Surgical Intervention, Part 1
Posted on Tue Jun 23rd, 2020 @ 4:10am by Second Mate Colleen Branagan & MERCHANT RANKS N'Tach Oro-korinko (NPC) & Civilian Resident Judah Capek
Edited on on Tue Jun 23rd, 2020 @ 4:11am
828 words; about a 4 minute read
Mission:
The Proving Ground
Location: Engineering, Second Star
Timeline: 2-days Pre-Launch
Previously, the Engineering Section was in a terrible mess, and Colleen Branagan was sent to help with clean up and restart. ...
"Aye, Aye, Sir!" Branagan grabbed the end of the crate and began to pull it toward the sanitizing station. She was pretty sure it was blood, not rust or paint or some other substance, on the tools, and she'd definitely want them sanitized before she used them ... and maybe herself, too, but that wasn't happening soon.
And now, continuing the job ....
Reaching the chamber, Branagan opened the door and pushed the entire crate inside, closing it up again, and looking for station that ran the process. It was located to the left, so she moved over to tap out instructions and start it going. It wouldn't take long, but there was enough time to investigate the next part of her job. She walked over to the holographic interface system to start running checks there.
"Whoa," she muttered to herself. "This is worse than my science station on the bridge. Am I going to have to make every system on the ship work together, for cryin' out loud?"
Judah prompted himself onto the corner display, a teenager's face, a memory of what he saw in the mirror. "We didn't build this house, but I do have to live in it. Hi there, Colleen!"
Branagan jumped and put a hand over her heart. "You startled me!" She took a moment to study the face in the display. "You're Judah? Somehow, I thought you'd be far older. Dia dhuit*, as we say in the old country. I thought the big fella out there," she pointed over her shoulder with her thumb, "was having fits because he couldn't get you going."
Never one to talk without working, she began to lift the heavy tools out of the box while she waited for his response. She laid them, untouching, in the largest tray in the sanitation unit.
"Is fearr Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla clíste?#" Judah smiled at his witty reply, adding, "I'm older than I look I guess. The EPS heads are leaking all over Engineering from the blowouts. Once the Emitters aren't interfered with, I'll be able to meet you in person."
N'tach snorted, "We have greater problems than that! We must restore main power or we will not meet our launch window! And to do that, a reroute of the EPS in 7-a conduits somehow to 6-c, which of course requires an inter-phase coupler...." He began to mumble to himself again, buried in his own thoughts and daunted at the enormity of the work.
Judah didn't so much as harrumph, but he got Colleen's attention, "I can help, I can coordinate the exo-comps remotely but if I can be... here it will take an hour tops to get this place done."
Branagan winked as she shoved the last of the tools into the sanitizer. "Well, then, not-so-young lad, tell me what to do to make that happen. I think our companion will surely be happier then. Should I work on the reroute first?"
Judah was thrilled to have someone speak to him normally, as any other person. It made Colleen an instant friend, and he wanted to impress her.
"If we can reduce the signal leaks from the broken EPS, I can have the Exo-comps coordinate and we will handle the re-route. I'd give anything to be able to walk in the room and do it myself, and if you can get the taps under control I can do exactly that."
Colleen frowned slightly. "I don't remember seeing an inter-phase coupler in all that stuff," she waved absently toward the materials now sterilizing behind her. "I don't think I'd need it to find and fix signal leaks ..." she stared off in the distance for a few moments.
"Yeah, no, a particle field sensor, a photonic variance dampener and a ... yes, a new dissipation capacitor could take care of the problem, if we're lucky. Whattaya think?" she asked Judah.
Judah was ecstatic, "Yes, yes!"
Four Geodesic rhomboids floated into view, the hardest workers on the Second Star, and the hidden advantage to their engine room. Exo-Comp devices, sapient AI who just wanted to be a family, Peggy, Nessy, Banshee, and Zombie. On the smaller vessel, these four had kept their ship in top form, but this new operation was a hundred times more complicated.
Judah prompted them like shy children to move towards Colleen, "They'll listen to you, I told em you were a friend."
The four floating robots cautiously moved forward, Nessy with a giant optical antennae upraised was the closest, while Zombie stayed far back. N'tach had yelled at them. Chris Callahan hadn't trusted them. How would this new one react?
* pronounced as jee-ah- gwit - a greeting in Ireland.
#"Is fearr Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla clíste?" (Broken Irish is preferable to Clever English)
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