“We can do a bit more” he grinned to himself hoping that this wasn’t going to be too greedy to want the full 18.7%. “Boost the power output through the ventricle manifold and I’ll route it through the main buffer which should distribute it enough to take us to the maximum output!” he called out.
Cyrin pushed in several commands, “Boosting power by point one percent per five seconds through the ventricle manifold.” He watched the read out, “Power threshold increasing, eighteen point three…eighteen point four…eighteen point five…eighteen point six…eighteen point six five.” He said.
“COME ON!” he shouted at the ship “YOU CAN DO THIS!” he said in an adrenaline-fuelled; pain-suppressing exuberance of emotion as he talked to the ship like a human being that could respond and he was trying to save its life. “Take it above safety threshold; I can hold it down here and we’ll get the power needed to lock the flow down in place!” he called out to the ensign. Calhoun was a ‘play-it-by-the-book’ officer when it came to procedure and Starfleet rules but when it came to engineering he lived by two rules the first was to always take the calculated risk and instinctive reaction over due process when it came to work and the second was that sometimes engineers needed to create things from nothing to provide the only solution. He grabbed an Electro-Plasma Regulator and jammed it into the central node before taking the Flow Distributor and cranking the power high enough to manage the dangerous levels of power flowing some millimetres from his face.
Watching as the threshold spiked from eighteen point six five to eighteen point ten, Cyrin let out an audible gasp. “Eighteen point ten. Hopefully you’re still alive down there Commander, because whatever you did she stabilized well above safety limits.”
“Fantastic!” Quentin yelled back as he laughed with a sense of a mad creator who had just built a monster and animated it successfully. He clamped down the power flow and climbed out of the pit before sealing the floor panel back in place. Packing up the tool kit he slid it across the floor to one side with his foot as he took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from his brown and loosened his collar and rolled up his sleeves. “Nice work Cyrin, your idea worked after all” he said with a grin replicating two whiskeys; from a vintage Earth distillery. “Not quite the real thing but we deserve it” he said handing Cyrin the other glass and clinking his tumbler against the Ensign’s before downing the drink before placing the glass on the pad to be dematerialized. Turning away he knocked back a couple of painkillers and let out a sigh again. “Let’s just run a final diagnostic to make sure nothing bad will happen from this and you’ve got the extra boost you were hoping for” he said turning around and stepping back up to the ‘pool table’.
Cyrin looked at the whiskey and smiled, “Quite right, I suppose.” He offered as he downed the whiskey and coughed a bit, “I would suggest a level three diagnostic. That would at least alert us to any potential trouble areas sir.” He said his throat burning a bit from the whiskey. He set the tumbler down and watched it recycle before following the Commander to the pool table.
“I agree” Quentin concluded as he initiated a scan of the enhanced impulse drive. “Looking how you wanted?” he said moments later when the results were beginning to be displayed on the central panel.
“It looks just like my simulation. So yes they are.” Cyrin said with a smile.
“Good news then; it seems that the buffers handle the extra power well, even if our calculations didn’t turn that small piece of fortune up” Quentin grinned as he nodded slowly. “Well Ensign, I’m impressed with your work – so I’ll let you do the report for the Captain” he said with a sly grin.
“Thank you Commander, I have enjoyed working with you.” He responded back feeling a sense of pride, as if he re-affirmed himself with the Chief Engineer.
“Feel free to continue using the consoles down here until you’re happy with the scan results – as for me; my shift finished about an hour ago” Quentin said. Tr`Vrenak is running the department on the night shift so if you need anything just ask him” he said nodding to the Romulan engineer who was handing out assignments to the night shift repair teams.
“No problem Commander, have a good evening.” Cyrin said.
“You too Ensign” he said nodding to the man as he turned and headed the short distance from the heart of the ship to his quarters. He grimaced as soon as he was far enough away from the main console for anyone to notice forcing himself to take several more pills to combat the increased levels of pain that was now coursing through his body after work. ‘Maybe one day an engineer would solve this problem too he thought to himself’ as he headed out.
Cyrin finished tying up a few loose ends on the update before downloading the results to a padd to be dropped off to the Commanding Officer before he left Engineering and went to grab a few hours of sleep before he had to report for duty.
=/\=
Commander Quentin Calhoun
Chief Engineering Officer
U.S.S. Charon
&
=/\=
Ensign Cyrin Dicari
Chief Operations Officer
U.S.S. Charon
