YE/D09 & 10 - Engineering

[Paul]

==

[Ian Elliot]

They had been given a mission. It was time.

Mission time, mission time, had everyone feeling fine! Ian walked into Engineering for his shift, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and only 12 minutes late. The entire ship was abuzz with details and rumors of their newly-assigned mission, and his department was determined to be working at peak efficiency.

The rumors bounced off each other in Ian’s mind: first contact, a race, unknown engine configurations, different propulsion methods, a race, with a first contact race, they were going to race!, who would be the pilot?, would they use this ship, or a shuttle? – speculation was abound.

Ian did his best to slide in and not be noticed; he kept his head bowed but his eyes looking up, logging into a console as he did so. To his understanding, there was a chance the Captain would be calling a big meeting to discuss the first contact situation, and with this mission being a matter of speed, undoubtedly someone from Engineering would be there.


==Open tags!==

[Ian Elliot]

Just over a week later, the USS Yeager arrived at their destination for First Contact. The ship and its crew were abuzz with the idea and practicality of Midshipman being specifically assigned, and Ian could just silently say he was glad he wasn’t one of them. He was inexperienced enough that he could also have been seen as needing the experience, but he was quite comfortable staying in Engineering.

Besides, the mission was a scientist’s dream, not an Engineer’s. Though Ian was an expert in medical and engineering feats, temporal mechanics was too confusing to be worth his time to figure it out. He was consulted several times on the creation and manipulation of a shuttle’s engines, but he had little interest in investigating what a temporal anomaly would do to his modifications.

At least all this scurrying around meant he got to be close to his Chief Engineer. To look at him, Jadaris was impressive; to speak to him was to be impressed. Ian was careful not to go near Sickbay - the last thing he needed was to embarrass himself again in front of the Chief Medical Officer. Not only was he entranced by his cybernetic implants, he wanted to inspect every inch of them.

It was that thought now that distracted the Ensign from his work, or rather, getting to work. He was about to be late for his shift, and thoughts invaded of the CMO. It was innocent to think of the older man’s right arm, but then the young Engineer thought of how far up those cybernetics went, if they invaded the chest, and how far down the body they went.

His throat was tight, his face was flush, and with his blood pressure starting to rise…

Ian walked right into the Chief Engineer.



==Tag Jadaris!==

[Pax Cassidy]

<<<< Sickbay <<<<

Cassidy felt his heart begin to race as he made his way toward Engineering. A lifetime ago, this might have been his domain. While he still loved tinkering with machines, his interests had largely turned toward their application in medicine rather than in warp cores. His days of crawling through power conduits in his father’s engineering bay felt distant but no less vivid.

Cassidy wore a long engineering coat over his medical uniform. He didn’t have any more appointments for the day, but he needed to be ready to return to sickbay at a moment’s notice.

If he was honest, there was something else causing his apprehension as well. His mind had been wandering to Ensign Elliot, the human engineer he’d met at the party. The sound of the younger man’s delighted giggle had tunneled into Cassidy’s ear and taken up permanent residence in his brain, like the parasitic worms of Andoria were known to do. He was completely helpless against that sound.

Just as the door to engineering whooshed open, Cassidy was met with the surprising image of Elliot crashing headfirst into the towering figure of Jadaris. Cassidy coughed, stifling a laugh.

“Just came to see if you folks need any help finishing up the shuttle modifications,” Cassidy said, taking a moment to gawk at the towering warp drive at the back of the room. “Everything looking good down here?”

== Tag! I couldn’t resist ==

[Jadaris]

==Main Timeline==

Jadaris was busy typing lines of code into a computer when Ian ran into him. The Gorn was so focused on his work that he didn't even turn around,

"Late for alpha shift are we Mr. Elliot? I'm going to have to think of something to keep you occupied, or promote you to Lieutenant."

He stood up from the console he was working on. Coding for the chroniton integrator and the quantum field focuser was on his console, along with what looked like a smaller version of the chroniton integrator connected to the console,

"This is the last piece for the shuttle, ready to be installed once I finish the coding. It will permit the pilot to see several seconds ahead of what the sensors are reading, giving them time to anticipate anomalies in the timestream. Similar to what we use in the quantum slipstream drive, except instead of scanning the slipstream threshold, this detects quantum chronal anomalies when paired with a quantum field focuser and the tachyon sensors. The former will help them shed chroniton buildup, and the latter is designed to read data from tachyons, though it does require special coding to interface with the chroniton integrator."

Then he heard Pax said, “Everything looking good down here?”

"Mostly. With all the modifications we've done to the shuttle, from sensor pallet modifications, to engine tuning, we should have a shuttle capable of surviving a race. I'm still concerned that the quantum field focuser won't work as expected, so they'll need some form of chroniton radiation innoculation, which should prevent rapid aging, or regression. Due to my exposure to chroniton radiation in that temporal anomaly cloud sometime back, I gained about ten years of life expectancy due to deaging, and I don't think we need that sort of thing to happen to our midshipmen."

Jadaris turned to look at Pax and added,

"I've been meaning to get to that biobed again here soon, but there's only one of me and Mr. Elliot here. Could you give me a rundown of the implants you currently have, that way I can get an idea for how much programming I will be doing?"

==tag Cassidy and Elliot==

[Ian Elliot]

Instead of pushing Ian off of him, the Chief simply did not move. Ian backed away slowly, sure he was going to bump into someone else and knock them over instead.

“Late for alpha shift are we Mr. Elliot? I'm going to have to think of something to keep you occupied, or promote you to Lieutenant.”

He opened and closed his mouth, resembling a goldfish. “I – what?” He wasn’t sure if Jadaris was joking, or even if Gorns had a sense of humor. Then the great Gorn stood, moving right on to the topic at hand, the topic that had been at hand for the entire week. The topic that had enveloped the entire crew, giving departments a reason to work together, and ‘cross contaminate’ the officers.

The final piece of the shuttle puzzle seemed to be in Jadaris’ capable hands - claws? - hands. It was a part that would give the team a great advantage, and would hopefully be integral in preventing them from any harm. Ian nodded in understanding, thinking about just what chroniton buildup would look like, and how it would be to study it. Although, he didn’t want to see what buildup could do to a shuttle. He shuddered to think how those particles would tear it apart, and what might become of that debris.

“Just came to see if you folks need any help finishing up the shuttle modifications.”

The gruff voice made Ian spin to its direction, and then still. A different shudder went down his body, and he knew his eyes widened as they landed on their new Chief Medical Officer. He bit the inside of his bottom lip to keep it from shaking, and for once he was silent. Jadaris was the one to answer after another prompt of “Everything looking good down here?”

“Mostly.” The Engineering Chief responded. Ian suddenly became aware that the conversation was between two Chiefs, two Department Heads, and perhaps him being an Ensign meant that he wasn’t meant to be in this conversation.

The Engineering Chief went on to describe their modifications, his thoughts on the race, and how the Starfleet team might fare. Then he said something quite unexpected.

“Due to my exposure to chroniton radiation in that temporal anomaly cloud sometime back, I gained about ten years of life expectancy due to deaging, and I don't think we need that sort of thing to happen to our midshipmen."

As he usually wore his heart on his sleeve, the shock was clear on Ian’s face as he gaped at his boss. There was more to this individual than his hulking mass, his massive brain, and his impeccable manners? Unaware that his mouth hung open, Ian’s human nature had him looking to another person for support, to non-verbally say ‘Can you believe that?!’. However, the person he looked to for confirmation was the other Chief, the charming cyborg, the older man that he was fascinated with.

“Uh… sir.” He managed to stammer out, closing his mouth and taking a healthy step back.

Of course he knocked about four things off the table, his face instantly reddening as he rushed to pick them all up.


==Tags!==

[Jadaris]

Among the four things that were knocked over, was a box that glowed with gentle blue light, that went out as soon as it clattered to the floor. Jadaris looked down at the cube and sighed in mock exasperation,

"Well done Ensign, I just lost two days of work with that device. But not to worry, I have another." He took another cube right out of a utility pocket and set it back onto the MSD console. Jadaris then added,

"Don't be hard on yourself, its just a relaxation device I put together. Most Gorn are sensitive to light, so this just broadcasts a soothing light pattern when I look at it. But I think I have a task for you to help me with. It seems Midshipman Campbell accidentally boarded a shuttle to Starbase 80 back when we were on shore leave, so I'm assigning you to the shuttle as its engineer. And therefore, you get to handle all those new technological marvels we put inside the shuttle."

The console beeped and alerted Jadaris that the program had finished compiling, and he said,

"And with that, you'll also have a chroniton integrator to play with on the shuttle, which will be integrated into the shuttle's deflector. Pretty sure you can handle the task, given your various skills and engineering experience."

==tag Elliot==

[GM-04]

As the three officers talked, the ship rocked violently. A muffled "boom" echoed through the hull, and emergency sirens began to wail as the ship immediately went to Red Alert.

The damage control station blinked red, indicating an explosion in the Aeroshuttle dock. A large fire was burning, and automatic fire suppression systems had failed.

[Pax Cassidy]

Cassidy chuckled as Jadaris explained that he had some experience with flying through temporal anomalies. He traded a quick glance with Ensign Elliot, whose face was a very cute expression of shock. “Better to gain ten years than the other way around, eh?” He said with a wink. “Don’t worry, I’ll have the inoculation ready in time. I just need to calibrate the flavor du jour based on the frequency of the anomaly.”

“As for the implants: the whole spine is mechanical too, besides the eye and the arm. That's all so far. I’ll probably go ahead and replace the other eye next time I see my friend Chencko. I started with just one because he needed to practice on a human —“

Cassidy was cut off by a violent shake. Something was very wrong. He instinctively grabbed the medical tricorder from his coat pocket. He’d learned to carry some of the basics even when off duty.

“Computer, I need to know who’s in the shuttle bay and their vital signs. I’m on my way,” Cassidy said, stomping quickly down the corridor.


== GM Input: Status of life signs in and around the shuttle dock? Let me know which thread to post in next ==

[Kal-Geal Beinn]

==Wrong Account==

[Jadaris]

==Right Account==

“As for the implants: the whole spine is mechanical too, besides the eye and the arm. That's all so far. I’ll probably go ahead and replace the other eye next time I see my friend Chencko. I started with just one because he needed to practice on a human —“

Jadaris was about to say that he could put in a call to his half-brother in Medical who knew how to do cybernetics as well, when the ship shook from an internal explosion.
As Cassidy began to request information, Jadaris said,

"Lieutenant. One staircase up, straight on the deck, then down at the saucer section will take you to the aeroshuttle bay."

Jadaris then tapped his badge and said,

"Jadaris to response team Alpha. Fire hazard on aeroshuttle deck. Fire suppression forcefields offline, grab flame suppression equipment from deck eight. "

The big Gorn ran over to another engineering terminal and called up the internal sensor logs to see who could have been caught in the blast, before tapping the controls to the cargo transporter. The chief engineer tied the industrial replicator to the cargo transporter and had the replicator produce boehmite combined into a extinguishing 'ball', a flame retardant mineral that would release CO2 when exposed to heat, doing double duty of smothering the fire and protecting the aeroshuttle's fuel cells. The ball was designed in less modern times to be a passive extinguishing method, with a small core of nitrates that would detonate, and coat the surrounding area with the flame suppression. He then tried to use the cargo transporter to beam those extinguishing balls into sections of the aeroshuttle bay, to coat the fuel lines in flame retardant materials to prevent a fuel cell rupture from the heat. The carbon dioxide release from the initial heat absorption would also allow the flames to be snuffed out faster, though most of the flame suppression would come from the endothermic reactions of the boehmite.
As he did so, Jadaris said,

"Elliot. Coordinate with emergency team alpha. If things go wrong, we'll need to decompress the aeroshuttle bay, and I need someone at the deck systems override to initiate decompression procedures."

==GM Input: Is Jadaris successful in replicating boehmite suppression balls and then transporting themn to the bay around the fuel cells and fuel lines?==

==tag Elliot and Cassidy==

[Mika Bowman]

Cassidy's combadge came alive, with the voice of the Caitian doctor currently overseeing things in his and Beinn's absence.

[Manx to Cassidy. Sickbay has been alerted to the explosion in the Aeroshuttle Bay. The medical team is on standby, awaiting clearance from Engineering to proceed.]

[GM-04]

==Cassidy - Go to Ancillary Locations==

Internal sensors in that section had been destroyed, so no life signs were immediately detected.

==Jadaris==

Replicating the spheres was one thing. Transporting them, however, was more tricky. With internal sensors offline, there was no guarantee the transporters would deliver the fire suppression materials on-target.

There were also reportedly casualties in the area. Releasing that much CO2 into the area would asphyxiate anyone still breathing. It was the kind of snap judgement call that someone of Jadaris' rank was expected to make. Save the many by sacrifice the few? Or try to get everyone out alive while simultaneously risking the entire ship.

[Jadaris]

Jadaris grumbled that with the internal sensors offline, there was now a scatter chance with his improvised fire suppression system. However, with more data on the fire coming back, he now had some methods for not sacrificing the crew for a quick fix. Shutting down the EPS conduit on that deck would suppress the plasma fire, but also restrict power flow. Bringing the emergency fusion generator on that deck online would provide some additional power when the fire suppression fields were restored, but that wasn't ready yet. There was the option of putting out the fire by flooding the area with fire suppression foam through the rupture in the conduits, but that required work that wasn't possible right now. The best method was likely to go in himself, and get to the secondary sensor relays, and then reactivate the force fields manually.

Jadaris got up and went into his office, grabbing for the hazardous environmental suit sized for his bulk, and started to put it on. "Computer. Once I've pressurized the suit, what is the closest location I can be beamed to, so I can access the secondary sensor assemblies and reactivate the suppression fields? Also, as for the fuel cells on the aeroshuttle, would it be possible to directly pump deuterium through the lines to cool the cells instead. I know it would damage the fuel cells themselves via deuterium contamination, but how much time would it buy?"

Jadaris didn't want to immediately sacrifice the lives of a few crew just for a quick fix to the problem, but he also didn't want to lose another ship.

==GM Input: What's the closest location Jadaris can beam to, so he can get the fire suppression system online again, and is it possible to cool off the fuel lines by running raw deuterium through them? Also, is Jadaris able to shut down the ruptured conduit from here?==

[Ian Elliot]

A pang of disappointment went through Ian as a faintly-glowing box extinguished itself when it hit the ground; his CO sounded both disappointed in him and unbothered by the item’s demise. Ian knew he was lucky the Chief had a backup, and that the item hadn’t been crucial to the mission. Still, it was undoubtedly in bad taste that he should break the relaxation tool of his commanding officer. The irony was not lost on him as Jadaris gave him a task that was mission-related.

But then Cassidy spoke. It was directly to Ian, and he tried to process the words as a very loud whooshing pounded in his ears. “…whole spine is mechanical, too, besides… …replace the other…”

Before the young (foolish) man could even start to think about the chroniton integrator, let alone other places the CMO could have cybernetics, the ship shook violently as the hull undoubtedly breached somewhere. By some small miracle, Ian managed to not fall into somebody this time, and it was instantaneous that Red Alert kicked in throughout the Yeager.

Cassidy was gone, and Jadaris was in action; Ian was still finding his footing, as of course where he had landed was on his ass. The Gorn was pressing buttons at a frantic pace, and now he was speaking to Ian, who still wasn’t sure if his world was askew or not.

“Elliot. Coordinate with emergency team Alpha. If things go wrong, we’ll need to decompress the aeroshuttle bay, and I need someone at the deck systems override to initiate decompression procedures.”

The words he heard first were “decompress the aeroshuttle bay”, and his brain caught him up from there as the rest of him kicked into gear. “Uh, right.” He replied, getting his hands on a console next to his Chief. Jadaris was working on something Ian didn’t quite understand, but then again, his specialty wasn’t exactly fire-fighting.

Unsatisfied with what the computer was telling him, the Chief Engineer went and got himself what Ian casually referred to as a HAZMAT suit, and began asking the computer where he could beam in. Ian frowned, bringing up the layout of all the power conduits in that area, seeing which ones were outlined in black (for nonfunctional), red (in danger of rupturing), orange (failure of some kind), yellow (malfunctioning), and green (fully functional).



==GM: Yes, I do use Apple Maps, why do you ask? =P
Are decompression controls operable?
And I know it’s slightly predictable, but can you please also tell me which conduits are in trouble?==

[GM-04]

==Jadaris==

The closest area he could safely beam to was one deck above the Aeroshuttle Dock. From there, he could manually override the fire suppression controls via maintenance hatches in the deck. To seal off the flow of plasma through the ruptured conduit, he would need to be in the general vicinity of the rupture. Given the cramped nature of the area and the rescue mission taking place, the Gorn would likely do more harm than good.

==Elliot==

The decompression controls seemed to be in working order. If they failed, all he would need to do would be to activate forcefields around the fire and wait for it to starve itself of oxygen.

Only the one conduit appeared to be ruptured, but it was burning through precious plasma at an alarming rate. If the fire spread, conduits between the decks would start to overheat, and eventually, fail.

[Leo Alden]

The roar of the flames did all they could to lessen Leo's voice as he tried to keep his nerve but he pushed on regardless.

[Alden to Engineering. Requesting immediate EPS shutdown to the Aeroshuttle Bay and surrounding sections. We won't get the Plasma fire out while the EPS is still active and there's a high risk of more fires if we don’t.]

He paused for just a second before continuing. [We’ve got at least one missing officer unaccounted for. Fire’s partially controlled, but we need EPS offline now or we’ll lose any chance of recovery.]

== Tag the Engineers ==
== Any chance of shutting the EPS conduits actually working?==