When the defecated matter hits the rotary oscillator

Posted on 07/22/2020 @ 6:40pm by Captain Cian D'Anvers

Mission: S2E1: The Skunil Incident
Location: USS Crazy Horse Bridge
Timeline: Day 38 at 1330

"The secret of crisis management is not good vs bad, it's preventing the bad from getting worse."
-Andy Gilman-

Cian settled in to wait while the away team attempted to ascertain the status of the colonists; this far out, any number of things could have happened and it did little good to speculate. And there were things to occupy his attention. The ion storm had been confined primarily to the upper atmosphere; while the Crazy Horse was safe it was a situation that everyone on the Bridge was watching closely.

Xander Cash was on the bridge. He was monitoring the engines and power systems from there. This way, He could make snap corrections in case the systems on the ship started to fail or got damaged due to the storm. He looked at the consul that was configured for Engineering. Everything was running smooth so far. Not a problem, everything was holding. This was a good sign. Ion storms could be tricky business. It kinda fit the description of how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his famous detective character to feel about horses. 'Dangerous at both ends, and crafty in the middle.' But Xander was willing to bet that even Sherlock Holmes couldn't figure out Just how powerful an ion storm COULD be. That's why starships carried ion pods; in times past, manned pods were used to measure and study ion storms. However, on the newer classes of starships, ion pods were unmanned.

"Mr. Cash and Mr. Byrnes, coordinate the deflector protocol for the sensor module so that we can begin taking readings on the storm," Cian said.

"Aye Sir." Said Cash. "Sharing telemetry now."

"Aye Sir," Brynes said. He was young, not exactly baby-faced, but still lacking the heavy knowing that tended to bring shadows into the depths of the eyes with a squared off jaw and unruly hair that reflected red highlights under the overhead lighting. Having been aboard only a little more than a month and before that, the Academy, he had only in the past few days reached a level of comfort in his duties. Four weeks ago, it had been all he could do not to leap to attention whenever a senior officer spoke. Two weeks ago, he had spent his shifts on the bridge dry-mouthed and nervous enough that he fidgeted nearly the entire time. But that had been then, as the saying went. Now, he worked on his part of the deflector protocol, factoring in a number of variables.

=/\= Engineering to Cash, this is Ensign Delmar. =/\= Came a message over the comm channel.

=/\= Talk to me Pops. =/\= Said Cash.

=/\= You reading those increased plasma spikes in the nacelles? =/\= He asked sounding concerned.

=/\= I sure am Pops. I don't see a problem for right now. But I want you to keep a close eye on those plasma injectors. If those go, we could have massive power problems all over the board. We could easily loose the ship. =/\= Said Cash

=/\= Yeah, I don't wanna walk from here. Pops out. =/\= Delmar said closing the channel.

The spiking in the power grid was starting to get worse. But, with a few simple corrections, compensations for, it was no problem for now. Xander looked at the probes telemetry. We were still receiving info. It's a good thing Seshel was there in the pod control room. Xander knew he was because, well the probe was active. It was one of those things that had to be manned because of ion interference. This data that was being collected is vital. Every ion storm researched helps saves lives. And that is just one more reason why we are here in the first place.

=/\= Xander this is Pops, we got a problem. We have a jammed plasma injector. We tried switching circuits and going to the bypass. Its not working.=/\= Said Delmar.

=/\= Secondary bypass?=/\= Asked Xander.

=/\= No dice. We are going to try to do this manually, could you adjust the power flow and reroute power so we can work on that injector? =/\= Asked Pops.

=/\= Alright Pops, but try and be fast. With the spikes in the power system, it puts a lot of undo strain on the power conduits. Under normal conditions, it would be no problem. But during an ion storm, it's just dangerous. =/\= Xander adjusted the power as needed. =/\= There you go. Be as fast as you can guys. Bridge out. =/\= Xander begged.

Just then Xander noticed that pressure was building up in the warp coils.

=/\= Xander to Delmar, I hope you are almost finished. I don't like the plasma pressure readings in the warp coils. =/\= He said sounding concerned.

=/\= Xander we just got finished. You can reestablish power to that injector. We think we got it. =/\= Said Pops.

Xander activated to injector and started to route power through it. The warp coil strain started to even out as power was slowly evenly spread out. " And another crisis averted." Said Cash. He looked at his consul. The pod was still sending telemetry. So that was good. Xander was actually thinking this just might turn out to be alright. Then, on Xander's consul he noticed a power drain. Xander routed all power from that area immediately and compensated.

=/\= Xander to Engineering. Pops what is going on down there. =/\= He asked.

=/\= Cash, we had a plasma conduit explode down here. Nobody was hurt. We got lucky. Could have been a lot worse. Left us with a hell of a clean up. =/\= Said Delmar.

"Did you get that Captain?" Cash asked.

"Aye," Cian said as he turned his attention to his Chief Engineer. "Estimated time to repair?"

=/\= What's the repair time Pops? =/\= Cash asked.

=/\= Oh Man, you looking at some repair work. We got lots to do. It's a 3 hour job. We will have it functional in 1 hour. It will not be pretty. But it will do the job. Kinda like Pig Boy. =/\= Said Delmar.

=/\= Copy that. Thanks Pops =/\= Said Cash.

=/\= Hey, how else am I gonna be buckin for your job? =/\= Pops added giggling.

Cash started to chuckle. =/\= Bridge out. =/\=

"Sir, Engineering says they can have everything working within the hour." Cash reported.

"Very good," Cian responded and then, shifting his attention to the science station, added, "keep watch on that storm. I want to be informed immediately if anything changes." Cian settled back in his seat. For now, everything was fine. The away team and the ship were both safe. But things could change quickly with ion storms and so, they would keep watch.

"Yes sir." Replied Cash.

A Post by:

Commander Cian D'Anvers
Commanding Officer
USS Crazy Horse

and

Lt jg Xander Cash
(Acting) Chief Engineer
USS Crazy Horse

and

Ensign Lucius Delmar
Engineer
USS Crazy Horse