Miracle Workers

Posted on Sat Apr 1st, 2023 @ 12:40am by Lieutenant Hezaar & Commander Ash Randall

1,484 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Short Treks
Location: Engineering, USS Enterprise
Timeline: 2431-05-30, 21:15

"Frinx," Lieutenant Commander Hezaar let out the traditionally Ferengi curse as she stood at the Master Situation Table. Chief Engineer of the Enterprise since they arrived at Deep Space 12, the Gorn woman was still adjusting to her new responsibilities aboard the ship. While she had served aboard the Enterprise in the past, been fully versed in the writings and research of Commander Ash Randall, she was still trying to acclimate to the eccentricities of the Enterprise and her unique engine system. While Starfleet was trying to implement the Coaxial Drive more fully into the Fleet, the Enterprise would always remain the first ship to successfully incorporate one.

The Enterprise had always been a ship of firsts and she was continuing truth to that statement. When the Gorn became a vassal state of the Klingon Empire, the Gorn became a shell of themselves. She was also at risk of falling into that trap, if not for one man: Karrak. Her mentor, her friend, she had essentially been a daughter to he and Z'Larki as she grew up. While Karrak returned to the Gorn and tried to restore their independence, he'd encouraged her to remain with Starfleet. It was her greatest honor to be recruited to the Enterprise, a vessel that Karrak once led.

She only hoped that she could live up to the honor, especially after people didn't seem to respect the ship as they should. Commander Tua was notorious for such challenges. While they needed to escape from the Cardassian ships as quickly as possible, the reality was that the engines were pushed far beyond their normal limits. Now they were having trouble restoring them even now. She let out her nearest approximation of a sigh as she adjusted the settings for a third time with no success. As much as she knew that she was the one ultimately responsible for the Enterprise and keeping her going, she knew that their was only one person who could help her now.

"Can someone find me Commander Ash Randall?"

A crewman, nearby, looked to the Chief Engineer, for a second or two, wondering if she was talking to him and, reasoning he as 'someone', spent a few seconds pinning down the current location of Commander Ash Randall. "The Commander is in her, personal, quarters aboard the station." The crewman, announced, helpfully. "She appears to be 'available'." He added.

"Please send the Commander an invitation to join us aboard the Enterprise," the Gorn confirmed as she typed on the control interface.

"Sending an invitation. Commander." The crewman reported, as he invited Commander Randall to join them in Main Engineering aboard The Enterprise and received an, almost immediate, response. "Commander Randall will join us in Main Engineering, shortly." The crewman, reported.

Several minutes later the, former, chief engineer of the Enterprise entered main engineering and paused for a few seconds to talk to a crewman who pointed in the direction of Lt. Cmdr Hezaar. The Tuansee looked that direction, nodded a thanks to the crewman, and headed that way but, slowed, as she approached the Coaxial Core and stopped and stood, stock still except for the tip of her tail twitching back and forth nervously, eyes and ears, focused on the 3 story assembly. After a few seconds, Ash looked the direction of Hezaar, then back to the core and then back to Hezaar and continued in the direction of the Gorn Engineer.

"Welcome back, Commander," the Gorn Engineer enthusiastically said as she stood at the Master Control Table.

"Thank you. It is nice to visit the, familiar, confines of Main Engineering." Ash replied, amiably. "What's going on there?" She asked, and gestured with her thumb, to the Coaxial Core.

Activating the hologrid, the new Chief Engineer highlighted a series of locations, "When the Enterprise was forced to go to Coaxial during the Cardassian debacle the engines became strained. We've tried a couple combinations, but, so far at least, none of them have worked to restore the assembly. We can warp, but coaxial remains down."

Ash looked on at what Hezaar was showing her and nodded understanding. "Premature engagement before attaining full realignment and now the, drive alignment presets, are not able to attain realignment." Ash observed, with a shrug. "Not the worst thing that could have happened, by a long shot, but now you'll have to do a manual realignment to get things working again." She explained and looked to Hezaar. "I designed the presets to avoid having to do manual realignments after, every, mundane transit and, to that point, every transit with Coaxial has to be mundane so, let me guess, two minutes at warp to get things straight wasn't quick enough for someone?" The, former, chief engineer asked.

"Far from it for Commander Tua," the Gorn Engineer confirmed. "With the concerns that were being raised about the Cardassians having the Coalition weapon aboard she wanted to get us away from the danger zone as quickly as possible. With the amount of damage Enterprise took the last time she engaged a ship with one of those weapons I'm glad she did." It wasn't probably a popular answer, but it was an accurate one. As much as she loved fixing the ship, that was how much she hated seeing it damaged.

"I don't dispute the need for a quick exit." Ash replied. "That weapons system does a lot of damage and very quickly and designing a defense against it is proving to be a challenge." She added and looked to the coaxial core. "Manual realignment. Twelve hours. No short cuts." The Tuansee advised, quietly, and looked to Hezaar. "I am available to assist, if you would like. I have some, ideas, regarding an, alternate, use for the coaxial core that you might find helpful, in a bad spot." She added.

The Gorn let out her species' nearest approximation of a sigh, "The Admiral has already informed us he plans to take the Enterprise back to the border, with himself in command, to confront the Cardassian forces there. We're to be ready to leave in an hour."

"So much for, no short cuts, and doing a realignment, by the book." Ash mused, aloud, while she stared at the Coaxial core and then looked to Hezaar. "Okay, we have an hour. The down and dirty, way to realign the coaxial drive is to disconnect the drive from the master station control, physically, pull the secondary drive control module and insert it's, backup, module and then do the same for the primary drive control module. The backups won't 'see' the current configuration of the drive until the master station control is reconnected and we'll have two shots at using a, pre-configured, realignment of the drive." Ash explained, quickly. "I've done this process, about a dozen times. The problem with doing it is you are, guaranteed, to have an alignment issue after a couple, mundane, transits and doing this, quick reset, won't cut it. It's a manual realignment or nothing. You'll also need to reset the primary drive controllers before they can be used again." She added, with another look at the coaxial core. "That's the long and short of it." The engineer finished, with a sigh.

The current Chief Engineer looked at the schematics as Ash laid it all out, and her stomach dropped at the possibilities. The Enterprise was one of the most complex vessels within the Federation and this very discussion proved it a dozen times over. If they were not careful during this process they could, and would most likely, destroy subspace for at least a billion kilometers around the ship. Plus, more disastrously, they'd blow up the ship in the process.

"Beggars can't be choosers," she mumbled to herself at the thought of what was to possibly come. "Are you comfortable helping with the process, Commander?" She hoped that Ash was able to offer her expertise for this process.

Ash nodded. "We'll have to start by informing the bridge that coaxial control will be unavailable and we lock out all external access." She explained, quietly. "Nothing will make things go kaboom, quicker, than some curious party at a random engineering station 'fixing' access to coaxial control." She added as she pulled a, miniature sized, PADD from her utility belt and flipped a check list onto the holographic display along with a timer. "we'll also need to have the backup modules, at hand, for this and no interruptions once we start the procedure." Ash stated and pointed to the timer on the display that read 20 minutes. "The moment we disconnect the master station control the timer will start to count down and we must have both, backup, control modules in place and the master station control connected again or the coaxial core will shut down. So, no pressure...let's get prepped to start." She advised.

Hezaar nodded, eager to get started, "My Engine Room is your Engine Room."

 

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