USS Culver City floated in orbit of Lothix IV, the first stop on her busy schedule of colony visits.  On the surface, Lieutenant Varyn K’lev, the ship’s commanding officer, was overseeing a few small teams of engineers scattered around the small colonial capital of Darrisa; one team was delivering farming equipment, another a replacement turbine assembly for the colony’s new hydroelectric dam, and the third was configuring a new higher-capacity subspace comms buoy that Culver City had deployed into orbit.

As K’lev was reviewing the latest report from the team at the farm – the new combines had been successfully programmed for their respective field zones, and were about to begin charging – his combadge chirped.  “Culver City to K’lev,” came Lotharys’s voice.

“Yes, Ophelia?  What is it?” he replied.

“We just got a call from Pelix at the dam; he’s run into an issue, but he didn’t say what.  Thought you’d want to know.”

“Thanks for letting me know.  I’ll go over and see what’s going on.  K’lev out.”  With that, he closed the channel, then turned and started to walk towards the exit doors of the colonial administration building.

“Is there anything I can help you with, Lieutenant?” asked the receptionist at the front desk.

K’lev shook his head.  “Not at… well, actually, yes.  If you see the administrator, would you please tell him I’ve gone to the dam?  My ship’s gotten word from the team there that they’ve run into a snag.”  He held up a hand, seeing a concerned look flash across the receptionist’s face.  “Don’t worry!  New installations like this often hit snags; we’ll have the dam back up and running soon.”

The receptionist nodded, offering a hesitant smile.  “I’ll…. I’ll let the administrator know; we’re all eager to see the dam at full power again.”

K’lev smiled, then left the administration building.  He picked up a standard-issue engineering toolkit and slung it over his shoulder as he walked to the nearby shuttleport.  Among the shuttles sitting there was one of Culver City’s shuttlecraft, the Lovelace.  Stepping aboard, he saw the shuttle’s pilot, a petty officer, idly reading from a PADD with her feet up on the console.  “Sorry for interrupting,” K’lev said, accidentally startling them and sending them scrambling to their feet at his appearance.  “I need to get to the dam; think I could get a ride?”

The pilot nodded, relieved.  “Of course, sir!” they replied, motioning for him to take a seat as they quickly ran pre-flight checks and sought clearance to take off.

K’lev took a seat, and in a short time the shuttle was flying above fields of various crops.  Around 10 minutes passed before it set down at the dam and K’lev disembarked.  Pelix, newly promoted to ensign, was there to meet him.  “What’s the word, Pelix?”  K’lev asked as they walked towards the entry that led to the dam’s turbine room.

Pelix stopped, making sure the duo were alone.  “I found a problem with the turbine assembly here.  Don’t know what moron installed it, but they bypassed several safety systems; if we tie in the new turbine with it like this, we could breach the dam.  It’s honestly a miracle it hasn’t happened already.”  He offered K’lev a PADD with the relevant data.

K’lev stopped cold, looking at his chief engineer before accepting the PADD and reading its contents.  “You’re telling me we’re standing in the middle of a catastrophe waiting to happen?”

Pelix nodded.  “I haven’t told any of the colony’s people yet.  The turbines weren’t exactly installed recently, so I’m not sure they’d believe me.”

K’lev swallowed hard; this simple project had just gotten significantly more complex, and it scared the young commanding officer.  But it was an engineering problem, and he started as an engineer, so the fear passed quickly as the analytical part of his mind kicked into gear.  “Good call, Pelix.  Now we know the two new problems we have to solve here, fixing their turbine issues, and making sure that starting ours up won’t cause any surprises after that.  So, first things first, do you have an idea of what it’d take to re-mount the turbines safely?”

Pelix nodded as he resumed walking, leading his commanding officer into the control room overlooking the turbine bay.  The bay was a cavernous space, with a half-dozen large turbine assemblies mounted in a row down its centerline, and conduits feeding from those turbines to generator rooms.  Pelix gestured to the ceiling, where a series of compact tractor beam emitters were fitted to a rail and gantry system that enabled them to be moved around for heavy lifting.  “We could use the tractor beams, but I’m not sure how long they’ll hold out as we take turbines off-line.”

K’lev studied the gantries.  “Maybe there’s a low-tech solution; think those gantries could take the weight of a turbine physically?  Culver City could fabricate some duranium chain, and hooks with remote-control antigravity units attached; we could use the tractor beam rig to lift the turbines, then hook them from the gantries with the chains and let those hold them up while we prepare the housings for reinstallation.”

Pelix pulled up the gantry specs on one of the control room’s monitors, ignoring the alarmed look from the dam’s on-duty shift supervisor.  “That should work…”  He said.  “But I’ve never tried it before,” he went on to admit as he shrugged to his captain.

“Excuse me-” the shift supervisor began to interrupt, interrupted as K’lev replied “One moment, please-” before turning back to Pelix.  “Don’t worry, I have; back on S’fan when I was a kid, I helped my mother with a thruster module reinstallation while the repair bay we were in was without main power.  It’s tricky, and will require coordination, but-”

“EXCUSE ME!” the supervisor yelled, causing every head in the room to whip around.  “I appreciate everything you and your team have done here Lieutenant, Ensign, but what’s going on?  Why can’t I switch on the new turbine?”

K’lev sighed.  “Before I answer, let me call the administrator; she’ll want to hear this, too.”  With that, he tapped his combadge.  “K’lev to Culver City.  Chief, could you patch me in with the administrator?”

“Just a moment, sir,” came Bong’s reply.

A few moments later, the voice of Administrator Larathi came over the speaker.  “What can I do for you, Lieutenant?  Your command chief told my assistant you have some information on the dam?”

“Yes, Administrator.  During the turbine installation, Ensign Pelix and his team discovered that whoever installed the previous turbines cut some corners when they did so, including bypassing several safety features.  The new turbine’s installed, but long story short, if we switch it on it could cause a breach.”  As K’lev spoke, Pelix showed the supervisor the PADD; as the supervisor read the data, he paled.

The line was silent for several moments before Administrator Larathi spoke again.  “Is somebody from the dam’s staff there?”

“Um….  Yes, ma’am,” the supervisor replied.  “This is Assistant Chief Engineer Thibarda.  I’ve just looked over Ensign Pelix’s data, and he’s right; I’m not sure how we missed it.  It also explains some of the efficiency issues we’d been having before the old turbine failed.  But the ensign is right; with the corners that were cut, if that new high-power turbine runs up it’ll cause vibrations that’ll shake the others loose.”

Before the administrator could panic further, K’lev spoke.  “Pelix and I have a plan to fix the issue.  It will involve incrementally shutting down turbines, so Darrisa may see some roving outages, but we’ll try to have it done as quickly as we can.  It’ll take a little time for us to get ready here, though.”

The administrator sighed, a combination of fear and relief in her voice.  “I’ll let people know.  We’re in your hands, Lieutenant.”

“We’ll have you taken care of, Administrator, it’ll just take a little longer.  K’lev out.”  He tapped his combadge to close the channel, then tapped it again.  “Culver City, K’lev again.  Pelix will be sending up specs for some duranium chains and antigrav-rigged hooks that we need down here at the dam; please fabricate them and beam them down.  We’re having to get creative with this turbine issue.”

Around 30 minutes later, a number of heavy chains and specially-rigged hooks materialized on a cargo receiving pad.  Lieutenant K’lev personally oversaw the installation and configuration of the chains and hooks and the reinstallation of the first turbine, to teach Pelix the technique, then stepped aside.  Over the next few hours, Pelix ably led his team through the reinstallation procedures; in the meantime, K’lev busied himself by going over the turbine designs with the site supervisor.  By the time the reinstallation was complete, the site team was well on their way to mastering the new turbine configuration, and had even started to have requests for upgrade hardware to improve the system even further.

With all of the various projects around Darrisa now complete – the dam refit, the new subspace comms buoy configured, and the new combines already busy at work in the fields – K’lev was going over final instructions with the colonial administrator when his combadge chirped again.  “Culver City to Captain K’lev.  There’s a priority one message coming through for you, sir,” came Chief Bong’s voice.

“One moment, please,” K’lev said to Administrator Larathi, then stepped away and tapped the badge.  “K’lev here, pass it down.”

The next voice over the combadge was clipped, professional, and to the point.  “Lieutenant K’lev.  A situation has arisen along the Tholian/Shelliak border; several starships patrolling the area have issued distress calls, then gone silent.  Culver City is one of the nearest engineering support vessels, so you are being retasked; you are to proceed to Starbase 420 and rendezvous with the Blythe and the Farragut, and offer what support you can.  We will try to divert some additional assets to support the group as well, as they become available.”

“We’ll be on our way as soon as possible, Command.  But what of the rest of our scheduled visits?  They’ll still need their supplies,” K’lev answered.

“The civilian freighter Bounty has been contracted to deliver the supplies, with installation support now assigned to a Starfleet Corps of Engineers she will be embarking en route to Faril III after taking on the supplies from Culver City.  She should be arriving shortly; we expect your ship to be underway within the hour, Lieutenant.”

“Understood, Command.  We’re just finishing up at Lothix IV, so we’ll be able to break orbit as soon as the transfer to the Bounty is complete,” he answered, trying not to let his voice betray his suddenly-spiking anxiety; the last time Culver City had been retasked from colony support to responding to a crisis had been at Palix Bravo.

“Keep us posted.  Command out.”  The channel branch to Command closed, leaving K’lev on with his ship.

“Okay, Chief…  Let’s get everyone back aboard and prepare to swap cargoes.  I’ll beam back once things are done down here.  If the Bounty arrives before then, go ahead and start the transfer.  K’lev out.”  He closed the channel, then returned to the administrator.  “Unfortunately, something has come up, so I have to cut this short, but your people should be well on the way to mastering their new equipment.  Let Command know if you need any further help, and they’ll send a ship.”

“Of course!  Thank you for all you and your crew have done, Lieutenant,” she replied.

K’lev smiled, a little embarrassed, and replied with a quick “You’re welcome,” before stepping away and tapping his combadge again.  “K’lev to Culver City, one to beam up.  Energize.”  With that, he disappeared in light as the hum of a transporter filled the area.

The next hour was a busy one.  Bounty arrived around 15 minutes later, and it took another 30 or so minutes to properly transfer the supplies between the two ships.  However, even with Culver City’s undersized crew complement, it still went smoothly, especially after K’lev briefed the crew on what was coming.

With her cargo bays restocked, it was now time for Culver City to go on about her new assignment.  On her bridge, K’lev sat in his command chair; he looked around the room, receiving nods from all present – including Pelix at the moment, personally on the engineering console – then turned back forward.  “Well, we’ve got a schedule to keep…  Ari, take us out of orbit; full impulse until we clear Lothix IV’s gravity well, then set course for Starbase 420.”

Culver City gracefully – for a California-class ship, at least – swung about and left orbit, accelerating on an outbound trajectory.  “We’ve cleared the planetary gravity well,” Phillips said from the helm.  “Setting course for Starbase 420.”

K’lev smiled, leaning forward.  “Warp 8; let’s roll.”  Culver City’s nacelles flared with light as she leapt off into the cosmos.