Ensign Vel Careno - Countdown to the Countdown

[Vel Careno]

((Ancient Lab, Surface Ring 42))

Careno continued to toy with her tricorder, clutching the miniature stylus between her teeth as she set about rerouting one of the circuits.

Kendrick: Jeopardy. ::thinking:: It could mean danger, right?. ::looking at Careno:: Something that regulates and coordinates something dangerous? A weapon? Some kind of energy source?

Careno: A warning label, yeah.

Thand: It's possible, but I need context, not just conjecture.

Kendrick: ::nodding:: Agreed. But at this point we don't know enough of their language to understand the function of these consoles. Unless you're able to download a dictionary, I'm afraid conjecture is our only option. 

Vel looked up as Kendrick signalled for her attention, following his gesture to the console.

Kendrick: These lines here, do they remind you of something you've seen before? In Engineering or perhaps someplace else?

She regarded the line for a moment, canting her head to one side. Her eyebrow raised in signature Vulcan style.

Careno: Looks like power readings. Or it could just be frequencies.

Thand: ::nodding irritably:: It's either that or 'Power' or 'Source'. 

Kendrick:  ::scratching his head:: Okay. 

Vel sighed. She didn't exactly love the idea of not being helpful. Being an engineer kind of made that second nature to her. But there was precious little she could actually do at this point. She opened the tricorder, holding it out to point it at the console. There was a brief hum but nothing.

Careno: No bueno. Gotta keep trying ...

Thand: ::sharply:: Have found any other consoles that work?  If we get a little indication of what it does, or its structure, I can refine the translation.

Kendrick: Right. ::turning to Careno:: Ensign Careno and I will start looking for consoles or anything else that might prove useful to get us back into the real world - sorta speak. ::turning back to Thand:: While you continue working on trying to figure ::pointing finger at the screen:: this out without us breathing down your neck.

Careno: Right. If there is one in here, then it's going to be somewhere out of the way. If I were designing it, I'd put it somewhere where the ensign on the coffee run wasn't going to accidentally spill my order on it and put us all out of phase with reality. You can probably download a lexicon from something in here.

She gestured around herself wildly, still clutching the opened tricorder to her chest.

Thand: If you see a dataport it's possible, but I haven't found anything resembling that.

Careno's eyes drifted slowly to the console display, mouth slightly open.

Careno: That looks an awful lot like it's counting down.

Kendrick: ::confused:: A timer? 

Thand: If my match is right, 232 seconds.

Kendrick: That's less than 4 minutes. 

Careno moved over to the power/energy console, leaning forward to get a good look at it. She hissed through her teeth as the lines began to creep up.

Kendrick: ::worried:: Looks like there's some kind of power build up in progress.

She saw it at the same time Kendrick did, her mouth forming a thin line of concern. She wasn't laughing anymore. 

Careno: Yeah, but what's it doing? Expanding the phase variance field? Getting ready to completely erase us? What?

Kendrick: What's that?

Careno followed the gesture to the hatch with her eyes. She frantically began to adjust the internal circuitry of the tricorder, pointing it at the console. A faint beep, and a hard light field encapsulated it.

Careno: There, you should be able to interact with it now. Fingers crossed.

Vel was practically leaning over Kendrick's shoulder as he opened up the hatch, peering inside. She grimaced along with him as he struggled with it.

Kendrick: ::grimacing:: Dammit. ::grunting:: Looks like it's-

The hatch opened, Careno immediately held the tricorder out over Kendrick's shoulder to take a proper scan.

Kendrick: ::looking up, at Careno:: Quick, Ensign, can you take a scan of these circuits? If we can figure out what their function is, perhaps we can shut it down.

Careno: Okay, okay, this is it. The good news is this console's independently powered, the bad news is I can't for the life of me figure out what kind of power system it uses. Any hints, Thand?

Thand: response 

Vel struggled to keep her eyes from rolling in her head, reaching into the hatch to pull what looks like an internally-lit cable of some sort. She waved it in Thand's direction.

Careno: Cable. Port. Download please.

Thand: Response

Careno: ::biting her bottom lip in concentration:: I love you, too.

Any: Response

Careno: Okay, start looking for something that could be the power source. If we can disconnect it, this phase variance field should just go away.

Kendrick: Response

She checked the timer on the console, took a deep breath, and shook her head.

Careno: I've got no idea. But I'd rather not stick around to find out.

 

TAG/TBC

-

Ensign Velekh "Vel" Careno

Engineering Officer

USS Juneau, NX-99801