Part of Starbase Bravo: Q2 2400

Faulty Connectors

Starbase Bravo
March 2400
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“DAMIT” Cynndle said a bit too loud as, yet another faulty signal flashed upon his operations display causing the external sensors to show static for no more than a second at a time.

“Stupid error…where are you….”, he says muttering to himself as he pulls up the diagnostic menu and begins to run another one. While it runs he types out a quick message to his superior with an update.

Chief; Internal sensors are getting feedback again, suspect it is another faulty power junction like last time. Isolating location now, once located I will lead team to fix. Next shift starting in 15 minutes. – Lt. Oin’sun

As he clicked send, he turned and headed to the replicator and grabs a quick coffee, ‘Going to need this I think…’ On returning to his station, it out a low chime and he pulled up a message from the Chief.

Ok, keep me updated. Pull in whoever you need to assist you. I would suggest someone from engineering instead of a maintenance team. Your call.

Nodding to himself he takes a sip of the coffee and pulls up the diagnostics system to see where it has gotten up to. ‘Hmm… no faults found up to de….’ he beings to think before the station beeps and two faults are displayed on the screen:

–Power Junction failure, Sector Echo-Two-Green; Unable to Isolate–

–Environmental systems error, Sector Echo-Two-Green; Decks 269-273; irregular power supply–

“Well, that seems to have narrowed it down at least, better go get started.” Standing he picks up his coffee and downs the remaining bit thankful it was only a small cup and he had not ordered it HOT.

Stepping away from the station Cynndle gestures to one of the engines in the auxiliary station “She’s all yours Ensign. I am heading down to Sector Echo-Two-Green to try and track down this power issue.” 

Heading towards the lift he considers the best place to start. ‘Maybe reactor control will be able to isolate it further…a good place to start.’ Walking onto the turbolift he rolls his shoulders and says “Reactor Control – Sector Foxtrot-One-Emerald”

A rather large Romulan was bent over a console in Reactor Control, a mug of coffee in hand. His brow was furrowed and his mouth pulled into a thin line. He was getting similar errors on his end. He lifts his eyes, staring at the reactor for a long moment before speaking to it as if it was a person, “My urge to throw my mug of coffee at you is rising. A waste of coffee.” 

Discontent, he set his coffee aside after finishing it off. The by now cool liquid made him grimace a little. He straightened up and turned as he heard someone approach him from behind.

“Hey, sorry to bother you, Ensign”. Cynndle says as he approaches the engineer. “I’m Lieutenant Cynndle Oin’sun, Operations. I was hoping you could help me.” Holding out his hand in greetings.

“I am been tracking power fluctuations for a couple of hours. I have been having trouble pinpointing the exact location but I know it is in Sector Echo-Two-Green, somewhere between decks 269-273. Any chance we could narrow that down from here and then get it sorted. It is messing with the sensors and that is never a good thing.”

Lihran hesitates at the offered hand, he really needs to get used to the concept of handshakes. He takes a small breath and reaches to shake Cynndle’s hand firmly, “Ensign Lihran. I was noticing that, actually. I was compiling and cross-examining the data of the fluctuations and errors to see if I could pinpoint where exactly it is coming from.”

He steps over to the console he was slouched over moments prior, pulling up a diagram of the base’s power systems on the display, little red blips showed where there were abnormal power fluctuations. He points to where they were the most concentrated, “I noticed them more in this area. Theoretically, it may be coming from here– And yes, it is accessible by a panel.” He looks over at Cynndle.

“Nice to meet you Lihran. I am glad I am not the only one who has been seeing this issue; I swear I just sorted another of these out the other day. A station this large always has equipment on the fritz.”

Cynndle steps over and looks at the display and nods in appreciation. “Can we narrow it down any further, even a couple of decks on this place are substantial? Though it was just three decks where I was getting an environmental system error – the fault might not be there.”

Turning to face Lihran, “Any chance you can help me sort this out and get it fixed? Much easier with two people I find?”

Lihran nods, glancing down as he hits a few more keys. A few of the blips start vanishing, leaving a small cluster across one small section of two decks, “These are the more clustered and frequent locations of the errors. Our best bet.” He straightens up and nods, glancing at Cynndle, “Of course, I will help you. Sort of my job after all.” A faint smile tugs at his lips.

Lihran taps the screen with two fingers, “Funnily enough there are control panels right where these clusters are located. I want to bet something is malfunctioning with or around it.”

Looking over the screens, Cynndle nods, “My question is why we are seeing so many, but why are they affecting the internal sensors? Best to get to it and sort it then, eh?”

Lihran nods, snatching up a PADD and tricorder just in case, “That is a question I wish I knew. If I fancied a guess from here, I’d say something is making the wiring go a little odd.” He starts walking towards the lift, glancing over his shoulder, “Coming?”

Cynnlde smirks at that, ‘Interesting fellow this guy.’ as he follows Lihran to the turbolift. On entering the lift he instructs he says, “Deck 260, sector D-20” before turning to Lihran.

“Thanks for this, lets’s hope for a quick job. Was hoping to get to the pool today.”

It took Lihran a moment to register what was said to him, lifting a brow, “There’s a pool here? I shouldn’t be surprised. I haven’t found that yet.”

The lift doors open onto an empty hallway. Stepping out Cynndle shivers slightly, “The Environmental systems are definitely on the fritz here. Must be only 10°C here.” Pulling out his PADD he looks right then left; “Correct me if I am wrong but it should be this way right?” he says as he gestures to the right.

Romulans aren’t ideally suited for colder environments, as evidenced by Lihran’s incessant shivering when they step off the lift, “It’s freezing!” He nods at Cynndle and starts off towards the right. He lifts a hand and seems to be counting support beams to himself. He taps a wall, “Error was located here And the control for this area is over… here.” He takes a few more steps to a control panel. A frown etches on his face as the display itself flickers.

Looking over at Lihran’s face and then the panel Cynndle asks, “What’s that look for? I take it isn’t a normal malfunction?” 

Lihran shook his head, dropping down to his knees and starting to pull the panel under the console off. “First guess is a loose wire. Why is there a loose wire.” He asks rhetorically. When he gets the panel off he pulls out a light, and looks around. He pauses to start fiddling with some wires, “Let me know if the display stabilizes.”

“See anything that might be the culprit?” Cynndle says as he pulls out his tricorder and scans the surrounding bulkheads to confirm the readings from the display. 

A series of expletives come from Lihran. He leans out of the opened panel and looks up at Cynndle, “This isn’t just a loose wire, pumpkin–” He coughs, “Sorry, a bad habit I picked up from another human, Lieutenant.”

“I have always been more partial to annas but…whatever. No change in the screen here Lihran. Though I am pretty sure the temperature just dropped another degree or two..”

Lihran shivers, “I noticed. I hate the cold. Anyways, no, these wires were purposefully cut. I’ll need to run back to engineering and grab some wire and tools and replace all the cut ones. I’ll go back to all the places we had errors pop up and see if they’ve been cut as well. I’ll write up a detailed report on it and have it sent to you within the next couple of hours.” 

He stands up and he holds out a clearly cut wire towards Cynndle to back up his words, “Someone is cutting wires on purpose. The wires were left there, so it’s not theft I don’t think.”

Looking at the wires Cynndle frowns “Well that is concerning, and rather sloppy. I wonder if this happened with the last power failures we had.” Looking down at his PADD he quickly types a few commands and pulls up the report from the examination of the power junction he replaced a few days before. “No, the examination of that power junction just showed it failed due to an overload. I need to notify the chief about this, and I will see what he says. Likely just some kids trying to screw with the environmental systems. Thanks for the assistance on this.” 

Turning to go Cynndle pauses and turns back, “It was good to meet you Lihran. Let me know if you come across reads like this in the future will you?”

Lihran nods, “I hope that’s what it is and nothing more serious.” He offers a rather genuine smile, “It was a pleasure to meet you. I’ll keep you updated.”