Whistle While You Work

Posted on Wed May 6th, 2015 @ 4:49am by Commander Cor Cordale & Ensign Zachary Chandler
Edited on on Wed May 6th, 2015 @ 4:50am

Mission: Debts to be settled......
Location: Primary Engineering

Zack was having a grand time up in the Jeffries Tube above the secondary EPS control console in Main Engineering. It was one of the larger tubes so he could actually get in there and work. His large hands also weren't the best when fine motor skills were required for repairs, but installing a new buffer to control the ODN traffic was an easy fix. Crawling around the Jeffries Tubes was like being in a jungle gym, in fact it was a little too much like a jungle gym, his prosthetic had gotten stuck within the first two minutes, and rather than deal with it, Zack had simply dropped the limb down the open hatch and to the deck below, then gotten back to work. He was whistling as he programmed the buffer and tapping along with his made up tune.

Though, that abandoned limb would be found by a passerby, who cradled it as he fell to his knees. "Chandler! We hardly knew you! Oh woe and calamity!" a pause, then the Thux stood back up, and looked up through the open hatch. "Chandler, first off, when they say the job costs you an arm and a leg they usually don't mean that literally."

Usually, with him being the exception.

"Second, it's dangerous to just leave... YOU... all over the place, and while I'd have paid a few slips to see how you were planning on getting out of there..." he handed the prosthetic leg up through the Jeffries Tube hatch, "To quote someone, somewhere... pull yourself together." and at that, Cordale just started to chuckle.

Zack broke out into laughter as well as he grabbed the limb. "It might be worth a few slips to see me try to put this back on while in here too. I'll be done in a few, anything pressing going on?" He asked the chief.

Cor shook his head, "Nothing yet, which is always a plus. Just running a low priority diagnostic in the background, make sure we're humming on all channels. First few days of a launch are always quiet. Mostly quiet..." he then corrected himself, "Usually quiet."

"You're going to jinx us, you know that right." A bump, and a soft 'ow' escaped from the overhead tube.

Cor gave a chuckle, "You humans and your crazy superstitions." a pause, "You okay up there? Did you crawl under a ladder or meet a black cat?"

Zack chuckled, closing up the ODN network he's been programming. "All done." Then Zack's head poked out. "Anybody else around?"

"There's twelve us us down here. If you hurry you can make it thirteen?" he joked, then turned semi-serious, "Actually no, just us right now. The rest of the crew is monitoring the reactor. Fresh out of dock, blowing the proverbial dust off. Though, if there were actually dust I'd be really concerned. Dust isn't allowed in my matter slash antimatter stream." he actually said the word 'slash'.

"Need a hand down? None of the ladies are around for me to show off my pull-up technique, so purely assistance here."

"No, I just don't want to land in a heap in front of one of the lovely ladies." Zack smiled. He then dropped down, leg in hand and did indeed land in a controlled heap. He then fumbled with the prosthetic under his uniform pants, until he had it attached. He reached out a hand. "Now you can help and it's still manly."

Cor gave a chuckle, and offered Chandler an assist up. To up the macho'factor, Cor offered his living hand, "C'mon, up you get. So, any trouble up there, or just a routine spot check?"

Zack grabbed the offered hand, then dusted himself off. "No trouble, just fine tuning the ODN buffer so we don't fry the board if things get interesting."

The Thux gave a nod, "Good. Nothing wrong with a little preventive maintenance." He paused for a moment, "By the way, had a chat with the chief of Ops. Says he knew you." a chuckle, "Old buddy from the academy?"

"He's almost old enough to be my father." Zack chuckled. "No, he was on Jupiter station for a bit while I was there my last semester, well before I had the accident and got set back."

"Jupiter station, like the planet Jupiter? You know, I've seen it in photos and on shuttle convoys. Partial to Saturn myself, to be honest. There's a lot of mystery still under those rings." a pause, "Though, Jupiter has that big ole' spot, so there's that." a chuckle. "So, does Aladdin talk to him, or is he actually the dog and the humanoid is just some robot that picks up on telepathy FROM the dog.. or is he just really fond of that pooch of his?"

Zack chuckled. "The latter, at least I'm pretty sure. But the robot telepathic dog angle might need some investigating." He teased. "Anything else need doing?" Zack asked, always eager to be tinkering with something.

Cor gave the matter some thought, though WHICH matter he didn't say. "Well, for the moment we're pretty smooth. This is the fun part of the cruise. I'm sure by the middle it'll be 'save us Engineering' or 'Help me Cor Cordale, you're my only hope' or 'I know we're at a hundred percent, but is that a limit or a suggestion'." he said, each in whiny voices, then he got an idea, "Actually, yeah. While we're pretty much coasting, let's get a feel for what's using what, resource wise. Start up a ship-wide EPS ping net, shouldn't take more then an hour. I know, there's a diagnostic for that, but for a diagnostic we'd have to wait until the whole thing was done. A ping net won't tell us as much, but we get each result back individually. Take all the data, map it out, and you have an idea as to what's using what, based on how long it takes to respond to a simple ping."

Cordale gave a smirk, "I like thinking outside the box. See, everyone out there, who's going to cause trouble, is going to think INSIDE the box. They'll disable primary systems, they'll cut main lines. Our job is to know the backroads. Hence a ping net." a pause, "Stick with me, and you'll know most of the dirty tricks in the book. Remind me to tell you my Branex story one of these days. "

Zack chuckled. "You forget who I grew up with. I can set the net in fouty-five." He made a motion like tossing a basketball into a hoop. "That is what we need in here. A basketball hoop." He grinned. "I'll get working on that net."

Cor actually smirked, "Well, I have a holodeck workout regiment I like to hit about twice a week. Could substitute time on the track with some hoop time." he then gave a chuckle. "I remember a rather humorous time when I was on shore leave, and probably a little drunker then I had any right to be, and the captain I was with at the time and I went to a bowling lane, and I mixed up bowling with baseball." another good chuckle, "Terrans have too many past-times."

"Yeah, get to that net. Sooner we get results, sooner we can stop bullshitting and ... I don't know, bullshit and work."

Zack nodded and limped off, mumbling under his breath an obscenity at his prosthetic.


Lt. Cor Cordale
Chief Engineer

Ens Zachary Chandler
Engineer