JL | Cmdr th'Zarath & Lt Satan | CEO & SECO | "A story as old as time..."

Posted on Tue Sep 4th, 2018 @ 9:46pm by Commander Thelin th'Zarath & Lieutenant Satan

Mission: Lacuna
Location: Main Operations, Engineer's Workshop

Off to one side of Main Operations, behind a service door and a wide corridor lay the auxiliary workshop, it was used mainly by the Engineering staff to replicate and replace components in the service critical areas of the upper decks without the need to run between the Engineering section and Ops, Thelin was sat on a stool and hunched over a bench, from the casual observer entering the room it would just look like an engineer working on something, anyone who looked closer would see that the engineer only seemed to be working with his right arm, his left arm had been detached from the shoulder and lay on the bench, the fingers twitched as the Andorian worked, adjusting the servos and hydraulic connections that gave him a full range of movement.

The door opened softly behind him, quiet footsteps entered and the door whispered shut again. A moment later a cool, almost computer like voice spoke up in the precise way Vulcans handled Federation Standard: "Commander th'Zarath. I have the results of the sample analysis you sent me."

"Ah, Lieutenant Pointy!" Thelin exclaimed as his antennae narrowed towards the door and the newcomer to his space, he'd read the available notes on the crew when he'd found out the Vulcan had been assigned the sample he sent up to the lab, "Please excuse the mess, its rare that non-engineers come into these spaces," the Andorian replied as he gestured with his right arm towards a chair near a workbench across the room, "Pull up a seat, I'll be with you in a second, I'm just doing some maintenance on my arm." he added as the fingers twitched again and the hand balled into a fist.

"My name is not 'Pointy'. I am Lieutenant Satan," the Vulcan said earnestly. He looked around for an empty chair, found none, and removed some tools from the nearest chair before sitting down stiffly. "How interesting," he added, and the way he said it, it sounded as if this was just another protocol in dealing with non-Vulcans. In an android or hologram, it might have been something alone the line of: 'Subroutine 518: a sentence to say as a 'filler phrase' when there is no topic for conversation available'.

"Ok, Lieutenant Satan," Thelin replied as he finished the works on his arm, the hand relaxed and he closed a couple of the access panels, he picked it up by the elbow joint and clicked it back into place in the socket built into the cybernetic chest piece he'd been fitted with, the arm jerked straight for a moment before he was able to bend it and flex it to ensure it was functioning correctly, "Excellent," he said to no-one in particular as he spun on the stool to face the Vulcan, "So, what do you have for me, Lieutenant?"

"The results of the sample analysis you gave me," the Vulcan replied patiently. He held out the PADD he carried with him. "I thought it proper to present them to you in person."

Thelin used his feet to propel himself across the room, still seated on the stool, little wheels squeaking slightly as he moved, he accepted the device that was held out in his left hand and began scrolling through the results, reading them through, his antennae flattened slightly at some of the components, "What is your opinion on these results, Vulcan? As a scientist?"

"Speaking from a purely objective point of view…" The Vulcan sat ramrod straight, his eyes unfocused briefly as he called up the full analysis in his own mind, "the main cause of the explosion seems to be an unstable connection in the old section of the station, giving way after an unexpected power spike in the power junction in the adjacent new section. Upon further analysis, however, I found it odd that this power spike occurred at all. There seems to be nothing which warrants it. No extra power requests, no sudden drain." He tilted his head slightly. "I must admit to being intrigued."

"And what of the sample I sent up? Something set off my tricorder but engineering tricorders aren't specialised enough to identify the substance," Thelin replied with a nod.

"Ah, yes. Page thirteen, paragraph three, subsection twelve." Lieutenant Satan quoted a long, complex name. "Which, as you probably know, is normally an inert substance. However, given the right circumstances, it can become superconductive at normal temperatures. Those circumstances are unlikely to be reproduced outside of a laboratorium, but unlikely does not mean impossible. Therefore, Starfleet stopped using this substance twenty-five point three years ago. However, it is not completely unthinkable that this was used in the original station and hasn't been replaced during its overhaul. And indeed, it has been found exactly where one would expect to find it: in the walls of the old section, not too far from the faulty connection."

"Ah yes, I saw something about this in the old specifications for the station when I came on board," Thelin replied with a slight sigh as he tapped the PADD on his knee a few times before lifting it back up and reading through part of the analysis, "So it's entirely possible this was an accident due to the age of the station?"

"It is possible," the Vulcan replied after a moment's reflection. "However, the chance of these events spontaneously occurring are…" he hesitated briefly, then ended with: "remote. In order for this specific event to occur the circumstances need to be just right. A specific temperature, a stable environment which can only occur when there has been nobody in this section for at least six hours, and a fluctuating power load are all necessary in order for this substance to briefly reach the state of superconductivity. And…" he touched the PADD to scroll back up, then highlighted a section. "If this spike hadn't occurred at this precise moment, it is extremely doubtful anything would have happened."

"So not an accident then... any sign of it being intentional?" Thelin replied as he scooted himself back to the bench he'd been working at and leant back against it, "I know I would be able to set up something like this to appear like an accident, but I'm a time served engineer with decades of experience, so we've got to be looking at someone with training."

"Indeed it would," Satan agreed. "Especially since it takes time to set up those conditions. The final act would be easily activated, but all the rest takes weeks of preparation time. If it's not an accident. The chances of that are remote, but not zero."

"Great... sabotage." Thelin replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he turned and placed the PADD down on the table behind him, it was frustrating to the engineer and made his job ever so much harder, especially when he reported it to the new XO and the CO, "Thank you for your help, Vulcan," he added as he turned back to Satan and gave him a slight nod, "Have your report sent up to records and I'll prepare it for presentation to the Command staff."

"My name is Satan, Commander," the Vulcan officer repeated, with the inflection and patience of a computer. "A copy of the report has already been submitted. Good day, Commander." And with that he rose and left. Dealing with beings such as the Commander were trying times for a Vulcan who aspired Kolinahr.

(End Log.)

Commander Thelin th'Zarath
Chief Engineering Officer
Cold Station Theta

Lieutenant Satan
Science Officer
Cold Station Theta