What was that?

Posted on Fri Jul 31st, 2020 @ 7:59am by Senior Chief Petty Officer Taazk & Commander Andrew Archer

Mission: Welcome Aboard!
Location: USS Sunfire - Main Engineering
Tags: Mission Log, Engineering

The turbo lift doors slid open and Lt. Archer walked in, turned and tried to straighten his tunic. Either his uniform had gotten smaller since he came aboard the Sunfire or it was time to cut out the jelly donuts from his diet? He would decide later which one was the correct answer.

"Deck 10 - main engineering" he said, taking a last look down the corridor, checking to see if there were any late arrivals heading his way. The doors closed went down 4 decks. The lift stopped and the doors opened. The heart beat of the ship stood before him like a beacon in the night. The warp core.

Andrew walked forward, lost in moment like a deer in front of a vehicle's headlights.

"Hey, watch it!" came a cry from below his eye line.

Lt. Archer looked down, a female human engineer, with blonde hair in a bun was rubbing her right leg. "I'm so sorry" he replied, taking a step back. "I didn't see you there. Can I call you a Doctor?".

"No, but you could report to the Doctor for an eye test?" she taunted.

"Once again, my apologies....." he looked at her rank pin, "Ensign......".

"Taylor, Max Taylor" she answered in a calmer manner than before "help me up?" She held out a hand which Lt. Archer took, and pulled gently.

"Pleasure to meet you Max Taylor" he shook her hand.

She pushed the tools to the base of the console with her foot and wiped her brow. "What can we do for you Lt?"

"Andrew, please call me Andrew, Andrew Archer, that's me!" he smiled trying to get a reading off her. He got a feeling of warmth and now a calming peace.

"What can we do for you, Lt.Andrew Andrew Archer?" she asked.

"I'm looking for that grumpy Tellarite who calls himself an engineer? Is he about?"

She chuckles and brushes a lose strand of hair behind her ear. "Yes, Lt, I believe he is aligning the dilithium matrix on the warp core" She points to the Tellarite.

"Thank you Ensign, sorry about you leg". Archer smiles and the Ensign smiles back. "Hey Taazk, you got a minute?" and heads towards the bearded engineer.

"What do you want, can't you see I'm busy?" he grunts.

"This will only take a minute, I'm running an experiment in my lab and wondered if you have a few slivers of dilithium you can spare? I'm trying to...” Taazk cut him off with a raised hand.

Taazk sighed and turned to the scientist, "I'm not interested and I'm an engineer, not a Ferengi trader.

Lt. Archer's eyes widened and Taazk turned, hearing crackling energy from behind him.

The Tellarite tapped his combadge, =/\= "Taazk to security, intruder alert in main engineering".

Archer quickly slid his hand to his side and grabbed his tricorder, flicking it open and tapping a few buttons with eagerness. The tricorder began scanning. The small scanner wasn’t entirely sure what it was reading. But the main component of whatever this thing was read as electro-plasma.

The energy orb pulsed once and flew into the defector array console. Sparks flew and the console died.

Archer, Taazk and now Ensign Taylor approached the dead station with caution. Archer continuing to scan for energy residue.

Taazk turned to his half Betazoid friend, "what another fine mess you've gotten me into!"

Archer didn’t answer, his eyes drawn to his tricorder. Without any warning, the energy orb came rushing out of the console. The trio of officers ducked for cover as it zipped around above them. Finally, it settled in the air, not moving.

“Gwanwyn to Archer,” came the voice of the astrometrics officer over the comm system. The woman sounded slightly shaken. “Sir, I’ve just detected a massive surge of electro-plasm on deck one. Looks like it was centred on the Captain’s ready room.”

Archer’s eyes remained fixed on the energy orb which remained stationary a few feet above his head. He tapped his comm badge, “Thank you for the update, Ensign.”

The orb darted towards the warp core, slipping through the protective layers of shielding as though they weren’t even there! Taazk rushed toward the core, but there was nothing he could do. The hum of the core slowed gradually until it sounded as though it was about to shut down. The lights flickered and dimmed across the length of main engineering; a sign that main power was failing.

Archer opened his tricorder once again and hurriedly scanned the warp core. He passed the tricorder over to Taazk who’s eyes opened widely. “We need to get out of here, now!” the Tellarite barked, “Whatever that things is, its destabilising the core, and the containment field around it! It could breach at any second!”