Interstellar Pot Hole
Posted on Sun Jan 8th, 2023 @ 5:22pm by The Narrator & Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral & Ensign Archer Logan VI & Ensign Sara Richards IX
2,526 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
World Wide Web
Location: USS Daedalus, Main Engineering
Timeline: Day 2
Purring along at warp 4, it was easy to get into a rhythm. Shifts became monotonous, status reports became repetitions of statements from hours before. Things began to bleed together into a watercolour painting of barely contained tedium. Even the stunning visuals of the new colour-flipped starscape outside did little to alleviate the boredom.
Fortunately, what monotony cannot provide, sheer unbridled terror can deliver.
It began as a harmonic at the edge of hearing, a dull buzz like insects in tall grass. None of the diagnostic probes or sensors around the core could explain it, let alone pick up on it. One of the older Chief Petty Officers, the ones Starfleet kept in service to remind everyone that old/bold Starfleet personnel were a thing that could happen, retold the story about the USS Nike they'd served on in the Dominion War. Every time the Nike went to full impulse to charge the enemy, her structural integrity field would vibrate her forward structural frame at just the right tone to make it sound like a hawk stooping on prey.
Some ships just have a lot to say, they had said.
And then like that...it was gone. Hours upon hours of near-subliminal droning, and all of a sudden it was like a weight lifted from the mind.
"See?" Chief Petty Officer McBride said from behind the expertly waxed handlebars of his moustache. "Every ship has a quirk or two. Daedalus was bound to have her fair share being so-"
WHUMP!
The warp core's central reaction chamber almost seemed to pulse, shaking in its mounts enough to rattle its ten-deck length from keel to bridge. And then the lights went out, save for the watery yellow glow of the chemical emergency lights.
"Oh, shale!" Archer shrieked when the lights went out. The shameful yellow hue cast on him from the emergency lighting was more than apropos. "Uh... all hands assess the warp core and EPS grid. Let's make sure we have a damage report for the Chief when he asks."
Sara rushed to a console on the ring that encircled the core to start diagnostics. The hum, while it bothered her because warp cores don't make that sound, didn't seem to bother everyone else, but warp cores certainly didn't tremble like the ground was splitting open. There was no way she was ignoring that.
Aarix had retreated to his office to get some other work done when the very loud noise from the warp core, followed by the brief power outage, pulled him out of his seat and to the office door. Looking around engineering, he saw people already in action as everything glowed yellow. "Talk to me," he said to anyone who would speak up, "what's been affected, what's the extent?"
"I'm working on a warp core diagnostic, but whatever happened disrupted the warp field," Sara reported as she looked over the results starting to come in. "Not enough to take us out of warp, or not yet at least."
"EPS grid appears to still be up and running," Archer reported, "though not all sections currently show active. Looks like a few junction taps are still cycling through their auto reboot attempts and might need manual resets. No damage to conduits detected so far, but the system diagnostic is only at 37 percent."
The deck plates rattled as the ship came out of warp, not the most subtle or controlled translation from super luminal speed.
Aarix grabbed the nearest console as he felt the inertial dampers try to compensate for the sudden change in speed. It wasn't enough to knock anyone off their feet, but coming out of warp in an uncontrolled manner meant unpredictable movement as the ship distributed the sudden change in inertia. "Not enough to take us out of warp?" He questioned, glancing at Sara.
The half-Betazoid gave a brief apologetic smile to the chief before turning her attention back to the console. "I did caveat that it wouldn't stay that way for long," she pointed out. The console she was at decided to angrily beep at her, and as she read the incoming diagnostic report she whistled. "My level one diagnostic is still running, but a bunch of errors just came in. There are multiple physical problems with the primary reaction chamber." As she began to read the incoming issues, a pit formed in her stomach. "Dilithium crystal actuation cradle, anti lithium injection port, deuterium injection port..." Her heart fluttered in her chest, mostly because the increasing length of issues was making her nervous. They were so far away from Starfleet resources... what if they couldn't fix it?
This was almost textbook. Well, in reverse and all at once, but in some ways that made this certain crisis easier to diagnose and therefore easier to manage. Training snapped into place inside of Archer's head and formulated a cogent response through his mouth.
"Ignore the injectors for now," he said. "They're attempting to recalibrate due to the flux from the actuation cradle, so focus there first. Reroute power from the converter assembly to the theta-matrix compositor to boost the recomposition of the dilithium crystals until the matrices stabilize." Realizing he might have stepped on Aarix's toes, Archer looked at the commander and added, "on the Chief's mark."
Aarix nodded. "Do it." With the information available, it made sense. A calibration issue was an easy first problem to have.
Working in tandem with Sara, it was a simple matter for Archer to boost the compositor while she depowered the converter assembly. There was no point in forcing a reaction if the crystal lattice was in question anyway.
"Amplifying the theta-matrix compositor now..." Archer said. In reply, the entire reaction chamber screeched in a horrifying cadence of decibels that was specifically drilled into engineering cadets as the herald of doom. "Oh, shale..."
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
"The diagnostic is taking too long," Archer said. "We need a visual inside the reaction chamber."
The sound of the reaction chamber emitting a screech terrifying enough to re-kill Sara's ancestors made a shiver go down her spine. If warp cores made that sound, something was really wrong. Another set of angry beeps drew her attention down to the console. "Sir, our efforts created multiple fracture points inside the reaction chamber, and structural integrity is reading below safety limits!" She glanced up at the core, seeing the swirling innards almost behave like an upset stomach. "I recommend core shutdown until we get this resolved," she said decisively, turning to Aarix.
The chief looked at the Ensign with some mix of doubt and surprise. "Shut down the core? Any chance we can avoid that?"
Sara looked at her readings again. "Not unless you want to risk an overload. She's clearly not happy," the Betazoid motioned to the core with a tilt of her head, "and maintianing the ratio of matter to antimatter with all of these issues is too risky. Also, messing with the reaction chamber brings considerable risk while the core is running."
Aarix paused for a moment to think. Archer's suggestion should have worked, and the fact that it didn't mean that the flux in the actuation cradle may not be the root problem meant that he and his team were in for a hell of a time. Warp cores took forever to start up after being shut down, and if he could avoid it, he would. Aarix tapped his badge. "Teral to bridge. Sorry for the bump, Captain, we're looking into the problem. The core is pitching a fit, so we're going to be on standby for a shutdown. But I'm afraid you're going to be without warp for a bit." Turning to Archer, he sighed, "alright, let's take a look at the reaction chamber."
Sara frowned a little when the chief turned down her recommendation, but understood that she needed to be ready to push the button. Looking back to the core, she muttered, "talk to me, baby. Tell me what you need."
Following the chief's cue, Archer began the systematic dismantling of the reaction chamber's exo-assembly. In stark contrast to his people skills, Archer was rather competent with his tool in hand. In a manner of a minute, he had already removed plating and fixtures alike to expose the manifold. "Someone needs to purge any latent plasma before I go any further," Archer said as he paused to wipe sweat from his brow.
"Number 1 and Number 2 plasma conduits are venting to space," a spacer said from a control console on one of the upper levels. "Charge reading has fallen to zero in the conduits and reaction chamber. It's safe to open."
"Bridge to Engineering, Chief can I get an update as to why we fell out of warp with a follow-up on why we're running the ship off the fusion backup plants?" Maddox's voice echoed over the comm.
"It's a problem with the reaction chamber, Captain," Aarix replied as he released the valve to open the chamber. A frown briefly crossed his features when the door to the chamber didn't budge. He sanity checked that the latch was indeed unlocked. "Give me a hand here," he said to Archer.
Archer pulled out his spare hyperspanner and set the head to reverse polarity. It clicked onto the side of his main hyperspanner to form a jerry-rigged T-shaped prybar. He shoved the monomolecular head into the crease of the chamber door before giving it a strong heave-ho.
When the door finally popped off, a puff of what looked like glitter came out of the entrance, and Aarix gently pushed Archer away from it so he wouldn't breathe it in. Once the "glitter" cleared, they could see that the inside of the reaction chamber was a mess. There were shards of crystal all over the place, embedded in various parts but mostly in a pile of broken fragments at the bottom of the small space. Some of the fragments that had jammed the door to the chamber fell to the ground with light little clinks. "By Deimos..." Tapping his comm badge again, Aarix continued to stare at the mess of crystals that littered the chamber. "Captain, the dilithium crystal... exploded in the reaction chamber. It's going to take a while to get this cleaned up just to assess the damage, but we can't risk warp travel with the chamber in this condition."
There was a pause.
"The dilithium crystal exploded and we're still here...so good job? Usually that sort of failure mode leads to a ship flying atom by atom through the local stellar sector," Maddox sounded a little shocked. "Is there anything you need from here? Can Science offer any support?"
"Yeah, don't jinx it." Aarix continued to stare at the absolute mess that made up the chamber. "If we don't have a spare dilithium crystal in storage, can they grow us a new one?" He asked dryly. "At the very least, it might help to know what's going on outside."
"I'll get back to you on that one Chief. As for outside, we're at the corner of No & Where. And we're running off of fusion backup plants so we running at half-mast for everything. Keep me up dated, I want answers Chief. Bridge, clear." Maddox's voice click off of the over head.
A loud clang rang out from the floor as Archer dropped his welded hyperspanners and grabbed his throat. "... can't... breathe..." he croaked out.
Aarix quickly turned his head toward Archer, seeing him choking. Did he inhale some of the crystal shards?? This was bad, those crystal pieces would shred his lungs if he kept trying to breathe. Grabbing a nearby tricorder, he scanned the man's throat and chest... nothing? To rule out a faulty tricorder, he gestured for someone else's and scanned again. "Ensign, there's nothing in your throat or lungs, pull yourself together," Aarix said, some disappointment settling onto his features. "That being said," he then spoke up, looking around, "inhaling dilithium crystal fragments will damage your lungs, so wear respiratory equipment when doing the damage assessment."
"Yes, sir..." Archer croaked. He was sure he had swallowed something, but he was in literally no position to argue.
Sara took a sidestep to get a better look into the reaction chamber, and stood with her jaw slack at the damage. What the hell would cause the crystal to explode?? It would explain all the errors from the diagnostic. Remembering that she had a diagnostic to check, she saw that it had completed with no extra alerts. All of the plumbing between the matter and antimatter chambers and the core were fine, it was pretty isolated in the reaction chamber. A breath of relief escaped her... that could have been a lot worse.
"Here you go," said Archer to Sara, handing her a respirator. "So any idea what happened?"
Sara went to take in a breath, but remembered that there could be crystal shards in the air and paused to put on the respirator. "Thanks," she said, her voice slightly muffled by the device. "I mean... I think what happened is pretty self explanatory." She looked at the open reaction chamber again. "I don't know off the top of my head what could have caused it, but my guess is that something put enough strain on the warp field to cause the core to overcompensate. Which means more matter and antimatter in the chamber. Those crystals are durable, but they become brittle when the crystal lattice reaches its saturation point. That energy needs a place to go, and it went into making the crystal a ten-thousand piece projectile." A small shudder rippled through her body before she looked at Archer, "you have no idea how lucky we are to be in one piece. If any of those crystal shards had made it into the core, it would have exploded."
Nodding as he followed along with her assessment, Archer could only agree. "Okay, so we need an external diagnostic of the ship in addition to our internal systems. If we try and get it up and going without making sure it's safe, we might not be so lucky if the lattice blows again." He looked at Aarix. "You think this happened to the Icarus, Chief?"
Aarix adjusted the straps of his own respirator so it was snug against his face. "It could be one of many possibilities," he replied. "But we wouldn't know for sure unless we find the Icarus." He paused for a moment before turning to the two at the console. "Logan, I'll have you take lead on external diagnostics, make sure we didn't damage the ship. Richards, I want a complete diagnostic of all warp systems and a list of what's been damaged. I'll oversee damage control to get this cleaned up."
"Aye, sir!" Archer gave an over exaggerated salute that was not Starfleet standard. "You can count on me!"
Sara rolled her eyes at how over-the-top Archer was. "Aye sir. I'll let you know as soon as I have something."
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