STF

Main Sim [Engineering]: Seeking Prometheus

Posted Nov. 24, 2021, 12:24 a.m. by Ensign Caelian Weir (Engineering Officer) (Jason Wolfe)

Posted by Ensign Kristiana O’Larria (Engineering Officer) in Main Sim [Engineering]: Seeking Prometheus

Posted by Captain Rende Asam (Captain) in Main Sim [Engineering]: Seeking Prometheus

Posted by Gamemaster Deus Ex Machina (Gamemaster) in Main Sim [Engineering]: Seeking Prometheus
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
“Does anyone actually buy that story, Weir?”

Caelian frowned at the blinking panel in front of him, sighing softly before checking the next isolinear chip in the array. He didn’t need to see Ensign Brown’s expression; the man’s tone oozed incredulity enough that Caelian was more surprised it wasn’t pooling between his boots. A mild static charge crackled along his fingers as he slid the isolinear chip back into place, distracting him from the retort that was blistering up his throat.

“Found it. Hand me the phase decoupler, will you?” Caelian stuck a hand from beneath the panel he was working under and gestured encouragingly. “Frankly, it doesn’t matter if people accept it or not. It happened. Check my file if you want.”

A snort. “It would be a great read, I’m sure… if it existed. But there’s no way you discovered an alien protorace, developed an engine that worked purely on thought, and saved your entire ship from certain death! Why are you still an ensign, then?!”

Caelian shrugged and muttered, “Guess they haven’t gotten around to promoting me yet. Besides, it wasn’t just me. I had help. Unlike now.”

Something slapped into his palm hard enough to make his hand numb and Caelian sighed again. This wasn’t the first time he’d gotten teased about it, and it wouldn’t be the last. A few of the engineering team had taken to giving him a hard go since his assignment to the Viking for reasons beyond his understanding. It hadn’t progressed to the point of full-on bullying, but it definitely reminded him of his hazing experience as a cadet at the Academy. Some days, he would almost have preferred the Academy.

“Whatever,” Brown sighed. A pause, then an approving noise. “That did it. EPS regulators are back online and… well, I’ll be damned.”

Caelian heaved himself from the jefferies tube with a soft, self-satisfied smile as he pushed past a bewildered Brown. “Operating at zero-point-three-eight percent above projected specs? The designers didn’t account for the antidium gases found in this region of space that encourage induction to the—”

He paused. Something didn’t feel right. Looking about, Caelian didn’t notice anything out of place. Yet something felt off to him all of a sudden. Not in an impending doom manner that tingled in his lizard brain every time he glanced out the viewport, no. This was more of an innocuous-but-noticable change that pulled from the back of his head. Holding stock still and containing his breath until his ribs felt ready to crack, it took him a moment to isolate the source of the anxiety.

“We’ve dropped out of warp,” he breathed.

Spinning about quickly, Caelian darted over to the nearest workstation and began to type furiously on the screen. Data cascaded down the left side while graphs appeared to mimic the information in visual fashion on the right. The result was exactly what his keen ear had detected seconds earlier: they’d come to a complete stop and were changing course. A moment later, a second alert chirped for his attention and he blinked.

“No,” he whispered to himself, then repeated louder and louder. “No. No. Nononooo!”

Ensign Brown rushed to his side, glancing between him and the screen with alarm. “What? Did you forget to reengage the flow regulators to the antimatter containment units?”

Caelian turned and let frustrated fingers play over the wall display showing the continual scans of the alien ship he’d been running since the Viking had taken it in-tow. A line of red text flashed a warning at him, showing that they’d disengaged the tractor beam. Not only that, the distance between the two ships was growing! Worried, he ran a quick diagnostic to ensure there hadn’t been some kind of mechanical failure. The engineer breathed a sigh of relief when the computer reported that all was happening as-instructed from the bridge.

Why, then, were they setting the alien vessel adrift again? Had it been repaired? And… why was the Viking raising its shields? It wasn’t until Caelian turned to ask his colleague that he noticed they’d gone to yellow alert. What was going on?

“Contaminant protocols?” he heard Brown murmur. “But I was supposed to have dinner with Lynch and Peters later, argh!”

Caelian shook his head and began to pour over the data they’d compiled from the scans of the alien ship. He was particularly interested in learning why their sensors were having such a rough time penetrating the hull and mapping the damage. He wasn’t sure how Captain Rende intended them to render aid to the aliens if they didn’t know what they were walking into. He’d rather spend time in the brig than end up on some death trap because they couldn’t see what was going on.
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—

There wasn’t significant difficulty scanning and mapping the ship. Nor was there any significant damage. The ship had been in space for centuries, and there was ‘normal’ wear and tear from that. The problem with the ship, was a lack of power. They have drained their anti-matter reserves and require a refill. I don’t know exactly what you are looking for in a map.

GM

[It’s been inferred that the Viking has been unable to scan much definitively outside of the initial “pod room” where the away team found Hab’rabi, so I’m trying to find out if there’s a direct reason the sensors can’t penetrate… or if there’s been a misunderstanding and it’s more a “big ship with lots of empty rooms” kinda deal where there’s nothing to scan.]

OOC: I think the confusion was the detail level. The ship scans were not more detailed than the tricorder scans of the away team.

Caelian motioned to another engineer, then pointed at the display. “Daniels, since we’ve got a lot of time while they sort out… whatever needs sorting, take a look at this. According to our sensors, there’s nothing going on outside this room where they found the aliens. Thing is, the ship soaked up our power transfer so it had to go somewhere. I think our first task once we’re aboard will be to make sure there isn’t some kind of connectivity issue between the collection systems and the rest of the ship. I’m going to be very upset if we get hung up on a flipped breaker or blown fuse in whatever they have that counts for an EPS grid.”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—

The power system seemed to be fine… just not powered. Space-wise, there are a lot of empty rooms. A significant portion was habitation components, bedrooms, medical, gyms, cafeteria, and the like. Perhaps for about 400 crew members… there are a number of pods that could hold 1000 individuals in cryogenic sleep. There were several cargo holds full of machinery and frames that after an analysis would create housing and power generation on the planet.

The most curious part was there was a deep internal section that was a completely packed and in sub zero temps with no easy access. It seemed to be designed with the express purpose of never being opened.

GM

=/\=Rende to Woods and Asam. I want those things trapped and I want it 10 minutes ago. Where are you with it?=/\=

Rende, CO

A voice popped up in engineering behind Caelin out of sight. =^=Engineering to bridge, this is O’Larria. No idea where the Chief is but I think I can use the ship security fields to section up the halls. Then perhaps use an energy sweep to sweep down the halls and push the entities towards containment areas on each deck. But that’s only if they are floating about and not actually ‘in’ a wall or jeffries tube, somewhere. Haven’t figured that one out, yet.=^= She bit her lip wondering if the idea was gonna work. They would have to find a few of the orbs and make sure the energy walls were enough to deter and stop them.

Kristi
Engineer

Caelian turned at the call across the comm, then back once he realized it had been handled. He squinted at the scan of the massive alien ship, face pensive and eyes scanning along every corridor and junction. Whomever had designed it had been some kind of genius; the behemoth had taken quite the beating in all her time in space, but she was still pushing along. He silently hoped he’d get the chance to study her up-close and at-length. Maybe there was something they could learn from the alien technology. After all, wasn’t that the point?

“So she was meant to be a colony ship,” he murmured thoughtfully.

Brown pointed to the ship’s drive section. “It looks like there’s a leak in their warp core. The radiation is probably what’s been obscuring our sensors. Probably want to get that under control as a priority.”

Caelian nodded, swiping his hand across the monitor to move the image to the next section of the ship. “Looks like she’s got a tough candy center amongst all that delicious cargo space,” he chuckled, indicating the cooler, sealed interior. He frowned then, tapping in a few commands to pull up a zoom and a thermal overlay.

The other ensign whistled, pointed at several sections along a run of bulkheads leading from the stasis chamber towards the midline of the ship. “Wonder what hit her to make those.”

“Could be a few things, I suppose,” Caelian shrugged. “Could have been a discharge or overload when their warp core started leaking. Some kind of cosmic anomaly like a subspace filament, or a stellar burst. Either way, we’ll take a look once we get her back under tow and cleared of radiation. I think I can tweak the sensor’s filters, get a better look at her. Might take an hour or so. Wonder what the chief would think?”

Brown shrugged. “I think he got called away, or maybe he’s grabbing some lunch. Not much else we can do til they lift the containment but sit tight and tinker with our toys.”

Caelian could only nod, but something niggled at him about the dorsal section. If it weren’t so deep into the ship, I’d almost think it was a directed energy discharge. Lots of them.
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—


Posts on USS Viking

In topic

Posted since


© 1991-2024 STF. Terms of Service

Version 1.15.9