Unpleasant surprise
Posted on 29 Mar 2026 @ 8:29pm by Lieutenant Ryan Collingway & Lieutenant Commander Elias Harlan
Edited on on 30 Mar 2026 @ 12:17am
1,143 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission: Arawyn’s Itchy Trigger Finger
////Engineering////
“Your priority is the coolant system. I want that tank secured and brought back within safe operational thresholds. If we need to move, I will not have propulsion limited by instability in the core.”
“Aye, Captain,” came the reply, still tight, but steadier.
“Report to the bridge every five minutes on the status of the core and associated systems. I want no surprises.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“And Lieutenant—”
She held his attention without raising her voice.
“You are not alone down there. Keep your people focused. One step at a time.”
A quieter response.
“Aye… Captain.”
Ryan closed the channel. The engineering room became very quiet.
Patch the coolant stack, start up the core in a controlled sequence. He could do that. Right now the shields were being sustained by the battery reserves. He glanced at the readout.
83%. Still in good shape.
Suddenly the door opened, and damage control teams poured in. They were also very armed. Ryan blinked, realizing these were McKinney's team. Likely here to both help and ensure that Engineering wouldn't be invaded.
That didn't exactly help his state of mind.
"Lieutenant, where do you want us?" One of them asked.
"We need to patch that coolant stack.," Ryan said. "I'll walk you through it."
For the next half an hour they worked tediously, plasma welding a very large patch over the hole of the coolant stack with Ryan reporting his progress every five minutes. When it was done to his satisfaction Ryan checked the battery reserves again.
Battery reserves down to 13%. Estimated time before the shields began to fail-fifteen minutes.
"What?" Ryan said in astonishment. It should be nowhere near that low...unless the sensor readings were off and giving him and the bridge false readings. A second later it changed back to 63%. He ran a quick systems check, and located the error. The battery was indeed almost dead.
"What's wrong?" Ensign Mike Torres asked as he stood next to Ryan.
"Look at the power draw."
Mike frowned, and studied the readings. "It's gotta be the shields. The shield generators are eating up the power from the fusion reactors, look there's also a huge draw from Medical. It's too much for the fusion reactors to handle alone. The system is trying to maintain compliance by pulling from the batteries too."
Fifteen minutes before the ship was dead in the water. They needed thirty to restart the core. The only way to get it online before the ship lost power was a cold start.
It was technically possible. One time considered dangerous, now less so but still risky. It had only been done a few times in the history of Starfleet. And of course, certainly not by him. The math was very complex. The slightest miscalculation could lead to failure.
Ryan was wasting time, and had to make a decision. The emergency overrode any sorce of personal pride. The hard lines were working to Medical. He turned on the com. "Engineering to sickbay. I need to speak to Lieutenant Caldwell urgently. Tell him I need his help to plan a cold start on the reactor. He'll understand what that means."
"What?" the nurse said. "He's a patient right now! You-"
"The ship depends on this," Ryan said urgently. "Please tell him."
"Engineering, this is Doctor Jorik. Lieutenant Caldwell is sedated and undergoing micro-surgery, he is and will be unavailable for the foreseeable future."
"Fucking hell." Mike exclaimed as he shook his head. He then looked at Ryan. "Do you even have the security access to override the safety protocals?"
"Yes," Ryan said simply. Now wasn't the best time to go into the details of that particular question. He sighed. "If we do nothing, then we've failed and this ship is defenseless. We have to try."
"Okay. Even if we get the core started," Mike said as he looked at the hole in the wall next to one of the plasma transfer conduits exiting the warp core that went to the nacelle, "power management is still going to be dicey. We've only got one Tap left."
"One problem at a time," Ryan said. "Some power is better than none at this stage."
Mike looked back at the hole and hollared across the bay, "Jenson, Harris is that plasma conduit still intact?"
A head poked out of the hole and gave a thumbs up. "Conduit is intact, no microfractures. The heat shield inbetween the tap and the conduit contained the explosion. We just sealed off the shunt from the conduit and the tap."
"Well hurry up and pack out of there, we need to restart the core." Torres called out.
"I'm starting a manual diagnostic on the injectors and the magnetic constrictors, I really hope when that chunk of wall blew out it only took out that coolant stack."
The com chimed. "Lieutenant Collingway, status report," the bridge reminded him.
Ryan turned it on. "Bridge, we have far less battery reserves than initially thought. I am going go activate the warp core now. Stand by." Once the area was clear, Ryan glanced at Mike. "Ensign, start working on the injector alignment. I'll start heating up the core."
The two worked quietly for a moment. Ryan used impulse power to heat the chamber to 2,500,500 k, then double-checked Mike's alignment. Then he injected the first drops of anti-matter into the chamber, which was then squeezed up by the MCS.
Then the big moment came. Ryan swallowed, and allowed the matter and anti-matter to collide. The warp core roared to life like a fireball, and flickered on, two minutes before the battery was going to fail.
Ryan leaned over the counsel, completely baked in sweat. That was the most terrifying ten minutes of his entire life and he never wanted to do that again. "Good job, Ensign," he said, then turned on the com.
"Bridge, good news and bad news. The warp core is back online. The bad news is that the we lost one of the EPS taps. We can't fix that without a Starbase. Power is consistent but slow. If we get hit again, expect shields and weapons to recharge more slowly. Engineering out." He closed the channel.
"All right," Ryan said. "The most important thing right now is fixed. Let's see what we can also improve in the meantime."
“Power levels are stabilizing and the batteries are recharging.” Mike called out as his eyes scanned the panel. “Warp engines will be available in five minutes, but it would be best if we dropped the shields if we have to exceed Warp 6. Due to the missing tap there’s a slight plasma imbalance due to the missing Tap. But I’ll keep my eye on it.”
Mike paused and gave Ryan a wry smile. “Good job Lieutenant.”
Lieutenant Ryan Collingway
Engineering Officer
USS Arawyn
Ensign Mike Torres (apb Jeff)
Engineering Officer
USS Arawyn
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