Lights... Camera...Lack Of Action Part 1

Posted on Tue May 8th, 2018 @ 5:00am by Executive Officer Valiyi Uhin & Jeassaho Kea (*)

Mission: Mission 7 - Sabotage
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 01 06:00
1231 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Deacon was busy calibrating the auxiliary flow regulators when the klaxon started to wail, followed by "Warning, Warp Field instability detected, Warning Warp Field instability detected Collapse of warp field in ten minutes."

By the time he made it to the control panel he felt the ship begin to cavitate as vibrtions increased and structural members groaned in protest. “What the hell!” Deacon yelled as he looked in horror as the port output flows flashed red, the coils dropping to 10% of their best efficiency point. It took less than a second to see the problem, the port nacelle was venting drive plasma, starving the warp coils of their badly needed power source.

“Computer, close plasma vents p-1 to p-23” Deacon ordered as he started flipping switches to rebalance the field between the nacelles. Why hadn't the automated systems kicked in? he wondered.

“Unable to comply,” came the overly calm response, “Nacelle maintenance cycle initiated. Maintenance cycle will be complete in eleven point four minutes.” followed by "Warning, Warp Field instability detected, Warning Warp Field instability detected Collapse of warp field in six minutes."

"You have got to be kidding me," Deacon yelled seeing that the vented plasma was only accelerating the field collapse. Worse still, even though the noise and vibration had lessened as he balanced the field outputs, he knew he'd start cooking warp coils if he didn't bring them out of warp now. "Computer increase power to inertial dampers by 40%." Kane ordered

"Request exceeds...Warning, Warp Field instability detected, Warning Warp Field instability detected Collapse of warp field in three minutes."

"Override Kane 224, increase power to inertial dampers by 40%. He ordered not wanting himself or the rest of the crew to become spots on the wall.

"Bridge, Engineering I have to initiate an emergency warp shutdown in 30 seconds. I repeat I have to initiate an emergency warp shutdown in 30 seconds. Everyone hold on this will be rough." he yelled, eyeing the inertial damper output before cutting the matter/antimatter flow to the engines. "Bridge, Engineering cutting warp drive, Now, Now, Now," Deacon yelled over the Klaxon, "Anderson, you better be driving boat!"

Hitting the 'SCRAM' button the matter/antimatter flow was cut to the reaction chamber and the bright blue glow from the main transfer conduit faded as Deacon braced himself, grabbing the 'Oh crap' bar welded to the console frame. Within seconds he felt his feet leave the deck and slam back down. It felt like he arms were almost wrenched out of there sockets, but he knew he was fine. As the situation board lit up like a christmas tree he knew the Rose was not as fortunate. Most problems were minor with one glaring exception.

The readouts indicated a rupture in the starboard plasma conduit. Hitting the communicator, "Damage control teams report to starboard pylon. Major plasma leak indicated." he yelled as he ran to the Damage Control Locker, stopping short when he saw the access panel ajar and the hatch to DC locker open. Wires hanging off told Deacon someone ran a bypass to gain access, "What the hell?" He asked aloud, as he heard the pounding footsteps of several people coming down the corridor towards him.

"Hell's a little far from where we are." The first to approach was one of the older, dusty-haired recruits, Angus, who had a spanner poised and ready. "What's going on? We've probably got enough tape if it's a rupture, at least to get us out of the situation 'fore we need a real fix."

Jeassaho wasn't far behind Angus and looked at the damage control locker damage. "Ignore it. We will get it fixed later on." She said shoving Kane further into the locker.

"That wasn't damage," Deacon growled, but knew Jea was right as he struggled into the exposure suit, grabbing the crash bag out of the locker. Every second they wasted here, superheated plasma was escaping it's magnetic confinement, eating away gods knows what in the pylon.

After everyone was suited and geared up they double timed it running along the plasma transfer spine. As they neared the base of the pylon Deacon knew something was off. It was the smell, or at least the lack of one. Even through the protective hoods of their 'baked potato' suits the foul stench of fried wires and burning insulation should have been making their eyes water. When they got to the base of the starboard pylon there was nothing but the dull glow from the undamaged conduit.

Angus stood at the base, looking upward at the situation, or rather, lack thereof. "... That don't make a lick of sense."

Jeassaho stopped as they reached the area that there was meant to be huge issues and just gapped at what she was. "By the Deities..." Jessaho said as she ripped off her helmet. Nothing was wrong, nothing at all.

"Angus. Give me the broom," Deacon said, "You guys back me up in case I cut own arm off." Waving the broom handle in front of him Deacon ascended the pylons gantry way slowly, hoping if there were any microfractures in the conduit the invisible jets of plasma would cut the wooden handle before it cut him. Fortunately they made it to the nacellie's observation pod without incident.

As the three entered the dust-filled room, a flashing red display could be seen in the middle of the pod's main console. It was the "panic button" that whatever poor engineer stuck up here would push if something went wrong. The weird thing was that it wasn't even tripped. After Deacon opened the cover to the switch he had to pull it down to the alarm position, then push it back up to reset it.

Deacon's feelings were somewhere between relief and confusion, "Jea, Angus, What do you guys think? Could that tumble out of warp tripped this on us?"

Angus merely shrugged. His experience was all on civilian freighters. "Not on ships I've been on, but this has all that Starfleet procedure to it."

The woman smirked at the fact he now called her Jea instead of her fall name, it amused her as no one else dared to shorten it."No... you have to press it." Jeassaho said looking around the room slowly surveying in like she was security or something worse not worried about anything with her helmet off. She shook herself out of the rest of the suit leaving it on the floor as she bent to look at the revealed console.

Checking to see that Jessaho had a handheld comm he said "Ok Jea, Angus and I are going back down to see what else shook loose. I'll be on tac channel 2, call us if anything happens." Deacon knew that Jessaho would automatically monitor tac 2, the Damage control channel, just as he knew she'd be careful but he needed to mother hen, "We leaving you the broom, use it when you come down," he ordered, "I don't care what the readouts say. I like your head where it is, attached to your neck." He didn't know when he started acting like a chief engineer, he just knew he couldn't wait for Selina to wake up.

OFF::

Jeassaho Kea
Engineer
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)

Deacon Kane
Chief Engineer
SS Mary Rose

Angus Ap Owen
Engineer
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Uhin)