Out with the Old

Posted on Tue Dec 15th, 2009 @ 4:55am by Jan Valentine & Walter Jones

775 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Session Two - Space Junk
Location: bridge

Jan led the way onto the bridge, a mess of wires and stray connectors lying on the deck.

"That's the console there, since there were no bajoran replacements lying around, I picked up this better quality Klingon console, problem is that it doesn't 100% plug into the systems." Jan said, pointing to the pile of connectors next to the console.

"Hopefully we won't need to do too much rerouting for it to work" The bolian walked over to the console and gave it a quick inspection. "Yeah, the bajorans aren't too keen on producing spare parts for these old girls anymore. I think that the challenge here is going to interface it with the sensors." Inspecting one of the connectors in the back. "What do you think, try and hot-wire it or make a new coupling for it?"

"Half the wiring on this bucket is hot-wired together, it's a miracle anything works at all." Jan said.

The engineer looked around the room. "I'm half tempted to just go over to the genesis and rip out all the consoles there and install them, or at least get you some new stuff. I'm surprised that you you haven't been electrocuted yet."

"Haven't been too badly electrocuted, although there is a hyper-spanner on deck 3 that's arc welded to 2 relays. I thought the damn things were inactive." Jan said.

He laughed at the thought of the spanner on the relays. "Well, lets rip out the old console and see what we need to deal with, If this panel is what I think it is, we might be able to just fashion a new connector, do you have any t-53 type inverse power inducers? If we can connect that through a coupling that might just do

"Uh......"Jan said, going over to the crate the console came in.

After a minute of rummaging and cursing, Jan pulled out the inducer.

"Yes, knew I had one lying around..." Jan said, handing it over.

He took the part and started using a micro adjuster on it to calibrate for the different energy phasing. "So you seem like a pretty smart guy, done an amazing job holding her together so far. Why didn't you join starfleet?"

"Not enough adventure. Besides, never could take many orders from people..." Jan said, removing the bolts that held the console in place.

"I did serve for a while on a federation ship, as a consultant....but that didn't last long." Jan said.

"Yeah, I understand what you mean, mostly they leave me alone in engineering but it can be such a huge hassle sometimes." The bolian grabbed the corner after Jan had unbolted it and started to slide it out. The metal creaked and groaned not wanting to be disturbed. Looking back behind it, he saw the connectors and took out a tricorder to analyze them. "Looks like no substantial bleeding from these. Should be ok for interfacing, is this the only console we need to install?"

"Yeah, the other consoles are getting replacement instruments, but I can handle those." Jan said.

"What kind of ship do you serve on?"

"Just the starbase, I was on genesis before the starbase, she was a nebula class. Pain in the ass to work on, all the problems of a Galaxy class but not as much room to work on them." The engineer grabbed the coupler and fused it to the junction on the wall. "Alright, let's move this out and your new one in. Hopefully the ship doesn't freak out."

"Right." Jan said, checking that the console wasn't connected to anything.

Jan kicked the edge of the console hard, knocking it out of the hole and causing it to crash into the deck, broken and useless.

"Give me a hand carrying the new console." Jan said, walking over to a crate.

The engineer walked over and helped lift the heavy Klingon console in place. "I think they make these damn things heavier on purpose just so that they can show that they are heroic or something." He helped push it back into place and heard the coupling lock into place. "Would you like the honors of seeing if it fires up?"

"Alright." Jan said, adjusting a few loose connections.

Jan flipped several switches on the console, and with a flicker and a hum, the console blared into life.

"Excellent, I'll have our pilot configure and adjust the settings. Thanks for the help." Jan said.

The Bolian smiled, secretly he envied the engineer on this bucket of bolts, nothing ever routine, notheing ever the same. He grabbed his toolkit and left the bridge, off to find the next thing to fix.

 

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