Cracks in the Structure - Part II
Posted on Thu Mar 20th, 2025 @ 8:21pm by Captain Marc Kidd & Lieutenant Sarah Graesyn & Lieutenant JG Lwaxana Myles & Lieutenant T'Arel Madison PhD & Ensign Iren Th'ashianet
Edited on on Thu Mar 20th, 2025 @ 8:36pm
2,458 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Episode 2 - The Sins of History
Location: Main Enginering Central - Deck 16 - USS Artemis
Timeline: MD010 1730 hrs
“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.
Sarah watched Commander Tao and Captain Kidd depart Main Engineering and looked back to the holo-display in front of her. “This is going to be a nearly impossible task but that seems to be the name of the job down here in Engineering most days, especially when the Ship is in the midst of important jobs it shouldn’t be delayed from,” she joked, looking pointedly at T’Arel. “We have enough on staff engineers in the entirety of the department to put together eight repair teams without pulling anybody from essential stations, that is going by Starfleet Regs on team composition however.”
"Okay, I'll let you form the teams, but I'd like to lead one." T'Arel replied.
“Easily done, your discovery you should get a team. Think there is any merit in reducing down to teams of two on this one?? We might get the job done faster but at the same time it might mean increased risk for our engineers.” It was a simple query but also one that was uniquely fit to the situation at hand.
"How about teams of three? In the event that new materials are needed, one could act as a runner, while the other two continue work." T'Arel suggested. "That could also reduce overall repair time without too much strain on the Engineering crew."
Sarah nodded and thought through it for a moment longer as she examined the holo-display and ran the calculations in her head. "We should also probably keep at least one team in reserve in case we have to take one out so we have another we can put in rotation. I'm going to give you the team starting in the bridge." She loaded the holo display onto a Holo-PADD and handed it to T'Arel with a grin. "From the bridge, once those repairs are done it is your choice where you take your team, Lieutenant. I am going to be monitoring the work from here and helping where I can but ultimately this entire repair job is yours, love. I'll ensure the resources are available but you get the fun part of the job while I get the logistics nightmare." Sarah chuckled as she gave the light jab to her fellow engineer.
"Oh, and I wanted to so do the logistics." T'Arel joked back. Looking at the PADD that Sarah had given her, she said. "Change of plan, T'Jan, Jamison, grab your gear, we're going to the Bridge." Waiting for her team to form up, she grabbed an Engineering kit of her own.
Sarah watched the group that T'Arel gathered as they prepared for a moment before looking seriously to her fellow engineers. "Good luck and godspeed. Don't do anything I wouldn't do folks." She thought for a long moment or two and then tapped her Comm Badge.
=/\= Lieutenant Myles, Report to Main Engineering immediately =/\=
=/\= On my way=/\= Myles replied. She headed straight there
As the doors to the Main Engineering bay hissed open Sarah turned, even while the rest of the teams, including T'Arel's were gathering their equipment. "Sorry to pull you on duty while you were resting, Lieutenant. Unfortunately we have discovered a potentially fatal flaw in the ships structure from the last time we were in dry dock. Take a look" She indicated the holo-display of the ships structure that sat over the central console of the bay grimly.
"I see what you're saying" Lax said. "All it would take is one impact from debris, or a photon torpedo in the right place and it will be abandon ship."
"Aye; and its our job to ensure we get it fixed. Without dropping out of warp since we are on the pursuit. I know you have only just recently come aboard but I hope you brought your running shoes."
"Put me in the game coach." Lax said
"Excellent; Luna's are fairly state of the art so it's going to be a bit different than cobbling together the solutions like we are used to. I am going to pair you with Iren and Gort; you guys are going to be doing the work to get the repairs done in the Nacelles. Make sure you are wearing EV suits at all times as a precaution and keep a channel open to Engineering. I am going to alert the Doctor to your location and work and get them to monitor your lifesigns so that we can conduct an emergency transport to sickbay if we have to... lets not make it necessary, yeah?"
Iren stepped over from where he was himself prepping, antennae twitching with anticipation and turned his milky blue eyes on Lax, which is about when she would realize that he wasn't Andorian but Aenar. "Understood, we will follow protocols."
Lax nodded in agreement. "Agreed."
Sarah looked between the two and chuckled. Iren here has been my protégé for some time. I actually asked for him when I transferred to the Artemis. For a blind man he has unique insights into how to achieve Engineering tasks. From my understanding his antennae work similarly to the visor built for LaForge.
"Great to hear." Lax said
Lax nodded. "EV suits. Keep channel open. Be as safe as possible. Got it" Lax said .
Lax got herself mentally ready for what lie ahead.
Sarah spotted the shift in Lax as she mentally prepared and snapped the engineering case closed. "You'll find the EV suits for you and your team in a small armory of sorts just shy of the Nacelle controls in the aft. Come back in one piece, eh?? I'll keep a transporter lock on all of you in case something goes awry. I can't afford to lose any of my Engineers, especially not the brand new one.
"Got it." Lax replied
Lieutenant T'Arel Madison and her crew arrived on the Bridge. "Captain, we're here to do some repairs, I apologize for any disruption." She said before she and her team got to work.
"Thank you Lieutenant. You may proceed." Marc watched as the engineers went to work. Fact was he needed them to complete the repairs as soon as possible or they would be literally dead in the water.
When scanned with a tricorder the bulkheads across the bridge seemed to be perfectly fine at first glance; though after a spectral analysis the damage done by the shortcuts taken became glaringly obvious and was worse even than had been indicated with a ship scan.
Alpha Team as T'Arel had named them, began removing the defective plates. Once they were free, they were stamped with a mark and then beamed to a specialized storage create in Cargo Bay 2.
A fresh certified one would then take its place and be affixed in the gap.
The team were as quiet as they could be, using hand signals rather than talking.
They were moving into the Badlands and in this moment Marc was perhaps the most nervous he had ever been. The ship was literally falling apart and they didn't finish the repair there would be no way they would survive the Badlands let alone find Vamcet. He looked toward the rear of the Bridge and watched as the Engineering team worked diligently to get the job done. He checked the eta to the perimeter of the Badlands, and it just did not seem like there was enough time. "Lieutenant Madison, how long until the hull is stable enough to enter the Badlands?"
T'Arel did some mental calculations. "Captain, if the replacement parts continue to arrive in a timely manner, repairs to the Bridge, should take approximately 2 and a half minutes to complete, sir."
"Thank you Lieutenant." Marc said and then added as a thought. This is going to be the longest few minutes of this command. He ordered a full stop to wait and hope that everything gets done.
"Okay gang. Let's get this done. If you're feeling woozy, just focus on the hill. It helps " Lax said.
Upon stepping out onto the nacelles they would discover several bulkheads that had severely fractured already, in a condition that only the slightest impact would shear them clean off and compromise the nacelles entirely.
=/\= Lieutenant Myles, what is the status of repairs in your area? We are well underway across the ship and I am about to shunt plasma flow to the secondary vents on the belly; we won’t be able to maintain that condition for long however.”
"Repairing damaged conduits under the top of the nacelles. Warp plasma flow looks to be in the accepted range...or so I see. I agree that the belly needs work, we might need a star base for that part. We might need them to really secure it against impact."
=/\= We are quite some time out from a station and it doesn’t look like the current mission is going to be a quick wrap. Do everything you can to secure it; I will reinforce the structural integrity field in the area. =/\=
Once everyone else had departed engineering Sarah turned to gaze at the warp core for a moment, letting the shifting plasma and pulsing light from it act as a means to refocus and center herself. After a long moment she turned to the remaining pair of engineers. “Alright, folks. Let’s get to work on making the Artemis ship shape again. We have 6 bulkheads down here that need to be replaced.”
She looked to the larger of the two engineers and nodded toward him. “Jacobsen, get down to the maintenance storage bay and set up the transporter for site to site transport so you can get the new bulkheads fabricated and moved where they need to go.”
As soon as the engineer had left the room Sarah walked over to the warp core, looking down and sighing as she tapped her commbadge. =/\= “Captain; I need to shutter primary plasma vents to effect repairs here in Engineering as well as to allow Lieutenant Myles to do the same in the Nacelles. I will have to reduce plasma flow by 30% and shunt outflow to the secondary vents on our belly.” =/\=
She looked to the holo-display that was tracking progress. =/\= “I estimate no more than ten minutes to get all primary bulkheads shipshape.” =/\=
"Acknowledged Lieutenant. We are sitting ducks out here." Marc ordered the all stop and brought the ship to yellow alert. He was not going to enter the Badlands until Graesyn got everything taken care of. Now, he just hoped that there would be no errant Cardassians out here.
“Understood, Cap’n. Once we have primary bulkheads repaired and everybody is back inside the ship then we will be able to open the primary plasma vents again and begin secondary stage repairs which are all internal. That will take longer but should not affect the Artemis’ ability to function as normal, even under stress.” She stepped away from the console and rushed over to assist the engineers remaining in Engineering to replace a bulkhead that was located just below the warp core railing, bending and leaning over the edge of the floor plating to stabilize it.
Having completed their work on the Bridge, T'Arel and her team moved on to Deck 7 and started their work in Primary Power Distribution, before moving on to the Upper Shuttle Bay, the Ship Operations Centre. They were just finishing up, when a Plasma Coupling malfunctioned and leaked plasma into the area near where Jamison was working. Acting quickly, T'Arel pushed the man out of the way. The only damage was to her uniform jacket, which she discarded. Emergency systems kicked in venting the plasma. While T'Jan attended to Jamison, T'Arel replaced the Plasma Coupling.
Letting Jamison get his breath back, T'Arel and T'Jan replaced the last of the bulkhead panels. The rest of their work was uneventful.
Sarah watched the holodisplay flash as all of the bulkheads were installed and she pulled up a diagnostic to check the repairs; getting back positive results after a few minutes.
=/\= Graesyn to Engineering teams; good work today. Regroup in Main Engineering for debrief.=/\=
She put in the commands to reinforce the structural integrity field around the nacelles and hailed the bridge.
=/\= Engineering to Bridge. We are as ship shape as we are going to get in the field. I recommend that next time we dock we have them verify our work and ensure all is up to standards. I am reopening primary plasma vents as we speak and greenlighting warp speed. At your leisure, Captain. =/\=
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Sarah Graesyn
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant T'Arel Madison
Forensic Engineering Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Captain Marc Kidd
Commanding Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Junior Grade Lwaxana Myles
Forensic Engineering Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Ensign Iren Th'ashianset
Engineering Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
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