Fixing a Problem
Posted on Thu Aug 6th, 2026 @ 5:59am by Lieutenant Wynning Pi & Lieutenant JG Tavian Rhos
Edited on on Fri Aug 7th, 2026 @ 10:35am
2,522 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Mission 1: Through the Janus Gate
Location: Bridge - USS Resolute
Timeline: MD002 - 1040 Hours
Wyn distractedly rode the lift, scrolling through diagrams and sensor logs. He had things to do, but there was getting to be a back log of little things that were adding up and most of his engineers were chasing those while the rest were taking care of either required training or maintenance schedules that he'd rescheduled since coming aboard.
He' taken over as Chief Engineer and his predecessor seemed competent, but Wyn wasn't going to take assurances from someone who wasn't aboard anymore. So, he'd checked the recent supposed level three diagnostic updates on the primary systems to see when they'd been done and by who, then rotated the jobs so fresh eyes looked at everything and gotten his crew to work. That was what had Wyn away from his coffee and office this watch.
Chasing down what looked like a bad signal transponder on the main bridges flight control station. Still distracted, Wyn registered that the lift had stopped a few seconds late and stepped out of the bridge. He looked around for a few minutes, feeling the compartment. He knew for a fact that the life support registered in the green. Gravity plating was all set to the captain's specs, as was the lighting and temperature. The inertial damping fields were due to be pulled apart for a look during the next watch, but their feedback was all in the green as well.
But still. It was the bridge of a starship and it the air felt both heavy and slightly charged at the same time.
Shrugging it off, before people might turn to stare at him, Wyn stepped to one of the unused mission ops stations, powered it up, then brought up programming that would slave helm controls to it once everything was ready. He informed the bridge command officer then stepped next to flight control. "Lieutenant? I'm going to have to inconvenience you for a few minutes. Well, hopefully just a few minutes," he amended with a smile.
"Hi, Lieutenant," Tavian said back and offered a quizzical smile. Gold uniform, but not a face he had met yet. Unsurprising as he'd been playing catchup a bit since arriving on board late. Still, he might as well have a little fun with whatever disruption Engineering or Operations was about to throw into his day. "Are we talking an inconvenience like, turn the ship around right now or the warp core is going to explode? Or just like, you need to borrow my boots to test deck-plating conductibility upgrades? Because I really like my boots, you see. Sure we can't do the warp core breach instead?"
"Too much paperwork in something like that," Wyn said with a smile. "And too much mess. No, we were monitoring this consoles command-response efficiency. Well, Operations has been," he corrected as he brought up the current diagnostics on his PADD. "There's about a four milli-second delay that stretches to almost six under power stress simulations. Five is the tolerance for this class. Mine is four and I think we can get three. Eventually." Pausing, Wyn decided he was proselytizing, he looked up and said. "That's probably too much information. Basically, I need you to monitor flight ops through the station over there while I take a look at this one. Probably some fatigued chips, bad connections or a sensor."
The pilot chuckled, glad that the other man had a sense of humour. As the problem was laid out though, he immediately understood. It seemed like a small number, though Tav agreed it was already too high, but if it were that bad now then the problem could continue to grow. If that happened at the worst possible time, it could mean the difference between a correct evasive pattern, or taking a torpedo strike to a weakened shield. He nodded once, tapped the controls to log himself out of the station, and smoothly rose from his chair. "Be my guest. I'm Tav, by the way, nice to meet you."
A good deal shorter than the engineer, he moved quickly still over to the indicated station and logged back in there. The Computer swiftly reconfigured the format for him to bring up helm controls again, just in a different layout. Taking a wide stance, almost as if he were at the rudder of a sailing ship, Tav glanced back over his shoulder and nodded, "All set."
Wyn was silent for a few beats as he opened the console up. Then the comment registered in his brain and he looked up. "Wha??...oh. Yeah. You too. I'm Wynning Pi..but everyone mostly calls me Wyn." Once he had the console open, Wyn pulled his PADD from his forearm. Flattened it and slapped it against the headrest of the console's seat. The micro-cling plate grabbed a hold of the material and he pulled a tricorder from a holster, tied it to the console and then gave it ten beats before disconnecting the console as the primary helm.
Looking up to Tavian, he said, "Ok. Tests all come back green. I confirm, helm is re-routed to that station." Then back down, he entered some commands and set the console into Level One diagnostic mode. His tricorder flared as it began running tests through the various components, one by one. As the tricorder worked the first stages, he straightened and glanced around the bridge, then over his shoulder at the viewer. "New to the ship then...Tav was it? I am. Came over from DS four."
"Just got in yesterday," Tav confirmed. He ran his own quick check to make sure their course and speed hadn't deviated. Then he pulled up the latest from Astrometrics to see if long-range sensors had noticed anything that might recommend an adjustment. All routine. He didn't offer his former ship's name, instead chatted away and asked, "What's DS4 like, Wyn? Never been there before. And are you excited about a ship posting?"
Wyn began peeling the layering of the console apart as his tricorder shifted, each one fanning upwards like pages of a book and locking into place so he could access things layer by layer. "So far so good," he murmured. As Tav's words registered he thought about that then said, "We spent a year or so shutting DS four down. Decommissioned and maybe going to be broken up. Last I heard, a decision hadn't been made. Posting here should be pretty exciting. Lots of work to do and that's good."
He'd caught up to the scan his tricorder was conducting so he knelt to pull the open the console's floor access and glanced over everything to look at his PADD, which was running a comparison to the primary sensor feed he'd taken for reference with variances showing in red. Looking up at Tav he said, "What about you. Sovereign class department head as a J.G. is a plum assignment. You must be pretty happy."
Tav looked away before the weight of the empathy in his eyes might be caught. He felt for Wyn far more than he wanted to let on. There was something so poignant about that, being a part of the team that put your station, your home, to rest. The pilot focused on his screen for a time until he was sure he had his expression under control. Still, his voice was a little strained as he answered, "Sorry I didn't get the chance to see the station. I bet there were a lot of great stories. And yeah, I got real lucky with this post, still don't know how I managed it what with all the demerits." That brought a grin back to his face. "Maybe the others who applied were even worse!"
Crouched, Wyn's voice echoed just slightly as he leaned into the housing to visually inspect the systems. His nose caught the scent of fried gel-pack before the tricorder picked up on it, but he let the system continue to cycle for the thirty seconds it would take to make up it's mind that his nose was right.
"One of those things. You miss the people more than the place. We had some good times, but you look toward the next ones." He activated the counsel's interior lights and looked down at the gelpack.
Looked to be just out of comfortable reach, of course.
Murmuring something about BuShips architects mothers, Wyn pulled his head back out he glanced at the PADD's readings and let the cycle run. Then keyed it to switch channels and run again, backwards to see how the compatibility nodes and settings were aligned. By then his brain had time to sift through the Tav's remarks and said, "Demerits are a good thing. You take things too serious and you forget to have fun." Fixing his eyes on the helmsman, he said, "One thing you learn in Engineering is small things make the difference. And it sounds like you have some stories yourself. How about reminding me to eat whenever you decide to tonight and we'll catch a couple of drinks in the lounge and discuss who got into trouble more?"
Grinning, Wyn's eyes flicked to the PADD readout and he noticed it was now picking up a couple of bad Iso-rods for the consoles twitch responses. Which would explain why they were getting the delay.
"Yeah, I get that," Tav had said about missing the people, a bit subdued. But his mood brightened immediately at the 'demerits are a good thing' bit. "Can I have you with me to say that next time I get chewed out by a commanding officer? For some reason I can never get them to understand why my ideas are always right and they should just listen to me."
The pilot paused for a moment as an update came through from Astrometrics, running through the data about a change in gravimetric readings in the next light-year they were passing through. He worked out the smallest course correction possible that wouldn't add too much time to their intercept, just about an extra minute altogether. The Resolute moved easily, not even a vibration announcing the alteration.
"Sure, dinner & drinks with a fellow troublemaker, sounds like fun. They serving anything good at the mess tonight, or is it replicators all around?"
Wyn saw the feed on his PADD stop then firm up and he reached over to fiddle with the numbers, running the scan back and forth. Then he dove back into the console with one hand, slightly skinning the top of his head as he reached and was just able to pull two chips. Dropping them on the deck, he ran his hand back in and disconnected one of the packs and it's housing, drawing it back up. There was dried gel around the fitting that had come loose somehow. He pulled out a bio-hazard bag and put the chips and pack in.
He tapped commands into his tricorder, double checking that it was just the easily replaceable components that were acting up. Straightening and feeling the top of his head to see if he'd drawn blood, he nodded. "I dunno. Probably replicated something or other. I don't remember a gally being mentioned. And I haven't gotten around to fine tuning the replicators yet. So food will be food, but the company is welcomed...Tav." Wyn tried it out as his tricorder lit up and he grunted in satisfaction.
Wyn pulled a brace of new chips from a pocket, peeled them clear of their protective wrapping and worked his way back into the console, starting by feel before feeling like an idiot and saying. "Computer. Show me the inside of this console." A few seconds and the image came up on the tricorders holo and he was able to get both chips in. Then he took one of the gel packs he'd brought with from a leg pocket and threaded it into the console. He'd watched enough old films that it sort of reminded him of hooking up an IV.
Once everything was in place, he activated the auto-sealing functions and began running tests. Finally able to stand, he said, "I swear. I could use arms that were about a foot longer and maybe a three fingered hand would make it easier to replace some of these things. Or they might make the accesses bigger." Blinking he glanced around, realizing that it was bad form for actual people to hear him complaining.
It was an Engineer thing.
Glancing up to Tav, he smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Sorry for the grousing. Where were we?"
Tav had just laughed at the idea, "Make the helm much bigger, and I'm going to start feeling like a child in the pilot's seat! No, I guess it's the third arm for you, my friend. Maybe Medical can give you an injection to grow one." In reality, he was always impressed by the sheer amount of both technical and physical knowledge the engineering teams had to manage.
"I take it you're on Alpha shift too? I was going to do a silent-broody-thing after dinner tonight -- gotta keep people guessing, y'know? Can't always be bright and friendly, that's too predictable -- but we can definitely meet up and see how bad the replicators are working before that." He frowned. Another alert from Astrometrics, another adjustment due to radiation patterns ahead, and another few seconds lost as he altered the course once again.
"We all set to try transferring controls back?"
Wyn moved his PADD back to wrap around is wrist. Then picked up the tricorder to keep monitoring the transfer while he nodded. "Yes. Everything should be good to go now." He fiddled with the tricorder and then continued. "Thirty seconds and the helm will have full functions again, with the mission station taking over monitoring."
As they switched, he said, "And yes, I'm on Alpha, though I work when there's stuff to do. And there's always things to do. They completed switching over and he watched data scroll on the mission station. "So you might as well put off the silent broody thing, hey?" Wyn smiled as he went to replacing the helm's panels and seal the console up.
So far the numbers were all within specifications.
And nothing had started on fire.
Tav hurried back down to the usual helm, logged back in. Then he helped with the last bit of putting the station back to order, holding the cover for Wyn to seal it back up. "Appreciate the attention to detail, Lieutenant! Wouldn't have wanted to find out the hard way about that reaction delay, for sure. Not that I can't outfly a Pakled, of course, but y'know."
The pilot gave Wyn a big grin as he slid into his chair once more. "I'll swing by Engineering after the shift if you're still working. Just promise, no pausing dinner to tweak a replicator, alright? Even if all it is making is Denebian Slime Devils."
A joint post by:
Lieutenant Wynning Pi
CEO USS Resolute
Lieutenant (j.g.) Tavian Rhos
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Resolute
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