The Pyramid (part 2)

Posted on Tue Mar 3rd, 2020 @ 10:41am by Lieutenant Mira Jayna & Commander Hans Munich & Lieutenant T'Pral & Ensign Kela Sirel

1,919 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Food for the Gods
Location: Planetside

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

"There is still minimal power flowing," T'Pral reported. "Most likely a residual self-sustaining reaction, or perhaps battery power." She closed her tricorder and peered at the corridor illuminated before her. It was a definite contrast to the Steampunk society outside. This was clearly more advanced. All white and angles, it didn't look completely unlike a Starfleet corridor.

[NEW]

"This way," she said, leading the way into the structure.

Jayna was fascinated by the inside of the pyramid. It was far more advanced than she originally thought, and made her even more curious about why Ronnie and Shan were taken and where they were now. "Fascinating," she said. "Once the device is repaired, we might be able to get some data off of it."

Having used some evasion tactics Munich managed to find the entrance to the Pyramid and with his Tricorder as a guide caught up to Jayna and T'Pral.

"This is a change." Munich mentioned as he took the steps forward. "I think we can say this is closer to the transmission source?"

"Indeed," T'Pral said in reply.

"This pyramid is clearly advanced," Jayna said. "Once Lieutenant T'Pral repairs the device, I'd like to see if we can learn who built it...and why."

The Vulcan nodded as she eyed her tricorder, using it as a sort of homing device to wind their way through the structure. "It is fascinating." Her readings were getting stronger, and she was confident they were on the right path. Before long, she was rewarded with their quarry.

A large reactor core pulsated gently within a wide chamber, computer systems displaying an array of messages in unknown text arrayed on the walls. Red bars illuminated the top and bottom of the displays affixed directly to the reactor, communicating some kind of error. Another display off to the side showed a signal output, alongside the Starfleet general request frequency. "I would say that is your transmitter, Commander," T'Pral reported as she moved towards the core. She began a systematic scan of the reactor, looking for the fault that generated the message. The computers themselves wouldn't help as she was not familiar with that language, and likely their control schemes. She would have to do this the old-fashioned way.

"It seems," T'Pral said after a few minutes of scanning, "the system has been fully automated far longer than it was designed for. The fuel systems are fully stocked, and there is an antimatter generator deeper in the complex, but the output is... limited. I am detecting material buildup in the manifolds and mis-aligned magnetic containment." She closed her tricorder and turned to the others, "It just needs what humans might call a... tune-up."

"Do you need help to perform this tune up?" Jayna asked.

T'Pral turned askance to Jayna and offered a nod. "Indeed, more hands will make the work quicker. How familiar are you with matter-antimatter reactors?"

"Not very," Jayna admitted. "But I know computers and I take direction."

"I know a bit," Hans said. "I will help, too."

"Very well," T'Pral replied. "Let us get to work then." She scanned the machine again, this time in an effort to determine the most efficient methods of repair. After a moment, she closed her tricorder and approached one of the side panels. Pulling a hyperspanner out that was tucked invisibly into the folds of her dress, she began the work. "There should be a tool locker nearby. We will need them."

Jayna nodded and began to look around. She opened several compartments before finding the toolkit. "Here it is," she said, setting it beside the other two.

While they worked, Jayna went back to exploring, looking for anything that would give her information on who built the pyramid, and why the people on this planet "fed" the providers.

This time, she went through the compartments, pulling out anything that looked interesting and scanned it. It was clearly advanced, but there was little to indicate who the builders were.

"Be nice if they had diagrams." Munich said as he managed to follow lines of power; some Damage Control exercises allowed him some experience from years of working with ship repairs. "I will leave the more complex repairs to your direction T'Pral."

The vulcan nodded once without looking away form her work, "Indeed."

"It would," Jayna replied. "I will see if I can find anything." She continued to search, going from compartments to machines. There were tools, somewhere there had to be diagrams.

She found them in a hard-to-find compartment behind the machine. It was much more than she expected. Not only did it diagram the machine, it showed that it was connected to a second machine three miles underground. "There's an underground facility beneath this one."

"We will need to verify the function of that system as well," T'Pral said absently, having turned from her repair to examine the diagrams. "These will be useful," she offered. A finger traced one of the feed lines and she nodded, "The general design of matter-antimatter reactors is similar across species. Physics does not change with culture. But the small-scale specifics can vary widely."

She looked at the others, "The matter feed lines will be simpler to maintain. Here," she indicated a point on the diagram, "is the access point for cleaning out the matter manifold. I will work on the antimatter feed lines and magnetic alignment."

"I'll start on the matter feed line," Jayna offered, selecting what she would need for the job.

"The comm systems seems operational so I will do the cleaning the Matter manifold; Damage Control gets the dirty jobs ." Munich joked. "If you need any help just call." He turned to head to the entrance point.

When Jayna finished her work, she started poking around to see if she could learn how the machine worked. There were a few diagrams, but the Universal Translator didn't have enough information to read them.

"My progress is adequate," the Vulcan reported. T'Pral had the antimatter feed system apart and was continually scanning it with her tricorder. Every so often she would reach in with the equivalent of a hyperspanner and adjust one of the magnetic containment fields. This system was more complicated than the others, and she was taking more care. It wouldn't do to have antimatter veering into the walls of the feed line and causing a catastrophic explosion, after all. Every adjustment had an increase in efficiency down the line, translating to higher power output. It was incremental in nickels and dimes, but it was progress.

"After the containment fields are aligned, I need to purge the particle buildup from the system. Lieutenant," she addressed Jayna who seemed to be poring over some documents, "please locate the self cleaning mechanism and how to activate it. If this system is akin to a Starfleet MARA it should have such a function."

"Self cleaning. Right." Jayna went over the diagrams again. This time, she was seeing the pattern. It allowed her to eliminate options. There were three she wasn't sure about. They were all potential options. She ran her fingers over the images on a control panel. Two of the three lit up. Well, if they were on, and the other off, maybe that needed to be on? She pressed the pad by the image and the light came on. "Did that do it?" she asked T'Pral.

"Yes," the Vulcan replied simply. T'Pral kept the access panel open while the cycle started. She wanted to make sure it actually did what it was supposed to, and didn't make things worse. She flicked open her tricorder and started taking readings of the open manifold. She nodded to herself, noting the system seemed to be behaving. "Once this cycle is complete I will turn up the power incrementally to ensure we don't have a catastrophic cascade failure."

When Jayna's job was done, she began to look for a way to get more information on the pyramid and the machine. Especially that machine underground. She hoped that the more she found, the more the UT would have to decrypt the language. At least enough for her to fill in the gaps. "Too bad there's not an AI," she muttered, careful not to accidentally trigger the wrong thing as she looked. The last thing they needed was an explosion.

Finally, by moving what looked like a cabinet, she found a diagram showing the two machines and a what looked like a slide. It looked like it was where Shan and Ronnie had gone. There was a way down, but no sign of a way back. She scanned it so she could send it back to the ship when they were finished here.

She scanned anything else she could find, too, just in case.

It was not the most desired job but manifolds did get dirty over time; luck is he found a locker with suits to keep his clothing neater but his arms and face were not so clean as he wiped them down when he exit after getting the job done.

"When I became XO I thought myself relieved of the more Dirty Jobs." Munich said aloud as he rubbed the last of the grease from his face and arms.

Jayna chuckled. "That's what you get for thinking, sir."

"So much for 'Oh so smart, guess I stay with oh so pleasant." Munich retort.

"Pleasant gets you father," Jayna said, smiling at the first officer. "Everyone has moments of brilliance but not everyone can be pleasant."

T'Pral looked at her own hands, which were still immaculate. "It is not difficult to remain clean, Commander. One must simply not rush in their work."

[tags?]

The vulcan eyed the system, which was showing a green light on the self-cleaning readout. "It appears the cycle has completed, I will begin increasing the power." She sidled over to the primary control console. While the language was unfamiliar to her, the context made translation largely unnecessary. This is the magnetic containment control. This is the matter and antimatter feed controls. This is the EPS power regulator. She had worked on enough MARA cores to recognize the common design elements. With everything buttoned up and ready for power, she started increasing the reactant feed. The reactor thrummed pleasantly, which increased in frequency and pitch with each adjustment. "It appears to be fully operational," she reported.

Jayna listened carefully to the Chief Engineer as she listed what everything was and made notes in her PADD, in case she needed the information later. "Great work, lieutenant. I'll inform the captain."

She went to the doorway and reported their success.

"Give Lieutenant T'Pral my thanks," York replied. "See if you can learn more about the machine, then return to the ship."

Jayna went back inside. "Let's see if we can find out what the machine does, and how it's connected to the one below, then we can go back to the ship."

The machine they had repaired had a major function of Weather protection; not unlike some federation systems installed in colonies. Another lesser function is the processing the habitat life support; the central connection to the 'Mind below that resided above the Power source utilizing geo-thermal energy to power everything...

Once they had the information and T'Pral had the machine operational, Jayna waited for the second away team and the other two headed back to the ship to report.

____
OFF

Commander Hans Munich
Executive Officer

Lieutenant T'Pral
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant JG Mira Jayna
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer

 

RSS Feed