Joint Duty Log | Cmdr Dahe'el & Lt Zola | "And this whole bloody ship could go up like a pyre"

Posted on Sun Oct 12th, 2014 @ 5:56am by

2,238 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Are You Touched?
Location: Planets Surface

=/\= Transporter Room 3, USS Vindicator =/\=

After assembling his team from a list of his candidates, the Cardassian found himself with a selection of tools and parts, cases stacked high on the transporter pad.

"Transport to the downed Pelican, Chief." Almar called out, a slight smile as he heard the door behind him open and the first member of his team join him.

Into the transporter room ambled the security officer assigned to the team, one Lieutenant junior grade Richard Castor. With straight red hair, ruddy freckled face, he was solid, broad shouldered, and tall. He eyed the collection of tools and parts that shared the transporter pad with the Cardasian. He jutted out his lower lip and blew, tossing his slightly shaggy hair up off his forehead.

"Reporting for the Away Team, Commander?" he said, hand feeling the phaser on his belt to reassure himself it was there.

"Very good Lieutenant," the Cardassian responded as the boxes of tools disappeared from before him in a flash of blue, he turned slightly and bowed his head to the young man, "We're just waiting for our friendly neighbourhood Ferengi and then we can get started."

Even as the word Ferengi escaped the chief engineer's lips, the door into the transporter room slid open and in came a tiny blur. She ricocheted off the solid security officer, off a wall, and came to a stop in front of the transporter controls. Her favorite tool bag landed with a thud at her feet and she sheepishly grinned at her boss.

"I'm not late, am I, Commander? I got lost in a maintenance cycle on... Well, doesn't matter." She waited at attention, as Castor eyed her.

"Perfectly timed," Almar replied with a slight grin as the whirlwind swept into the room, "If I didn't know better, I would swear you heard me and came rushing, I had only just mentioned your name."

"I don't know what you're talking about, sir," she demurred, collecting her bag from the floor. She proudly marched in front of the security officer, looking up at him with one eye as she passed. He snorted, and plodded along behind her to the transporter pad.

The Cardassian hefted his own personal case of tools and took his place at the head of the team on the pad, giving a nod to the transporter chief as he did so, "You know the drill Chief."

Being enveloped by the blue light, Almar and his team were removed from the Vindicator with a characteristic whine of the transporter.

=/\= Pelican Crash Site =/\=

Rematerialising next to the crates of tools, the first thing the Cardassian reached for was his tricorder to verify that there were none of the locals around to witness what they were going to be doing.

The tricorder picked up one tiny humanoid life sign, but it was faint. Approximately a quarter kilometer to the east and didn't appear to be moving currently. There was a pile of seed pods along one edge of the trough the ship left on its way down, but otherwise the ship looked much as it had been reported by the previous away team. The sound of insects filled the air, as well as the occasional creature darting across the moon-lit hole in the canopy above the crash site.

Castor drew his phaser, slowly scanning the treeline around them. Finding it with no obvious movement, he looked to the commander for orders to move forward. Zola twitched and waited impatiently -- she wanted to see the ship.

"Right, lets see what we have here," Almar stated as he turned and looked over the downed ship, "I think we had best move things inside, that way we can keep an eye on one entrance, instead of a whole jungle."

"A-Yup," Castor confirmed, moving towards the entrance into the craft. When Zola moved to follow he waved her back. He crept close to the door that hung open, leading into the ship. After he looked inside and made sure nothing looked out of sorts, he plodded back to where the crates of supplies sat, picking a large one up as if it was nothing.

Zola grabbed a small crate and darted forward, her bag swinging behind her. She disappeared inside in a blink of an eye.

The last two crates were lifted in the hands of the Cardassian who gave a puff as he walked, they had been heavier than he expected, placing them down inside the door, he again pulled out his tricorder and began scanning the nearby systems of the ship.

Castor settled himself in the door, back to the team, once everyone was inside. Zola scooped up a discarded hat and marveled at it a moment before plunking it on her head. It was only a little small on her head, so tiny she was despite the oversized cranium of her species.

"Where would you like me to start?" she asked, pulling out her tricorder from her own tool bag.

"Well, lights might be a good idea, then perhaps environmentals, both of those kind of rely on main power too," Almar replied with a light chuckle as he scanned around the room, "I believe the engineering deck is just ahead of us."

"Who needs light?" Zola insisted, even as she moved in the direction he indicated. "I wasn't expecting an engineering deck on something this size... more like an engineering closet, maybe?" She giggled.

"My ears aren't quite as sensitive as yours, or even Mr Castor's," the Cardassian chuckled in reply as he came to a junction and followed the schematic on his tricorder, "Lights would certainly help me diagnose a few problems."

"Light like this?" Zola dug into her bag and produced a light on a strap intended to be worn around one's head. A press of a button, and a focused beam of light shot across the space. She spun it around and shone it in Almar's face for a split second before she realized that probably wasn't helping, and lowered it to point at his chest instead as she held it out to him. "And watch the deck plating in front of you. It made noise like it was loose as I walked over it, I think it's a stash point."

"They will do until we can at least get the emergency lighting online," Almar replied with a slight smile as he shielded his eyes from the light suddenly thrust in his face, "Left," he added as they approached the next junction.

"Yes sir," Zola returned and turned to the right. Realizing as she did, she continued spinning until she'd pulled a 270 degree turn, and headed down the corridor into the engineering room. "I'll start on the auxiliary power, since I can work by sound, and you can get a head start on main power as soon as I get you emergency lighting?" Zola offered, even as she dove had first into an access panel to do just that.

A chuckle followed the Cardassian as he made his way through another open door way just past the access panel the Ferengi had entered, "Very well, I just hope the core is salvageable, else we're going to struggle getting this thing off the ground."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Zola called out, trying to compensate for being inside the access panel. A clunking sound, a small curse in Ferengi, and a humming noise as the red emergency lighting came on. "The report said everyone walked away from the crash, right? So the damage to the ship shouldn't be too bad." She came up behind Almar as she said this.

"Perhaps, but by their very nature, people are very adaptable, the systems on the ship are finely tuned to run only in specific circumstances, one slight flaw could create a major problem," the Cardassian replied as he placed his hand on a console and swung himself down to a knee to take a look underneath it.

"I don't know the first thing about fixing people, just systems," Zola conceded, moving to a panel to see if she could find a self diagnostic system. "How bad does it look, sir?"

"It looks like it might be an easier job than I feared, but its going to take time, ideally we need to get it finished as quickly as possible," Almar replied as he moved himself fully under the console, pointing to another with his free hand, "Why don't you start on verifying the integrity of the core?"

"Do you think we need to call for anyone to help?" Zola suggested as she moved to where he indicated. She focused her tricorder at the core, looking at the readings. From there, everything seemed okay, but she knew there were more diagnostics she needed to run from the ship's systems to verify it.

"We'll have to get a full team down by the looks of it," the Cardassian replied as he slid himself out from under the console as it flickered into life, "Many hands make light work."

Zola's head bobbed in agreement as she slapped the edge of the console she stood in front of. The screen stopped flickering, and she grinned as she quickly started flicking through the screens to find the diagnostic systems. "At least emergency power is enough to allow at least emergency level access to the computer core."

"Small miracles," Almar responded as he began running the diagnostic on the console he'd just forced into life, "It would seem that the containment on the anti-matter reserves is still active, power must have been rerouted there before the rest of the ship shut down, we need to get main power back online before the batteries run out."

"These diagnostics show, if we replace a couple of the power couplings, and recalibrate the main power relays, we should have power back up in no time," Zola insisted, digging into her tool bag. "I don't think I have the right type... should there be some in the supplies you brought down?"

"I tried to anticipate our needs, there should be some in the crate I bought in with me," the Cardassian responded quickly as he turned back to the case and flicked it open, "With a ship like this, you never can tell though."

"Of course, of course," Zola murmured, and quickly darted over to stick her head into the box. Soon emerging with the needed parts, she grinned at her Cardassian boss. "Hopefully they didn't retrofit something else in, so the stock part will still fit." And in a flash, she was popping open the access panel for the power couplings.

Almars response was a simple nod as he placed a hand firmly on the console and tapped his comm badge, "Dahe'el to Vindicator, we're going to need a full engineering team to repair this ship, have damage control team two and one of our warp core specialists prepare to beam down."

"Acknowledged commander, they will be on their way shortly," a woman's voice returned over the comchannel.

"When they arrive, I'll be beaming back up to organise some more components and inform Captain Ivanova of our progress" Almar stated to the little Ferengi as he put the few tools he had taken out, back into his tool kit.

"Sure thing, sir," Zola's muffled response came from inside the panel where she worked. One of the old power couplings went flying over her shoulder, sailing across the room. "Err, watch out sir. Sorry," she called over her shoulder. "It was stuck and slipped..."

"A little more warning might have been nice," the Cardassian replied as he leant back as the coupling sailed past his face, landing at the feet of a materialising engineer and his tool kit, "Ah, Chief, welcome to the Pelican, while I'm on the ship, Lieutenant Zola is in command, do what you do best," he added, addressing the senior most core specialist on his staff.

"I've got one more power coupling to pull, whoever maintained this beastie let them rust in place," Zola grumbled, leaning out of the panel to get a look at who'd arrived. "Heads up, this one might slip too." She leaned back inside the panel, and with a grunt yanked at the offending coupling. This time, she stumbled backwards out of the panel, instead of the part going flying.

"Just be careful Lieutenant," Almar replied as he moved to the door way and picked up his tool kit, "Vindicator, one to beam up."

"Haven't hurt anyone doing anything engineering related... yet," she insisted with a grin, then looked at the core specialist. "I'll have power back in a minute, if you want to start poking at the core and see what she needs?"

As Almar was whisked away by the Vindicator, he was swiftly replaced by damage control team two, who readily set about repairing anything they could get their hands on, the core specialist nodded in reply and began heading towards the core, "Very well Lieutenant, just warn me if you throw anything else at me."

Zola grinned at him, before turning back to her panel. "Hopefully won't have anything else go flying, but I'll do my best. Let's see how quick we can get her flying, shall we?"

=/\= End Log =/\=

Commander Almar Dahe'el
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Vindicator

Lieutenant Zola
Engineering Officer
USS Vindicator

Lt JG Richard Castor
Security Officer (apb Pond)
USS Vindicator

 

RSS Feed