On the Way to Charys (part 2)

Posted on Sun Dec 17th, 2017 @ 1:19pm by Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn & Captain Daniel Westphalen & Lieutenant Azusa Nakano & Captain Ka'Tock & Lieutenant JG Djeneba Nastari & Ensign Alaiya Hernandes
Edited on on Sun Dec 17th, 2017 @ 1:32pm

1,207 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Cloud Surfing

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

The corner of Nastari's mouth curled up when she heard the other console say 'thank you for playing' she was curious though and so she queried "So klingons do not play practical jokes?"

"Well, if they do, it would not be the same way humans play practical jokes," Amber said, glancing at Ka'Tock and chuckling softly.
[NEW]

Alaiya tried the console again, this time it worked fine. She changed her code and took a deep breath, trying to not blow up. "If I find out who did this, they will regret it."

"If I find out who did it, they will regret it," Amber said. "What if this had happened during an emergency? There is a place for pranks, but the bridge is not one of them."

"Is that the Official standing; there are places for pranks?" He raised an eyebrow. "I know the manual and regulations do not cover the parameters of practical jokes yet I am pleasantly relieved that you accept the practice of breaking tensions through what should be harmless Jokes."

One side of Amber's mouth quirked up in a smile. "Well, there's no official place for a prank, but if it's harmless and it doesn't affect the work environment, I'm not going to make an issue of it." She'd seen a number of pranks in her career. Scientists did enjoy them on occasion.


[Engineering]

The tiny engine room of the Aurora was rather quiet. With the ship at a steady speed, there was not really any need to have everyone on duty. Most of the engineering department were doing routine maintenance on the ships systems, and since they had some spare time the Aurora was in top notch condition.

Azusa, the ships Chief Engineer sat on one of the seat-stools, leaning slightly on one of the four main consoles monitoring the ships vital systems. Since the Engine room was so small she had decided to man it alone. Azusa had been in Captains office's bigger than the Aurora's engine room, but she didn't mind it fitted the feel of the small vessel.

A report flashed on her screen that reported that the impulse manifolds were starting to clog up. Just what she didn't need.

=A= Engineering to bridge =A= Azusa said tapping her comm badge. =A= Any chance we could drop to a stop for a few minutes. We've got the start of a clog in the Impulse Manifolds. It should only take about three minutes to purge them, but we can't do that at speed =A= she said.

Amber had to pause for a minute to process the request. Stop the ship? Well, they weren't in a rush. But still, it couldn't wait until they got to their destination? "Yes, we can do that," she said.

"Helm, drop out of warp and come to a stop." She sent a quick message to the captain to let him know what was going on.

When the ship was at a stop-, she opened a channel to engineering. "We're at full stop. Make it quick."

"Ok" Azusa replied. "We'll start the purging now" she explained over the comm as she tapped away at her console.

Amber hoped that nothing would go wrong. The last thing they needed was another delay.

A few minutes later, Azusa's voice once again greeted them. "You have a green light. But take it easy for a few hours while the engines adapt to the cleaner manifolds" she explained.

"Will do. Thank you. Helm, take us back on course."

"Aye, ma'am." The ship began to move forward, then it suddenly stopped.

"Bridge to Engineering. What was that?"

Azusa, who had been thrown forward onto the rail around the warp core, held her stomach where she had impacted it. She tapped her comm badge.
"I was hoping you could tell us that Captain?" she said her fingers tapping at her console. "According to all my readings, we SHOULD be moving along"

"Not from up here," Amber replied. "The ship has come to a stop again, but not by choice."

Azusa raised an eyebrow in confusion as she tapped at her console. Suddenly an alarm in Engineering began to sound out. The engines were working harder than usual, and since the ships sensors were not detecting any interia the computer was sending more power to the engines to compensate.

"If we don't do something soon we'll burn out the coils!" Azusa said as she ran across the small engine room and began tapping furiously at the main engine console.

"Engineering to bridge. I'm performing an emergency shut down of the engines!" Azusa called over the comm. "Whatever is going on is causing us to burn out our own coils!" she explained.

The Aurora's engines burned hot, but the ship didn't seem to move at all. Suddenly several sparks erupted out of the impulse engines before they expelled a giant ball of plasma and the emergency shut down jumped into play and the engines disengaged.

"What happened?" Amber asked, looking at the readings on her console.

Hernandes reported, "All stop. Sensors still aren't working. I'd feel better if we weren't blind."

Smoke filled the Engine Room shortly after the engines had overloaded. She tapped her comm badge. "Well we're not going anywhere, anytime fast" she coughed through the smoke. "We've burnt out our main driver coil. Its going to take us some time to rebuild a new one" she explained. "I can't even get our thrusters online, we're stuck here"

That was not good news. "For how long?" Amber asked.

"We're going to have to rebuild our driver coil" Azusa replied. "If we pull double shifts we're looking at a good thirty odd hours, give or take a few minutes" she replied. "Plus we've got numerous systems to repair alongside as well including the engine safety subroutines. We're going to need the workbee's to access the external componants of the engines..." she explained. "If Operations can spare some people, we could use every hand available"

"Make it twenty-four," Amber said. "Take what staff you need. This is top priority."

Azusa could be heard letting out an audible sigh. "I'll try my best Commander" she replied her voice a little lower as if she was exasperated.

"That's all I ask. Quinn out."

=/\= Westphalen to Bridge. Report. =/\=

The Captain's voice came over the comm. He'd been taking a few days leave from the bridge while they were in travel, but clearly, he had felt the sudden stop.

"The main driver coil needs to be repaired. Engineering is going to try and have it completed in twenty-four to thirty hours, sir," Amber replied.

This was not exactly what she wanted for her first time in charge. But then, she never professed to be anything but a scientist. She opened a ship-wide comm channel. "This is Commander Quinn. We've had an engine malfunction and will be effecting repairs for the next 24 hours. I would like all departments to run diagnostics to make sure there are no further problems. Quinn out."

____
OFF

Lieutenant JG Djeneba Nastari
Science Officer

Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn
Executive Officer

Lieutenant JG Alaiya Hernandes
Tactical Officer

Lieutenant JG Ka'Tock
Chief Counselor

Lieutenant Azusa Nakano
Chief Engineer

Captain Daniel Westphalen
Commanding Officer

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