Repair Work Pt. 2

Posted on Wed Dec 24th, 2025 @ 5:56pm by Lieutenant Aidan O'Connor & Chief Petty Officer Aaron Geiger

1,364 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Shore Leave on Risa
Location: Risa - Weather Control Station

Aidan and his team materialized inside the weather control station on the planet. Aidan took a quick look around. "Pity, I was hoping for a welcoming committee."

"Appears you'll get your wish sir" the diminutive Ens Lawrence noted as a male and two females approached them.

"Greetings. We welcome you and thank you for the assistance you bring us" the Risian male said as he greeted Aidan. The trio of Risians were exactly what one would expect, attractive young adults wearing clothing that was built for comfort rather than practicality.

Aidan was distracted momentarily. Beautiful women, his Achilles heel. He shook it off and tried to focus on the work at hand. "Yes, well, happy to be of assistance. Lead the way to the controls" he said, trying to play off his obvious distracted mind.

"Ah Risa, no regulations about closed toed shoes in work areas." Aaron said following after the Risians. The passed row after row of humming server farms as the Engineers made their way to the equipment itself. "The computational requirements of this system are staggering." The Chief said in awe of the meticulously organized cabling for power, data, and cooling.

"The most sophisticated weather control system in the Federation" Aidan in awe.

"And we are relegated to IT work" Kapowski said deadpan.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but this is going to be a treat for me" Ens Lawrence chimed.

"Alright, Chief, start checking the chips, make sure everything is status quo, and if any will need to be replaced. Kapowski, start working on the EPS work. Lawrence, start the prep work for inputting the bioneural circuitry. I'll start with a check of the overall systems and defragment the subroutines" Aidan ordered in his rundown.

Aaron began running a script that checked for processing failures throughout the array and annotated the findings. Slowly making his way through and swapping out the burned out units. It was tedious work but in it's own way strangely satisfying. "So, I take it you didn't attempt to woo any of those strange beings from the last mission LT?"

Aidan worked on the console as he heard Aaron ask the question. "You were the only one who had a chance to see anyone worth wooing Chief" he replied with a chuckle. "All we found was some sort of energy creature that killed a couple security folks and put a hole in Lt Senn. I enjoy aggressive women, but that was a bridge too far." He turned and looked at the Chief, "What about you? You were down on the planet amongst the cowgirls. Surely you had the opportunity to enjoy the local wares."

Aaron laughed in response. "Ha! Oh, the wealthy widow of a railroad baron was swooning over me LT. She promised me a life of wealth and privilege! Sadly, I had to turn her down. Luxury just doesn't hold a candle to turning wrenches, the smell of carbon, and the sweet, sweet taste of replicated steak night in the Chief's mess." Aaron finished with closing the bay he was working on and walked to the next to continue his work. As he pulled out the next bay the latch was hot to the touch and released a dense cloud of steam when opened. Coughing and waving his hand to clear the air.

"You are a man of simple pleasures Chief" Aidan replied with a smile. He noted the steam cloud that released from the panel as the Chief cleared the air. "Somebody hasn't been taking proper care of things down here. You got it, or you want some assistance Chief?" As he asked the question the primary console began to beep. Aidan walked over to take a look. "We are going to get blamed for this" he mumbled as he looked over the situation. "Someone has infected the system with a virus. It is causing unusual weather all over the planet. The storms will just ruin vacations, but we are now getting a blizzard in Sector 1. And you just know the complaints are going to come. A permanent engineering presence is needed here, and not just Risians who get preoccupied with enjoying the weather and the search for jamaharon, as pleasurable as that might be."

"We have a plasma fire on corridor 3 and fire suppression systems are nonfunctional" Kapowski noted over the comm.

"Someone has deleted the subroutines from the main computer" Ens Lawrence noted. "We have to put out that fire manually before it spreads. Once it reaches the main EPS line this whole place will go up like a small core breach."

Aaron was already in motion, swinging a fire extinguisher smoothly into his hand and twisting the valve. Without missing a beat, he ran down the corridor and tapped his comm badge. "Geiger to O'Connor, your call sir, do we have time for me to activate the FSS normally or do I need to jumpstart it to work now? The latter sir... well that'll be it for our shore leave after this is handled."

=^= You have time Chief. Lawrence, give him a hand. Kapowski, I need you over here. =^= Aidan replied.

Kapowski made her way over to Aidan quickly, "What you need me to do boss?" she questioned.

"Watch those flow regulators. We don't want Lawrence and the Chief to get roasted. Let the twin Risian suns do that for them out at the beach later. And keep those stabilizers active or this whole pace will go up. I got to purge this virus before the meteorological damage gets really bad" Aidan replied.

Aaron and the Ensign made their way to the first junction, already sweating in the heat of the fire from this distance. The smell of rapidly heating ozone spreading. "Ma'am the system will cascade on as normal if we activate each segment manually." He let out a jet of fire suppressant to cool the first large handle. "Let's pull this together!" With a groan they pulled it down and shortly could hear the first section initialize as the duo moved on. Slowly they began to manually activate each section of the fire suppression system with minor burns and singed hair.

=^= Each segment's activated boss. How're we looking? =^=

=^= Everything is within parameters Chief. You are clear to continue. =^= Kapowski noted.

"Any pressure variants on the EPS lines or conduits?" questioned Aidan.

"Everything is still within tolerances" Kapowski noted. "I think the Chief and Lawrence got things under control."

Aaron and Lawrence returned a few minutes later, uniforms slightly worse for the wear. "Environmental controls are manually activated. What's this virus look like?" He made his way around to look at the console Aidan was working on. Malware wasn't exactly Aaron's specialty but he had a solid grasp of technical security.

"Nothing I can't handle Chief" Aidan noted. "How bad is the damage due to the fire? I assume we are going to have to replace a lot of components."

"Most of the power cabling is intact sir, comm lines are fried. The bulkhead plating will have to be replaced down most of the corridor. Oh and Ensign Lawrence needs new eyebrows." Aaron said efficiently going down his list.

"WHAT?!" The Ensign screeched immediately searching for a reflective surface.

"That one's a joke sir, but let's let her figure that out." Aaron whispered conspiratorially.

"Finally, a bit of craic" Aidan mumbled. "Chief, once she has found those eyebrows, you two get started on replacing everything and doing any other damage control work that needs to be done due to the fire."

"I'd like to give them a hand" Kapowski noted.

"Once you finish up with the EPS grid you can lend them a hand" Aidan replied.

"Understood" Kapowski replied.

"Chief!" Lawrence screamed.

"Bloody hell" Aidan chuckled.

Aaron laughed "I guess you weren't missing them after all! Trick of the light." He continued to guffaw while joining her at the work cart, loading parts and tools to work with. He looked back at Lawrence, glowering at him. "Oh don't look at me like that ma'am, could've happened to anybody!" The two continued down the corridor, with further admonishment of the Chief being audible even without comm badges.

 

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