Posted by Lieutenant Commander Riley O’Nell (Chief Engineer Officer) in Side Sim: Main Engineering 0630

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Izak Waryn (Engineering Officer) in Side Sim: Main Engineering 0630

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Riley O’Nell (Chief Engineer Officer) in Side Sim: Main Engineering 0630
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Gamma shift had been anything but quiet, and Izak was quickly typing up his turnover for Alpha shift while still working with the rest of the crew to fix the problem. He hated to leave something unfinished… and they still had a bit of time.

Night shift normally handled maintenance and repairs that were too invasive to do on the day shift. Last night, that included installing and aligning replacement parts for the Warp Core and bringing it up to 100% efficiency. An impressive feat, but it did have some unexpected… and at the moment inexplicable… consequences.

The EPS grid on Ark Angel normally operated above 99%, but after the reactor repairs, it now topped out at 94% efficiency. The duty shift was completing a level 3 diagnostic on the whole system, and the results were currently inconclusive.

It would be easy to do a more in-depth diagnostic while sitting in orbit around a Star Base, but word was already spreading from the crews operating the cargo bays. The Ark Angel had a new mission. Any troubleshooting would need to be balanced against the mission’s requirements. Ensign Waryn frowned and continued his turnover notes as the diagnostic inched toward completion.

Ensign Izak Waryn - Engineering Officer - U.S.S. Ark Angel

0515

After the shift, Ensign Waryn had immediately changed and hit the gym. Ordinarily, he’d be playing handball, but the other officers who played had some sort of event in the holodeck this morning.

Left to his own devices, he was going pretty hard at the resistance machine and letting his thoughts wander.

He’d turned the problem with the EPS grid efficiency over to his friend, Ensign Boras from Alpha shift. The level 3 diagnostic had not turned up a cause for the drop to 94%… and the problem was still nagging at Izak. His mind kept going over all the parts they’d installed to improve Warp Core operation, trying to figure out what they could have changed to cause the drop. When that failed, he reviewed the EPS grid itself.

Power stabilizers are the obvious culprit, but they all looked good. Theoretically, it could be the converters or relays, but when they start failing, they generally cause a power restriction or plasma backflow… and the automatic tests would have caught that.

Ensign Waryn grimaced. He’d intended to work with Lt Grant to get training on the Operations station today, but he knew he’d be back in Main Engineering in a few hours, trying to help solve the EPS problem.

Ensign Izak Waryn - Engineering Officer - U.S.S. Ark Angel

During his shift O’Nell found what was wrong and tapped his com badge =/\= CE to Ensign Waryn can you come to engineering I found out why there was a drop =/\=

Izak couldn’t answer the call immediately, he had just taken a huge bite of pancake when it came in. After chewing and swallowing as fast as he could, he tapped the combadge on his chest.

=/\=”This is Waryn. Copy that Chief, I’ll be down shortly.”=/\= Ensign Waryn hadn’t come up with any solutions while working out… or the brief sonic shower afterwards… but he did have a few ideas he wanted to look into. He was somewhat disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to solve this problem on his own, but at least he would still be able to learn something from the way Lt Cmdr O’Nell identified and corrected the issue.

The brekkian finished the last few bites of his breakfast and headed toward the turbo lift.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Ensign Waryn walked into Main Engineering and approached the Chief. “I’m surprised you had time to look into this Sir, I figured the department would have a bunch of preparations to make for the new mission. Can you shed any light on what the Ark Angel will be doing?”

Ensign Izak Waryn - Engineering Officer - U.S.S. Ark Angel

O’Nell turned to see him “yes I did find the problem, but tell me what you have checked, and what you think it might be” he asked him to see what he knows.

Lt. Commander Riley O’Nell (CE)

Okay… looks like he doesn’t want to talk about the mission. Izak collected his thoughts for a moment before speaking.

“The logs show the EPS running normally at the start of Gamma shift with a 99.3%. We switched the primary EPS relays so the grid was running off the fusion reactors, then powered down the Warp Core to start the repairs. Efficiency readings for the grid always drop when running off the reactors since they don’t produce anywhere near the power of the Warp Core. After the modifications and testing on the Warp Core were complete and we verified the reactor itself was at 100% efficiency and then realigned it to the EPS grid. That’s when we notice the EPS dropped to 94% efficiency.

Ensign Waryn continued his explanation, moving past the routine items he’d already mentioned. “Since the Warp Core repairs were the most recent change to Ark Angel’s infrastructure, we reviewed all the settings and configurations to make sure everything was correct. All the settings were spot on, so there was definitely some sort of unaccounted for loss. We ran the Level 3 diagnostic just before shift change but it didn’t reveal any causes. Everything was documented for the pass down to Alpha shift.”

“Since then, I’ve mentally determined that most components on the grid were unlikely to have caused the loss, not without other symptoms we would see.” In truth he had trouble thinking about anything else since ending his shift. He hated to leave things unfinished. “My first theory is the Warp plasma system. Since the core wasn’t outputting as much power before last night, the team might have previously calibrated the plasma draw at a higher level to keep the Warp coils operating at their peak. I’d like to see the power readings on the warp coils to see if that’s the case. If so, a recalibration of the warp plasma system should correct the issue.

“Barring that… we stress tested the warp core last night after the repair, with a full 1:1 deuterium/antideuterium ratio in the M/ARA. Ships normally only use that much power for combat or pushing maximum warp.” This is where Izak’s lack of experience revealed itself, and he defaulted to his training. “The academy taught us that ships typically have to realign multiple systems after putting it through that much stress. If that’s the case, we might have hundreds of small adjustments to make to bring the system back up to normal.”

Ensign Izak Waryn - Engineering Officer - U.S.S. Ark Angel

“OK, I’ll ask you this. Did you check the parts that were replaced chances are there might’ve been a replacement that was not installed properly or a faulty component. Sometimes the solution is one of the most easiest and the most easiest to overlook.”

O’Nell pulled out an old piece that was removed “sometimes these rubber bearings tend to lose strength from basic wear and tear or sometimes they’re just old”

Lt. Commander Riley O’Nell

Izak thought for a moment. “The team verified all the parts after they were installed, but no, I didnt inspect all of them myself Chief.”

Lt Waryn wracked his brain but couldn’t identify any of the parts they replaced that would’ve impacted the EPS grid. “Commander. the parts we replaced last night were all for the Warp Core itself though, to get it up to 100% efficiency. I’m not sure how any of those parts could reduce the efficiency of the EPS grid will still keeping the Warp Core at 100%. What am I missing?”

Lt J.G. Izak Waryn - Engineering Officer - U.S.S. Ark Angel

“There are 3 ports that connects from the EPS grid to the warp core I have been meaning to replace those parts but my order never been delivered but as for the parts that have been replaced, they’re drawing more power from the EPS grid because they’re not properly installed even though a simple diagnostic shows it is installed and pulling power because it was installed wrong It is pulling more power than it’s needed so let’s go check those parts and see which one it is.” Riley didn’t mind getting down dirty with his fellow engineers, but he has rebuilt this engine from the ground up

Lt. Commander Riley O’Nell (CE)

“Makes sense to me. Let’s get to work.”

Lt J.G. Izak Waryn - Engineering Officer - U.S.S. Ark Angel

As we work O’Nell share a lot of knowledge about proper engineering parts a simple fixes that they don’t tech in the academy anymore. “ you wanna know what my boss did to me my first week onboard the Path Finder” he asked laughing to himself

Lt. Commander Riley O’Nell (CE)

The normally tedious repairs had been rather pleasant, with Chief O’Nell sharing a lot of tidbits from his own experiences working in Engineering. Izak did his best to soak it up… much like when he worked with some of the Chiefs or Warrant Officers in the department. The Professors told us there is no substitute for experience… and when you don’t have much of your own yet, you have to learn from the experience of others.

The Lieutenant Commander chuckled as me mentioned his first week on the Pathfinder, so Izak figured it was a good story. “I’m almost afraid to ask,” Lt Waryn said with a grin. “But now I’m morbidly curious and need to hear a story of the CE when he was a young Engineer like me.”

Lt J.G. Izak Waryn - Engineering Officer - U.S.S. Ark Angel