An Engineering House Call

Posted on Tue Aug 1st, 2023 @ 2:53pm by Commander Michael Murphy & Captain Jackson Adams & Lieutenant Steve Ryan

Mission: The World We Never Knew
Location: Babel

ON:

[USS Montana Bridge]

Murphy waited on the Bridge of The Montana as they monitored activities on the planet, including that of their away team. Lieutenant Ryan, Ensign O'Donnel, and a handful of Security and Engineering crew members were down on the planet attempting repairs of Plex's ship.

Captain Adams turned to the Commander, "What is the Status of getting people off this planet before it's too late?"

Murphy held back a sigh. "We're down to roughly thirty-six hours before the scheduled execution. I haven't heard any updates from the away team yet." He was worried but determined not to show it. He had faith that the away team could get a lot done in the short time frame.

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[Away Team - Planet Surface]

The away team materialized in Babel surface. As soon as Steve, Deborah, two more engineers and a security detail of three materialized, the three security officers scrambled in all directions to provide a safe perimeter to allow the rest of the team to work unbothered.

"uhm" were the first words that Ens. O'Donnel pronounced having a look at the refugee's spaceship.

"What's up?" asked Steve getting close to her.

"Weeell" she pointed at the ruins of a starship in front of them. It appeared abandoned and not in a great shape, for the exception of a few tents and barracks laying on it "Sounds like the refugees were using the wreckage of the ship to live in it. It's a sort of colony. I wonder if they tried to fix it or if they simply scavenged it for usable material" she frowned.

Steve shook his head in disbelief "Any chance it will work?"

Deborah shrugged "We'll have to see what's the inside", and once said so, she took the lead of the engineering team and made her way towards the entrance of the ship.

The COO promptly flipped his communicator on and updated the bridge on their situation.

=^= Away team to USS Montana, we're going into the ship for further damage assessments, we might lose contact for a while if the signal is screened =^=

=^= USS Montana here. Understood. Keep us posted at regular intervals. =^=

=^= Copy that =^= answered Steve before joining the rest into the belly of the ship.

The outer shell of the starship had definitely sustained severe damage, revealing glimpses of the inner workings beneath. Staying on the surface of the planet without being worked on didn't help either, Steve thought.

The corridors and chambers within were a labyrinth of interlocking passageways and rooms, illuminated by flickering dimmed lights. Panels and displays that once displayed vital information now lay shattered and inoperative.

"Lights are still working" told him Deborah with a surprised tone "Wonder if they're powered off the main reactor or if they are powered off some solar powered batteries" she smiled towards him before continuing along the corridors through what could have been main engineering.

Navigating through the twisted metal, the away team found themselves in what appeared to be the ship's control room.
"Sounds like things are pretty much intact here" said one of the engineers tagging along.

Deborah's head waves slowly left and right pondering her colleague's words. "You'd better double check here if there are any major damage. Run a few diagnostics and see if the systems are powered through batteries. Report once you're done" she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am" the guy answered and started working on a nearby panel to get access to the main node of the ship.
In a few minutes inside the wreckages of the ship, the team finally landed on what seemed to be the main engineering department.

"Woah, this is messy" was the only comment that Steve managed.

The entire room was a rats nest of cables and open circuits.
"Seems like someone already tried to repair it" O'Donnel smiled rolling up her sleeves "Ok guys, let's get to work and see what happened here and if this thing is still in business".
After almost an hour of working here and there Ens. O'Donnell approached Steve while he was working on the EPS network of the ship.

Smiling she sat close to him "We can patch it up just the bare minimum for a flight" she told him "But we will need some parts and equipment from the Montana. The Captain shall approve it, since it will consume parts and materials that are usually part of our replacement parts" she explained.
Steve nodded "I was sure you could do it" he told her with a proud face "Let's get somewhere we can contact the Montana and you can explain the situation".

She nodded and they both left the shield of the crashed ship to get a read of the Montana's signal.

=^= USS Montana, this is the away team. We got news=^=

Commander Murphy's voice answered them. =^= Go ahead, away team. =^=

O'Donnel took the comm in her hands and started explaining:

=^=Sir, we did a quick tour of the ship. It's not in mint conditions but it's something we can work on. The EPS network is still working, they re-routed most of the cables so as to use the energy in their day to day activity and use the ship as a sort of land-colony. We got a few burnt and damaged systems up in the control room. Nothing really fancy but some work would allow them a less bumpy ride. With respect to the main engines, they are pretty much fine. They need a new plasma collector and their warp coils are to be realigned. A good engineering team could handle that in 10 hours at most. The structural integrity...well...there's some more work to do but overall, with some metal plaques here and there we might be able to pressurize it and have it hold till they reach home. We need to access the Montana's replacement parts though, and we'll be left with very few to none of them by the end of this repairing job =^=

She finished her speech and watched Steve awaiting for the vessel's reply.

=^= This is great news, team! You have whatever approvals you need from us. =^=

=^= Thankyou, Sir, we'll get things underway. =^=

Deborah's face lit up. "We did it" she told Steve hugging him tight for a fraction of a second. "Now on to work on the ship. I'll get you a list of material and personnel I need. Would you please get those things delivered here?" she asked.

"Sure" Steve answered waving her goodbye as she moved back inside the ship and he was left outside planning for the material to be transported on the surface.


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OFF:

Captain Jackson Adams
Commanding Officer

Commander Michael Murphy
Executive Officer

Lt. Steve Ryan
Chief Operation Officer - USS Montana

Ens. Deborah O'Donnel
Engineer - USS Montana