Repair Team 3

Posted on Sat Dec 10th, 2022 @ 7:48pm by Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Ensign Kitiuas Thenis & Lieutenant Thomas Haldeman & Senior Chief Petty Officer Ronson Mitchell

Mission: Planet of the Dinosaurs
Location: USS Sunfire
Timeline: Day 2 - Evening

Later that evening the repair crews gathered once more for a meal and to discuss the days events.

As Kitiuas was preparing her companions the Terran dish known as ‘Hobo Tatters’, slicing up the potatoes into a small skillet on her Orion Firepot, the coals making the erotic images dance. She had already cooked and diced up the bacon and was just waiting to add it to the potatoes and onions she was frying up now.

She began laying out her suggestion to the team “I think we should break up into two teams tomorrow and tackle the last two decks, Lieutenant Durnell and myself take on deck fifteen and the rest of you get deck sixteen. We can converge and take out any major fires that way. What do you all think?” she inquired as she added the bacon and cracked five Terran chicken eggs into the mixture and began scrambling it all together. Satisfied with how it was looking she layered cheese on top of the conglomerate. “Dinner is ready.”

Tom inhaled deeply. "Ohhhhhh! Smells divine!" He looked at the others. "Your suggestion is good Kit and we'll do that. I do have a question however and that is with the sails providing energy to the batteries and the batteries steadily charging could we not use the fire suppression system to put out the last of these fires?"

Bonnie chimed in, "unless the battery cells have charged 50% or more I wouldn't risk it. We would be setting ourselves up to only maybe put out the fire and the energy we've built up would have been wasted. Then we'd spend the next two days charging back up again." She knew the process to restoring power was thus, fires first, then engineering and then extras. If they could reactivate the warp core, they could provide all the power needed. Though with all the fires, there was going to be a lot of power shunts around the damaged sections requiring computer control.

"So we do it the old fashioned way - I'm good with that" Ronson replied as he tucked into his dinner. " Is there any other way we can push power into the batteries apart from either restarting the warp core or using the solar sails?"

Bonnie giggled at Ronson, "Not unless you have a hyper energetic plasma storm and a lightning conductor hidden in your back pocket." She said and then as she took a bite of hobo meal, the ship vibrated and a clear sound of thunder rolled across the valley. Her eyes went large as the sound scared her back to age three.

"Easy Bonnie, it is just thunder. Nothing to be afraid of. It's the lighting you have to respect. By the way, thanks for the information in regard to the fire suppression system" Tom looked at the others could we use the lighting as a conductor to jump start the core or give the batteries a boost?"

Bonnie looked at Kit, remembering she didn't like thunderstorms. Bonnie felt the same, loved rain, hated thunderstorms.

"It's ok Bonnie, the storms won't hurt us in here." Ronson soothed, recalling that some people were fearful of thunderstorms, no matter the variety " We'll be here with you"

Kit jumped with the thunder and hoped no one noticed, then sighed. “Well need to gather my insect traps before the rain hits. Then a long night of doing some analysis on them so I have an idea of what issues they may cause the crew.” With that she got up a little unsteadily and made to leave.

"Wait Kit, you're not serious about going out there?" Bonnie cautioned. A distant flash of lightning illuminating the room from the outside for dramatic effect. It gave her a sudden stroke of brilliance. She stood suddenly, "The sails," she began pacing. "They weren't really designed for this, and they may not survive, though they may not survive anyway. I mean it's worth a try. Could be dangerous, could be bad, like REALLY bad." She carried on having a conversation with herself. That is until she realized everyone was looking at her.

Tom broke the silence, Bonnie is right, the sails need to come down and at least stored until the storm passes." He looked at the others, "I'll go. I'll take a phaser and a hand lantern, and I'll go take the sails down."

Bonnie looked at Thriss, and then back to Tom realizing they couldn't read her mixed signals. "Oooor, we can use the sails to," she waved her hands around. "jump start the core." They were still confused so she spelled it out. "Look, the sails are made of a metallic nano-polymer and they are already connected to the power grid. So if we can coat them with negative ions, they will attract the positive ions in the lightning. Given the batteries take the charge, and the sails survive, we could ignite the warp core with a single solid jolt." She was smiling a sort of crazy smile. "But we would all have to play our parts, and it would have to be perfect. Not to mention how dangerous it could be if any one of us fails..."

Tom didn't hesitate. As soon as Bonnie had finished talking. He spoke up. "Count me in. If we can jumpstart the core like Bonnie suggests, that would be amazing. We would have all the power we need for the systems; the batteries would be fully charges as well. I think it is worth a shot." He looked to Bonnie. "Okay, this is your idea Bonnie, explain what we need to do."

She knelt down and began using Kit's utensils to make her point. "Two will have to go outside and reverse the polarity of the sails, at this access panel here and here." She showed tow points on opposite ends of the hull. It would be a long and dangerous walk. "Two us us will have to manually shunt power away from the damaged systems, otherwise when the core goes online all of those fires could erupt again. Now, as Kit and I were putting out fires we did this for all of the junctions we came across. But there are at least a dozen more."

She looked at Thriss and continued, "The last of us are going to have to go into engineering and prep the core for a cold start. We don't know what it's like down there and I don't think anyone should go alone." She looked out the window. "But by the looks of it, we maybe have an hour before those storms hit us hard."

"Then there is no time to waste. I'll go and reverse the polarity of the sails." Tom answered. He wasn't going to assign people to tasks. They knew their strengths and what they were comfortable doing. He waited for the others to speak up. "No one goes anywhere alone especially into engineering as you pointed out Bonnie, we don't know what it is like. I do know this, whoever goes, go armed.''

A quick head count suggested someone was going to always have to work alone. The sails' polarity could be done with one, but would be difficult and better if done at the same time. The power shunts would require two possibly three to get them all done in time. The warp core on the other hand might take all of them depending on the damage to engineering. Also, Bonnie still wasn't comfortable carrying a phaser, not that she had mentioned out loud to anyone yet.

“I would recommend that Lieutenant Durnell man the Ops station, she should be able, with the energy in the batteries, shunt the gasses and plasma from there. She is also most qualified to get the computer systems to move beyond the speed of an Agorian Slug Snail. Chief Mitchell and Lieutenant Kla’ren, as chief engineer, go to engineering to prep the core for a cold start. I will,” here there was a visible shudder by Kitiuas, “assist with the sails.”

" Let's go then, dinner can wait. Leftovers are always better" Ronson stood and started for Engineering, heart racing as they moved against the clock.

Tom shook his head at Kit. "No, you stay here and help in engineering. "I'll take care of the sails." Tom had seen Kit shudder and he wasn't going to force Kit to help knowing how uncomfortable she was being outside in a thunderstorm. "It's fine. I can handle the sails." He assured her.

Bonnie looked back and forth from one to another knowing they had better decide soon as they were wasting precious time. No one was technically in charge as no one out ranked the other, except Thriss who was Senior Staff and hadn't said much. He might have to be the position breaker.

Thriss too realized this fact. He didn't exactly want to pull rank given the fact that time shouldn't be spent on who outranks who, rather what gets done to get the Sunfire up and running again. While he did technically outrank Tom, Tom used to be a Captain. Either way, Lieutenant Hadleman had said that no-one should go anywhere alone and while Thriss in his own mind objected to this because he felt that things could get done faster, Tom was right. He sighed and then looked at Tom first. "I hate to be that guy but I must pull rank on this one. Tom you said it best. We cannot go anywhere alone in our current situation and as much as I myself want to get this ship off of this rock faster, you're right."

He turned to Kit. "If you don't feel comfortable going to help with the sails we will understand. If this is the case as Tom said, we can also use your help in engineering. However, Tom shouldn't be alone. Especially alone outside in a storm like that."

After that the Chief Engineer stood back a little bit waiting for what possible responses that could ensue.

Tom nodded, "You are right, I did say that, and I stand by that. however, this is a special situation. We have a chance to get the Sunfire powered back up again. We can't pass this up by wasting time." He sighed, "Look I can handle the sails, one of you can monitor me if there is trouble come running." The last said with a grin.

"I'll come with you. We set em up, we can change the polarity or whatever it is we need to do to them. I'm more help out there than in Engineering. Thriss craps all over me in Engineering stuffs." Ronson shrugged. "So let's go"

Bonnie giggled, stood and moved over to the supplies. She grabbed two water bottles, two lights and a tricorder. Then she turned back to Tom, Thriss and Ronson. "Good planning gents, but you missed one detail." She pointed to where Kit once stood. "While you were debating Kit snuck out, why, who knows. Though she is an Orion woman and they don't typically appreciate being told they can't or shouldn't do something just because they're scared. Let alone by a man."

She patted Tom on the shoulder and handed him a light. "You're going to need this. I suggest you go find her. She's probably pulling her traps. And I don't suggest you tell her what not to do. Good luck and be safe." Bonnie then turned to Thriss, and Ronson. "Lieutenant Kla'ren, head down to Engineering, Mitchell and I will take care of the shunts and meet you there as soon as we can. Again, be safe."

She turned and handed Ronson a bottle of water, "It's hot down there, you're going to need this. Stay close, we, I, don't want any one getting hurt." Bonnie and Ronson began walking away she leaned in to his ear, "How are your phaser skills?" She asked rhetorically. This set everyone on a path to either a rousing success or an abysmal failure. Who are we if we don't take risks and face our fears?

Tom took the light from Bonnie, "Yes ma'am sage advice. I won't say a thing about telling her what to do." He turned and headed out to find Kit and get the sails polarity changed over to help in jump starting the core. Phaser on his hip and the lantern in his hand.

TBC