Harvesting

Posted on Sun Dec 4th, 2022 @ 7:13am by Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Lieutenant JG Revana Nazar & Lieutenant JG Taina M'Tras & Lieutenant Sovas Nyseth
Edited on on Sun Dec 4th, 2022 @ 8:02am

Mission: S1 Episode 4: The Cloud
Location: Engineering
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 1230
1632 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON]

Sovas was quietly overseeing set up for the reinforced ramscoop probes for gathering the decalithium from the nebula. The acidic compounds within the nebula would be one of the few continuous hurdles they would need to overcome. He'd set a strict maintenance schedule for the probes to be inspected to ensure that the housing or other systems had been compromised during the harvesting process. To say that he felt nervous was an understatement, given the volatility of decalithium and the meager margin of error they had to work with. He reviewed the flight paths to ensure they were optimized to retrieve the most materials and minimize the least amount of exposure to the acidic compound.

Engineers were hard at work alongside the personnel from ops. Taina had done much of the designing, whereas Sovas had handled much of the logistics, but an observer wouldn't be wrong to believe much of their work was redundant. In a task, this delicate redundancy was a good thing. Everything was checked and rechecked, often by a fresh pair of eyes. That was how it was done when there was no margin for error. Taina nodded to herself as she rose from personally adjusting one of the probes. "Have another look at it," she commented to one of her engineers. Again, redundancies were good in high-risk projects. She made her way over to where Sovas watched quietly. "I am cautiously optimistic," she commented to the half-Vulcan officer. "Cautiously."

"I think that will need to be the byword for this whole operation," He looked up from his PADD and moved over to interface with one of the thrusters, manually moving it as he squinted at it. The half-Vulcan had no desire to fall afoul of either Lyra or Andrei over something as simple as a malfunctioning thruster. "Can you double-check this thruster for me? The responses seem delayed, which could lead to other complications, Lieutenant."

"Agreed, Lieutenant," Taina said. Cautiously was indeed the right byword for the operation. She strode over when he mentioned the thruster. She bent down over the thruster and manually moved it as Sovas had. She frowned. She didn't like what she was seeing. She pulled out a diagnostic kit and inserted it into the probe, frowning even more at the results. "It definitely needs to be recalibrated. Good catch." She set to work doing just that. Perhaps she should have called one of her people over to do it, but she hadn't quite got the knack for delegating yet. It was hard to step away from a device that was not yet fixed.

Taking a step back, the half-Vulcan stayed out of Taina's way since, right now, he could really only observe and handle paperwork according to the letter of his restricted duty orders. It rankled him a bit that he had to stay by while others were doing the so-called heavy lifting. With a tap of his finger on the PADD he authorized the materials to be released to construct backup probes in the eventuality that it became necessary. With most of his work completed for the moment, waiting for Tiana to finish up with the thruster adjustments, his gaze wandered around the bay before eventually settling on the form of Revana, taking a moment brief moment to admire the woman in her uniform as a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as his thoughts wandered to the quite enjoyable evening spent together.

Within his mind, he could feel the presence shifting like it was seething with the pleasurable memories, making the halfblood wince in physical pain that he covered by grasping his PADD tightly enough to make it creak from the pressure. Sovas let out a slow breath that seemed to dissipate the discomfort before his attention was drawn away by an engineer needing him to sign off on a requisition for the storage modules.

On the other side of Engineering, Revana stood with a team of engineering and operations personnel analyzing schematics of the probe’s collection system. The team had been observant, noting potential weaknesses in the system and pointing them out readily. She crossed her arms under her chest, putting the presence of Sovas out of her mind. They had a fantastic night together on Anorra, but the rest of the ship didn’t need to know.

"How is the thruster coming, Lieutenant?" The half-Vulcan questioned as he moved to kneel beside the woman, considering tools before turning his attention to the thruster.

"It should be good," Taina said as she noted Sovas's presence, "but double-check it for me?" She shifted back a little and rose, giving Sovas room. She glanced across the bay to see Revana still at work, but she guessed nothing of the dynamic at play between the two.

Revana finished a discussion with her team and then sauntered over to the senior officers, her shapely hips moving seductively as they do often were. All of her motions were practiced and showed skill. She found a place for her hand on Sovas’ side for a brief instant, subtle enough not to be noticed by anyone but him as she paused next to them.

“The collections systems are reading green. “She said. “They work at a steady rate and J think we’re ready to go.”

"Good work, Ensign," Taina said.

Sovas glanced over at Revana as he felt her hand briefly touch his side, though he didn't let it linger before he linked his PADD to the probe and tested the response of the thruster. "It seems it just needed an adjustment; it's working as projected; now we have to see how their performance holds up after harvesting runs."

"Then shall we call down the Commander and get started?" Revana said, her tone telling of her impatience. She wanted to see this opportunity through or for it to finally kill them.

Taina didn't share Revana's impatience. She strongly wanted to make sure it was the first, rather than the second, of those options that came to pass. Still, she was confident they'd done a thorough job at this point. She glanced at Sovas. "I'm ready to proceed if you are?"

"Lieutenant Nyseth to Commander Petrov, we have completed preparations for harvesting, and the probes are ready to be launched." A tap of his commbadge had the half-Vulcan reporting their readiness to the younger Petrov since it seemed he'd taken over much of the day-to-day running of the ship from his father. Did he have reservations about harvesting the notoriously dangerous mineral? Yes, but he also knew this was an opportunity they wouldn't know when would present itself for them as he awaited the go-ahead from the bridge.

“Acknowledged, Lieutenant.” Andrei’s voice sounded from the Bridge. “We’ve maneuvered into position, as planned, and can start collection immediately. You will have operational control down there in Engineering, but we will monitor the situation closely from the Bridge and keep an open comm line. You may launch your probes when ready.”

Taina walked to her console in engineering as the probes were moved into position. She looked to the others, her fingers moving swiftly. It was a dangerous thing, but they had taken every precaution possible. "On my mark. Everyone ready?"

"Ready," Sovas answered while taking his position and quietly hoping that this didn't end up with the fleet reduced to an atomized cloud.

Taina hit the comms. "Launching now, Commander." Then she held her breath and pressed the button, launching the probes.

Sovas watched as the probes powered up fully, rising into the air a moment before moving towards the forcefield separating the cargo bay from the cold but cotton candy pink-hued depths of space. As soon as they had cleared the field, the half-Vulcan stepped past Revana to his monitoring station as he pulled up the gathering courses that had indicated the location of the highest deposits of decalithium. He turned his attention to monitoring the SIF readouts to hopefully avoid any catastrophic failures, though the system sensors activated with a bright red warning of an environmental hazard. He'd worked with Taina and Revana to adjust a small shielding unit to offset some of the damage that the acid would cause within the clouds.

Despite the warning, the shields seemed to be holding, and the probes were drawing in the nebula gasses as he watched the readouts for the amount of decalithium being processed out and stored in the attached tanks. Another alert popped up about the acid entering the screens of the ramscoop. He manually re-adjusted the power output for the shields but also moved over to the flight course to shorten it, as they would need to make sure the scoop wasn't damaged too badly.

"I'm shortening the course on the first probe; the intake sensors detected that acid had begun to enter the ramscoop," He spoke up and looked to Taina. "I'd like a maintenance team to inspect the probe once it returns.

"Of course," Taina agreed.

Andrei observed from the Bridge as the probes came back one at a time and the Engineering and Operations teams worked together, rather well he might add, to correct any issues they had and send them out again.

“Good job, everyone. This is going very well. I’ve got science on standby to create the red matter aboard the Rynall. Once we stabilize the gaseous decalithium, we can transport it over.”

Again, Sovas as directing the operations for getting the decalithium prepped for transport, and monitoring the cold storage containers before authorizing them for transport and processing while the probes continued on their resource route to gather up as much of the volatile material as possible.

All in all it turned out that this was a greater success than he'd expected.