Engineers and Eyes

Posted on Sun Jun 21st, 2020 @ 8:29am by Commander Mindo & Lieutenant Commander Greep & Lieutenant Zo
Edited on on Tue Jul 7th, 2020 @ 1:48pm

Mission: Into the Wild
Location: Engineering
Timeline: before the away team returns

A Mission Post by Lieutenant Mindo & Petty Officer 1st Class Greep & Petty Officer 2nd Class Zo
Mission: Into The Wild
Location: Engineering
Timeline: before the away team returns
Sat Nov 18th, 2017 @ 1:53pm


Mindo hovered at the transporter controls as he ran a diagnostic on all systems. Crewman Zo had found a minor anomaly in the pattern buffer and Mindo decided to check on it personally. Zo was in the small shaft located next to the deck of the transporter, where people stood to be beamed back and forth. It was one of the most important bits of equipment that was on a Starship, and it was a high priority to have the transporters checked and cared for meticulously.

Mindo had been able to beam the away party down to the planet just fine, but when running a test to beam them up, the object they chose to experiment with came up looking fine, but when scanned with a tricorder showed small imperfections. This was not good. Transporters had to be perfect. Not a single atom was to be out of place.

Mindo had used his comm badge to let the away team know there was a problem and they wouldn't be able to beam back for at least twenty minutes. Mindo's guess was more a guarantee than a guess. It would take him twenty minutes for sure... likely more.

Already fifteen of those minutes had gone by, though with Zo's help, and eventually Greep's as well, he was able to move a bit faster. Repairs on the transporter were required to be done by no less than two officers.

Zo and Mindo had had idle conversation during this time, performing the menial tasks that went with doing diagnostic after diagnostic.

Zo continued his story. "...and so Devin and I went to the Box after all."

"What did you eat?" asked Mindo, who had heard of the blossoming relationship between Crewman Zo and a young science officer.

"We tried Ancaran sushi," said Zo.

Mindo furrowed his brow. "I haven't heard of Ancar."

"Ancarus," Zo corrected him. "We hadn't either."

"Was it any good?"

Zo shook his head. "It was awful. Tasted like burnt rubber. Chef assured us this was the proper way to make it. I can't imagine what their cooked food tastes like."

Mindo chuckled. "Wow! Something at the Box tasted bad! That's a first!"

"No kidding," said Zo. "Hold on... check that sequence on AE-1249."

"I see it," said Mindo, making the necessary correction. "Good eyes."

Just then the door opened with a whissh and Crewman Greep walked in holding a heavy case.

"I'm back," Greep squawked in his high-pitch yet somehow gravelly voice. "I had to track down a stolen sequencer clear over in the Science department."

"Those pesky scientists," said Mindo. "We were just talking about Ancaran sushi."

"I've been to Ancarus," said Greep. "It wasn't pleasant."

"Neither was the sushi," Zo chimed in.

"What did you do in Ancarus?" asked Mindo.

Greep looked down at the connecting wires now exposed on the dashboard where the controls lay. "Have you ran a diagnostic on the pattern inverters?" he asked.

"I was getting to that," said Mindo. "Mind giving me a hand?"

Greep stepped forward. "Sure."

The three worked in silence for about two solid minutes, the various beeps and hums of the transporter's various parts the only sounds in the room.

As Mindo and Greep continued their work, Zo decided to break the silence.

"It must take a really long time to reach us from Klingon space," he said.

"Why do you say that?" asked Mindo.

"I've sent a few messages to Crismore, but I haven't heard back from her."

"That's weird. I've been having troubles reaching the Tornado as well," said Mindo, referring to the three officers' former ship.

"Probably a subspace error," said Greep.

"I think we'd be hearing from the Starfleet Mailer Daemon if that were the case," said Mindo.

"Not necessarily," Greep replied.

"Have you heard from anyone, Greep?" Zo asked.

"I don't really correspond with former crewmates," said Greep. "There aren't many of them I've actually liked... present company excluded."

Zo looked up at Mindo. "I wonder how Caradan is doing right now."

Mindo looked down at his work. "She's probably still mad at me. I never did get to say goodbye. Maybe that's why she hasn't written back." Suddenly, Mindo's eyes widened.

"Good god!" yelled Mindo. He saw the shocked face on Zo, and would probably seen a shocked expression on Greep's face had the giant Ontarion had facial expressions. Mindo lowered his voice a little and gestured for Zo to get over there fast.

"Here's our main problem," said Mindo once Zo had joined him and Greep at the controls. "These polymer transducers are zero-point-zero-zero-seven percent out of alignment."

"Holy cow," said Zo as Mindo and Greep went to work on the problem.

Mindo shut off his hover apparatus for a moment and opened a small panel underneath the console. "Hand me that tricorder," he said. Zo knelt down and handed the Chief Engineer the tricorder he had been holding.

Greep gave a small squawk and said, "It's a good thing you spotted it."

"Yeah," said Mindo, "but it's weird it was even there! A mistake like that doesn't just happen. It's not even something anyone thinks to check every time!"

"Why didn't the computer spot it?" asked Zo. Mindo put the controls back together and replaced the panel.

"I don't know," said Mindo. "Let's pull up the system history and see if it was some error we somehow missed."

As Mindo worked the computer, Zo mumbled, "Cap is not going to like this."

"Worry about that later," said Mindo. "Ah! Here it is. Let's see... according to this, the problem was never logged."

"How could a computer not find that big an error?" said Zo.

"I don't know," said Mindo, returning to his hover position at about eye level to the other two officers. "The only way the computer wouldn't detect it is if someone manually went in and reset the defaults. But to do that, you'd need top clearance, which you can only get from either the Captain or me."

"Who was the last person to use the transporter?" Zo asked.

Mindo shrugged. "Me, when I beamed the away team down."

"This kind of error wouldn't have affected their transport to the planet," said Zo, "but with the right atmospheric conditions on Salvaxe, beaming back may have been fatal."

"They'd have tumors in their brains," Greep squawked. "Their death would be long and painful."

"And inevitable," Mindo added. "They'll be fine now. I've fixed the problem. But I'm no closer to discovering how this could have happened."

Greep put his hands on the rail of the computer. "It's possible the dark matter could have interfered with the transporter's systems when we passed through it," he said.

"That was probably it," said Mindo. "I want you two looking into it. If one system is off there's a possibility another is too."

Zo grimaced. "Chief, we've done over a dozen checks on every system since clearing the dark matter. Thorough checks. We would have spotted this problem with the transporter by now, I assure you."

Mindo nodded. "I know," he said. "But I'm not going to the Captain with this until we're sure no other system is affected. You have your orders." He handed the tricorder back to Zo.

Zo took the tricorder. "Aye sir."

Mindo turned to Greep, who simply nodded. The two of them headed for the door while Mindo finished the final touches of putting everything back together. After doing another test beaming an object to and fro, Mindo was satisfied the system was running fine.

"None of this makes sense," he grumbled as he grabbed his tools and hovered out, nodding to the crewman walking in to take over the position.