Atmospheric Pressure Light Indicator

Posted on Thu Oct 10th, 2024 @ 9:41pm by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Lieutenant Owen Woodhouse & Lieutenant Soto Gantt
Edited on on Thu Oct 10th, 2024 @ 9:42pm

1,193 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Interlude 1 Gamma Quadrant
Location: DS 18, Main Engineering
Timeline: 26 August, 2396 - 1000 Hours

[ON]
"To wrap up, the whole base is pretty much a delicate balance of missing steel, emergency force fields, a tenuous power flow, and questionable decisions." Gantt glanced around the room. He counted on engineers getting to work when presented with a problem and these were no different. His morning with the crew from DS18 was pretty productive. He and Laggurv had discovered a mutual appreciation for the base's systems, Marshall kept Ch'vhoqak on task, and Truman was the classic, "give me a problem a leave me alone" kind of engineer.

"Consistent power is a huge problem and the medical bays are in danger of lapses. Until Lieutenant Woodhouse gets back, these are the next things we should tackle..."

An out-of-the-way alcove had been designated as the primary transport location for engineering, saving crew from having to manually traverse the station using the kilometers of vertical laddered tubes that were very much not yet in reliable condition. As though on cue, it was here that Woodhouse materialized following a brief rest period and subsequent briefing aboard Firebird.

He walked over to the assembled engineering team, hearing the mention of his name and catching Gantt's eye. "Carry on, Lieutenant, I'd like to hear your priorities," he said as he approached the gathered crew. He didn't mean to put Gantt on the spot, but he wanted to make sure Gantt knew he trusted him and valued his expertise. There was a very good chance they would be on the station awhile and Gantt was in a good position to take over the engineering department if Harlan's condition wasn't stabilized.

"Of course," said Gantt, glancing down at his PaDD, though he knew the assignments already. "Power on DS18 is a patchwork mess. More patch than work. Ensign Marshall, work with Petty Officer Ch'vhoqak to stabilize main power. Next, Chief Truman went to Medical to make those bays fully functional. They are having too many problems to count. Finally, I'll work with Ensign Laggurv on the life support and filtration systems. Your thoughts, sir?"

"I think," Woodhouse nodded once to give acknowledgment, "that is a solid plan. Given the hazards of the station at the moment, set an hourly check-in schedule and work in pairs when away from populated zones." He waited the length of two heartbeats before he added, "If there's nothing further, you all have your orders."

As the group dispersed, Woodhouse approached Gantt. "Anything further on our mystery device?"

Gantt scratched the back of his neck and said, "So far, I think it's built to look and act like a beacon of some kind but it's not. Or not entirely. Maybe?" He picked up a box from the floor and patted it like a new toy. "Based on the parts inside I decided to recreate it as closely as I could. Similar parts, construction, and function. This is 24% smaller than the original, meaning one-fourth of the box does something else. Something we're not supposed to know about."

"That's... really vague... and troubling," Owen answered, rubbing his chin as he looked over Gantt's recreation. It was a puzzle and he wasn't seeing a good way to solve the unknown. "Any unusual metals and components, any hint of its origin? We need to identify if there are others of these on the station."

"Some things that make no sense. The silvery components are covered in neutronium dust; they've made scanning nearly impossible. See those circuit boards, there," said Gantt, gingerly moving an internal conduit to expose a set of parallel components. "Made from benamite crystals way too fragile for the job. Maybe the neutronium helps." Gantt threw his hands up in the air as if in surrender. "Several chips are actually not live--not connected to anything, which is good because they're made from thalmerite. They're also coated in some kind of gel which seems to have made them more inert and less... explode-y. All reasons I haven't opened it up further. Any guesses, Owen? I'd really love some good guesses."

"Guesses? Sure, got plenty of theories," Owen shook his head as he walked the few steps back to the original device, dark and unpowered. "Surveillance, sabotage, or manipulations of some station systems. Not intended for long-term use as evidenced by the benemite. Maybe it did its job and this is why we're here now. Maybe it just needed to cause a long enough disruption of station systems for the attacking ships to do their job, but that could have been achieved with a much smaller package, so I don't know."

He paused only a heartbeat. "I also have a theory that maybe it doesn't do any of those things, it was just using the station as a source of power for... other activities." He tapped on the workbench as he thought through it. "Benemite is used in slipstream devices, so maybe a kind of spacial or temporal beacon? The inert chips could be waiting for a specific environmental or manual trigger before they're engaged."

"This is fun, theorizing, but we need to run more invasive testing to get clearer answers," Owen added with a deep sigh. "We'd need to power it up inside a controlled environment and carefully monitor and neutralize any interactions on a subspace level. See if it's trying to make a call home. It would be risky."

"In theory, I could build a temporal detector to see if it's trying to transmit. If we start low and slowly raise power to the device we might be able to detect a signal before it propagates outward." Gantt leaned forward, bracing his arms on the edge of the desk. "I think we'll need a subspace isolation field and I'm not at all certain we have enough stable power or a phase discriminator sensitive enough for it."

"The power stability will come. Maybe in a few days or weeks, but eventually we'll get there. The rest I think we'll figure out. Draw up your ideas and let's see what it looks like?" Owen stated it as a question, shoulders drawing up in a slight shrug.

"I'm already working on the plans. My gut tells me to figure this out sooner than later. The device follows my mind around no matter what I am doing." Gantt glanced at the oddly shaped box as if to make sure it hadn't moved. "Does it make calls or does it wait for a call to come it? I don't like it, sir. I'll have plans ready as soon as possible."

"I agree, the sooner we figure out what it is, the better. Good work," Owen added with a touch of finality to the tone. "Anything else before I go join one of the repair teams?"

"Nothing else, sir. We'll crack this nut!" said Gantt, shifting his gaze back to his console. "Ensign Laggurv, have I got a tough job for us."

[OFF]

Lieutenant Owen Woodhouse
Chief Operations Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Lieutenant Soto Gantt (NPC by Leed)
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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