The Lift and the Box

Posted on Sun Apr 28th, 2019 @ 7:08pm by Lieutenant Commander Magnus Grey & Lieutenant JG Brian Pendragon
Edited on on Tue Apr 30th, 2019 @ 9:43pm

1,104 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 6.5 - Obtaining New Crew
Location: Turbolift
Timeline: 2296/02/13 - 1105

Though not as large as his last ship, Magnus Grey nevertheless found his exploration of the USS America took a lot of time and energy. He'd walked through most of the saucer and neck, and now it was time to see the lower decks. After a quick lunch in the mess hall, he found a turbolift and started taking it all the way down to the ship's lowest deck.

It had only passed a few decks when the movement began to slow, indicating another potential passenger was waiting to board.

The doors opened and a large box began trundling in. It was sufficiently large as to obscure whoever was pushing it and was likely to take up a sizeable amount of the lift.

Magnus’s eyes went wide as he saw the massive box try to enter his personal space. He backed up to accommodate the box, but once his back pressed itself against the wall, it became clear that the box would not stop for him. He loudly cleared his throat, hoping to catch the box’s owner’s attention.

A tousled head popped around the side of the box.

"Oh! Oh, my. I'm sorry. I thought it was empty. Hang on, I'll just..." As the figure move around to the other side, it was apparent this was an engineer and a junior grade at that. "I'll get it out again. We can get the next one. It's fine".

The lad started pushing the box again, but a wheel caught on the edge where the lift met the decking and it crunched into the doorway, sticking fast.

Magnus stared unbelievingly at the situation. The junior engineer had well and truly gotten his box on wheels (or possibly a cart that he couldn’t see) stuck. “It’s fine, Lieutenant. I’m sure we can get this thing onto the lift together, now that you know I’m here.”

"Oh, thank you, that would be great. If you can..." he trailed off, suddenly realising it was the new XO he'd nearly squashed. "Aaaaaah..." He broke off, closed his eyes, took a deep breath in through his nose, then blew slowly out of his mouth as the fingers on the box tapped their way to five. Eye open again, he continued, "Pendragon, Brian, sir. Many thanks for the assist, sir!"

Magnus chuckled. “No problem, Mr. Pendragon. I’m Magnus Grey. Now let’s get this fixed. You handle the bottom, I’ve got the top.”

Brian ducked down where the wheel had stuck, tipping his head to one side to check the angles, then straightened up and applied a very precise kick to the wheel. With a jolt, it freed itself and they were back in business.

As the wheel came free, Magnus pulled and the box came fully into the turbolift. He stepped aside, leaving barely enough room for the box and the two men.

Brian leant with his back to the box and walked it backwards into the lift, failing to suppress a small squeak as the door closed mere millimeters from the tip of his nose.

Pressed up close to Mr. Pendragon, Magnus asked “Um, what deck?”

"Oh, yes, of course. Three, please," Brian replied. The turbolift set out. As the engineer tried to marshall his thought again, despite the confined space, he recalled reading the briefing note about the new XO. He had a background in communication, which as far as Brian was concerned was very nearly Engineering. Most of them knew how to dismantle and rewire their Comms panel at the very least and they knew about things like frequency and modulation, so most of them had a decent knowledge of physics, even though their reputation was more for linguistics and sociology. "Could I run an idea past you...?"

Magnus, a bit uncomfortable from their proximity, and slightly annoyed that the lift was going up when he wanted to go down, nodded. "Of course."

"We've been having problems with the interstitial muon array. We tried reimaging the phase shifter in situ, but that wasn't clearing down fully. Thorvaar ran some simulations and proposed we should do it in near-zero gravity, but when we took the components out to bring to the lab, they didn't seem to take kindly to being removed and replaced. Then we tried taking the whole unit out in a shuttle and fixing it outside, but although it worked while we were out there, as soon as we brought it back in, it failed again. It got me wondering if transporting it on the anti-grav sled from the hanger deck had interfered with the balance in some way, which is why I'm trying wheels. I thought if, instead of taking it outside, I booked one of the Rec rooms, I could take the gravity settings down slowly, try the fix, bring them back up again gradually and either keeping it gentle will work or at least I can see exactly which point it goes wrong at. What do you think?"

This was the most animated and least hesitant Magnus had seen the lad since he had first appeared.

Magnus understood the gist of what was being asked of him, especially the second half, but much of it went over his head. Still, he understood enough, and he smiled at the young man's enthusiasm. "A novel solution," he offered. "As you said, even if it doesn't work, you'll see exactly where it fails and can maybe figure out why." He chuckled. "Though if you're going for gentle, maybe avoid getting the wheels stuck in lifts? Or kicking them to get them free?"

Brian's cheeks turned red enough to match his uniform.

"Oh, oh yeah... fair point... um..." His eyes glazed over momentarily. "I know, I'll replicate a cable protector - that way it can be a mini ramp over the gap. That'll sort it. Thank you, sir. That might just make the difference!"

“Glad I could help,” Magnus said with a slight smile. The turbolift stopped and Magnus shifted to permit Pendragon to get out. The initial meeting with the man was awkward at best, but clearly he knew his job. He might bring up the man to Captain O’Connor later, but for now he’d be satisfied that the crew he was joining were competent.

Brian shoved the box out through the doors, wincing momentarily as once again the wheels juddered over the gap between the lift floor and the adjacent decking. He smiled apologetically at the XO as the doors closed, then sighed and set the box on the final leg of it's current journey.

 

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