Fixing up a ship

Posted on 23 Oct 2021 @ 7:15pm by Captain Jonathan Reynolds & Ensign Vince Stryfe

Mission: Picking up the pieces
Location: Shuttle Bay
Timeline: Before Observation meeting
2211 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Michael had gone to the shuttle bay and gazed at the poor trader's ship. It looked like the repairs wouldn't be too bad on it, but there also the inside needed to be checked out. And some fixes being made there too. Tapping on his comm badge Hawkins stated "Ensign Han, Ensign Stryfe would you come assist me in shuttle bay with the ship repairs?"

The sound of Vince's comm badge echoed in the shuttle bay, as his head popped around from the side of the ship," Uh, do I still need to hit the badge and say copy and all that? I was on off time and saw this thing coming in here, and it looked really cool, so I beat everyone here to take a look at it."

Derek tapped his Com badge and responded. " Of course Sir, I'll be there in about two minutes. Not much else going on for me right now , So I'd be more then happy to assist. Han out. " A few minute later Derek walked into the shuttle bay and let a whistle out as he looked at the ship. " Well we've got our work cut out for us, I guess we better get to it. " As he grabbed a tool kit and went towards the shuttle. " This thing looks pretty roughed up, what did they do? Play chicken in an asteroid field? "

Michael shook his head. "They got caught in the radiation in that asteroid field, which as far as I know it wasn't there before. There used to be a planet where they were found." He remarked. "Good thing the ship has been cleaned of the radiation." he added.

" So where do you suggest we begin Sir? I hope they're giving us at least a week to fix this mess before letting any people into it. " Stated Derek. " I guess I could start with the controls and navigation system, We want this bucket to go the right direction at least. "

"We may have a week or not, but in truth she's not as badly beat up as I had though." Michael turned around when he heard Stryfe's voice. "Well then, it looks like we've got a crew, lets get to fixing her." giving a grin. And he set to work. "Just keep an eye as to what we may find as well okay?"

Derek waved to Vince as he approached. " Well it looks like we got ourselves a work crew, Let's see what we can do to get her flying again. Give a shout if you need a hand with anything, I'm going to start with the controls. "

"Do that, we'll be joining you inside as well to get a better look see." Michael stated, then he went to work patching up areas that needed repairs.

After about fifteen minutes of working on the control systems Derek noticed something strange, an old style switch. He flipped it and heard a dull thud, and when he returned it to it's original position he heard a slight metallic clang. Derek called out through the open hatch. " Hey could you guys come in here? I found an old fashion toggle switch and it sounds like it's opening and closing something in the rear of the ship, Can you see if you can find it when I try it again? "

"Sure let's take a look." Michael coming inside to have a look. "Okay hit the switch." when the switch was hit, Michael just grinned, "Okay then found what is a classic hidden cargo area. Looks like some sort of tea, and other items. Even something that looks like alcohol. One of the bottles looks.. er Green."

Derek came to the rear of the ship to inspect what the others were looking at. " Your right Sir, It does look like tea. why would anyone put tea into a hidden cargo hold? There's no point in it. " Derek took the green bottle from the hidden hold and popped the stopper and took a sniff and gave a perplexed look. " It has almost no smell. " He put the stopper back in and put it back in the hold. " But your absolutely correct. It's green! " He said with a grin and a mock Scottish tone.

"Maybe it is special tea?" Michael asked, as he looked at the rest of the contents of that smugglers hold. "Hey I've got a strange question to ask you, Ensign Han, you look a lot like another man who had the last name of Han. He was serving on the USS Copernicus. Do you perchance know someone by the name of Lieutenant Junjie Han?" As Michael stepped in to take a bit more of a catalogue of what was in there.

" Are you saying we look alike? " Derek asked. " In this case your correct, His father is my uncle and he is my cousin. You know when we were six years old, all the kids wanted bikes for Christmas. But not Junjie! Nope! He wanted a chemistry set. And not just any chemistry set, he wanted the biggest most deluxe one out there. When he turned thirteen he believed in better pranks through chemistry! Gods help you if you pranked him first. "

Michael poked his head up above the smuggling hold. "Really? He is a prankster? Oh boy, better pranks though chemistry." he chuckled. Then slipped some gloves on, he was curious about this powder in one of the bags, he took a sample of it, it struck his curiosity, filling up an empty bag he had found in the hold. "Anyway, this liquid looks really strange. I'll leave it alone." He climbed back out of the hold and closed it up. "Wonder if that is some sort of medicine that is native out here." Michael mused. Tucking away the small bag he had placing it inside a pocket. Then went to continue working on the ship.

"Stryfe how are your repairs going?" Michael asked.

Vince stared at the bottle for a moment, then looked over to Michael," Well my repairs back here were going fantastic, then this little door popped open in my face and scared me half to death"

He paused for another moment, then smacked his hands together, pointing at the bottle," That's smugglin', that right there is a smuggled item. These guys are doing something dirty. Quarantine that stuff, and run tests!!"

"Since we are not familiar with all that is out in this section of space, not certain just what this is yeah I do agree with you on getting it tested. Let's get this ship back in order though, just like we said we'd do but, will need to get in touch with the Captain as well. Can't let the traders know what we found as of yet. It will be up to the Captain on what to do." he thought for a moment, then tapped on his com badge. "Captain, you are needed in the shuttle bay area of the traders ship. Hawkin's out"

Derek nodded in approval. " Good call. The Captain will know what to do. Right now without testing, we don't know if it's a kids candy, a drug or a bio weapon. I'd kind of like to know for certain myself before playing around with it anymore. "

"While we are waiting for the Captain to come look at what we have found, lets continue our work, shall we?" Michael stated. "Who knows what else we will be finding here."

Derek wiped some grime off of his hands. " Navigation and thruster controls are up to specs, that was an easy fix. The life support system is nearly shot, that will be a two hour minimum, and only if everything goes smoothly. By the way. How is the drive system looking? This thing was damn near a derelict. "

Jon walked into the Shuttle bay. "Report" he said looking at the ship.

Michael climbed out of the smugglers hold, and stepped out of the ship. "Repairs are going rather well, however found something that might cause some concern, you would be so kind Captain. There is some sort of substance we've stumbled upon, inside some hidden areas on this ship." motioning for the captain to come upon the small ship. "I do have a sample that I intend on having it analysed, however I wished you to see this and maybe you have some ideas on what to do here."

"If I was a betting man I would say they are smugglers and that," Jon picked up the sample. "Well that ain't no tea is it?" he said sniffing it.

"I wasn't thinking it was tea either. It does in some aspect have that scent of some green tea but, its just not and... " Michael took a small taste of it, by just dipping his finger in it. He made a face, closing his eyes for a moment then his eyes snapped open. Michael felt a reaction rather quickly, and placed his hand upon the wall to steady himself. "Okay, well, that certainly isn't a spice. Whatever it is, its potent. Just a small amount of, oof." Michael shook his head, "Dang, do I feel good. I feel a rush, almost like taking a pinch of cayenne pepper, but without the heat." Michael looked at Jon, "You do not want to get this on your skin either."

Derek spoke up. " Sir if it makes you feel good with such a small amount, I would hazard a guess it is highly addictive. I would suggest getting samples to medical so that they can find a counter agent to it. With your permission Sir I could place some in sample containers and take them there. "

"Yes get several samples and get them to medical and science," Jon ordered.

Michael turned to look at what else was needed to be done, then spoke. "I think I need to leave off working on this ship for the moment. Let's call it a day and I need to see if this will wear off soon. Will that be okay with you Captain, I am thinking I need to go see about getting diagnosed."

Derek looked to Michael. " If that's your plan Sir then I'll walk with you to Sickbay. Let me just get several small samples into these small sealed containers and we'll drop them off with the Doctors when we get you there. And I'll get myself checked as well just in case I got some trace amount on me, We don't know if there's any side effects to this stuff. "

Jon nodded. "Go get checked out Hawkins. I'm going to call a few to the observation room and have a chat with the owners of all this."

"Sounds good sir." Michael managing to reply without slurring.

Vince popped out from his hidden area around the engines," If you guys don't mind I'm going to go ahead and hang out here. I'm almost done with this repair, and if I stop now it'll be hard to get back into it."

Derek gave a wave to Vince. " Not a problem, I'll drop off these samples and get myself checked quickly and be right back. " With that said he turned and walked out the door.

Vince gave a nonchalant wave as the others left the shuttle bay. The repair he was working on wasn't difficult, but it was tedious, and needed to be completed. He moved his hands across the panel he had open, checking connections and repairing ones as he saw them. The radiation this ship was dealing with had done a number to the engine wiring, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. He stopped for a moment to rub his eyes, must be tired from all the work, but he needed to press on. He pulled out his tricorder and ran a scan of his repair, everything looked good, but there was an unknown draw coming from somewhere. He looked around, examining what he could, and noticed something out of place above the panel.

Scanning the object he realized it was some sort of mod to the ships engine control, and the source of his power draw. If he wanted to run a full diag he needed to disconnect the device so he could do so. As he reached up, his eyes just wouldn't stay open all of a sudden, but he forced himself to open them, grabbing the device and pulling. In an instant Vince found himself against the wall of the shuttle bay, put there by a large electrical charge from the device. He laid there unable to move from the jolt to his body. He could see the arm he grabbed the device with, smoking and burned from the charge. Pain coursed through him as he tried to move, no luck, and nobody was in the bay to help. The pain was unbearable, he gasped for air as his body dealt with the shock, and he started to lose consciousness from the pain racking his body. He felt himself losing it, and thought to himself," So this is it, this is how it ends... damn...".

OFF:

Lieutenant Michael Hawkins
Chief Engineer

Derek Han
Operations Officer

Ensign Vince Stryfe
Flight Control Officer

Captain Jonathan Reynolds
CO, USS Andromeda