Keeping a burning heart running.

Posted on Sat Sep 28th, 2019 @ 10:50am by Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Ensign Briaar Gavarus
Edited on on Mon Sep 30th, 2019 @ 12:49pm

Mission: Family Detention
Location: Engine room.
Timeline: 2396

=^=Warning ships engines are....=^= the familiar sound of the ship's computer began before a very annoyed chief of engineering cut it off with a yell of " I KNOW......."

Her fingers were moving furiously as she was using every trick in her head to keep the ship's engines running. They hadn't been designed for running this long and she needed to do something to keep them running. She was running out of tricks to keep them running. Tapping her combadge she called the individual who could help her with this. =^= Thex to Sonak. I could use some help down here. The engines weren't designed to run this long and they're at risk of overheating and failing. =^=

''On my way,'' came the calm but firm reply.

"Shit!" Ensign Briaar Gavarus shouted, as inappropriately as was usual for the testy Tellarite, as she was dug in deep like a fat tick under a console. "Commander, the magnetic interlocks are screaming at me down here like that guy I sat on in third-year for copying off of my tests! I think we need to reinforce the shielding just in case, so we don't end up with a coolant leak!"

" On it." Thex yelled as she hurried over to the control console and furiously began typing as she tried to create a workaround to try and get more power to the shields. The ships reserves were already bursting, but with some tweaks and a few things moved around more power flooded to the shields. " Okay, that should hold it for a while. How's it holding Gavarus?"

With a grunt, the extremely hefty junior officer lifted herself off the deck to check her console. "That's frickin' holding. Stability is up to 86% and rising, Chief. That's one hole in the dike plugged. But we still need more power to keep this... hey, could we hardwire the engines of the runabouts into the ship? Draw extra juice from their warp drives?"

''That would only provide zero point four-seven percent increase in power, '' said the deep voice of Sonak as he entered the room. ''And that if we would have time and the means to connect them all. But there is another faster, if riskier option. if I may, Lieutenant Commander...''

As he came near them, he asked for access to the engineering computer controls and quickly brought up the schematics of the ship, zooming in on the nacelles as he explained what he was inferring at.

''The ship's ramscoop can collect directly from space both its ambient temperature and the most abundant element in the universe; hydrogen. Since the antimatter is flaring up, injecting more matter will amplify the reaction, thus maintaining the emergency velocity we are currently going with. At the same time, direct exposure to space will cool down the system sufficiently to control the reaction and preserve it from deteriorating further.''

He let a few moments pass by so that they could also make the same calculations he had done while coming from the bridge to engineering. Then his steely grey eyes bore into theirs.

''However, this will not only require direct constant and delicate monitoring and adjustments for both temperature levels and matter-antimatter reaction, but it will also expose this entire section to this same airless space ambient temperature... and to cosmic radiation.''

Again he waited a few seconds before confirming out loud what they now understood.

At least three people will have to remain in here while we isolate it with forcefields and radiation shields. radiation suits will make the operation cumbersome... and their protection will only last for so long; forty-seven minutes before the material itself start decaying.''

Listening, the porcine junior officer's face blanched and her stubby, curled tail all but retreated up her posterior at the thought. Briar Gavarus was terrified of being outside of a starship, and this seemed an awful lot like being outside while still on the inside. But she sucked it up to the best of her ability, though her awkward habit of stuttering while nervous was firmly intact. "T... That m... means EVA suits? Shhhiii...."

Cutting herself off from cursing in front of yet another command officer, Gavarus changed verbal course. "I... I'm r... r... rated and prepped for that. W... W... we have to do occasional space-walk repairs on the experimental ships in the R&D d... d... department."

Thex had been listening and running through the math in her head. The Vulcans logic was sound. " I could stay here for an hour if use the Achilles armor as both of the batteries are charged. " She added before looking over at Gavarus. " Gavarus I could really use your help with this if we're going to make it work. "

Sighing, the unconventional Ensign chuckled nervously trying to joke through her stress. "Y... Yeah. I k... know, chief. You got it. Just give me five to squeeze my fat ass into the suit. And if I die, just tell O'Dell she can keep Cueball and to clean out the memory on the PaDD I keep in the nightstand next to the bed."

Sonak addressed the chief engineer.

''I recommend evacuating the main engineering chamber. If you agree, I will monitor the intermix chamber reaction and dilithium recrystallization process directly while you and Ensign Gavarus work on the systems. Alerting sickbay for radiation protocol and fast response treatment for us would be wise. the rest of the engineering crew could monitor us from outside and have a team ready to take over for us if we falter.''

"Let's do this, people." Thex said as she began to order her team back from the affected area whilst she got everything ready for this plan. She also sent a message to sickbay to have them activate the radiation protocol. She also quietly wrote a message for her family and her unborn daughters. Just in case.

She finished just as the now suited Gavarus and Sonak returned in the EVA gear. " Okay anyone want to back out now before we get this done?" Thex asked as she pulled the armor's bracelets from her pocket.

Reaching back to pull the extremely tight material out of the crack of her prodigious posterior, Gavarus grunted and forced a chuckle. "Back out? I passed 'back out' when I b... baby powered myself into this S&M tourniquet, Chief. I'm good."

Her stutter was under better control, but the portly porcine was doing her best to look collected. Only moments ago, she too left a recorded message in her helmet cam for Fiona O'Dell and was doing her best to beat her nerves back.

" Okay, then let's do this. " Thex said as with a flash the armor of Achilles appeared. " Okay everyone to your stations. " She said as she headed for her's her helmets already tied into the engineering rooms main computer.

Sonak went to the computer control station and quickly reviewed the readouts.

'' Calculations for cooling effect of external ambient temperature against current overheating confirmed within four-point seven-five-three percent. Programming the incremental process of hydrogen collecting and keeping vents open for full exposure to external cold. Control will be from your station, Lieutenant Commander. I will monitor and report in real-time.''

With wide eyes, Gavarus looked at the Chief Engineer's armor as it appeared, literally magically and muttered to herself sarcastically with a playful smirk, "Oh, for @#$%'s sake? Really? And I have to squeeze into this... nice."

But as she muttered, she got into position near the coolant stations that wold likely need the most adjusting on the fly. "Ready, Chief."

" Okay let's light this candle." Thex said with the push of a button. A smile spread over her face as she saw the temperature begin to drop.

Even through her EVA armor, Gavarus could feel the temperature drop as the interior of main engineering was essentially exposed to the conditions of deep space. "Okay... coolant pressure is reducing, Chief. Mag clamps are holding. Everything looks like... SHIT!"

"Chief!" Gavarus called back up, "We're getting a build-up of Antineutrinos in the chamber. It's gonna neutralize the warp containment field if we don't boost the shielding."

" &^%$." Thex said out loud as she sprang over from her consol to reach the consols that handled power distribution. Her fingers were flying across the console as she did her best to find more power. Even still the mechanical girl managed to squeeze more and more power from the ship's systems as she called over to her companion. " is it holding?"

Checking the numbers on her console, Gavarus frantically replied back, "So far, Chief. But the buildup will have to be vented to maintain. Annnnd... Got it. One fire out."

''Intermix ratio remains constant, '' assured Sonak his eyes on two monitors at the same time. ''Dilithium recrystallization is keeping up but the flow of hydrogen has to be stemmed or the matter will exceed the antimatter particles. but we cannot do it by closing the Bussard collectors as it would reduce exposure to the cooling effect of ambient space.''

And they all understood what an excess of matter or antimatter would mean. It would mean the same as an overheat. It would mean a core breach.

Looking back up at Thex and Sonak, Gavarus gulped loudly. "Uh… Chief? How do we do that?"

Thex was running through every procedure she could think of to fix the mess. Come on girl giver her... " I have an idea. I can re-route the equipment we're using to repair the god weapons to end in a burst of Ganic radiation. In small enough amounts it will break apart the hydrogen, but we can't let it get too high or it could destabilize the reaction completely."

"Ganic… yeah." Gavarus muttered with an exaggerated smile on her face as she turned back to her displays desperately scanning for the Radiation she had never heard of. This is why you need to read the damn technical manuals instead of DRINKING all damn night, Briaar! the junior engineer thought to herself as the listing came up and she read her proverbial posterior off while finding the proper readout screen.

"Monitoring levels, chief!" She yelled back up.

''Ganic radiation emissions are balancing the reduction of external coolant effect and successfully breaking down hydrogen atoms; no increase in heat beyond acceptable parameters,'' Sonak confirmed.

Thex smiled under her helmet as she kept monitoring the ship's systems. For fifteen munites they were steady until the far two familiar warning light began to flash on the main console. Leaping over to it Thex smile faded. " Great the power connectors to the port nacelle are falling. Gavarus see if we can re-route the power while I try and fix it from here." She yelled calmly.

Watching the feeds, the armor-clad Tellarite held up a thumb and got to work. "I'm on it, Chief!"

A few successes had bolstered her confidence as she quickly began scanning the entire system looking for creative solutions to their power problem. "Looks like a build-up on the EPS Conduits over there causing… if I move the plasma flow from the port regulator coils and instead use the…"

The Porcine Ensign's thick, three-fingered hands were running like mad across her consoles as she muttered her thoughts half-out-loud, "@#$& yeah! Okay, Chief. I've got a reroute holding through the secondary plasma conduits. Should be able to now do a manual dump to clear the obstructions from the main EPS taps from your station!"

With a tap, Thex did so. She felt a slight bump as the dump happened and a thankful ending of the emergency alarm. At least for now. The Andorian was grateful for a chance to catch her breath. That didn't last long as the engine which was being pushed well beyond its limit kept falling in every way the Andorian could think of.

As the minutes ticked by she noticed that it was reaching the time her crewmates would have to leave. " You have two minutes left guys get out of here." She said as she continued doing everything she could to keep the ship running.

Jerking up from her lower console, still lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree, Gavarus was still busy putting out multiple fires as she yelled back up, "Uh, yeah, no way, Chief! We can't!"

Sonak then addressed the chief engineer.

''Up until now, I have recorded all of our workings and integrated the data into an automated program withing the engineering main computer banks. The longer I can continue this process, the more data I can add to the algorithm. The longer the algorithm, the better you will be able alone to continue, even if we are not here anymore to make adjustments. I need four-point fifty-three minutes to complete the programming.''

The Vulcan anticipated her logical objection.

''Vulcans and Tellarites are among the sturdiest races of the Federation. We can both take significant temperature and radiation damages and current medical science can restore us once this crisis is past. There will be no such restoration if the ship is destroyed.''

"Oh, for @#$% sake. I hate frickin' logic." Gavarus whispered to herself as she just kept working. "Yeah, what he said, Chief! You can court-martial me later if I don't die, okay? But you can't do this by yourself."

Behind her helmet, Thex couldn't help but smile. " Okay, I'll court-martial the pair of you tomorrow. Computer how long till we reach the Romulan border?" She asked the ship's computer.

=^=Estimated Arrival time: 37 Minutes.=^= The computer chirped its reply casually, as if the ship weren't threatening to burst at the seams. 

Listening, Gavarus kept working away at her consoles, rerouting power and resources as needed and beginning to feel a little warm in her EVA suit. "Okay... so C... Commander Sonak needs a few more minutes to set up his algorithms... then they should be able to take over for the rest of our relaxing Sunday drive, right?"

" Indeed. So we just have to....." The sapphire engineer began before the warning light began to flash again. What spread over the screen made her blood run cold. " We have a fracture forming in the warp core. Gavarus throw me the emergency kit I need to get that fixed or we can kiss our asses goodbye." She said moving with her usual graceful movement as she began to climb the core.

"SHHHHHIIII... on it, Chief!" Gavarus yelled out, pulling out the emergency kit from the nearby wall panel in a rush. Then, spinning around to throw it up, the gently roasting porcine Engineer strained for a moment to focus on which Chief Engineer sh'Zoarhi before shaking it off and tossing the kit to the correct Thex.

Thank you, ability to function while wasted. Gavarus thought to herself as she steadied herself on the console and got back to work.

''Chief Engineer; I am putting a level 10 forcefield around the fracturing area,'' Sonak informed her. ''It will hold for as long as we will have power and will help divert some of the excess energy back against itself. But it will avail to nothing once that energy is gone.''

In non-Vulcan, it meant that it would not matter when the ship would blow up.

''Please exert due diligence,'' he suggested, ignoring the tingling of his eyes as radiation mounted alarmingly.

Thex had caught the kit and was doing her best to shore up the surrounding area of the forming fracture. It should hold for a while, but she'd need to repair the whole system when they had some free time. " Sonak how long until the program is up and running." She yelled

''1 minute... mark,'' the chief science officer answered with a calm that contrasted with the direness of the situation.

"We... we got this, Chief!" Gavarus muttered, the radiation clearly starting to get to her as she kept at it, furiously rerouting power and adjusting the ship's systems as needed.

Sealed inside her invincible armor Thex felt so much pity for her two colleagues stuck in nothing but the federation's standard EVA suits. Even still the Andorian moved to try and keep everything running as the last sixty seconds felt like hours as she tried to keep her girl running.

thirty seconds.....
twenty seconds
Ten seconds
Five seconds
One.....

Squinting and bracing for the worst for a second, Gavarus peaked around as the readings began to level off across the board. "Uh? Does... this mean that it's working? Ooooorrrr, does this mean we all just died?"

''A most illogical question if you are able to state it,'' Sonak commented drily. ''Algorithm is complete and implemented. Program acting along projected parameters. Your hard work has paid off, Chief. And yours too, Ensign.''

And not a second too soon. Even the Vulcan's sturdiness was starting to show signs of strain. For one of the rare times in his life, he felt hot and dry as a mummified Le'matya sand blown in the middle of The Forge, back on his homeworld. His vision was starting to blur as his third eyelid wanted to cover his eyes from an expected yet nonexistent glare and his hearing buzzed with the million invisible flies pinpricking his skin. All the telltale signs of radiation poisoning.

"Thanks. But in my defense, stupid... stupid questions are my prerogative as almost-bacon, Commander." At which point, the porcine Ensign proceeded to vomit in her helmet as she turned to face Sonak, "BLEEEEERRRGHH!!! Oh @#$%... oh, that's just... oh it's running down the inside of the suit. UUUGHH! Uh... if we're not exploding, can I go to sickbay now, Chief?"

The Andorian nodded as she continued to check that Sonak's program was working. " Yes. Both of you get to sickbay and get fully decontaminated. I'll stay and check everything working before I join you."

"Aye, Chief." Ensign Gavarus nodded blearlily as she looked over her own consoles. "Everything is stabilizing down here. Shielding is... is holding. Power reg... regulation is... yeah. Yeah. Don't take too long, Chief." With which the anxious porcine stepped away from her console, having given it one last check to try and help before beginning to stagger to the exit.

Sonak checked the programming one last time with a level 5 diagnostic, nodded and left the chief engineer like a man carrying lead. He was already preparing himself to go into a healing trance once the decontamination proceeding would be implemented.

And after a moment, with the potty-mouthed porcine and the master of logic on their way to sickbay, the armor-clad Andorian was left to monitor the decidedly smoother running engine. With Sonak's algorithm in place and running, their combined skills and efforts were all still hard at work keeping the ship from flying apart at the seams for the final leg of it's mad dash to the edge of Romulan space

Thex gave the room another once over before turning to head for the exit. Stopping by the warp core she placed her hand on the machinery which was holding long since it's stress limit. " Well done girl." she said to the ship before she hurried off. Her batteries were running low.