What it Takes to Make a Ship Work

Posted on 03/22/2020 @ 4:34pm by Lieutenant JG Jasmine Langtree & Ensign Romal Seshel

Mission: S1E2: The Plomeek Soup Conundrum
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: Day 5 at 0010

[On]

Romal was aware of the new mission, that the USS Blackwell, a prison transport was in need of assistance, all this while he was in the middle of fixing a very stubborn turbo-lift.

Using a power flow tester in the open control panel, Romal was loosing patience. “Lets see now, its has a steady stream of power from the EPS power trunks and after I replace this ODN link, it should work.”

“Daddy, this is boring. Can we go to the Blue Parrot and get a Moon Fiz?” Mizi, asked, as she paced back and forth.

“ZZZAAAZZZZ!!!” Suddenly, a small burst of energy shot of the control panel, Romal was working on, knocking him to the deck. “Better stand back, Mizi. This turbo-lift just doesn’t want to work today.”

“You can fix it, daddy! I know you can!” Mizi said, patting him on the back.

“Yea, I know I can, even though I've been on this thing for at least a half hour. Its just this ODN link, it should have worked. I’ll have to try a YX23, instead of this, now burnt out YX22.” and Romal begin searching his tool box for the YX23.

"Here it is, daddy!” Mizi said, her quick eyes spotting it instantly.

“Just what I was looking for, Mizi. Thanks.” Romal replied, as he took the ODN link and made sure the power was off, as he installed it.

“Think it’ll work this time, daddy?” the little girl asked.

“Let’s find out!” Romal announced, as he turned the power back on and stepped inside the turbo-lift. "I’ll be going to deck 14, Mizi.” he said to his daughter before the doors closed.

“Deck 14, please.” Romal called out and the turbo-lift begin moving. After a few moments, the doors opened on deck 14. Just as Romal was about to take the lift back to deck 3, he spotted Lieutenant Logan. “Hi Chief, I just repaired this particular turbo-lift, a real stubborn one, but now I’ve got another one that’s acting up. I’ve sent three other engineers to fix various doors and several food processers that only make Plomeek Soup. Even Mizi is sick of Plomeek Soup!”

Archer furrowed his brow. "That makes two of us, then. I've performed more replicator diagnostics today than in the past year. And that's after a couple of crewmembers got locked inside their quarters. The door release was completely unresponsive. Had to pop open the manual release and pry the doors apart with a box wrench."

"Sometimes I wonder if gremlins are hiding somewhere on this ship. You know, they actually prefer new ships." Romal joked, then sighed when he thought of the heavy work load ahead of him.

The suggestion of gremlins sent a shiver down Logan's spine. "Ugh... don't say that! My mimaw used to say..." On second thought, old wives' tales were the last thing he wanted to go spreading around to the crew. "Well, never you mind that. What are you trying to say, Ensign?"

Romal paused for a moment. "You don't suppose all these assorted glitches are more than coincidence?" then as he pondered the thought, he almost laughed, . . ."and I'm not trying to blame the gremlins."

"Nah, I don't think so," Archer said. "Machines break down as machines are wont to do. It's called job security. For now, let's just take things as they come and see where we end up, yeah?"

"Aye, Chief! I'll take things as they come. Even though, these malfunctions do make me wonder, perhaps. . .hmmm." Romal started to say something, before cutting himself off.

Archer raised a brow at Romal. "Is this your first launch, Ensign? Tis normal for glitches for a few weeks even after a shakedown run."

"Actually, this is my fourth ship, Chief. None of them had this many--" but before Romal could finish his sentence, he heard the sound of pneumatic pumps come to a stop.

Just then, the turbo-lift doors opened and a little girl with blond ponytails walked out. "Hi daddy! I got bored waiting for you!"

"Mizi, its only been five minutes. You know I wouldn't forget you." Romal said, smiling and taking her hand. "There's not much to do for a seven year old girl on a ship with no other children. By the way, this is the Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Logan. Remember, you met him a few nights ago, but you can call him, ah well. . . what can Mizi call you, Chief?"

"Mr. Logan or Lt. Logan is just fine," Archer said. Perhaps it was overly formal, but where he came from, children addressed their elders with respect.

"Mister Logan, thank you." Mizi replied, then grinned cutely at the Chief.

Resisting the impulse to pat her head, Archer just smiled and nodded.

"What else we got to do, daddy?" Mizi asked, as she held up Romal's tool kit, which he had left with her on deck 3.

Romal took out his PADD and quickly checked his work schedule, "Next stop - deck 9, some of the science people have been complaining about being locked out of their labs."

Before Romal turned toward the turbo-lift, he spoke once more to Logan. "As soon as one glitch is fixed, two more spring up. This is so not normal. We could talk later about this." his assistant suggested.

"We'll go over the maintenance logs once everything is in order," Archer agreed. "The shipyard engineers will want a report of their handiwork anyway. So far, it's not looking good, is it?"

"Aye, Chief, it's not looking good for them." Romal quickly replied, though feeling unconvinced it was shipyard engineers, but knowing to keep his mouth shut, until he knew more.

In moments, the turbo-lift took Romal and Mizi to deck 9. As they walked down the ship corridor, the problems were quite evident with the pneumatic doors to science lab 3, opening and closing over and over again and there was also the frantic pounding sounds of people trying to escape science lab 4. The calamity the doors were causing, was disrupting the normal flow of work for the Science Department.

Further down the corridor, Romal spotted the officer in charge. Being still unfamiliar with department heads, Romal took out his PADD and quickly looked up her identity. He then walked over, toolkit in hand and little Mizi right behind him. "Chief Science Officer, Lieutenant Langtree, I'm Assistant Engineering Chief, Ensign Romal Seshel. I've been chasing glitches throughout the ship it seems. Well, I'm here to fix the door problems you've been having. Shall I start with the doors to lab 4?"

Mizi smiled and piped in, "My daddy can fix anything!"

Romal looked at his girl and smiled as well. "Well, I've yet to find a door I couldn't fix."

"Its nice to meet you Mr Seshel you are our new diagnostician? Yes you can start with the door and then help with the main processors in the Stellar Cartography and Astro-metrics labs. For some reason the data flow locks up but we cant find the source of the problem. We have replaced a dozen Iso-linear chips and even a bio-neural gel pack. Dont even get me started on the turbo lifts. Who is your little helper?" Jasmine asked pleasantly

The little girl grinned, taking an instant liking to the friendly woman, "I'm Mizi - what's your name?"

"I'm Jasmine. Lieutenant Jasmine Langtree, you can call me Jazzy, all my friends do.." Jasmine said.

"Mizi is my favorite little helper." Romal said proudly, then addressed Jasmine's other questions. "I would be happy to run diagnostics on the computer core. I've also noticed some data flow problems, requiring different iso-linear chips, than the ones currently being used. Actually, all these problems seem to occur when this mission first started. I wonder if that might be significant? Well anyway, before I run any diagnostics, I want to get those doors working again. We can’t have crew trapped or locked out of their own labs, then I'll have a look at those processors.”

"I suppose there are bugs in every new starship, why should the crazy horse be any different?

A bright smile came from Mizi, "I'm going to help daddy!"

"Good girls should always help their daddies, I always helped mine when I was your age." Jazzy replied.

Archer finally caught up with Romal and Mizi. Checking his chronometer, he raised an eyebrow at Romal. "Isn't it a little late for the little one, Ensign?" They were pressing into Gamma Shift, and he was exhausted. He couldn't imagine how exhausted the child must be. "Why don't you get her tucked in for the night? I can manage here."

"Actually, Gamma Shift is my last shift, Chief. With the enormous backlog of repairs coming in, I've had to assign double shifts to our engineers. Naturally, I can't play favorites by giving myself only one shift. As for Mizi, she has problems being alone at night, but I'm working on a solution. Perhaps I could show it to you sometime - when we're not so strapped for time."

Just then, Romal felt a familiar tugging on his uniform and he looked down. "Daddy, we got to fix those prosossessers, remember?" Mizi reminded her father as she held up his toolkit. "Maybe Mister Logan could help us." the little girl suggested.

Archer couldn't help but smile at the young lady's work ethic. She would fit right in on Terra Nova, as would, very likely, her father. But what kind of boss would he be letting this continue any longer than needed? He squatted down a smidgen to look at Mizi directly.

"Goldie," Archer said, using a common term of endearment for a child from his homeworld, "your daddy is a hard worker. So hard, in fact, that I think we can spare him for now because no job is more important than taking care of you."

Standing up, Archer said in a lower tone to Romal. "Punch out, Ensign, and see your daughter to bed. That's an order. Some of these repairs are a little dangerous for her, like in the turbolift, and the ship isn't in so dire of straits that we need you burning the midnight oil at her expense." He gave the man a reassuring smile that was filled with the admiration one spared for a family man.

"Very well, Chief. Here's my PADD with the repair schedule on it and it's a long one." Romal said, handing it to him and agreeing that his little girl should be in bed at this hour, the only problem being she couldn't sleep alone in a new place. At least tonight, the chief had solved that problem. It was thoughtful of Archer to consider the welfare of his child, something he would not forget.

Archer gave him a parting nod. "Thanks, Ensign. Great work."

As they begin to leave, the Romal looked back, grinned and mentioned one more thing. "I think you should start with the pneumatic doors to science lab 3. That pounding sound you hear are the scientists trying to get out."

"Hehehehahahahe!!! Oh daddy!" Mizi giggled at Romal's suggestion.

"Goodnight Mizi it was really nice to meet Sweetheart." Jasmine said smiling.

Turning to Mr Archer she said,"Probably a good idea Mr Archer, also the site to site transporter function isn't working either." Lt Langtree said.

Archer let out a tired sigh. "Data processors, pneumatic regulators, and transporter... anything else?" Part of him almost reconsidered his order to Romal, but Mizi's giggling reminded him of the important things in life. Maybe he could find someone to settle down with. Well, someone to actually get frisky with -- you can't get settled if you've never been busy in the first place.

Reality came back to him suddenly, and Archer realized he'd been daydreaming right in Jasmine's face. "I'm, sorry... I, eh, it's been a long day."

"I know....You look tired Mr Archer. Any idea on what causing all these failures?" Jasmine asked.

Archer blinked back his embarrassment at his reverie. "Yes... it's been a long day. As for these failures, though?" He let out a weary sigh. "I don't know. So far I'm just chalking it up to lousy assembly, but we're on the lookout for more serious systemic issues."

Looking at all the processors that failed yet again, Archer couldn't help but sigh again. "When it rains..."

[END]

______________

A post by:

Lieutenant JG Jasmine Langtree
Chief Science Officer
USS Crazy Horse

Lieutenant JG Archer Logan
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Crazy Horse

Ensign Romal Seschel
Engineer Technician
USS Crazy Horse

Mizi Seschel
Beloved Daughter
USS Crazy Horse