<snip>

“I assume we aren’t getting sufficient flow here,” Katie said as accepted the toolkit. She pulled out the fleet standard Engineering tricorder and turned it on. “Rather than too much plasma flow. I’m not seeing any unusual constrictions in the immediate area though the flow in the third branch of this manifold is non-trivally lower than the other branches.”

She turned back to Dael.

“I would suggest we trace that sub-conduit to see if we find a blockage or restriction further downstream.”

Cadet Katherine Hobbes

<snip>
Dael glanced into the panel and with quick check at the tricorder in her hand, agreed with her assessment. “Good thing I set this problem aside for you then, having a focus on plasma systems. I like to keep up with my team’s particular talents. Vulcans like to talk about infinite diversity and all that, and I agree with them. Especially when it comes to filling out a team of experts. So your sister was in Engineering then? I’m sorry to hear about your brother, loss like that can be difficult.” Dael had been around plenty of loss when that plague had hit his colony, and that was a moment being a telepath wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. But he replaced the small grim look that had come on his face with one of focus. That had been his help then, and always was now. Focusing on problems. He replaced the piece of bulkhead that had exposed the relays and took out the PADD of the toolkit, pulling up schematics for the system.

“Jazz is a line officer,” Katie said. “And, yes, I feel the absence of Nicholas pretty deeply.”

“Just as I thought.... our subconduit has a junction over at that panel system. We’ll check there, and see what our readings are. Could be a regulator there, or if we’ve got good readings, then we may have a faulty conduit between these two points. Those are always fun to pull.” he said with a slight grin that implied that may have not been an entirely truthful statement. Or that his idea of “fun” didn’t line up with most peoples. He walked over to the system he had pointed out and popped the paneling off, and once more stood to the side to allow the cadet access. “Any thoughts towards a future in this field and Starfleet yet? Not much longer in the Academy for you, and it’s always a good thing for an engineer to be thinking ahead. We get a reputation as reactive mechanics, but a few moments of prevention can save long hours of repairs.”

-Lt. jg Dael Stadi, Chief Engineer

Katie smiled at the idea of a “fun plasma conduit pull.”

“I had to do one of those in the engineering lab at the Academy. They aren’t too bad if you remember to do a decent system purge first. And evacuate the air from the system before you put it back online. Fail to do either of those correctly, and then, yes, you’re in for about as much fun as you can have without trying to remove a stuffed toy animal from a sanitary waste treatment unit,” Katie said. She ran the engineering tricorder quickly over each of the conduits. One stood out. “This one has an obstruction … just about … here. See the pressure drop in the plasma between this point and that? That is what’s causing the flow disruption. Now the real question is how we got an obstruction at that location.”

She showed the tricorder to the Chief Engineer.

• Cadet Katherine Hobbes, Engineer

Dael leaned over and glanced at the tricorder, nodding his head. “I agree, looks like somethings inhibiting our flow here. Rings of Betazed I hope it’s not another tribble.” He sighed and put that thought out of his head. “Sorry, that was during our last mission before your arrival cadet. While the rest of the staff dealt with some ruins and diplomatic relations, we had a tribble outbreak it seemed onboard. Never did find out where they came from.” He shook his head and stood up straighter. “More likely though, it could be one of our EPS filters is going bad, letting some things slide that it shouldn’t, or an overabundance of nitrogen in the plasma line causing some hardening. I’m glad to see that the Academy’s not lowered it’s troubleshooting standards. Good job, cadet.”

He looked into the tool kit and grabbed an iso-modulator. “This should do the trick, with a few adjustments we can use it for some plasma ablation and clear that blockage.” He handed her the tool and stepped back. “So, as I was saying, any plans for your Starfleet career? Chief Engineer on a starship? Maybe a nice design assignment at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards? Captain’s chair?”

-Lt. jg Dael Stadi, CE