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Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @rae
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Via stared at the open warp engine assembly of her Valravn fighter with seething contempt. Dirt and grime speckled nearly every part of her body that was exposed. Her clothing which consisted of a tank top and uniform pants was also covered with stains that Via ignored.

"Ma'am, would you like me to try once more?" Charles spoke down from the fighter cockpit rather tired.

"Shut up, I'm thinkin'" The words barely left her lips as she was focused finding on the issue at hand.

During her last sotire there was a sudden loss of power throughout the entire spacecraft right when she taxied to her parking spot on the Fighter Assault Bay. There was a process to shut down a fighter craft which consisted of a comprehensive checklist that all fighters were required to go over and not memorize lest they make a mistake. Via being the defiant person she was doing the complete opposite of what she was told in training and memorized said flight checklist opting not to check it over in addition to skipping a few steps that she found unnecessary and a waste of time. The pilot managed to get away with taking shortcuts with procedures but now it looked like it caught up with her.

Now she didn't know exactly what she did but she guesses when she skipped the warp core status section and brute forced shutting it down for the 100th time the wonder of technology just gave up.

The woman tried everything she remembered in training to troubleshoot a warp core but still, nothing happened. She tried turning everything off and on again, but still nothing. Via even dug into the guts of the ship, reach the warp core, unplugged and plug in a few things and switched stuff around, saw a brief spark of life, but ultimately the core remained dead.

For the past 12 hours, she had been working on the warp core. No sleep, no food, and just a myriad of bubble gum-flavored energy drinks surrounding her workspace. One would ask why she didn't notify the maintenance crew about the issue so they could fix it. They could in reality but they would also note and report that Via had been not following the proper procedures when shutting off the warp core which could probably get her a talking to by her flight lead. She admitted, that both she and Charles would not be able to fix the core by themselves. Via thought of her sister and how she would've fixed the warp core and then improve it by the factor of three in just a few hours, but she wasn't her sister, she was still somewhere in Starfleet. They just needed a little help from an expert, and Via knew just the one.

"Beachhead!!" Via yelled

"Y-Yes ma'am" He yawned

"I need fuckin' uh...get them coffee espresso quadruple energy drinks. Like 5 cans." She crossed her arms.

"Ma'am..." The blonde groaned. "I have already told you, throwing energy drinks into the Warp assembly is not going to turn it on or make it go fast-"

"What? Shut your ass up, I ain't talkin' about that anymore..." She paused and pouted. "It was a fuckin' good idea but no. Imma call a girl who knows this shit inside and out. She's smart as fuck and can fix it for sure."

Charles slowly climbed out of the cockpit and started walking towards the ops center but not before asking a passing question. "Ma'am? Who do you know?

Via looked proud and replied. "I got friends all over. Fuckin' Engineerin', Medical, Po-po, Nerds, Talkin' Nerds, everywhere. Don't worry I got you."
She found her PADD and sent a message both voice and text. "Yo, Ryn, it's ya girl Wix, heyy! I need your ass on Deck 16 in the fuckin' Fighter Assault Bay. I know I probably woke your ass up but I got all the good shit here. I got a fuckin' broken warp core and like...10 cans of that coffee shit you like. Don't leave me hangin'! Get here when ya get here."

The message ended and during it, Charles retrieved the cans and placed them on the ground next to the fighter. He looked at Via with tired eyes. "How screwed are we ma'am?"

Via looked at him and punched him jokingly in the shoulder. "Be *mumble*-istic. Worst, our asses get a new fighter."

"Or we get reprimands..." Charles said depressingly

"Pfft, we will be fine. You'll see." Via said reassuringly but then one of the parts in the Warp core Assembly that was supposed to be attached to something- fell. "We will be fine..." She spoke more unsurely now.

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #1 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Personal Quarters | Deck 16 | Vector 3 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

She wasn’t sure what was more annoying. Whatever was digging into her shoulder or the beeping coming from her computer console. As was her habit, Azrin had only managed to fall asleep on the floor, cocooned into the blanket she’d pulled off the bed. Even with quarters as close to Main Engineering as she could get, she still needed to be down here to feel the reverberations through the hull. Because some lunatic had decided to make Starfleet bed frames to dissipate vibrations before they reached the sleeper. Whoever that past engineer was, Azrin hated him. So should every engineer with any sense.

Apparently, she’d fallen asleep cuddling her miniature Vesta class model - hence the shoulder pain. But if Azrin had to choose, she’d probably pick the computer as the one responsible for waking her. “Go to sleep Azrin, everyone says. Sleep more.” She grumbled to herself as she struggled to her feet and over to the console, “But as soon as you fall asleep, someone is always going to wake you up. What time is it anyway?”

“The time is 0629 hours.”

Azrin groaned. She should have had another hour of sleep before being awakened. Given the trouble she’d had falling asleep lately, she needed every second of that. “This better be important,” she complained half heartedly, yawning all the while as she played the message. “Wix? Huh.” Azrin had to play the message twice, shaking her head a few times to clear the cobwebs. She’d been expecting an engineer calling about one of the Theurgy’s warp drives. Not a pilot calling about a fighter’s drive. Technically, there should be a whole deck crew up there to fix this… but… working on that tiny propulsion system would be fun. And there was coffee, which was exactly what she was craving right now.

“Guess I’m getting dressed then.” Now where had she thrown her boots?

[ Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ]

Around ten minutes later, Azrin slipped into the fighter bay, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. Never an easy task for a ball of energy topped by a crown of bright red hair. Sure, she was allowed to be in here and had been specifically asked to be in here, but this wasn’t technically her portion of the ship. She didn’t want to be assigned something else and miss the opportunity to dismantle Wix’s Valravn. A plan she was forced to amend moments later, upon seeing the complete disaster zone surrounded the already dismantled ship. Her mouth actually fell open for a second.

“What did you do?” she asked, slightly in shock. There was a sheepish looking human standing nearby with a handful of coffee cans, one of which was quickly snatched from his pile and popped open. They’d been promised to her anyway, and Azrin was too focused on the ship to ask for one politely. This looked even worse than her quarters, which was not a good sign. Though she was a mess when it came to her personal possessions, Azrin was very organized in her work. Something she tended to expect from everyone around her. A few pulls of the drink and a rush of caffeine set the cogs in her brain spinning, then Azrin was able to speak again. “There’s no way the deck crew did this.” If they had, they needed a reprimand.

Half the can later, Azrin felt functional enough to get to work, immediately getting up close and personal with the Valravn. “You poor thing, what did the mean pilot do to you? Tell me all that ails you.”

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #2 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @rae
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When Azrin arrived and drank a couple of the coffees she made Charles replicate Via let out a sigh of relief. She had other backup plans sure, but most involved her essentially admitting her mistake or blaming the issue on the fighter citing its experimental nature in terms of technology and equipment. Now that the resident warp specialist was there they had the chance to fix the core before anyone noticed.

"Hey, I ain't a meanie! It ain't my fault that fuckin' poor ass excuse of a lightbulb can't even be workin' like it's supposed to. It was workin' fine yesterday!" Via said before walking to the Engineer's side and staring at the Warp Core. "Lil shit just quit on my ass. Been workin' on fixin' it for the past uh..." Via started counting silently to herself but Charles spoke up behind her.

"12 hours ma'am..." He said exhausted

"12 fuckin' hours!" Via exasperated. "Like shit, I ain't good at this stuff Ryn. I ain't my sister. Well, fuckin' I can fix all this random ass shit on the together but all that warp stuff? Nah...oh by the way how you doin' girl you look great." she said with a smile.

She crossed her arms and started thinking for a second.

The Valravn essentially used a scaled-down warp core that was somewhat independent of the fighter's Twin-tandem Quantite Reactor Core meaning they could power the ship's systems without the Warp core being online. Ship warp cores were not meant to be turned on and off so many times in such a short period as doing so would cause many power problems throughout the vessel that was being powered by it. This was why a separate power plant was needed but that alone could not power every system on the fighter. The procedures that Via loved to skip kept those power issues from occurring during power up and power down. Most likely during one of the phases, Via had accidentally caused a power surge in the Warp core causing the safeties to kick in and shut everything down. On top of the abuse, the pilot subjected it to during fight sorties the Warp core was essentially in shelter mode and needed a bit of loving to come out and reinitialize. It was a working theory but the pilot didn't put that much stalk in it.

Instead, she decided a simpler approach was needed.

"Fuck it, my ass is out of ideas...Imma kick it."

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #3 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

Azrin was so fixated on the Valravn that she hadn’t noticed Wix walk up. She actually jumped at the pilot’s voice in her ear. Thankfully, the coffee didn’t spill. The can was already too near empty. “Maybe it’s mad that you’re calling it a lightbulb?” The engineer offered sweetly, before continuing dryly, “If it just quit, why not get the deck crew to fix it?”

Not that she was going to refuse to help. Or rat Wix out to the flight leader for whatever she’d done. They both knew that Azrin would never let someone take a warp core out of her grubby little hands. But there was no way that the deck crew hadn’t noticed this twelve hour nightmare in progress. It had been the first thing Azrin had noticed. The deck crew would have seen the same, unless they were incredibly incompetent. Which they weren’t. Most likely Via had done something to annoy them - which probably had produced the broken fighter in the first place - and they were allowing her to suffer on purpose as punishment. They were required to help, but nothing prevented them from twiddling their thumbs somewhere else waiting for Wix to ask.

“I’m doing- Don’t kick it!” She looked insulted on the ship’s behalf, moving between Wix and the ship protectively. “If you sting your ship Bee, it’s going to sting back!” Since learning Via’s callsign, Azrin had been quite amused by it. Aside from the stinging part, she was about as far as one could get from the fluffy yellow insects responsible for pollination on Earth. “I’m great. Three warp cores, a slipstream drive, and now little Valravn engines to work on.” Plus a six month stasis nap, learning that they’d been declared traitors, waking up to find a lot of her friends were dead… “Do you know where your sister is?” The question came out before Azrin could stop herself. She knew Fia better, having met the younger human back at Utopia Planitia.

To avoid the answer, Azrin decided to get to work, chugging the rest of the coffee, turning a bit in search of a recycler and deciding on a trash area when she didn’t see one, grabbing a tricorder and a diagnostic kit, and climbing up into the Valravn. “Anything you left out about what happened, now’s the time! No judgment, but it will help diagnose the problem.” Give her a few minutes in the fighter’s innards and she’d find out anyway.

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #4 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @rae
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"Cause Bee doesn't trust the guys too much, ma'am." Charles answered Azrin's question for the pilot which also prompted a 'shut up' look from her.

Like most people pilots Via did not like her callsign. In fact, she hated it though voicing her distaste about it or requesting a new one typically made things worst in the pilot community. Hazing was tradition and while the young woman would much like to forget the incident that gave her the name she forced herself to get used to it, out of respect for the others who came before her. Still, it threw her off guard when people who weren't pilots or part of the deck team knew her callsign. She was getting used to Azrin knowing hers, but that wasn't the thing that threw her off the most about what she said. When the trill asked Via where her sister was all the pilot could do was cross her arms and side-eyed her, her expression changed to a type of hidden sadness that she did not want to bring back up again. Azrin and Via's sister had been friends before and were how the young pilot got acquainted with Azrin. She could not remember if she had told the Engineer what happened to her sister but in her mind, she swore she did.  

"Yeah, ain't here." she said somewhat annoyed. "Maybe somewhere, maybe dead, I dunno..." Clearly, her sister's absence due to the Theurgy's current situation of being "traitors" to Starfleet affected her. Via missed her greatly.

Thinking about her sister soured Via's mood but also made her focus enough on the issue at hand. Azrin was right. Via swallowed her pride and looked up at the trill as she climbed up into the cockpit.

"I uh...fuckin skip some shit in the warp core startup and shut down procedure. Steps 8 and 9. Warp Coil Power Bleed Out check and EPS Relay/Warp Safety Initialization and Deinitalization. My ass ignored them and I did a force shut down procedure."

Those two checks were important safety checks that while required rarely spawned problems. Via was unlucky, if she had caught the issues early on she could've avoided everything entirely but instead, it just kept getting worse and worse until the core had to shut down to prevent its components from being damaged by the surge.

"That's what I have been telling you!!" Charles exclaimed from where he was. 




Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #5 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

Oh yeah, she definitely regretted asking. The moment she’d asked, Azrin had known the answer would be one of the options Via soon offered. Dead, or off in the great wide universe the Theurgy no longer had contact with. It wasn’t like anyone was casually calling home anymore. How could Via have known the answer? But even knowing the answer didn’t make hearing it aloud any easier. Azrin winced as Via, in all of her usual ‘devil may care’ speech patterns, dropped the option of death like it was something inconvenient. There was a loud bang from inside of the panel as her hand jerked and banged the tricorder into a junction. “That was me! Nothing to worry about.” It had to be a cover. She knew the sisters were close. But what did Azrin expect, diving right into the emotional deep end like she had?

Azrin forced herself to turn and look at Via as the pilot explained what she’d done, the trill’s face taking on the exasperated look all too common to engineers forced to deal with heavy handed people who seemed to delight in breaking all their toys. At least she knew what she was looking for now. “So power surges, component microfractures - or actual fractures, but you should have seen that - you know there are startup and shutdown procedures for a reason right? We’re not just trying to waste your time?” Via was definitely in trouble with the deck crew, Azrin was certain of it now.

Back to the ground again, Azrin started going through random diagnostic and repair equipment - everything she could want and more was laying around on the floor - before finding the multispectrum lights she was looking for. “Everyone get a light,” she declared, eyes traveling between the other two so they understood she meant both of them, before looking at the device in her hands to set it to the right wavelength. It didn’t look like a flashlight, being that most of the emissions weren’t visible to trill or human eyes. But there was a screen on the user’s end that would translate what the sensor was seeing into some pretty cool pictures. “You can’t see microfractures, but this thing can. It will show up on the viewscreen as thin little yellow lines. We have to scan the warp coils, EPS conduits, plasma injectors, the lot. If you had a power surge that forced a shutdown, something probably cracked somewhere.”

And since the deck crew was clearly off the table, these pilots would be her assistants today. "Its going to be tedious. We're going to need more coffee."

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #6 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @rae
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At the moment when Azrin chastised her for ignoring the procedures, for a split moment, Via was reminded of her sister. So much so that she lost her cocky demeanor and went small for a second, feeling bad for what she did. Fia was the only one that could make her feel bad about anything. Even though they were two years apart Fia's maturity dwarfed Via's by essentially two decades. She was more of a mother to her than their actual mother by far. Without her Via would've stayed on Deped, remaining in the cycle of crime and violence until she died in some shootout.

"I-I uh...I knew that!! I-I fuckin' just...um..." she stammered and gave up finding the excuse.

When the Engineer ordered everyone to get a light Charles immediately knew what she was talking about and went to retrieve two, one for himself and another for Via who he knew probably thought Azrin was talking about a regular flashlight. He handed it to her and went around the space fighter's propulsion system looking for the microfractures the Trill mentioned. Via just watched in copied what he did and looked around her part of the space fighter's propulsion system, reaching into the crowded compartment and scanning the items she listed off.

It wouldn't take that long to find the first microfracture but further inspection after a bunch of cans of energy drink products and the like revealed that they were all over the EPS conduits and plasma injectors. To find all of them was incredibly tedious but luckily the warp coils were unaffected; if they had been then they would've most likely needed to replace the system entirely. "Damn, them micro thingies are all over the injectors. Fuck, I'm tryin' to remember. Ain't there like a sealin' tool or somthin' we need to do to like fix it?" She asked as she crawled out of the Engine assembly. Charles was returning from the replicator with repair tools and more coffee/energy drinks and started handing the respective drinks to the women as they worked.

Via cracked a cold one, another bubble gum flavored high energy concoction and took a big sip. "I mean, it should be like an easy fix right?..." She asked hesitantly not wanting to hear the opposite.

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #7 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

“At least there aren’t any on the warp coils,” Azrin muttered, mainly talking to herself, though the others would certainly hear if they were close enough. That was a minor miracle honestly. She suspected that Via had been skipping these two shutdown procedures frequently. Staving off major damage by doing the rest of the shutdown list, but piling on the little invisible scars until they had finally overwhelmed the system. Warp fighters were sturdy, built with the knowledge that they were going to get shot at often, so Azrin would have expected a few minor fractures here and there from the wear and tear of the work. But this, this was too much.

At this point, she was already engrossed in her work, and had been for a while, always eager to dive into a new engineering problem. The redhead hadn’t even noticed the effect her words had had on Via, or she would have changed tact to something nicer. A little while - and a few coffee breaks later - she had finished her section of the propulsion systems. Azrin sat down in the middle of the floor in a clear spot, ignoring the pilot’s question for a moment as she thought it through. Legs crossed, another can of coffee before her, elbow on her knee, head propped on her hand, and a finger tapping her temple. Tapping directly in the middle of one of her spots actually, though she couldn’t have noticed. Her lips moved silently as she ran through stress test calculations in her head. When she finished a few minutes later, Azrin sat back to look at the other two, though she didn’t stand up just yet. “It’s not hard, but it’s going to take us a while. We do have a fusion tool for microfractures, but we can’t use it on all of them. Anything with a fracture that’s 20 microns or bigger needs to be pulled and replaced. Even sealed, the structural integrity of those parts is too damaged to keep it. It would be like leaving a bomb in your warp drive. Best case scenario you get a few flights in before everything forcibly shuts down again. Worst case…” Azrin made a face and reached for her coffee. There was no need to say the worst case out loud, they all knew what explosions looked like.

“Anyway, to start fusing you need…” Her head was a swivel as she searched all the tools in sight, eventually scrambling to her feet and diving into a toolbox until she found, “This!” It didn’t look like much, a bit like a magic wand really, the little handheld tube with a light on one end - and a miniature laser on a light spectrum that none of them could see - and a button on the other. Azrin handed it to Via. “Don’t point that towards any organic matter. Everything smaller than 20 microns. Don’t bother on the parts we’re pulling anyway.” Another pause as she thought of something. “I hope you guys were keeping notes of where the fractures are.” She wouldn’t have needed to tell her engineers that. Unfortunately, these were not engineers.

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #8 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @rae
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Via groaned audibly when she heard that the job was going to take longer than expected. If she hadn't learned her lesson about following procedures then she was starting to now, or at least she started to regret skipping them in the first place. When Azrin handed her the magic wand-looking device she held it clumsily, pointing the light end and then the laser straight at her face. She almost pressed the button before she heard Azrin say not to point it at any organic matter. With that, she took the tool away from her face but her impulsive personality challenged her to see what would happen if she just turned it on and poked her skin with it. Without thinking, she was about to do just that but Azrin's voice distracted her again with her mentioning to keep track of all the fractures they discovered.

"30 ma'am!!" Charles shouted out from his side. Being the star NCO that he was the man was almost finished cataloging what needed to be replaced and what needed to be hand repaired with the small laser.

"Fuckin' show off..." Via said under her breath before she took another sip of her energy drink. The pilot crawled back into the engine assembly and started counting the fractures she missed and oh boy was there a lot. 50 she counted more or less with 10 being more than 20 microns meaning they needed to replicate 5 new parts on her side of the craft that needed to be hand replaced. This of course was a guesstimate on Via's part. She wasn't a particularly attentive individual so she missed a few. Crawling back out of the engine assembly Via walked over to Azrin. "My ass found 50 of them fracture shits on the EDDs and EPS Relays, and the fuckin' uh...plasma cond- whateverthemfucks." She crossed her arms. "The thingy said like 10 were too big so is my ass really goin' to be pullin' them shits out? I'm just sayin' I saw this commercial about somethin' called SpaceTapee™ and the dude was fixin' everythin' with it. Like big ass...holes in ships and shit. I mean like big ass holes, not big assholes." The woman clarified unnecessarily. " Maybe it can work on that lil bitch Thea..." she mumbled shortly after still hating the ship AI  after she decided to follow the misguided reason she came to when talking with Zark.

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #9 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

“Space… Tape?” Azrin repeated incredulously, mispronouncing the made-up name, her mouth actually hanging open a bit at the pilot’s explanation. She had to hold back the laughter that bubbled up in her throat at the idea of using whatever that was, an act made all the more difficult as she imagined the look on Fia’s face at the suggestion. Determined not to make Via feel bad for asking - no one should ever be laughed at for well meant questions, no matter how ridiculous - Azrin took a hurried sip of coffee to hide her face. Then promptly choked on it, completely forgetting that laughter and liquids never mixed well. A few hacking coughs, deep breaths, and a spray of coffee joining the mess on the floor later, the engineer was finally able to talk again.

“Since I’ve never seen that before, we’d have to do a lot of testing on it first before clearing it for starship use. And we’d have to find a way to get some, because we’re not exactly on any sector quartermaster’s procurement list right now. It’s easier to use what we know - and have available.” That sounded nice and reasonable enough. As much as she would like to test this Space Tape - if only to have evidence to provide to the judge prosecuting the Ferengi selling it - they weren’t in a position to do that right now. And Azrin was not about to patch any hull with tape. On Thea or any other ship. Poor ships didn’t deserve that.

“You’re going to fuse the smaller fractures,” she explained to Via, pointing towards the tool she’d already provided for the task. “Keep the light you were using before so you can see what you’re doing. As you work, you’ll see the fracture seal. It won’t disappear from the screen, but it will get much darker. You, my friend,” she turned to Charles with a winning smile, "can help me replicate the new parts or pull replacements from storage, then we’ll start installing. Have you done this sort of maintenance before? Have either of you?” They were getting to work now that really shouldn’t be left to the untrained, so it was time to ask. This was a bit much for Azrin to do on her own, considering she was due for her own work in engineering in a few hours. It might be time for Via to start apologizing to the deck crew.

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #10 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @rae
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Both of the Wolves simply looked at each other after Azrin asked the question if they were familiar with that type of maintenance and shook their heads. While Via and Charles were required to learn everything and everything about their space fighter during training so they could tackle issues on the fly and conduct field maintenance, repairs on this scale required a full team, especially since it involved the propulsion assembly which was incredibly complex even for a repair team. Regardless, whatever chance they had at fixing the fighter went straight to zero as one of the maintainer NCOs came waltzing onto the flight deck, drink and breakfast sandwich in hand. He stopped just short of Wolf-16, jaws dropped at the sight of parts, panels, etc all over the place and the guts of the space fighter exposed.

The Andorian man stared for a good few seconds before posting his eyes on the three officers. Via stared back at him with an 'oh shit' expression on her face. Charles was practically shaking in his pants. They had been caught or in reality, Via had been caught.

"I-I wha- how- yo-..." The NCO stuttered

"We are so done for..." Charles stammered

"Shit balls..." Via cursed
"I mean...er...it ain't what it be lookin' like. Fuckin'-"

"Do you know how much...time…” The man sheathed through his teeth and slowly placed down his breakfast and walked closer to the fighter inspecting the mess further, and picking up a few pieces.

“Pfft, your ass ain’t gotta do nothin’. It was broken already and we be tryin’ to do your job-”

“No-Nope, this is the last straw Ensign Wix.” The Andorian tossed a panel he picked up back onto the floor. “No more favors, I have to report this to the sup." He started to tap away at his PADD to send a message but Via quickly went up to him.

“Hey!! Yo, nothin’ gotta be reported. We can work somethin’ out…come on. Ain’t your ass say somethin’ about some overhaul or some shit? Just say this is that.”

“WHY IS THE WARP ASSEMBLY…!! No... We have half of the Squadron to inspect and now we got yours to deal with. Just my luck I came early today…” The man facepalmed while Via continued congruing up excuses and ways to get out of her little situation.

“Please don’t be tellin’ no one. Just fix it and…um I’ll thro-” She looked back at Azrin and Charles for help. “Somethin’, Anythin’ just come on man. Our asses were tryin' to fix the stupid ass engine cause of the last sortie. It was shuttin' off and shit.’.

“What the hell Ensign! -and who in the hell are you?!” He directed the question to Azrin, with a voice filled with annoyance and anger.


Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #11 –
[ PO Eshrasaohl “Eshra” Th'rhytral, has had enough of this shit | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

Once, Starfleet had the idea to create the most elegant of starships. Small, maneuverable, and filled with a power that belied their size. In Eshra’s opinion, every fighter on this ship, be they Valkyrie of Valravn, was a work of art. The young Thaan had been overjoyed to receive a posting to the Theurgy’s deck crew, back when Starfleet was still assigning crew to this ship. Fixing fighters reminded him of watching his charan restore art as a child, taking something precious and broken and restoring it to its former glory. The difference of course, was that the art was then placed lovingly back behind protective barriers in a museum, while Eshra was forced to return the fighters to a group of lunatics with death wishes.

And they were all fucking officers to boot, so he couldn’t even yell at them properly.

Or he wasn’t supposed to anyway, but sometimes - every day - they really tested his patience. He should have expected something like this. There had been rumors flying around all morning about the antics of a few Wolves last night. He’d heard whispers from all departments while picking up breakfast in the mess hall. He’d wanted to arrive early to get started on the planned work, but no. Now he had this to deal with. Naughty graffiti, he could have handled, but Eshra hadn’t expected to see an entire fighter dismantled across the bay.

“No! No more.” He continued, not even waiting for Wix or the other yellow shirted officer to answer his questions. The trill wasn’t part of the deck crew, so it really didn’t matter. “How many times have I told you - we told you - to complete the shutdown procedure properly? Someone on the deck crew has the conversation with you every single-” Eshra paused for a frustrated sigh. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was wrong with her Valravn. Shipboard computers marked when shutdown procedures weren’t completed. But there was only so much he could do when the pilot refused to believe the procedures were necessary. It was going to take him all day to put this back together. “I’m reporting this. End of story.”

He’d fix the fighter anyway. Wix would get a talk and maybe a slip on the wrist, then they’d let her back in the Valravn, because pilots were a ‘precious’ resource on this ship, which was how they got away with so much bullshit.

[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn, basically lives for this shit ]

“Hi!” Azrin waved at the Andorian. She tried to keep her tone light to help the mood, but honestly, the petty officer’s face was getting darker and darker blue the longer he looked at the mess on the floor. She couldn’t really blame him, she’d been shocked at the disaster zone too, and this wasn’t even her department. “Lieutenant junior grade Azrin Ryn, assistant chief engineer, propulsion.” Normally she’d trade her job title for a funny description or a bit of Pakled levity, but at the moment she opted for formality. Hopefully the NCO would take note that she was very qualified to have dismantled this warp assembly. Via and Charles had done most of that before Azrin had arrived… but no one needed to know that.

“Sorry to step on your toes here, but I’m good friends with Via’s sister and she knows that I love fixing propulsion problems and I’ve been dying to get a look at one of these fighters. It’s a nice change of pace when you can see the entire warp assembly right in front of you. I spend most of my time crawling around jefferies tubes and only get to see parts at a time. This reminds me of how interconnected a ship is. Does that make sense? Actually it doesn’t matter, I’m getting too philosophical.”

“Anyway, we’ve already finished cataloging the damage.” Azrin spun around looking for her PADD, which she’d been using to mark all the microfactures she’d found earlier. She caught Charles’ eye as she searched, gesturing for him to pass along his data too. “And we’re about to start repairs. We’ve got to pull a few components, but most of the microfractures can be sealed. There doesn’t have to be any extra work for you at all - unless you want to help?” She’d never deny anyone a chance to join in the fun.

Azrin decided not to comment on him reporting Via or not. Technically, she had no power here - the deck crew was all under ops - and the NCO was well within his rights to lodge a complaint with Lieutenant Arnold too. She was hoping that he’d calm down if they convinced him that this wasn’t going to be a massive project dumped at his feet.

It would drive her nuts if they kicked her out with the work only half done. Like she didn’t have enough problems sleeping already.

OOC: I realized this is the same morning as Oblivious Aftermath. Wild night for pilots  (laugh)

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #12 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @rae
[Show/Hide]

"Lil, bitchass sniitch..." Via said under her breath when the Andorian insisted on reporting her.

She cheered in her head when Azrin chimed in which she had no doubt she would do. Now the young had a better chance of bullshitting her way out of the mess she dug herself in. More likely than not she would be reported to her CO for this, it wouldn't be the first time in the slightest that she would be called into a superior's office for a reprimand of some sort, especially after her rather notable reputation of being a troublemaker in the Academy. Of course there was always the chance she would bite more off than she could chew and actually get in serious trouble and depending on the punishment Via may back track and make some concessions if possible to get a lesser punishment (with a few exceptions). However, Via rarely considered that possibility when she did the things she did, part of her headstrong, focus on the consequences latter, type personality. She had a feeling she would be fine.

Charles picked up his PADD and sent the data he collected to the Petty Officer timidly before looking at Azrin then back at the Andorian.  "If I may Petty Officer...I believe between the *ahem-" he briefly glanced at Via which prompted a "what the fuck you want?" expression  from her, "4 of us, we are fully qualified in repairing Wolf-16. If you allow us to continue the repairs you wouldn't have to take a team off from squadron inspections and you could finally deal and be over with the issues within the Valravn. I am quite sure with your expertise and that of Leftenant Ryn we should be done rather soon."

Via chimed in with a rather dismissive tone. At this point she was over everything. "Yeah Yeah, what beachhead said. My ass is very very sorry, ok? Was just tryin' to help...and not get in trouble. I meanin' I am new here I ain't know much but I am learnin'!" The young pilot had said this line in several variations multiple times before. It was 110% Bull.







Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #13 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

“What did you just say?” The Andorian NCO had clearly heard Via’s mumble, or at least had gotten the gist of it. His antennae were quivering with rage as he rounded on her. He’d looked ready to report them at that very second, if not for the distraction from his PADD, which dinged quietly as Charles sent over the data. Azrin watched the lines in his face relax slightly as he read over the damage reports. One could always trust Starfleet engineers and ops to be calmed by technical information. The stress of serving on starships would drive them nuts otherwise. They’d already done the hard part. All that was left was the time consuming process of repairing the damage and putting everything back together. A very time consuming process, Azrin had to amend her thinking, as Via hadn’t done much organization while dismantling the ship. Components had been haphazardly dropped everywhere.

He shot Via another dark look as she apologized, clearly not convinced. Oh Dixiebee, they were really going to have to work on her relationships with the deck crew. Fia’s little sister should have known better than to mess with mechanics. Since he needed another push, Azrin continued with her brightest, most reassuring smile, “Like Via said, we’re sorry for the mess, but we’ll have it all cleaned up soon!” Another fighter pilot walked by, a dark haired woman who looked like she was having a hell of a morning, a frown managing to overshadow her painful looking black eye. Azrin turned that same smile in her direction, as though to say ‘All under control here, nothing to see!.’ The last thing they needed was someone else mad at them.

Via’s RIO seemed to be more liked than Via herself, as the Petty Officer threw Charles a long suffering look as he threw his hands into the air. “Fine! I give up. This bird better be back on the line by afternoon shift, or I’m saving my own ass and reporting all of you. And this is the last time Wix. I mean it. I’ll make sure the other’s know too. Commander Ravon is the one who decides to keep you all on flight rotation regardless of all the bullshit you people pull, but you can’t fly without a ship. And it’s not like we have a bunch of spares lying around in the event of Wolf-16 getting pulled for extended maintenance. They’ll shunt you to the shuttle crews, or have you scrubbing the decks with the rest of us. Got it?”

“Don’t worry about a thing!” Azrin piped up first, “By the time we’re done, you’ll be begging us to come back and fix and tune up more Valravns. She’ll be good as new. Better than new.” Azrin wasn’t one to half ass things. She couldn’t bear to leave a warp core without fine tuning it first. “Sure you don’t want to help? It’ll be fun.”

“No, I don’t want to help, because I have my own work to do.” She should have let Charles talk instead, going by the look the Andorian was giving her. The RIO seemed to be the only one he sort of liked. The deckhand turned and walked away, and Azrin swore she could hear him muttering, “Like I don’t already have a million… a whole Valravn dismantled… thinking they’ll get away with anything… every single time…”

“Nice to meet you!” Azrin called after him, then her face dropped. “We forgot to ask his name.”

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #14 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @rae
[Show/Hide]

As Eshra walked away Charles breathed a sigh of relief over managing to quell a possible disastrous outcome to DixieBee's rather troublesome behavior. Via replied to Azrin with a demeanor that clearly showed she did not learn a thing, or at least she didn't show that she cared to. "Shit, his name is uhh...fuckin' Eshh...somethin'"

"Eshra" ma'am Charles answered for Via as he quite tiredly walked over to several ship components hap hazardously thrown about on the floor and started organizing them.

"Yeah what he said." Via snickered before turning to face her fighter. Her brain started cooking and her face showed it. She could finally-

"No ma'am I don't think that would be a good idea." Charles spoke up while he organized the ship parts.

"Huh? Wait what?" Via's train of thought broke.

"Personal modifications to the fighter are not allowed without authorization of the commanding officer. Additionally, it would be in bad taste with the deck crew which already has a bad opinion of us."

"What in the- I ain't even said anythin' Who says I was thinkin' that?" she said suprised

"You. 2 days ago. You expressed your interest in making Wolf-16 into the best fuckin' fighter in the entire squadron after you watched that one holovid about...flying space robots fighters if I recall correctly."

"Oh...shut up they are Mark II Destruction class Mecha's!" she paused realizing she was caught right-handed and crossed her arms "And I wasn't thinkin' about that anyway...mmm...stupid idea anyway"  Via looked towards Azrin still not abandoning her pursuits in enhancing her fighter. She walked over and whispered "I mean, can't ya just make it go super fast or somethin'? Ain't gotta be much."

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #15 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

“Bye Eshra!” she called after the Andorian again once Charles supplied his name. It never hurt to be polite, especially to someone who clearly didn’t like them. Hopefully he — and the rest of his colleagues — would be friendlier if they finished the work without bothering the deck crew again. She didn’t think it was likely, especially considering the conversation Via and her RIO had the moment Eshra was out of earshot, but Azrin supposed it didn’t hurt to try.

“It already goes super fast,” Azrin replied, matching Via’s conspiratorial whisper as though revealing some great secret. “That’s why we call it a warp fighter.” She didn’t know what kind of mecha the pilot was talking about, and her general aversion to anything called ‘destruction class’ kept her from asking. Azrin liked building things, not destroying them. Destruction was easy, and there’d been enough of that going around lately. Reverting back to her normal voice, she continued, “I’ll do whatever you want to the fighter if Commander… Ravon? Right?” Wasn’t that who Eshra had mentioned? She remembered the guy from before she went into stasis, but she hasn’t figured out all the senior staff changes from other departments since waking up. “Doesn’t matter. Get the work order from whoever’s in charge, and we can work on that. Until then, we can improve your ship by making sure it turns on again.” As though to enforce her point, she gave Via a cheerful thumbs up before setting her sights back on Wolf-13, clapping her hands together and rubbing them in excitement.

“Now, back to work!” Now that she had permission to be here and complete the task, her joy was practically infectious, rolling off the Trill in waves. This was someone who truly, genuinely, enjoyed her work. Even in an environment as chaotic as Via had created. “Where were we? Pull old parts, add new parts, seal cracks. Everyone know what to do?” Her eyes lingered on Via for a second longer than necessary.

It would probably be safer if she observed Via for a few minutes, just to be sure her friend knew what she was doing.

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #16 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @rae
[Show/Hide]

"Oh..." Via said in realization after Azrin 'informed' her that she was flying a warp fighter, but after giving it a second thought she wouldn't mind if it went even faster.

"Hmph." The young pilot crossed her arms and pouted somewhat after her friend told her to get all the high-ranking people involved if she wanted to do any modifications which didn't seem that much fun to do in her mind. She was right, however, and her infectious mood couldn't help but make Via look forward to fixing the ship she tried to disassemble.

"I will retrieve the maintenance hover cart ma'am. I believe all we need has already been requisitioned by the deck crew in case of emergency repairs and replacements. Now that we are not hiding from anyone it should make our job easier." Charles said before walking off.

Via looked back at Azrin after zoning out and shrugged. "I ain't sealin' no one's crack, but if that's somethin' ya wanna do I ain't judgin'. Oh, you mean the ship?"

She walked over to her fighter and observed the strung-out insides. "I meanin' I can look for the old shits in here. That's easy!”

Via went in and started pulling out old burnt-out plasma couplers, self-sealing stem bolts, and other clearly spent and scorched items. One of the few things her sister had taught her about ship maintenance was looking for clearly breaking and broken items. The basic things that helped with various sub-systems that if not replaced or taken care of could cause a routine flight to become FUBAR. Anything with the warp core however she completely avoided since she knew that was Azrin’s thing.

Charles would come back with the cart about 5 minutes later. He had everything they could ever need to make the Valravn practically brand new. New isolinier processing chips, injectors, plasma relays, EPS coordinators, and even warp core parts. They had the capability to do a complete overhaul, especially since now they had the tools to fix certain items they couldn’t before.

Via crawled out from under the fighter to meet Charles. She couldn’t believe how much he managed to get.

“What the…how did you ass get all this shit? Damn…” she said eyeing the brand-new parts.

“The maintenance quartermaster is quite nice. I simply told her th-”

“Shut up, pass me that fuckin’ uh… analyzer tool thingie…”

The RIO sighed and passed the tool over.

“Thanks!” Via said playfully and walked off back to her fighter and did more maintenance things.

“Miss Ryn. Do you require anything else from me?” He called out to the officer in question. “How is everything so far?”

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #17 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

Apparently, she needed to be less vague, the engineer staring in abject confusion because what other cracks could she possibly be talking about? Via figured out her mistake long before Azrin understood it. “Sealing someone’s…” she muttered to herself, shuddering lightly at the thought. That did not sound like fun.

“We already found them Via,” Azrin explained patiently once she’d banished the other strange notions to the back of her head. Repair work was far more pleasant to think about. “That’s what we were shining all the lights on the ship for earlier. We made a note of all the— wait. You did mark where every crack you found was right?” Belatedly, she realized she should have been watching Via more closely throughout this process.

The point was moot, since Azrin was reasonably sure that Via wasn’t listening anyway, the pilot already in full swing taking apart even more of the mistreated Valravn. Picking up a stembolt that had landed near her feet, Azrin shook her head at the sight of the warped, scorched part. She dropped it in a pile of damaged pieces off to the side – most likely Charles’ work – before heading to the warp assembly. Azrin rubbed her hand on one of the injectors gently, like someone might comfort a dear pet. “You poor, poor ship. Let’s never fell Fia about this, ok? It can be our little secret.” No need to get Via in trouble when they finally saw the elder Wix sister again.

Somewhere along the way, she’d settled on the belief that she would see her friends again, rebel ships and scary parasites notwithstanding. It was easier that way.

She had decided to start in the area that Via had been scanning earlier. A second pair of eyes wouldn’t hurt anything. The scanner was back in her hand, finding the microfractures and recording their locations on a tricorder. As she looked over one of the injectors, Azrin paused, noticing something weird in the way the light was reflecting between the parts. A bit of darker shadow, right beneath it. Her fingers moved to investigate what her eyes couldn’t make out, coming back stained by grease from the injector. A small object was nestled in her palm, far heavier than it seemed to have any right to be. Azrin took a closer look at it, then groaned. She scanned it with the tricorder just to be sure, but honestly the density was all she needed.

“Ok team, I have good news and bad news.” As she turned back to the others, she tried to sound as excited about it as possible, though she doubted Via or Charles would agree. “The good news is – oh great! You got a lot of parts! – anyway, the good news is that we have an unlimited supply of coffee on this ship! The bad news is, we have to go back and tell Eshra that I might have slightly underestimated the time it’s going to take to fix this ship.” Azrin revealed the object in her hand, a rather unremarkable looking mineral with jagged edges, as though it had broken off from a larger piece. “Verterium cortenide. Part of the warp coil. There’s definitely a crack somewhere in there. You don’t have to fly this thing tomorrow, do you?”

Because that was not going to happen.

OOC: I'm sorry, I didn't realize this was so late! Ready to fin?

Re: Day 13 [0622 hrs.] The Little Warp Core That Couldn't

Reply #18 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @rae
[Show/Hide]

"Uh..." Via looked at her scanny tool and scratched her head. "Pfft yeah!! I scanned all of them shits, totally" She said with certainty but clearly wasn't sure. She had been scanning the things that looked weird to her which may or may not have included things that were part of the natural wear and tear of space flight and she may or may not have been forgetting to actually mark the fractures for later viewing.

When Azrin went ahead and did a second run through Via simply started to pick up the sorted pieces on the floor and examine them. While she knew the Valravn and thousands of different parts and systems some of which she had to memorize incase she needed to do field repairs but this would be the first time she would acutally process the numbers of these parts. It was overwellming and she was so graitful she didn't have to fix everything...then she remembered she was the one who caused this...and volunteered to fix this.

"Ugghhhhhh!!" Via groaned and cried. "Fuck this..."

Charles chimed in. "Ma'am I believe yo-"

"Shut your ass up." she flipped him of and sat down on one of the panels pouting.

Charles just sighed and started sorting the new parts that he had brought over. Both of them looked at Azrin when she came out and told them of their situation with the fighter. Essentially the ship had a crack on the warp core which meant they couldn't do the repairs, or at least on time.

Via spoke first. "You sayin' our asses been spendin' all this time...fuckin' shit, my ass don't care anymore if I be gettin' in trouble. Where is Esh...uh-"

"Eshra, ma'am." He sighed more relieved than annoyed. There was no way three people where going to fix the mess they caused. "I'll find him." He walked off.

Via stood up and streched before talking to Azrin again. "I am thinkin' my ass ain't scheduled for flight for like...3 days from now or somethin'. I just be tryin' to not get burnt for this stupid ass inspection." She went in for a hug. "Thanks anywho girl! Shit, my ass missed you. I know ain't had to help and shit and rather be sleepin' but...you know...thank you."

When Via released her they would hear a loud and pained "WHAT?!?!?!" from the maintance area. The voiced belonged to PO Eshrasaohl “Eshra” Th'rhytral.

--FIN--
 
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