Flying Dark (Part VI of VIII)
Posted on Wed Mar 18, 2020 @ 3:39am by Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant JG Scaliontis Lovok
1,648 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: MD01 1530
Previously on
Maritza checked her comm badge. The battery was almost gone. It shouldn't have gone out so fast. Maybe she should start taking her own advice. Grabbing a wrench, she pulled the paneling off and hauled herself into the jefferies tubes. There she found one of the tertiary pipes from the EPS trunk, the typical powerline into most quarters and other low need labs and workshops. It was cool to the touch, suggesting the power was dead. She went through the isolation process anyway, and then opened the access pipe.
She looked at what was inside with surprise. "What the--?"
And now the continuation
Main Engineering - Decks 1128-1157
Scaliontis, Morgan Rielly, and Molok made their way to one of the main EPS conduit hubs that Reactor 1 is linked to, with their wrist torches shining down the jefferies tube. The lack of gravity made travel so much faster, and they all put on cold weather jackets from the equipment lockers. They had discovered that the the portable generators were being taxed far too much, and after an attempt to power up Reactor 1, the power was being sucked away faster than it could be used to reignite the reactor, causing its shut down again.
Soon, and before everything had shut down, the engineering sub-computer had found that energy was in fact being pulled to various conduit hubs throughout the station as the other teams used the portable generators to power up other reactors. At one point the main computer managed to be powered long enough to find all the hubs that were drawing all the power and transfer the map to Scaliontis' padd. Not much else was done, as every reactor repowered shut down again.
Once the trio floated at the access panel, Molok got into position to pull the panel off by bracing himself against Morgan, who put himself on the other side of the tube, and the two pushed against each other while Molok got the panel off. Scaliontis was ready to grab the panel and gently put it against the tube wall. Molok then directed his torch to the conduit hub. It was bursting with some kind of brownish yellow crystalline substance that seemed to shine in the torch light.
Before Scaliontis knew it and could stop it, Molok, the Caitian male, touched the crystals while stating, "What the hell--"
In the first moment, the crystals retracted for a second, leaving a fine powder on Molok's finger tip. Then they began to grow, fast, like watching a normal growth in time-lapse. They were stretching towards the Caitian’s fingers, growing out in the general direction of his hand, the long, hexagonal crystals growing off at odd angles here and there.
"Don't touch it. I know it's hard to resist the urge, Molok," Morgan said with a knowing smirk.
"Oh, shut up, Morrgan," Molok said, annoyed.
Scaliontis just shook his head in mocking disappointment at his engineers' banter. He had joined in many times, as many engineers like to tease each other. He had his wrist torch on the crystals, observing carefully. "Morgan, can you go back to get a sample container and laser cutter?" Scaliontis asked. Although they were now using phasers, not lasers, but the name stuck.
"Okay," Morgan said before giving Molok a playful nudge. He flew off down the way the trio had come.
Molok drifted to the side so he could see the crystal growth from another angle. Scaliontis was on the other side, his torch on the new discovery. "It didn't hurt, though the powder seems to stick. It hasn't come off."
Scaliontis was growing concerned now. This crystal must be responsible for the complete power loss for the station, and there's no telling what it will do to organic tissue. "When Morgan returns, I want you to put that powder and however much you can cut off the conduit into the sample container, then get it to the scanner in Main Engineering."
"Aye," Molok replied, though he was still staring at the crystal.
Morgan returned, and the Caitian proceeded to start cutting the crystal from the conduit while Morgan, having been updated by Scaliontis, assisted by holding the container over the crystal, as well as his own torch so Molok could see, so none escaped once cut off.
Scaliontis, on the other hand, pulled out a tricorder and was scanning the conduit for structural damage. There was no electroplasma anywhere in the section for meters. The crystal must have absorbed it all. The Romulan was now more concerned than ever.
The crystal cut easily, falling off with the barest pressure from the super hot scalpel. It plinked into the sample tray. The trimmings seemed to be inert, but after a moment new ones grew from the cut surface, stretching towards the light of Morgan's torch.
"Well, this is a problem," Scaliontis said as the trio watched in fascination the growth rate of the crystal.
Morgan quickly sealed the container with the large sample. He withdrew his torch arm from the new crystal growth and headed back to Main Engineering. Molok and Scaliontis looked at each other. "Sirr, I think we may have to cut the conduit hub out and rreplace it," Molok suggested.
Scaliontis nodded in agreement. "I'll go get a new one and some extra, as we don't know how much we have to cut. I wonder how the other teams are going. We need communications and the main computer," he said in frustration.
"And life support," Molok added. "Should we use a phaser on the crystal?"
The Romulan immediately snapped to look at Molok. "And let it consume the beam of energy and not stop when it gets to consume you? No." Though Scaliontis didn't know it would actually eat organic tissue as it turned into powder, and stuck on Molok's hand. "No, best to remove the conduit hub and replace it. I'll be back." He pulled himself close to the other side of the jefferies tube and pushed off to follow Morgan.
When his boss was gone, Molok was consumed by the thoughts of using a phaser. He had a Type 1 in his pocket, as he grabbed one on the way. He pulled it out and aimed at the crystal then fired.
The phaser only had limited physical force, but that was enough to knock several chunks of crystal off the main growth where they floated away into the room. The main trunk of it began to change from the sickly yellow to a warm orange as it absorbed the phaser blast. In the first few moments, crystals at the very edges popped and blackened and sloughed off, but then the growth seemed to be able to pass the huge amounts of energy, and the orange glow seemed to be reaching further and further back inside the conduit.
"Oh crrrap," Molok said as he quickly tapped into the phaser the sequence to increase the power output. He aimed at one of the four adjoining conduits and continually fired at where the conduit four-way hub was connected to the four conduits. It took about half a minute to cut each direction, and the hub now florated. Molok grabbed it where no crystals were present just then he heard both Morgan and Scaliontis approaching.
"What are you doing!" Scaliontis demanded.
"Quick, we have to destroy this hub. The crystal is active again!" Molok said quickly.
Scaliontis and Morgan shared a look, then Morgan brought to bear the larger handheld phaser drill and Scaliontis pulled out his Type 2 phaser from his belt, as he'd obviously picked up an away team set before they had come here in the first place, for the tricorder he had before was back on that belt.
Both aimed at the conduit hub after Molok left it floating at least half a meter from where it was installed. The Caitian pulled on the tube floor towards his fellow engineers, and Scaliontis and Morgan fired at the free floating four-way conduit hub with the main trunk of crystal in it, both phaser and phaser drill on wide beam dispersal, the moment Molok was out of the way and planted himself behind his colleagues with his legs and arms spread out, holding both roof and floor so they'd fly into him with the force of fire.
The crystal branch started to heat. Whilst it was still trying to absorb it, passing the energy back, the intensity of heat at the point the two beams hit was too intense. The leading growths blackened, cracked, and floated away. They may have been feeding the source, but they were slowly pushing the extremity back from the junction to beyond a seal-able point in the conduit.
Five minutes of continuous fire, the phasers in their hands were burning hot, but the junction was clear. Cut from the main body, the crystal growth that had extended up the right and left arms of the junctions had gone dark and started to crumble. The main growth itself was now pulsing with orange light, and the crystals were surging to grow faster, but there was time to seal it off.
Scaliontis watched as the conduit hub flew off down the tube, since no gravity, he cursed himself for not securing it somehow. "Okay you two fix this section and start checking the rest, order all engineers to spread out and do the same. I fear we need everyone on this if we are to get this done while we have a chance." The others acknowledged their orders and went to it while he pushed off the tube roof and floor after putting his phaser back on his belt and flew down the tube after the hub.
To be Continued…
Lieutenant JG Scaliontis Lovok
Chief Engineer
Deep Space Five
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