The Grand Tour: Engineering

Posted on Sat Mar 13th, 2021 @ 6:05pm by Captain Michelle Bartlett & Cadet Senior Grade Brady Macleod & Lieutenant Cor Cordale

Mission: Arriving
Location: Engineering

"Main engineering." Michelle called to the turbolift. "I suppose a few more stops before the Bridge?"

"I mean if Major Weston is in Sickbay right now, might not be a bad idea to meet up with her." Jason replied.

"You're right, I suppose." Michelle replied. "She's acting as the doctor right now? This really messed a lot up. Will we be attempting further contact with that world?"

"No." Jason replied. "I think they made their intentions very clear. And if we do, we sure aren't sending this ship. I don't think we've ever had a mess like this in quite some time. The Captain, First Officer, Marine CO and Chief Medical Officer all dead? That's almost unheard of except in wartime."

"You mentioned the Chief Engineer was an interesting character." Michelle replied. "What did you mean by that?"

"He's... resourceful. And unlike anyone I've ever met." Jason said. "You'll see when you meet him." he added as the two walked into main engineering.

"Commodore on deck!" called out the Cadet who spotted him and Commander Bartlett.

"At ease, Mr. Macleod." Jason replied. "All hands, as you were."

"You must be the new Captain. Welcome aboard, sir." Brady replied.

"Ma'am, if you please. I understand it's ancient tradition to call female officers sir, but.... I prefer ma'am."

"Of course, ma'am. I think Lieutenant Cordale was just running some diagnostics on the plasma relay. I'll take you to him."

"Please." Michelle replied.

The cadet brought the upper ranks of command deep into the engineering bay. There, standing by the affectionately named Pool Table, was the Chief Engineer. A bipedal uplift of an animal, thick cobalt-blue fur, thick tail, and an ancient prosthetic for his arm. "Okay, so if dat, dat, and dat... okay, so fire it up from thirty seven fifteen, and smooth." the creature spoke, an accent difficult to place but unmistakable. As his crew fired up the plasma relays as per his orders, he watched from the table as various points along the architecture lit up.

"Sir? Ummm..." the cadet looked at the Thux, worried. Cordale gave a nod, "I see them. Sir, Ma'am, welcome to the pit. I'll greet you proper in just a minute, I just need to know... if we're all about to explode.... and... " there were nothing but green lights along the panel. "Ahh, good. We live." and with that, the creature turned to the command staff and gave a nod. It was a motion that involved a little more of his shoulders than normal, but not everyone was put together the same way. "Cor Cordale, chief engineer, at your service. Diagnostics turned up a clog of foreign matter in one of the EPS relay nodes. If we let it linger, it may cause warp plasma to leak outta the system, and well, that'd be terrible for anyone near it." he explained.

"I hope you don't mind my prioritizing 'Not Disintegrating' over 'Handshakes'." he chuckled.

"Definitely prefer not disintegrating." Michelle chuckled as well. "Would be sort of a sad start to this whole thing."

"Agreed." Jason replied.

"Do we know what the foreign matter was?" Michelle asked.

"A shard of aluminum tungstide. It's one of the materials that coat the EPS relay ducts. Tough stuff, practically immune to thermal transfer, but brittle along the edges. Piece of it broke off, got lodged somewhere, and was gumming up the works. We started lookin' for it once we saw the missing coating, and we just found it recently when we saw a power drop." he explained. "It's actually really neat looking. I'll bring it around and show it off once it's done cooling off. We've got it in magnetic containment at the moment on its way to the plasma coolant run off. We gotta treat it with kid gloves cause it's runnin' at about five or six hundred thousand degrees, give or take." the Thux sounded impressed.

"I wouldn't worry about a repeat. This is one of those one in a million events, and it's easy to fix if you know what'tah look for."

"Well, I'm happy to hear that... And I look forward to seeing our little... souvenir." she added with a grin. "This must have been your engine room for quite some time" she said as she looked around. Aside from one little corner where there appeared to be some... appliance, the engine room looked extremely well taken care of and organized.

The Thux chuckled, "I'll have it put on display once its safe to handle by everyone. Right now I don't even think I'd risk touching it." he offered, following her glance around the bay. "I make every engine pit my own. I learn every step, every bend, and every ramp. Keep it clean, keep it neat, and every tool in its place." he offered. "When there's no emergency, the crew and I relax. We tell jokes, we call each other by name rather than rank. When the chips are down, though, the gloves come off."

"Though, I still insist they call me by name, or Chief. Call out my rank, and you get four ansers." It was around that point that Cordale walked over to the odd contraption on a desk. "Coffee? I can't function without the stuff." and he picked up a large mug, decorated with a cartoon caricature of his own face. Surrounding his face was the phrase "Thux to be you".

"That makes two of us!" Michelle said. "I'd love a cup. No wonder everything runs so smoothly around here."

Cordale snagged an extra mug from a nearby replicator. Probably used for tools and parts, but today, it made a coffee mug. "Nah, everything runs smooth cause we're a well oiled machine. Coffee just keeps us awake." he snickered, and handed Michelle her mug. "I don't know how hot it is, the Arctile doesn't have pain receptors. Handy." he chuckled, handing her the mug in his positively ancient prosthetic hand.

"Well... I hope that won't change." she said, having a sip of the coffee. "This is amazing. Don't tell Commander Tang this, but... She might have some competition with her blue Dalacari coffee..."

"To be fair, Shelly... You haven't had Commander Tang's coffee yet. It does the job." Jason replied.

"Well, least there'll never be a bad cup on board in any event. I've gotten a bit addicted to it over the years, but you can blame the Commodore here for that."

"The secret is cinnamon." Cordale said between swigs. "And I ain't had none of that Dalacari blue brew, but ... well, see the universe, meet new people, drink their java. That's the motto."

"Well, I mean that's why the Federation was founded, don't you know? We got sick of the coffee on our own world so decided to form a federation with other worlds." Michelle said. "Well, okay probably not. But it's more amusing than stories about Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites and Benzites!"

"Eh, it's all relative. Vulcan coffee is bland, Andorian coffee is served cold. Never had any of the coffee of the others, but Earth coffee is something special." Cordale mentioned, "So, welcome to Engineering. You're in good hands as long as I got a say in it."

"Glad to hear. I hope there isn't too much to repair from the last mission?" Michelle asked. "I haven't had the chance to read a damage report or anything quite yet." she said. "Honestly, I just don't want you all overworking yourselves when we're supposed to be on leave. We should probably continue with the tour though. It was lovely meeting you. I'll catch up with you later."