Posted by Gamemaster Janus (GM) in Main Sim: Science Labs (After the crash timeline)

Posted by Lieutenant Veyn Cewa (Science Officer) in Main Sim: Science Labs (After the crash timeline)

Posted by Gamemaster Janus (GM) in Main Sim: Science Labs (After the crash timeline)
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Veyn chuckled lightly as he held a hand to his head. “I’m glad I’m not the only one who hasn’t memorized the ship’s layout yet. To the left we go.”

Maher found a working tricorder on the ground before leaving the lab.

Lieutenant Cewa stuck his head out of the open doorway and glanced both ways down the corridor, assessing the situation as best he could with his impaired vision in the emergency lighting. Then he started down the hallway to the left, looking for the cargo bay doors and checking behind him occasionally to make sure Ensign Maher was following. “I’m not going to claim to know exactly what it is we should be doing right now, Ensign. But trying to do anything on our own seems like a fool’s errand. Let’s find others and go from there.”

(Lt. Cewa, Science)

“Aye sir. There’s only the shuttle repair bays, the cargo bays of the upper level and the science lab. Fortunately, it is a small ship.”

Walking down the hallway, they came to the cargo bay upper level doors. Maher scanned the cargo bays, in Cargo Bay A, he could read that there were personnel gathering, Cargo Bay B was empty but Cargo Bay C was registering a build up gas and increase of temperature. “Um, sir, take a look at these readings… I think there is a fire in Cargo Bay C.”

GM

“What class?” Veyn responded instantly and automatically. He scampered down the hallway to the doors to Cargo Bay C, motioning for Maher to follow and use the tricorder again when they were closer for a more precise reading.

“Class 3,” said Maher.

Veyn cautiously laid a hand on the door, hoping to gauge the intensity of the fire within at least partially through the heat radiating from the room. Lieutenant Cewa was a chemist by trade, so he had plenty of experience with fires. “What’s the fuel source, Ensign? Electrical, chemical, metallic, biological?”

(Lt. Cewa, Science)

The door was warm, but not hot to touch. The fire was medium size, but if not taken care of, it could go out of control quickly.

“Electrical and chemical. The source was from the EPS systems, it seems. It’s interacted with some chemicals that were stored in Cargo Bay C. Fire suppression systems are not responding, probably because they have no power to them. We might be able to trigger a manual override, I’m guessing… but I don’t know where that is.”

GM

“Fires are usually classified by letter, not number, Ensign,” Cewa said as he withdrew his hand. “But it sounds like you’re describing a class B fire.”

“Sorry, I’m just nervous,” replied the ensign.

Veyn turned and headed briskly back down the hallway toward the science lab they had come from, explaining his idea as they went. “Even if it started as an electrical fire, the loss of power on the ship means it’s unlikely to still be fueled by current. Which is good, because if that were the case we’d need an engineer to find the EPS source and cut the power. As it stands, the fire’s energy comes from chemical reactions, which we can extinguish with science.”

Ducking back into the science lab, Veyn threw open cabinets as he gathered supplies. “We can’t replicate the appropriate fire extinguisher right now and even if we could operate the fire suppression system, it relies on power to engage and maintain the force fields. Even if we found the manual override, activating it wouldn’t allow the fire suppression system to actually engage. It’s not like the door’s manual override, which we can use to physically push open the door.”

“Luckily,” Lieutenant Cewa said with a smile as he grabbed a large beaker of the last ingredient, “all we need to do to is cover the base of the fire with carbon dioxide. That’ll deprive the fire of fuel by displacing the oxygen needed for the chemical reactions. And to create carbon dioxide, we only need two common, extremely useful chemical ingredients that we keep already replicated on hand: acetic acid and sodium bicarbonate. Also known as baking powder and vinegar.”

Veyn looked at Maher slyly. “Are you ready for a science fair experiment like the quadrant’s never seen, Ensign?”

(Lt. Cewa, Science)

“Yes, Lieutenant!” replied the ensign.

Together, Cewa and Maher carried multiple beakers of the chemicals back to Cargo Bay C. Opening the bay doors, Veyn took a gulp of fresh air before ducking into the smoke. He found a crate on the upper level of the cargo bay where they stood and poured the chemicals into it, which immediately caused a foaming reaction with white bubbles that were in stark contrast to the soot of the smoke. A barely-visible, wispy gas started to form over the bubbles, but was heavier than the air around it so it stayed mostly in the crate until it started to overflow, at which point Cewa motioned for Maher to help his tip the crate. They poured the gas over the side of the balcony onto the bottom floor below, where it flowed along and spread across the ground. Soon enough, the entire floor of the bay was covered in a layer of carbon dioxide, taking away oxygen from the fire.

With the materials Lt. Cewa found, and the proper usage, the fire was put out. Lt. Cewa and Ensign Maher now suffer from slight smoke inhalation, but nothing that a medical personnel couldn’t fix.

GM

Veyn stumbled out of the cargo bay after their experiment was complete, coughing lightly and blinking his unblackened eye rapidly as it watered. “Crisis averted, good eye Ensign. But cough now we have even more reason to find a doctor. cough Let’s see if there are any in Cargo Bay A.”

Lieutenant Cewa led the way to Cargo Bay A and attempted to open the door so they could rendezvous with the other Asimov crew members inside.

(Lt. Cewa, Science)