Drunken Injestors

Posted on Wed Sep 14th, 2022 @ 2:42pm by Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Ensign Kateyo Fenn

Mission: Scylla and Charybdis
Location: Engineering
Timeline: MD-04
1550 words - 3.1 OF Standard Post Measure

"What the..." Finn had been eyeing the plasma injectors all morning and noticed that the injection rate was slightly off, though still within tolerances, until now. There had been no updates to the system and there were no other indications as to why the system had started to become erratic. Her hand moved to her chin and she bit her bottom lip in thought before looking up to eye an unfortunate soul that was around to help investigate. As it turned out, she was the unfortunate soul. Only Teyo stood within shouting distance.

Finn sighed. "Fenn, you're with me. We're going to investigate these plasma injectors. They've been acting up all day."

"Aye Sir," Teyo said as he dropped what he was doing and made his way over to the chief. Ever since their conversation a few weeks ago, Keating had been paying a closer eye than normal on the young ensign and he wasn't too sure how he felt about it. However, duty calls and he had promised he would at least try from now on.

"Start a diagnostic on injectors four through eight," Finn ordered as they entered the room that housed the equipment in question. "I'm worried that if they keep acting up it'll eventually cause damage to the warp core." She paused, something felt off in the room, but she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. Maybe I just hadn't been in this room in a while, Finn thought as she started the diagnostic on the first four injectors.

Teyo entered the room and somehow the air felt thick, as though he could physically spoon his way through. Must be an issue with the environmental controls he thought to himself, making a mental note to have a look when they were done here. He nodded at Keating's request and made his way over to the required terminal and then paused. "Did you say one through four or four through eight?" He asked.

"I said four through four...I mean, four through eight," Finn corrected herself with a small chuckle. How had she forgotten how much fun it was to work on plasma injectors? "From what I can see on one through six...I mean...one through four. Four right? Yes, four. It looks like the radiation from the atmosphere is interacting with the plasma and creating weird things. I mean readings. Weird readings," she chuckled once more. "Is that what you're seeing?" She turned to look at Fenn with a crooked smile.

"Yes, weird injectors," Teyo said with a small giggle. "Injectors is such a funny word. Injectors. In-jec-torrss." He broke out into a fit of laughter and hunched over as he held his ribs. "Oh my. Wait, did you say something about plasma ice cream? I love ice cream and plasma ice cream is the best." He stopped and stared at Finn, a serious look crossing his face. "Commander, if I don't get some ice cream right now, I might die!"

Finn remained silent as her eyes widened. "YES! I LOVE ice cream. Ice cream is the best," she started to chuckle and walk towards the door, but stopped short. "Wait! We were doing something. Right? Right. Yes. In-jec-torrsssssssss," she waved her finger at the devices and laughed. "We have to put ice cream in the injectors! I bet we can program the engineering repli...hrmm...replica...uh, the things that make things. We can program those to make ice cream for the injectors!"

"Does ice cream eat injectors?" Teyo asked, a worried look crossing his face. His brain was telling him that something was wrong but he couldn't quite work out what that was or how to make things better. "I don't think..." he paused, struggling to hold on to his thoughts. "Maybe... we.... something... is... wrong..." Just as he felt he held the answer it fell away like smoke in the wind. "Finn... we should eat the injectors!" He announced proudly before laughing again.

"No..." Finn furrowed a brow. "That's definitely not right." She shook her head as if sifting the fog from her brain, yet nothing became more clear. If anything, things just became more amusing. "Ha, those lights. Look at how the injectors pulse. It's so cool! Why hadn't I noticed that before?" Finn said, almost mesmerized as she stared at them. A minute or two passed before Finn realized something else. "Why are they slightly out of sync? Do you see that? Is that why we were getting them ice cream?" She giggled. "That must've been it. Ice cream fixes everything!"

"Urgh, I don't even like ice cream," Teyo said gruffly with a slight stamp of his feet. "I do like the pulsing though, the colours are so pretty." He laughed again and then suddenly stopped. "That's what's wrong. You. Me. Ice cream. We. Us. We don't eat ice cream together," he shook his head as though trying to visibly reset his brain. "Laugh together! We don't do that. Ever. Are you a clone again?"

"No! Wait. Are you?" Finn shot back with a glare. "I thought you did like ice cream. Now you don't? You must be the clone." She tried to maintain her questioning gaze on the engineer, but her attention was brought back to the injectors. "Something is wrong with these! We need to fix it. I think..." Why was thinking in general so difficult? She felt like all she wanted to do was laugh. "Something is wrong with..." Finn couldn't hold it in anymore and she started to let out a tiny giggle. "It's a line! I mean, their line! No that's not right either. They're out of a line!" The words tumbled out with laughter as she tried to correctly state that they were out of alignment.

Teyo wasn't paying full attention, he was busy patting himself down, checking for clone parts on his body. He wasn't quite sure what clone parts would look or feel like but he was hoping he would recognise them when he found something. What if indeed he was a clone? Would he be killed like the other Finn clone? Would he get his ice cream still? "Fix the injectors Finn, then they will tell you if I'm clone Fenn or me Fenn," he said, a panicked edge to his voice.

Finn eyed the possible clone suspiciously. "I need your help. I can't get the ice cream. Wait, no, I mean fix the inject...those things. I can't fix those things alone. Even if you are a clone...." She sighed and tried to figure out a way to ensure he wouldn't sabotage something. "I have it! I'll promise you a giant ice cream and then...uhmmm...and then a trip to the water park! Yes. But you have to promise not to ruin things when we fix the linement on the things." She mustered as stern a look as she could under the circumstances.

Teyo eyed the woman, an angry glint in his eyes. "I don't ruin things, you do," he said sulkily. "You always promise ice cream and there's never any ice cream. I don't care if I am a clone, I. Like. Ice. Cream." He said with a pout. He crossed his arms and turned away from Finn. He didn't trust her but he did want a reward and a water cream in an ice park did sound good. "Fine," he said suddenly, "I'll help you but if you don't give me a water ice then I'm gonna clone myself all over this ship."

"I don't promise things! And I never ruin ice cream!" Finn replied angrily, mixing up the response. "Let's just be friends, Fenno. Long enough to fix this and get water cream. You take the first four injections....and I'll take the last four jesters. I mean, injesters." Finn waved her finger around in an attempt to point to the right mechanisms. "I think we need to just rest them? No, reset them. Yes, reset."

Teyo really wanted some water so he tried his best to focus on the injesters that Finn had pointed out. He stared at the equipment for a solid minute, trying to work out how they moved the way they did. They must be powered by sprinkles, he thought to himself. He shook his head, eyes on the prize. He knew he had to press a sequence of buttons in order to reset the moving sprinkle machine, he just had to remember which buttons. "Fenno and Finno are going to the ice park to get some sprinkles and injestors," he hummed loudly.

Finn did the same on her end, watching intently and performing adjustments. A few minutes passed and by some miracle, the two woozy officers had managed to appropriately align the mechanism. Finn stepped back from the console and looked at Fenn. "I think...I think we did it! We fixed the ice infesters! I think that means we're getting some water at the sprinkle station," she smiled.

Teyo's eyes grew large, they had done it, they had really done it. "Last one to the ice cream room is a warp core alert," he said as he headed for the door, slightly unsteady on his feet.

 

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