Lt JG Imril - [Begin Act II] Break Out The Supply Of Elbow Grease!
Chris Taylor
((Karnack Engineering - Deck 4 - USS Karnack))
((Four standard days later))
It was good to be back aboard a Starfleet ship again. Any Starfleet ship. Better still to be among even more of Imril’s crewmates. Far lower on the list of comforts, they had recovered and mostly refilled their engineering kit on their way into Main Engineering. Its weight rested on their shoulder as MacKenzie and Munro gave the orders that would see the whole lot of them off the planet.
MacKenzie: A semi-functioning warp core is a good place to start. What should we prioritize first?
Munro: Getting the shield emitters to mimic the properties of a Faraday Cage long enough to get us out of the system is going to be no mean feat. Especially since we have no operational systems. But I think we can do it - if we can figure out a way to replicate the Faraday Cage effectively. Brexis, Bergmen, Breys, we'll need your help getting this set up.
Brexis: ::Nodding.:: I’ll do what I can.
Bergmen/Breys: Response
MacKenzie: Even if we did get it set up, we need other functional systems to actually make us space-faring.
Munro: That's true. Even if the shield emitters work, we won't get far with the Karnack in this state.
Jovenan: Force fields and inner bulkheads can keep some of the pressure in, but we should try to close some of the breaches. The less we have to rely on force fields, the more we can use power in other systems. And the less we have to fear about them failing.
Vitor smiled at Nan as he nodded.
Brexis shifted back and forth between her left and right foot.
Silveira: I concur.
Munro: Agreed. Bring Storm and Bancroft with you, and get those holes fixed. But be careful, the Things are still out here, and as it gets dark, they'll get more daring.
MacKenzie: Some of the upper decks should provide relative security from the creatures - I haven't seen them climb yet.
K'Wara: We won’t get very far with Main Engineering in this state, either, Sirs. While the warp core is stable, it’s hardly safe for use at the moment.
Munro: In its current state the warp core power distribution would likely cause a cascade failure. We're more likely to blow up the ship and this corner of the planet than get off this planet. Tamio, work with Imril to find a workaround, I don't think I need to tell you how important it is :: pauses :: Cole and Jaran, you're temporarily reassigned as technicians :: smiles :: Congratulations.
Cole: ::nodded:: Grandpa Dorian, would be so proud.
Imril chuckled and moved towards Ollie. They were quietly surprised by just how happy they were to see him. A feeling mixed with a dash of guilt for the unexpected delay in a certain conversion. One or the other was causing their cheeks to flush very slightly. But they refused to break professional posture. There was a job to do. And too little time to do it in.
((OOC: Skipping other reunion conversations as Imril is focusing on Bergmen))
Imril: ::To Ollie:: It’s good to see you again.
Bergman: response
Imril: That conversation we were going to have? If luck holds, we can have it on the way to the Artemis. If not, Callis I is as good a place as any.
They knew what they needed to say, now, and how to say it. They’d had a week or more to practice, after all. In the quiet moments between struggling to outlast the predators and batting the ghosts of the past away.
Bergman: response
With the briefing was done, and the all too brief joys of a second set of reunions complete, the teams split. Ollie went off with his team. Imril remaining in Main engineering with theirs, under the direction of Chief K’Wara. Imril hadn’t had many opportunities to work directly with their former Academy proctor. Pity that the opportunity came at last under these of all circumstances.
K’Wara: Imril, do we have an estimate on how much of Main Engineering is functional beyond the warpcore?
Imril: There’s no way to be absolutely sure what’s working or how well until we get the Faraday effect around the whole room, but…
Imril pointed towards the Master Systems Display at the far end of the room, opposite the warp core. A dead black screen stood where a light-up cross-section of the ship should have been.
Imril: … Telling by the carbon scoring around its edges, the MSD won’t be active. In fact, it will probably be an impediment to our efforts. I was dealing with power-grid blowouts at the front of the ship, near the deflector array, when the evac order came. I’m guessing that they worked their way back here as far as the MSD. We’ll have to lock the whole system down and bypass it to keep the grid failure from dominoing any further. That’s just a conservative estimate, mind. We’ll know more after we get full power back.
K’Wara: ... We’re going to have to be conservative for now. ::looks around:: The only working consoles that I can see are the ones on the nacelle access. ::considers:: Natasha, if we use your security codes to trigger the quarantine forcefield around Engineering, do you think we can alter that to be more Maelstrom-resistant?
Cole: ::thinking:: That could work, similar to layering shields. I like it, but my work around won’t be elegant.
Imril nodded. K’Wara’s plan was sound, and theyl knew enough about Cole’s off-hours engineering hobby to trust her with improvising a solution. They had plenty of other things to work on themself in the meantime.
K’Wara: It’ll have to do. We just need it to work long enough for us to make more permanent fixes. ::to Jaran:: I know you’re hurt, Doctor, but there’s quite a lot of work to do. You’re up for it, I hope?
Jaran: Response
K’Wara: ::grins:: All right then. ::to everyone:: We’re on a time crunch. The other teams’ efforts depend entirely on us being able to get proper power running through the Karnack, and this is where we start. Let’s get to it.
Cole moved over to the consoles by nacelle access and plugged her security codes. Imril could not see the result from their vantage. They were already moving towards the dilithium chamber.
Cole: ::to herself:: get it together, Nat.
There was no point powering up the ship, though, if the engine exploded the moment its was switched on. Which meant prioritizing potential points of failure. Starting with the system that regulated the immense power flow.
Imril: Before we activate the core, I’ll need to inspect the dilithium crystals. Make sure nothing got damaged in the crash, replace anything that was. There’s a manual release mechanism, so I can get started on that now. Care to help me, Doctor? Think of it like opening up a patient for exploratory surgery, but with convenient pull tabs.
Jaran: Response
Natasha looked over their options to modify the parameters of the quarantine force fields. By her silence, Imril could guess the news wasn’t ideal.
Imril escorted Jaran to the corner room near the warp core. Where they opened up a panel and produced some non-powered ratchet-handled wrenches and a pair of card-shaped magnifiers. They handed one of each to the Doctor.
Jaran/K’Wara: Response
Cole: Good news ::beat:: and a bit of bad news. Good news, I can access the emergency quarantine protocols and it should work, but it’s going to take a minute to get working, and to do it we’re going to bleed just under seven percent of our already limited power.
Imril: ::Speaking to Cole:: If you need to juggle power allotments around to make it work, just be sure not to steal any of that power back from the structural integrity field emitters. We’re going to need them. In fact, if you could slide an extra percent or two into the emitters, it would be appreciated.
Jovenan had made a good point about saving energy on external breeches. Imril was thinking about the internal bulkheads. If they collapsed, the ships’ external frame would buckle from the inside.
Jaran/K’Wara: Response
Imril: ::Speaking to the K’Wara:: I’m familiar with the methods Professor O’Brien used to keep the original Defiant from tearing itself apart under similar concerns of power output versus hull stability. Enacting them is near the top of my list after we’ve got Main Engineering up and running.
Too bad that Saber-class ships didn’t typically have holodecks. The team could have tapped into their independent power cores for a quick jolt.
((OOC: I confirmed the Saber-class’ lack of holodecks via the SB118 wiki. The USS Arrow is noted to be an exception.))
Jaran/K’Wara/Cole: Response
Imril moved then to the warp core. Stopping to pick up a discarded padd along the way. Just one piece of the debris that had been scattered about the room by the crash. At the dilithium chamber itself, they used a spanner to release two small plates. Nestled behind them, two rotational handles. The hands set within rotating cylindrical screws.
Imril: ::Speaking to Jaran:: First thing we’re going to do is rotate these handles 180 degrees around. They’ll click when they’re in position, and then we slide them out as far as they will go. The dilithium matrix will slide out with them.
Jaran/K’Wara/Cole: Response
Carefully but quickly, the dilithium matrix slid out from the camber. A lattice of non-reactive metal encasing a cluster of translucent crystals. Imril reached inside and pulled one crystal out of its housing.
Imril: ::Speaking to Jaran:: I need you to go over each of the crystals for any visual flaws. Cracks. Chips. Discoloration. Cloudiness. So on. I can scan for micro-fractures later, after the ship is powered for our immediate purposes. That will only be an issue when we go to warp. You get started on looking them over, and I’m going to make sure there’s no misalignments in the chamber itself.
They raised the magnifier and began looking over the interior of the matrix and the chamber beyond.
Jaran/K’Wara/Cole: Response
TAGS/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12