Field Repairs

Posted on Sun Apr 24, 2016 @ 8:09pm by Lieutenant JG Rhe'la Daughter of the Forty-ninth House

591 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: Jefferies tube 174G
Timeline: MD 11 2030 hours

ON:

"Let's see... flow rate... plasma density... what in the...?"

Despite her under the radar machinations, there was still work to be done on Deep Space 5. Pangaea wasn't going anywhere (as far as anyone could tell), and the station still required upkeep. Being a hands on sort of department head, Rhe'la made sure that she was included in the division of labor among her engineering staff.

That brought her to a random Jefferie's tube in a lightly trafficked area of the station, in search of the cause of power under run in the EPS system. Though this was a part of the station which saw little use, the EPS lines ran to important sections like the long range sensors, docking bay 3, and docking ring. It wouldn't be good if the bay doors lost power and stopped opening as a ship was departing. That would be one heck of a repair job - for both the crews of both the station and of the ship which plowed into it.

Like the Archimedes, which had recently grazed the docking bay doors at starbase 272. Captain Wyman would be catching flak for that debacle for years to come.

And so, here she sat in a crawlspace which would be cramped for pretty much everyone else on the station, looking for the cause of the power loss. An access panel laid on the deck beside her.

And a metal colander was crammed into the EPS tap in place of the flow regulator which should have been there. "I'm almost afraid to ask..." she muttered to herself, pulling out a tricorder.

Sure enough, the colander was bent to fit into the EPS line, and was stifling the flow of plasma through the system. So, in a way it was acting as a flow regulator. But an actual regulator could be opened or closed by the computer as needed. This was... either genius or insane; Rhe'la wasn't certain which.

Sighing, she set down the tricorder and pulled a plasma torch from her tool kit. The colander was wedged in so tightly that there was no way she would be able to just remove it. She was going to have to slice it into pieces and pull it out in chunks.

"There's no way this is the Captain's handiwork. This has to be one of the Maddox fixes I've heard so much about..." she mused, cutting the colander neatly into three pieces and shimmying one until all three fell out and landed with a clatter on the deck.

"I swear, this station should have fallen apart a hundred times over by now... Rhe'la to engineering."

+"Engineering, Patterson here, ma'am."+

"Patterson, I need a type 3 plasma flow regulator in tube 174G, junction 17. I found our power loss to the docking ring. You're not going to believe this."

Before she could tell the tale, the petty officer on the other end laughed. +"You found the colander, eh? I guess the nickel plating finally corroded. I'm impressed - that's been there for four years!"+

Though Patterson couldn't see her, Rhe'la narrowed her eyes in frustration none the less. "Just get me a flow regulator. Then we'll cover how emergency repairs are supposed to be corrected to fleet standards once the emergency is over."

+"I'll be there in a few minutes, ma'am. Engineering, out."+ Patterson answered, still laughing in spite of himself.

Picking up one of the pieces, the Zarnac shook her head. "I suppose four years IS pretty impressive..."
OFF

Ens. Rhe'la, Daughter of the Forty-ninth House
Chief Engineering Officer
Deep Space 5

 

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