Lt. Kim Stapledon - Tracing a Leak
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John Smith
Jun 4, 2026, 10:54:34 PM (7 hours ago) Jun 4
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((Power Chamber 2, Deck 742-Beta, Voth Generation Ship Igirni))
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 : Agreed.
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?
Kim forced herself to remain neutral in expression. Inwardly however she was growing annoyed with how long it was taking the realization to dawn on the Voth.
Xarrin: I am… uncertain. The evidence is incomplete, but the pattern does not align with natural wear or random failure.
This time Kim failed to hide the nod she gave and the grave expression on her face.
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 : These sensors have redundancy built into their individual circuits. So to have both buses on a given sensor fail in this way at random is pretty unlikely.
ch'Clex said,
ch’Clex: Captain, the trace pattern outside the housing is inconsistent. My guess is that someone tried to remove the trail.
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: I am picking up traces of beta-keratin at least, so it was... probably Voth at the very least. Having trouble getting any intact DNA though.
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 : Agreed.
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?
Kim forced herself to remain neutral in expression. Inwardly however she was growing annoyed with how long it was taking the realization to dawn on the Voth.
Xarrin: I am… uncertain. The evidence is incomplete, but the pattern does not align with natural wear or random failure.
This time Kim failed to hide the nod she gave and the grave expression on her face.
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 : These sensors have redundancy built into their individual circuits. So to have both buses on a given sensor fail in this way at random is pretty unlikely.
ch'Clex said,
ch’Clex: Captain, the trace pattern outside the housing is inconsistent. My guess is that someone tried to remove the trail.
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: I am picking up traces of beta-keratin at least, so it was... probably Voth at the very least. Having trouble getting any intact DNA though.
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.
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.
Kim nodded.
Stapledon: I think I have a general picture. I have a pretty decent layout of abnormal thermal signatures in the electronics. Now to just correlate them with..
Xarrin: Found anything? Lieutenant, wasn't it?
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: It would seem so. These thermal signatures here are matching with traces of nichrome at least. ::She turned to show Kettick her tricorder display and then shook as a loud sound rang out around them.
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!
They were cooling this place with liquid hydrogen. Kim's eyes narrowed.
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.
Stapledon: Commander, I don't meant to alarm anyone, but sudden thermal spikes and high concentrations of hydrogen might not make for a good combination.
Kettick/ch'Clex: 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.
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.
Stapledon: Yeah I'm more envisioning somebody with a very sharp utility knife puncturing the line at this point.
ch'Clex / Xarrin: Response.
Adea: Can we identity the fault from here, triangulate exactly what happened?
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.
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.
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.
Stapledon: Yeah I'm more envisioning somebody with a very sharp utility knife puncturing the line at this point.
ch'Clex / Xarrin: Response.
Adea: Can we identity the fault from here, triangulate exactly what happened?
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.
Stapledon: No, detecting a pressure reduction isn't as hard as detecting a radiation leak so the sensor degredation wouldn't impact finding this at least.
Kettick nodded.
Kettick: I assumed as much, we did not even hear the explosion.
ch'Clex / Adea / 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.
Kettick nodded.
Kettick: I assumed as much, we did not even hear the explosion.
ch'Clex / Adea / 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.
Stapledon: Sirs, I've called up the fluid dynamics package on my tricorder.
She walked over to Adea and Kettick, holding up her display. The image showed flows moving about and a couple of concentrated outpurings.
Adea/Kettick/Xarrin: Response
Stapledon: Localized pressure gradients suggest a leak.
Adea/Kettick/Xarrin/ch'Clex: Response
Stapledon: We're going to have to patch it soon or else other safety systems will kick in and prevent the reactor from starting even if we do fix the servos.
Adea/Kettick/Xarrin/ch'Clex: Response
Lt. Kimberly Stapledon
Chief of Science
USS Eagle-A
I238601KB0
Pronouns:
Character: She/Her
Writer: He/Him
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