Twenty-Four Hours

Posted on Mon Oct 28th, 2019 @ 12:48pm by Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Kincaid & Lieutenant JG Serenity Hayes

2,083 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 1 - Leaving Sigma Iotia II
Location: Engineering
Timeline: 2168/07/25 2000

Nick perspired as he pulled hard on a large wrench. He needed to detach the main antimatter lines to check them for damage, but one damaged component was the warp core separation system. It meant the only way to detach the core was manually. The largest spanner in their inventory, a good meter long, was attached to the base as he pulled with all his might. Junior engineers busied themselves with other work until Nick was done.

He saw Serenity enter the engine room and nodded to her. He pulled one last time and the antimatter flow line came free. “Alright, that’s the priority,” he told his team before jumping away from the core and approaching Serenity. “Ser. Glad you’re here.”

Feeling the way she once had when her Mothers had given her and her sisters time off from studies and chores, Serenity walked in with considerably more bounce in her step that she'd had of late. "Thanks," Serenity answered and with a decided twinkle in her eyes, added, "Glad to be here. What did you need, Sir?"

“I need your help with the dilithium crystal matrix,” he explained. “Parts of it have been thrown out of alignment. It’s precise work, and you’re much better at it than I am.” He gestured to the ladder to the next engineering level. “Follow me up, and help me take it out of the warp core.” He set down his giant wrench and headed toward the ladder.

She pulled her long curling hair to the crown of her head, securing it with a black hair tie she fished out of her pocket, as she accepted the kit someone thrust at her. She followed the commander up the ladder, going over what she remembered about the alignment procedure, as she did so. Once he'd cleared the opening, she scooted up and a few moments later, was standing beside him.

She moved in front of the matter/antimatter reaction chamber, checking for visible fractures, and then focused on the equatorial band of the chamber wherein was housed the dilithium crystal articulation frame. "We'll have to inspect the frame as well as the structural pins first," she murmured and then blushed. "Sorry. Its a habit I picked up working on the family ship. We all talked through the procedures out loud. That way, one could catch what someone else missed. Of course you know what you to do."

"It's a good habit," Nick agreed. "It also makes sure everyone is on the same page. Let's take the matrix out and set it over there," he gestured to a console that had been modified into a work bench, "and then check the frame and pins." Tool in hand, he loosened the matrix and grabbed one side of the matrix assembly. "Grab your side and we'll slide it out together. On three. One, two, THREE."

She lifted with him in unison and felt, truth be told, freer, more normal, than she had since coming on board. As they set the EM-isolated cradle down, Serenity pulled a tricorder from the kit she'd picked up and returned to the matter/anti-matter reaction chamber itself. Visual inspections were limited, however good an individual's eyesight, and something as small as a microfracture could cause serious problems. Humming an old folk tune one of her mothers used to sing, Serenity visually inspected and then scanned each of the twenty-four structural pins that connected the equatorial band to the upper and lower halves of the matter-antimatter reaction chamber as well as the interior of both halves of the chamber itself.

When she was finished, she returned to the Chief Engineer and passed over the tricorder scan results. "Two of the pins show stress fractures and will need to be replaced," she said as she knelt before the cradle. "Dilithium crystals are a wonder, aren't they? The only substance we know that is ..." and here she stood up, hands clasped in front of her, as though reciting a homework assignment, "nonreactive with antimatter when subjected to a high frequency electromagnetic (EM) field in the megawatt range, rendering it "porous" to antihydrogen."

She laughed as she finished. "How'd I do," she said. "We were drilled in all sorts of things but Aerimae, one of my mothers, was the one that handled ship systems. We had to know it all by heart. Course, the rewards for remembering were always great."

Nick was working on repairing structural damage to one of the supports holding up the reactor, within earshot but giving Serenity space to work. He set down his tools, marking his progress, and her tricorder screen. “Yeah, it looks good. I’ll take those two pins out if you start working on the cradle.”

He walked over to a railing and called down to a young woman in a support red uniform. “Crewman Zaidan! Go to stores and bring us a case of reactor structural pins.” She nodded to him and left engineering promptly, allowing Nick to resume working. He found the stressed pins and began uncoupling them. “So what were some of the rewards?” he asked.

Serenity began inspecting the three-axis crystal orientation linkages and smiled mischievously. "We would have these scavenger hunts. There would be a big pile of balloons on the table and in each one was a riddle. We'd have to break the balloons without using a sharp object, solve the riddle, and go find the present. It was all little things, you know. Sometimes home-made or things they'd bartered for whenever Jubilation took us to a station somewhere. And then afterward, there would be this fierce trading session between all of us .... so much fun."

“Sounds like,” Nick agreed as he finished disconnecting the structural pins. “We didn’t do anything quite so involved. Our parents insisted we get top grades, but our rewards usually were activities, like trips to museums or art galleries or sporting events. Hana and I were the best students, so we got to go on these trips with one parent or the other the most often. It’s probably how we got so close despite being seven years apart. Ah, here she is,” he noted as the door on this level opened and Crewman Zaidan walked in carrying a case of parts. He opened the case and gave the structural pins a quick inspection. “Thank you, Farida. Leave these with me, we might need more. Go help Chief Saunders with the structural integrity field.” He began to install the first fresh pin. “Have you visited many museums in the Sol System, Ser?”

Serenity shrugged slightly, "No, not at first, that's for sure. Jubilation, well, he liked his privacy. Now and again though, when he had need of things or my mothers all put pressure on him, we'd visit some world. There would be museums and nature trips and if we real good, we'd get to eat out in an actual restaurant." As she spoke she began checking the alignments to see where the adjustments needed to be made. "Course, once we sold the ship, we lived on Earth so we would travel as much as we could. Though it wasn't always easy."

“It never is.” Nick let out a chuckle. “I remember my first time on Earth. The gravity...my goodness, it hurt so much. I was twelve, I think? I hadn’t started my serious workout regimen yet, so I was tall and lanky and just couldn’t support myself properly. I was wheelchair-bound when we toured the Louvre.” He shrugged as he began installing the second pin. “At least I knew what I needed to prepare myself for when I decided I wanted to join Starfleet.”

"Being a telepath," Serenity said, "for me it was just being ... swamped ... at first. Bad enough with Jubilation as a father, knowing how he thought and what he was nearly always after, you know? But suddenly there was this whole world of people ..." She shuddered at the memory. "So I can relate. Not about the wheelchair but about the hurting and not being able to just hit the ground running. Having to play catch up."

It occurred to her in that moment that really, the Captain and Jubilation were similar in some aspects though the Captain was much more predatory than her father had been.

Nick noticed a slight pause, and looked up from his work to see Ser’s change in body language. As if her mind went somewhere she didn’t really want to go. “Are you alright?” he asked. “I’m no telepath but it feels like something bothered you just now. An unpleasant thought or association, maybe.” He looked back to his work to finish with the pin.

"It's not ... well ..." She looked around, her gaze encompassing the engineering staff moving about, sometimes within hearing range and sometimes not. "Not a good place. Remind me and I"ll tell you when there's less chance of being overheard. Alright?"

Nick nodded. “In a day or two, once we’re underway properly, we’ll find some time to talk. We’ll move our weekly working dinner in my office a bit earlier in the week?”

"Sounds good," Serenity said which was true and not true at the same time. The dinners were fine, sometimes better than fine. Like the Captain, the XO was developing a reputation. Different enough that she was willing to continue; talking about Jubilation and anything touching the Captain was not easy for her. If they were the same, it would have been impossible.

She brushed that train of thought away. Reaction mediation required that the crystals be set at precise angles and depths. The process of checking and if needed, correcting the alignment was tedious and required a deft touch. Fortunately, this was a procedure that she knew very well and so, Serenity let the world slip away as she narrowed her focus.

Finishing with the pin, he looked back to Serenity’s work. She appeared to have tuned out the world and worked quickly but precisely. He gathered the tools and prepared the reactor so they could reinstall the matrix once she was done. He tried to do so quietly to not disrupt her.

When she finished, he peered over her shoulder to examine her work. He ran a tricorder over it, too. He nodded to himself as he saw the readings. “Excellent work. Sometimes I wonder if you’re in the right department, Ser. Here, let’s reinstall.”

Nodding, she moved to the other side and lifted as he did. "Me too, Sir," she said as together they walked the EM-isolated cradle with the newly adjusted dilithium crystals back to the chamber. "I had a dual major at the Academy and I'm a certified engineer but ... you know Starfleet. They decided I'd be better in communications."

“Well, let’s think about your future in Starfleet,” Nick said as began locking the cradle back in place. “I’d love to have you in my department. You know that my Assistant Chief just got promoted and transferred out before we reached Sigma Iotia.” He smiled and finished the installation. “Think about it.”

Serenity worked opposite him and once the cradle was locked in, she did a second check of the alignments to make sure that nothing had happened. And all the while she thought about what he was offering and what it would mean. Engineering had always been her first love, no question; it just might be the answer. "Everything looks good," she said and then, a dimple forming as she smiled, "yes, I'd love to move into Engineering."

Nick returned her smile. “Alright then. I’ll talk with the captain. It might have to wait a few days, until this current situation is sorted out. Gary might need you where you are until this crisis passes.”

"I'd rather move now, Sir, but I will of course defer to your judgement," Serenity said. "So ... what's next on the list?"

“Next,” Nick answered, “will be the main power conduits.” Power from the matter/antimatter reactor exited the core through a pair of main power lines, port and starboard, before being diverted out for various purposes, such as warp engines, defensive systems, life support, etc. Both main lines were damaged by the stress of being pulled through the anomaly. The smaller ones could be rerouted in the short term, but the big ones were critical. “Come on. We’re going into the Jeffries Tubes.”

 

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