Cracks in the Structure Part I
Posted on Fri Nov 29th, 2024 @ 9:11am by Captain Marc Kidd & Commander Mariko Tao & Lieutenant Sarah Graesyn & Lieutenant T'Arel Madison PhD & Ensign Iren Th'ashianet
Edited on on Wed Jan 15th, 2025 @ 6:54pm
1,953 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Episode 2 - The Sins of History
Location: Main Engineering Central - Deck 16 - USS Artemis
Timeline: MD010 1530 hrs
T'Arel sauntered into Main Engineering. Looking around a smile crossed the Vulcan's lips. "Very nice." she said aloud. Moving over to one of the bulkheads, she pulled a small metal hammer from her engineering kit, and tapped the bulkhead lightly and then listened to sound it made. Happy she moved on to next part of bulkhead and repeated the procedure.
Sarah, who was currently hanging upside down performing a routine maintenance check on the warp core heard the hiss of the pneumatic doors and then the ting and she swung herself up, carefully extricating herself from the shaft that the core sat in and unclipping from the railing around it. She watched the Vulcan for a moment before chuckling to herself. "Y'know, I was expecting somebody else to be doing that but I am sorta glad to see that there are a few other Engineers on board besides myself and my protégé."
"You must be Lieutenant Graesyn, I'm Lieutenant T'Arel Madison the new Forensic Engineer, I've met the Old Man, so I thought I'd come down and make myself useful."
"The Old Man? You'll have to forgive my lack of knowledge about short names around here, that is the one area not included in dossiers typically." Sarah smiled and wiped a hand off before extending it to T'Arel. "Pleasure, I'm glad to have you aboard; Forensic Engineering is a unique set of skills... Structural your base?"
"Old man is a human term of respect for the CO." T'Arel said. "And yes Structural Engineering is my base training." She smiled. "I know I could check the bulkhead's structural integrity with a tri-corder, but my way is just as accurate and much more fun."
"I get it; sometimes its just nice to feel the vibrations yourself... nothing wrong with the analogue methods." Sarah nodded in understanding and then chuckled softly. "Old man, huh? Not one that I have heard myself but then again, I tend to keep to myself and my duties on assignments."
"That's a pity, a gorgeous woman, like yourself, locking yourself away in Engineering, if I may say so, Ma'am." T'Arel said.
Sarah shrugged. “Can’t say as I am a greatly social person; machines make sense… people just. Don’t… too many complexities that are ever changing to keep track of.” She patted the bulkhead next to them and smiled. “Starships and other machines though… they are just as alive as people and their complexities while no less amazing are at least generally consistent… and they tell you what’s wrong with them when things aren’t going right.”
"Yes, humanoids can be rather unpredictable. I understand the comfort of the predictably of machines." T'Arel said, working as she talked. A sound caught her ear, and she moved further down the bulkhead plate, and received the same noise. "This bulkhead is a duranium-nickel alloy, but someone has attempted to speed up the hardening process and its resulted in defects in the bulkhead, I recommend removing and and replacing it as well as any others from the same batch, ma'am." She said.
Sarah swore; she had been reviewing maintenance logs from the previous visit to a spacedock and been wondering about the accelerated maintenance schedule and T’Arel had just given her the answer that she had been agonizing over all day. “Can you find the batch identifier on that bulkhead and reference the maintenance logs I have pulled up on the secondary console bank? I knew something looked off with the logs from the last visit to spacedock.”
T'Arel checked bulkhead and found the batch identifier and viewed the logs. "Ma'am there are bulkhead panels form the same batch on Decks 3, 5, 7, and 12." She said.
Shaking her head Sarah stepped over to the central console of engineering and pulled up a holographic display of the Artemis. “Computer; cross reference the information located by Lieutenant Madison and display the location of all installed bulkheads from the affected batch.”
She took a tentative step back, holding her breath as she waited for the red highlights to filter into the holographic display so they could see the full extent of the necessary repairs.
"Looks like we have our work cut out for us." T'Arel said. "I'm not usually one for violence, but this cost cutting measure put us all in danger, so whoever's responsible, might be meeting their favoured deity in person."
“I am inclined to agree with that sentiment… the captain won’t be happy to hear about this. It looks like we are going to have to do major repairs on the Bridge, here in Engineering, in Main Power Distribution… Holodeck 3 is going to have to be taken offline completely, we are going to have to seal off Main Mess to replace the outer bulkheads…. gods be damned this list is extensive. We are lucky that none of these have failed.”
Sarah pulled a PaDD out and started compiling a report that listed all of the areas that would need to be shut down or be put on restricted access while the repairs were ongoing and then handed it to T’Arel.
Engineering Maintenance Report
Due to faulty bulkheads we will need to repair bulkheads in the following areas.
Deck 3
- Main Bridge
- Observation Lounge, outer
Deck 5
- Holodeck 3
- Main Mess, outer
Deck 7
- Primary Power Distribution
- Upper Shuttlebay
- Ship Operations Centre
Deck 12
- Science Labs 1 through 3
- Deflector Control
- Hazardous Materials Labs and Storage
Decks 15 through 17
- Main Engineering
- Warp Nacelle Access
- Thruster Assembly
- Thruster Fuel Storage Tank
It is the recommendation of Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Sarah Graesyn that these areas be placed on restricted access with the exception of areas where outer bulkheads need to be accessed in which case the areas should be powered down and accessed only with the use of exo-suits to enable repair crews to swiftly replace affected bulkheads. It is also the recommendation of Chief Engineer that Lieutenant T’Arel Madison be placed in charge of the repair teams as she was the one to discover the problem.
After giving T’Arel a few moments to review the PaDD Sarah tapped her commbadge. “Engineering to Bridge, we’ve got a problem that the Captain needs to see for himself.”
"Acknowledged. I am on my way," Marc replied when he heard the request from his Chief Engineer. Moments later he walked into Engineering. "Lieutenant... This better be good." He said with a smirk on his face. For the most part Marc gave the engineering team a wide berth to do what they needed to do. If Sarah thought he needed to see this in person then it must be important.
Sarah gave Marc a curt nod and directed his gaze to the holodisplay that hovered over the central console and had all of the affected bulkheads highlighted still. “Captain, Lieutenant Madison here discovered a potentially problematic at best and fatal at worst flaw in the work done last time the Artemis was in spacedock.”
She picked up a second PaDD, calling the same report to it and handing it to the Captain and then continuing her explanation. “We ran some scans and I was about to do a structural integrity scan across the ship but if it comes back like I expect it to it’s going to trigger internal damage sensors so I wanted to run this past you before I initiated it. With your permission we can simply bypass the scan and mobilize maintenance teams to get to work starting with mission critical areas… my second concern other than this problem is that we are in pursuit mode across the ship and I don’t know whether I can maintain a stable warp field while working on certain bulkheads, particularly in Nacelle Access and here in Engineering.”
Mariko had followed the captain down to engineering. He had given her a look that essentially said 'follow me' and she naturally followed. The news given was troubling. She looked over the PaDD with all the sections that were affected and it was a lot of work. "Is it possible to track down who authorised, or who installed these faulty bulkheads?" Mariko asked as she continued to scour the PaDD. "This is unacceptable and puts at risk many other ships that have visited that spacedock, or have been constructed there."
Marc turned to Mariko and nodded. "Agreed Commander. I would like you to make sure that Poseidon Station is notified of this. That was the last place repairs to the ship were done. The staff here is going to have their hands full." Then he turned to Graesyn. "Lieutenant start the repairs. Make the Bridge, Main Engineering, and the prison deck your priority. Use every moment that the ship is not at warp to get it done. Whatever work that can be done while at warp should be done. We cannot afford to fall behind and we cannot afford to be destroyed."
"Mendez, Gwart, you're with me, we're heading for the Bridge." T'Arel said. "Collins, T'Jan, Kyle, Tan, and Jamieson you've got Deck 12. "Uhtah, Rosen, Vance, you've got Deck 5, the rest of you, here in engineering, concentrate on internal bulkheads, we can assemble external teams when we drop from warp."
"Right then it seems that we all have our work cut out for us." Marc said with a disingenuous smile. His day just went from bad to worse. "I will be on the Bridge. Try to give us a heads up if we are going to be destroyed."
“Aye, Cap’n. We will do this as quick as possible so that we can avoid as much disruption as possible. I am going to shore up what I can here in Engineering but I am going to have to take the core offline for about an hour to do part of the repairs. If I can make it 45 minutes I absolutely will. Aiming for no destruction today or any other that I’m on the Artemis.” Sarah stated, a small chuckle creeping into her words as she finished. She looked to Mariko and gave her a polite nod before turning to get the work underway.
Mariko had just been in step with Marc. She saw no need to speak since he had been the center of attention. "A good wife knows when to speak, and when to say nothing at all," her mother had always told her during her quest to find a husband for her daughter. Mariko rolled her eyes subconsciously at the thought; sometimes, old ways of thinking are just that—old. Redirecting her focus to the present conversation, she planned to depart with the captain and return to the bridge, unless something urgent demanded her attention elsewhere.
A Joint Post By
Commander Mariko Tao
Executive Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Captain Marc Kidd
Commanding Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Sarah Graesyn
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant T'Arel Madison
Forensic Engineer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Ensign Iren Th'ashianet
Engineering Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
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