Proper Maintenance

Posted on Thu Nov 21st, 2019 @ 11:30pm by Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Kincaid & Lieutenant JG Alexandra Campa

813 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Mission 0 - Pre-Sigma Iotia II
Location: Deck 9, Maintenance Room
Timeline: 2167/07/11 1010

ON:

Nick had learned when he woke that the ship’s helm officer had finally arrived. In his past assignments, he learned it was useful for the pilot and the engineer to have a good, close working relationship. In reading her file, he had also noticed that she had an affinity for building, repairing, maintaining, and tinkering. Not all helmspeople enjoyed that kind of work, but in his experience the best ones did.

He had some work that needed to be done on the impulse engines, and so summoned Lieutenant jg Alexandra Campa to the Deck 9 Maintenance Room.

Campa arrived in the maintenance room with a bright smile on her face. "Commander Kinkaid, I presume?" she asked as she stepped towards the engineer.

“That’s right,” Nick answered. “Nice to meet you, Lieutenant Campa.” He extended his hand for a handshake.

“I’ve asked you here for your assistance with some minor adjustments needed to the dorsal impulse engines,” he explained. “The plasma isn’t flowing right. I think I’ve traced the problem, but I want your opinion. You’re the one flying, you should play a part in engine maintenance, especially on the sublight engines and the shuttles.”

She shook his hand with a grin. "Thank you, sir. I appreciate that." She glanced around the maintenance room. "Do you think it's an issue with the conduits are should we go have a look at the injector array?"

“I think it’s the injector array,” Nick answered. “We should be able to access it from an access tunnel in this room. Let’s grab some tools and take a look.” He picked up a pair of toolkits, passed one to Alex, and then opened the access panel. “Would you like to go first, or should I?”

Alex took the toolkit and nodded. "You can go first," she said, aware of just how short the uniform skirt was.

Nick smiled and entered first. He understood her reluctance to go first, but couldn’t break the habit of offering to let another person go ahead of him. He crawled along the access tunnel until he reached the end, turned right down another tunnel, and then exited through another access panel to his left into a tight area around the plasma injector array. “In here. I think I see the problem, but take a look.”

She crawled after him, just a few feet behind. It was clear she knew her way around access tunnels as well. She crawled up next to him, shoulder the shoulder in the tight space. She looked at the injector array and then pulled out a tool from the kit for a precise measurement. "It's misaligned. Not by much but it'd be trouble if we needed high impulse suddenly." She paused and looked at it another moment. "Good eye, sir. I don't think I would have found that without the instruments."

"I had the advantage of running a diagnostic from the bridge before I met up with you," Nick explained. "Plasma definitely comes into the array but leaves it inconsistently. I think this one," he pointed to one specific injector, "is colored a bit differently. I think it's been getting very hot from being misaligned, which has affected the metal and the paint. We might need to replace it as well as realign."

"I think you're right," she agreed. "We'll need to temporarily reroute or shut down the plasma flow so we can remove it safely."

Nick nodded. “There’s a console back in the maintenance room. You should be able to reroute from there. I’ll stay and remove the offending injector once it’s clear. Just give me the signal.”

"Yes, sir," she says before turning and headed back through the tunnel to the maintenance room. She took the controls at the console and rerouted the plasma. She made sure to reroute it through two separate pathways so none was doing full double duty. "Ready, sir!"

“Removing it now.” Spanner in hand, Nick disconnected the injector and hefted it from its cradle. He brought it closer to his face and sniffed. It’s smelled burned; it had definitely gotten too hot too many times. He crawled back out through the maintenance tunnel and reunited with Alexandra. “The hardest part was identifying the problem. I’ll have a Petty Officer come in to install and align later today. Thanks for your help, today, Lieutenant.”

"Thanks for letting me help out, sir, and for the chance to get to know you a little better." She glances back to the area he just came from. "One problem taken care of or nearly so."

“Thank you for helping,” he replied. “And I’m glad I could get to know you too. With that, we should be able to launch on time.”

:OFF

Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Kincaid
XO/CEO

Lieutenant JG Alexandra Campa
CHO

 

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