Engineers, more than just Mr. Fix-IT?

Posted on 30 Nov 2025 @ 9:37pm by Lieutenant Thex sh'Zoarhi

925 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: S04 Episode 02 The Hackers Backdoor (Incidentals)
Location: Lateriel Sensor Suite 41B
Timeline: its 5-oclock somewhere

[ON]

Lateral Sensor Suite 43-B was on the Fourth deck, starboard side, next to the hull. It is on the dorsal part of the hull, or saucer section. It was next to the outside, as close as could be safely arranged. Yes, there was armor between him and the outside hard vacuum. Yes, it was structurally safe. And yes, it still made Homer nervous. There was nothing wrong, but Homer still had this low-grade feeling like something was about to happen. It had started with the hairs on the back of his neck raising, the goose bumps on his arms, then the cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. The fear was palpable, real, and measurable.

As a Science officer, part of his duties were to check equipment and make sure everything was working properly. Bridge had sent a report that this particular piece of equipment was reporting a ghost echo, or false signal. His job was to check, see if it needed an Engineering team to fix whatever issue, and or exercise gremlins. Gremlins were real. They existed. Look at all the folklore. Every race had them in one form or another. Most people ignore them or like to pretend they don't exist. Homer knew they existed; he just had not captured any evidence yet.

After rebooting the hardware and factory resetting the software, Homer was still no closer to getting this particularly stubborn hunk of junk back to its design form. That low-level vibration was getting louder. It made the small of his back itch. Home hit his com badge. /=\ Computer, Science Officer Estonburry, play Moonlight Sonata, My collection, 45-minuet version, on this device, at 13 decibels./=\

A Half second later, Piano music came from his comm badge. The bad vibrations seemed to lessen. It was still there, but at a lesser frequency. Rebooting the hardware for the fourth time, and according to his science tricorder, the erroneous signal was still there on the output. The feeling in the small of his back was there, but getting weaker. Hitting his comm badge, he paged Engineering. /=\ Lieutenant sh'Zoarhi, Ensign Estonburry, I am having a problem with Lateral Sensor suite 43-B, I could use a hand to troubleshoot, rebooted four times, and its still not working correctly.

Down in her small workshop, Thex heard the call come in over the com. /=\ On my way. /=\ came her reply as she picked up her toolkit and headed toward the turbolift.

Homer was reviewing the list of common problems out loud when the aforementioned Engineer arrived. Not looking up from his P.a.d.d. Homer said,

"1} Percussive Maintenance." Homer reached out and slapped the offending Sensor controller. "Check!"

"2} Cycle power to the unit." Homer had already rebooted the dang thing five times now. "Check!" Homer said again.

"3} High Impedance Air Gap." Homer looked, "Yes!" Homer said," It is plugged in!"

"4} Organic Grounded." Homer looked around; neither he nor anyone else was currently being electrocuted.

"5} Thermally Reconfigured," Homer said, then began looking all around it, under it, behind it, and on top of it. "Nope, it did not melt or is not currently melting." Homer reluctantly admitted out loud.

"6} Kinetic Dissassembly," said Homer. Looking around for pieces in case it blew up or blew off parts. Not finding anything, Homer shrugged his shoulders.

"7} Thermal Shock!". Homer said, then looked for evidence that the sensor assembly had burned up or otherwise caught on fire. " Nope!" Homer said, "Definitely not that. Hmmm, I am running out of troubleshooting tips. I shall have to call in a professional. ahhh, speak of the devil...I have no clue what is wrong," said Homer with a sigh.


The door slid open as in stepped the ship's sapphire engineer stepped inside. " Hello there, my friend, let's take a look at which part of my girl needs fixing."

Homer pointed at the sensor suite controller, then said, " Well, we're getting ghost echo's from this repeater assembly. I have rebooted the system and factory reset the firmware. the Echo is still there. Troubleshooting tips resulted in no change in the output."

" Well, let's take a look and see what's wrong with it." Thex responded, pulling out her diagnostic and attaching it to the sensor suit.


"Wellll", Homer said, looking at the Engineer. "I am also afraid to report that maybe gremlins are involved. I am currently playing Moonlight Sonata, to try to keep them away. It seems to be keeping them out of sight, but not out of mind!"

Thex blue hands as she looked at the incoming data coming in through the diagnostic tool. " I think i may have something." She said as her typing increased.


Homer looked around sure that he would see signs of those rascals, "Did you see sign of the Gremlins?" Homer asked.

" I think so." Replied the Sapphire engineer. " Let me clean out some of the jink code and see if that set's it right."

It didn't take long for Thex to work her magic, and within minutes, the junk code was cleared out. " Okay, try rebooting and seeing if it's working now."

Homer nodded and started up the sensor suit. Fortunately, it started up just fine. " All readings are coming in just fine. Thanks, Thex, you're a lifesaver."

Thex smiled as she began putting away her tools. " All in a day's work, my friend, all in a day's work." she added before heading for the door. The ship had many more jobs that needed her attention.


[OFF]


Lieutenant Thex sh'Zoarhi
Deputy Chief Engineering Officer

Ensign Homer Estonburry
Science Officer

 

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