Training: Operations & Engineering

Posted on Mon Nov 24th, 2025 @ 8:46pm by Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen & Petty Officer 3rd Class Helliun Inant & Lieutenant Commander Christopher Evans & Lieutenant Rosaleen O'Donnell & Lieutenant JG Riaothren (Ren) ch'Shaorhs & Lieutenant JG Amari & Petty Officer 1st Class Jace Pim

2,368 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: To Boldly Go
Timeline: Day 9

[ON]

"I hate being early," Constantin Vansen told himself as he saw the corridor outside of the holodeck empty. And he had been early. That, or he was a day late and he was sure his Chief would have told him if that had happened. Even so, he checked to see if the holodeck was unoccupied...which it was.

That made him feel a little bit better.

He sat down though, back against the bulkhead and eyes on the door. One thing he hated was waiting around. He wasn't sure where he had gotten the habit of just sitting down on the floor when waiting, maybe it was about conserving energy. But he still did it. He had donned his Operations jumpsuit for this, the clothes he was most comfortable working in. Proper uniform was fine until you had to crawl through something, which was a hazard if you were Operations or Engineering. So, comfortable, equated to jumpsuit. It had made sense for him, as an enlisted, ever since he had joined Starfleet.

Chris Evans had been scheduled for a meeting involving several of the crew. The information said holodeck two so he made his way to the holodeck. Rounding the corner he saw Petty Officer Vansen sitting outside the holodeck and offered a smile and nod with a polite "hello."

"Alright, Chief," Vansen said with a smile and pushed himself up, stretching his arms over his head with a yawn.

They felt the air warm just a bit...like a warm summer breeze, just before Rosaleen came around the corner. "Looks like some folks are trying to gain bonus points for being early." She paused for a moment, assessing the bewildered looks on their faces before continuing. "I can't say that it's a bad thing." She sat her messenger bag against the wall and turned with a smile. "Rosaleen O'Donnell, Engineering Chief." Rosaleen had chosen to wear a combination of a uniform tunic top combined with a full length skirt that matched color-wise. Her long, red hair was pulled back into a tight bun, so as to keep it out of the way if things got a bit to carried away.

"Petty Officer Vansen, Operations," he said and gave he a gentle wave of his hand, a smile spreading over his face as he studied her. "If I'm not early, I am late so..." he glanced at the bag, curious. He knew what he carried stuff around, like his emergency hypo, but others tended to be just uniform and whatever they could stuff into their pockets without their Chief or any officer finding out.

As an outsider Amari didn't want to make any bad first impressions by being late to a training exercise, her distinctive white uniform already marked her out as different. When she rounded the corner to the holodeck she saw her department Chief, a Petty officer she didn't recognise and a man bearing two gold pips and a black put, she had to take a moment to recall which rank that was. "Good day Commander." She said in greeting to Evans,"

"Hello Lieutenant Amari" Evans returned the greeting with a smile. Amari was the first Lesrai he had the pleasure of meeting. He also took the time to give a nod and a smile to Lieutenant O'Donnell who was his counterpart in this training session.

Rosaleen smiled back at Evans. "So, what exactly has been cooked up for us this session? Rosaleen had some ideas of her own, but wasn't quite sure what the protocol was for these simulations. If it were up to her...well, she couldn't quite do that to them. At least not yet. "Does the Captain set these things up, or are we free to be creative." A sly smile crossed her face as she spoke the last few words.

"The training is up to us. So feel free to be creative" Chris smiled and quickly added "Just be aware the Captain is going to want a report on how the training went."

The room warmed a bit with her smile. "Well, alrighty then." She stepped up to the control panel and extracted a memory card from the small outside pocket of her bag. Inserting it into the designated slot, she started entering commands at a rapid pace. "Remember...you asked for this." The doors to the holodeck opened, and Rosaleen gestured to the group to enter.

"Asked seems like a very strong word," Vansen said as he walked in, looking around for a moment. Because he hadn't asked for anything. He was just an enlisted who came in, did what he was told, and then...well, usually went to bed.

Chris cracked a smile at the banter, but that smile quickly faded. "Here we go," he said as he wasn't really sure what Rosaleen had in store for them.

Heading into the holodeck Amari was nervous, all the reading and somewhat limited hands on skill with federation technology was about to be put to the test.

Teenagers were far more confrontational than Ren remembered being, though if he were honest, he might have been a tad bit biased, or perhaps deliberately painting himself in too favorable a light. In any event, asking Jairic to clean his room shouldn't have been an ordeal, but the argument had almost spiraled out of control. It did make him late, the last one to arrive, but he slipped in right behind a woman whose skin hue almost matched his own.

The doors opened onto the disaster that every member of a starship feared. Alarms blaring, various pipes bursting There was even a hole blasted through a Jeffries tube, sealed off behind a forcefield that seemed to take on a strange hue that told most experienced members of the crew it was likely to fail.

Even the warp core seemed to struggle, still working, yet the hum of it was somehow off. As if the electro plasma system was struggling.

They were 20 minutes away from a warp core breach. The ship had multiple systems failing, and power was at a premium.

The simulation was a top-notch program, Ren gave whoever designed it credit. If it had been real his antennae would have picked up on vibrations, vibrations that weren't there He pushed those thoughts aside and turned his attention to the console in front of him. He began to reroute power supplies allocating extra power to the failing shielding, trying to give the engineers as much additional time as he could.

Rushing to the console, Vansen looked around with wide eyes. He noticed the Chief Engineer stepping back, clearly trusting her team to figure it out. Which...okay, that was great for them. Not so great for himself who looked at the fluctuations. "Okay, I'm redirecting more power to the containment!" he called out.

"I'm on getting the plasma coolant systems going again! It's hotter than a sandcave here," Hel grinned as she walked over, looked at the console to see what was going on before popping open the panel on the wall that looked almost red hot. She let out a breath as she unzipped her jumpsuit to push the top down, tying the sleeves around her waist. She grabbed a tool kit, moving to practically crawl inside to try and get the coolant systems going again. One tank had ruptured, the other wasn't performing well enough to help stabilise the warp core. So...yes, work to do.

'A warp core breach...' Amari's mind raced; she'd read about the rather dramatic consequences of one but had no idea how to stop one. She looked around somewhat aimlessly. "Where can I help?"

"Pick a disaster!" Hel said with a warm smile, poking her head out for a moment. "See if you can redirect some of the heat, maybe work with Ops to divert power to the forcefield...we don't want anything to spike to the point we'll need to ask sickbay for assistance."

Amari moved to the console beside Ren, "Can we shut down anything nonessential? all the lights in the crew areas, things like that? should give us some extra power to work with."

"Good idea, and maybe our only hope," the Andorian replied. His fingers moved across the console, attempting to shut down everything that wasn't vital to the ship's operations and survival.

Vansen moved to to help, standing by Amari and Ren, his blue eyes slightly wild looking with the adrenaline he was feeling.

Hel grimaced as she finished, pulling away before she looked over at the warp core. Radiation levels were rising, she didn't need the announcement that was ringing to know it.

Radiation increase. Warp core temperature rising. Warning, radiation increase. Warp core temperature rising.

"I really want to shut the computer up," Hel muttered as she moved closer to the warp core, shaking her hands for a moment before she moved to the console there and kneeling, pulling the panel open. "Coolant system's operating again, but it's not enough to bring the core temperature down!" she called out.

The computer implant in Amari's arm light up brightly as she processed the incoming data from its scanner linked into the Fenrir's computer. "The warp plasma is far too hot, we need to vent it into space, as much of it as we can as quickly as possible." She announced though she wasn't 100 percent certain it was the correct method.

Hel breathed hard, nodding as she looked at her before she smiled. "Okay, you heard her!" she called out, her eyes shining with it. "We can achieve that by opening the ejection tube, but not ejecting the core. Means we need to seal Engineering and get a forcefield around the warp core. And that..." a wicked grin spread across her face. "Will be fun."

Vansen looked at them as if they were mad, before he finally nodded. "If the forcefield doesn't hold, everything will be sucked out. Including air. We need to be in our suits, tether ourselves ready. Just in case."

Ren didn't say anything in response. What was there to say? He just moved to the locker, grabbed a suit for himself, then began donning it after he moved to the side so others could follow suit.

Hel moved to Ren's side, getting her own on, glancing at him. She smiled, her teeth a bit too visible, studying him. "You keep a cool head," she said, with appreciation.

"Andorians are known for being cool and collected," he replied, trying to keep his expression neutral and his tone deadpan and failing at both, "just as we're known for using logic over emotions."

"Seriously, it helps that this is all a drill, but my heart is still racing. I just do a good job at hiding it."

"Ah," Hel nodded with acceptance at the words, considering it. "If this were real, I suspect I would be more concerned. I know what it looks like when the warp core is critical, when shields are down and the hull plating is ripped apart."

Ren was putting on the suit as the two of them spoke. By the time Hel had made her last comment, he was reaching for the helmet to put it on. He paused, left antennae curling forward. "You know what it looks like on a personal basis?" He asked,"You've actually experienced something like this?"

She grabbed her helmet, holding it with one hand before she put her finger to her scar. "Got the souvenir to show for it," she said and smiled, putting her helmet on.

He nodded, His expression unreadable, it would have been unreadable even with the helmet off. "You want to share?"

"Maybe after this exercise. Over a drink," she said and hit his arm, lightly for her, still an impact felt, as she moved to her post. She attached the tether and looked around. Others were doing it as well. "Okay! Amari, we're ready!"

Ren did his best not to wince. He was, after all, an Andorian and had a reputation to uphold. He smiled, though she couldn't see it. No one could. "Drinks sound good." They did Just drinks with another crew member. No expectations.

"That sounds brilliant."

"Alright. Computer erect a level 10 forcefield around the warp core, maximum reinforcement. Close isolation doors." A moment later, the outside of the core was bathed in light for a moment as the forcefield shimmered into life while doors, both small and large, partitioned off sections of the engineering bay. She paused to take a deep breath. This was her idea, and she still wasn't sure it was the right one. "Begin plasma venting."

The venting sequence triggered with a violent hiss, the holodeck filling with the deep roar of plasma streaming into space. Forcefields shimmered around the core, straining and then holding steady as the glow dimmed from critical to stable. The alarms cut one by one, first the shrill tone of the radiation warning, then the flat drone of the temperature alert, until only the hum of the warp engines remained. The sudden quiet seemed louder than the noise had been.

There was a flickering of light.Bulkheads dissolved into pixels of light before fading entirely, the heat of Engineering cooling away to nothing. The warp core collapsed in on itself until there was only an empty void, the great chamber vanishing into the familiar yellow-on-black grid. The holodeck lights steadied overhead. No alarms, no forcefields, just the quiet reassurance that this time it had been nothing more than a drill.

Vansen exhaled, looking around at the others before he smiled. "Did we do it?" he asked, with hope in his eyes. He guessed so, because the other alternative had been that he had blinked when they had exploded the ship...which he hoped he hadn't. That would have been embarrassing.

But yes, they had done it.

OFF:

PO3 Helliun Inant
Engineer
USS Fenrir
[PNPC Hanlon]

PO3 Constantin Vansen
Operations
USS Fenrir
[PNPC Hanlon]

Lieutenant Jg Amari
Engineer
USS Fenrir

Lt.(jg) Riaothren (Ren) ch'Sharohs
Asst. Chief Operations Officer
USS Fenrir

Lt. Rosaleen O'Donnell
Chief Engineer
USS Fenrir

Lt. Commander Christopher Evans
Chief Operations Officer
USS Fenrir

 

RSS Feed