Things Broke

Posted on Fri Mar 6th, 2020 @ 11:20am by Laurier Cami & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Jeassaho Kea (*)

Mission: Mission 11 - Prospecting
Location: Engineering Section - SS Mary Rose
Timeline: After Mission End
1932 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Cami sat cross-legged on the deck, one hyperspanner between her teeth as her hands worked to prise a fused piece of tech into two pieces. It didn't budge. Growing frustrated at her efforts, she let the tool slip from her mouth at the same time as dropping her fruitless effort. Her shoulders sank as she glanced out of the window at the twenty-or-so feet of exposed evacuation corridor that hung off the edge of the ship.

"This is depressing," she sighed, looking over at Jea. "I feel like a part of us is broken too," she added, pointing out at the damage. Her eyes tracked up to Burnie. "How long until we can get out there and fix it?"

Burnie looked out the viewport, frowning. He couldn't help feeling the same depression. Though he'd only been on Rosie a relatively short time, he'd come to love the old Connie and someone hurting her like that hurt him too. "I understand," he said. "I feel the same way, but we have to make sure the lock is sound. Though we could make a start with EV suits," he said, brightening at the idea. Safety required paired teams though. "If you're up for it."

"Huh, me?" Cami sat upright, her face brightening with hope. She tossed a devilish look at Jea, poking her tongue out a little. "He picked me for an EVA..."

"Yes, you," Burnie chuckled. You'd think he'd picked her for a Parrises Squares team. "Unless there's some history I should know, like you left your last four EV partners hanging out in the Void."

"No!" Cami replied indignantly. "Well, not recently, anyways..." She shrugged, bounding up to her feet. "It's just been way too long since I got to do a proper EV. Most of our work happens inside the ship these days."

"Nice to see enthusiasm!" Burnie replied with a grin. A lot of folks disliked EVs, either because the sense of vulnerability or weightlessness or the restricted movement in the. suits, but apparently Cami was not among them. He wasn't either. One of his favorite holoprograms as kid had been based on late 20th century 'spacewalks'. "There is something awe inspiring about being out there with just a suit between you and the universe. Let's go unpack the suits."

"Yessss..." Cami did a little fist-pump. She looked at Jea. "Coming? Surely even you can't resist."

Jeassaho had been remarkedly quiet for someone who was known for speaking her mind and doing so very quickly. She had been learning to take a step back recently to allow other Engineers to shine and do some of the fun stuff. "Sure if there is enough space and stuff." She mused looking up from the report that she had been looking over from the evacuation corridors.

"Enough space? It's space, Jea!" Cami giggled. "There's lots of it."

Burnie laughed and waved them both toward the locker with the suits. The ship was old, but somewhere along the way it had picked up relatively new EV gear, so they wouldn't have to climb into the old style 'Hardshell Stay Puft Marshmallow Man' suits. He almost regretted that, since it would be kind of cool to say he'd repaired a ship in one of those, but the modern suits were both easier to get into and to move around in.

"Let's get out there then," he said, selecting a suit and giving it quick check over before pulling it on.

Giddy as a schoolgirl, Cami quickly followed his example in grabbing one of the EV suits. "How many of these have you done?" she asked Burnie, curious that he seemed so relaxed about the whole thing.

He thought about that a moment. There's been the standard training at the Academy, and the times standard training had been put to use, plus some improvising on SOP made necessary by combat conditions, and a couple extremely non-standard EVs, including the one that had led to a medical discharge. But that hadn't been because of the EV - he'd have just as bad off if he'd been inside, and maybe worse. It certainly wasn't a reason to dampen anyone's enthusiasm, especially his own. "A few dozen, I guess, but it doesn't really get old. Every time is just a little different."

Cami grinned. "Two," she admitted. And the first one wasn't even planned." She found herself viewing Burnie in a bit of a different light for a moment; for all the ribbing the team gave him, he was actually pretty experienced. And definitely a great engineer. There were worse people to work for. "It's a funny story, actually. An old Bajoran ore hauler, deflectors not worth a damn. When the main drive section got shredded by micrometeorites, I was the only one brave enough to actually try and go outside and fix it."

"Gutsy," Burnie said, giving her an approving nod before he slipped his helmet on. "My first one was just a standard Academy exercise - basic learn how to get the gear on, check it, go out and climb around the outside of a ship. How about you, Jea?"

"Been on a few over the years." The Betazoid responded trying to think on any that had been momentous but nothing came to mind. "Cannot think of any that were exciting so long may it continue." She was not a great fan of EV's but they were much needed it this case.

"C'mon Jea, we take all the excitement we can get out here," Cami encouraged, finally popping her own helmet on and heading for the airlock. "Not everyone gets invited to random role-playing conventions..." she added, giving a verbal nudge at Burnie.

"I did I turned it down," Jeassaho said with a small smirk. She had turned it down to allow others to go and someone sensible cover the Engine Control Room. "Not that I have ever played it but did you have fun?" She wanted the conversation off excitement. Had they not had enough of that recently?

"You should join in next time. The more the merrier," he replied as the stepped in to the airlock. "Nothing like playing a magic user who can cast fire balls." He flashed a grin as he mimed shooting blasts of flame from his palms.

"Ugh. Nerds." Cami rolled her eyes inside the suit. "Now can we get out there and spacewalk already!?"

"And proud of it!" Burnie shot back with a laugh. "Double check your suit, then out we go."

After making the final checks, Cami gave him the nod. She felt a thrill of excitement as the airlock cycled and then opened out into the void. Taking a few steps out onto the open outer hull, she took a few seconds to breathe.

"Prophets. This never gets old, does it?" she sighed, staring out across the darkness.

Jeassaho checked her suit and then checked it again to be sure. She wanted nothing to go wrong. "I hope it never gets old. I never want to get so bored with my profession or life that it becomes that." She mused.

"How could it?" Burnie latched his tether to the lock door and pushed off into the open. "'To float weightless in the sea of space / Is a close as creature comes to touching God's face'," he quoted softly, almost to himself.

"I have seen it happen and I never want it to be me," Jeassaho said pushing herself off for a moment before she flipped back words somersaulting for a moment before she pulled herself together and rejoin the other two.

Cami floated across the hull momentarily, her grav boots finally making purchase a few more feet along. She couldn't help but smile at the experience. "I remember an old human comrade once telling me that they used to call it the Observer Effect; like you suddenly realise just how small you actually are once you're out here..." she sighed. Her eyes eventually came to rest on the protruding corridor chunk that hung off the side of the ship - an ugly mass of twisted metal looking horribly out of place.

"You know this was Gregnols favourite part of the ship," Jeassaho said thinking of her husband. He might not know how a ship worked but the man obsessed over the evacuation corridors and had been wanting to use them for three years.

"It worked well enough while it was deployed," Burnie said, grabbing a piece of the wreckage and pulling himself along to examine it more closely. "A lot of this is beyond recovery, but I think the sections further out can be salvaged. We'll need to replace the parts that have been taken too far past their yield limit, but we should be able to get it in working order again."

"That's good," Cami agreed, examining the torn up fragments near the hull. "Although we're not exactly overflowing with supplies at the moment. It'll need a decent find at the next port we stop at if we're going to put it all back together."

"Should be a few days and we are at New Laurium." Jeassaho reminded leaning close to the fragments that were left. It was a sorry state that had had been created by Temperance and the shuttle crew escaping. "It is a good thing this area of the ship is so secured."

"We have access to the original blueprints, so we can fab the smaller components ourselves using the wrecked versions for raw material," Burnie said, plans forming in his head even as he spoke. A lot of the mechanism connecting and deploying the corridor had originally been hand assembled, so given new parts, they could do that bit themselves. However some of the large seriously twisted structure wasn't so easily replaced. "But we'll need access to a good industrial replicator to replace these larger sections."

"Maybe the boss will let us berth somewhere we can get those pieces?" Cami suggested, staring over the parts. Given the way things had gone with the Temperance, a few of the crew could probably use a positive.

"I am sure we can on New Laurium." Jeassaho was excited to see what the mining colony had to offer being all the way out where it was. It would be different than what the majority of the crew were used to.

"Sounds like a plan," Burnie said, and tapped the control on his wrist to scan and record 3D images of the wreckage. "For now, let's pull whatever we can into the ship for storage, then we can work out what's salvageable and what we need to pull design specs to replace."

Jeassaho said nothing but nodded. It was a perfect plan and something that was pretty standard. It would not be hard to get her husband to agree to anything around the evacuation corridor, the man love the old fashioned corridors. He wouldn't ever admit why he did but Jeassaho knew it reminded him of the old ship he had grown up on before moving back to earth.

"Leave it to me, Burnie," Cami declared, having to turn all the way around in her suit to face him. "I'll get this stuff patched up you wouldn't even recognise it."

"I like your enthusiasm," Burnie laughed. "But there's no way I'm letting you have all the fun."

OFF::

Michael Burnstein
Chief Engineer
SS Mary Rose

Lieutenant Commander (LOA) Jeassaho Kea
Engineer
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)

Laurier Cami
Engineer
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Jake)