| Where the Faults Lie |
| Summary: | Ren and Sofia gab about mechanical strangeness. Marcion day-dreams. |
| Date: | 02.25.2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | Wires Crossed |
| Players: |
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| Engineering | Deck 11 - Battlestar Cerberus | Condition Level: 3 - All Clear |
Pipes, conduits, and cramped passageways. Heat and the smells of sweat and machine oil. Engineering is a maze of hallways that run deep into the aft of the Cerberus. Dotted with a few storage rooms, offices, and workshops, this section of the ship is constantly staffed by a huge team of professionals. From the main fuel tank feeds to the massive FTL drive room, no other part of the ship is more important than this section that provides propulsion and life support to every section of the battlestar.
Ren is on the late shift. The very late shift. But he ambles into Engineering nonetheless. Which might be unusual. The Mechanical doesn't spend a lot of time here. His job keeps him mostly out and about, checking on things and doing minor maintenance. He's here tonight, however. Looking about. In search of…something.
3M never sleeps. It is an all seeing eye that haunts dreams, crushes inventories and signs papers. Sofia is here, with a cup of hot tea. She's writing up a list, looking very intent. Sharp green eyes roam over a paper, a pen scritches. Finally she sets them down and yawns. Sofia rubs her eyes. Even when sleepy, she has a shifty air to her like she might be selling used cars somewhere. She pauses, noticing Ren and offers a wave.
Marcion is here, too. Well, sort of. Physically, the Eltee is present. Mentally, he is cuddled up inside the FTL spinner telling it what a good girl it is. He is currently reading all the information on it with an intensity usually saved for fanboys with limited edition comics.
Ren makes his way back to the 3M area, as it happens. He likely doesn't notice Marcion. Physically here though he is, as the lieutenant doesn't call attention to himself. And Ren is on a mission. "Excuse me. "Crewman Wolfe?"
It's cute in a quirky way. One could pat Marcion and the FTL drive on the heads, give 'em popsicles and go on one's merry way. Sofia's chugging along at half-speed, the speed of RED TAPE! She scratches her chin a bit before pausing and looking up hearing her name and rank. "Huh? I mean, hello! Yes?" She smiles, blinking rapidly a few times. "I'm awake. Alert. A coiled cobra ready to strike at maintenance routines if you will." Blink. Twitch. Blink.
"Primary coefficients subject to extra power lag, but reactor capable of much more. Could expand FTL Bubble for piggy-backing. Should run tests." Marcion's eyes are almost fevered with excitement. Has anyone told Psyche about him, yet?
"Sir?" Ren directs it tentatively in Marcion's direction. He peers at the man. That just ain't right. Ahem. But, he still has business. Back to Sofia. A slight grin. "Hi, Crewman. Anyway. I just came back to talk about supplies for the galley repairs. Post-fire and all."
"He's so happy," Sofia tilts her heaad. "I can't shatter his bubble. Well, I guess I could but that would be mean," She shrugs. A look to Ren and a grin. "Hello there. And ah? What did you want to ask? For what it's worth, I pulled the papers. We know the contractor and what work they did. I think now we're working on getting the old stuff out and what to put in place of it. Sadly, money doesn't really grow on trees nor do engineers…" her nose wrinkles at this. Logistics. "Did you have some ideas?" At least she seems to be a good listener.
"What? Hmmm? Fire?" Marcion looks up, blinking more than would normally seem necessary. "Oh, yes. Schadenwiring." He stands up and walks over. "Have new information?"
"You did? Keen. Can I see it?" Ren asks. "The specifics on who did the work and everything, I mean. It'll be easier to fix if we can trace back the mistakes some. As for what I need…well. The wiring's easy to replace. That's all checked and done. What I need are…" He is half-embarrassed to ask. "…lightbulbs." An abashed shrug. "Like…several hundred lightbulbs." There's an unspoken 'Please?' at the end of that. He looks up as Marcion approaches, straightening and offering him a quick salute. Though he doesn't dwell /too/ much on protocol. He observes what's required and continues with his work. "Just finishing up the post-fire repairs to the galley, sir."
"Of course," Sofia smiles. "They were largely in non-critical areas like heads and store-rooms. I use the word non critical in the loosest sense. The last thing we need is someone getting zorched and dying naked in the shower or something," Sofia wrinkles her nose. "Long story short all this faulty wiring and insulation traces back to the Tzonis company. I was working on finding if it was a material or a job fault, though I suspect you guys could probably tell that way better than me or some paper. Copies of the exact loations are available, I promised Merrell one too," Sofia remarks. "… lightbulbs? For once, Sofia seems surprised. She rubs the back of her head and smiles. "Ah… we'll try. This wire and insulation business is already putting a dent in things," Her eyes cross for a moment. "May I ask what for though? I don't mind /personally/ but I'm sure someone will ask me," Headtilt. "Also, I put out warnings and am working on signs for people not to use the head or storeroom if they see sparks or power flickering."
Seeing that no new info on the cause of the fires is being released, Marcion nods dutifully. He even looks like he is paying attention… minus the letters "ftl" written across his eyes. Creepy, that.
Ren leans over, brow furrowing. There's a spot of grease on his forehead that makes a sort of 'W' as he furrows. Not that he notices. "Nice. Thanks, Wolfe. And I can check on that tracing for you. See if it was the material or the worker, I mean. You want my guess, the way some of the contracting's gone here, it was the worker. Like my mom always said, 'Go union or Navy or go broken.'" He chuckles at Sofia's question. "It's /not/ personal. I see just fine without hundreds of lights in my bunk. It's just going to be kind of a bitch to replace every one of them that shorted or broke or overheated in the galley. They use lots of heat lamps, which is lots of bulbs, which…you get the idea." He groans. "That is going to be one frakking monotonous work day. But it won't be /hard/ so I can't complain too much."
"Well, that and some cheaper materials may just not hold up to the stress. They might do just /fine/ on a different class or a civvie type deal, but -" Sofia headshakes. She doesn't notice the spot of grease or declines to comment. "Sure, that'd be fantastic. Then I know if we have to yank insulation out too. I don't know if I am alone in this opinion, though. I'm hoping we don't, that's a big job." Sigh. "That's wise," She smiles. "Only trouble is budgets and politics get in the way and some salesmen have snakes like tongues." Pause. "Tongues like snakes." She corrects. "And I didn't think so," She grins. "I'll put that in for you," She nods. "Lots of lightbulbs, though if you get a closer estimate, that'd be fantastic. If not, I'll try to have someone count." A shrug. "There's an exec from the contracting company on board, but I'm personally leaving that to the officers." Sofia's words might not carry might weight and she lacks the leadership skills there. "Also, probably best not to let that out too much before the guy gets booted by angry engineers." A bemused look crosses her face. "Is there anything else?"
Ren nods a little to Sofia, still furrowed. "You've got a point there. Yeah. I guess I tend to figure if a job's done badly it has to do with the hands that do it. There's only so much you can do with faulty materials, though." He idly flexes his knuckles, chuckling at the tongue/snake slip. "I'll need a couple hundred, at least. I'll get you an exact count first thing tomorrow." He shakes his head. "No. That's it. Get me a copy of that info about the contractor who did that work order whenever you have the time. Like I said, I'll be by in the morning with the exact number before my shift. I can pick it up then."
Sofia nods and tilts her head. "Well. I don't want to blame the poor souls entirely. Cheap material is cheap material and even the best worker can't help that. I think it is a lot of little mistakes that piled up into one clusterscrew," Sofia smiles. She scribbles down the number. "Sure thing. I'll do my best. Thank you," Nodnod. "I'm sorry to make you count lightbulbs but it always seems like we have a few bad guessers on this ship and then I've either got too many or not enough lightbulbs," Her eyes cross in thought. Hmmm. "But either way," A handwave. "I'm sure this will all get worked out, no zapped people in the head." She pauses and notices the sleepy engineer by the FTL. "I guess I'll get a blanket and put him near a shiny part of the FTL," She rubs the back of her head. Could her service here be having a positive effect on the normally schadenfreude-tastic manager? Daw. "Or something. I don't want him getting stepped on," With that, Sofia puts her pencil down and stands. "It was good to see you though."
"Good to see you, too," Ren says to Sofia with a parting grin. With that, off he clanks.