Booster Chaos

Posted on Sat Jul 20th, 2024 @ 5:40am by Lieutenant Rea & Lieutenant Sarah Graesyn

1,088 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Starship Graveyard
Location: Planet Desert Surface

Engineers log.

It's been two weeks since we relocated the Tokyo to flatter ground. My engineering teams have been working around the clock with the engineers from the other ships. The boosters are well under construction and we have finally recieved all of the promised engines from the wrecks. We have also salvaged hull sections to build the booster casing and other componants to ensure the engines are powered and ready to go.

We are hoping to run a few tests later today. The last of the engines to be installed will be the Ferengi's. Then we can use our shuttlecraft to lift and mount the boosters onto the Tokyo's hull.

Rea stood there in a large shelter which had been set up outside the Tokyo. When on the ground the sheer size of the ship was overwhelming and the Tokyo wasn't even the biggest ship in the whole of Starfleet.

Large cylinder tubes were being worked on about twenty meters away. They looked like old fashioned rockets that Earth once used, except they were much bigger. In comparison they were roughly the same size as the Tokyo's advanced warp nacelles.

The boosters each had a mixture of bodged together engines at one end to provide thrust, along with several impulse reactors inside to power them. The plan was to mount these boosters to the nacelle struts where they could feed power directly to them from the Tokyo's EPS grid.

The Eifie checked a PADD as she turned to ome of her engineers. "We should attempt a low power up..." she said turning to Sarah who had become her right hand woman.

Sarah nodded, stepping over to the console that they were using to monitor and control the boosters as they constructed them. "I can initiate the program as soon as you are ready... though I am seeing a small fluctuation in the power grid that we should keep an eye on."

She attempted to make a few adjustments to no effect and she shook her head. "Doesn't seem like I can do much about it, perhaps its something with the impulse reactors"

"I'll go check them," Rea said as she put the PADD down on a side table. "Care to assist?" she asked with a small smile as she began to make her way towards the booster's reactors.

“Sure; let me just grab my kit in case we need it” Sarah picked up the engineers kit that she always kept close at hand and walked with Rea toward the booster.

[Booster's]

The long cyclinder that made up the boosters had been mainly built of several salvaged hull parts from the other wrecks. Therefore inside it was a mixture of different colours and patterns. It had sections that looked Klingon, whilst others looked more Vulcan, Romulan, Ferengi and Cardassian. But looks didn't matter, what they were after was functionality.

In the very center of the long tubes were several impulse reactors set in a line. Although they were from different ships the basic technology was the same. The reactors created power when fed with fuel which then was used by the engines to create thrust. Behind the impulse reactors towards the forward of the booster casings were large tanks, now currently being filled with fuel.

Rea made her way towards a small console that had been made up to monitor the reactors. During flight the boosters would be inaccesible and wouldn't be pressurised, so the console was only accessible with the ship on the ground.

"It seems you were right." Rea said as she turned to Sarah. "I am reading fluctuations in the power grid." she looked over at the impulse reactors. "We don't want them to explode when we're attempting lift off. An explosion from one could set off the others." Rea told her. "If that happens, the Tokyo will be coming back down to the surface, except in thousands of pieces..."

“And us in very much the same condition… sounds like this is something we are going to have to fix now if we can.” Sarah stepped over pulling out a decoupler and approaching the boosters. “Can you disconnect them from the grid and I’ll see what we are working with.” She said, stepping forward and pulling out her tricorder.

Rea tapped on the controls. "I think power is disconnected." She said. "Whilst you're doing this, I'll go check the conduits to the generators."

Sarah nodded as she flipped open the maintenance panel on the booster and dug in with the decoupler, ensuring that she insulated herself from any sudden power surges or energy discharges and then she started scanning with her tricorder, watching its display closely while she worked.

Meanwhile Rea made her way towards the main plasms conduit junctions. As she opened the hatch she frowned. The cross wiring of the conduits was messy, but it was the only way to get several different designs to work together. "This wasn't done very well..." she said. She made a mental note to check the maintenance logs to find out who had done this work that she could only describe as 'shoddy' to use a Human term.

Slowly she began to disconnect the conduit regulator. It was then that she noticed a problem. The conduit had been damaged in some way. It didn't look like intentional damage, more like it had been damaged when it had been installed. It could have been dropped or knocked as it was installed. "I guess this was an accident. Not surprising since we have different crews working on this." She told herself outloud.

It all then happened so quickly. An alarm started to sound out loudly, and only a few seconds later Rea was thrown away from the conduit and across the booster. She smacked into one of the walls and slid down to the ground unconcious.

Sarah had turned at the alarm; just in time to watch Rea get thrown and she dropped her tools, rushing to Rea’s side and checking her vitals. She tapped her comm badge “Sickbay, prepare to treat an energy discharge injury, I’m bringing Lieutenant Rea.”

As soon as she finished speaking she lifted Rea and moved her carefully, setting her down next to the console where she hurriedly put in the commands to initiate a site to site transport to sickbay.

Moments later they both disappeared in a haze of blue and white lights and dots.

Posting by:

Lieutenant Rea
Acting Chief Engineer

Lieutenant Sarah Graesyn
Assisstant Chief Engineer

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