Transporter Repairs

Posted on Sun Feb 28th, 2021 @ 4:51pm by Lieutenant Xavier Leiko

Mission: Character Development
Location: Main Transporter Room
Timeline: Shoreleave
1401 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Xavier returned from shore leave a few days earlier than needed so that he could familiarise himself with the ship more and his department. This was the first time he was running his own show and if he was being completely honest, he was terrified. He wanted things to go as smoothly as possible and that meant he had to be as prepared as possible. However, though the young Betazoid was great at thinking on his feet, especially under pressure, forward thinking and planning didn't come as naturally to him as it did to others. This didn't bother him as much though, this was just another skill he would have to learn in order to utilise to do his job to the best of his ability.

The Athena was still in dry dock and would be for another few days, giving Xavier ample time to look over all of the critical functions and systems before the next mission. This was what brought him to the main transporter room today. As he walked through the double doors he saw an Andorian female working the controls that faced the transporter pad.

"Hello Chief," Xavier said with a wide grin to the blue skinned woman. "I'm Lieutenant Xavier Leiko, the new Chief of Operations," he said with a warm smile as he held out his hand for her to shake.

Avira looked over at the man that had just walked in, gave a salute that was good enough to pass cursory inspection before reaching out a hand to shake his in greeting, "Welcome aboard, Lieutenant, hope you're finding it well." Her smile immediately showed her immaculately white teeth.

"Thank you, I am doing extra well," Xavier replied in semi-fluent Andorian. "How are you?"

The Andorian petty officer gave an impressed nod of her head, "I'm doing good, a lot of people coming back off of shore leave, I get to scramble all of their molecules. You know. Harmless fun."

"Perfect, the ship will be full up in no time," Xavier said, switching back to Federation Standard. "I have this report for you." Xavier was about to give her the PaDD that was in his hand, when he seemingly thought twice about it and changed his mind. "Wait, you did manage to get some shore leave yourself too right?"

"Oh, I hadn't really saved up as much leave days as others, so I just went for a short trip around the base, enjoy the night life here." Avira didn't really mind, she'd had a long leave before being assigned to the Athena so she wasn't really in need of any. The dark dimension, as some of the enlisted crew had started calling it, had its effects on her, but she figured that she'd just have to work through it, besides, someone had to beam people in and out. She extended her hand to motion for the report, "please, let me see what you have."

"Ah yes," Xavier said as if just remembering he was still carrying the PaDD. "It's the system check on all the transporters on the ship," he said as he handed it to her. "The transporter rooms check out okay, but the ones in cargo bay one and two are showing abnormal power readings. I would like you to organise their diagnostics and repairs."

"Oh, I," Avira wasn't quite sure she was the best person for the job but she didn't want to give up an opportunity to learn more and work with the transporters more, "yes, sir." She took the PADD and looked a the results from the system's check, "it's probably nothing major." She gave the Chief Operations a warm smile.

"Perfect," Xavier said returning the smile. "If you need anything then please come to me, but I have every faith that you'll be able to sort this out. Confidence is key, Chief," he added with a wink.

"Thank you for the vote of confidence, sir." Avira her antennae twitched a bit at the excitement of the opportunity, "now that you mention it, sir, do you think you could help me with something here?" She didn't want to assume he had time to help her with some low priority glitch.

"Anything for my favourite transporter Chief, how can I help you?"

Avira grabbed the PADD next to her and offered it to the Lieutenant, "I've been correcting for power fluctuations in the grid with every transport, but I think something we did to get back from nightmare space screwed up some of the conduits." She wasn't great with the physical electronics of a starship, "I was wondering if you could help me find the culprit."

"Sure," Xavier said as he took the PaDD from her. He studied the diagnostic report for a moment before he shook his head knowingly. "I think I see the issue," he said as he made his way over to the control panel by the side of the transporter pad. He pressed a few buttons and the lights around the pad dimmed, he pressed a few more and the middle pad raised out of it housing, exposing the circuit relays. Xavier grabbed a tricorder from the repair kit attached to the wall and made his way over to the exposed pad.

"It looks as though some of the relays blew out during the return back to normal space," he said as he looked at the tricorder readout. "For some reason it didn't show up on the level one diagnostic I ran, but it shouldn't take too long to fix." He removed a couple of colourful isolinear chips and held them up to the light to get a better view of them. "Tell me Avira, when was the last time you visited Andoria?" He asked, making idle small talk while he worked.

"Pffff..." Avira let some air escape through her lips, "it must've been before I even enlisted with Starfleet. I want to say high school field trip," her antennae curled forward as she frowned, "it's been a while. Though to be fair, I wasn't born there." She then gave a firm nod, as if that was a definitive answer to his question, "when was the last time you visited Earth?"

"Earth? Erm... same, at the Academy," Xavier said as he replaced the isolinear chips and pulled out a couple more, repeating the process. "But I'm actually from Betazed and I haven't been there for over a year now. Pass me the hyperspanner please. I have some very happy memories of Andoria," he added conversationally.

"Oh sorry, hadn't seen the whole..." Avira motioned at her eyes indicating the full black orbs inherent to Betazoid. The man had looked very human to her. She stepped around her console and grabbed the hyper spanner from the open wall panel nearby "There you go." She handed it over to him, "oh, do tell. All I remember was being cold the entire time I was there."

"No worries," Xavier said with a grin as he took the hyper spanner from her. "I'm part human so a lot of people have made that mistake." He used the hyper spanner to mend the relay and used the tricorder to check his work. "Yes it was cold," he continued, "but I didn't mind that. My ex was Andorian and he knew the greatest places to visit, the views were breathtaking. And there, that should do it."

Xavier got up and went back to the panel on the side of the pad. He pressed some buttons and the middle transporter pad descended back into its housing and then the light returned to their full illumination. "If you check that now, it shouldn't give you any more problems, well until next time," he joked. "Was there anything else?"

"That should keep us from merging our crew as they come back on board," Avira said with a bit more of a gleeful smile as was appropriate for the joke. Everyone had heard about a transporter incident when the USS Voyager returned to the alpha quadrant. It was starting to turn into an urban myth especially among transporter personnel.

"Good," Xavier replied. "Let me know how you get on in the cargo bays and if you need anything else I'm only a comm call away." He smiled at the young woman and then left the transporter room, ready to tackle another problem before the ship left the spacedock.