– Main Engineering – 

Burkely sat at one of the lab stations that were in ‘Main Engineering’. He had the module that he had taken from the crawl space between decks 23 and 24 open on the table before him. He peered inside as he waited for McKenzie to arrive.

“Computer,” he said as he opened the engineering tricorder and set it next to the module, “run a level three diagnostics on this module,” he ordered.

A soft beep was heard as the computer began the order.

“What do you have there boss?” Aoife asked approaching Burkely. 

Lovecroft stood up and stepped aside as he motioned to the seat, “Have a look and tell me what you see?”

She raised an eyebrow,  “Sir?  It appears to be a standard memory transfer module.   There are probably two hundred all over the ship. They should have been all upgraded to the new Mk. XII during the refit.” Picking up the opened module she could see corrosion on the circuitry.  “Did this get wet somehow?”

Lovecroft nodded with her assessment. ‘Not bad,’ he thought to himself. “Three hundred and fourteen, including this one,” he informed her as he peered into the opened module. “There is no way that this module could have gotten wet. The closest septic or water pipe is about three meters away and there was no indication of condensation in the crawl space,” he stated. 

“Idea’s or theories?”

She thought for a moment, and shook her head, “Nothing good.   Pure sodium will corrode immediately under standard atmospheric humidity, but there shouldn’t be any sodium present in these components.  Perhaps it got wet at the manufacturer, or in shipping.   I suppose sabotage is in the realm of possibility,  but that seems highly unlikely.”

“Indeed,” Burkely stated as he reached in a removed the damaged circuitry. He then reached over and retrieved the engineering tricorder and handed it to her. “Now that we have eliminated what we can see visually let’s see what the computer can tell us,” he said as he looked at his assistant.

Opening the tricorder she scanned it entering commands into the device for a few seconds.  “Stray current corrosion?” She asked unsure if that was what she was actually reading.   But there it was. Several circuit pathways had become shorted to ground.  Several capacitors were burned out as well.  “I’m sorry but… well Sir, this is beyond my knowledge.”

“I know it is,” Lovecroft stated as he looked at her. “I brought you here to see what you knew and to see if you and I could solve this issue.”

He nodded back toward the tricorder, “Tell me what the computer suggests,” he stated as he smiled down at her. “Don’t be afraid to speak out about what you think should be done based on what you know,” he said as he continued to look at her. “Not saying something about an idea to a solution; could be what causes something to not be known,” he finished as he leaned over next to her looking at the circuit with her.

He had an idea as to what could be wrong with the module, but he was pushing the new Ensign to explore her ideas on a solution to the corrosion. After all, she was brilliant in her own ways and she needed the push.

“Computer recommends the replacement of the module.  Do we not have replacements?  Is there more like this that suggests that this is a symptom of a larger problem?”

Burkley placed several on the table. “Each and every one of these has the same issues that this one has,” he stated as he pulled out one of the newly replicated modules. “I can only think that if these fresh modules are tainted with the same code as this one. Then the problem would then be in the coding in the replicator’s member bank.”

She shrugged,  “I really don’t know sir.  It could be a bug in the code.  I doubt it. My money is on an external source.   But, to be honest this is way out of my experience level.  This wasn’t covered in Engineering School, and the manual offers no guidance.”

The Commander nodded. “I see,” he stated as he brought up one of the modules to a light source and looked at it. “McKenzie,” Lovecroft looked at her. “How good is your memory on how the replicator system, both commercial and industrial, works?” he asked as he returned his attention to the corroded module.

“It wasn’t my specialty sir.  I’d have to pull up the manual for anything complicated.”

Burkley nodded again. “Make it a habit to know every peice of equipment…” he continued to speak as he looked from the module to McKenzie, “on this ship. Like the back of your hand,” he stated as he placed the part back into the container it came from. 

He then handed her a PADD labeled Industrial and Commercial Replicator. “Read that tonight and get back to me in the morning with a solution as to what caused the replicators on deck 24 to malfunction.”

Aoife glanced at the manual, before switching off the screen and tucking it under her arm. “I will sir.”