?” she whispered.

A moment ago he had been brushing ash off Cassie's top, then ...something... hit him, sending him reeling back against a cooling tower, sliding down to the deck, and... He straightened, bracing against a console to regain his balance. And then it hit him: His balance! He looked over at Cassie's voice and a smile grew on his face. "Yes. We're ...us again," he said, as he nearly skipped over to offer her a hand up.

Jinx scowled. “I swear, some of these things are held in place with nothing but bubble gum--” Avalon’s voice trailed off as she saw a blue light rushing at her. “What’s--”

Then Jinx grunted as the light hit Avalon’s body, and she collapsed to the deck. When Jinx blinked her eyes open, she felt a rough tongue and meaty breath on her face. Familiar. She looked up into the reptilian eyes of Zambi staring down at her -- back on board the Mary Rose! But...that meant…”

“Um, Jinx to Cassie? Burnie?” she called over the comm. “What happened? I’m back on the Rose, in my own body. Is...Is Avalon okay over there?”

"She's here, I think," Burnie replied -- in his own voice! -- going over to check on her, because she was bound to be twice as disoriented as everyone else. "All of the rest of us seem to have swapped back. Avalon?" he said, bending down to where she sat on the deck. "You're on the refugee ship with us. Are you okay?"

Avalon’s head was fuzzy, the same kind of equilibrium problem as if she had just gotten off a boat on a long voyage. "I think so. Just a tad dizzy." She glanced around for a place to sit down. Hopefully, she wasn't about to be sick. She swallowed, then sucked in a breath of air.

Jinx breathed a sigh of relief and hugged Zambi tightly to her, glad to feel that familiar connection with the raptor had returned. “I don’t know what happened. Do you need me back over there?” she asked.

“Not right this second. We are going to bring Avalon and…” Cassie whirled around and saw Dixoho sat on the floor breathing heavily as she tried to catch her breath through the rebreather. She breathed a sigh of relief that everyone there was correct and accounted for finally. “Dixoho back to the ship and then crack on once things are settled so take a few moments to reorient yourself with yourself.” She decided. It made no sense for a moment to rush when it would take a moment to sort out the Hydroponic operator and Navigator both of who looked like they were not having a good time adjusting.

"I am fine." Dixoho assured feeling woozy but she had not thrown up or anything. She just needed a moment to sort herself out.

"You don't need to be here though. Probably best to get back and let Doc check you out," Burnie said, agreeing with Cassie's evaluation. "Everyone take a few moments to reorient, then we'll send Dixoho and Avalon back. Cami and Jinx can return if they feel up to it, but since there are some crew here that just need direction, I think I can mostly handle it from here."

Dixoho just nodded. She was not going to argue with logic when she had no idea how to engineer. She would leave that to the professionals without a doubt. “You got in Chief. Engineers rescuing things as usual.” She surmised with a smile as Cassie pulled her to her feet and led her back to Rosie. Sometimes it was easier to let them just get on with things.