Repairs to Triumphant

Posted on Sun Feb 12, 2017 @ 6:57pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Lieutenant Vincent Kramer

Mission: An Orion to Die For
Location: Engineering
Timeline: MD 3 || 1400 Hours

ON:

The Chief Engineer stood before the Tri-warp Core, glancing down at the display console. He called out loudly, "No. that's not it. Try the secondary buffer." The Alpha Core had been shut down. The cooling system, during the battle, had began to not function as expected.

Engineering had teams in several active repair situations across the ship: EPS relays had blown, shield generators were at a reduced level, not to mention an issue on the Victorious. But the Chief knew that he had to partition those tasks and focus his energy here in Main Engineering.

The Ensign called out, "And now?!?"

Kramer looked down at his display and saw that the cooling system was now functioning at 98%. "We're almost there. Look around for any burnt Isolinear chips in one of the transition junctions."

Ensign sh'Paveress entered Engineering, having been assigned by the ship's Chief Operations Officer in his absence to be the liaison to Lieutenant Kramer. She carried a PADD in hand, as well as a tricorder in a waist pouch. She took a moment to look around the room, and, after doing so, shook her head. She'd been aboard the ship for a year, and still found it hard to believe that this ship had taken the beating that it did.

"Lieutenant Kramer?" she asked a crewman who was about to pass by her. "Where can I find him?"

Crewman Rodriguez looked up from his console to see an Andorian Ensign. Pointing toward the warp cores, "He is out there Ensign."

"Thanks," she said, heading for the warp core. Spotting the Chief Engineer in front of a console, she stepped up beside him and stated, "Chief Barnes sent me down to assist, Lieutenant. Where can I help?"

Vincent looked up from the console to see a female Andorian with a pip on her collar. He smiled and asked, "Do you have any specialty Ensign?" He had known several Andorians over the years and always found them to be very focused and responsible individuals. He expected no less from her.

"Power distribution systems, sir," she replied. "In my first couple months aboard, I found ways to ease the load on the primary systems without any loss of efficiency."

"That sounds very impressive," Kramer replied. A slight smile came across his face as he asked, "How are you with cooling interface systems?"

"Quite adept, sir," the ensign replied. "I've had quite a hand in the coolant systems in the engineering levels."

"Excellent." Kramer then requested, "How about you lend your trained eyes to the Alpha cooling system, and see if these guys up there missed anything?" He always preferred a second look by Engineers. He knew no 'one' to be perfect. He hoped his would not offend her.

The Andorian shen nodded as she took a position behind a nearby console. For a frame of reference, she performed her own Level Five Diagnostic on the system as her other hand called up the results of the last few diagnostics. "When was the last time maintenance was performed on the coolant interlock modules?" she asked as she continued to work.

Kramer callled back, not turning away from his console, "Last week, when they were installed new." Vince lifted his head and added, "Check the rings on the couplings to the modules. The Starbase personnel put those in."

sh'Paveress nodded. "It's a good place to start then," she stated, beginning to compare the diagnostics. "Looks like we have a reduction in the flow rate. Computer says about three percent below nominal levels. With a core of this size, three percent is a significant number. We should flush out the coolant for a visual inspection." Based on this report, the shen had a good idea what could be wrong.

"Acceptable", Kramer called back, "We may need that 3 percent and I want to be able to give it to the Captain when he asks for it." He glanced over at the Andorian with a smile in just the corner of his mouth. To the others near him he said aloud, "We are shutting down the cooling system. Prepare to evacuate all coolant to storage chambers Beta 4. We are going to do a manual inspection boys and girls." He knew that evacuating took a little longer than venting, so he walked over to the console where Paceress stood.

As the engineers followed their orders, sh'Paveress prepared to flush the coolant back into its reserve reservoir. As soon as that was done, she looked up to Kramer and nodded. "We're ready for visual inspection. We should start with what's closest to the Alpha core and work our way backwards to the main tank."

"A sound technique", Kramer then stated, "Proceed." The Chief Engineer watched intently as he stood next to the Andorian.

"Let's open her up," said the ensign, moving over to where the coolant tanks met the alpha core. She was fully aware of the dangers that surrounded flesh meeting coolant, especially since most organic basically liquified on contact. Sometimes, however, the best approach was to get a visual eye view before resorting to sensor contacts. After all, had the sensors been up to notch, this three percent degradation would have been detected weeks ago.

A nearby crewman very carefully assisted with opening the coolant tube. "Light," she asked for. As soon as it was in her hand, she activated it and shone it inside. "Just as I suspected," she said almost instantly. Her eyes immediately noticed some coolant that had congealed on the gasket in the middle of the conduit's coupler. Given that there was one of these couplers every ten feet, it was safe to assume that problem would persist all of the way to the coolant tank itself.

"Looks like the gaskets had an extra layer of polymer coating," sh'Paveress said, handing Kramer the light so he could have a look for himself. "We should run a sensor probe to be sure, but I bet we'll have to chemically flush the entire system before pumping coolant back through."

Kramer took the light and examined the interior of the coolant line himself, "I can see where the coolant has congealed." Turning and looking back at Parveress, "I agree about needing to flush the system. I'll get one team on flushing out the system to remove any congealed coolant, and another team to see if we can filter that one tank we have evacuated to. I'd like to try and save it, instead of just de-replicating it."

"It should be fine," remarked sh'Paveress, having withdrawn her tricorder to scan the gasket. "So far, only coolant that has brushed against the gasket has congealed. The process itself seems to be slow enough, but we will definitely have to get rid the the polymer."

"Very good," Kramer stated. "If you don't mind, I'll let you finish up this area. I need to check on two other projects that should also be finished up very soon."

"I don't mind at all, Lieutenant," she said, turning back once more to the conduit.

END