To Attempt To Lay The Lion Low
Posted on Wed Jul 20th, 2022 @ 3:57am by Lieutenant Commander Dorian Sheppard & Captain Devin Hadenbeer
Edited on on Wed Jul 20th, 2022 @ 8:32pm
1,071 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Into The Void
Location: Engineering
Devin strode into Engineering, cane in hand. She paused and took a long, long look about the chamber and she imagined her expression was enough to give everyone pause.
"Commander Sheppard," she said to the nearest crewman, who hesitated a microsecond before nodding off to his left. Nodding herself, Devin strode that way to find out exactly why Lionheart was limping along at warp seven...
“Sir,” Sheppard looks up from the Engineering readout module, and fumbles for something in his pocket. He holds out the melted gadget, a small ion generator about the size of a hypospray. “Mell’Una and Dupree spent hours analyzing the device,” Sheppard explains. “It’s a dynaural gravimetric detonator. Triggered by subspace frequency B three nine to initialize a Level four induction relay overload, the only thing that prevented the warp core from breaching was the power drain off from the phaser banks. It blew out the capacitor before a full recharge occurred,” he explains.
He leans in and says softly, “We’ve got a saboteur aboard.”
Devin stared at the device for a full three seconds before replying, "That could have been planted before leaving Earth. The crate, now this. And only by some stroke of luck or incompetence on the part of the saboteur saved us."
“I have Ensigns Collins and Rabahk running Level 2 diagnostics deck by deck and department by department for traces of molybdenum tripolysulfide” he says. “It’s offgassed during ionization,” he explains. “But nothing has come up other than the Jeffries tube where we found this. I can have a team ready to assist Commander Ull in a ship wide sweep for any other … (pause) … irregularities,” he adds.
Devin nodded, "Very good. If it is a saboteur then it is either one of the new crew-which includes just about every officer-or there is a deep cover agent on board that was activated."
She grimaced, "But Starfleet Intelligence has been diligent these past few years uncovering Romulan moles, ever since Ambassador T'Pel's 'defection'. The last thing this crew needs is a witch hunt, throwing suspicion upon everyone."
Hadenbeer sighed, "Very well, Commander. Keep me apprised of any new developments. Now, I assume our warp engine troubles were a side effect of this malfunction? And am I to assume we will not be able to fully make repairs unless we stop?"
“Mr. Dupree has reconfigured the integer factorization of the secondary inverters for quantum annealing,” Sheppard explains, crediting the Bajoran CPO for a job well done. “In theory, that will bypass the omnimatrix regulators to allow a semistable Warp Bubble to nine point three seven six,” he reports
“By ‘semistable’ I just mean that ship’s maximum warp could overload the parallel capacitors, but we’ve already got redundancies calibrated for such an event,” he says confidently. “Buuuuut…” He purses his lips. “By ‘in theory’ I mean … um … it’s been proposed several times historically, but no one has ever … bothered … to … try …” he softly trails off awkwardly, looking down at his shoes and toeing the deck before resuming eye contact. (Ahem, he clears his throat) “Sir.”
"I see," the Captain replied after a moment. And while it appeared she had been a step behind Sheppard's explanation she seemed to actually catch up. She nodded thoughtfully and after another moment of silence stated, "Commander, I feel that whomever staged the assault on their runabout and set the trap for us is at this moment also staging an attack upon Gabriel Station. Every hour, every minute counts. And if you," she smiled slightly, "and Mister Dupree can promise me nine point three seven six for just two hours, we might be able to catch these bastards off guard."
She reached out and rested her palm against the wall, her expression turned sober as she stared at a point past the engineer.
"Someone tried to harm my ship, Mister Sheppared. I want blood," her vision focused upon the CEO, "I am going to order maximum warp in five minutes. If the warp bubble does not burst do not hesitate to remind me to put you and Mister Dupree in for a commendation."
“Five minutes. Aye Captain,” Sheppard acknowledges. “We won’t let you down.”
As the Captain departs, the Chief Engineer taps his commbadge and brings up a digital schematic of the matter/antimatter relays on his monitor. “Ok team. That’s a Go,” he says. “Dupree double check your numbers and have your team ready to reroute through tertiary capacitors as necessary. LaBrea, I want a real-time report of retrofractal impedance. Any variation beyond sigma two to the negative third, start reallocation coefficient of one point one to i squared.” His fingers flip through digital images of various systems until he gets to the supercoolant array interface. “Nguyen are you there?”
“Ready, sir,” comms the reply.
“On my mark, disengage vapor cell maglectric one. Three, two, one, Mark.” He slides his finger down the left side of the display, draining the supercooling solution into the internal reservoir, and checks the temperature reading. “Two hundred thirty two Kelvin and rising, sir,” Nguyen comms.
“Confirmed,” Sheppard replies.
“Impedance holding at two point oh,” LaBrea comms.
Tapping the display, Sheppard flushes the vapor lock and increases the warp core output by 9%.
“Two hundred thirty seven Kelvin and rising fast. Two hundred thirty nine…”
/-Damn-/ Sheppard thinks, tapping faster. He vents the shunt and seals the aperture. “Pressurizing cell,” he comms. “Uncoupling array.”
“Two forty four,” Nguyen comms.
“Impedance falling,” LaBrea comms. “One point nine nine seven, nine nine six, nine nine five…”
“Resetting node,” Sheppard comms. “Recoupling array. On my mark, Nguyen. Three, two, one, Mark."
Lionheart jumped from a sedate warp seven almost immediately to nine, then to point one...point two...point three...and then settled on point three seven. Chief Dupree, who had been teased mercilessly over the years because his name resembled a human's, scowled and was about to say something, when the warp engines gave up the last point zero zero zero six. A cheer resounded in engineering, both celebratory, and resembling the sound of a predator's challenging roar.
One engineer did not share in the cheer. Ensign Shadai reviewed the records regarding the capacitor overload. Something about it did not seem right. Did she bring it up to the Commander?
She shrugged. The ship was about to enter combat and she had level two diagnostics to run. It could wait...
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