Routine Diagnostics
Posted on Mon Sep 12th, 2016 @ 10:28pm by Lieutenant Alana Tovan
Mission:
Brave New World
Location: Bridge, USS Carthage
Blair was at the tactical station on the bridge running a diagnostic on the weapons system. While attempting to calibrate the ship phasers, sparks started to shooting out of the console and the whole entire weapons system shuts down. Blair press her communicator "Tovan, the entire weapons system is down and the bridge console is fried I could use your help." said Blair.
Alana was in the middle of running diagnostics in engineering when the call came down from the bridge. Something in the wiring of this old ship must have shorted out, and the bridge tactical console was not the only casualty. It was starting to turn into a long night for the engineering crew. She took a long sigh and hit her commbadge. "On my way, Ensign." She may have technically outranked her, but Blair was a bridge officer. Tovan should see what she can do.
The lieutenant flagged down one of her engineers. "Murphy, I'm heading to the bridge to take care of a problem there. Follow up on the diagnostic and see if you can track down that short. Otherwise, make sure someone sorts out the lighting issue on deck 12."
"Aye, Lieutenant," was the reply from engineer Murphy.
Alana grabbed her tool kit and hurried to the turbolift. On the way, she made sure that her long black hair was pulled down in front of her ears in an attempt to hide the old shame of her heritage. After a short trip through the ship, the turbolift doors slid open to the bridge. The tactical console was still smoking, but Alana decided to play coy. "What seems to be the problem, Ensign?"
"Im not sure Lieutenant, I was running a routine diagnostic went the console started sparking and is what you see here. Im not an engineer but I wouldn't think a routine diagnostic would fry a console." Blair.
Tovan rolled her eyes, though she was careful not to let Abernathy see her. She took a tricorder out of her kit as she made her way to the console. "Typically no, a routine diagnostic would not do this to a console. But it seems to be a common problem as of late. This old ship seems to have her wires crossed." Alana started scanning the tricorder, careful not to touch anything that was exposed. Even though it was a potential fire risk, trying to disconnect the console without knowing the problem could have been an even bigger safety risk, at least to her. Locating the main power line, she took another tool from her kit and began to shut off power. "What kind of routine diagnostic were you running, Ensign?"
"I was running a diagnostic on the phasers, they are not generating enough power to be effective."
"Yeah, that seems to be a problem all over. I think the ol' girl is starting to show her age. We've been dealing with some complaints all over the ship about power issues. I'd really like to get to the bottom of it, but it's almost been an uphill battle just trying to keep up with the power fluctuations. In most cases various systems have been showing a lack of power, like with the lighting or the phasers." Alana picked her tricorder up again and took a couple more scans. "But here, the problem seems to be that the console was drawing too much power, almost like the power is coming here instead of the other systems. Were you doing anything else when you started running the diagnostic?"
"No, I just came on shift and decided to run a diagnostic, since the systems haven't been used in awhile, I have been running diagnostic on weapons and shields since I was a cadet and have never ran into this problem, maybe she needs to be decommissioned?"
"I don't think she's out of life just yet, Ensign, though she has been showing her age." Alana ducked under the console and took out her scanner, checking the systems for any signs of damage. Her maintenance efforts were thorough, and the only damage that she detected was caused by the overload. It was rather strange. "Well, I'm not sure why it failed, but it's going to be easy enough to fix. Let me repair the wiring now, and then I'll send someone up with the replacement console panel to finish up the repair. We shouldn't need the weapons in spacedock, but in an emergency you can pull up the tactical console from any of the other stations."
"Sounds like a plan, I have to go EVA sometime and check each phaser bank and torpedo launcher, unless you need me here."
Tovan shook her head. "I'm good here. If you see anything odd or out of the ordinary, let me know. I feel like something strange is going on with my ship. I just can't figure out what it is."
Lieutenant Alana Tovan
Chief Engineer
USS Carthage
Ensign Blair Abernathy
Tactical Officer
USS Carthage
