Lt. Commander Ayiana Sevo - Is It Filled With Bees?
Aaron Schimmel
((Power Plant, Gibaria Outpost))
They had arrived at the power plant, which turned out to be what Vylaa and Kairis predicted earlier: a quantum singularity reactor, similar to that found in Romulan ships and technology. Except this one was massive; far larger than what was required to power a facility of this size. There were conduits snaking in from all around the massive chamber to the central sphere, which was surrounded by a toroid, and two small protrusions on the top and bottom.
Sevo: If it's overly active right now, why is the system not drawing all that power from it?
zh'Tisav: Because it can't…
There must be something in the works interfering with the proper transfer of energy from the plant to the facility. At least, that’s what Ayiana surmised. The engineers knew way more about it.
Kairis: If you're talking about the gate, the scientists disconnected it from the power supply in their earlier attempts to shut it down. The rest of the facility's systems are drawing power from the reactor.
Sevo: Did the earlier explosion destroy key components? Is there a way to replace them?
Kairis: The explosion damaged the primary distribution trunk, but there are backups. ::She paused and then clarified, because Sevo had expressed she was struggling.:: The explosion was a symptom of the reactor's instability, not the cause. It's why my team got caught in it; we were already on site to investigate the instability issues.
Ayiana was beginning to understand. Too much power, and nowhere to go, if she understood right.
zh'Tisav: Any damaged parts should have replacements in stores. If not we'd need to repli… Wait! The vines! You said they broke open a door, right?
Ayiana remembered the initial beam into the science labs, seeing that bulkhead door in the corridor burst open with the strange flora pouring through it. Hard to forget.
Sevo: …Yea?
zh'Tisav: If they can break a door, they can probably break other things, like the power transfer system. And being part metallic, they're probably conducting some energy to places it's not supposed to go, kind of like a short circuit. If they've damaged the EPS system and/or shorted it out, that could destabilize the generator.
Of course! She remembered her tricorder picking up substantial traces of metal in the vines, though she didn’t check to see what kind. Apparently something conductive. And if the vines were snaking through the machinery, it could certainly cause shorts.
Kairis: If those vines have infiltrated the distribution trunk, it could account for why it exploded when we haven't seen that happen anywhere else. It might also give us a heads-up for any other vulnerabilities, and we could reroute before another disaster happens.
Sevo: So what do we do?
zh'Tisav: Bypassing any damage should be straightforward. That might help with the core instability, but likely won't solve the bigger problem. Thea, I think your feedback idea melts ice. If the gate's being powered from the other side, then the gate is connecting the two systems. Anything done to it on the other side could affect our system here. I hate to keep comparing things to a short circuit, but that's what it is. Blocking any feedback, or redirecting it, might solve a lot of our problems.
Kairis: That's what we thought. ::She nodded.:: We'd have to identify what's coming through the gate and causing the interference. I imagine it's nothing that appears on normal scans or diagnostics, or the staff here would have figured it out already.
Sevo: And how will we determine exactly where on this side the shorts are? Or at least the ones that are causing the instability?
zh'Tisav: There's three of us; one can look at any feedback from the gate, another can look at power distribution, and the other can see to the backup power, just in case. Thoughts? Or am I just fighting a makra with a stick?
Kairis: That all makes sense to me, sir. I'm happy to take on the backups if Commander Sevo would like to investigate the feedback coming through the gate? ::She glanced toward the Trill.:: It wouldn't need deep engineering knowledge; your scientific background probably gives you an advantage there, looking for something that's there but shouldn't be.
She supposed that made sense. Put some pity on the poor scientist wrapped up in all the engineering shenanigans. At least Ayiana would feel useful.
Sevo: Show me where the gate energy is supposed to be coming in.
zh'Tisav: Response
The whole room was filled with the familiar sounds of machinery at work; not too dissimilar from the constant background hum of the Gorkon. Most of it, Ayiana had automatically tuned out. But a new sound quickly rose among the din. It sounded like a buzz, almost insect-like, before growing larger into a noticeable rattle. All eyes moved over to the sphere, which was visibly vibrating. Ayiana was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to do that. As quickly as it started, it stopped. Weird.
Kairis: I, uh... Think we should hurry.
Sevo: What…uh…what was that? Power feedback?
zh'Tisav: Response
There was no time to waste. They had to get to the bottom of the situation.
Sevo: Show me where to go to analyze the gate feedback. Is there a console to check?
zh’Tisav / Kairis: Response
She found an interface that showed the power distribution to and from the core and the facility. Most of it looked like a jumble of lines criss-crossing each other, but it made sense. The power from the core was meant to power everything from the gate to light bulbs. Some lines were thick, others thin; different lines were in different colors.
Sevo: Looks like a jumble to me. Which lines go to the gate?
zh’Tisav / Kairis: Response
Sevo: I think I can manage this.
She pulled out her tricorder and sat it on the console. It took some finagling, but she was able to link it up to the console’s screen, so its algorithms should help analyze the data. Hopefully it would help.
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Lt. Commander Ayiana Sevo
Mission Specialist
U.S.S. Gorkon
V239109AS0
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