Stardate 2401508.18 - Duty Log, Ensign Ayuhara
Posted on Tue Aug 18th, 2015 @ 8:51am by Ensign Natsume Ayuhara
1,477 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Midnight on the Firing Line
Location: Deck Ten: Outside of the Forward Torperdo Bay
Ayuhara turned the corner with the utmost fluidity and continued on her patrol route. This was her very first assignment as a Starfleet Officer having only graduated weeks ago. Ayuhara was grateful yet anxious to begin putting her skills to good use. So far her patrol had been uneventful. That is until she noticed the nameplate on the door, only a few paces ahead of her, read in bold lettering: FORWARD TORPEDO BAY. She swiftly tilted her head left and then right, each shift made a slight cracking sound. She felt much looser now and proceeded to enter the chamber.
Her nose met with metal alloy door and a loud thud echoed in her mind. Embarrassed, she immediately reached for her olfactory sensor with both hands and rubbed it gently with care. Ayuhara could not believe that she really just walked into a door. A literal door. With her nose. It was then that her eyes pick up on the key pad panel just to the right of the torpedo bay entrance. This was essentially the Intrepid-Class starship’s ordnance room. It had to be highly secured at all times.
Ayuhara considered the panel for a few moments before decided on entering her identification number. The panel changed from a red background to a green illumination and Ayuhara watched the double doors part with a crack-hiss. She immediately crossed the threshold, not wanting to meet her face to the door for a second time.
Once inside, several pairs of eyes darted to identify her. There were three crewmembers present from what she could ascertain. All non-commissioned officers, one crewman and two 3rd class Petty Officers. The closet of the two Petty Officers, an Andorian man, came within greeting distance of Ayuhara, noticing her rank insignia and offered her a PaDD.
“I sure hope you can lend us a hand. I really don’t want to be the person to report this to the Chief. Word is that she’s not in a good mood at present,” the non-com declared. “Oh yes, I’m PO3 Torran.”
Ayuhara blinked twice and then eyed the PaDD. She accepted small rectangular device into her grasp and then returned her gaze to the Petty Officer.
“Ensign Ayuhara,” she replied bowing, respectfully.
She hadn’t been sent by anyone to come down to the torpedo room; she was simply on patrol and decided to check out this location of the ship since she had never been here. But that was not something that sounded like a good thing to say. ~ Sure thing, Petty Officer, I was just wandering around and decided to help myself to the torpedo room. ~ No, that did not sound good at all. Instead, Ayuhara simply kept that information to herself and studied the PaDD info. It appeared to be a maintenance report on the torpedo launcher systems and ordnance count. According to the report, there were sixty quantum torpedoes aboard the Endeavor. There were also four standard quantum torpedo launchers as well. Ayuhara remembered both types of equipment from her Academy classes and had committed a fair amount of information about torpedo technology to her memory, as this was to be her field of expertise.
“We were having some trouble with the number 2 launcher as of a few minutes ago,” Torran began. “Things were going just fine during warm-ups. Then all of a sudden, test torps only got a third of the way down the tube before they got stuck.”
Ayuhara listened fully to what the Petty Officer had to say before she completed reading the information on the PaDD. Torpedo tube launchers, she had learned at the Academy, had a way of giving tactical officers a hard time if said launchers were not properly maintained. Now, she wasn’t thinking that these fine crewmen weren’t doing their jobs adequately; she was simply going though the deduction process of what the problem could be.
“Damned quantum launcher,” the other Petty Officer commented. “I like the photon tubes better.”
The third crewman present chuckles at the comment. That was when Ayuhara took four quick steps towards the second launcher. The inner bay door was open and she could see the test torpedo that was stuck one third of the way down the tube. Ayuhara placed the PaDD down on a nearby stand and looked over the tube access console. Recalling her Academy training, the first thing to look for was a jam. The sensors in the tube should pick up anything that shouldn’t belong there. She entered a few commands to check for said jam and then upon receiving an ‘all clear’ decided to reset the sensors in case the sensors themselves were out of alignment.
“Yep, we tried the same thing,” Torran admitted, coming to stand next to the Ensign.
Ayuhara placed her hands on her hips, a very strong stance.
“Will the test torpedo disengage and reverse?” Ayuhara asked.
“Negative. It used to. This time it’s stuck real good,” the crewman piped in.
Ayuhara sighed deeply.
“Looks like we’ll have to pull it out of there manually,” she concluded.
Instants later, Ayuhara and the group of tactical crewman found themselves on the launch tube runway. They had attached a mag-lock to the test torp and reinforced rope was gripped tightly in each of their hands. Ayuhara strapped her gloves on tight and then doubled her grip on the rope. She then gave to the word to pull and pull hard they did. The test torp would not budge.
“Crewman, go to the tube access panel and pull up the ‘disengage and reverse’ command. Continue to enter the command. It might help us free the torpedo,” Ayuhara offered.
Once the crewman was in place they tried again.
"The quantum warhead relies on rapid energy extraction from zero-point vacuum,” Ayuhara gritted as she pulled. “This is established from an 11-dimensional space-time membrane, twisted into a Genus-1 topology string, housed inside the ultraclean vacuum of a 1.38 meter-long teardrop shaped, zero-point field reaction chamber.” Ayuhara could feel the test torpedo begin to loosen. “The detonation of a quantum torpedo warhead, enriched with fluoronetic vapor, inside the torpedo powers a continuum distortion emitter.”
“Keep the command going, crewman!” Ayuhara gritted.
“It expands the membrane and pinches it out of the background vacuum. The membrane forms into subatomic particles accompanied by a highly-explosive energy release,” she finished.
The test torpedo came free and the trio was able to pull it to safety. Ayuhara immediately examined the tube and then activated her tricorder to scan into the opening. The readings plastered an astonishing look on her face.
“I’m reading traces of frozen coffea canephora…” Ayuhara announced.
“What substance is that?” Torran asked.
“Coffee,” Ayuhara stated simply.
“Coffee?! How did coffee get into the launcher?” The Andorian questioned.
The crewman at the control console cleared his throat slightly to get their attention.
“I will be honest here. I admit to spilling some coffee down onto the tube runway. I didn’t think that it could be the cause of our problem,” the crewman reported.
“It appears that said coffee must have rolled down the runway, while the ship had a downward angle and get stuck on the other side of the inner launcher door,” Ayuhara deduced.
“And when we were testing the launcher, the outer bay door would open and instantly freeze the coffee in its place, which would also act as an obstacle for other torpedoes going down the tube,” Torran finished.
“Precisely, PO3,” Ayuhara beamed.
“I’m sure happy we got to the bottom of that. If the Chief had to come down here from the office and learned that coffee was the cause, we’d be doing extra long patrols for weeks!” the crewman exclaimed.
“Some of us might still be doing extra long patrols regardless, Crewman!” Torran scolded.
Ayuhara jumped in. “Crewman, please refrain from eating or drinking while you are inside the torpedo room. It is for the safety of yourself, your crewmates and the ship.”
The crewman hung his head slightly, feeling guilty but replied with a curt “yes ma’m.”
“Thanks for your help, Ensign Ayuhara,” Torran said. “I’m very relieved that you were around. Come to mention it, I’ve never seen you before on ship.”
“It was a solid team effort, PO3. I was just doing my job.” Ayuhara said humbly. “Indeed, this is my first assignment. I graduated from the Academy a month ago. I am very grateful to serve with you all.”
And with that, Ensign Natsume Ayuhara had already made an impact on her very first assignment. She checked her wrist mounted chrono and exited the torpedo room, making a direct route to Lieutenant Sato’s office. It was time to check in.
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Ensign Natsume Ayuhara
Security/Tactical Officer
&
Petty Officer Third Class Torran (NPC)
Torpedo Corpsman
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