There should be such a thing as danger pay

Posted on 02 Mar 2024 @ 6:01pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Lieutenant JG Rafe Caradec & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor & Chief Petty Officer Afthinam Naime & Chief Petty Officer Katja Becker & Petty Officer 3rd Class Helliun 'Hel' Inant

4,210 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Episode 19 - Tomorrow's Galileo
Location: USS Galileo-B - Deck 6, Primary Deflector Array (External Hull)
Timeline: MD 01, 1808 hrs

[ON]

It was fascinating how the brain could pick out the minor differences between the ships as the group of engineering ‘saviors’ made their way to one of the forward airlocks that held EV suits. Sera was silent as she attempted to focus on the job at hand. The others chatted amongst themselves with an ease that denoted comfort with one another. It was a subtle mental reminder that Sera was quite new here.

Sera had not donned an EV suit outside of the academy training modules. She was internally thankful for her reasonably eidetic memory - because otherwise there was a distinct possibility of her making a fool out of herself in front of her subordinates. As it was, seeing them in the utility coveralls was a brilliant strategy-- so many pockets! --she would consider employing at the next earliest opportunity.

The location of the nearest airlock was some distance from the damaged deflector dish. It would require a zero-G "walk," down the foreword section of ship's hull. What none of them were expecting was the floating detritus impeding their way the closer they got towards the dish. Shrapnel and EV suits were never an ideal combination; however, this was the scenario the engineering team had found themselves in.

"Eyes open and careful for this debris." Naime's voice would have come across as abrupt and distant over the comms, but in her own helmet it echoed around with her breathing. Given the amount of time the chief had spent out in the vastness of space you'd think she would have felt at home in it but nobody ever really feels at home in a space suit. Danger lurking just millimetres away from your skin, having to be aware of everything that could go wrong at any time. She still didn't like it, she'd never feel safe out here.

The vacuum of space was a bizarre world where actions and reactions took place in a perfect condition for pure physics...a friction-less environment. The silence in-between comms chatter was also strange - footsteps making no sounds, materials rubbing against one another in utter silence...the subtle sound of technology within the suit gave something auditory to focus on other than one’s breathing or the sound their hearts.

This was going to be tedious work. There was little room for error in a weightless vacuum. They had three days to adequately repair the reflector dish. This was the kind of repair that ideally would be performed in space dock; however, they did not have that luxury. Just the hands and minds of ‘Starfleet’s Finest,’ and the aid of Celeste.

Looking up at the ‘horizon,’ Sera’s eyes panned across looking for the workbee. It was going to be the workhorse for this evolution.

“Caradec, what are we looking at, here?” Sera inquired, wondering what the Lieutenant saw above the whole thing…because from her viewpoint, the dish was well beyond a ‘duct tape’ repair.

Caradec was finally in position, about 20 meters in front of the Gal-B's deflector dish and sensor array. He looked at the huge chunks of mangled debris, intertwined with some parts of the hull, and that's of the sections that were still there. "Sera ...", Rafe sighed, "we better get busy, really busy! I've got the tools I'll need out here with me but I can tell I'm going to need some more tritanium and duranium to reconstruct parts of the deflector dish. See if you can get some help building three radial sections. One will need to be, um...hold on. Let me take some measurements."

"Understood, Lieutenant. I had considered the three day timeline rather...ambitious and that was prior to physically inspecting the damage. We will have to simply...do our best."

Sometimes human idioms were useful. Like right now.

Rafe used the onboard tricorder on the Celeste to get the necessary information of how much of the dish was still functional and then the necessary dimensions of what the replacement sections would be.

"Ensign, I'm going to need one section with the standard dish radius with an arc of 13 degrees, one of 7 degrees, and one of 23 degrees. I'll need the 23 degree section first. And finally, keep me apprised as to the time.", Rafe concluded.

Sera had halted her forward progress and brought up the projection of her tri-corder screen above her raised forearm. She quickly tapped on the requested parts Rafe called out so they could be replicated.

Maneuvering the order requests so that the 23 degree section was first, Sera replied, "Understood, Lieutenant. Standard dish radius, 23 degree section online first, followed by 13 degree, 7 degree. Replication underway."

She looked out on the wasteland that should be a pristine concave bowl. It was NOT a pristine concave bowl.

Caradec started the long laborious task of cutting away and removing the metal and materials that could not be salvaged. Some were even fused together with the hull, requiring some of the hull be excised. He was glad he brought the heavy duty plasma torch as he was going to have to move fast and not worry about the look. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to get time to be on the Gal-B. It was imperative he make the time. He had to gain access to their logs of what happened to spawn this war and how the secrets came out in the open. He thought to himself, fast and functional, Rafe, fast and functional.

Sera sighed as she surveyed the scope of the damage from her angle. Glancing to the side and seeing Naime close by, Sera engaged the comms and spoke to her. "Three days to repair all of this. I will refrain from speaking pessimistically but I will venture to use the acronym FUBAR to describe this scenario. Would my word choice be...adequate, here?"

"Sorry sir, don't know that one. Presuming that's Vulcan for really quite terrible and near impossible to get done in time." Chief Naime's voice quickly answered back over the comms. She was still getting used to the Vulcan Ensign and her quirks but from tone of voice alone she could tell that Sera seemed to agree with that description of the situation. "For a start," she moved her arm with the characteristic EV suit awkwardness to gesture at the floating debris "This is not a safe work environment, we'll need some kind of clean up before any real repairs can begin."

Hel looked at Naime with a small smile, watching the debris for a long moment. "We could grab someone from Operations and help us with the clear-up. Or get a shuttle to tractor-beam the debris away from us," she said and knelt, her body moving awkward. She was not good with zero-G. She could keep her dinner down but she was not a fan of it.

"Indeed." Sera's voice echoed over the comm as she awkwardly reached out a grabbed a piece of debris floating past her. "Do you know any suitable volunteers we might press into service, Petty Officer Inant?"

"Amul has certification for zero gravity repairs, or at least boasted about it on shoreleave," Hel said before she smiled to herself. "And Vansen helped Donald with the EVA repairs last time, so he'd be a good bet too. Think both of them are on our Gally, so most likely bored out of their little Operational minds."

Sera nodded unconsciously but only succeeded in causing a reverberation to go off through the comm system and she hissed as the screech wreaked temporary havoc on her auditory system.

"Logical. We require more hands. Perhaps even some of the Galileo-B crew might be amenable to assist."

Sera brought her hand up to the small screen strapped to her wrist and changed comm channels to reach the 'A.' "This is Ensign M'Lyr'Zor, there is significant field over the deflector dish; it is affecting our ability to safely and efficiently make repairs. Additional assistance is requested. Experience in zero G gravity repairs would be beneficial in this instance, however...we are willing to take whomever can be spared. Please send our request to the 'B' as well."

Sera switched the channel back to the comm between her team. "We shall wait and see what assistance can be provided. I would rather not have to prove ourselves to be 'miracle workers' quite yet in my short tenure. It would set the tone." Sera's sardonic reply felt appropriate. It was not the Vulcan way, however...but who would tell on her?

"We're engineers. If we're not miracle workers, we're the idiots who blew up the warp core," Hel said lightly, her voice playful with it, as if it made perfect sense to her. But it was a jest and she hoped it would be taken as such.

Ah...the petty officer had shown a propensity of utilizing what Sera extrapolated as 'sarcasm.' It was a rather fascinating form of conveying displeasure. Although quite alien from Vulcan social conventions, Sera found it agreeable. It was quite challenging to parse out the true meaning behind the statement.

"The affections of Command towards the engineering staff is quite fickle, I have observed." Sera responded sardonically, hoping Inant appreciated her attempt at banter.

Rafe continued cutting away the mangled sections from the dish and pushing them all to the underbelly and starboard side of the Gal-B to get them away from the ship and out of the way from the position and path of the Gal-A. He was about 20% done when an idea percolated to the forefront of his mind. It may actually work. He tried it on a small section and sure enough, it snapped perfectly. Instead of wasting some of the time on cutting a continuous line, he would cut a line, move a little further, cut some more, make another break, and then cut some more. In essence, he was making a perforation on the dish and would then bend the dish's damaged section toward the operational part and the bad section would snap off.

This made the cutting time go down about 15% - 20%. That just might make the difference, he thought. "Rafe to Sera, I found a way to make the cutting go faster. How's the first section replication coming along?"

"A potential complication has come to our attention, Lieutenant. There is a significant amount of debris. It will reduce our efficiency in the repairs here."

This rubbed Rafe the wrong way. He thought about snapping back with getting more help, but they would have already thought about that so he just replied with a resigned "Understood.", said Rafe. "Try to think of any way or ways to mitigate losing time. That is one thing we do not have in abundance." He continued cutting away with increased speed. "If I get done with the cutting before any of the sections are ready, I can help with whatever you need. Just let me know."

"Understood Lieutenant. I have reached out to Galileo requesting more assistance for clean up. I am uncertain if we will be given what is needed. It will slow our efficiency but Naime, Inant, and myself will simply have to...'be careful.'"

"Your quick thinking regarding panel removal is...appreciated. Improving the efficiency of panel removal may be enough to offset. I am uncertain yet, the calculations I have performed are inconclusive as of yet."

"Acknowledged, Chief." Rafe knew he would have to push it even more. He temporarily stopped, and took a breath. He had to find a way to go even faster. He backed off and looked at the enormous deflector dish. It looked like he had hardly removed anything. Futility started to set in but he stopped it. "Think Rafe!", he said to himself. He closed his eyes and started to breathe in and out...in and out...slower Rafe...in and then out...in through is nose and out through his mouth, slowly. He could feel his heart rate go down.

He slowly opened his eyes. His mind started to sort through the problem and seek through his past of things his father, Julian, taught him in how to overcome being pressed for time. This time crunch he faced could affect him, his crew mates, and possibly his future and it hit him. How could he not think of doing this?!? He quickly maneuvered up to the dish and cut off an estimated length of what he needed of the dish; a small piece about 16 inches long and 2 inches thick. He would use this as a jig with which to cut the dish without having to keep the plasma torch away from the dish manually. He could just hold the jig against the dish and hold the torch against the jig to cut at the right part of the plasma flame consistently.

He tried to use it and it worked perfectly. He worked a little without the jig and then used it on another section of the same size and it took just shy of 6 minutes when the previous section took him 8. "Chief, I'll be done in about 75% of the projected time."

"You increase your efficiency any further, Lieutenant, I will have you out on the hull in an EV suit to put this rather oversized 'puzzle' back together. We won't be able to keep up."

Our part is critical to the success of this 'mission,' and we cannot obtain the necessary personnel. Sera stopped the line of questioning and shook her head subtly to clear her thoughts.

The team--at least currently--lapsed into silence as they all worked in tandem to get the damaged sections off the deflector dish. The whirs and clicks of her suit were enough to keep Sera from focusing on the sound of her breathing or the rush of blood thrumming in her ears...or more disconcertingly, the unidentifiable whispers that her mind was perceiving in the vacuum of space. It was unnerving.

A sudden snap reverberated through the atmosphere in her helmet; Sera jolted from her work and she made a small sound in surprise.

A small star crack appeared almost directly in front of her right eye. Apparently a piece of debris, moving at sufficient velocity to cause damage to the transparent aluminum, had created a distinct central impact point that threaded out like tendrils of lightning across the face plate.

"Slor Surak!" Sera exclaimed. (Sweet Surak)

The view screen built into the face-plate took on a fractured appearance, indicating that debris' energy had damaged more than the outer layer of the helmet. She raised her wrist and looked at the small data readout that displayed the status within the EV suit. Everything was still green.

"I would suggest to be observant regarding the debris floating about. However, it is highly improbable that any of us will see the shrapnel before it has opportunity to hit. It would be unfortunate to find out that these EV suits were not properly maintained."


A Few Minutes Later...

You want me to do what?! Katja thought silently as she began the task of getting into the EV suit. She had sworn to never step foot into one of these things again after body recovery at Chin'Toka...aaaaanddd, here she was. Orders, right?

Learning how to move in a vacuum was like riding a bike. Once proficient, it stuck. Within a few steps she had adjusted her gait, and mindful of using the correct amount of pressure to push away from the ship with her mag boots, Katja made her way to the 'construction' site to begin trash cleanup, in essence.

Katja was told to find the Vulcan - her name was M'Lyr'Zor...and as there were only three people out on the hull, finding her wasn't difficult.

Reaching down to connect to the appropriate comms channel, Katja spoke, "Ensign M'Lyr'Zor? Chief Becker...You asked for additional hands?"

Sera looked up from her work on the dish and saw that there were three additional crew on the hull. Good.

"We are attempting to replace damaged sections of the deflector dish, however the debris from the damage is reducing our efficiency. We will not make the deadline at this rate. The debris must be removed."

If someone had asked Delainey what the strangest, most unexpected duty she could imagine being given, the counselor likely would've described some cultural ritual done in the nude for the purpose of establishing or improving diplomatic relations. If she really wanted to dream wildly, she might've imagined being asked to command the ship or to navigate it. Never in a million years would she have imagined she would be asked to don an EVA suit to remove debris from the ship.

It wasn't that such a task was beneath her. Carlisle was the type that would do anything and everything that meant protecting the people she cared about. The moment she was reassigned to Galileo, every member of the crew, those familiar to her as well as those brand new to her, became her crew, her brood to nurture and guide for better or worse. Rather, it was just this task was so outside the realm of what she had done since the Academy, it was not something her brain would've considered at this point in her career. Certainly, there were people more adept at EVA travel than she currently was, although she was trying not to stumble. The last thing she wanted was to reinforce any negative stereotypes about a healers ability to do anything physically demanding or risky.

Deciding that moving slowly what is the better part of valor, Carlisle made her way over to Sera. "I'm pleased to be of service. Where would you like me?"

Sera looked past Carlisle and Becker to the other engineers on the dish as they moved like water-logged marionettes in the 0 gravity environment. Two people would not be enough to clear the entire area, so she would need to be judicious with their scope of clean-up.

Tapping on the small comp-screen on her right forearm, the a holographic display of the deflector dish sparkled into reality. Sera tapped in the areas the two 'clean-up' personnel would be posted. Given the trajectory of of debris movement, it was the most logical positioning.

"I have sent over your positional assignments. Your duties are to collect or divert the debris that is in our vicinity." Sera motioned to her face shield to the bullseye of impact. "I would rather not lose any of us here because of a piece of random detritus."

"Neither would I," Delainey managed to reply evenly without a trace of sarcasm, good humor, or anxiety. Sera's statement seemed to go without saying and a small part of her wondered why it had been said to *her.* Delainey knew she was a bit out of her element amongst some people who were not, and it was more than just physically uncomfortable for her.

Pushing those thoughts away, Delainey turned her attention to absorbing the details that had been sent to her.

Becker looked down as she felt her forearm vibrate and her earpiece chirp with the data the ChEng transferred to her. Looking at her range of operations, she barely held back the sigh. Her head pounding in time with her heart, Katja knew this was gonna be an epically 'good' time. A hangover in zero G...Wunderbar.

"Aye, Ensign." Katja glanced over to Carlisle, who was yet another stranger in a new world of strangers. "This sure beats my last retrieval assignment." She quipped with an accented tone.

The comment had the effect of pulling Delainey out of her own head and reminding her not to be so paranoid. Turning to Katja, she grinned. "Oh yeah? You do stuff like this often?"

"Not since the war." Katja returned. "Let's just say cleaning up trash is a far preferable task."

"Oh yeah?" Carlisle asked, diligently clearing away debris. "Mind sharing more info? I could use the perspective and distraction right now. It's been more than a few years since I had to face this particular brand of terror-induced nausea."

Katja blinked. Ah. She looked over to the other medical officer, flavor unknown and saw the curious expression. She warred with coming up with some cock and bull shore story, but her mouth won out over her brain. Stupid mouth.

"Corpse retrieval...it wasn't so bad really as long as you didn't look at their faces. Just finding parts, though...that was the worst."

Instantly, Carlisle felt like a jerk. Here she was looking for a distraction for herself, not even considering what Katja's answer really mean. "That couldn't have been easy," she offered. Pausing then, she added, "I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking when I asked for more details."

"Oh. I don't mind. I put my foot in my mouth all the time. Keep talking to me and let's see much worse it can get." Katja replied with a smile in her voice. Humor...the ultimate coping mechanism. If she had realized she was speaking to the ship's counselor, she probably would have toned it back a bit.

Sera's attention now returned to her primary focus; getting off the damaged section of deflector dish. There were three more couplings and then Caradec could come in and pull the hulking panel off and take it away. Once the piece had been removed, it would give the engineering cadre a look at the 'guts' of the thing. Hopefully most of the cabling was preserved...that had been one of the variables Sera had not been able to account for. If the circuitry was damaged, there was no way, NO WAY, they would keep to the 3 day timeline.

Rafe could see the last three couplings being dismantled. He maneuvered into place and began to pull the last big piece of the dish removed. He pulled and twisted downward and to his left to bring the section of the dish out of the way. As he turned he heard a gasp from Sera.

The web of cabling under the second of the dish was scored with carbon and in the center held a scorched servo, obviously having been victim of a vigorous exothermic reaction.

"Fvadt..." Sera muttered, and then blinked as she realized her verbal lapse of control. "One of the electrofluidic servos has been destroyed."

"And I do not know how we are going to make the deadline." She silently added.

Rafe said, "Well, I know this is not ideal but this is beyond my abilities. I'm going to have to leave this part of the repair to you. Let me know when you have the cabling and servo repaired and I'll lend a hand with the replicated dish sections."

"The component should be replicatable. However, installation is going to be...tedious. Time-consuming."

"Understood.", Rafe responded as he maneuvered towards the auxiliary shuttle bay. "I'll keep my channel open so let me know when you're ready. I've got other fish to fry." Rafe moved off of the deflector dish to view some other minor damage on the hull relating to the navigation to see what he could do regarding the B's performance. Whatever could make a difference would be worth the time.

"I will inform you when the A has completed replication of the servo." Sera responded and sent over the request to the "A" to begin replication of the necessary device.

"Sound's good, Chief.", Rafe responded, moving off towards the top of the port side of the saucer section to take a look at the lateral thrusters.

"In the meantime, we can move on to the next section of dish that needs to be removed." Sera began to trudge around to the next part of damaged plating; this piece wasn't hanging on by much.

"We should be able to get this section off relatively quickly; it is not being held on by much. Stand-by Lieutenant."

"Standing by. Just let me know when you need me. I'll be on the saucer section, port side.", said Rafe.

"Acknowledged. We'll work clockwise then. That should keep everyone suitably busy with detachment, replication, and dropping in the new panels." Sera's mind was already at work figuring out the timing when she received a message on her comm screen. "Lieutenant - the servo is ready at the "A." By the time that is in position, this next panel should be removed and then we will be able to replaced. Barring any other...setbacks, it's time to, 'get to it.'"

[OFF]

--

Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor
Acting Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A

Chief Petty Officer Katja Becker
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Sera]

LTJG Rafe Caradec
Senior Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A

CPO Afthinam Naime
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Ullswater]

PO3 Helliun Inant
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Rice]

LTJG Delainey Carlisle
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

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