Star Trek: Starbase 777 - village-power-generators

Standing not too far away from the warehouses, were the colony's very own power generators. A series of tall towers, they followed the sun's movement and fed the generated energy into the large batteries that they were connected to. Whoever approached said place could see a couple of workers, discussing something while looking at a PADD.

“Sick.” He muttered, taking a second to brush yet another piece of his bangs out of his eyes.

“Whoaa..” He said quietly. Solar powered.. cool. You didn’t see much of that on a Starbase with a fusion reactor.

She followed along, keeping squarely behind the officers so no one might mistake her for someone in charge. As the group approached, she tried to get a good look at the generators, if she recognized the technological origin, or if she thought she could see something wrong. Technical problems rarely had the good manners to be obvious, but a woman can dream. “Those are pretty cool. Local or from somewhere else?”

Both of the people turned around to look at the new arrivals, the timing almost comical. One of them offered a short wave to the guide, while the other one quite literally puffed up with pride, "We did this ourselves. Design and build and all. We've already got some of the generators running again, but there's work for everyone. Let's see..." The other one piped up then, counting on her fingers: "Number 4, 6, and 13 have not been attended to yet. Maybe we can ask them to take a look?.."

”Alright I see, sun power, smart!” A lot of colonies turned towards natural and renewable sources for powering up their settlements. She lightly whistled looking at the towers. “Those look great, we could definitely take some out of your plate, if you could provide the specifications? I wouldn’t want to mess any of that beautiful pieces up by accident.”

"I can share our map of issues," the human waved the PADD around. "It'll make things easier for both parties, I think."

“Split up and grab the generators in twos?” He asked his fellow officers, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Sure! Sounds like a plan to me.” He replied. Three generators didn’t seem like a massive or especially horrible task, it would be fun! Especially because he didn’t really get to do things like this a lot, it was good enrichment. “You wanna get #4 with me?” He asked Ed.

“Hell yeah!” He whooped, a bit too loud for the situation at hand, “Let’s see what’s up.”

Long story short, the engineers were handed a nifty little map-scan of the aforementioned towers, where the issue zones were highlighted in red. For number four, it was mostly the standard wear-out of the outer casing - there was a note suggesting replacements, and judging by the stuff around it, the required materials were already brought over. Number six and thirteen both had a similar array of issues, though the latter seemed to be the worst one - frayed wires and issues with plugs, as well as a weak battery.

The Trill glanced down to her own PADD, turning her head to the side as she muttered to herself. Ideas, mainly. Slowly, she made her way to #13, glancing up a moment later to visually assess it.

“Sounds good.” She headed over to follow their guide to whatever generator needed a little fixing. Wasting no time, she puts on gloves and starts checking that it’s disconnected from the grid before touching anything electrified. “Do you have trouble getting parts? A lot of this looks like deferred maintenance.”

Tavek headed over to #4, taking a moment to look it over before getting started. Disconnecting it from the power grid first (he wasn’t keen on being electrocuted yet again), he got out the necessary tools and began to take off the worn-out outer casing. “Hey Ed, any music recommendations?” After the whole prison debacle, he’d really started taking advantage of the fact that he could in fact become a living speaker, and he sometimes just played music whenever he was working on something with one of his friends- mainly Silver and Shinji, but the other engineers had definitely heard it once or twice.

The thirteenth generator stood strong, despite the mentions of a bad weather season happening not too long ago. As for Shocei's question, one of the locals present offered a mildly offended scoff: "These are the oldest generators. We've have them numbered by order. Old age, many problems, more issues with extreme weathers. But, they still work just fine, so we're not too keen on retiring them just yet. Makes us have stuff to do, also." "It's good to have backups," the other one offered a tad bit more kindly. As the two engineers worked on number four, they would find that the repair process came easy - the outer casing had a rather simple yet sturdy system to it's shell, which made the task of taking off the older parts a no-brainer. Some of the damaged parts sported almost claw-like markings on them.

“Anything classic. Journey?” He chuckled, taking his own look over the generator. “We’ve got the shit to just grab the old bits, right?” He pursed his lips, “Looks like something used these as a scratching post.”

”Old doesn’t necessarily mean out of date, I hear ya!” Garcia decided to move to #6 and take a look at what the tower could need behind the main panels.

Six needed help with some of it's wiring and plugs. Nothing too dramatic, all things considered.

He obliged, putting on Journey at a polite volume- good for them to hear, but not so loud as to annoy everyone else. He’d made that mistake enough times before. “Yeah yeah, we should be fine taking all this off and putting on the new stuff.” He said, detaching a part of the casing in order to lift it off before noticing the claw marks, “That’s a big kitty to be making these.. I hope the wildlife’ll leave us alone while we work.” He said, lifting the part out and putting it down.

She set to work then, happily humming by the tune the other engineers had chosen. It was a pretty ample space so she could still hear it even if a bit farther. If anyone stopped by to help, crew mate or colonist, she would have welcomed them too. Any extra hands counted!

“Sure, older just means they have opinions, which is a terrible quality in a machine.” Heading over to give a hand with generator 13, she drops her toolkit and starts assessing the battery system. Replacing the wires is simple, but she finds the wear a little strange. What’s caused the wear? She’s particularly looking for mechanical damage or signs the wires were being overloaded.

“Look, old bits in stuff means there’s things that can be improved” He hummed, taking out the tools he had clipped to his belt, “People being old is different.”

O…pinions? She had no idea what the PO meant by that. Was it a joke comparing people and non-sentient machines? She saved her questions, if anything to not be accidentally inconvenient or rude with the other officer. When Ed spoke up she was left even more lost than she already had been. Well, better to focus on her repairs. “Maybe I’m getting too old to understand.” She chuckled to herself.

Tavek, having heard that, quieted the music for a second to call out, “Hey, I’m only 16 and I’ve got opinions, you calling me old?” He laughed, before taking off yet more of the old casing. God, he hoped that got across okay, he just kind of assumed everyone knew he was an android.

He snickered, moving to pry off the other side of the casing as they chatted. “Damn, you should be at the club.”

“A new engine works how it’s supposed to. A fifty year old engine makes demands before it kicks on.” She looks around at the group, particularly at Tavek, who she doesn’t think looks like a teenager, but there are certainly people and species she hasn’t met yet. “Living things have lots of opinions, normal and fine. But I don’t like having to answer demands to get conduits to work.” To make her point, she ripped out a wire that she was convinced had been chewed on by some small animal. With a sigh, she shakes through her case to find a spool of appropriate replacement.

“Yours are all gnawed up, too?” He glanced over, seeing the bitten wire that she discarded, “Anyone have a clue what managed to get into all of them?”

Some of the damage seemed to be weathering from age and occasional overload - perhaps in the times when there were not enough generators yet, or during the times of need? Other damage seemed to be that of a physical nature. Like the lovely nail marks on the insides of the generator's outer casings, for example.

After ensuring the circuit breaker was in it's correct position, Jayri moved to detach the battery from the generator. "Some of them are just wear and tear, no? Nothing too strange. Can't say for the rest of the damage." She muttered, as she connected the leads of the new battery to her tricorder to test it before it went it.

”Careful!” Garcia warned over her own tower, with a sing song quality on her voice, as she replaced some of the plugs on #6. “Your tower might get a bit temperamental after hearing all of that!”

She looked over the casings and sighed. Planetary installations had the misfortune of dealing with “ecosystems” and “living things.” Clearly some kind of critter had been having a snack. “Yeah, some of these are running on margin already. Also rats. Whatever rats are here.” She balled up a piece of the chewed-on wire and tossed it over to illustrate. “Claw marks on the insides too,” she turns to address their local guides, “Do you have a pest problem? Exobiology might be able to help you with mitigation.”

“Nasty little critters, whatever these things are. I’ve only ever worked on ships and Starbases, so we never had to deal with wildlife. Only things trying to kill me or break my shit were other sapient things.” He commented to Ed as he took the last of the outer casing off, its weight not bothering him one bit as he lowered it to the ground. Android privileges.*

Jayri could conclude that the new battery worked perfectly, before putting it in. The repairs in general were going rather smoothly. Good job, team! The two locals, who were chatting amongst each other while sorting through old wires... suddenly went silent, hearing the talk about pests. "... We're working on that," one of them said eventually, tone distant, if not a bit cold.

”Oh so you know whats causing these.” She took away the last of the messed up wiring. Most of it seemed simply rusty and old, but some looked chewed on like on the other towers. “Maybe a fence… maybe we could try forcefield… theres quite a few options and a lot of them would cause no harm to the animals, just keep them at bay.” The best solution was always one that could preserve the wildlife, they had been here before any of them after all.

Looking up from what she was working on, she looked at them with eyes slightly narrowed. “Yeah, hypersonic traps also work, they’re annoying but non-harmful. Do you know what kind of animal it is?”

"We're not stupid, we can work this shit out ourselv--" "God, will it kill you to be kind?!" the human girl hissed at her colleague, shutting him up immediately. She then quickly turned back to the engineers: "Yeah, traps! We're working out the best design for traps. They are... huge rodents. Local burrowing species. Mhm. Our newer generators are well protected against them."

”Hey hey!” She quickly turned her head to both of them, a genuinely confused expression. “Offering ideas is not the same as calling you stupid… it’s just what we are here for. To help, right?“ She offered them a smile. “That’s all we want to offer.” Maybe she was done with her tower too?

"Exactly," the nicer one nodded, while the other one sighed with defeat. Garcia was, indeed, done with her tower. Splendid job!

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There was something about that pause that he didn’t like.. he was just being an anxious wreck, as usual. Not everything was out to get him and his friends. It was just some kind of pest issue, that was all, and worrying wouldn’t get him anywhere. He lifted the new outer casing into position, helping Ed secure it onto the generator.

The new casing had a subtle design on it. Something... circular...

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“Hey Ed, come look at this circle thingy.” He whispered to his fellow engineer, trying to gesture at the design subtly enough that either no one would notice, or they’d assume they were just doing something engineering-related. In the meantime, he tried to get a better look at it.

He blinked, having zoned out quite a bit while working, before moving a step closer. “Oh?” He furrowed his brow, mumbling in response, “That’s weird.”

Without a hint of humor, Shocei said, “Well it’s pretty stupid to put off maintenance and run on margin like this. The system takes its toll whether you want to or not.” It wasn’t exactly unkind, but there was a scathing undertone. She took her maintenance obligations seriously. Also she made a career of fixing these kinds of problems.

"Oh wo-o-o-o-ow, would you look at that, someone understands the basic math here," the male crooned, ignoring his colleagues balking expression. Clearly he was waiting for this... "Did you deliberately miss everything we've said previously, about these being the occasional backups? Or the fact that we have shit going on here that makes all of this damage, in one day sometimes? Fucking Starfleet and their incessant fucking talking, you can't even imagine what we--" "ENOUGH!" the human woman snapped, voice ringing through the field. She then turned towards the engineering team: "I'd urge you to proceed back into the city. Normally, the head of our colony comes out at the end of the day to give their thanks for your hard work before you leave. Said thanks includes local cuisine. Can't miss that." (edited)

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As Jayri picked up her tools as she closed the hatch to the battery, her ear caught the conversation, instigating a little chuckle in the engineer. A few diplomacy classes would've gone a long way for the PO. She had just finished plugging in a load bank when the woman's voice rang out. "I suspect that would be lovely, ma'am. Just need to perform a load test to ensure it's all working properly over here." (edited)

She seems a little taken aback, but not completely shocked. Still, she takes the few minutes to properly wrap up everything she was working on, down to new heat-shrink around the cable connections. “Ready to test here.”

She switched the circuit breaker back on, flipping the load switches one at a time until it was at full capacity. Her eyes then quickly glanced over to her tricorder readings, monitoring the output and watching for any abnormalities.

Shocei steps back from the generator to watch the test, but stays close enough to watch for the magic black smoke that makes it work (electrical fire).

“Asshole.” He mouthed, facing away from the others before turning to watch the rest as well.

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Tavek stepped back too. So ungrateful, in his opinion, and kind of creepy? The circles were still weird, completely unnecessary for the casing’s function, and what sane person decorated something that most people didn’t even see? He stuck by Ed, really hoping that running their mouths wouldn’t get them tortured this time. But he’d caught what Ed mouthed, or at least he thought he did, so he nodded in assent.

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Shit. Well. Shit. These kinds of diplomatic missions always tended to maybe go a bot south, specially cause there would always be people who didn’t personally agree with having outsiders help their community. Kinda made her wish for Tarsek to be here. As the team gathered to start the final tests she got right next to the PO. “Shocei, right? I’d like a word if possible.” Her face was not particularly stern, actually Garcia seemed quite relaxed and even offered the other a soft smile. She kept her tone down, no need to announce to everyone, and she hopped they were focused on the testing.

Due to the engineering's good work - and maybe the tech feeling the sudden absolutely rancid vibes of the field - it all seemed to be working just fine. The new battery installation was a success!

Shocei looked up from the array of wires she’d replaced with a slightly curious expression. She didn’t seem too on edge, no more than any engineer hoping that their repairs work. “Yessir. What do you need?”

“Nice work.” Tavek commented, holding up a hand if Ed wanted to hi-five. It just felt right.

“Hell yeah. All done.” He breathed a sigh of relief, although he really couldn’t feel much of it thanks to the strange turn of the vibe in here. He definitely did high five Tavek. Fuck yeah.

”I know sometimes its hard to deal with hostility… but I’m afraid that’s part of our job, specially when we put ourselves out there to help others no matter if they are affiliated or not.” She started. By then maybe Shocei could already point out what her intentions were. “But there is no need for us to feed into that hostility. Calling them stupid, indirectly, was out of line. There are ways to put your suggestions out there and that was not an acceptable one. Can you understand that?”

She blinked a few times, otherwise not giving much away on her face. Her flat affect made most of the things she said seem a little more serious than intended. “I wasn’t given a cultural brief so I wasn’t aware of what to expect. I’ll keep that in mind.” Casting a look back at the generators, she added in the same flat tone, “None of this work will last in these conditions. Not to mention this should’ve been handled here. Was this scope of work misrepresented or are we really out here doing routine maintenance for an ill-equipped system destined to fail without serious upgrades?”

Okay, fair. Very fair. “Alright, um… what’s next? We’ve got the generators working, are we gonna get to fix other stuff?” He asked, moving to sit cross-legged against the one they’d just fixed, “And… maybe call a pest specialist?”

"I think we've already exhausted the help you can bring here," the woman replied, offering them a smile that did not reach her eyes. Leave, was the translation.

“Uh… okay. Cool. So, you’re just gonna deal with the stuff with the other people and we’ll head out?” He asked, brows furrowed but trying to return the smile.

"Mhm." Good lord.

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”Then our job is done, yes!” She made a point of giving Shocei another look as she spoke while nodding. “Good work everyone, lets go were we can be useful yes? Maybe the other teams need assistance. And next time we can double check the work in the briefings so none of it is misinterpreted.” She looked at both of their… guides. “If you are sure this is all you needed, me and the rest will go back then. But, if anything else pops up and we are still here, I’m Lt. Cdr. Garcia, feel free to ask.” Putting all of those years woking on a diplomatic vessel to good use it seemed. She couldn’t blame the others though. They were younger and probably not used to this. Something to report when she got back.

She shrugged and goes to pick up her tools. Judging by her rank and bearing, she has probably not been on many away missions, and on even fewer where she actually spoke to anyone. Her job was not talking, clearly. There was also the general under-socialization of engineers. She spoke quietly enough that only someone really trying to eavesdrop on the conversation would hear, “Not trying to cause problems. It’s just kind of kicking the can down the road for all of us.”

Ed stood, brushing himself off and shooting the guide who had been a little weird around him another smile, trying to be at least cheery with it. Surely she meant well and didn’t want them to be harmed. Surely. “Lead the way, boss.”

So weird.. still, he at least didn’t want to -seem- mistrustful. So, he gave a little smile of his own and followed Ed and Garcia out. He hoped he’d be home sooner rather than later.

And with that, they left for the town square! Were the people watching them as they left?..

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