Getting Things Organized

Month 16 Day 4

1701 Hours

Smitty

Someone approached the open office door, and Smitty looked up from the list he'd made of the few facts he knew about what had happened. His visitors were Lts Rominoff and Zolka, the actual D shift supervisor here on the St Elmo. "Gentlemen," he greeted them. "Again, thank you for coming in so promptly, Lt Zolka, and to both of you for relaying my instructions. Now, I'm trying to figure out just exactly what happened to cause the crystals to explode. Do you have any knowledge about that?"

Lt Zolka took the lead. "Sorry, Mr Smythe, neither of us were on duty during it. We found out about it when the sirens went off. We came to see if we could help, like all of engineering, and the place was a shambles; electrical explosions happening everywhere."

Lt Rominoff went on. "Mr Facchini and Lt Niles had gone to the warp alcove just moments before the explosion. Both men were in pretty bad shape."

Smitty nodded. "Well, I know there were some changes made to the warp power routers a few weeks ago. Your boss wrote to tell me about them, but he didn't go into any details. And I can't make sense of Facchini's filing system. I'd appreciate it if one of you could find the specifications on those new routers."

"Do you think they had anything to do with this?" asked Rominoff. "I saw them when they first came aboard, and they seemed very streamlined and clean."

"I don't know if the new routers had anything to do with it. But the ship has run fine for years without any crystal explosions until now. I'd be remiss if I didn't take a look at them."

"As far as I know, they haven't been removed yet," Zolka stated.

"That's good. Let's plan on removing them and sending them to science, along with their specs, to have them examined. But, once again, we need the specs."

"I think I can find them," Zolka volunteered, and saluted as he left the office.

"Now, if we just had some shards of the crystals," Smitty muttered to himself.

Someone else came to the doorway. "Lt Oakhurst reporting for duty, Mr Smythe."

"Good. Come in, Oakhurst. You'll be working with the St Elmo computer people. Lt, eh..."

"Roosevelt, sir," Rominoff offered.

"Yes, Roosevelt. Is the computer supervisor. I gave her a long list of information I'm looking for, so see what you can do to help out. Basically, I want to know what equipment showed any stress or failed to work, and when. Starting a full 24 hours before the explosion, because crystals don't fail that easily. The St Elmo comp sci staff are working their normal shifts, and that's fine. But you, Oakhurst, will be working 12 on and 12 off. All of us from the Fireball will be. The St Elmo has graciously made a couple barracks avaible so we won't have to spend time shuttling back and forth."

"Okay," Oakhurst said. "I'll go find Lt Roosevelt and get started."

"Good. Do that," Smitty told him, and followed him out of the office, into the engineering lobby, where he consulted a couple read-outs, and came back to the office with a little smile on his face. "Like I thought, the nacelles are now completely off-line. Colleen—I mean, MacDowell—should be back in a few minutes."

Surprised by the man's use of a first name for an underling, Rominoff searched for something to say that wouldn't refer to that slip of the tongue. "You mean that strange silence deep down in the ship? I was wondering what that was."

Smitty gave him a broad smile. "You're already partially in tune with your ship, lieutenant. Keep it up, and you'll reach a point where you won't need the machines to tell you there's a problem, you'll have already felt it."

"Thank you, sir. Some of the younger guys tell me I'm imagining things."

"Don't believe it," Smitty suggested. "Okay, Oakhurst and, um, Roosevelt are busy with the computers. Zolka is looking for the specs for those new power relays. Everybody else is working on diagnostics. So it seems like the next things to do are remove the power relays and see if we can collect any crystal shards to send to the science labs."

"Sir! I found the specifications for the power relays!" Zolka exclaimed, waving a data crystal in the air as he entered the office. "They seem to be made of layers of a couple dozen different materials."

"Well, that's different from the old ones," Smitty commented. They used to be made of solid rosidium, with a micro-coating of non-stick theron. Leave it to the desk engineers to decide not only to change them, but to complicate the production of them. "So, any idea where we might find some crystal shards from the explosion?"

"What about the shards Medical has removed from the injured?" Rominoff asked. "Could those be used?"

"Maybe. I'll call sick bay and ask if they've still got them." He reached for the intercom when he saw Colleen marching across the engineering lobby, her hands clenched at her sides. Lt Baker sauntered behind her, looking pleased with himself.

"Mr Smythe," she greeted as she stepped through the open door. Her lips were pinched, and her eyes flashing with anger, but for once, that anger wasn't directed at him. "The nacelles are divorced from the power grid."

"Glad to hear it. Now I can send a team to remove the power relays."

"I volunteer," she stated at once. "But whoever you send will need to wear a space suit, even in the north nacelle."

Baker was leaning against the doorjamb, grinning. There wasn't any room in the office for him to step inside, and Colleen made sure of it, having stopped just inside the door.

"Something strikes you as funny?" Smitty asked his friend's protégé.

The grin faded, but Baker didn't get a chance to answer. "He finds it amusing that he did the work so slowly, I finally did it myself, just to get it done."

Smitty gave Baker a sharp look, wanting to chew him up and spit him out for such a childish trick. I'll have plenty of time to show him the error of his ways, if I have him work the same hours I do. He turned his attention to Colleen. "Is the bulkhead of the north nacelle that fragile? We could throw a force field around it, and-"

"It was cracked in several places," she broke in. "A force field is a good idea. But the main reason is the crystal shards scattered about. Most of it the size of dust particles. You can only see it because it glitters in the light. There are some pieces big enough to see laying about, easily disturbed, and capable of doing some damage to an EV suit. Mine had a few tiny holes punched in it by the time I got done."

Smitty smiled broadly. "Gentlemen, we've just found the shards we need."

Colleen looked mildly confused at first, then nodded. "There's some in the port and starboard nacelles, too, but less of it, because some has escaped through the breaches."

"Lt Zolka, throw a force field around the nacelles, then make a copy of those specs and get it to the science lab. Lt Rominoff, take a shop vac and a crystal containment bag and go with Lt MacDowell to the nacelles to vaccum up the shards and remove the power relays. Place the relays in the bag for transportation. Don't forget your EV suits, and even then, be careful." Now he turned his attention to Baker. "Once they're gone, Mr Baker, I'll debrief you about this incident and the steps you've taken."