| Freighter Repairs |
| Summary: | The freighter gets its sublight engine repaired. Huzzah! |
| Date: | 9 Oct 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | All the freighter-related logs! |
| Players: |
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| Eunostos-Class Freighter |
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| Engine Room |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #224 |
The Eunostos-class freighter was derelict and nonfunctional when the crew of the Cerberus first found her. But lots of work has gone into restoring and repairing the ship, bringing her back up to operational standard. There are still some generators laying around from the days before the ship's main power was brought back up, though none of them are running at the moment - lights and powered equipment are running directly off the ship's supply. There are various general duties being performed all around the ship - cleaning, painting, some basic repairs, and moving supplies around - but the main focus right now is getting sublight engines back online.
Damon is in the midst of it all, wearing his coveralls. Stepping away from the work and taking off his grease-covered gloves, it looks like he's taking a quick break to step back and observe for a moment. "Give it a shot - crank her up!" he shouts, giving the thumbs-up. The engine hums to life, whirring in a crescendo of mechanical sound, then grumbles and shuts off again. He doesn't seem disappointed, though - that's exactly what he expected. "Good! We're getting somewhere!"
Ximena's over by what's serving as the on-off switch, for the moment, the main power box far down along the wall of the engine room. Just easier to stick a wrench in there, for the time being, then try to work with half the crew up at the mast and the rest back down here. It's a bit farther up the wall than she'd normally be able to reach, but she's raised the level of the chair seat (hooray for hydraulic lifts built into The Chair). "Are we going to be getting somewhere soon, Chief?" Seeing as the deck chief's been running the show, and Mena's been happily following his instructions, it's time for an update.
Sofia likes lights! And wires! She is pushing a cart along, with a list of what folks need and want to get things going. She hums softly as the wheels rattle. Her green eyes are wide and bright, despite a faint nervousness. She smiles, seeing the others. "Hey!" Especially Damon! Beam and a wave. Ximena is approached more cautiously, but there's still a friendliness. Sofia might just be shier these days.
If there's a small hole that needs squeezing into, or a tight fitting nut or bolt that needs to be loosened, Cilusia's your huckleberry. That's why she's hanging around at the back near the ship's engines, wrench in hand. It's been a while since she's had a chance to get really good and sweaty, even to the point of smearing grease and paint and a couple more lubricants, fuel oils, and cleaning solutions across her forehead and cheeks.
Damon leans his back against the wall and takes a long drink from his canteen. "Well, she's starting now, at least," he says to Ximena with a grin. "I'm used to the little toys, y'know, in Vipers and the like, so this is a bit of a learning curve for me. Now we gotta find why she's choking out. Besides the fact that she's a rustbucket." Sofia's wave is returned with a friendly grin. "Sofie! Whatcha got for us there? Are those the tools and parts we requisitioned?" He tries to get a good look at the cart she's pushing and what's inside it. "What do you see back there, Cilusia?" he calls out to his fellow deckhand. "Anything helpful?"
"Maybe she's choking on the smell of paint and solvent." For serious. The air scrubbers are not helping to get rid of the smell wafting through the corridors. "I think we're all used to something a little bit different." Certainly, the woman who, not but a few months ago had the tag 'sapper' added onto the end of her billet wouldn't have seen the inside of an engine room for love or money. "I don't think anyone could fault your work, chief. Or the work of your people." She does return the smile, with just the slightest wrinkle of her brows at the woman's reticence, "Crewman, good to see you down here." Cilusia's not visible, just at the moment, from Ximena's vantage point.
Sofia smiles and nods at Damon. "Yeah. I put a rush order on it," She does seem fond of the Deckie. It's the things he's requested! Tools, wires and even lightbulbs. She checks the clipboard. She glances between the group. "I can help unload and sort. I'm not bad at Repairin' stuff either," She admits, beaming. She wrinkles her nose at the smell a little. "Allo there. How are you?" She takes only a little moment to warm up to Ximena, but seems more open after a bit. "Who wanted … let's see…" Peer.
"I see an engine back here as big as yo momma's ass!" Cilusia chirps back to Damon. It's a good vibe they've got going: why ruin it with weird stuff like rank and respect and all that pesky stuff? From one of the shoulder pockets of her orange coveralls, Cilusia pulls a tiny LED flashlight, and shines in at a particularly shady spot where she's working. "Kinda weird working on a reactor big as a Raptor and liable to blow at any second, huh? Toss me a cleaner filter though. Looks like some dope got paint or something all over this mother frakker."
If Damon finds it weird that the woman who's wearing the rank of Senior CPO is calling him 'Chief' and letting him take charge even though he's only a PO1 - appointment to interim Deck Chief notwithstanding - it doesn't show quite so much as his fascination with her chair. Though he doesn't openly stare, his eyes do linger on it for a moment every time he looks Ximena's way. "Nothing like paint fumes and exhaust to get a cheap high," he jokes. Making his way over to Sofia, he starts rummaging through the stuff. "Filter, filter, filter. Here!" He hands it off to a deckhand, who runs it over to Cilusia. "Toolkits, wiring…" Mumble mumble mumble. "You're awesome, Sofie, I think we got almost everything we need in here." He turns back to the work crew. "All right, let's get this thing cleaned off and lubed up as best we can. I want all lines flushed and reservoirs topped up with new fluids. You guys - " he points to one group - "start making new lines for what needs to be replaced, now that we've got supplies. And this group - " pointing to the other side - "start working on the wiring. If it makes you hesitate for even a second, rewire it. We got hoses, belts, valves, and everything we need to get this baby tightened up good as new. Let's get on it!"
The woman who's wearing the rank of SCPO has one really good thing going for her, aside from The Chair. She knows quite well that she doesn't know everything. And Engines are not her forte. So for the duration, she's been willing to follow the lead of those who do know what they're doing. "I'm good, you know? But I think we can certainly use all the help with repairs we can get. So if you want to grab a tool and get to work, if you're finished all of your deliveries, I think there's a spot for you, crewman." Clearly, she also errs on the side of letting people who can and want to do, do. "Lines flushed, reservoirs topped off. Now you're talking my language." The wrench of ultimate (engine) power is handed off to another of the repair team, as Mena lowers her chair and heads off in the direction of the supply crates.
Sofia is at the bottom of the rank totem pole, but doesn't seem to mind. She looks amused. "Aw. Thanks. That's really too nice of you," She shakes her head. "But it's what I do. I'm like some sort of mole rat or something," She wriggles her fingers. "But not naked. I have pants on." She beams. A nod at Damon. Then a smile at Ximena. "Sure. You can call me Sofia or Wolfe if you like," Slowly, trust is ebbing in. "And yeah, saved the best stop for last. Nodnod. She seems content to help distribute supplies then join in.
Squeezed into a part of the engine where only children, moderately-sized apes, and tiny deckies dare to venture, Cilusia is squatting down to pop the filter out of the line. "Gonna have to fill and bleed this line again!" she informs all of them. "So wait until I get this filter put back in." It's one of those filters in a clear little bubble, so you can see when it needs to be taken out and replaced. First comes the clamp at the bolts at the top of the filter chamber, then the top, then the filter that has a good bit of paint spilled on it comes sliding out and gets tossed aside.
"You start running around naked, you'd probably get a promotion," Damon says to Sofia with a laugh. "Y'know, I think I'll actually be kinda sad when this ship's up and running. Spending so much time down here working on her, I've kinda become fond, y'know? But then she'll be all loaded up with civvies and floating alongside the Fleet, and I doubt I'd get to see her much unless there were major issues." He gives a resigned sort of sigh at the thought. But there's no time to languish. He gathers up a couple more small teams for other tasks - refueling, replacing the breaker panel, simple stuff like that. "So, uh, what kinda background you come from, Chief?" he asks Ximena. In the same breath, he shouts to Cilusia, "Don't you frakking get stuck back there!"
"I think it'll be exactly the opposite, chief," Ximena begins, as she wheels over to the panel closest to her, popping it open to reveal a mess of tubes and whatnots. Flushing systems is a speciality. And with a little help from the team she's been working with, they start in on trying to clean out and replace the old with the new, "the civvies won't have anyone to do routine maintenance on their vessel. They're going to need regular visits from the other ship's engineers." A wrench is tugged out of a toolbelt, as she powers back up to be at the right level, "I don't advise the running around naked, Sofia. Not with anything pointy, at any rate. Let me know when you're ready, petty officer, we'll bleed it once you give the word." As for her, "Spent eighteen years in the marines, assault engineer. Worked all over the colonies, seems like. A lot of ground time in Sagittaron. Couldn't go back to it after," a negligent hand indicates the chair, as though it were an afterthought, really, "So here I am."
A soft laugh at Damon's comment. "Yeah, then I'd get a black eye going down the stairs or something." Sofia shakes her head. She considers the fact that soon this boat will be handed over. "I wonder how the people who started the gardens feel too," She considers. Then a smile and nod at Ximena. "That's true enough. Lose an eye, a black eye… naked just seems like a lose lose idea, unless there's appropriate circumstances," She replies. Then she falls quiet to listen. "Really? That seems pretty tough," Sofia looks thoughtful. "But at least our Engineers and Marines both seem like good groups. Though I'm hardly picky," She's willing to admit her pushoverness. "And Deck is practically family too." She looks over to where Cil is. "Don't worry! We have butter if you get stuck."
"I wouldn't give him the pleasure of buttering me up in any literal sense," Cilusia snorts back at Sofia and Damon. "If I get stuck back here, I'm smashing my way out, man. You know how I am!" Hard-headed, she means. But the filter is replaced, the cap is replaced and tightened, and with popping knees and hunched back, she wiggles her way out of there and stands up to uncrink herself.
"Ahh… that'd be nice," Damon murmurs at the thought of visiting this ship once in a while. "Assault Engineer, though, that must've been something else. We're glad to have you, Chief. Let any of us know if there's anything you need, yeah?" With that, he gets back to work, taking on the main engine system. "Man, you just can't let up on the black guys and the stairs, can you?" he says to Sofia with a wink. "I keep telling you that you should just come over to the Deck. You're practically there all the time anyway." He leans to the side of the engine to give Cilusia a look. "You smash any part of this engine, I'll staple you to the ceiling by your frakking eyelids." He says it with a smile, even though his tone is dead serious.
Once the filter's replaced, and the team can get back to work at full speed, they do just that, Ximena's work detail taking care of flushing old fluids and replenishing what was lost. What was still good is topped off. Panels come off and get put back on, before they finally settle back to wait for the big reveal. After all, they're just one cog in a very big engineering wheel. "It really was," Ximena offers as she wheels back from the final panel, "I never wanted to be anything else, from the day I stepped into AIT. But I'm just glad to have a billet. Will be nice to finish out my twenty and go home." There's definitely a smile there, at the irony of the woman who was almost a lifer and then nearly not. "And don't think I don't see you eyeing The Chair. You can take it for a spin once we're done. Gotta warn you though, it has a mind of its own."
"Oh," Sofia ponders this. "Maybe there's some grease…" As if that's much better. A nod at Damon. She snorts at him though. "Oh yeah. You guys are so bad… between you and Shiner," She sticks her tongue out at him. "I might, but for now - there's usually plenty for me to do in my current Department." Alas, the Token Snipe - Now with Senior PO Buddy! She nods at Ximena. "Really?" She seems to agree quietly. Then her eyes go wide. "Oh no, I hope you don't have boosters on it or he's gonna launch himself out the side of this thing and put a hole in the wall."
"Well, since the Cylons are masquerading in human skins now, what's to say The Chair isn't one as well? I bet those frakking pieces of scrap would do anything and everything to get at us, from wheelchairs to vacuum cleaners," Cilusia gripes. If The Chair did indeed have boosters made to accelerate a human from zero to brains getting squished in the back of their skull in no time flat, it wouldn't surprise her at this point. The wrench she was using is tossed on the tool cart with a clang and a racket and she pulls a rag from a hip pocket to start wiping off her hands and forehead.
"Dunno whatchoo talkin' 'bout," Damon mutters, flustered when Ximena mentions him eyeing her wheels. Which, of course, just makes him look at it again. Then it's back to work work work. All the teams are going at it to the best of their ability - this is a new and exciting project, a break from the regular routine. "All right - let's try her again!" The engine comes alive again with an ungodly cacophony, new fluids coursing through her veins. There's rattling and banging, which makes some flinch; Damon comes closer, resting his hand upon it to feel the vibrations. After a moment, he gives the signal to cut power again. "She's alive," he says with a maniacal grin. "She'll run. Still needs some work to get her proper, but we've got us a working engine now." There's cheering and hooting from the working crew. "All right, let's take a quick break, grab some water or food, then we'll get right back into it and see if we can't have this engine running clean by the end of the day!"