Cutting Corners

Posted on Thu Mar 17th, 2022 @ 7:12pm by Lieutenant JG G'Rani & Lieutenant Commander Hiro Sommers-Yoshida

1,165 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 4 - The Fires Of Hades
Location: USS Copernicus
Timeline: Mission Day -584,948 @ 1630 Hours

ON:

The corridor was only dimly lit as Hiro made his way through. Several access panels were open and at two of them, people were working frantically. They didn't seem to notice the Chief Dry Dock Operations Officer walking by, but Hiro didn't mind. Everyone was just too busy to waste time on pleasantries.

The man of Asian descent felt a bit nervous if he had to be honest. In order to get the Copernicus flying again in 5 hours, they had to do a cold startup of the Warp Core. That already was something you normally didn't do on a well-maintained ship, let alone one in a state such as the Copernicus. But time was not on their side and so they didn't have the luxury to do everything by the book.

As Hiro entered Main Engineering he was glad to see the two persons he thought he would need with the risky procedure.

"Lieutenant G'Rani, Petty Officer Darcy." Hiro called out and beckoned the two to join him.

"Lieutenant... Chief Stoun sent me to help... something about a crazy short amount of time and needing a miracle behind you!" The large reptilian said with a quizzical expression.

"Hello!" Amalia giving a bit of a smile, due to being back on the Copernicus. "I feel like I am back home."

"Do you have any experience with doing a cold startup of the Warp Core?" Hiro hadn't had time to find that out from their Starfleet record, so he just hoped they did.

"I've never completed a cold startup because it suggests certain death for anyone onboard a ship in the condition Copernicus is!" G'Rani added dryly, hoping the Lieutenant was joking. Human jokes still eluded her. However, being on Copernicus had meant she had escaped those darned Cardassian Voles.

"I have, and this lady has been through the things that you'd not expect her to do so." Amalia lovingly touched the wall of engineering. "How about you Lieutenant Yoshida? Have you done one?"

"Only in simulations. I always hoped I never had to do one for real." There was a brief sigh before he continued. "But the current situation forces us to put it into practice." He looked at Darcy. "I'd like you to keep tabs on all the relevant parameters that the computer is the monitoring of the Warp Core." Next, his eyes went to G'Rani. "Lieutenant, it would be good if you can monitor the physical state of the Warp Core using a Tricorder" He waited for a second, looking at both Officers. "Any questions?"

"No questions sir!" the larger-than-life Reptilian said with a dark hiss. She didn't relish the idea of imminent death but who's to say this approaching vessel wouldn't be a far less appealing option.

"Alright, then lets get to it. Time it not on our side." Hiro moved towards the computer console opposite the Warp Core. He waited until both G'Rani and Darcy were ready. "Initiating alignment of the injector ports." Not much could be heard after he fed the computer the sequence of commands. It actually seemed like nothing happened. But the alignment was of critical importance. "There. That's step one. How are we doing?" He waited for the reports of both Darcy and G'Rani.

"Core reaction chamber is stable, intermix assembly is primed and ready!" G'Rani officered, wanting to take a few steps back from the core but knowing it would have little effect if this went wrong.

Hiro looked in the direction of Darcy. "Does the computer confirm that?" If it wasn't the case then it was even riskier to go ahead.

Amalia was watching the readings adjusting some of the power link ups, "Sorry, yes the computer confirms it is ready to start her up, Sir!" flashing a smile.

"Good. We're off to a good start. Let's hope our luck holds." Hiro returned her smile. "Starting matter/anti-matter flow....now." Slowly the typical hum of a running Warp Core started to fill Engineering. Hiro started to breath easier now that it looked like the emergency procedure worked as intended. That was until the computer interrupted.

"Containment field insufficient. Warp Core breach in thirty seconds."

Amalia flashed a glance over towards where the warp core was at. She did not want to lose this ship at all. "Raising up the containment field now." her fingers dancing over the console, "Sir do you know the sweet spot to hit to get stubborn warp engines and such to cooperate!?" she yelled above the blaring klaxon. "There maybe a loose connection that needs a swift kick to it!" Amalia typing in the commands to turn off the klaxon. The deafening blare quiet except for the flashing of the red light.

"It should be a few inches from the floor near the warp core!"

G'rani was on the move around to the main station facing the warpcore. Thankfully Copernicus had the same design engineering compartment as the Intrepid Class which had been her previous assignment so moving around the room was like second nature to her. "I'll reroute power from life support on all other decks to give you an extra boost to the containment field!"

Taking an Engineering kit from nearby, Hiro hurried towards the core and opened the panel where the problem most likely would be located. He opened his Tricorder and let it do a scan. The seconds that passed felt like minutes. And the computer issued another warning.

"Containment field insufficient. Warp Core breach in ten seconds."

"Got it!" Hiro quickly picked a Hyperspanner and bypassed a few electrical circuits. He looked up at both officers who were helping him. "How's that?"

Amalia looked at the readings, feeling cold sweat trickle down her spine, then she breathed easier. "I think it is working!" she said with a lot of hope in her voice.

"What is it you Humans so colourfully say... My gasteric exhaust was leaking biomatter!" G'rani said very dryly as she dropped down into the seat besides her, her knee's feeling a tad weak.

G'rani's comment even though it was meant to be serious, caused Amalia to break out in laughter. A bit of it was probably due to the previous stress.

"Forgive me." then she said to Hiro. "Sir, hopefully we don't have to do this again but, just in case I think we need to go through a few more.... practice runs on a holosuite. This was just too real for my taste." giving a wink. "Now lets see about getting the rest of the ship online."

The moments silence between the three was cut short by the com system chirping.
"Lieutenant Yoshida, stand down. The situation has been averted. No need to rush through a power up of the systems!" came the crisp voice of Keiben Haistro.

Amalia took a look at Hiro, then she smiled wearily. "Looks like we'll have time to finish up instead of almost killing ourselves and the station off."

END

 

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