Flying Dark (Part IV of VIII)
Posted on Wed Mar 18, 2020 @ 3:37am by Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Lieutenant JG Scaliontis Lovok & Lieutenant Kivan Ta'Gas & Qinee & Civilian Aleczandra Naqiis-Ryan
1,953 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: DS5, various
Timeline: MD01 1500
Previously on Flying Dark
It didn't take Martiza long to wire her badge into the comm system. She didn't know if it would reach anyone, or if the badge could drive enough power into the nearest rely to broadcast very far. The station was bigger than a ship, the relays were further apart. Badges had a good range, more than enough to cover the station, she just needed a network to link to. Hopefully this would at least reach the USS Gorch, which was at dock this side of the hangar. "Knock knock," she muttered to herself, then pushed the button.
"Soran to DS5, is anyone receiving?"
And now the continuation
Main Engineering - Decks 1128-1157
The five portable power generators had been plugged into the large reactor at one end of Main Engineering. They had restored all power to just Main Engineering, the multi-deck room, except the large reactor itself remained off. Gravity plating had engaged, and the life support systems inside switched on as well. Both limited to Main Engineering. "Okay, let's see what the Elements is going on," Scaliontis said, as Delta team engineers were now able to run on the deck plates again, but they all had the urgency that the power could cut out again at any moment.
Unfortunately the main computer wasn't powered, so the consoles had basic functions. Crap! Hopefully someone in Alpha will head to the primary computer, Scaliontis thought, as he managed to redirect some of the portable generators power into the Engineering sub-computer. There were many sub-computers throughout the station that can be used to carry out the primary computer's automatic functions and networking connections if the primary was offline, but only the Engineering one was powered at the moment, so it had no others to link to and give engineers any other station wide capabilities.
Again, there was not much they could do until generators were hooked up to other key areas and devices in those areas. So Scaliontis couldn't access sensors, communications, or command systems. He glanced over at the large reactor and saw that several of the power systems specialists brought the large reactor into pre-activation mode. The engineering department called that particular reactor at one end of Main Engineering Reactor 1, as it could be used to send energy down to the power generation reactor hubs like an ignition switch.
Though the Romulan could see the specialists were having trouble. Reactor 1 had got to the near power generation stage and normal operational status, but it went dark again barely a second later. Scaliontis realised that maybe there was an external and or internal counter force preventing ignition. Without the Main Computer however, he couldn't start an investigation. The feeling of powerlessness made Scaliontis growl into his oxygen mask loud enough that nearby engineers went about their tasks a little faster. The other teams had to hurry, or people will start losing their lives.
Ferengi Embassy
“Sorry, your nobleness. There isn’t much we can do,” sniveled one of the Ferengi engineers. “The problem is with the station itself. Not any of our EPS conduits.”
“Why aren’t they answering comms, then,” Qinee asked, holding onto a structural support to keep from floating around.
“They must be down, along with the rest.”
“How does something like this happen? Go out there and offer your help. I don’t want to be floating around here all day!”
Jeffries Tube Deck 400
Even with using the lack of gravity to their advantage it was still slow going for Greitens and Annora. Most of the hatches were closed, which required them to stop at each junction and manually open them before proceeding.
"Soran to DS5. Is anyone receiving?"
Annora was surprised when she heard the CO's voice come over the suit's comm system. It was a bit unclear, but she understood the gist of the message.
Yes, ma'am. It's Lieutenant Tessaro. I'm trying to reach life support on Deck 575.
Four hundred plus decks up, Maritza experienced a moment of frustration and exaltation. She had managed to get a bit of the network up, but not who she was hoping for. "Annora? Good. Keep going. Are you with any engineers, or operations specialists?
No, ma'am. I'm with Greitens. I can have him hop out at the next junction and try to flag down an engineer.
"No, that's okay. There's bound to be some heading towards main life support as well. Just tell the ones you do find to check the EPS trunks. It's the only thing that connects all the generators, primary and secondary." She realized it was probably telling her Operations staff how to do their jobs, but Operations was her own background, and taking charge of it came very easily.
"Then get to the Promenade and make sure any civilians are secured." Whilst no one would fall to their death when gravity was restored -- it deliberately took time to come back to 1G to prevent any nasty sudden stops -- it was best not to have anyone randomly floating over the drop from the galleries to the park at the bottom of the Prom.
EPS trunks. Aye, ma'am.
As the change in orders came, Annora floated to a stop.
Roger that, ma'am. Heading to the Promenade. We'll flag down anyone in yellow. If they're not security, I'll relay your orders.
"Keep me up to date if you can. I'm not sure how long this is going to last."
Will do. Annora out.
Stopping at the next junction, Annora and Greitens exited the jeffries tube.
School
“Stay calm, students!” the teacher tried to yell over the hubbub of the classroom. Aleczandra rolled her eyes. She floated quietly in the corner in the dark, minding her own business. Growing up on starships, she’d had plenty of mandatory zero-g training.
Someone vomited, and Zandy carefully pushed herself away to stay clear. Zero G didn’t agree with some people, and that just meant a big mess.
“Use your vomit bags!” the teacher yelled.
Main Base Operations Power Grid - Deck 65
"This is ridiculous! Once your reactors enter the power generation stage, it will allow the remaining Engineering detachments to bring backup systems online!" the Cardassian engineer said pointedly as he continued to grasp ahold of a nearby console to maintain his balance.
"For the third time," Ta'Gas said through clenched teeth, "the power system does not work like that," he said, as he forced each syllable out of his mouth. "If we allow Main Engineering to begin power generation stage to Reactor 1 before we have sealed off the secondary and tertiary plasma conductors, the sudden surge of power will be too much for the dilithium regulators to handle all at once. It will be like opening a firehose at full power," the Cardassian-Bajoran hybrid said to the Cardassian engineer.
"For the time being, we need to prevent the reactor from igniting by shunting the unprocessed dilithium from feeding into the power generation reactor hubs," Lieutenant Ta'Gas said.
"Gil Reklan, listen to the Star’hvliyt (Starfleet). The last thing we need is another Federation technical failure that leads to more problems for the Embassy." The other, more senior, Cardassian engineer by the name of Glinn Harnuv said from the other side of the Operations bay. "Besides, the more pressing matter is getting power to environmental controls.”
Lieutenant Ta'Gas let the slight insult pass for the moment. He agreed that the primary concern was environmental controls. Without it, hundreds would begin to suffocate and/or freeze to death within the hour. Fortunately, the builders of the station had built numerous redundancy systems surrounding environmental and gravity controls. Unfortunately, they had all failed all at once, something that should not have been possible, yet here they were.
"Isn't there a backup source of power available that can be diverted to primary systems?" Glin Reklan said, diverting the conversation to something slightly more productive.
"No," Lt. Ta'Gas said as he glided over to a primary console. "When power is being diverted manually, it's typically done between the major systems like shields, engines, or even weapons. There are also limits to how much power can be diverted to any system to avoid overloading the phasers or shield emitters or even the EPS conduits," he further explained as he was able to bring the console online and get a very basic power generation schematic. "A starship's engines typically have a direct plasma conduit to the warp core, so they may be able to consume most or all of the warp core's power excessive output," Lt. Ta'Gas said. "Unfortunately, we don't have a singular warp core system, we have sixty-five different fusion reactors that feed into different aspects of the ship's power network and supply system," he said, pointing out the significant contrast between a starship and the massive starbase they were currently floating within.
"So then that means that any power that was originally available immediately dissipates since primary and secondary EPS conduits were unable to transfer the power to necessary systems upon generation," Glinn Harnuv said as he planted his feet underneath the console bracket before him and also powered up a secondary console to give him a view of what systems were even capable of receiving power.
"Exactly," Lt. Ta'Gas said in response. "From here, all we can do is initiate power generation for secondary Base Fusion Reactors 1-16." Lt. Ta'Gas began to access the primary startup sequence. Fortunately, the sixteen reactors were located on the same deck as they were, making the operation somewhat easier. "We'll have to hope that Main Engineering can recognize what we are doing and then direct that slight power generation into environmental controls for gravity and CO2 scrubbers," Lt. Ta'Gas said as he looked towards the glinn.
"I've provided your console with necessary access. On my mark, I want you to begin the power generation sequence on reactors one through five. Let me know once they've reached twenty-five percent readiness," Lt. Ta'Gas said.
Glinn Harnuv waited until Gil Reklav was about to connect the portable generator before he attempted to enter the necessary sequence to bring the console online and functional. The Cardassian engineer tapped at the console for several moments before becoming visibly frustrated.
"There's something not working correctly," he said as he looked towards his subordinate. Gil Reklav checked the generator to confirm that it was working correctly, but he too shared a look of confusion and frustration. "Something...is drawing far too much power from the portable generator than you would expect from just one console," the gil replied. "It's almost as if something is stealing the power directly from the console.”
Glinn Harnuv tried to run another diagnostic on the console, but all he got back in response was conflicting messages. "The console is reading ready, but then it will report unready, but then it will report ready again. The error messages are intermittent and across different systems."
Lieutenant Ta'Gas made his way over to another console and tried to use a secondary system to initiate the reactors. Unfortunately, all that he could get in response were initial lights indicating some activity, but not enough to operate.
To be Continued…
Qinee
Ferengi Ambassador
NPC Caleb Ryan
Aleczandra Ryan
Student
NPC Caleb Ryan
Lieutenant Annora Tessaro
Chief Security Officer
Lieutenant JG Scaliontis Lovok
Chief Engineer
Deep Space Five
Lieutenant JG Ta'Gas Kivan
Assistant Chief Engineer
Deep Space Five
RSS Feed