The Ship Misses Its Mommy

Posted on Thu May 9th, 2024 @ 2:51am by Commander Grace Vetur & Lieutenant JG Peri Valeri & Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii & Lieutenant Percival Bálor Ph.D & Ensign Rishi Chabbra

1,308 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Standing By
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 02 - Before and After "Parental Emancipation"

The lights in Engineering flickered a few times, going between dull and bright. The ships Engineers were running around trying their best to find out the cause. Acting Chief Nishikata was tapping furiously at the power systems controls.

"We've got some sort of power drain!" he said. He couldn't help but let out a sigh as he tried to reroute power.

"Unable to comply." The Computer replied back to him. Another console across the room began to beep and Nishikata found himself running towards that console too. "Oh come on!" he exclaimed. "Warp power is dropping now."

He tapped his comm badge. "Engineering to Bridge. We've got some problems down here. I recommend limiting speed to warp four for now. We've got some fluctuations in our warp field and a power drain on a primary conduit." Nishikata reported.

Percy was at the Science station on the bridge when the Acting Chief Engineer reported the power fluctuation problem and recommended a warp factor of four. "Four?!" exclaimed Percy. He turned in his seat. "At that speed we may as well race a Pakled scow."

Grace turned to the communications officer. "Tell him to run a diagnostic and look for potential power drains."

The communications officer nodded and relayed the message.

Percy snorted and sighed. "I want a copy of those diagnostic reports sent to me when they are completed" instructed the Chief Science Officer. He stood from his seat and let another officer have his seat, acting as relief for him. He looked at Yiv and Grace. "I'll be down in the Astrometrics Laboratory on Deck fourteen" he stated.

He remained where he was, not finished with his line of though. "I want a full timestamp break down of when we first experienced any sort of fluctuations or hiccups no matter how minor or seemingly insignificant they may have been at the time" added Percy.

"Captain, permission to have Lieutenant Valeri join me down in deck fourteen?" He looked to Grace for permission.

"Permission granted." At this point, she'd give half the ship permission to help get this ship functioning. It was old, yes, but it had been working efficiently and wasn't close to needing routine maintenance.

"Passing the request to engineering," the communications officer said, hoping the initiative would be appreciated.

Grace smiled and nodded. "Thank you."

Percy returned a smile. There was something different and nice about having permission granted and not being questioned so frequently as though he were going to be a risk. "Appreciated," Percy added. "We can't exactly arrive at our next destination at warp four. I mean we could, but that would severely delay us."

"No. As we don't know what's going on, time may be a factor, and I don't want to spend the next month babying the warp core." Or any other part of the ship, Grace thought to herself.

Sat in the First Officer's seat, Yiv ground his teeth throughout the interaction in frustration. 'Ships systems don't just suffer unexpected drains like this. There has to be an external factor. Either environmental, or a crewmember either accidentally or with intent interfered with our systems.'

'It's a cliche for an Intelligence Officer to suspect sabotage, but there we go. Ships aren't sentient so can't do this to themselves,' he added with a smile.

"No, they aren't," Grace replied. "It's just coincidental. I'm hoping it's an accident or something needs to be replaced. Once that's done, we'll be on our way. This assignment is too important to delay it for what should be a simple repair."

It may not be that simple thought Percy before he parted from the bridge. His mind was racing with ideas, suspicions, theories, but sabotage was not one that was on his mental radar. Theoretically, yes, of course that was a possibility but possibility and plausibility were two separate matters. There was not much significance to the Ontario these days. She was a gorgeous starship, but long past her prime. Ontario's mission was also not something that screamed high importance at least not beyond the humanitarian duty of checking on potentially missing or injured scientist which to a scientist like Percy was high importance on a personal level.

"Save those twitching whiskers for Priapus, Yiv" Percy quipped with a smirk. "This will have some sort of rational explanation to it. At least that is what my gut is telling me" stated Percy. "Well, that or don't eat the red alert chili again."

"Keep us apprised of your progress," Grace told Percy. "Meanwhile, I want to start some scans from here to make sure there's nothing else wrong."

'Sensible precautions,' Yiv noted from his seat, 'we should bring the ship out of warp while we investigate.' He shrugged, 'don't want the field collapsing around us.'

Grace quickly calculated the time the could delay their departure and nodded. "Okay, but we don't have long. Thirty minutes, and hour at most."

'Helm, bring us out of warp,' Yiv commanded. 'Keep us heading towards our destination at full impulse until ordered differently.' He turned to Grace, 'done, let's get some answers.'

"Thirty minutes and counting," Grace said. "Let's hope those two can produce a miracle."

He flashed a grin in return, 'thankfully it'll be a miracle of the minor sort this time.'

From the science console, Ensign Rishi Chabbra turned in his seat. "Lieutenant Bálor fancies himself a sort of patron saint of small miracles" stated the science officer. "Or perhaps that was major chaos, hmm maybe both considering" chuckled Rishi.

***

In relatively little time, Peri and Percy walked back onto the bridge. "We think we found the problem," Peri announced. "It'll take a graviton beam to fix."

"A graviton beam?" Grace said, one eyebrow raised. "By all means, go ahead. The sooner we can go back to warp, the better."

Percy gave a nod in return to Grace. "Lieutenant Valeri was brilliant. She was an asset to figuring this out" he said shining some light onto her.

"We found the cause to be biological, Captain. We passed by a nebula along the way, as I recall we were at impulse for a while to take some scans. That was likely when we collected a few stowaways on our hull, barnacles of a sort. A graviton beam will repulse them, and the residue effects on our hull should keep them off long enough fir us to scurry away" Percy explained.

"Excellent, both of you," Grace said, looking from Peri to Percy. "Let's get this done and get back on our way."

Peri quickly set up the deflector dish to send a graviton beam onto the right area of the hull. When she was finished, she turned to Percy. "Are we clear?"

"Ensign Chabbara, answer the lieutenant" Percy said as he approached the science console.

The Ensign turned in his seat. "Yes, ma'am. We are clear, lieutenant."

"Perfect. Thank you." Peri turned to Grace. "All clear, ma'am. Engineering can return to full power now."

Grace smiled, feeling her growins stress ebb. "thank you. Well done."

She tapped her comm. "Bridge to engineering. The problem has been corrected. Bring us back to full power."

"Aye, ma'am?" Nishikata said hesitantly. "Without the lieutenant?"

"Yes, ensign. Without the lieutenant. Ops and science found and corrected hte problem. Full power, please. We need to jump back to warp."

"Aye, ma'am. Engineering out."

A moment later, Peri reported that power levels were returning to normal levels.

"Excellent. Helm, verify the course and take us back to warp seven. Engage when ready."

OFF

Commander Grace Vetur
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant JG Peri Valeri
Assistant Chief Operations Officer

Lieutenant JG Nishikata
Acting Chief Engineer

Lieutenant Percival Bálor Ph.D
Chief Science Officer

Ensign Rishi Chabbra
Science Officer

Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii
Executive Officer

 

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