Pass me the duct tape

Posted on 23 Oct 2021 @ 6:57pm by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Gorvel & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen
Edited on on 29 Oct 2021 @ 6:46pm

1,505 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 5, Storage Bay
Timeline: MD 04, 1500

[ON]

Standing in the middle of the room hands-on-hips and biting her lips Kala took in the scene which was around her. After security had been through and done their investigation it was clear it was no bomb but a malfunctioning power conduit from behind the console which fed directly into the ships transported system and at that same exact time, Lieutenant Commander Wyatt had entered the room someone was beaming over supplies causing a wild three-stage explosion. Transporter Pad Bang, power emitter pop, and then the power conduit itself BOOM.

She felt like rocking horse shit, she hadn't done the repair job personally but some lazy arse engineer from one of the other ships had but she should have checked it. "Oh god Luke, I'm sorry." She said out loud kicking a chunk of scorched metal. She had heard quickly... Everyone had heard quickly that their chief of security had gone into surgery but other than that there had been no news for four days which usually meant the worst had happened. So deep in thought, she hadn't even noticed someone else joining her in the room.

PO 3rd Class Vansen walked in, stopping when he saw the Chief. He straightened automatically, almost at attention. "Chief, I was told to report here for repairs," he said, knowing full well who she was. And he too knew what had happened here...well. There was a cleaning job needed too judging by the blood. He should have bought a bucket and a mop.

Turning around she looked the man up, he looked bolt rigid standing there, she wished they had sent someone with a bit more chill. "Just call me Kala, Vansen." She said turning about again to face the debris and the smouldering ruins before untucking her shirt and unzipping it. "No point getting a perfectly good tunic dirty." She said letting down her hair she pinned her fringe back and put the remaining hair into a high ponytail for ease.

He gave a weak smile, nodding as he moved forward. "Yes, ma'am..." he said lightly, but it was a bit playful. "I'll...start scrubbing the bloodstains off. I take it you'll have your hands full picking that thing apart and installing a new one?"

Kala looked between the bloodstains and the console, the console was a complete write-off and would need a complete replacement in truth she just wanted to see the damage herself "No its ok, I can help you, for now. We don't have a spare so the best I can do is repair the power conduit behind it but it was just a maintenance console anyway," She said moving to the few cleaning products the previous cleaners had used. "Looks like we've got everything here, guess we just get scrubbing huh?"

"Scrub the deck..." he said and removed his jacket as well before rolling up his sleeves. He reached for one of the items, read the back of it before he ran it over the bloodstains. "I bet you could salvage some of the smaller bits of the console. Even with some damage, the parts are built to last."

Concentrating on the floor she scrubbed in a circular motion the blood clinging both to her nails and the brush. "Maybe, but I'm not even sure I won't to recover any of it after what happened. Doesn't seem right to put something back together that's changed someone life forever" she scrubbed a little harder, "Do you think hell pull through? It's been days"

"Maybe he will, maybe he won't," Vansen said, his voice quiet as he considered it before he looked at her. "What happens will happen. Like sky's blue, up is up...it's not something we can do anything with. So speculating is...a bit pointless. But...I don't know Wyatt," he added the last apologetically, because he didn't.

"I suppose you're right" She said with a long sigh dipping the brush into cleaning tool which after a few seconds had cleaned most of the blood from its bristles. You'd think they'd have created something to clean blood stains out of things by now' "I knew his daughter Abbey, both the one that is dead and now the one who took her place from the Mirror Universe, I have a feeling we're going to be seeing her soon, she only ever spoke good things about Commander Wyatt. I think ill take the time to get to know him if he pulls through, seems a bit of a sad thought though only wanting to get to know someone because they're knocking on deaths door"

"Which is why I am staying away," Vansen said lightly before he smiled to her. "I am many things, a hypocrite is not one of them..." he looked down, scrubbing harder...clearly used to such a task as he worked until the area he was working on was spotless. He sat back, looking around before touching the wall. "Poor girl took a bit of a beating. Must have been damaged during the fight, the way we were shaking I thought the hull was going to split."

"It almost did, towards the end the only thing holding her together was the hoes and prayers of the engineering department we had just done about every trick in the book to make sure structural integrity held, hell if I chewed gum I'd have stuck it to the Hull playing with some duct tape" Kala said with a chuckle, "She's a tough cookie this one" Slapping the ground with her free hand she smiled.

"She is that..." Vansen agreed and smiled, looking around. "I think we should look in all these little smuggler holes. By we I mean Operations...you guys must be too busy with everything else." He stood and leant close to look at the power conduit in the back, frowning. "You will need new conduit tubes. If you don't have any, I can look at the bits and pieces we had to take down post-battle...a few broken replicators, that stuff..."

Kala had stood and joined him looking at the damage, "We've used most of our reserve stock and the replication of new ones is a little low on our to do said so anything you guys can do will help out a lot" She explained poking her fingers in and moving the burned-out tubing. "Jesus, look at the state of all this. Its going to take weeks of rewiring and assembly and so far away from a dry dock. Sometimes I wonder why I accepted such a deep space assignment " She said letting it drop back down, she knew she was safe from electrocution because the power to this particular relay had been turned off.

"Because this is where you really can apply your trade. No Academy can teach you how to best fit two things together than no one designed to sit with each other..." he said with a small smile, nodding. "I'll go and get that box, ma'am. We can sort ourselves through it...find something to jury rigging this together."

Kala liked his words "Fair enough, I'll see if there's anything here we can save." She had knelt down and was already removing components out and placing them into different piles of definitely damaged, damaged but usable and seemingly ok their piles obvious from the level of burntness or crushed elements.

He returned with a box, putting it down before he sat cross-legged on the floor. He glanced at Kala before he smiled. "Now, this could be a lot worse. We have some bits and pieces here..." he said and looked at her piles, nodding with approval. "Have a look through the box and let me know what you need to me do."

Kala began rummaging through the box pulling out a circuit relay, some cabling, and an adhesive metallic tape which they used to perform very minor repairs on circuitry in their current state they may need a few dozen rolls. "This will have to do, it'll make it safe at least." She put the remainder of items in the box that she couldn't use and then slid it away to make room.

"Safe is all we can hope for," Vansen said and started putting what could be salvaged into the box, glancing around for a moment. "Seems like we took a bit of a beating."

Vega did a poor attempt of stifling her laugh "Now that's an understatement of the century were here putting her back together with duct tape and recycled parts when what we really need is a few weeks in dry Dock with a full contingent of shipyard engineers alas its just you and me and thus bucket of bolts."

"We will figure it out," Vansen said with a warm smile and shook his head. "Let's get this sorted and...get on with life.

[OFF]

--

PO3 Constantin Vansen
Operations
USS Galileo-A

Chief Petty Officer Kala Gorvel
Engineering
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Wyatt]

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