Maximum Warp

Posted on Sun Jan 4th, 2015 @ 6:12am by Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Matthews

651 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Episode 4 - Parallels
Location: Engineering
Timeline: Day 1 - 1025

"That can't be right," Jenni muttered, laying under the pool table in Main Engineering. Beside her was one of the many engineers aboard the Unification, and both were stumped.

It had only been just a few days ago that Jenni has accepted an assignment aboard the Nebula-class vessel. The Katana, her previous ship, had been a chore and one she enjoyed. She had never been a prideful person, but knowing she was instrumental in completing such a delayed refit was enough to make one smile. Yet, the Intrepid-class ship was just too small, from the engine room to the corridors to even her quarters. She enjoyed space, and knew that cramped quarters came with it, but the good ol' Katana...

The opportunity to serve aboard the Unification was just too good to pass up. She joined the ship at Deep Space 11 and enjoyed every minute of it. She understood the ship had just seen a major refit, completely rebuilt from the inside out. It was a shame she hadn't the chance to be a part of it, and felt somewhat of an outsider among the Engineering team from taking over from someone who had seen the refit through.

Thankfully, she was a team player, and the engineer working beside her was one of the few willing to let her in.

For now...

"Everything's connected," he commented to Jenni as they both peered up into the circuitry.

"Power's good," Jenni rattled off. "ODN's good." She sighed. "It's gotta be a short."

Less than twenty minutes ago, the pool table had gone dark. Engineering's central hub had been somehow disabled. Jenni wanted to know more than why, it had to be functional.

She turned to Engineer Tre'van beside her. "You sure no one is playing a joke?"

The Bolian assured her that wasn't the case. "No one in their right mind would disable the pool table when the ship is at warp."

Jenni paused, hearing the familiar pulsing of the warp core begin to increase. Both held still as the throbs became more frequent. Finally, the frequency seemed to normalize, though the pulses were indeed faster.

"Maximum warp," Tre'van confirmed what his supervisor was thinking.

Jenni slid out from under the table and looked around. Many of the staff had remained unfazed from the increase in speed, but she knew something was amiss. "Who goes to maximum warp," she mumbled, turning to look at the readouts, "without an alert status?"

She turned to use the pool table, and then remembered it was offline. Jenni did, however, spot two engineers entering the room. Though she had yet to learn everyone's names, these two she recognized. "Doyle. Shren. Let's divert some energy to Structural Integrity and the Deflector. We need to maintain this speed." Jenni then instructed a few other engineers to make adjustments to their systems, and assisted them with the process. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she knew one thing: this ship needed to be ready for anything.

Jenni then returned to the pool table, where Tre'van had his tricorder out, scanning the table for the nineteenth time. "Any luck?"

"None," the Bolian replied, somehow still chipper.

Choosing not to crawl back underneath the table, Jenni knelt and looked at what she could see at eye level. Perhaps something had jostled loose enough that they couldn't see from down below. And, there it was. A power relay had slid just enough out of its socket, preventing the flow of energy to the table. She reached over and carefully stuck it back inside and gave it a twist to secure it.

Standing up, she watched as the table came back to life, quickly restoring every schematic and diagnostic result that had been running since the table had shut off.

"There," she said, looking over at Tre'van, who had just risen back to his feet. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

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