Recovery & Adaptation

Posted on Thu Oct 26th, 2017 @ 4:12am by

651 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Unknown Life, Unknown Dangers
Location: Main Engineering.

Standing at the table in Engineering I was drawn to the flashing red indicators of system failures, hull damage or any kind of problem the computer could detect and there was plenty of it. While most of the damage was contained to the region of the nacelle strut there was other ships systems that suffered damage because of concussion or energy transmission through the ships internal structures. While I understood the act as necessary it would play havok with the day to day running of the ship until we got to the Remler Array. Warp speed was critically reduced, while we could maintain low speeds we were taxing just one nacelle with our speed which meant we'd have to drop out of warp to cool off the coils.

Pushing a ship this large on one nacelle was not what the designers had in mind which is why the nacelles were bigger than most classes.

I was on my 6th cup of Coffee when I was at my desk, no surprise that it had turned cold but I drank it anyway. I had a colossal mountain of work to do and a lot of tired engineers to do it. Everyone was pulling extra since the damage took place, going the extra mile to get tasks done but it was one of those instances that no matter what work was done, what thread was tied off, another would appear.

"Sir, update report on the EPS Grid." A tired looking Ensign spoke at the door to the Chief's Office.

"Thanks, you look like you could use a cup?" I asked with me hand out to the report.

"Thanks but I'm already on my 3rd, anymore and you could use me as a power source."

Like that the Ensign left me to my reading and my now empty cup. Damage to the EPS grid while minor in general was spread out all over the ship. The damage was putting a severe strain on the integrity field because now the ship was off balance, with so much inertial weight reduced on one side and all of the drive force coming from one nacelle on the other it was causing problems we kept having to adjust to. The warp bubble was a mess and grossly tilted to one side for obvious reasons, this caused problems because it constantly needing monitoring, adjusting, fine tuning mid warp which was never a good thing to begin with.

Already I was compiling reports, lists, requisition orders and material resupply requests for submission to SFE upon our arrival at the array. I knew it would take a while to decontaminate the ship, every living thing from crew to pet had to be removed. We had to make sure we got every trace of this bio organism otherwise we risked another outbreak. So far the reports that were coming back indicated that what vines were visible had withered and died. The sections were sealed off and guarded at that point.

I'd been running simulations to get a better idea on some projections, while we were lucky to get off as well as we did, by my estimates my plan had shaved off nearly 20 years of life off the ship. Every ship had a structure like a skeleton, it formed the shape of the ship, the backbone. We'd just cut off a limb and not in a gentle way. Any damage to the structure of the ship was a critical event and for an engineer, a logistical nightmare.

Considering it was my plan to begin with I was pretty sure I would have some pretty difficult questions from some far more experienced and qualified engineers from SFE when the teams got here. I had to make sure that everything was in order, by the book, dotted I's and crossed T's.

It was not an ordeal I was looking forward too that was for sure.

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