Jump Start - Building Charge
Posted on Sat Dec 24th, 2022 @ 12:01am 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 - Late Evening
Tom was firing his phaser in controlled bursts, He downed the closest dinos, downing two of them and causing the rest to back off at least for the time being. He turned his head and shouted to Kit, "We've got to get the polarity changed on the other sail!"
"Well cover me then. I'll just hop on over, pop the panel and reverse the polarity" replied Kit. She jumped up sprinting to the cover, and in an amazing feat of ballet and gymnastics jumped straight up in the air and did a 360. As she came down her Dancerblades sliced through two alien Velociraptors that tried to ambush her. She slid next to the panel just as a crack of thunder and lightning hit, and the beginnings of a down pour started.
Tom didn't banter with her, he simply kept his eyes focused on the remaining dinosaurs and said "GO!" As Kit jumped up and sprinted toward the second sail, Tom downed one of the velociraptors that started for her. He caught a second squarely in the chest as it attempted to jump on him and then get to Kit. He backed up slowly as the dinosaurs grew more cautious. "How's it coming?" He asked not letting his eyes leave their attackers and just as the first drops of rain began to fall.
Kit got to the hatch cover, which thank the Thousand Gods, responded to being opened by pressure and code. “Oh, you know, just another day at the beach.” she replied loudly to be heard over the thunder. The lightning was strobe lighting her work as she busily reached in to adjust the polarity, her hair began to frizz out. She finished just as a strike of lightning struck the sail. She was blasted backwards, the smell of ozone in the air.
Just great, first the fires and explosions from them, now the damn lightning and thunder are trying to kill me. What in the Thousand Gods names did I do to deserve this?” she thought as she staggered up from the hull. She yelled, "We are good to go." with that she made her way back to Lieutenant Hadleman, picking up two of the dead alien Velociraptors. Meat is meat, she thought.
Tom nodded at her and the two velociraptors she had picked up. "Can't wait to see what you do with them for a meal." He quipped even as he looked at her frizzy hair but made no comment. "Hand one to me and let's get back inside. I'll seal the entrance so they can't follow us in." He looked to Kit, "I just hate unannounced dinner guests. Especially those who would want to make us their dinner.'' He sealed and dogged the hatch. "There, secure. Now let's get back to the others and see if all the hard work has paid off and we have power."
Kitiuas' uniform was plastered to her body like a second skin, between the sweat and rain, “I am most definitely ready to get back inside.” She shuddered as another peal of thunder and lightning happened. She made her way back cautiously to the hatch. She lifted the dead alien Velociraptor up and asked, “So what do you think these things will taste like?” She was cautiously watching her surroundings, lest they be ambushed.
Tom wiped the rain from his eyes and looked at the dead velociraptor he had slung over his shoulder and then to the one Kit carried. "Isn't it obvious?" he questioned and then supplied the answer to his question. "Like chicken of course." He answered and then laughed in good humor. "Honestly, I'm hoping they taste like steak." He moved the dead raptor higher on his shoulder, "Let's get back to the others, show them what we brought back for dinner and see if we can find some dry uniforms."
Kit took another look at the alien Velociraptor; it had dark to fading green feathers and long stinger like tail. "I'll run my science tricorder over them to ensure these little hellions do not have any possible surprises for us if we eat them." she replied, Kit was not bothered by her wet clothing, and was unaware of how the clothing clung to her body like a second skin. She was absorbed in the dead creature in her hand. "If it turns out their meat is safe to eat, I have some wonderful spices I can use on them." the cloying scents of a combination of cinnamon, roses, and vanilla with the occasional lilac thrown in wafting of her now that they were inside the ship.
"Good idea. We don't need to get sick or worse from eating them." Tom commented. "I know you'll do this but run a complete scan on them, don't want something to slip by. Then if they are indeed safe to eat, I can't wait to see what you do with them." He finished, aware of the combination of fragrances coming off Kit. He paused and then continued, "Um, where do you want this bad boy to go?" He looked around, "I wonder how the others are doing? If they finished or ran into problems?"
Kit looked at Lieutenant Hadleman and could tell he was suddenly uncomfortable around her, she sighed inwardly Why is it humans, especially the males, get so uncomfortable around the female form. she mentally thought. "I'll take it and go change, then perform the necessary scans. If edible, I'll go and prep them." With that she took the creature and sashed away further into the ship.
"Wel, yes ma'am." Tom muttered as he watched Kit turn and walk away effectively dismissing him. He sighed and turned to go in search of a dry and clean uniform. Once he had done that he would return to find out what the verdict was on the velociraptor. His stomach rumbled at the thought of a velociraptor steak. Now, if they could only find some baked potatoes.
The next four panels went cleanly. As they traveled deeper into the belly of the ship though, the had more and more obstacles to contend with. Between the fires that were still burning and the debris that was littered throughout, passage through the tight tubes was difficult to say the least. Fifteen minutes had passed and they only had two to go. Fortunately they were the last two and the closest to Engineering.
Bonnie wondered, as sweat poured form her head, if it had started raining outside. She could tell the storms were growing closer by the increasing timing and severity of the thunder. Each time the ship vibrated noticeably she paused and counted the seconds in between like her papa had showed her so many years ago. She stopped in the last junction, pulled out the scanner and moved it around. "Mitchell, there is one that way, and" her face went screwy as though she was confused.
" And?" Ronson prompted as he looked at her in confusion, wondering why she had stopped mid-sentance. He was going to put in a commendation for the young computer tech after this mess was over for her bright thinking.
"Well, there is one this way but it seems like it's blocked on either side. It also seems there was a fire here, or an explosion of some kind, but that doesn't make sense. There are no EPS coupling or other things that would cause an explosion of this magnitude." She studied the data for a moment and then shined her light into the tube. There was a tight opening, one she felt she could squeeze into.
"So long as there if no fire or explosion there now, unless it's all fritzed in which case it could make the next few minutes a hell of a lot harder" Ronson quipped, trying to keep things as light as he could this close to completing their task. They were hot, tired, and covered in sweat.
"I need a closer look. The shunt is there, and it could mean this has all been in vain if it's damaged. Besides, I'm smaller than you, so..." She began stripping out of her protective suit so as not to have anything bulky on her person. It was too damned hot anyway and all she really needed was her tricorder. "I, uh, I'll just be a minute, okay?" She said more to convince herself than him.
"Are you sure that's wise? That suit is all we have between us and.. you know everything else" Ronson cautioned as he watched Bonnie leave the suit in a pile in the tube. Somehow he had a feeling most of her uniforms ended up like that in her quarters.
She was already in the tube, at first crawling forward and then as she neared the debris, she shifted into her back. The initial hole to climb through was smaller than her chest was deep, but if she wiggled and tilted just right, she'd be able to maneuver right through. The more difficult section was right after, as instead of being down low, it was up high causing her to bend and contort herself to make it through.
As she moved her upper body into the second hole, her hand slipped and she fell forward, catching her exposed arm on something sharp. It dragged along the skin from her wrist almost to her elbow. As she slipped, her feet lost traction and she came down on her midsection with an "oof." Her left arm had caught the brunt though and she noticed the stinging sensation first, followed by the trickling of blood as it ran down her arm. "Shit!" She proclaimed.
In no position to stop, she finished scrambling through the hole where there was a body sized gap in the debris. Then, biting the bullet, she tore a strip of her undershirt off, exposing her midriff, and wrapped it around her bleeding arm as though she had done it a thousand times before. She then pulled out the light and the tricorder and scanned the open shunt and the burn marks on the debris, carbon dating them.
" You good Bon?" Ronson called in concern as he heard her swear. He completed his side and moved closer to help if he could in any way.
She scanned deeper, focused on what it was telling her until something clicked. "Ronson," she snapped her fingers in his direction. "What time was the first explosion reported before the crash?"
"Ahhh around the Captain's second coffee mark. 0800 hours maybe" Ronson replied as he made his way over "why?"
"This panel is showing signs of tampering only minutes before. There is also a Bajoran biosignature around the iso-chips. If this panel blew seconds before the bomb went off in the holodeck, then that means..." Her eyes went large as a weight of guilt left her. She still felt bad for the lives lost, but maybe, just maybe this wasn't all her fault.
"You realise what that means, yeah?" Ronson cautioned as all kinds of alarm bells began ringing inside his head. "This wasn't an accident, or some bad twist of fate, someone caused us to crash. Deliberately"
"Yeah." Bonnie agreed solemnly as she finished scanning, then crawled back out of the hole she had been in. They had one more shunt they would have to route around this one as it was damaged. It was possibly the whole reason the ship had crashed. Bleeding arm forgotten, she pointed. "You head on down to Engineering. I'll get the last shunt. Don't wait on me. If Thriss is ready, throw the switch. Got it?"
" Yes Ma'am" Mitchell scarpered out of the J tube and down towards Engineering on the double.
Thriss finally made it to the lower decks of the Sunfire. After a few minutes of crawling through the tubes he swung open a hatch the opened directly to Main Engineering. He stepped out and froze. He never got the chance to examine and process the state Main Engineering. He took his lamp off of his belt and switched it on. While it had only been a few days the dust was beginning to accumulate in masses and the dust could be seen in the light streak emitting from the flashlight.
He swung the light around a few times. Everything anyone could possibly imagine was everywhere. Saying that Main Engineering was in shambles was a large understatement. He froze in his tracks once more. There were at least five of his engineers on the ground that weren't recovered. And they were dead. Could he have done more? No. He did everything he could have and now wasn't the time to dwell. He had a job to do.
He shined his light to the core which was in a grey color which meant that it was powered down or severely damaged. In this case both. He moved over to the console that could access the core controls, which on the Sunfire it was right next to the core.
The Chief began working at the console to prep the core for a jump start. However the console began to beep warnings.
Thriss cursed under his breath. The warnings were telling him that the core needed be started manually from his end and that some components in the core assembly needed to be repaired. Manually as in physically getting into one of the compartments under the core and accessing certain components that needed to be activated.
He moved over to the center large console in engineering. Under it were numerous drawers in the event that anyone needed to use physical hand tools. Given the 24th century technology, they were never needed. Unless the crew were in dire situations like this one.
He slid open about three drawers. From one of them, he grabbed about three different wrenches that were approximate to the sizes that he needed. He slid that drawer closed and moved to the next one and picked out a few different ratchets and sockets. These were used even less in this time as most compartments and items had new ways of fastening from centuries prior. He also picked up a torque wrench from the same drawer and closed it.
Thriss grabbed a few bungee cords and ratchet straps and closed that drawer. One of the things that he needed to do was to deactivate the coolant to the core and repair one of the pipes underneath the core. That reminded him. He needed a hand-held welder and a blow torch and a protective shield for his face. He moved to another drawer and opened it. He removed the items and closed that drawer.
After that, he removed the access panel to reveal the compartment with the broken pipe located under the core. He crouched down and stepped in. He took the biggest wrench and put it on one of the valve levers and pushed it down. He did the same on the opposite end of the pipe. This stopped the flow of coolant to that pipe. He needed to remove the pipe and there would be lost coolant, but it wouldn't be anything drastic, but he would need to wait a few minutes for new coolant to come in. If there was any left that is.
After the coolant was stopped temporarily, he took the bungee cords and connected one to the bulkhead behind the pipe and one to the ceiling of the compartment. He then connected them to the pipe. He then connected the ratchet straps to the ground and the bottom of the pipe to secure it from swinging around and hitting the engineer.
All cords and straps were secure. First, he took one of the smaller wrenches and began to removed any o-rings, large connectors, or anything else that required a wrench to be used. After that, he set the wrench down and connected a socket to a ratchet. There were some smaller bolts and nuts that required this. Quickly, before he continued he left the compartment quickly to find a larger container or pan to collect the coolant in for disposal. He found one and moved back towards the compartment.
The nearest J Tube cover popped off, revealing a very hot, dirty and tired Ronson Mitchell.
"We're done.. do your thing" Ronson puffed as he levered himself out of the J Tube.
"Already on it" the Chief called out as he had just re-entered the compartment under the core with container. He set it under the pipe and began to unfasten the bolts for the pipe. Once all of the bolts were loose he took one of the bigger wrenches and started to loosen the bigger bolts that required a wrench.
Thriss set his hand on the pipe once he was on the last few bolts to prevent it from swinging out and hitting him in the face. After a few moments the pipe was loose and coolant was leaking into the container as expected. He carefully swung the pipe towards himself. He took another bungee cord and connected it to the wide side and the bulkhead. He went to reach for another cord when he realized that he was out of cords. He needed one more to secure the pipe in the position it was in.
He called out to Ronson, "Chief, are there any more bungee cords in any of the drawers under the main console?"
" Ahh lemme look one sec" Ronson scampered over to the main console and threw open all the drawers, rummaging like a madman for the bungee. He found two more and dashed back over to Thriss, leaving all the drawers open.
Thriss crawled out of the compartment so he was half in and half out. He reached out and accepted the cords. "Thank you Chief" he slid back into the compartment.
Thriss attached one of the new cords to the side of the pipe without one that attached the pipe to the bulkhead. After he made sure the strap was tight enough, he set the extra cord down for later and picked up the welder and activated it. After that he slid the protective mask over his face. Carefully with two hands, he began to run the welder over the crack in he pipe.
It was at this point Bonnie dropped out of a different hatch onto the deck plating below. She had missed a rung, but still managed to make her entrance look natural, at least for her. Picking herself up, she shined her light around the core and spotted Ronson and the legs of Thriss who appeared to be welding. She took in the sight that was engineering and her heart sank, and then the thunder rolled.
Snapping too, she moved over to a nearby console, the only one active, and began scanning. "Um, we're already starting to get an increased charge from the sails. Lighting in the area has increased ten percent. Batteries... batteries ar at 83% and rising." She then turned to Thriss. "How close are we and what can I do to help?"
The Chief waited to answer Bonnie as he was halfway through the weld and he needed to make sure to get it right the first time. He maintained his focus on the pipe in front of him that he was welding. Given it was just one crack, he only had a little bit more to go. He just wanted to ensure that it didn't break again for a while. Finally, he finished the weld and set down the torch.
"Weld is done. After I put this liquid coolant pipe back in and secure it back into place I need to repair an EPS relay down and possibly one other electronic component. I may need an extra set of hands to activate the jump start" he answered Bonnie's question as he continued to work to move the pipe back into position.
She offered him a hand up and off the floor. Time was of the essence. "Alright, if he can hit this before the batteries overcharge, or everything fries, it will have all been worth it. I've got small hands, which electronic component do we need to repair?"
TBC
