Stubborn Engines

Posted on Wed Sep 9th, 2020 @ 3:30am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Lieutenant Commander Shylow Vitari
Edited on on Wed Sep 9th, 2020 @ 3:30am

Mission: Welcome Aboard!
Location: Engineering

Vitari slipped in behind the duo, glancing over a shoulder at the readings on the console as she mused for a moment, “It might be worth us splitting up, I can see about the two on the bridge while you deal with restoring engineering,” she paused a moment as she considered the two officers, “If the latter becomes a difficulty I may still have success upstairs in the meantime. And if nothing else, prevent them from causing damage if they realise somethings gone sideways.”

Rhenora checked again, realising the two from the bridge hadn't been transported as she originally hoped. Damned fritzing transporters.

" That would seem logical" The Captain couldn't help herself. It would give her time to work with the engines to try and get them back online. Vitari would be more than capable of handling a few Orions

Vitari raised an eyebrow, a stifled chuckle hidden within her features as she stretched a little within the confines of her suit. “Looks to be a bit of a long walk,” she admitted with a mock sigh, “I’ll admit my first thought of going up there is to make sure they haven’t set up anything difficult and damaging. They’ve already scratched the paintwork, would be nice to keep it at that, but I’m going to be cruising myself for volunteering to jog up two dozen decks to play with your friends.”

Grinning, the intelligence officer shrugged, “With your permission, Captain?” she enquired softly, inclining her head towards one of the soon to be too familiar jefferies hatches.

"At your leisure" Rhenora dipped into a low sweeping bow with an arm extended towards the nearest jtube hatch. " It would be preferable for them to not scratch any more paintwork or Savar will have more fixing to do with his toothbrush"

“For the fate of Savar, I acquiesce my services,” Vitari cringed a little as she popped the hatch and glanced in, “I swear they make these things smaller with every generation,” she chuckled before throwing the stoic vulcan a wink, “You owe me one,” she jibed before flicking a lazy salute and dipping into the crawl space, her lithe form quickly disappearing around the first bend with a mental map ticking down the far too many decks to come.

“ Owe her one what?” Savar inquired of the Captain as Vitari disappeared from view climbing inside a Jtube.

“ Toothbrush” Rhenora giggled as Vitari disappeared through the JTube, leaving Savar and the Captain to solve the myriad of Engineering problems that were preventing the Liberty from moving under her own power.

“A toothbrush.” Savar repeated . “If you say so Captain..” He looked at the command console.”While I am not an engineer captain, I believe we can get the impulse engines online.”

“Engines of some description, followed by weapons, I want to disable the Orion ship so they can’t try anything else sneaky” The Captain admitted, moving over to the main engineering console and trying to ascertain the nature of their engine troubles.

“Weapons will not be a problem Captain.” Savar answered. “They are simply offline, not disabled. Apparently the Orions thought with us unable to move, that simply taking the weapons offline was sufficient.” He looked up at the upper level of Engineering “WE could perhaps ask an engineer to assist us.”

“ Again with the Logic” Rhenora looked around, trying to locate said Engineer. She found a couple of technicians they’d left on the upper gantry, mainly electronics and computer technicians. “ Can you bring the weapons online, target the Orion’s warp core and weapons, and disable them?”

“I am sorry Captain. I am trying.” Savar replied before turning his attention to the techs.

“Um, sure Capt’n. That won’t be a problem.” One for the techs replied as he fiddled with the
Weapon control console. After a few minutes the console showed ready. “Weapons online Capt’n.”

“ Target their weapons systems, then their engines. Disable them but not destroy them, I want to tow them back to the Starbase and make them stand for their crimes” The Captain replied, as she started manipulating the Engineering controls.

“Yes Capt’n, weapons system and then engines.” The tech replied. Two pencil-like beams lept from the Liberty and hurdled themselves like lances at the Orion ship. “Weapons are offline, they won’t be able to get them back online.” A moment later another phaser strike hit the Orion ship.causing it to shudder. “Engines are disabled. That ship is going nowhere.” The tech replied feeling rather proud of himself.

“ Good job Crewman” Kaylen praised, having absolutely no idea of the young crewman’s actual name. Getting to know the crew was a work in progress. The next step would be dealing with the remaining Orions on the Liberty then towing their vessel back Starbase.

“Thank you Capt’n!” Came the happy reply. “I’m technician Riley.”

“ Well done again Technician Riley, now can you drop a tractor beam on that tub so we can haul their lazy asses back to the Starbase and let them figure out what to do with them” Rhenora smirked, loving the idea of the Orions standing trial for crimes against the Federation. They’d spend the rest of their days rotting in some penal colony - hopefully somewhere very unpleasant.

Riley looked down at the console. “Tractor beam? Sure I can do that.” He answered as his finger hovered over a button before pressing down on it. Again the Orion ship shuddered signifying it was held in a tractor beam. “Tractor beam locked Capt’n.” He announced proudly..

“I may have to promote you Riley” Rhenora smiled as she tried to coax the engines into life. Unsure of what the Orions had actually done to take them offline to begin with it was a process of diagnostics then analysis to find out exactly what was wrong. Not the Captain’s strong point but could be done if required.

“I won’t stop you Capt’n if you decide to.” Riley replied to the Captain’s suggestion.
The engines were a little more problematic, the diagnostic on the warp core came back clear, as did the diagnostic on the energy converter systems. The impulse engines refused to come back online, much to her chagrin. Perhaps there was a problem with the data interface? She dearly wished for Lt Durnell - the ship's computer specialist. Unfortunately said specialist in question had missed the Liberty as they launched and was still presumably enroute.

“Hmmm.” Savar commented. “The Orion ship is disabled and we are unable to get our engines to respond. “If we connected the warp controls to impulse engines, perhaps that would restore the impulse engines so we could move. What is your opinion Captain?”

“ Gaffa tape and fencing wire, things were so much simpler in the old days” The Bajoran grumbled, kneeling down and removing the cover from the control panel, peering deep into the guts of the circuitry as if the problem would reveal itself.

“Perhaps some bailing wire as well Captain? Savar suggested

“ Now that solves all problems known to exist” Kaylen snorted as she wedged herself further under the control panel. “ Come on, don’t all Vulcan’s contain some kind of hereditary engineering genius?”

“You did not wish me to be logical, so I am attempting to wing it.” Savar replied. He looked down at Rhenora, (well her feet as her upper half was under the control panel. “A simple solution that clears most problems is to simply reboot the system. It will clear out any old problems and start fresh.”

“Surely it can’t be that simple. Turn it off and turn it on again” The words were slightly muffled by the console between them. “ Our chief engineers must be great plug-pullers, switch flickers and rebooters”

“The more complex the sink, the easier to stop up the drain or in this case clear it.” Savar pointed out

“Ever the logical” Rhenora grunted again, wriggling out from under the console and resisting the urge to kick it. No… that only worked with the old Bajoran fighters. How she longed for one of those again. Wires and couplings...easily fixed!

“Yes Captain.” Savar agreed. “Do you care to try rebooting the system?”

“ Well we’ve gotta try something” The Captain agreed begrudgingly. She stood up again and found the master reset and effectively shut down the impulse engines.

“Wait 30 seconds Captain.” Savar advised Rhenora. “Then turn the system back on.”

She resisted the urge to count out loud like a school child but couldn’t stop the fidgeting that also accompanied counting like a school child. After the required period of time the master reset was pressed again, and the system began its startup procedure. From what Rhenora remembered this was not an instantaneous process.

“We must wait for the system to initialize and check it’s subroutines. This may take a few minutes.” Savar told Rhenora as the system methodically ran through it’s subroutines and checked them off one by one.

The system appeared to be restarting correctly, until it hit a point where the power drained from the engines, leaving them once again lifeless and drifting in space.

“ Damnit!” Rhenora cursed, only just resisting the urge to kick it again.

“There is another option we can try Captain.” Savar said unperturbed by the failure of the engines to restart.

“ Apart from ordering a complete overhaul of our impulse drive?” Rhenora’s ire started to flare, these sort of things were not uncommon in a shakedown cruise, hence why most new and refurbished starships had one. A technical hiccup would normally be a mild inconvenience - but with the added threat of Orions, it could mean disaster if they couldn’t get moving again.

“Nothing that severe Captain. We launch a small number of shuttles. I believe three will be enough. One on each side or the Liberty and one astern. They can ‘guide’ the Liberty like
The tugs of the past did the ocean liners when they came into and out of port.” Savar remarked coolly, unaffected by Rhenora’s anger.

“ Well as Vitari is heading to the bridge to take care of the Orions there, we can deal with the ones in the cargobay on the way to the shuttle bay.” The Captain mused out loud.

“An excellent idea. Captain.” Savar managed to say without sounding sarcastic. “After you.” He added.