Just Another Day in Paradise

Posted on Sun Mar 1, 2015 @ 1:49am by Lieutenant Commander Steven Wyman

521 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location: Jefferies Tube 392, junction 93-alpha
Timeline: MD02 1115

ON:

"OK... let's see here..."

Steve was flat on his back in one of the more confined Jefferies tubes on the station, working on a faulty EPS tap. Ordinarily this would be a job for a more junior engineer, but at the moment his entire staff was assigned to other tasks. But Steve had never been one to sit at a desk delegating everything.

Nope, he had always insisted on being out in the muck, getting his hands dirty. Being a paper pusher would drive him insane in about five minutes.

"Well, that's just not quite right..." he muttered to himself before setting his tricorder down beside him. There seemed to be a leak in the EPS line through this section that the main computer hadn't detected. But it was clearly showing up now. "Computer, run a level one diagnostic on the EPS system in section 175."

A moment later there was a bleep as the computer reached its results. *"The EPS system in section 175 is functioning normally."*

"Clearly it isn't..." Wyman mused, stroking his chin. There was a slight stubble as he had decided to try growing a beard. Nothing major, but he wanted to look less boyishly handsome and more distinguished. He'd always admired Captain Riker's look, but he also knew he couldn't grow anything quite that lush.

Once again, he consulted the tricorder; sure enough, the leak was still showing. It was small, but the last thing they needed was a small plasma leak turning into something worse. "Computer, erect a level two containment field behind this panel."

A second later, there was a bleep and a static hiss as the field went up. That was all Steve needed to hear as he yanked the panel off and set it aside. "Huh... it LOOKS all right." Once more he scanned the EPS tap. This time the leak was gone. "The Hell..."

"Computer, lower containment field."

Observing a crackle of light as the field dropped, Wyman braced himself for plasma burns. But, nothing happened. There was no sudden gout of superheated gasses engulfing him. In fact, nothing happened. "Ugh... forget it. I don't have time for this. Computer, shut down plasma flow through this conduit and perform a purge."

There was an audible hiss as a stream of cool, neutral gasses were vented through the conduit to clear out any residual plasma. An indicator light turned green to show it was safe to work on the conduit. Never the less, Steve scanned it just in case the indicator was faulty.

Convinced that he wasn't about to be incinerated, he dug into his toolbox for the appropriate doodad and set to work removing the potentially damaged tap. "Worst case - there's nothing actually wrong with this thing and I put it with the other spares. Best case - I just saved the station from having another large hole blown in it. Whichever it is, I need to tell Ops to run a diagnostic on the internal sensors..."

It was a bit dull, but at least Steve wasn't chained to a desk.
OFF

Lt. Cmdr. Steve Wyman
Chief Engineering Officer
Deep Space 5

 

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