“Old Hands and Hot Circuits”
Posted on 2025, Fri Jul 11th, @ 11:25pm by Senior Chief Petty Officer Larry Lamontagne & Lieutenant Commander Marcus Varen
1,858 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Episode 1A "Shadows of the Empire"
Location: Engineering Control Node 2, Vector Beta
Timeline: During Away Team mission
ON
The hum of isolated power relays filled the cramped compartment, a rhythmic pulse that reminded Marcus Varen of a heartbeat—steady for now, but under strain. He ducked into the access alcove, stepping over a discarded fusion wrench, and spotted Larry already elbow-deep in the open junction.
“Didn’t think I’d find you asleep at your post, but I had to check.”
He smirked, holding up a PADD.
“Got flagged on Beta Vector’s EPS load. After the last MVA split, we’re showing bleed-off through three junctions—most of it coming from the dorsal conduit run near the impulse coil. Looks like the system’s trying to compensate by drawing from auxiliary manifolds... and it’s not doing a great job.”
Marcus crouched next to Larry, tapping through data.
“So we’ve got two options. One: reinforce the EPS trunk with bonded lattice, which means six hours of downtime and pulling half the shift off their feet. Or two: start rerouting non-essential loads before separation—trim fat where we can, buy ourselves enough slack during the break. Deflector modulation, maybe some of the rec systems. I’m not touching life support, obviously. Not unless we want angry messages from the Captain.”
Varen looked over at him, eyebrow lifted.
“What’s your gut say?”
Larry stopped for a minute, his mind diving down several rabbit holes, then said, "There has to be a root cause for us to be finding this out now. This ship is too new to have a problem like this. This has got to be something that was not found during trials. Something that was added or something got bumped out of alignment. This is like hysteresis on a major scale. I will hit a holodeck and have the computer use all sensor data, Engineering data from the time of the install, all system upgrades, upgrades, and system stats, to try to troubleshoot this. It might be something as simple as a cable run got shifted a couple of centameters."
*Larry stopped to think for another moment*
"The computer auto-disconnects, reroutes power, and slides the bulkheads into place, so that we don't have exposed live plasma lines venting into space. Maybe we need to look there. "
Larry mused about the age-old adage, "Did you hear about the old Engineer, who forgot how to translate measurements using New Math? His answer was, {You can't teach an old Engineer new fangled tricks.}"
"Maybe," Larry said, "It is an alignment issue, something physically is misaligned and acting like a ground. I will have a team assist me with checking each of the Type I plasma conduits at the splits/junctions and separation points. We don't have to be in actual Multi-Vector mode to simulate this.I will have a team scan each of the main EPS runs for problems. If we treat this as an alignment, we will fix any problems as we find them. But that means pulling a quarter of the watch standers off their shifts. So we will run it as a look for problems with a smaller team, then loop more people in, as we find problems."
Varen nodded, already half-turning toward the junction.
“Smart approach. Quiet sweep, low profile. If it is an alignment issue, I’d rather catch it now than mid-separation. Loop me in if anything pings high on the scans—I’ll back you with Command if we need to scale up.”
Varen gave a low whistle and leaned back on his heels.
“Yeah... alright. Makes sense. Cleaner that way, less risk of cooking anything mid-vector shift. And it keeps the diagnostics team from having a collective stroke.”
Marucs stood and rubbed his shoulder, still sore from crawling inside a plasma manifold two shifts ago.
“Let’s keep the reconfig quiet. I’ll ghost the changes under routine efficiency sweeps. If someone in Ops squints too hard, I’ll tell them it’s a MVA power stabilization trial. You’ll handle the patch work on Subgrid 5?”
Sure," Larry said, Volunteer me for the fun stuff. But that's why i get paid the big bucks.... Wait, we actually don't get paid."
"Not for a long time."
Varen chuckled, cracking his knuckles.
“Fair warning though—if it blows up, I’m blaming you in the report. Retroactively.”
Larry snorted, rather loudly, then said,"What, I didn't do it. No one saw me do it, and you can't prove I did it!"
Commander Varen stepped toward the wall panel and keyed open another system readout.
“By the way... that deuterium tap in Alpha Vector? The one we ‘fixed’ last week? I’m still getting micro-spikes on the intake sensor. They vanish at impulse but come back above warp eight. Think you can run a shadow analysis while you’re in here?”
Larry thought about the problem for a second, then said,"Thats easy, at a mere 125 degrees Kelvin, any leaks sould show up on a thermal scan, or as an iceberg. I'll have a team looking for icebergs!"
Varen tapped the side of the PADD and grinned faintly.
“Knew I asked the right guy.”
He made for the hatch, pausing to glance back over his shoulder.
“If this whole ship doesn’t come apart during our next separation drill, remind me to buy you a drink. If it does, well... I’ll still owe you one.”
And with that, Varen disappeared into the corridor, leaving behind the faint scent of heated isolinear gel and the Senior Chief muttering over a glowing EPS conduit.
Larry looked at his scattered tools lying within easy drop range. "I swear, I didn't bring this many tools with me when I started! Looking down at his exposed arms and hands, Larry asked him self, "Am I getting a tan?"
Marcus couldn't help put to laugh more as he walked away. He had a strong feeling that he and the Chief would get along just fine.
As Varen stepped out of the alcove, he called over his shoulder with a grin:
“Try not to electrocute anyone I like, Chief.”
Larry yelled back, "What about people you don't like?"
Next day, Lt. Cmdr. Marcus Varen Quarters:
[Internal Comms Channel]
“Chief—assuming you haven’t welded yourself to a plasma relay, I’m heading to the lounge. No emergency, no work talk—just synthehol, maybe something real if the bartender owes me a favor. Meet me there in 15? First round’s on me. You’ve earned it.”
A pause, then—
“And if you did. weld yourself to something, bring it along. We’ll drink around it.”
Click.
Larry looked at the stack of plastic flimsies (the modern idea of a print-out report from the computer). Some things were just better on plastic. Larry shook his head at the big pile of both flimsies, and Padd's on his oversized desk. Now he understood why the senior bigwigs in most departments had oversized desks. It was your inbox. Larry his his comm badge /=\ Commander Varen, Larry, I am starving, I will race you there. /=\
Varen tapped his commbadge as the turbolift doors hissed open.
“/=\ A race, huh? You sure you want that smoke, Chief? I’ve been dodging Admirals and plasma surges all day—I’m warmed up. /=\”
A beat of mock-seriousness before he added:
/=\“Loser buys nachos. See you there.”/=\
He stepped into the lift, already smirking.
“Lounge—engage.”
Larry tossed his equipment bag on or near his desk.Larry didnt pay any attention to where it landed. Sprinting, Larry raced towards the back of Engineering. The Engineering tech on the lower level was just coming on the bulk freight platform from the lower level. As the lift was moving up to the top level. The top of the platform was halfway up. Larry calculated the distance, then leaped. Larry landed just right and used the top of the lift as a springboard and as a quick boost to his upward direction. Lary then grabbed the handrail on the upper level and swung up to the top. This changed his upward velocity into a horizontal direction. One of these days, he was going to slip and end up in medical, but not today.
Running to the hatch on the Jefferies Tube that entered the upper level of Engineering, he jerked it open, and at that speed, it should bounce back. He would be counting on the hope that it would not have lost most of its inertia, closing itself automatically. By that time, Larry would already be gone. A dive roll, and he was up on his feet, running up the 30-degree incline of the Jefferies tube. The main purpose of the Jefferies Tubes was a place to run all the Plasma Conduits and other assorted power and control cables without anyone tripping over, dropping things on, or damaging them. being isolated also kept people and equipment safe when surges made the aforementioned plasma conduits explode.
Being In Engineering, you learned where to put your feet, because you spent so much time in there, dodging all the cable runs becomes second nature. Running, however, was wearing him out. "This is good exercise," Larry panted, I'll have to do it more often..."
Turning a corner, was the ladder to Jefferies tube 4A. This would take him up two decks to a hatch near the lounge. Climbing was fun, but his caves were complaining loudly about this strange behavior. Hitting the hatch release button, Larry jumped through, much to the surprise of the crewmembers on the other side. As Larry hopped through, he started looking for Commander Varen. He didn't appear to be outside the lounge, so Larry started to enter, shoving his way through the crowded lunch line rush.
The doors to the lounge parted with a familiar whoosh as Marcus Varen stepped inside, adjusting the collar of his uniform and glancing around casually. He took one step forward—and then stopped.
There, already inside, slightly winded and radiating the smug satisfaction of a man who had just outrun a warp core breach, was Senior Chief Petty Officer Larry Lamontagne. Varen stared at him like he’d spotted a warp core sitting in the middle of the bar.
“You have to be kidding me.”
He narrowed his eyes, smirking.
“Did you phase through a bulkhead? I left before you called.”
He stepped up beside Larry and gave a theatrical sigh, then clapped him on the shoulder.
“All right, Chief. You win. Drinks and nachos are on me—just promise me whatever route you took doesn’t show up on the maintenance logs. I don’t want to get called into a meeting about ‘nonstandard crew movement.’”
He grinned, motioning toward an open booth.
“Come on. Before the crowd eats all the decent chips.”
OFF
Lieutenant Commander Marcus Varen
Chief Engineering Officer
&
Senior Chief Petty Officer Larry Lamontagne
Damage Control Specialist
and Engineering Leading Chief Petty Officer
/=\ End Transmission /=\