LtCmdr Kettick: Kill it with fire

[Darwin Awkward]

(( Modular Mission Bays, Deck 11, USS Eagle-A ))

The chief Engineer nodded, looking dispassionately at the numbers
painting an ongoing ecological apocalypse of their own making.

Kettick: Good. As soon as you register anything that looks like a
combadge or emergency beacon, send them to a quarantine ward at once.
:: He paused, head cocked sideways for a beat :: Preferably one that
still has atmosphere.

While Commander Fiorr was managing the swarm, the Doctor was on
communications watch, and he notified the two officers that something
had come up.

Iroka: I have something here.

Fiorr: Response

Kettick: Kindly send it to the main screen, Doctor.

Iroka: No, it’s from the surface. ::Looking over.:: Your Captain?
They are attempting to make contact.

The Remmilian cocked his head sideways.

Kettick: And the Bridge is not answering?

Fiorr/Iroka: Response

The Chief Engineer shrugged.

Kettick: At the end of the day, Commander, you are the Operations
officer in charge. :: His own console notified him of an incoming
message, and his facial feelers twitched as he read the header. ::
Excuse me for a moment. Commander Fiorr, you are in charge.

A quick read revealed one of the reasons why First Officer Drex was
not answering the call from the surface... and made Kettick's
mandibles click in irritation. Someone had seen fit to sabotage their
neural gel pack network with those spores, and a section of Deck Six
had been cordoned off to stop the contagion. Commander Drex was asking
him to deal with the issue.
The glint in the Remmilian's compound eyes gained a harder edge, and
he chittered softly. No specifics. Which meant that Kettick was asked
to exercise his better judgement as to the means necessary to remove
whatever obstacle was standing between him and the correct operation
of the ship in his charge. A rather unhealthy place to stand, when he
was allowed to take the gloves off.

Of course, they would have to replace the neural gel packs, and
frankly anything organic in the area Commander Drex had quarantined,
but they were going to do this anyway to make sure all contaminated
material was taken offline. And you did not get much more "offline"
than "reduced to its constituent atoms in a wave a cold plasma".

It was not exactly common knowledge, but Eagle, the ancestor ship of
their current vessel, had waged a shadow war against an Altairian
Spider-Bird infestation between 2398 and its untimely demise. No
matter how hard they tried, the Engineering and Security departments
had never quite managed to eradicate the winged pests, and the
situation had slowly led to a couple of quirks among the work culture
of the crew. One was the birth of a mercifully very small sub-class of
"Tube rats" among the crewmen, people with a marked affinity for
closed spaces, and short-range, area-of-effect weapons. The other was
the very deliberate phrasing of the "no booby traps" rule that had
been added to the Officer's manual.
Namely, any device or setup that could be inadvertently activated by a
crewmate or a passerby, resulting in the loss of life or limb, was
forbidden. Which meant that systems that had to be deliberately
activated by the acting head of the Department on a direct order from
a superior, or by the Chief Engineer himself using a specific override
code and his biometric credentials? Say, a means to sterilise a
section of the ship by way of cleverly-positioned sets of manifold
valves that could switch the flow paths of the electro-plasma systems
and the one of the air that circulated in the corridors and
crawlspaces for a couple of minutes? That was fair game.

With a speed that would have given cold sweats to more emotional
people had they been aware of it, the procedure was initiated, and
Kettick came back to his colleagues with a quantum of additional
spring in his step.

Kettick: Apologies, what did I miss?

Fiorr/Iroka: Response

The Remmilian's feelers vibrated in unconfined delight.

Kettick: Excellent news indeed. Do it, Commander. Bring them all home.

Tags/End act 3

--
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.