Ensign Keneth Nakada - Surges In Space
Keneth Nakada
((Deck 14, Main Engineering, The Pool Table, USS Ronin))
Nakada: :: nodding :: Thank you commander. A pleasure to meet you all. A … creature, you say?
Tucker: Yes, and it’s too big for the normal scanners we have aboard the ship. Ensign Miller and a small team of techs are installing it as we speak.
TK looked from Tucker to Morgan as Rachel looked at the mission clock, and then grimaced.
Morgan: Don’t want to sound like a broken record, but we’re losing time.
Nakada: :: blankly :: … a large creature.
Wren: ::with all the delicacy of a sledgehammer:: hey, just so you know I have a robotic bug in my hair. I made him, his name's Remy, please don't shoot him.
Keneth blinked and shook his head, willing the fluff to fall out. He could ruminate on the space whale later, engineering needed his attention. He flicked his eyes over the bug Wren mentioned and marveled, despite his discomfort, at the dexterousness of the tiny mechanisms that allowed it to move. Precision engineering was a particular passion of his.
Remy: ::briefly pokes his head out, before burrowing back in::
Tucker: As long as Remy doesn’t get in your way Ensign, the more the merrier.
Morgan: ::shrugged:: Works for me, and no we won’t shoot it…
Cabrillo: ::looking at Morgan with an evil grin:: What about swatting it?
((A few minutes later))
The team has broken up after that, attending to their own work. Keneth had taken up determining the stress the mass reducing warp field would have on their nacelles. They were old, and many of the joints and seals were likely more brittle than designed. This was well within the range of safety for moving a ship around, but “lifting” a behemoth the size of a asteroid?
He tapped at the display impatiently as the loading indicator spun and spun and spun. The computer was running a tiny program of his own rather clever design. It was sending brief electrical pulses through the nacelle housing and estimating material properties based on the resistance it measured.
And then, without warning, all the lights flickered, almost like an antiquated fluorescent style bulb.
Tucker: Mr. Cabrillo, can you see if that was isolated or indicative of possible problems down the road? According to information coming from the bridge we’re in range of the beastie.
Cabrillo: On it Commander.
The screen pinged with his results and … the nacelles were softer than wet cheese? Keneth swiped his analysis aside and brought up an external sensor log. It seemed that whatever the creature was doing was being amplified in the nacelles and messing with his analysis.
Chip: =/\= Package is installed and is running at 100 percent sir. =/\=
Tucker: Thank’s Chip, return to engineering and assist where needed.
Chip: =/\= Aye, aye, Commander =/\=
Cabrillo: Yeah, I could use puzzle boys help over here.
Nakada: There is severe power banding in the nacelles. Whatever the creature is putting off is being really amplifies there.
The lights flickered again this time a bit more aggressively. Out of the corner of his eye, one of the warp coil seemed to glow for a second, but when he turned, it was normal.
Tucker: =/\= Commander Tucker to the bridge, did ya’lls lights just flicker? =/\=
Raga: =/\= You could say that. The creature just focused some sort of energy surge on us. Has more than a few of us out of sorts. =/\=
Niac: =/\= Response =/\=
Tucker: =/\= Yeah, same here and I’m assuming the rest of the ship, we’ll try to track it down but I’m pretty sure it’s an electrical systems thing, which my best guess is ‘surging’. =/\=
Cabrillo: =/\= So now we need a ship wide surge protector whale sized? =/\=
Nakada: =/\= Perhaps, but where would we install it?
If it was a generalized EMP surge, they would have to construct some sort of Faraday cage. But Keneth didn’t think it was quite that simple.
Tucker: =/\= We also installed the new deep space package. It was going to be used by stellarcartography, but I’m guessing it might be better to get a good look at the beastie without probes that could get damaged or be seen as hostile. =/\=
Niac: =/\= Response =/\=
Raga: =/\= We already have a class 2 probe drifting behind us. We tossed it out the flight deck. Be sure to tap into its feed when you can. But good to know. The more data we can get the better. =/\=
Tucker: =/\= Understood, Engineering out. =/\=
Tucker: Alright, let's track down those power surges.
Cabrillo: Good luck. ::beat:: Look at this, the surges are just popping up all over but in milisecond bursts. Is this do to whatever that thing out there is naturally putting off.
In Keneth’s experience, power surges were a game of whack-a-mole. Root cause analysis in the field was really difficult which was why shutting off the power was the standard protocol.
Cabrillo: Commander, fusion generators 3, 7, and 11 are surging but the other three generators sitting right next to them are not. I don't get this.
Nakada: There seems to be heavy power banding in the nacelles, much more than anywhere else. I suspect the creature is giving of some sort of subspace radiation that’s resonating with them.
He looked over at Tucker, who had been silent for a hot minute.
Tucker : Response
Cabrillo: I would if it made sense but why only those three and not the others?
TK stepped over to a wall display and pulled up a power flow guide for the generators he was investigating. All six fusion generators were now reporting normal operation. His head tilted to one side as he looked at the log.
Tucker: Response
Cabrillo: ::turning to Tucker:: Officially, I have never seen anything as crazy as this. The log says fusion generators 5, 9, and 13 went offline momentarily but that's not what we just witnessed.
TK looked at the data and then back to Tucker and Nakada. Keneth walked up to the display as well and traced the generators back to the EPS junction. It seemed the primary generator
Nakada: What if both are correct? What if 3, 7 and 11 generated so much power that the ship didn’t need reactors 5, 9 and 13 and closed them?
Tucker/Cabrillo: Response
Nakada: Well, I don’t think the generators actually doubled their power output, but the power surge did enter the nacelles, perhaps it passed through the open junctions for 3, 7 and 11.
The ship frequently alternated which reactors served which circuits as part of its inbuilt load balancing systems.
Tucker/Cabrillo: Response
TAG/TBC
Ensign Keneth Nakada
Engineering Officer
USS Ronin
J239706KN0