RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 9.2] Salvaging Parts and Hearts

Junko started to put the handset down when the Shosa made his presence known but quickly brought it back up to her ear as the Bridge called down again. “Sorry, sir. Just a moment,” she said, switching back to the Bridge channel. “Bridge, Engineering. Three to four days in dock. Solid copy. Out.”

Finally, resolutely setting the handset back in its cradle, she turned back toward the volumetric display the Shosa had brought up. She nodded as she examined it. “That all seems workable, sir. We might have to shoe-horn some of it in, given the volume demands, but I can’t imagine we’d have to remove any current systems. Still, with that much time, I imagine the Second Docks repair teams will have plenty of time to do a full overhaul and systems work-up. I know I got the main cannon and Power Systems back online, Nayacesen-Hei has been working in the shuttle bay, and it appears the coolant systems are squared away – your work, sir? – so I would say the engines are our next major priority. Would you agree, sir?”

"Yes, I handled the redirects for the coolant system, but it'll need some replacement conduit before it's 100%. It's best to ascertain the total damage to the engine before deciding. If it's too extensively damaged, it may be smarter and faster to swap it out entirely if possible and let the Ikoi personnel try to reconstruct it with better resources -- like we're doing with the turrets. They have the ability to make a Plumeria in 8 days -- I'm sure they could handle the nacelle if the damage is too much.

Let's take a look at a detailed readout of the condition and make the call. It's important to know when to make a full swap, or you may get stuck with little quirks you just can't narrow down for the rest of the life of the vessel." He remembered quirks that veteran ships sometimes displayed that didn't go away no matter what he did, only to replace an entire system to get rid of the issue because a Chui or Taii couldn't live with it anymore. In fact, he could have sworn he still smelled sea water in the cargo bay of the Eucharis. Sometimes such quirks made the ship unique, but others were unsafe and kept the ship under spec. He wouldn't tolerate the latter.

With that, Yaichiro sent a message to the Ikoi while he was thinking of it, before hull repairs were made:

"This is Kage-Shosa of the Eucharis. There are six damaged turrets in the cargo bay which could possibly be made into two or three working ones with parts swaps alone. Parts fabrication might be able to repair more of them. Could your people take care of that? I'm also sending the locations of where to place the Scalable Graviton Beam Projectors across the hull, since the Ikoi will likely wind up handling the hull repairs. The projectors are also in the cargo bay."

Yaichiro sent EucharisSGBPArray.dat

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Junko bristled at the Shosa’s last comments. It’s important to know… she repeated to herself, mockingly. What does he think, that I’m still in Basic? Taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself down, she turned toward the officer. “Yes, sir. Quirks would be bad, sir,” she said, with only mildly exaggerated patience. She quickly looked away, staring at the main hatch and suddenly praying that Nayacesen-Hei would enter soon. Her tone and reaction had surprised her; she normally defaulted to quiet acceptance and external timidity even in the face of stupid orders or directives that left her at best baffled and frequently worse internally. Why she had chosen now, of all times, to mouth off was beyond her, and she hoped the presence of another colleague would help insure she didn’t cram her foot any farther down her throat.

"Ah...I apologize." Yaichiro said, quickly noting the Heisho's tone and expression. "I've gotten too used to explaining and dumbing down everything for people. I didn't mean to be preachy. To be honest, I've been impressed with your initiative thus far."

It was well within his power to criticize her for talking down to a superior officer, but it was his fault and he knew it. He was the newbie here, regardless of his rank or previous experience, and she likely knew the Eucharis herself more intimately than he did.

"What's your opinion on the Engine's condition? Is it worth repairing, or do you think replacement is a more prudent option given the Ikoi's availability?"

“Ah…” began Junko but the noise quickly trailed off. She was faintly blushing and obviously embarrassed by the combination of the Shosa’s admission of a mistake and simultaneous praise. “Ahem, er, nothing to apologize for, sir,” she finished, rather lamely.

Trying to buck herself back up to some semblance of professionalism, she focused her attention on the volumetric display, now reconfigured to show the port-side engine. She frowned, now fully back into her work, as she peered at the data organized at the bottom of the diagram. “Well, it looks like the entire system is dynamically unstable. It’s a good thing we didn’t have to use it in combat or else my guess is it would have ripped itself apart. I think I could repair it, sir, and three days would probably be enough, so I guess it’s just a question of allocation of resources. But my first instinct would be to replace the whole module and let the Second Docks technicians work on it in storage.”

Yaichiro looked it over, contemplating the amount of time to fix it, the resources, etc. "...I agree. It's not like it's a waste of resources. If Second Dock can fix it, it can become a spare part for any of the ships around here. If it can't be fixed, we'd have had to swap it anyway and at least they can use the raw materials. I think we should include the shuttlebay doors in the Ikoi's workload as well. Our smaller Fabrication Area, meanwhile, would be free to focus on smaller things -- like conduit, wardroom furniture and paneling, and even Power Armor parts."

He stopped for a moment, and pondered something further.

"In fact, the damage to the wardroom makes me wonder if we should replace the window there with actual full armor as well. The Yui 7 uses new Volumetric Windows. If the Taisa likes it better, it might be a good chance to take care of that. Do you think we should consider that and have actual armor and Yarvex, or should we leave the Transparent Zesuaium window in?"

Takeyu grumbled as he entered Engineering, and noticed the Shosa was there. He was silent for a moment, then spoke up, "Apologies for being late Heisho," he gave her an apologetic bow, something that probably wasn't needed but it was his upbringing.

“Oh. Not a problem, Nayacesen-Hei,” said Junko, looking over her shoulder and returning the bow with a bob of her head. “It actually appears that we’re going to be in dock for at least three or four days, so there isn’t as much of a time-crunch as I was worried about. In fact, the Shosa and I were just discussing repair priorities for the Second Docks repair teams. We’re looking at a total module replacement for the port engine, and maybe a few other components. Any areas of concern that you ran across, aside from the problems you mentioned with the shuttle bay doors?”

Takeyu thought for a moment before giving his reply. "My only area of concern really are the engines, since they seen to be taken out so easily, I just find it odd that they aren't better protected from stray or direct fire," he looked away for a moment.

He tapped his lower chin and ran through a few things, then got back to the fire that had been fought awhile back. "Though, now that I think about it, we do have basic firefighting capabilities onboard ship - but the thing is they aren't enough. On land, you can easily escape a fire by just evacuating the building. On ship we don't have that luxury, we have to fight it, we need a better way of fighting fires that we don't have access to, either due to blocked debris or because we just aren't in the area," he removed his hand from his chin but continued to think deeply.

"If we aren't in the area, one of the more ideal methods would be to seal it off and expose it to vacuum. If people ARE trapped in the area, however, that's not possible. Another option would be to change the atmosphere from oxygen to helium-oxygen. Helium is inert and people could survive on it for a time as well. It'd reduce the amount of fuel for the flame and restrict it to things like gas lines." Yaichiro said, still pondering the matter.


"While those measures are things we could try in the future, we still need a better solution like the Taisa requested. Perhaps we could do something with the existing nodal system, or make a foam out of inert material...or rather, a material that becomes inert after it changes from a stored liquid to its foam configuration..." He was obviously still thinking on the idea, especially since the Tasia saw fit to specifically ask for it.

"Last I checked, there weren't any failsafes in the system to shut down the gasline's when a fire is detected. Would it be possible to devise a way for the enviromental systems to shut down the gaslines when a fire is detected? This would snuff out one of the fuel sources," he stoped and thought a bit more.

He looked at one of the consoles and placed a hand on his hip.

Nika nodded and settled down at a control station as Hanako and Sune left to settle more pressing matters at hand. The Starship Operator docked the ship with ease, and started powering down the ship to its minimal, except for where Junko and Yaichiro were.

Junko perked up as some of the faint, high-frequency noises constant while operating a starship faltered and faded away. She quickly pulled up a screen to confirm her guess, nodding as she turned back from it. “So it seems like we're docked now. Perhaps we can see if they have some extra sensors and flow cut-off regulators here; and for that matter if they have any different fire suppression systems, before we try to jury-rig something ourselves. Still, should we take this discussion elsewhere? At the least, we should check in with the Taisa for orders.”

The Eucharis' guests, to include the prisoner, were transferred to the dock without incident. Hanako briefly talked with some of the now-freed slaves about employment opportunities. Specifically, it seemed she was using her wealth to create a well-paid multi-species crew for her private yacht. There were now Elysians, Nekovalkyrja, Occhestans, Helashio, and other races aboard.

Hanako looked to Sune. "Why the weight of these negotiations falls on us I do not know."

"Well Taisa that is hard for me to answer. Since I have no information as to the nature or purpose of the negotiations. I will presume your question is rhetorical. " Sune replied. "I believe the appropriate euphemism is 'The reward for work done well, is more work."

He considered the layout of the Ikoi from the last time they were on board. "Where do you wish to meet with the Nepleslians ma'am, the Lounge, or the Wardroom? I think the Lounge would be a little more of a social environment for the negotiations."

"We probably should check with the Taisa and see if she has anything in particular for us to do," suggested Takeyu as he walked over to one of the consoles and stared at the power flow. "Otherwise, we should compile a list of priority," he added.

"I've been verbally ordered by her to see to it that the various anti-insect systems and life form scanners are installed, along with the Graviton Array. Between that, the Power Armors, checking the power sources for wear, and other internal elements; we have enough to keep ourselves busy for a little while even with the Ikoi handling the bigger jobs. I see no issues adding a feature to throttle down the gas lines or turn them off. There aren't very many of those on an Aether-capable craft anyway. We should probably handle the wardroom and gas throttling until after they've fixed the wardroom's structure and hull.

I think that any ability to alter atmosphere in the ship will need discussed with the Taisa first, as well as any thoughts on replacing the wardroom window with true armor since it's not standard for the class. I agree with Takeda-Heisho about checking with the Ikoi as well. For now though, I recommend a good night's sleep. I can keep going for a while longer, but I suspect that the crew is in dire need of a rest after the mission. Yourselves included, unless you don't wish to sleep yet."

Takeyu stared at the console screen for a few moments before looking up and then at Yaichiro. "I can probably keep going to a bit more, but it is also probably a good idea to get at least a few hour's of rest before we do any major upgrade or system repair," he said and pushed off the console.

While Sune waited for Hanako to reply to his suggestion, he realized that with all the crew had been through since they departed Yamatai, most of them were in need of some good uninterrupted rest. Especially those who were injured. The ship was in good hands for the moment, and the contaminated and smoke damaged areas could be readily taken care of the dock repair teams. He sent a message to all personnel except for himself and Hanako on the ship via Charisma.

To: All Eucharis Personnel
From: Jalen Sune-Nitô Juni

Stand down from all repair activities, and secure your duty stations. You have all more than earned the right to get some hot food, a good hot shower, and some sleep in a clean bunk.

As the Eucharis is currently powered down, please feel free to make use of the Second Dock facilities, and report to work tomorrow at your regular shift time.

Jalen-Juni

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"The lounge is in the center of the cabins, right?" Hanako replied to Sune. "So it would probably be best to have the negotiations in the wardroom. The crew can still eat at the mess hall or one of the restaurants on the docks."