Salvage Operation

Posted on Sun Jan 8th, 2023 @ 5:24pm by Lieutenant Ty-Yak Novo & Ensign Syvar Delton & Petty Officer, 2nd Class Harmony Stardancer
Edited on on Mon Jan 16th, 2023 @ 8:32am

1,057 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Fool’s Errand
Location: USS Detroit: Main Engineering
Timeline: M1 MD07 (2268.22.05) 0930

The engineering decks of the Detroit were completely deserted as the security team ventured down the wrapping corridors. The damage was more severe down in this section of the ship with evidence of extinguished fires and exposed bulkheads. The whole section smelled like melted plastic and burnt carpeting.

They reached main engineering. The security team entered first followed by Novo and Harmony. "Oh would you look at the mess," Novo said in an annoyed voice as he soaked in the damage in tiny engine compartment. He walked over to the diagnostic console and tapped a view buttons.

"Seems like housekeeping is slacking off," Harmony muttered with a grin. "Looks like it was pretty rough." She'd been in a few hairy situations, but never anything that left a ship looking like this. "I just hope the crew is all right and we can find them." Hopefully, the bridge crew would find something helpful.

"Mr. Delton, would you and your men mind scanning for traps?" Novo asked, looking around the engine bay, "The last thing I want is to step on a landmine while trying to get this piece of junk mobile." He started to read the results of the system diagnostics which were flashing across the display. His eyes were glowing brighter than the dim display screen.

Matt, who had hardly blinked all the way to the engine room, nodded and responded with an "Aye." He turned to the small team and said, "fan out and mind your heads. The last thing we need is to walk out of here with a body bag." They spread out and proceeded to carry out the Lieutenant's order. Matt himself went for the nearest major console the had power. With all the destruction, he was surprised anything was still functioning.

Novo walked over to the dillithium intermix chamber and opened up the side panel and signed. The dilithium crystals were shattered, only a complete overload could have done this sort of damage. He stuck his hand into the chamber to remove the shards. "Oh son of a bitch!" he yelled as he dropped the large fragment onto the deck. The palm of his hand was bleeding.

"Hey! Careful!" Harmony quickly moved to the Lieutenant's side, gently grasping his hand. "I'm here for decoration, not to work!" Grinning, she pulled a gauze pad from her kit and dabbed at the blood. "Doesn't look too bad, can you feel me touching the tips of your fingers?"

"Yeah I can, damn pile of junk got away from me," Novo responded, "Going to be fun messing in the machinery now... Blast."

"I can do a quick mend on it, but you'll need to have it properly seen to once we get back." Harmony dug out the dermal regenerator, looking up at Novo. 'It's going to hurt a little, but anything I use for pain will cause numbing, so..." She shrugged. While it might be entertaining to watch him try to function with no feeling in his fingers, but it wouldn't help the mission any.

The man nodded as Harmony mended his hand, if only it would be as easy to mend this ship. Novo wondered what could have shattered these dilithium crystals. It would have taken a rather strong overload. "Any traps or bombs?" Novo yelled out to Matt.

Over on the other side of the bay, Matt had been following conduits that housed the power lines. One of the easiest to blow a room up is with an improper buildup of power. He'd noticed the conduits were "juiced up" a bit, but there could be any number of engineering related reasons for it, not necessarily something sinister. "Not so far. I'm getting some slightly spiked energy readings, but nothing that we should be alarm....." just then, he scanner started letting off a beeping sound, indicating something out of the ordinary. "Standby, I may have found something."

"What did you find?" Novo asked, his eyes shooting over to where Matt was standing. He completely forgot about his hand. He wasn't about to move however, since if it was a trap anything could set it off. They were lucky nothing had gone off yet.

"Whatever it is, its behind this panel," Matt said as he carefully set his scanning device down and very gently lifted off the panel. Behind it was an obviously foreign device that had a bypass sent through it. "I'm no engineer, but one of these things is not like the other." He picked his scanner back up. "It's not reacting to me scanning it, which is incredibly fortunate. Lieutenant, come take a look, but," he turned his head and pointed at a nearby console, "go around that console, not directly to me."

The engineer did as instructed. Once he reached the panel he looked inside, "Oh definitely an Orion trap," he said, "These are tricky bastards..." He set his toolkit down onto the ground. He knelt down and pulled out a laser cutter. "The trick with these is to be quick," he said, "once set off the detonation occurs usually within 5 seconds and there's no way to defuse it." He reached into the console, "Ensign, how good are you at trap shooting?" He asked.

"Let's hope we don't have to find out," Matt said shaking his head continuing to analyze the readout. "They've shunted power all over this bay, including to the dilithium chamber. No wonder you got that nasty nip there." He straightened up out of the direct path of the device, just in case. "Everyone take cover." He looked back at Novo. "Good luck."

"Well, with these Orion contraptions, the only way to deal with them is to pull them out, toss them and shoot them," Novo responded, "Or at least that's the easiest way I've found." He shrugged.

Matt simultaneously raised his eyebrows and cocked his head to the side and back. "Well, in that case, on the count of three.... pull." He unholstered his phaser and stood at the ready.

The engineer removed the device from the wall. It started to super heat as he threw it into the air. As the phaser fired, the beam immediately impacted against the device. It exploded in a million pieces sending debris all over the room. "Well that was a lot of fun," Novo said with a wide grin.

 

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