Shuttles And Shuttlebays

Posted on Sat Dec 6th, 2025 @ 8:31pm by Lieutenant JG Jenna Jade & Petty Officer 2nd Class Quinn Sullivan

Mission: A Princess Of Tial
Location: Main Shuttle Bay

Jenna tapped her foot as she waited for the turbolift to finally stop. The departure from Tial two days prior had entailed her finishing up her work with the power plant in the cavern and then rushing back up to check in on the status of her engine room and personnel. The concern she had about the shuttles was real, especially after reading the pilots' reports on the power drain they suffered from their encounters with Tialan atmosphere. If it was something environmental, they'd need to either dispose of the shuttles or mitigate it quickly. Each of the last two days she'd sent someone down to make scans and those results had been reviewed and were on the PADD at her hip in case she needed them.

The doors finally opened and she wheeled out of the lift and to the left to get her own eyes on the problem. The bay doors were shut as she finally set foot on the bare metal, instead of the glittering of stars and the shine of the environmental forcefield and for a moment she debated ordering the doors open, but the starlines of the ship at warp weren't nearly as beautiful as the pinpricks of light of them at rest. She sighed heavily as she pulled her tricorder out and made towards the shuttle Typhon starting at the nose of the craft as she walked around it slowly, scanning for any deficiencies.

"You're too late," a voice said from the rear of the shuttle. "I've already repaired the hull damage. If you want to watch me flush the plasma injectors, though, you're just in time."

The engineer rolled her eyes. "And did you record all the data of the hull damage before you repaired it?" She snapped the tricorder shut as she approached the rear hatch, which was open, "Ah sure hope you did, because we may eventually come across another planet like that and Ah wanna try to find a way to mitigate the damage for next time."

"I have image recordings of each point of damage, samples of the degraded hull plates, tricorder readings and the actual damaged plates in storage for further analysis," the voice said. "I've also had samples sent to Petty Officer Sharpe for further analysis, and my own extensive notes of the repair process, my own analysis and theories as to how to avoid further damage in the future for your consideration." There was a slightly amused tone in the voice, but it remained calm and gentle and quiet. "It's all filed in the computer."

"Well, la-dee-da." Jenna muttered to herself as she came around the corner, "Ah was plannin' on doin' all that myself and gettin' as close a look as Ah could." She came into sight of the man in the shuttle finally, ready to tear into him, but stopped, "Ah, um, Ah do appreciate the assistance though." She gave him a curious look, "And just who are you?"

The man glanced at her then back at his work. "Petty Officer Second Class Quinn Sullivan, Ma'am," he said. "I manage the bay." He attached the plasma extractor to the engines and began to program it.

Jenna stepped up and watched what he was doing, making sure he was doing everything properly. It wasn't that she doubted him, but it was her job, "Did you log everythin' into the system that you were doin' the work on the shuttles? Ah didn't see anythin' in there that someone was workin' on the problem, otherwise Ah would have sent someone down to assist you, or come myself to make sure we had two sets of eyes on everythin'."

"Yes, Ma'am," he said. "In the Flight Control department log files and Bay Maintenance Files." He continued to process the plasma flush, watching the readings carefully.

"Can you upload anythin' to the Engineerin' queue as well. Ah know that shuttles technically belong to Flight Control, but the systems are monitored and repaired by Engineerin'." Jenna's mouth turned into a moue, "Ah don't like that spike right there, it's ionized too much."

"Yes," Quinn said, making notes on a padd. "It's the phosphates derived from the atmosphere, ergo, the flushing."

Jenna's foot tapped uncontrollably as she just stood there watching. She wasn't used to not doing anything, there was always SOMETHING to do and this was just... Awkward, "Is there anythin' Ah can do to help? Ah know we don't want to power up anythin' while you're doin' this, but Ah.." She shut up.

"Thank you," he said, politely, "but, no." He continued to monitor the process, making notes as he did. He sat comfortably, his attention focused, showing no signs of needing to fill the silence.

Tap-tappity-tap went Jenna's foot as she did dual duty watching over the process and retrieving the logs Quinn had uploaded to the Bay Maintenance files, copying them to the main Engineering logs as well. She looked on in annoyance, if he thought he could outwait her, he had another think coming. She checked the time on her PADD and the foot kept on tapping.

Quinn picked up a cleaning rag and carefully folded it, then folded it again. He leaned over and slipped it under her foot, muffling the tapping sound, while letting her continue to fidget. He leaned back towards the plasma filter, listening to the increased pitch of the plasma flow, and made an adjustment. Once he was satisfied, he made another note on the padd and then stood up, walking over to a storage closet and pulling out another work stool, bringing it over and setting it down in front of Jenna, then returned to his position, sitting and monitoring.

She gave a nod of thanks for the stool, but the foot kept on going, now with both heel and toe as her entire leg bounced up and down in what was far too much energy. The silence was absolutely deafening, but clearly he liked working in the quiet. Still, she couldn't leave now, not since she'd established why she was here and after the flush was done, they'd need to power up to make sure there was no obstruction or if this kicked loose something else that needed adjusting.

With the plasma injector filters now in full operation, Quinn took his tricorder and began scanning the warp nacelles. The bussard collectors had completely clogged and would need to be cleaned out. At that point, it would be easier to replace them and work on the cleanout separately, but that would require assistance. He sighed and added the requisition to his padd.

"I'll need some assistance," he said, handing her the padd. "We'll need to replace the bussard collectors to efficiently get the shuttles operational."

"Ah kin help with that!" She blurted out with excitement as she she accepted the PADD and signed off on the requisition quickly. "We should have a set of spares already in Cargo Bay Three, with the rest of the staged spare parts for the shuttles." She handed the PADD back to him, "Ah can start to disassemble while you grab the spares?" She glanced at the other shuttles. "Think we'll need t' do it for the rest of them? Ah can have one of my guys and gals get started with the fabrication, or we could refurb what we're pullin' off."

Quinn regarded the second and third shuttle. "Replace the first two, refurbish for the third. That way we have two shuttles ready faster." He looked back at her. "And you want to do it...now?"

"Why not?" Jenna asked, glancing around, "No time like the present and we may need one of the shuttles at some point. With two of us workin' together, it'll take half the time and we can at least get the first shuttle up and runnin' before the end of the shift, unless you've got somethin' else planned?"

"I do," he said simply, but regarded her carefully. "But it can wait." He reached down and picked up his tool kit, carefully closing it. "This way." He set up his stool near the port collector and opened his tool kit, grabbing a decoupler to begin detaching the part.

Not to be outdone, and leaving the stool he’d acquired for her right where it was, Jenna reached for her own kit bag and realized she didn’t have it with her. She’d only come down to follow up on the scans the others had made before formulating an overhaul plan, but this Petty Officer had jumped the gun and gotten started before she’d even had the opportunity to evaluate things. Now she had two choices: look like an idiot just standing around and acting as his assistant, or look stupid by… “Ah, um, can Ah borrow something of your kit to get started on the Starboard collector, PO?” She mumbled out, “Ah seem to have forgotten to bring my own kit bag.” It was a horrible admission to make.

Quinn reached for his secondary decoupler and smiled at her as he handed it to her. "Here," he said.

“Thank you.” Jenna said, trying to mean the words as sincerely as she could. It was how she was raised, after all, in genteel society. She fiddled with the decoupler as she went around to the other side of the shuttle, focusing her eyes on the collector and dropping to her knees to begin the process of undoing the eight connectors that firmly attached the part to the nacelle. “Ah don’t remember seein’ you around.” She spoke up a bit to get her voice to carry over to Quinn, “Mind if Ah ask when you came aboard Chimera?”

"Fairly recently," he said from the other side of the shuttle. "A few months ago. There hasn't been much need for us to cross paths till now, I suppose." His voice had warmed, and was more conversational, but still reserved, as if he were picking the most efficient way to say what he wanted to communicate.

“Ah should have still at least come to say hello.” Jenna remarked, stripping out the first connector and moving on to the next one ninety degrees around to the right. Always keep the pressure equal whenever possible, “Ah’ve just been so busy tryin’ to keep Engineerin’ runnin’ smoothly Ah think Ah have barely noticed anyone comin’ aboard that ain’t takin’ over a department. And to think, eighteen months ago Ah was sittin’ in a classroom wondering what would be on the final exams.”

"Life is nothing if not unexpected," he said. "And it's amazing how fast its direction can change." He continued to work as well, disconnecting more of the isolinear circuit connections. "And is it?"

Third connector out, onto the fourth, “Is it what?” She asked, not sure what he was talking about.

"Running smoothly," he said, removing the clogged receptors.

“Better than it was, but smooth?” Jenna shook her head from where he couldn’t see it, “Hardly. When Ah’m present, things get movin’ along a bit better and more organized-like, but there’s always somethin’ throwin’ a wrench into the plans Ah’ve made for a day. Sakura’s gettin’ distracted by Bradley, moons over him if no one’s watchin’, and Katie’s always goin’ on about Jadizon or tryin’ to find some prank to pull. And don’t get me started on Xavier, he’s always finding’ something wrong that he’s gotta deal with before he can get to what Ah want him to do.”

"There's something to be said for quiet and focus," Quinn said. "Most people fear silence, so they fill it, at the expense of their focus." He didn't elaborate, the sound of their tools filling the new silence between them.

The silence lasted for about a minute, but then Jenna just couldn't help herself, "Ah don't fear the quiet and it certainly doesn't cause me to lose focus, Ah just like the banter." She pointed out, not stopping in the slightest, "It's always been a part of my studying with my friends as a kid and at the Academy and it seems to be a pattern that Ah fell into here as well. Does it bother you?"

"No," he said after a moment's thought. "My sisters are rather fond of it as well. I'm accustomed to listening to their talking."

"You've got sisters?" Jenna asked, "How many, if you don't mind me askin'? Ah've got three sisters of my own and two brothers, Ah'm one of the middle children and the Jades are all over the place, my brother Andrew and sister Marta are both at the Academy, Marta just enrolled the end of last year, science track for her."

"Five. I'm the eldest," Quinn said with almost a heavy sigh. "I'm the only one in Starfleet."

"Five younger sisters?" Jenna gave a low whistle, "May God have mercy on your soul and the torture that you went through when you were younger." She made the final disconnection and began to unseat the bussard collector from the mounting with a slight grunt of effort, "What do your sisters do? One of my brothers and a sister are helping dad run the family farm, but Natalie went and got married to someone off-planet."

"Sioban is a math teacher. Erin is botanist," Quinn said. "Ciara and Riley are both in university. Ciara is studying music and Riley is studying to be a chef. Maeve is still in secondary school, but she is considering Starfleet."

"Sounds like a wonderful family to have." Jenna set the collector down on the deck, "Ah suppose that Ah should go get the spares, unless you're already done with your side and wanted to go grab them?"

"I'll go," he said. "I'm already finished." He set his padd down and stood up without another word, walking away from the shuttle towards the door, heading for the cargo bay.

"Thanks!" Jenna rolled to balls of her feet before standing and stretching, "Ah'll get started on getting these two refurbed." He walked through the door and Jenna exhaled and shook her head before picking up her collector and hauling it over to the nearby workbench, "It's like pullin' teeth." She muttered to herself, getting back to work.

(Tag)