One Issue At A Time

Posted on Wed Nov 5th, 2025 @ 10:49pm by Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant Commander Savin

Mission: Aeon's End
Location: Deflector Control Room
Timeline: MD1
1731 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

In his wanderings, aiming to help out where he could to the best of his ability, Savin came to the conclusion that there were a great many places on he ship that he'd actually never been to. This time, his indirect wandering and pretty much following the trail of damage led him to the main deflector control room.

The Romulan was carrying a small case of equipment, his trusty PADD, a phaser -just in case- and a tricorder. "Commander Zora," he greeted the first officer upon recognising her. "I am here to assist with repairs." Which would be more or less learn how to do it by following directions and perhaps a manual. But the determination in his expression spoke volumes, he was determined to do what was necessary. With everyone doing there part, he wasn't going to sit in his office as wait for people to seek him out. "What would you like me to start with?"

"Savin, good. I need another pair of hands before I jettison this damn thing and worry about the consequences later," Zora said as she wiped her brow with the back of her hand. She picked up the PADD she was reading from and threw it towards the counsellor. "The sensors and the deflector have decided to stop talking to each other, which I have been told is quite bad if we want to go to warp and live. Apparently, it's an easy fix, hence my volunteering, but I think Washington lied to me. Read the third instruction to me, maybe we can figure it out together."

"We are healers," Savin answered, almost logically, "let us heal this system." He smiled as he crouched next to her, quickly reading over the instructions until the indicated paragraph and checked with her subsequent repairs to get an idea of what she'd been doing. Nodding to himself as he pieced what he read and what he saw together, he pointed to a darkened relay. "To get the systems connected, you need to connect this ODN to..." He frowned as he read the line again. "To a... " His frown deepened. "Let us just work with the colours indicated because these words may as well be Andorian, as it means nothing to me."

He drew in a deep breath and indicated the dark wire again. "Dark blue must be connected next to yellow," he read out. "Remove green before attaching yellow, then reconnect. Attaching the wires in the correct order will reset the power couplings." He looked up. "But what of that red one? I see no mention of it... and it looks scorched. Perhaps we should replace that?"

"You're right," Zora said as she examined the red connector. It was blackened on the ends and the tricorder told her that no power was flowing in that direction. "I think I should have a spare one somewhere," she said as she removed it. She began to rummage through one of the toolkits, pulling out coils of circuitry, smaller components, and isolinear chips. "How are the crew holding up, in your professional opinion?"

Though he wasn't here on counselling business, Savin could understand the need to enquire. Spotting something that could be a connector he plucked it from the toolkit and offered it to her as he considered his answer. "What I sense is a mix of curiosity and anxiety," he answered, "what I observe is crew members stepping up to assist where needed, likely out of a desire to keep busy while they wait for answers." He paused, studying her for a moment. "What I see, and what I sense does not always add up," he added, "but sometimes it is better not to ask, and just offer to help in other ways." He smiled sheepishly. "And in my case, learn something new in the process, such as repairing deflector control."

Again a pause. "People do wonder how the command team is doing," he added, now clearly and openly digging for information he could distribute where it might be needed to keep up morale.

"Oh?" Zora said. She replaced the red wire and grinned when it went in with a satisfying *click*. She continued to connect the cables in the order that the counsellor had mentioned as she pondered his query. "I don't know who these people are; however, they should know that the command team keep their cards extremely close to their chest. Especially the Commodore."

"Especially the commodore," Savin confirmed, "I have not spoken with him much, on or off duty. But it may help morale if the command staff occasionally mingles with the crew, beyond issuing orders. They do not need to know exactly what is going on, perhaps, but it may help them to see that the command staff is on it. Or perhaps let the odd snippet of information trickle down to the lower decks."

"And when do you suppose we do that?" Zora asked, pausing in mid-action, her arms frozen in the air. "Before or after we return back to our own time and space?"

"Obviously not now," Savin deadpanned, "but yes after we return home. Especially the captain could mingle more. Just join people when they have lunch for example and have a chat with them. Or enjoy a game of something in the holodeck." He briefly looked at his PADD for the next steps as they still had a job to do. "After you reconnected the wires, you need to manually restart the connection to the computer by reinserting the isolinear chips from right to left," he instructed. "In the order green, green, yellow, green, orange, green, yellow."

"Commodore," Zora corrected without looking at the Romulan. She picked up the isolinear chips in the order that Savin had mentioned and stacked them to the side, ready to be inserted once she had finished her delicate wire work. "You don't possibly think that Kane will agree to that?" She asked. Savin had always come across as rather serious, not one to make jokes, but maybe this situation had changed him in some way. Maybe he was an alien intruder, or the Savin of this timeline. "You have known him longer than I, so I can only assume you're telling a bad joke."

"I do not tell jokes," Savin answered, "and no I do not think he will agree, but we can suggest it. You are more approachable, so I do believe you would be agreeable to do as I suggest." He did consider her to be more approachable, which was why he brought it up. "But perhaps you can suggest it to the commodore, in due time of course. When we return home."

The laugh that escaped Zora's mouth was louder than she had expected it to be. She hoped his feelings weren't hurt, but also he had to see the funny side of this. "I am not doing your dirty work for you Counsellor," she managed to say once she had calmed down. "I respect your opinion but I do not agree with it."

Though the perception of the sudden laughter was soundless, the sudden change in what he sensed seemed to briefly startle the counselor. "Dirty?" He finally queried, then arched a single eyebrow at her. "I do not see how asking him to mingle in due time is dirty..." He shrugged as he handed her a single chip. "You missed the last one," he said, "and I suppose I will try to talk to him then, after we return home. Not before."

Savin's response and lack of awareness were irking the first officer but instead of challenging it as she usually would, she decided to let it go. Tensions on the ship were already running high and the last thing the crew needed was for the command staff to start bickering amongst themselves. She focused on the task, taking the chip from him and inserting it into the correct spot. She fumbled with her tricorder in one hand and eventually got it open. "I think, if we replace the power relay going into the secondary intermix junction, that should do the trick," she said, gesturing to a panel on the other side of the room.

"I am certain we can do this," Savin agreed, offering a slight smirk. "We may make engineers just yet, Commander Finn will be proud." He got to his feet, offering the first officer a hand up without even thinking about it. "I will find the instructions as we walk over," he suggested, "it should not be too hard, should it?"

"You're the one with the PADD," Zora said as she took his hand and pulled herself to her feet. She made her way over to the panel and pulled it from its housing. "What's the next step?" She asked, matter-of-factly.

"Pull the - Oh nevermind you already did that..." Savin quickly read through the instructions then looked at the exposed circuitry. "Replace the first relay you see," he continued, pointing carefully at a particular one that looked like it had melted. "Seems fairly straightforward. If that does not work, we need to replace the second one just in case." He continued to read. "Make sure the power is cut off before replacement to avoid a power surge."

"Aye," Zora replied as she diverted the power and pulled out the burnt relay. She held it close to her nose and gave it a sniff. "That's one burnt component," she said with a satisfying smile. "I think that should do it," she announced, as she turned the power back on and the circuitry lit up like an antimatter chamber. "Let's run a final diagnostic before checking with operations."

Savin nodded in agreement then took a glance at his tricorder. "All seems to be operational, I am not seeing any warning indicators," he reported, glancing sideways at the still active manual on his PADD. "The manual indicates that if there are no warnings, the system is safe to continue operation." He replaced the panel cover and turned back to face the XO. "For two officers with no engineering experience, I believe we did well enough," he stated, "to keep to medical terms, operation successful?"

"Thanks for the assist," Zora replied as she wiped her hands on the legs of her uniform. "That's one less issue to worry about, now on to the next."