LtCmdr Kettick: Kaboom?

[Darwin Awkward]

((Power Chamber 2, Deck 742-Beta, Voth Generation Ship Igirni))

The insectoid nodded, pointing different locations with a spindly finger as he exposed his hypotheses.

Kettick: Either the trail comes out of the reactor through this access hatch and moves towards the rest of the facility... :: He reversed the movement :: Or the contaminant has been brought in, by mistake or by malice. Mister Xarrin, if we show you the probable structure of our mystery substance, can you tell us if this has any use elsewhere on-ship, or quickly get in touch with someone that does?

Stapledon:  I think it would be a good idea to scan one of the sensors.

Adea: Unless Xarrin has any reason to object, go for it.

The Voth held up a three fingered hand.

Xarrin: Captain Adea, I don't know the protocol on your vessel, but aboard the Igniri it is customary that I am addressed as Chief Engineer. Not Xarrin, and certainly not Mister, whatever one of those is. That said, you may proceed, but please be cautious. The sensor assemblies are sensitive.

The Remmilian nodded, both at the request for caution and the preferred term of address. Which worked perfectly well as far as he was concerned; given that he was incapable of guessing the gender of most of the crew, ranks and job titles were a blessing to him in any social situation.

Kettick: Will do. Lieutenant ch'Clex?

ch’Clex: I can maintain the perimeter scan while Lieutenant Stapledon checks the sensor directly. If the substance is present on one sensor but absent on another, that should help narrow the affected path.

And try to determine what that path meant... even if everyone, including the Voth who did not want to acknowledge it yet, had their suspicions by that point.

Stapledon:  I am detecting traces of the substance in the nearest sensor here.  It is not present in the sensor toward the east, that way.

Adea: I take it that’s bad?

The Chief Engineer had the uncomfortable look of someone who had just gotten clobbered with a clue-by-four. 

Xarrin: Yes and no. It's less for us to decontaminate, but at the same time we need to determine why not all sensors have been affected. If the contamination is selective I will be very concerned.

The Remmilian did not possess the necessary muscles to roll his eyes.

Kettick: You can say "targeted", Chief. I believe we have all reached that hypothesis.

The Andorian read an incoming message on his PADD, and lifted his head to share with the rest of the class.

ch’Clex: Eagle’s simulation concurs with Lieutenant Stapledon’s assessment.

He turned the scanning device so the rest of the group could see the incoming model, and Kettick's facial feelers tensed. 

ch’Clex: According to the simulation, if the affected sensors report late, the control system begins correcting a problem that no longer exists. Then the next correction arrives late as well. Over time, the errors build on each other.

Kettick: In exactly the worst possible way. That's a scenario I would have devised if I wanted to test the system for... :: he counted :: five fault tolerance. Which nobody does.

Mister Stapledon took upon herself to explain in layman terms, possibly for the Captain's benefit.

Stapledon:  What it means is that the sensors are not all sending their data as fast as they normally would.  Some are slower.  This results in cascade failures.

Adea: Can we clean the sensors? Eradicate the substance? ::turning to Xarrin:: Can you assign a team to it?

ch’Clex: Cleaning the sensors may stop the cascade, but I recommend we preserve samples before decontamination. If this substance was introduced from outside the reactor, we will need to compare it against any traces elsewhere.

A-ha, Kettick knew they had brought the Security officer along for a reason! 

Except the heavy lifting.

And the meat-shielding when things would inevitably go sour.

Xarrin: I agree, preserve samples first. Once they are secure my team can begin decontamination, without the risk someone damages the evidence.

Kettick: We have detected traces inside the reactor, perhaps some residue that was on the internal sensors and got swept in the fluid. :: He looked towards Stapledon :: Perhaps a more granular mapping? If we know precisely which sections we need to empty to clean them, it will save maintenance time.

Stapledon : Response

Adea: And whilst that’s taken care of, we can investigate exactly where it’s coming from. Tell me, Xarrin, I feel from your tone you aren’t certain this isn’t 100% accidental?

Well, that was the understatement of the week...

Xarrin: I am… uncertain. The evidence is incomplete, but the pattern does not align with natural wear or random failure.

... never mind.

Kettick: I believe we can safely discard these hypotheses, yes. There is a saying that one should not attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by sheer incompetence, but by my reckoning we are way past that point.

Stapledon : Response.

At that point, Lieutenant ch'Clex called out to them to put the last self-sealing bolt in the lid of the coffin.

ch’Clex: Captain, the trace pattern outside the housing is inconsistent. My guess is that someone tried to remove the trail.

The dinosaur-like alien sighed, which looked exactly as strange as you may think.

Xarrin: Are you scanning devices sophisticated enough to provide any evidence as to who or what might have tried to remove the trail?

Adea: I think that might be unlikely.

The Remmilian shrugged.

Kettick: By your own account, these traces are more than three days old. I do not know what your procedures are, but even a grease rag, let alone a pair of hands, would likely have been cleaned since then.

Stapledon: Response.

ch’Clex: But I think I can trace it to its general area.

Xarrin: Then do so. Whatever the truth is, we must uncover it before further damage occurs.

That "whatever the truth is" did sound like wishful thinking's tragic last stand, but Kettic, would work with the tools he had.

Kettick: Shout if you require assistance, Lieutenant. :: He turned back towards the Science officer :: In the meantime, let us see if we can map the extent of the contamination.

Unsaid - because he did not know how much his counterpart knew of the urgency of their situation - was the fact that the extent of the damage would dictate the length of the repair, and therefore the Voth's odds of survival.

Stapledon: Response.

Xarrin: Found anything? Lieutenant, wasn't it?

The Remmilian did not turn his head form his current readings, but his antennae swiveled towards the slightly desperate question.

Adea: Go ahead, Lieutenant ch’Clex.

ch'Clex: Response

The Remmilian cocked his head sideways, thoughtful.

Kettick: Compared to the planning it took to mess with these specific sensors in just the right way, this sounds... sloppy. Prematurely interrupted? Someone who was not supposed to be here, yet knew the details of the circuit?

Stapledon: Response.

Before the local Chief Engineer could respond, a loud noise sounded, which sent the Voth scurrying towards the nearest console. An alarm? Kettick looked around, and noted that nothing was actively exploding. Not a red alert, then.

Xarrin: ::Quickly pulling up a report:: We're losing pressure! There must be a rupture in one of the fuel pipes near the engines! ::waving to his subordinates::  Shut off the flow, now! Before we vaporise someone! 

The Remmilian's mandibles clicked in sympathetic concern. Death by liquid hydrogen... ouch.

Fortunately, Chief Xarrin's team seemed to know their business, and the pressure levels quickly stabilised. 

Adea: Are there people down there?!

Kettick's first answer would have been "Not anymore", but he liked to think that he was getting better at managing his primate colleague's feelings.

ch'Clex / Stapledon: Response.

Xarrin: We can only hope no one was nearby when it happened. Superheated liquid hydrogen moves fast if it's not contained. That's why the fuel lines are designed with multiple layers of containment, they should not fail.

He paused for a moment, and Kettick gave him a nod, from engineer to engineer, acknowledging that eh had said it all.

Xarrin:  Am I the only one who thinks this can't be a coincidence? We need to investigate further. ::looking at Adea:: Did you say you had a team looking at the engines?

Adea: I did… Is there anyway of knowing their status? ::he sighed:: But I agree - it is a highly suspicious occurrence.

Kettick: :: Dryly :: I believe we can now put the coincidence theory firmly at the bottom of the pile. That's the second set of redundancies on a critical system that gets bypassed in a short timespan. I'm no Vulcan to give you the precise odds of that happening, but they hare rather poor. 

ch'Clex / Stapledon / Xarrin: Response.

Adea: Can we identity the fault from here, triangulate exactly what happened?

The Remmilian looked at the consoles the Voth technicians were still manning. Vothing. Operating. Better.

Kettick: Unless you have cut the outgoing flow entirely, I suppose you have sensors that tell you where the leak occurred and what section to isolate?

ch'Clex / Adea / Stapledon / Xarrin: Response.

The Starfleet Engineer nodded confidently.

Kettick: I assumed as much, we did not even hear the explosion.

ch'Clex / Adea / Stapledon / Xarrin: Response.

Kettick: By superheated liquid hydrogen, we mean liquid dihydrogen that is maybe thirty or forty Kelvins above absolute zero. When it leaks, first you flash freeze or cryo-burn anything in the vicinity, then it remembers that it is supposed to be a gas and expands to the tune of fifteen liters per gram. In an enclosed space, that usually spells explosion. But I was actually thinking of the quickest and most efficient way to bypass several levels of containment. 

And yes, he was not a Betazoid either, but he did not need that to hear the inner commentary about him and explosives. But he stood by his assessment.

Tags/TBC

--

Lieutenant-Commander Kettick

Chief of Engineering

USS Eagle-A

G239107LR0

Your Engineering department kindly reminds you that you are supposed to read the flakking manual.