Standard safety protocol would say that Lihran should at least attach himself to the ladder of the jefferies tube when working with both hands. Especially when it is a vertical tube. He had his arm wrapped around the vertical support of the ladder, leaning to one side with a panel he was working on open, sonic driver in hand. His train of thought was that he was broad and large enough that if he fell, he wouldn’t fall far without getting caught unless he purposefully slid along the sides of the tube. 

A peculiar noise heard in the horizontal tube about ten metres up made him pause his work and look up with a furrowed brow, straining to hear that noise again. He heard a male grunt and the strange noise happened again. He realised he heard another engineer above him pass gas, thinking he was alone.

Lihran burst into loud, unrestrained laughter. Some things are funny, regardless of your species and what century it is. From up above he heard an, “Oh, shit!” The other engineer could be heard scrambling around before a rather embarrassed looking human popped their head out of the junction, looking down at Lihran, “You heard that, didn’t you?!”

Lihran rests his feet on a rung of the ladder and leans his back against the wall of the tube, looking up, “Loud and clear. It echoed even.” The human cringed and groaned, “Least you are spared the smell down there.”

This made Lihran laugh even harder, “My thanks!” Lihran fiddled with his driver, the device slipped from his hand and fell down the tube. Lihran tried to grab it but was too slow. He yelled, “Heads up!” 

No sooner had the words left his mouth than it was heard impacting something with a loud bang and a storm of swearing from another engineer.

The engineer out of sight from below yelled, “Watch it! Why are there three of us here?!”

The gassy human called, “I’m on the horizontal junction, I’m good.” Lihran snorted, “I was here first! I’ll come down to get my driver.”

Incoherent muttering could be heard from the engineer below. Lihran’s foot slipped off the rung when he was trying to straighten up, causing the Romulan to hurtle downwards down the tube. Instinctively, Lihran reached out to grab the ladder as he fell, managing to catch it with one arm. His body was still falling and jerked downwards. There was an uncomfortable snapping noise and Lihran cried out in pain. He grabbed the ladder with his other hand and his feet found the rungs, his hurt arm dangling at his side.

He clutched to the ladder, pressing his forehead to the cold metal, hoping it would at least ground him as the adrenaline coursed through his body, his vision swimming. It all happened so fast that the human who was watching didn’t have time to cry out a warning.

A tentative voice above asked, “Ensign? Are you alright?” Lihran shook his head, speaking through gritted teeth. “No, I’m not. Transporting myself out of here… I can’t move my arm.” The engineer from below climbed up  the ladder a bit to see what was going on with a worried look on his face. Lihran hooked his arm around the ladder to be able to use his combadge, barely able to get the words out coherently to get transported.