Repair Crew - Day 3 - Kit and Tom

Posted on Mon Feb 20th, 2023 @ 2:43am by Ensign Kitiuas Thenis & Lieutenant Thomas Haldeman
Edited on on Thu Feb 23rd, 2023 @ 5:47am

Mission: Planet of the Dinosaurs
Location: USS Sunfire
Timeline: Morning to Evening Day 3

Kit smiled at Lieutenant Durnell, the scents of a combination of cinnamon, roses, and vanilla with the occasional lilac wafting off her “No offense was taken, I hope when this is all over we can get to know each other better. Be careful and safe yourself.” With that statement she looked at Lieutenant Hadleman “I believe the old Earth saying is: Lead the way”

Tom smiled in return, "You are correct, that is the saying. I believe you suggested we start on Deck 13, so that is indeed where we will start." He finished as he turned and started for nearest J-tube, "Coming?" He bantered then stopped. "Wait can we use the lifts? With the core providing power and the batteries fully charged will they be okay?"

Kit looked at the turbolift, the doors were still ajar. “If the turbolift is functioning, shouldn’t the turbolift doors be closed?” she inquired. “Or did we damage them when we pried them open?”

"Um, I don't know. That's a good question and one we need to get an answer to. Using the lift would certainly save time but only if it is safe to do so." Tom answered. He looked at the open lift doors. "What do you think? Want to try it."

“Sure why not, what is the worse that can happen, drop eighteen decks to our deaths. Old adage No Pain, no Gain.” Kit said with a smile and a chuckle. With that she moved towards the lift and stepped inside. There was a whoosh as the doors slide closed.

"Well, the doors close, now let's see if we can get to deck thirteen in one piece." He looked over to Kit. "Ready?"

Kitiuas smiled “Here goes. Deck Thirteen.” She said. The turbolift made a groaning sound and shuddered to life. There was a second of free fall, then the lift slowly started to move. Kit chuckled “Well I guess that answers if the turbolifts work. Though I have to say that first bit was a teensy bit exciting, I dare say.”

Tom looked over to Kit as the lift first jerked and then began moving in a more normal rate. "You know we could make this a ride for all the newbies or uninformed. That first drop will take your breath away. But otherwise, it is all good."

Kitiuas just shook her head as the lift shuddered and whined along “Doubt the captain and the rest of the senior staff approve. Besides, with the captains current state of injuries this ride may be just a little too bumpy.” The lift made a sound like a banshee wailing its death cry as it slowed to a stop. The doors slowly opened onto a heavily smoked filled corridor. “Guess this is our stop.” Quipped Kit, coughing for a moment. "Follow me, there should be a fire hazard locker nearby."

Tom considered what Kit said. "Hmm, you may be right Kit but it would make a heck of a ride even if only once. Just imagine the looks on their faces." He stopped as he thought some more on it. "No, you are right. I'm already on Command's bad boy list." As the lift screamed to a stop and the doors opened to a smoke-filled corridor, he followed Kit out. "Lead the way." He answered, his eyes already beginning to sting from the smoke.

Kitiuas moved down the corridor some and found the fire hazard locker. She opened it and withdrew two respirators, handing one to Lieutenant Hadleman. She slipped hers on and in a tin like voice asked, “You do know how to wear the fire suits right?” as she handed him one of the heavy silver fire suits. She proceeded to put her suit on, turned on the headlamp and then reached in and grabbed a strap on lamp and a Hooligan tool. She was very concerned; the corridor should not have this much smoke in it. "There is an active fire somewhere on this deck, I know the Jefferies tubes are cleared."

Tom held out his hand, "Give it here Kit." I know how to wear one." He answered as he slipped his respirator on which was followed by the fire suit. He was already hot in it. He turned on his head lamp and grabbed a fire axe. "Protection." He muttered, "Don't know what we may find down here. Lead the way." He told Kit.

Kit chuckled at Lieutenant Hadleman’s muttered comment and proceeded down the corridor. At each door she would put her hand against it feeling for warmth of heat. Not feeling any she would mark it with an X and proceed down the hallway. Every fifty meters down the hallway she would stop at a wall console, flip it open and crank open a valve, there would be a hiss and the overhead vents would open, “Not sure why the vents haven’t opened when the power came back on, so for now going to have to do it manually. Crew is going to have to get used to the smell of smoke for a long while.” She continued for about ten minutes when she stopped at a door marked ‘Primary Stores’, gisjacheh why the primary stores?” said Ensign Thenis.

Tom followed behind Kit, The fire axe in his hands as his eyes moved from left to right as he looked for any fires or unwelcomed guests. When Kit stopped to turn a valve to open the overhead vents. "When the power rebooted the surge caused an overload in the system and threw the automatic system offline. Probably going to have several of these secondary systems that fall into the same category."

Kit turned and looked at Lieutenant Hadleman "Stay here for a moment, and for the Thousand Gods do not open that door." She then made her way to the closest Jefferies Tube and opened the Fire Hazard Locker; she grabbed the hose and dragged it back to Lieutenant Hadleman. "Okay this is how we are going to do this. I am going to start spraying the door with fire suppressant and you Sir need to open the door. Your choice how but stand to the side as the fire will explode out on us. Here, you may need this." she handed him her Hooligan tool. "Remember the suit can withstand the fire for a few minutes but try not to hang around too long. Think several people would have my head if I let you become human flambé."

Tom stood right where he was as Kit moved to a Fire Hazard Locker and dragged back a fire hose. He listened as Kit explained their plan of action in dealing with the fire behind the door. He put the fire axe down and took the Hooligan tool, hefting it in his hands. He moved to the door, taking a position to one side of it and extended the Hooligan to the door handle, grasping it in its claw. He looked over at Kit. "Well, I don't know of several people would have your head but I'm reasonably sure Alison and Mandy would be properly annoyed." He bantered. "Start spraying the door Kit and then I'll open it and hope not to become as you put it a human flambe."

Kit nodded, forgetting it was hard to see such motion in the hoods. She opened the nozzle and the pink suppressant foam shot out in a wide spraying pattern. “Okay opener up.” said Kitiuas in a metallic voice. “Remember once it is open, move the hell out of the way; no human flambé on my watch, hate to explain it to your family."

"I have no desire to be human flambe not to mention, I would hate for you have to explain it to my family." He replied with a grin that the hood concealed. "Okay, here we go." He pulled the door open and jumped to the side as a wall of flames shot out with a roaring whoosh! Even with the fire suit on he could feel the heat of the flames.

A wall of red hot flames shot out the door, as if breathed by a dragon. Kit instantly leaned into the hose of fire suppressant and began moving forward; battling the flame with the foam, she appeared as a knight trying valiantly to slay a dragon. She was sweating profusely, and her skin felt like it was blistering from the heat. The flames swarmed around the foam spray and licked at her suit as she made progress to the door. “Damn, this is one hell of a fire. I think we may have lost the Primary Stores.” She said in a metallic voice.

Tom had moved behind Kit and taken hold of the fire hose and together they moved toward the door. "No, we aren't going to lose this. We can't lose this." He answered firmly. "Keep spraying at the base of the fire. We can suffocate it. Take away the air it needs." He added as he could feel sweat tunning down his face from the heat of the fire even with the suit on. He/they weren't going to be defeated by this fire.

Kit sighed, as she stepped through the doorway into the Lower Primary Stores, the entire room was engulfed in flames. The neatly stacked containers were strewn about and ablaze everything appeared to be on fire. “Sorry to say Sir, but the lower primary stores is a wash. We need to get the fire out; but I do not think much of it is salvageable. Good news fire does not look to have penetrated above or below the decks.” Kit continued forward spraying the foam and forcing the fire back. “Sir on the wall near the doors there should be a panel that contains the manual override for the fire suppression system. Find it and activate it, it should be working with the power restored.” Kit’s words sounded slurred in tin can way.

Tom was silent as Kit gave her assessment of the fire and its effects on the lower primary stores. Finally he spoke "Damn." He muttered then added, "Alright, let's get this fire out and save what we can." He replied as he moved to the manual override. "Alright Kit, stand ready. I'm activating the manual override for the fire suppression system." As Tom activated the override, for a moment nothing happened and then from the ceiling their was an outpouring of foam quickly spreading over the fire. " Looks like we may have a winner Kit." Tom's voice crackled through the hood.

In just a few minutes the two of them had the fire put out, the entire bay was Jackson Pollock mural of charred pink fire suppressant foam, and black melted containers and busted pipes and storage silos. The lower primary stores were definitely destroyed. They would be lucky to salvage some of the containers, but the reprocessers were a wash and would need a complete refit. This would severely dampen the ship’s ability to replicate by half at least. She sighed as she watched small spots of smoke waft slowly up and be vented out. She reached up and pulled her hood back, sweat plastered her hair to her face and head. “Well have a look, we just lost at minimum half of the ships ability to reprocess waste and replicate food and other materials; but then I am no engineer. Lieutenant Kla’ren is not going to be happy. Hell we all have our work cut out for us and we’re going to have to tighten the belts some.” She said as she spread her hand about the entire bay.

Tom leaned against the nearest wall. Tendrils of smoke slowly meandered up to the ceiling and disappeared as they were pulled out of the ship by the vents. He turned his eyes to look at the room...it was an unmitigated disaster, but the fires were out. "Look at it this way Kit. Yes, we lost half of our ability to replicate food and materials and it is going to make it even tougher, but it could have been so much worse. We have power restored and we still have fifty percent of our replicating ability. So, it is not a total loss. Look at what we saved and not what we lost." He looked back at the room as he pulled off his hood to show a sweat covered face and air plastered down on his head. "I know one thing, cleaning up that mess is for another day. We'll just cordon off the room and leave it."

Kit smiled, “Okay try to be the glass is half full person.” She laughed, “However, YOU, get to explain to the Lieutenant Kla’ren and the captain about the messes on the ship.” She replied with a very mischievous smile. “Let’s finish up and head back.; because I am damn thirsty and tired.”

Tom laughed at Kit's comment. It was rich and full of good humor. "Fair enough, I'm not afraid of either one of them." He teased as he pushed off from the wall." He looked around the room. "Agreed, I too am thirsty, tired and hungry. Say, how was that velociraptor steak and do you have any left over?

Kit smile, “Quite good. Best velociraptor steak I ever ate, but I might be biased. There is some left and I will heat it up. I’ll also think of something to make that Lieutenant Durnell will not object to.” With that Kit turned and walked to the Fire Hazard Locker where she had found the hose and hit the retract latch. She felt lightheaded and nauseous from the firefight, and knew instinctively she was extremely dehydrated.

Tom's smile grew. "Well, that is good to hear though just how many velociraptor steaks have you had?" He teased. "Good luck with that. Maybe some type of vegetable or seafood. If you have any left." He offered. he walked over to her. "Let's get you back and get you something to drink and maybe lay down as well. You look like you need a rest."

TBC