Rev Your Engines

Posted on 27 Oct 2015 @ 11:45pm by Ensign K'os Beaumont & Commander Andreus Kohl

931 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: USS Galileo - Shuttle Bay 1
Timeline: MD 06 - 0839 hours

[ON]

"Can you hear it? Can you?" Andreus Kohl shouted out the hatch. Clomping around in heavy magnetic boots, he climbed out the hatchway of the transport vessel Pisa and ran down the gangplank to the shuttlebay floor. Although the Pisa's systems were active in standby mode, its open panels and exposed wiring suggested it wasn't exactly ready for flight. Lieutenant Commander Kohl, similarly, looked unprepared for his next away mission. Although he was wearing the trousers and magnetic boots of an environmental suit, the undershirt of his duty uniform was about the only other thing he was wearing. The rest of his EV suit had been left scattered along Pisa's interior. When his boot-soles hit the deckplates of the shuttlebay floor, Kohl suggested, "It's kind of like a chugga-chugga-clank? Or a choo-ka, choo-ka, thump?"

K'os had been listening intently to what Kohl had first described to him when he was first approached about the problem with Pisa. He was underneath the vessel in a depressed section of the deck. Standing fully, he was looking above him near the left nacelle. From underneath, he said, "There's a whirr-tick just before the chugga-chugga." He approached the stairs that led up back towards the deck from underneath the vessel and peered up at Kohl with a very large smile on his face. Problem-solving was one of K'os' strongest skill set and he seemed to be deriving a lot of pleasure from going through the motions of the solution rather than fixing the issue. "The whirring sounds like it's coming more from the Matter Reactant Injector. Maybe from a faulty or clogged nozzle head? But then the chugga-chugga doesn't make sense. I'd have to pull out the fuel conditioner and check that first. That will give more insight on where to look next."

A dubious frown and a questioning eyebrow interrupted the pleasant expression on Kohl's face. He lowered himself to his knees beside the access stairs, and he ducked his head down to speak conspiratorially with K'os. "What time frame are we talking about," Kohl asked, "to dismantle a fuel conditioner?" He asked the question delicately, trying to sound reasonable rather than sharply demanding.

K'os' smile faded replaced by a concerned look. He wiped his hands on his pants and puffed up his cheeks and let out air slowly as he thought. He shrugged unknowingly and in a grave voice said, "Hard to say...I mean we had a crewman last week take over half an hour to get one out and cleaned from the Marina. He watched Kohl's face carefully and nodded his head in concern. Then K'os' cheeks pinched into a mirthful tight-lipped grin. "Then again, you have access to an Ensign with five years experience as an Impulse Systems Specialist at your disposal."

The pensive expression putting severe lines on Kohl's face --at the thought of a chugga-chugga sound scrapping his away mission-- were replaced with a softer expression of sheer relief. He ducked lower into the accessway, flatteng his body against the deck to bring his lips closer to K'os' face. "Now tell me," Kohl said wryly, "Where can I find this Ensign? Is he nearby? Is he cuter than you?"

K'os looked at Kohl with a blank face and his grey-blue eyes blinked slowly, once then twice before his lower lip popped out into a pout. He lowered his eyes and attempted to put hands in pockets that weren't there on his uniform. He settled with putting his hands on his hips and kicking the ground slightly with his right foot. "You know..." K'os' pout slowly disappeared, "I could always go back to fixing OD networks..." he flicked his eyes back to Kohl's face and he grinned.

"You have my gravest of apologies!" Kohl declared for all to hear. His intonation was a little too arch to be considered entirely genuine, but his intention was in the right place. (The right place being: building up and knocking down K'os ego in equal measures.) Kohl went on: "My mining mission will end in catastrophic failure if not for the engine-whisperer, Mister Beaumont, putting his hands in my fuel conditioner."

Continuing his grinned expression he placed an elbow on the deck beside Kohl's head. The depression he stood in made the deck come up to chest height with the suspended shuttle a foot above him. Despite his face being slightly cast in shadow, the etched lines of sleeplessness were clear on K'os' face. "Har har, Mister Kohl," He said much too cheerily to sound sardonic. Getting back to business K'os waved a hand to the nacelle above him. "If it's just a clogged nozzle it'll take me a few minutes to replace the fuel conditioner with a clean one and blow out the gunk in the nozzle heads. I shouldn't hold you up too long."

Kohl nodded vaguely, but the focus of his eyes had drifted. To look at him, Kohl appeared to be completing some form of calculus in his head. After he chewed on his lower lip, Kohl pushed himself up off the deck and he backed away from the Pisa. He wasn't gone long. Kohl stepped away only so he could descend the stairs to stand by K'os' side. Kohl looked up at the transport vessel's nacelle, and he said, "Show me. I want to marvel at what you do..."

--

[OFF]

Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

&

Ensign K'os Beaumont
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Galileo>/i>

RSS Feed