Repairing the Nikko

Posted on Mon Oct 24th, 2022 @ 11:14am by Captain Maho Takahashi & Lieutenant Commander Brandon Pratt

2,869 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Trade Troubles
Location: USS Nikko, Main Engineering, Deck 27

Previously, on Star Trek Myogi:

Immediately after Misono, Tristana, and Iwaki beamed out, the Vulcan XO stepped into the command area.

"Ops, hail the Myogi:" She ordered. "This is Lieutenant Commander T'Vena, acting captain of the Starship Nikko. We... Surrender."

When T'Vena finished speaking, Maho's image appeared once again on the Nikko's viewscreen.

"Forgive me, Commander; but how can I trust your word as genuine?" Maho asked. "Given everything that's happened."

"Captain, while I cannot speak for Iwaki's illogical actions, I believe I can speak for the rest of the crew when I say we'd all like to bring about an end to this meaningless conflict." T'Vena said. "My crew trusts me as much as they trust Iwaki, they will obey my order to stand down."

"Very well, Commander;" Maho nodded. "But if we're wrong about you?"

"Then I shall surrender myself to Starfleet Security once we arrive back in Sol." T'Vena said. "Is that enough of an assurance to trust me?"

"Well, what other choice do I have, Commander?" Maho said. "Power up your engines and prepare to follow us back to Federation space."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, Captain." T'Vena objected. "With the damage we sustained during the firefight, we're not going anywhere until we can conduct repairs."

Maho audibly sighed.

"Very well," She said. "I shall send my chief engineer to work alongside yours to see that the repairs are completed in a timely manner."

And now, the continuation:

Lieutenant Mark Lennox, the Nikko's Chief Engineer, stood in what was left of Main Engineering with his damage report. Things were looking grim for his ship: The starboard impulse engine was gone and the explosion had taken out several RCS thrusters. If that had been all the damage, they'd be on their way back to Federation space by now, but sadly, the torpedo attack had been more vicious than originally thought: In addition to the extensive damage to the secondary computer core, the Nikko's lateral sensor array had also taken heavy damage. But the most brutal strike in Lennox's opinion was to the Deuterium storage on Deck 24. Fortunately, the Deuterium storage and Deuterium injectors on Deck 25 had been spared significant damage, but with the damaged tanks on Deck 24, Lennox was skeptical that they would be able to maintain warp even at a reduced capacity.

Lennox had determined that the repairs needed to be adequate enough for the Nikko to maintain her cruising speed of Warp 6. If they could do at least that speed, the two ships could get underway to Federation space, and Lennox could attempt further repairs to grant the Nikko access to higher warp speeds. He was curious as to the ideas the Myogi's Chief Engineer had in mind to get them up and running.

USS Nikko, Main Engineering, Deck 17

Pratt had beamed to the USS Nikko in the middle of the mess created by Misono, Tristana, and Iwaki. Brandon was an officer; a Chief Engineer of the USS Myogi, and he would best represent himself as one. Politics aside, he breathed in and out as the wave of particles energized and deposited him in the Nikko Main Engineering.

It was a mess there was missing cowling around the rafters of the ship’s skeleton. There were burned-out consoles. There was a smell of burnt circuitry in the air. Brandon had his chance, rather quickly reviewing what needed to be done to get the Nikko up to Warp 6, back to Starfleet.

“Lieutenant Lennox of the Nikko.” Pratt’s voice had a tone of underlying resentment for what had occurred. “I am Lieutenant Pratt; call me Brandon for now.” He then shook his hand in good faith, the two Engineers sharing a like consideration and concern for the operations of the vessel as such.

"Pleasure working with you, Brandon." Lennox said as he shook Pratt's hand. "Though, if we're going by first names, please; call me Mark."

"Mark. Of course, I have heard good things about you, Sir." Brandon shook his hand in kind.

“I have reviewed Nikko’s status report. Things look grim now. I am confirming with you what you would like to do. We have been ordered to get these engines back up to Warp 6, so we achieve cruising speed back to Starfleet.” Brandon checked his padd.

“I’ve beamed over our engineering repair and spare equipment for this task. My first observation would be to piggyback the Nikko’s sensors to the Myogi’s. We can further delay those repairs once in star base.”

Pratt walked up to the pool table in engineering, showing red disaster beacons all over the vessel. “Second, your deuterium storage tanks on deck 24 must be fortified before any pressurization for the deuterium injectors to withstand a warp flight.” Brandon paused for input. “I assume you are aware of this. Deck 24 already has antihydrogen magnetic field flow constrictor segments beamed to that location. Once the segments and secondary valve blocks have been fortified, we can achieve warp 6, considering there will be no issues with the mains.” Pratt’s eyes scanned the faults. “Level 02 ramscoops need to be purged. We can’t have a vertical tensioner meltdown now, can we?” This was indeed an oversight by Lennox.

"No, we cannot." Lennox chuckled.

“Third. As you have already begun, I see.” Pratt walked across to the main status display for the Nikko and ran his finger along the lines to the missing starboard thrusters and impulse engines, visually inspecting the hardware himself. “You’ve shunted the power EPS taps and flow to secondary pooling stations on Deck 12, Deck 16, and Deck 20. Your compensation vector for the warp flows will need to be enhanced to ensure no drag at warp six.” He shook his head as the damages were unbelievable.

“Fourthly,” Brandon took a drink from the silver mug of coffee he had brought. He turned back from the status display to walk across to the computer cores. He shook his head. “Here is the real disaster. Your secondary core will need a total retrofit once we get back to Starfleet. Luckily, you configured a set of three redundant cores able to withstand primary operational computer loads. I’ve scanned the third core, and there is no damage, as is your main core. The secondary core can be taken offline or grandfathered to a 144 linear quad-core component. This means shutting down any secondary non-necessary shipboard activities, holodeck, etc.” Pratt paused, taking a sip of his coffee, wryly adding. “Although, I don’t think that is an issue since secondary systems already are in shambles.”

"Yeah, whoever was manning your photon torpedoes is one hell of a shot." Lennox commented. "I'm not surprised that the secondary computer core is damaged beyond repair, but like you said, we shouldn't need it to get back to Federation space."

“All said and done. Pratt calculated the time, man work, and efficiency of remaining systems at present to complete the repairs needed.” He whistled to himself when he completed tasking the padd with the calculation. “We can get the Nikko back to warp six within 14 hours, 12.9 if we get lucky with repairs.”

"Frankly, 14 hours a lot more generous than my estimates." Lennox said. "Let's just hope we can get the repairs done before any curious Klingons show up wondering why two Federation Starships are violating their borders."

Brandon then paused and crossed his large forearms looking back at Lieutenant Lennox. “I am not here to scold you, just to put perspectives into reality. “Do you agree with the schedule of repairs I’ve set up and prepared on subsequent decks? Your crew will need to work 24/7 until we reach that Starbase. Or else we risk cascading system failures and the loss of the main warp core.”

Lennox knew that they would have to be working while at warp, but hearing from Pratt that they'd have to work around the clock just to maintain warp 6? That was something that Lennox would require his entire engineering staff to pull off. Lennox just hoped T'Vena would be successful in getting the Myogi to repatriate the engineers that had been captured.

"We can do it, but I'll need my entire engineering staff on hand to make it happen." Lennox said. "I understand the T'Vena is currently negotiating the release of the engineers that you've captured, but if you could put a word in with your captain and explain why I need the engineers you've taken prisoner, that would be a good first step."

Pratt nodded. "Indeed. I can't guarantee it. Given the circumstances, I believe it may have to be in the cards, Mark." Brandon agreed with a smile. He paused and walked around the engineering, checking various structures.

Tapping his communications badge, he turned aside for a bit of privacy. "=/\= Lt. Pratt to Captain Maho. Lt. Lennox has informed me we have a considerable amount of his Engineering crew sitting in cells doing nothing on the Myogi. If we could have them placed to work under our command, we could get the Nikko running in double time. Would this be appropriate at this time Captain Maho? =/\=

=A="The less time we have to spend in Klingon space, the better, Lieutenant:"=A= Maho responded. =A="If releasing the captured engineers will cut down that time significantly, I'll see to it that they're released as soon as possible."=A=

=/\= Understood, Captain. =/\= Brandon wouldn't be able to wait for transportation, as he had work to be done immediately. Turning to Mark, Brandon smiled. "Wasn't too bad. The captain assured us she would look into it. We will know once their start arriving. Since these are your officers, you will be in control of their actions and dissemination to identified work tasks."

"Do you mind if I check out the deuterium storage tanks? With your help we can get the work done ourselves, possibly six hours done, and have that task off the list?"

"Sounds good, Lieutenant." Mark replied. "In the meantime, I'll have teams look into the lateral sensor array and the RCS thrusters."

Opening the main access hatch, Brandon had a passive understanding of the Jeffries tube layouts. "I might lose my way. I need your guidance, Sir." He clasped his hands and winked. Brandon reached for his rather large engineering tool kit, which was now more of a trunk size. "Plus, I'd destroy my back without your carrying help." He gestured for help to carry it up and over a few decks to the deuterium storage tanks.

"Of course. Having a similar sized tool kit myself, I can say that they definitely weren't made to be hauled fully loaded through the Jefferies tubes by one person." Mark chuckled. "Anyway, the affected Deuterium storage tanks are located a couple decks up from here on Deck 24."

USS Nikko, Deuterium Storage Tanks, Deck 24

Exiting the small Jeffries tubes alongside Mark, Brandon stretched his back outward. "Dang it. I think I'm either getting older or becoming less fit. That was a heck of a tour up here."

"It doesn't help when we have to fit such a large tool kit around these tight junctions in the Jefferies tubes." Mark said. "Anyhow, we made it here without getting lost, and that's what matters."

The Nikko had crates of pre-beamed aboard magnetic constrictor segments. They had to unpack and attach each constrictor segment to the linear flow regulators that led to the nozzle injectors down in Main Engineering. "Alright," Brandon stated. "Let's get to work." There already were a few other officers awaiting orders, as Mark had told them what to do to prepare the segments to be placed on the main lines.

Hours passed, and the last constrictor segments were placed, and the damaged components were recycled back into the Nikko's industrial replicators.

"Mark what do you think of the readings, you're more inclined to Nikko's systems. What else do we need to do?" Pratt wanted the Chief Engineer to be part of the process on the vessel Mark presided over. Brandon passed the Engineering tricorder among the tools now being placed back into the engineering tools trunk.

Mark accepted the Tricorder from Brandon and studied the readings.

"The readings are showing 85 to 90 percent operating efficiency. I'll take those odds; definitely something my team can work on while we're at warp." He said, placing the tricorder back into the tool kit and pulling out his PADD to see where they were with the repairs: Teams had addressed the damage to the lateral sensor array and had brought an acceptable number of the damaged RCS thusters back online, but the issue of the starboard impulse engine remained unaddressed.

"Let's see if we can jerry rig what's left of our starboard impulse engine, so that way, we'll have some semblance of controlled impulse flight when we reach our destination." Mark suggested. "You think you can handle carrying that thing all the way up to Deck 10 with me?"

Brandon grunted. “I thought you’d never ask!” He chuckled. “You know, if we did have secondary systems online, site-to-site transporters would make short work of carrying this case.” He digressed.

Unlatching the holder and then stepping in time with Mark, the two made their way up painstakingly to the deck 10 impulse engine. Along the way, they had stopped to take a breather and adjust some of the junction router systems in the tubes.

Having reached deck 10, Brandon was sweated out and tired. They then entered the starboard impulse engine room carrying the tool trunk and other items they had with them. Taking a drink of water, he passed an unopened bottle to Mark as well.

Two other Ensigns already had the impulse engine manifolds off for them. The more nuanced mechanics of the device were pronounced. After cleaning off some burn marks and re-routing some hardware, they were allowed to re-integrate the engines, what was left of the starboard impulse drive.

“I believe if we place the starboard impulse actuator on standby, enact a contingency looper segment with a TR-1138 pump. Flux the overflow valves dry at 0.0087 pressurizations, just enough to mimic an active flow for the feeders into the rest of the ship. Then, we can maintain the blunted impulse drive while warping.” Pratt then passed the configuration padd to Mark to have a say and look.

Mark took the PADD and skimmed it over, biting his lip at what he saw:

"It's serviceable. but..." He began.

“I understand what you’re going to say. It’s crude. It’s probably lacking a few MTS ICS protocols, not to mention the sensor diametric will be flashing red the whole ride back to Starfleet.” He shook his head and leaned it on a metal crossbar in the tight compartment, “but at least it will allow the Nikko to get back.”

"And that's what we're looking for." Mark nodded. "Let's get to work."

Several more hours passed as Mark and Brandon worked to recalibrate the remains of the Nikko's starboard impulse engine to get it back into working order. It wasn't an easy job, especially as the layers were peeled back, revealing that a few key components required to perform some of the outlined procedures were fried and required replacing before they could perform the procedures. But alas, once the final bolt had been tightened and the last fried components taken to the industrial replicators for recycling, Mark wiped the sweat from his forehead and stood up, looking at the readings on a PADD.

"Not bad." He commented. "For an impulse engine this badly damaged, I'll take 80-87 percent operating efficiency. Frankly, I would've been happy with anything greater than 65 percent."

Mark skimmed over the list on the PADD, while he and Brandon had worked on the impulse engine, other teams had accomplished various minor things, and it was looking like there wouldn't be much else that they could do without getting to a starbase.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like there's not much more we can do here without getting to a starbase." He said, handing the PADD over for Brandon to look at.

"I think we have had the engineering crews working double time, as much as the industrial replicators fixing and patching here and there. Agreed." Lieutenant Pratt had signed off on his portion of the crew work on the USS Nikko.

Tagging his communications badge a little early in the morning from a whole night of work. Brandon stated to the captain, "Captain Maho. Lieutenant Pratt here. Lieutenant Lennox and I have finished up as much as we can for repairs to the Nikko. She is safe and sound to get back to Starfleet with the safety of Warp 7. She is yours, Ma'am." Pratt had awaited orders. He smiled and turned to Lieutenant Lennox and shook his hand. "Much to the help of you, of course, Sir."

"Hey, It would have taken us twice the time doing it ourselves." Mark responded.

=A="Acknowledged, Pratt."=A= Came Maho's voice over Brandon's combadge. =A= "Gather your teams and prepare to beam back to Myogi."=A=

A mission post by

Captain Maho Takahashi
Commanding Officer
USS Myogi

&

Lieutenant Brandon Pratt
Chief of Engineering
USS Myogi

&

Lieutenant Mark Lennox
Chief Engineer
USS Nikko

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