A Helping Hand

Posted on Sat Nov 28th, 2020 @ 6:56pm by Lieutenant Samantha Leyton
Edited on on Sat Nov 28th, 2020 @ 7:40pm

Mission: Mission 3 - 100
Timeline: BACKPOST
1410 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

The shuttlebay. Not the most spacious area to find on the Atlantis, but the only place that allowed for them to be able to store the shuttlepods for the starship. Looking up at the arm that clamped onto the top of the shuttles and lowered them into the vacuum of space, Hayter made a mental note to run another check on the hydraulic systems to insure that all there weren't going to be any issues. But his first priority was getting shuttlepod 2 back up and running. There had been some issues, from what he had been told, so to take a break from the ship's systems, he assigned his crew to the, now minor items, while he worked on the shuttle. What he didn't expect was when he got closer to the shuttle, the hatch of the space vehicle was already open and lights were on, indicating that the systems were running. He pondered who had taken it upon themselves to start working on the shuttle, as it wasn't on his repair schedule that he had signed off on.

"Hello?" the Lieutenant called out as he walked up and popped his head into the shuttle. He seemed to perk up a little bit as he saw the back of a female at the pilot seat. "Well isn't this a nice surprise. Plan on taking it out for a spin?"

The woman gave a chuckle from the seat as she pulled away from an exposed panel, recalling the voice as that of Lieutenant Harper. "If only." She turned in the seat, smiling. "Hey. I had some spare time so I thought I would work on getting the shuttle back flying again." A spark emanated from the console near her, causing her to flinch instinctively before looking at the console. "Shit," Leyton cursed.

"Oh such a poddy mouth," Chris smirked as he sat a tool box inside the hatch before stepping in as well. "Seems like she is a little feisty with you. Did you push her to hard last time you had her out?"

"Me? Never," Samantha grinned. In truth, she always enjoyed pushing shuttles and starships past their limits. She found often that Starfleet played it safe with the capabilities of their craft. She eyed his tool box. "How are ship repairs coming along?

"Oh have you ever tried to band-aid your uniform? Works for a time, but won't last. But hey, that is what I do," Harper smirked slightly as he nodded in slight frustration. "Things are going well enough, though."

"That's good to hear because to be honest, I could use some help with the shuttlepod," Samantha gestured to the shuttle controls with a nod of her head. "I know enough about engines but something in the conduits is giving me trouble and I don't have a clue what could be causing it."

"Oh yeah?" he raised an eye brow as he looked at her and pondered for a moment as to what it could be. He nodded. "Hint picked up, don't flirt with the pilot, keep it professional. Got it!" He popped his tool box open. "Wanna start it up, the preflight check list. We can see in more detail of what's going on."

Leyton grinned. "Oh, I do enjoy a good flirt as much as the next woman but this thing has me at my wits end," she said as she tapped several commands into the pilot's console, powering up the shuttle's computer, life support, and then the engines. A warning alarm sounded after a dull thud. "Shit, core temperature is rising."

"I'll keep that in mind, fly girl," he called out as he ripped off one of the side panels after unlocking some of the magnetic locks with a tool. He sat the panel down and looked at the power flow and huffed as he looked at the patch work that had been done. "Alright, go ahead and bring the power down. I see the issue. Someone forgot to disengage the cooling system bypass after working on the thrusters."

"Oh, really?" she said sheepishly, turning in her seat as she powered down the shuttle. "Sorry about that. I was sure that I had it right."

'OH no, don't take it personally. It happens to the best of us," Chris offered up as he waved it off. "To be honest, a beauty like yourself, you can make a couple mistakes from time to time and we will wave it off. BUT you have to keep us from flying into a planet or whatever."

Laughing at the comment. "I'll do my best." It felt good to temporarily forget the stress she had been under--first avoiding the Vrav and now it was this wormhole that may or may not lead home. "But thanks for keeping the ship and this shuttle in tact."

"Oh, I have basically kept everything together with duct tape," Chris smirked as he kept on working on the system. But once the coolant flow was reset, he monitored the system for a moment before leaning over and looking into the shuttle. "Alright, let's try this again, 5% this time," he asked her simply with a slight smirk.

"Right," Samantha nodded as she powered the ship back up, bringing it to 5 percent. "Everything looks good on the instruments. How does it look on your end?" she asked.

"You or the coolant flow?" he winked at her before leaning back over the system and paused as he checked his scanner. It was obviously working, but there was showing some fluctuation in one of the lines for a split second, but then went away. "Not seeing any leaks. Bring it up to twenty-five percent and let's see how it handles that, please."

"Aww, you said the magic word," she chuckled. "Bringing it to twenty-five percent." So far things still looked ok according to the instruments.

"Looks good," he called out. Moments later, he popped his head into the shuttle and looked around before making his way in and sat on the floor of the shuttle with his feet out of it. "So tell me about yourself. Why a pilot?"

"Petty much the usual, 'I flew once and fell in love with it' story. My grandfather owns several antique airplanes that he shows at airfields. When I was a kid, I always enjoyed going to those shows and watching my grandfather fly. He made me a promise to teach me to fly if I stopped skipping school and I did and by the age of fifteen, I was flying in those airshows and I followed my brothers into Starfleet and here I am," she shrugged. "Why an engineer?"

He smirked slightly as he shrugged while he tapped the side of the shuttle entrance with his index finger before speaking. "I grew up with my whole family on a cargo ship. It came normal to me as my parents piloting and engineering. So I knew how to do both, but I always enjoyed fixing things with my hands. It just seemed more realistic then anything else."

"Wow, how was it growing up on a starship? Must have been tough," she asked, grateful for having grown up on Earth.

Taking a moment to think it over, he shrugged and smirked as he knew all to well that it had it's ups and downs. But to actually be tough.... "To be honest," he started as he looked at her for a moment and wink last second before sliding out of the entrance of the shuttle to look at his test equipment. "Tough was just a word for us to overcome. It was a way for us to learn how to adapt and be almost self sustaining in many ways. Just not dilithium. Although we did mine some raw a couple times. We couldn't refine it on our own, but knew a couple places that we were able to bargain with."

The hum of the engines seemed to hold steady and caused him to smirk before finally returning and looking inside. "You are good. Go ahead and power down. She will do for now," Chris stated as he heard a chirp from his communicator. "Looks like I need to wrap this up, but what do you say we meet up after you get back from your little mission."

"Sounds like a plan," she said as she powered the engines back down. "See you later," she said as she watched the engineer exit the shuttlepod.