241510.18 Joint engineering duty log: Lt Ros, Ens Walker

Posted on Mon Oct 19th, 2015 @ 6:02am by Lieutenant Jera'turak Ros & Lieutenant Kev Walker

1,182 words; about a 6 minute read

There were very few times that Jera simply hated to do something that she knew had to be done and repairing the shield matrix power lines was one of them. It wasn't that it would be hard, but the repair project would be a time consuming job that was important to the survival of the entire ship. As she walked into engineering with a padd in one hand and a large mug of spiced coffee in the other, she could almost hear the engineers whispering to each other. Everyone was hoping that their chief wouldn't call on them to help in the repair job. Stopping in the middle of engineering, Jera frowned as she finished reading her padd, and then looked up. "Walker, get your belt and tool set. You're helping me today. Everyone else, go about your regular duties. Just keep fusion two shut down," Jera said.

Kev had walked into engineering almost feeling good. It had been a decent start to the day, with a full shower, breakfast, and even a small conversation with one of the medical officers. And then his day had turned into not being a good one. His dc team had rotated into the weeks fast response shift, which meant that if anything happened his team would have to respond, even if they were asleep. And now, Ros was pegging him for who knew what. All he could do was say 'Yes ma'am' and grab his gear. His tool belt and kit he already had, so Kev simply walked up to the chief and waited for her orders.

Jera raised an eyebrow as Walker came forward right away. Seeing that he had his gear, she nodded. "Parker, shut fusion two off and inform the bridge that as of right now, power will be running off of fusion one and the warp core only. Also, no shields. Deflector screens only. If they gripe, tell them to get in touch with the Co.". Without waiting for a reply, Jera turned and headed out of engineering.

Kev sighed and followed after Ros. Sometimes he wondered if the slim engineer liked to pick on him. Most of the time, she picked him for the weird stuff that had to be done. Clean out the air filters on the shuttles intake manifolds. Recalibrate every sensor pallet on the ship. Help repair the busted shield matrix power lines. He was almost afraid to wonder what was next. With his luck, it would be something along the lines of putting on an eva suit and scooping jello like goop off of the phaser array emitters.

Jera led Walker to the access hatch that would require crawling the shortest distance and pulled the hatch covering off. Crawling inside she started towards the primary EPS network. As she heard Walker clambering into the crawlspace behind her, she hid a grin. "I really didn't pick you to help me on this just because I like picking on you, Walker."

"Of course not," Kev said as he crawled after his boss. "You picked me because you're an evil sadistic hussy and you like to get me involved in the strangest things possible that happen on this ship. One of these days I swear you're going to set me up to where I'm wearing a French maid outfit and dusting the corridors in zero gravity."

"Now that's an image I could have gone all freaking day without having in my head ensign," Jera growled as she stopped and shut her eyes in an effort to erase the mental image from her brain. "Nope. I didn't need that image playing in my head at all today."

"I'm sure you've done something to deserve that," Kev chuckled.

"Not lately. And calling your superior officer and department head a hussy isn't always recommended for aspiring young ensigns who want to someday make lieutenant," Jera said as they reached the EPS cluster. The main access to the power lines was overhead, so Jera rolled onto her back and lay down before she tugged the access panel off to reveal the power cables that fed power from the fusion reactor to several other systems. The cable that fed the shield matrix was easy to identify since it was the one that was burnt and looked as if something had chewed on it. "This might take longer than I expected," Jera said.

"Most things usually do," Kev said as he plopped down beside Ros and stared at the cables. "Yep. I'm surprised we didn't have an overload short out the entire relay panel. Or backtrack to the reactor itself."

"That's one good thing about this new power relay system," Jera said as she tested the damaged cable. It was deactivated, so she reached in and yanked the cable out of the slot. Tugging on the end, she started pulling the cable out. Much to her surprise, about four feet of cable came out, stopping at a frayed end. Jera stared at the end for a moment, and then groaned. "Oh that's just great," she muttered.

"Um, those aren't supposed to do that," Kev observed. Indeed, he was starting to wonder just how much damage the dc control teams had expected.

Jera sighed as she stared at the frayed end for a moment longer. "We're going to have to get a tunnel rat and rewire the entire system," she said.

Kev opened his tool kit and pulled out a tunnel rat, which was a small cylinder that had cameras and sensors at both ends. A small antigravity device built into the cylinder allowed it to maneuver throughout the power line conduits. The device also had grappling claws on either end as well which would allow it to pull cables through the conduits. It was a step up from manually feeding cables through the conduits, but it was a nightmare to use as well. The battery life was barely thirty minutes and the recharge time was well over that. Kev handed the rat over without a word.

Jera made a face as she took the tunnel rat. The device hadn't been in use by Starfleet for long, and while there were advantages to using the thing, she still hated them. Staring at the device, she sighed and powered it on before she set it in the conduit opening and turned to Walker. "You might as well crawl to the nearest damage control room and we'll get started," she said.

Kev nodded and rolled over before he started crawling down the access tunnel. The nearest dc room wasn't far, but it would still take a while to get there. Muttering under his breath, he started off.

Jera waited until Walker was well on his way before she tapped her communicator. "Ros to bridge. Be advised that repairs to the shields will take longer than expected. Will update with a new repair time table when we can. Ros out.". Without waiting for a reply, Jera ended the call and settled in as best she could on the hard metal grating. It was going to be a long day.

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