A Hidden Gem

Posted on Friday March 5th, 2021 @ 8:51pm by Niyahra Riohn & Timothy Bennett & Milinda Frost Malley & Cleo Ortega & Kyan Mackenzie & Wraet tr'Melanth

Mission: Marauder's Map
Location: Various locations on abandoned California class vessel in the Loki system
Timeline: Current
2535 words - 5.1 OF Standard Post Measure

After entering the lifeless hulk of the California class the teams had spread across the vessel, trying to find the quickest way to get things working. Niyahra and her old friend Bennett were on the bridge. She had some past life experience flying a Starfleet vessel, he had some experience commanding one and standing at the tactical station. They were the logical choice to be on the bridge, especially if things went sour.

Niyahra wiped some grime and dust off the dedication plaque on the wall. The vessel must've been really close to being done, the name was already assigned as well as a registry. "Walraven," She spoke out loud before looking over at the man that was with her, "does that ring any bells?"

Ty stepped forward from where Niyahra had stopped; try as he might, his couldn't avoid looking at the Captain's chair. Sat in the middle of bridge, he gingerly gave the padding on the shoulders a squeeze with a remorseful sigh. He hadn't been on the bridge of a Federation starship for a very, very long time; and the last bridge he'd been on had been largely on fire and strewn with bodies as he'd ordered the abandon ship call. He'd only vaguely heard her in the background of rehashing his demons, but he wasn't familiar with the name in any case; indeed if this ship was nearly ready right before the general surrender was issued then he'd long been away from any classified data such as starship operations and movements. "Uhh no" he said, wondering again what the point of this one ship was, and what difference it would really make.

When Niyahra looked up and saw him slightly zoned out around the command well she knew exactly what he was thinking. There were things that both of them witnessed on a bridge not dissimilar to this one, "Frost got the power flowing, we should probably check if we can start up the essentials," She hoped having a straight forward task would help them get their minds off spectres from the past. She walked up to Ty and put a hand on his shoulder, "our luck is turning, we'll make this work." With that she sat down at the controls in front of the bridge, she had been a flight control officer in a past life after all. She pressed the communication device that Wraet had shared with the team before they boarded, =A= Frost, this is the Bridge team, we are in position, just let us know when. =A=

[Meanwhile in Engineering]

Frost was in her element of sorts; the Engineering section was well laid out, she could move around even in her gear. The first order of business is to get the Fusion Reactors pumping and somethng other than the dwindling batteries powering the ship. Now with most star ships and the four fusion reactors she ned start opposites. Moving to Reactor One she look at the dim display, not promising but then she had seen cored out ractors and like theGenerators she rebuilt this is just a really big one.

"Talk with me..." She said aloud as she keyed the flooding of protons into the ignition chamber to prime the reactor. "Give you a little drink and let you get the ..." Frost hit the ignition.

Sparks flew and the proton flow lit the chamber thus giving the heat needed to start the Reactor rods. These would begin to oscillate and give off heat and thus the reactor then converts heat to poser and the systems goes by the Laws of Thermal Dynamics if heat exchange .

"Reactor one lit." She said with a smile and moved to number three; repeating the process. Knowing that if there were Dilithium Crystals in the Warp Core she could start a manual Ignition of the Core; but also if the 4 reactors are lit and functional the ship would have operating and even some impulse capability with a full life support and other systems able to be restarted.

=^= Staring number three. =^= She began the sequence. =^= Give me about twenty minutes and I should have enough power for a manual restart of the ship's systems. =^= she reported. =^= I will check the core once we have a proper system start, the reactors can power the ship short of Warp Drive. =^=

With little to do and even less technical know-how, Cleo decided that her best course of action was to simply stay out of the way. She did her best to keep Frost within sight, but with the engineer moving quickly from station to station and Cleo totally unable to predict her movements, it was likely that she'd become more of a nuisance than any help if she kept at that for long. It seemed better to stay put in a central location where she could keep tabs on as much as possible instead.

As she waited for something to happen Cleo's imagination ran wild with the countless perils involved with waking up such a dormant and neglected piece of complex technology. Though injuries in general were seldom pleasant to look at, in her experience the sort of trauma seen in engineering mishaps could be downright ghastly. Especially plasma burns. Cleo had nightmares about plasma burns. If she could choose one way she didn't want to die, that would be the first grim fate to come to mind.

As if on cue, a nearby access panel popped against its hinge as the conduit behind it expanded from the sudden rush of superheated plasma within. The conduit seals held, but Cleo still yelped with fright as she leaped from the chair she'd been sitting in. One of the Latinum Guard saw it all and cracked a joke at her expense to his comrade. Cleo glowered at him as she found her seat. If he'd been aboard a ship exactly like this one while it was on fire he probably wouldn't be so quick to laugh, but it wouldn't be good for anyone's morale or productivity to start talking about that.

In the end, Cleo found it best to simply sit with her eyes closed and focus on a breathing exercise as she waited for the ship to begin to wake from its long slumber.

Hearing the yelp Frost turned to the woman and took in the scene of her seeming either bored or nervous.

"It is going to get louder." Frost warned. "Especially if I can get the Warp Core up and running." She tilt her head while looking at her. "I am Milinda."

Crap. Cleo thought, really hoping that not everyone had noticed that. The usually calm and collected medic did not want a reputation as 'the jumpy one.'

"I'm Cleo." the medic said as she stood back up, as if that made her seem more useful. "I can handle loud, just not used to the sudden and unexpected." She added, looking around. Part of her wanted something to do, however simple, just to keep her hands and mind occupied. But another part of her really didn't want to get anywhere near anything, especially anything that could overload or blow up in her face. She had memories of engineering, virtually all of them bad. As a medical officer, she'd only ever gone there when something had gone horribly wrong. She'd treated more than one patient while trying not to listen to the backdrop of a destabilizing warp core and the engineers frantically trying to fix things.

"Luckily this is not Brain Surgery but Engineering." frost said. "And a Medic's steady hand is something I can use." Frost grinned and motioned Cleo over to the console. "I need to have your left hand to hold the #1 and #3 buttons while your other hand holds the #2 and #4 buttons open until I tell you so I can build up a pre3-ignition for the Warp Core." She smiled. "If you mess up we just start again, but it saves me going back and forth if you do not mind helping?"

"I can do that." Cleo said, the instructions sounding simple enough. She made it a point to memorize the locations of the buttons as soon as Milinda pointed them out, using points of reference to try and help distinguish them from the many other buttons on the busy console, just in case something interrupted the process and made her have to find them again. Learning anatomy hadn't been that much different, really, just lots and lots of memorization, and learning where things were relative to one another. In fact, her first steps into the field of medicine had been taken in almost the exact same way. You there, come here and put pressure on the wound right here until one of us tells you to stop.

In position, Cleo waited for the cue from Milinda to press the buttons.

[Meanwhile in the Main Computer Core]

Wraet turned slowly examining the core. He ran a hand over the access screen. No response. Inactive, as expected, and possibly not fully installed or programmed, but there. Given that it was high on the list of things that might have been removed, that was a substantially better than he'd feared. He looked to his diminutive companion - an Onlie, or Miran as the Tal'Shiar database had termed them - who had the appearance of a human child roughly a decade old, but was apparently several times Wraet's age. "Have you seen this model before? The codes from Cleo may not work here, so we may have to hack the interface."

Sitting atop an inert console with his legs swinging over the side, the little Onlie simply shrugged as the Romulan examined the Starfleet equipment. "Sure and it's a tactical type I am, and not an egg headed scientist or an engineer. I dunno about computer cores and hacking. I just know about sending people off to the Summerlands. " he offered jovially, his casual tone belying the context of what he was saying, as was often the case. He then added almost as an aside... "Skills which I hope to use sooner than later on more of those Jem'Hadar types!" Kyan then cast a quick glance in the direction of one of the Latinum Guards. "Maybe one of these fellas knows."

Jumping off the console, the boy called over to the.... other... stoic Romulan "patrolling" the room. "Hey... guard guy. You know about computer cores?"

The Latinum Guard regarded him as most "grups" did, with a haughty glance and dismissive shake of his head. For his part, Kyan was undeterred. "Well what about your partner over by the door then? Does he?"

The Guard stopped his patrol and considered the boy. "No." He said finally, and went back to walking about the room.

Kyan made his way over to where Wraet was examining the computer core. "Not very talkative are they?" he whispered.

"That is generally considered a good trait in a Latinum Guard," Wraet remarked matter-of-factly, and continued his survey of the core. Clearly Kyan's centuries of experience were going to be of no use here. This was going to be a job for good old Romulan ingenuity. Pulling a a folded case from his jacket, he opened it and began making connections. Fortunately Starfleet technology was fairly well known to the Tal'Shiar as the Vulcans the Empire had taken in had seen no logic in withholding what they knew.

Before long he had pulled the schematics and mapped the system. It would take a few tweaks to complete the programming, but then he'd planned to add some specialty subprograms anyway... right now the issue was hardware. He looked down at the maintenance conduit. Maybe the Onlie could be of assistance after all. "Mr. MacKenzie, can you check the isolinear rods in panel 2A-11 in there? Either several were never installed or a section of them decayed for some reason."

"Ah HAH!" Kyan replied, feigning offense while getting himself into position to backslide under the console. "Sure and we see why her spotted Highness seen fit tae send me down here the now... to crawl under stuff what Grups cannae reach!" A few seconds of squirming into position later, the Onlie was in position. Gripping a small light in his teeth he peered into the mass of circuitry and other components that made the California Class starship's computer core function. What he saw staring back at him, literally, was a set of small, beady, black eyes with what appeared to be a Cardassian "spoon" ridge between them.

"Aye and it's funny meeting you here." he said to the creature, which regarded him with what he imagines was both curiousity and fear... probably more of the latter. "I'm gonna need tae be getting you out of here though, the sadness of it, because we need tae be gettin the computer core going, and can't be having you and your mates messin things up for us."

The vole made no effort to move, one way or the other, and Kyan could've sworn it cocked it's head to the side, as those this interloper was something of a curiousity.

Continuing, Kyan shifted the light to his hand, to get a better look around. The isolinear rods that he'd been sent to inspect were in fact there, but would need to be replaced, which he called back out to Wraet. "And also... d'you know anything about how to get Voles out of consoles..." And then, because of course he meant to keep it. "And what they like to eat and if they can be trained?"

Voles. Ugh The only comfort was that there couldn't be that many of them - most of the ship had been without atmosphere and if there had been a breeding colony in here after all this time the place would be either crawling with them or littered with their skeletons. "Food," Wraet replied tersely. "They'll come out for food - nearly any kind. I've never heard of them being trained, except to fight, though that's more natural inclination than training," he added as he handed down another small case containing the rods he'd acquired in anticipation of necessary repairs.

Kyan's ears perked up when Wraet mentioned training Voles to fight. Images of having very own fighting Vole danced in the ancient boy's head. So engaged in his plans for the Vole was Kyan that he almost missed The Romulan handing him the replacement isolinear rods. "Oh...yeah.," he muttered to himself as he came back to the here and now. "Put some food out there and see if it will come out." Kyan offered, glancing back at the vole, who hadn't yet made any movement toward or away from him. "Then I'll put the rods in."

Setting his equipment aside, Wraet found another pocket and withdrew a ration bar. He usually kept at least one on him for emergencies and he decided getting the core functional so they could move was close enough. Besides, they barely had any taste, not that that would matter to a hungry vole. "Here." He handed it down to Kyan. "Be ready to stab it once it comes out. They're fast."