Posted by Lieutenant Eldorin Asam (Chief Engineer) in Main Sim [Deck 8]: Chaos and Reason

Posted by Ensign Tom Little (Science Officer) in Main Sim [Deck 8]: Chaos and Reason

Posted by Ensign Kristiana O’Larria (Engineering Officer) in Main Sim [Deck 8]: Chaos and Reason
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻

SNIP

A chirp rippled through the air, and a voice called through the comm system. =^=“Attention, all decks! This is Lieutenant Bowman in Engineering. Please stand by while we initiate a static warp field. As disorientation is common during field attenuation, more-sensitive species are advised to brace. The process should take no more than thirty seconds; crewman who experience prolonged symptoms are advised to report to the nearest medical team. Field will engage in ten seconds. Bowman, out.”=^=

The edges of peripheral vision rippled and warped as the static warp field built towards its expansion threshold. Monitor systems blinked and flashed as they channeled the energy in the proper flow, but for a wonder there were no klaxons. After a long moment, the pressure change in the section snapped away and dissipated as surely as if has never been.

Reyes shook her head as the field passed through the corridor, looking about to make sure the rest of her team was unaffected. Thankfully there were no cries of pain, no crash of tools. The last thing she needed was the chief grilling her on why repairs had been delayed. It wasn’t so much that he was rough to deal with, it was that thick accent of his. She had almost botched her first review because she thought he’d had marbles in his mouth. Shaking herself back to the present, the engineer nodded to Ensign Little.

“Always follow your instincts,” she agreed. “That’s what my father would tell me, anyway, and it’s never steered me wrong. My team can follow this isolinear lead while you chase down the malfunction logs, least until the lieutenant shows up and gives us new orders.”

She leaned past Little and barked, “Drix, let’s break out some thermophasic scanners and get to work!“

A lamented sigh rasped from the jefferies tube. “Yes, ma’am.”
—Jas—

“Will do.” Tom responded to Reyes, “Okay, I’ll be back and um… be safe out there.” He gave a mental salute then turned to O’Larria and said, “I’ll go collect some data from the walls. You’re welcome to join me, or stay here waiting for the Chief to show up. If you do that, please tell him the location I’m heading. I’ll be checking with you every 15 minutes, once I arrived… there.” He pointed a bulkhead section near their position, which was the same deck closer to Computer Core 1 level E.

Little, Sci

Kristi smiled. “I’ll come help you. We’ll get done faster. And I’m curious about the chips.” She grabbed a couple of the damaged isolinear chips and headed off with Little.

“Outstanding.” Tom nodded and picked the shoulder of another engineer, who appeared to had some unfinished business here. He repeated what he said to O’Larria, except the checking part.

As they headed down the passageway, she frowned. “I don’t get it. Why would the gel packs be good of info, but the chips were completely destroyed? You’d think that much energy would have done worse damage to the packs.” As they reached the panel he was headed to, she pulled up her PaDD. Murmuring under her breath she half growled. “What is it about these systems that they were attacked? I mean, I can understand transporters. Would keep us from moving them out ourselves across the ship. And deflectors might keep us from running shields and such with efficiency. But why replicators? Not to starve us out.”

After hearing her questions, he took a moment to see whether those were actual concerns or just another form of stress release. Regardless of which, he tried to solve her face first. “Maybe they’re on diet!” He playfully raised the pitch of the last word, hoping for a little bit of a sense of humor. “It makes sense if they’re on that mission. And to lose weight, they cannot use ‘public’ transportation. But they couldn’t stand to watch us having great meals. So they destroyed the ‘chips’ but kept leaf drinks and lower-calorie foods for thoughts.” He implied the gels and rations. But in theory, the difference was one calculates while the other ‘thinks’, like us. And packs were unable to replicate. “And now we’re here.”

She looked at Little as he started what he’d come to do. “So, we know transporters can be used to go anywhere on the ship. And replicators are everywhere. My guess might be they’re using those routes to get around. But the deflector makes no sense. You can hardly reach any area of the ship thru those routes. So what would they all have in common?” She glanced to Little to see if he has any idea.

Somehow he figured out she already answered herself, but to make sure he understood, “I wasn’t aware of deflector’s problem. But if I remember my training correctly, shield frequencies are modified during alert conditions. The ship can direct it to which part to protect the most. You and I cannot use that to move around, but them? Hard to tell. They could use that just like surfing in San Francisco”. “So, I think flow and frequency did the trick. Which is what I’m about to prove them.”

Kristi
Engineer

As they turned the corner KT appeared round it, she was leaning against the wall and her tool case was on the floor, the tools scattered around her. She saw the two approach her and stood up shakily “what’s the situation?” she asked simply a warp field to the face wasn’t exactly a great thing for a synthetic, luckily KTs systems were robust and could handle it. Even if it would take a coupe of minutes for the effects to fully pass.

KT-QT (Engineer)

He was surprised to see another crew here with a toolbox. For a second, he wasn’t sure whether that was a lifeform or a hologram, caused by shock or glitch. So he said, “are you alright? We just had a warp. Do you need medical?”

Little, Sci

=^=Reyes to O’Larria,=^= came a call across the comm system. =^=We’ve completed our preliminary scan of those isolinear chips we found. They’re from several junctions across the ship, and they all control the buffering subsystems for the transporters, replicators, and deflector control. Whatever they were trying to make Fairweather do before the system crossover, it looks like it got interrupted near the main EPS attenuators in Section Fifteen-Baker. We’re on our way to check those out now. It’s just a theory, but it looks like they were specifically targeting systems designed to manipulate energy patterns—which makes sense if they’re energy beings. Once you folks are done, let me know and I’ll file my report. Reyes out.=^=

OF COURSE!

O’Larria acknowledged the comm then smiled and turned to the two before her. “Energy manipulation. That makes so much sense. If they are trying to manipulate energy maybe they are trying to figure out how to manipulate our bodies more than they already have? Or manipulate energy enough to get their own bodies…” she shuddered and looked to KT. “Sorry, didn’t mean to spout off.” She frowned slightly. “Are you all right? That sweep gave us all a bit of a kick in the head.” She smiled sympathetically to the woman and hoped she was all right. They hadn’t worked together much, but what they had done, had always been pleasant between them.

Kristi
Engineer

KT smiled back and nodded “The sweep must have hit a certain frequency it interfered with my neural net. I’ll be ok” she said reassuringly as she bent down and quickly gathered up her tools. The prospect of being trying to control the energy in people bodies was a concerning one but before they started speculating KT wanted a full update, so she could start figuring things out.

After a few moments KT was ok and ready to work “I need an update, what have you found?” She asked simply but not unkindly.

KT-QT (Engineer)

Tom briefly explained the findings he made a few times ago. “While we,” He turned to O’Larria and continued, “Team Asam, part of it, is here to collect some data to prove my speculation. Then we’re going back and hopefully link up with the Chief… but wow!” He looked in another direction, jaw opened, and couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. “Were you here the whole time?”

Little, Sci

Kristi smiled and shook her head. She’d had moments like that… not realizing someone was behind you a while because you were so focused on work. “I think we definitely need to get back to the Chief. This is something he’s gonna wanna know. Probably the Captain and XO as well.” She started picking up the scattered tools as they continued.

Kristi
Engineer

“These bulks.” Tom turned to the team. “I thought only opened and closed heads. But see? Closed, opened, half and a half?” He wondered if the warp was responsible for this third type of malfunction. That was the reason he asked that kind of odd question to QT. Until the data is collected and analyzed, he’d not make any further comment here. It was a priority for him to collect the data fast to save its original state. “I’ll check this one.” He then turned to O’Larria and said, “could you check that one?” He implied either the closed or the opened walls. “See if you can download the logs. I’m looking for the recent one.”

It was fine for him to know the civilian in front of him was alright. But her status was different. So he only said, “If you want, maybe you can help us?” While he started to look at the half and half. He was searching for a panel embedded. It was supposed to be a screen with ports for data transfer. He then turned it on and connected it to his PADD.

Little, Sci

Eldorin was moderately close to where the youngin’s were working, and at his age it was expected that he’d take just a few extra steps. He heard Kristi’s comment about telling the chief and piped up by saying ” What’s dat you’re tellin me now? And do ya need a ‘and wit dese ahr wooehld I joehst get in yooehr way?” (The universal translator would take a split second longer, but translate his accent to a pleasant neutral “What’s that you’re telling me now? And do ya need a hand with these or would I just get in your way?”) Eldorin had finished working on the repairs down the line, nothing groundbreaking but enough to prevent massive issues in the short term.

Eldorin, CE

“We where just checking the bulkheads, ones closed ones open and two are half and half. Unless federation design is different, it seems odd as they are supposed to only open or close” KT said respectfully “I have only just arrived myself. The wave messed with my neural net, so i’ve ben delayed in assisting. I apologise” she added sincerity in her voice.

KT-QT (Engineering)