He Who Fights With Monsters
By Thalia Drogna
*********************************************
"Son of a bitch, would you look at the size of that thing," said Trip. He was staring at the Rel Sevanne through the window of Shuttlepod One. Rostov, Cook and Kelly sat in the back of the shuttle looking equally awed by the sight of the huge ship. Lieutenant Reed had also brought Ensigns Hooper and Scott with him from Security who although obviously interested in the Rel Sevanne were not quite as excited by it as the Engineering contingent.
"It certainly is impressive," said Reed who was piloting them between the two ships. "I wonder what its weapons are like." Their scans had been inconclusive about the defensive capability of the ship but Reed had definitely detected weapons of some kind.
"I'm sure you'll find out," said Trip with a smile. "Can you imagine the kind of engines it would take to move that through space?"
"No, but I'm sure you are," said Reed smiling back at Trip. It was nice to see the Engineer being so enthusiastic about something. He'd been kind of quiet of late.
"How many people are on board the Rel Sevanne, sir?" asked Kelly.
"T'Pol thought over two thousand, but our scans weren't achieving complete penetration of the hull so it's difficult to be sure how many people are on that ship," said Reed.
"Over two thousand? Wow," said Rostov. "Makes Enterprise seem like a shuttlepod in comparison."
"Don't let the Captain hear you say that," said Trip.
"No fear, sir," replied Rostov.
"Do we know anything about these people, Malcolm?" asked Trip.
"Not much, they're called the Tien and we spoke to someone called Ten En Ath Jeriad. They asked for help and seemed friendly, so the Captain said we'd send an Engineering team over. At the moment they're dead in space without their warp engines online and they also mentioned computer problems, but that's all we know," said Reed.
"But the Captain asked you to head up the away mission so he wasn't sure about them being friendly," said Trip, quietly so that the others in the pod couldn't hear him.
"He was just being cautious, and I am an Engineer as well as being a Security officer," said Reed.
"Yeah, but if he really wasn't worried he would have sent Hess on her own," replied Trip.
"Trip, I really don't think you need to worry. Even dead in space, if they'd wanted to attack us they could have done it by now. The scans didn't show much but they did show that we'd be well and truly out gunned if they wanted to fire on us," said Reed. He didn't add that three security officers wouldn't do much good against over two thousand aliens, he was trying to reassure Trip not scare him. What he'd said to Trip was true though, they had no reason to assume that the aliens were hostile so far. However, Reed was already formulating plans for how to use three security officers to get the away team back to the shuttle safely if things did go pear shaped. He couldn't do much on that front until he'd seen the interior of the ship though.
Trip nodded in an understanding manner at what Reed had said and went back to gazing at the impressive bulk of the Rel Sevanne. Huge structures emerged from the main body of the ship, some of them looked like stylised waves with intricate froth still attached to them, others were more like stalactites or the gothic pinnacles of a cathedral. It was less as if the ship had been built and more like it had been grown. Trip was dying to find out how it all fitted together from the inside, which was almost making him forget just how scared he was of boarding the alien ship.
"We're approaching the docking bay," said Reed.
Trip opened a channel on the radio, "this is Enterprise Shuttlepod One to the Rel Sevanne, we're approaching the docking bay, please stand by to receive us."
"This is the Rel Sevanne. Message received, Shuttlepod One, please proceed to docking bay five," said a radio operator from the alien ship. Reed thought the voice sounded very similar to Ten En who they had spoken to before and wondered if all the Tien sounded so similar.
"We've got permission to land, Malcolm. Go ahead and dock," said Trip.
"Yes, sir," said Reed and guided the shuttlepod into the docking bay which was one of many along the segment of the ship they were now passing. Reed set the pod down gently and the away team waited for the air outside to become breathable. The docking bay didn't have doors as such but seemed to utilise shields to seal the opening they had just flown through. It was only a few seconds before the atmosphere had cycled and the crew could get out of the shuttle.
Trip was the last to disembark, hanging back for as long as he could before leaving the safety of the shuttlepod. Reed stood waiting for him as he stepped out.
"You okay?" he whispered to his friend. "I can always take you back to Enterprise if you're not feeling up to this."
"I'll be fine," said Trip. "It's just this is the first time I've been off Enterprise since, well, since..."
"We got you back," finished Reed tactfully, realising Trip couldn't finish the sentence.
"Yeah," said Trip. "Just give me a minute and I'll be okay."
"No problem, we'll unload. Just remember those exercises T'Pol taught you," said Reed.
Trip nodded. Along with the neuropressure, T'Pol had also been trying to teach Trip some Vulcan techniques for controlling his fear. As he understood it, Vulcan children were taught this stuff from an early age, how to suppress their emotions and gain the iron control which T'Pol now possessed. No one had ever tried to teach a human how to control their emotions, especially not an adult human so T'Pol had her work cut out for her. Trip had been grateful when she'd offered to try, it was another weapon he could add to his arsenal of ways to defeat his fears. So far it was only succeeding to a very limited degree but T'Pol thought they could work on it and it was better than nothing.
He closed his eyes, told the nanites to be quiet and concentrated on controlling his breathing. He thought about somewhere safe and calm. He lent his back against the shuttle and stood for a moment while he regained his composure.
"Welcome," said a voice. Trip's eyes flew open and were greeted by the sight of a beautiful alien standing in front of him. She was most definitely female and was tall, willowy and wore a light blue figure hugging cat-suit not unlike the ones T'Pol had taken to wearing recently. Her hair was white blonde and plaited in a long rope down her back. He pulled himself to attention, wondering what the rest of the away team were doing, but they all seemed to be busy unloading equipment.
"Uh, it's a pleasure to be here," replied Trip, flustered at her sudden approach. "Erm, I'm Commander Tucker, Chief Engineer of Enterprise."
"My name is Shar Jen Sar Kerin, you may call me Shar Jen," said the woman. "I am the Artificer of the Rel Sevanne." She looked at Trip and it felt as if her eyes were looking into his very soul. He noticed small ridges down her cheekbones but other than her fragile build and unusual height she looked surprisingly human. Her eyes were an unnatural blue though, almost turquoise. It required a feat of will power to pull himself away from her stare and when he did he felt as if he'd left a piece of himself behind.
"I guess Artificer is like Chief Engineer," he said, "you're in charge of the engines?"
"And the repair of the ship," she replied, with a nod.
"Let me introduce you to everyone else and then you can put us to work," said Trip leading Shar Jen over to the entrance to the shuttlepod. Reed was supervising the stacking of various boxes and cases. "I'd like you to meet Lieutenant Reed, Enterprise's Tactical Officer, these are Crewmen Rostov and Kelly and Ensigns Cook, Hooper and Scott. This is Shar Jen Sar Kerin, Artificer of the Rel Sevanne." The crew politely greeted their host and Shar Jen welcomed the rest of the crewmembers aboard.
"Our Captain was wondering if it would be possible to meet with your leader," said Reed.
"Unfortunately that will not be possible," said Shar Jen. "Ten En Ath Jeriad is very busy."
"Does he have a deputy?" asked Reed.
"Yes, his name is Kris Nor Vin Lusen and I can arrange for your Captain to meet with him. I was asked to invite you all to dinner with our ship's senior council," said Shar Jen, "as a small token of our thanks for your help."
"Well I'm not sure how much help we'll be, but we'd be happy to accept your dinner invitation," said Trip.
"If you will follow me then I will take you to the engines," said Shar Jen.
Although they all knew how big the ship was from what they'd seen during their flight across from Enterprise, nothing had quite prepared them for the sheer scale of the ship's interior. Shar Jen led them out of the docking bay and down several long and winding corridors before they reached the central atrium which apparently ran down the full length of the ship and was about twenty storeys high as far as Trip could make out. Down the centre ran a transit tube, Trip had expected something like this as the Rel Sevanne was too big to walk from one end to the other. Aliens milled around them on their way to other parts of the ship and children played in a play grounds at intervals along the ship's length. The sounds of laughter drifting towards them. They boarded a transit tube car and were whisked to their destination.
"This is just amazing," said Trip. Outside they were moving past structures and gardens, play grounds and farms. The atrium was filled with greenery.
"Makes a bit of a change from the corridors of Enterprise," said Reed, looking around him with equal amazement.
"How did they ever build this ship," said Trip, "the amount of materials used in this must be phenomenal. I'm not even sure that Earth would have the resources to build something this scale. Most of the metal for Enterprise came from the Jupiter mining station but I don't think there's enough metal in the whole of Jupiter to build this."
"So it was a big building project, they obviously found the materials from somewhere," said Reed.
"Yeah, I'm just curious about where," said Trip.
"Just remember where curiosity got the cat," said Reed.
"Don't worry, I don't plan on going poking my nose in where it isn't wanted. I'm just thinking out loud," said Trip. He checked in with the nanites. "Can we interface with their technology?" he asked.
"Still trying," said the nanites. "This technology is unlike anything we have interfaced with before. High probability that remote accessing is impossible. Suggest we try direct access."
"I need to find a computer terminal," said Trip to the nanites.
"Affirmative," said the nanites.
"I'll see what I can do," said Trip. "Keep trying for the remote access you never know when it might come in handy."
The transit tube car arrived at their destination and the away team got out, carrying their equipment with them. Trip caught up to Shar Jen who was at the front of the party guiding them through the labyrinthine corridors of the ship.
"So how long have you folks been out here on the Rel Sevanne?" asked Trip.
"Ten generations," said Shar Jen, without any sign that this was anything unusual.
"Ten generations? You were born on this ship?" asked Trip, trying to take in what this meant.
"Yes," replied Shar Jen. "Everyone on this ship was born here. We're here," she said standing beside a set of large double doors that were twice her height. She pressed a button at the side of the doors and they opened. She stepped over the lip of the bulkhead and entered the room which Trip assumed was Engineering. The sight that greeted him was not exactly what he had expected.
"The Rel Sevanne has five engines," said Shar Jen. "They have names, Jerel, Lirat, Manira, Torit and Devas." She pointed to each engine as she said its name.
"Damn, those are big," said Trip.
"Understatement of the year," said Reed, quietly, who had come in behind him. He was right, big didn't even begin to cover it. Each engine was three floors high and almost as wide. Enterprise's warp engine was an insect compared to the power and size of these five. Trip could hear the gasps of the other members of the away team as they entered the room.
"They are getting very old," said Shar Jen.
"No kidding," replied Trip. "Ten generations, huh?"
"They have been completely rebuilt in their lifetimes but in effect they are the same engines that the Rel Sevanne left port with. We think it may be Lirat that is causing the problems," said Shar Jen.
Each engine had some marks on it in which looked like the Tien script they had seen around the ship on their journey to the engine room and Trip took to be name labels. The labels themselves had to be at least a storey high.
"I think this is what we'd call a granny's broom situation," said Trip. "They're the same engines that the ship left port with but every single part has been replaced." The engines were amazing but he couldn't believe that they were ten generations old. Hell, he'd have had trouble believing that they were one generation old. Assuming that the Tien generations were the equivalent to human generations which wasn't necessarily true, Vulcans lived considerably longer than humans.
"I don't understand what a "granny's broom" is but your assessment would be mostly correct," said Shar Jen. "I believe that Jerel, Lirat and Devas still contain some original parts."
"Okay, let's get to work," said Trip. These engines might be big but he was pretty sure they'd work on the same basis as his own warp five engine back on Enterprise. "We'll start with Lirat and if it turns out she isn't the problem then we'll check the other four too."
"She?" asked Shar Jen.
"All engines are female," said Trip with a shrug.
"Lirat is a gender neutral name," said Shar Jen, "as are the others. They were named after cities on our homeworld."
"Well as far as I'm concerned it's a she," said Trip.
"Very well," said Shar Jen. "Follow me." A number of Tien engineers were already watching the Enterprise team as they walked across to Lirat and Shar Jen began showing them the ropes of the alien engine. Trip was slightly surprised to see so few of the Tien working on the engines, he was used to the bustling engine room of Enterprise and he filed it away as another thing to ask about if he got a chance.
Trip, Rostov and Kelly got to work taking readings of the engine's functions. Lieutenant Reed helped out, although warp engines weren't his speciality he knew enough to be useful, while Hooper and Scott were put to work fetching and carrying for the engineers. Reed was still vigilant but he'd already decided that the threat to the away team was either minimal or insurmountable. The aliens seemed friendly and the presence of children made him think it unlikely that they'd try to attack the away team, however he'd already worked out that if the Tien did decide to harm the away team there was very little he could do about it. The sheer distance between them and the shuttlepod was too far for them to make an easy retreat.
Trip was completely in his element, he worked alongside Shar Jen the two of them discussing the readings that they were taking as they came in, bouncing ideas off one another as to why Lirat should be causing them trouble.
"The five engines must work together or part of the ship is left in normal space while the rest goes to warp. There are automatic safety cut-outs that prevent the ship from going to warp if one of the engines is not online and drop us out of warp safely if there is a problem while we are travelling," explained Shar Jen.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," said Trip, looking at the schematics that Shar Jen had pulled up for him. "Don't want to rip the ship apart if there's a failure." He looked over the schematics on the screen in front of him, pretending to be absorbed but actually holding a conversation with the nanites. "So any luck with interfacing?" he asked them.
"There is an organic component to their technology. We are unable to act upon it. We can only obtain limited access," said the nanites.
"Damn, I guess that will have to do. Start feeding me data about the warp engines, begin with their maintenance history," replied Trip. He'd almost forgotten about one of the safety protocols that the nanoprobes' designer had built in at a fundamental level, the nanites could not act upon living tissue. It had been intended to prevent the nanites being used as a weapon. Grenan Dath hadn't wanted that. He'd been an Engineer, just like Trip, and had used the nanoprobes for helping him fix things and diagnostics. Unfortunately Grenan Dath's son had other ideas about what the nanoprobes should be used for and had caused Trip quite a lot of trouble.
"You must remain in contact with the ship for the data flow to continue," reminded the nanites.
"Yeah, I got the message, now hurry up before this beautiful Engineer standing next to me starts to wonder why I'm leaning on this console," said Trip. He turned to Shar Jen, "what are these couplings here?" he asked pointing to an area on the schematics.
"Secondary power couplings and computer links. The computer controls the engines and the matter/anti-matter mixture. It also monitors all engine functions constantly for malfunctions and diagnostic purposes," said Shar Jen.
"And that was how you figured out it was Lirat causing the trouble?" asked Trip.
"Yes, although there had already been some indications that Lirat was not functioning correctly," said Shar Jen.
"Did you check to see if the plasma valves were fused?" asked Trip.
"They show as open on the indicator panels," said Shar Jen.
"Never trust a computer when you can trust your own eyes," said Trip. "Let's have a look at those next. What about the phase coils? When were they last replaced?" He desperately wanted to ask Shar Jen about the organic component to their technology that the nanites had found but at the moment he wasn't supposed to know about it. He just hoped that it would come up at some point when they were poking around in the warp engine. He knew that the Xindi used organic technology in their weapons and if he could gather some information about how the Tien used it, it might help them against the Xindi.
Suddenly all the nanites in his head were shouting at him all at once. He held his head and told them to be quiet, but nothing seemed to shut them up. He let out a cry of pain. It felt as if his head was about to explode, his legs wouldn't support him anymore and he sensed that he was falling towards the floor. His vision blurred and he could see Shar Jen bending down beside him a concerned look on her face. He heard her calling for Lieutenant Reed, but everything hurt so much.
"Shut up!" he told the nanites. "Shut up!" He tried to curl into a ball, rocking himself as if that would help alleviate the pain that was pushing its way out of his skull and over his body. He couldn't hear what the nanites were saying, they were all talking at once. Someone pressed a hypospray to his neck and he was mercifully unconscious shortly after that.
By Thalia Drogna
*********************************************
"Son of a bitch, would you look at the size of that thing," said Trip. He was staring at the Rel Sevanne through the window of Shuttlepod One. Rostov, Cook and Kelly sat in the back of the shuttle looking equally awed by the sight of the huge ship. Lieutenant Reed had also brought Ensigns Hooper and Scott with him from Security who although obviously interested in the Rel Sevanne were not quite as excited by it as the Engineering contingent.
"It certainly is impressive," said Reed who was piloting them between the two ships. "I wonder what its weapons are like." Their scans had been inconclusive about the defensive capability of the ship but Reed had definitely detected weapons of some kind.
"I'm sure you'll find out," said Trip with a smile. "Can you imagine the kind of engines it would take to move that through space?"
"No, but I'm sure you are," said Reed smiling back at Trip. It was nice to see the Engineer being so enthusiastic about something. He'd been kind of quiet of late.
"How many people are on board the Rel Sevanne, sir?" asked Kelly.
"T'Pol thought over two thousand, but our scans weren't achieving complete penetration of the hull so it's difficult to be sure how many people are on that ship," said Reed.
"Over two thousand? Wow," said Rostov. "Makes Enterprise seem like a shuttlepod in comparison."
"Don't let the Captain hear you say that," said Trip.
"No fear, sir," replied Rostov.
"Do we know anything about these people, Malcolm?" asked Trip.
"Not much, they're called the Tien and we spoke to someone called Ten En Ath Jeriad. They asked for help and seemed friendly, so the Captain said we'd send an Engineering team over. At the moment they're dead in space without their warp engines online and they also mentioned computer problems, but that's all we know," said Reed.
"But the Captain asked you to head up the away mission so he wasn't sure about them being friendly," said Trip, quietly so that the others in the pod couldn't hear him.
"He was just being cautious, and I am an Engineer as well as being a Security officer," said Reed.
"Yeah, but if he really wasn't worried he would have sent Hess on her own," replied Trip.
"Trip, I really don't think you need to worry. Even dead in space, if they'd wanted to attack us they could have done it by now. The scans didn't show much but they did show that we'd be well and truly out gunned if they wanted to fire on us," said Reed. He didn't add that three security officers wouldn't do much good against over two thousand aliens, he was trying to reassure Trip not scare him. What he'd said to Trip was true though, they had no reason to assume that the aliens were hostile so far. However, Reed was already formulating plans for how to use three security officers to get the away team back to the shuttle safely if things did go pear shaped. He couldn't do much on that front until he'd seen the interior of the ship though.
Trip nodded in an understanding manner at what Reed had said and went back to gazing at the impressive bulk of the Rel Sevanne. Huge structures emerged from the main body of the ship, some of them looked like stylised waves with intricate froth still attached to them, others were more like stalactites or the gothic pinnacles of a cathedral. It was less as if the ship had been built and more like it had been grown. Trip was dying to find out how it all fitted together from the inside, which was almost making him forget just how scared he was of boarding the alien ship.
"We're approaching the docking bay," said Reed.
Trip opened a channel on the radio, "this is Enterprise Shuttlepod One to the Rel Sevanne, we're approaching the docking bay, please stand by to receive us."
"This is the Rel Sevanne. Message received, Shuttlepod One, please proceed to docking bay five," said a radio operator from the alien ship. Reed thought the voice sounded very similar to Ten En who they had spoken to before and wondered if all the Tien sounded so similar.
"We've got permission to land, Malcolm. Go ahead and dock," said Trip.
"Yes, sir," said Reed and guided the shuttlepod into the docking bay which was one of many along the segment of the ship they were now passing. Reed set the pod down gently and the away team waited for the air outside to become breathable. The docking bay didn't have doors as such but seemed to utilise shields to seal the opening they had just flown through. It was only a few seconds before the atmosphere had cycled and the crew could get out of the shuttle.
Trip was the last to disembark, hanging back for as long as he could before leaving the safety of the shuttlepod. Reed stood waiting for him as he stepped out.
"You okay?" he whispered to his friend. "I can always take you back to Enterprise if you're not feeling up to this."
"I'll be fine," said Trip. "It's just this is the first time I've been off Enterprise since, well, since..."
"We got you back," finished Reed tactfully, realising Trip couldn't finish the sentence.
"Yeah," said Trip. "Just give me a minute and I'll be okay."
"No problem, we'll unload. Just remember those exercises T'Pol taught you," said Reed.
Trip nodded. Along with the neuropressure, T'Pol had also been trying to teach Trip some Vulcan techniques for controlling his fear. As he understood it, Vulcan children were taught this stuff from an early age, how to suppress their emotions and gain the iron control which T'Pol now possessed. No one had ever tried to teach a human how to control their emotions, especially not an adult human so T'Pol had her work cut out for her. Trip had been grateful when she'd offered to try, it was another weapon he could add to his arsenal of ways to defeat his fears. So far it was only succeeding to a very limited degree but T'Pol thought they could work on it and it was better than nothing.
He closed his eyes, told the nanites to be quiet and concentrated on controlling his breathing. He thought about somewhere safe and calm. He lent his back against the shuttle and stood for a moment while he regained his composure.
"Welcome," said a voice. Trip's eyes flew open and were greeted by the sight of a beautiful alien standing in front of him. She was most definitely female and was tall, willowy and wore a light blue figure hugging cat-suit not unlike the ones T'Pol had taken to wearing recently. Her hair was white blonde and plaited in a long rope down her back. He pulled himself to attention, wondering what the rest of the away team were doing, but they all seemed to be busy unloading equipment.
"Uh, it's a pleasure to be here," replied Trip, flustered at her sudden approach. "Erm, I'm Commander Tucker, Chief Engineer of Enterprise."
"My name is Shar Jen Sar Kerin, you may call me Shar Jen," said the woman. "I am the Artificer of the Rel Sevanne." She looked at Trip and it felt as if her eyes were looking into his very soul. He noticed small ridges down her cheekbones but other than her fragile build and unusual height she looked surprisingly human. Her eyes were an unnatural blue though, almost turquoise. It required a feat of will power to pull himself away from her stare and when he did he felt as if he'd left a piece of himself behind.
"I guess Artificer is like Chief Engineer," he said, "you're in charge of the engines?"
"And the repair of the ship," she replied, with a nod.
"Let me introduce you to everyone else and then you can put us to work," said Trip leading Shar Jen over to the entrance to the shuttlepod. Reed was supervising the stacking of various boxes and cases. "I'd like you to meet Lieutenant Reed, Enterprise's Tactical Officer, these are Crewmen Rostov and Kelly and Ensigns Cook, Hooper and Scott. This is Shar Jen Sar Kerin, Artificer of the Rel Sevanne." The crew politely greeted their host and Shar Jen welcomed the rest of the crewmembers aboard.
"Our Captain was wondering if it would be possible to meet with your leader," said Reed.
"Unfortunately that will not be possible," said Shar Jen. "Ten En Ath Jeriad is very busy."
"Does he have a deputy?" asked Reed.
"Yes, his name is Kris Nor Vin Lusen and I can arrange for your Captain to meet with him. I was asked to invite you all to dinner with our ship's senior council," said Shar Jen, "as a small token of our thanks for your help."
"Well I'm not sure how much help we'll be, but we'd be happy to accept your dinner invitation," said Trip.
"If you will follow me then I will take you to the engines," said Shar Jen.
Although they all knew how big the ship was from what they'd seen during their flight across from Enterprise, nothing had quite prepared them for the sheer scale of the ship's interior. Shar Jen led them out of the docking bay and down several long and winding corridors before they reached the central atrium which apparently ran down the full length of the ship and was about twenty storeys high as far as Trip could make out. Down the centre ran a transit tube, Trip had expected something like this as the Rel Sevanne was too big to walk from one end to the other. Aliens milled around them on their way to other parts of the ship and children played in a play grounds at intervals along the ship's length. The sounds of laughter drifting towards them. They boarded a transit tube car and were whisked to their destination.
"This is just amazing," said Trip. Outside they were moving past structures and gardens, play grounds and farms. The atrium was filled with greenery.
"Makes a bit of a change from the corridors of Enterprise," said Reed, looking around him with equal amazement.
"How did they ever build this ship," said Trip, "the amount of materials used in this must be phenomenal. I'm not even sure that Earth would have the resources to build something this scale. Most of the metal for Enterprise came from the Jupiter mining station but I don't think there's enough metal in the whole of Jupiter to build this."
"So it was a big building project, they obviously found the materials from somewhere," said Reed.
"Yeah, I'm just curious about where," said Trip.
"Just remember where curiosity got the cat," said Reed.
"Don't worry, I don't plan on going poking my nose in where it isn't wanted. I'm just thinking out loud," said Trip. He checked in with the nanites. "Can we interface with their technology?" he asked.
"Still trying," said the nanites. "This technology is unlike anything we have interfaced with before. High probability that remote accessing is impossible. Suggest we try direct access."
"I need to find a computer terminal," said Trip to the nanites.
"Affirmative," said the nanites.
"I'll see what I can do," said Trip. "Keep trying for the remote access you never know when it might come in handy."
The transit tube car arrived at their destination and the away team got out, carrying their equipment with them. Trip caught up to Shar Jen who was at the front of the party guiding them through the labyrinthine corridors of the ship.
"So how long have you folks been out here on the Rel Sevanne?" asked Trip.
"Ten generations," said Shar Jen, without any sign that this was anything unusual.
"Ten generations? You were born on this ship?" asked Trip, trying to take in what this meant.
"Yes," replied Shar Jen. "Everyone on this ship was born here. We're here," she said standing beside a set of large double doors that were twice her height. She pressed a button at the side of the doors and they opened. She stepped over the lip of the bulkhead and entered the room which Trip assumed was Engineering. The sight that greeted him was not exactly what he had expected.
"The Rel Sevanne has five engines," said Shar Jen. "They have names, Jerel, Lirat, Manira, Torit and Devas." She pointed to each engine as she said its name.
"Damn, those are big," said Trip.
"Understatement of the year," said Reed, quietly, who had come in behind him. He was right, big didn't even begin to cover it. Each engine was three floors high and almost as wide. Enterprise's warp engine was an insect compared to the power and size of these five. Trip could hear the gasps of the other members of the away team as they entered the room.
"They are getting very old," said Shar Jen.
"No kidding," replied Trip. "Ten generations, huh?"
"They have been completely rebuilt in their lifetimes but in effect they are the same engines that the Rel Sevanne left port with. We think it may be Lirat that is causing the problems," said Shar Jen.
Each engine had some marks on it in which looked like the Tien script they had seen around the ship on their journey to the engine room and Trip took to be name labels. The labels themselves had to be at least a storey high.
"I think this is what we'd call a granny's broom situation," said Trip. "They're the same engines that the ship left port with but every single part has been replaced." The engines were amazing but he couldn't believe that they were ten generations old. Hell, he'd have had trouble believing that they were one generation old. Assuming that the Tien generations were the equivalent to human generations which wasn't necessarily true, Vulcans lived considerably longer than humans.
"I don't understand what a "granny's broom" is but your assessment would be mostly correct," said Shar Jen. "I believe that Jerel, Lirat and Devas still contain some original parts."
"Okay, let's get to work," said Trip. These engines might be big but he was pretty sure they'd work on the same basis as his own warp five engine back on Enterprise. "We'll start with Lirat and if it turns out she isn't the problem then we'll check the other four too."
"She?" asked Shar Jen.
"All engines are female," said Trip with a shrug.
"Lirat is a gender neutral name," said Shar Jen, "as are the others. They were named after cities on our homeworld."
"Well as far as I'm concerned it's a she," said Trip.
"Very well," said Shar Jen. "Follow me." A number of Tien engineers were already watching the Enterprise team as they walked across to Lirat and Shar Jen began showing them the ropes of the alien engine. Trip was slightly surprised to see so few of the Tien working on the engines, he was used to the bustling engine room of Enterprise and he filed it away as another thing to ask about if he got a chance.
Trip, Rostov and Kelly got to work taking readings of the engine's functions. Lieutenant Reed helped out, although warp engines weren't his speciality he knew enough to be useful, while Hooper and Scott were put to work fetching and carrying for the engineers. Reed was still vigilant but he'd already decided that the threat to the away team was either minimal or insurmountable. The aliens seemed friendly and the presence of children made him think it unlikely that they'd try to attack the away team, however he'd already worked out that if the Tien did decide to harm the away team there was very little he could do about it. The sheer distance between them and the shuttlepod was too far for them to make an easy retreat.
Trip was completely in his element, he worked alongside Shar Jen the two of them discussing the readings that they were taking as they came in, bouncing ideas off one another as to why Lirat should be causing them trouble.
"The five engines must work together or part of the ship is left in normal space while the rest goes to warp. There are automatic safety cut-outs that prevent the ship from going to warp if one of the engines is not online and drop us out of warp safely if there is a problem while we are travelling," explained Shar Jen.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," said Trip, looking at the schematics that Shar Jen had pulled up for him. "Don't want to rip the ship apart if there's a failure." He looked over the schematics on the screen in front of him, pretending to be absorbed but actually holding a conversation with the nanites. "So any luck with interfacing?" he asked them.
"There is an organic component to their technology. We are unable to act upon it. We can only obtain limited access," said the nanites.
"Damn, I guess that will have to do. Start feeding me data about the warp engines, begin with their maintenance history," replied Trip. He'd almost forgotten about one of the safety protocols that the nanoprobes' designer had built in at a fundamental level, the nanites could not act upon living tissue. It had been intended to prevent the nanites being used as a weapon. Grenan Dath hadn't wanted that. He'd been an Engineer, just like Trip, and had used the nanoprobes for helping him fix things and diagnostics. Unfortunately Grenan Dath's son had other ideas about what the nanoprobes should be used for and had caused Trip quite a lot of trouble.
"You must remain in contact with the ship for the data flow to continue," reminded the nanites.
"Yeah, I got the message, now hurry up before this beautiful Engineer standing next to me starts to wonder why I'm leaning on this console," said Trip. He turned to Shar Jen, "what are these couplings here?" he asked pointing to an area on the schematics.
"Secondary power couplings and computer links. The computer controls the engines and the matter/anti-matter mixture. It also monitors all engine functions constantly for malfunctions and diagnostic purposes," said Shar Jen.
"And that was how you figured out it was Lirat causing the trouble?" asked Trip.
"Yes, although there had already been some indications that Lirat was not functioning correctly," said Shar Jen.
"Did you check to see if the plasma valves were fused?" asked Trip.
"They show as open on the indicator panels," said Shar Jen.
"Never trust a computer when you can trust your own eyes," said Trip. "Let's have a look at those next. What about the phase coils? When were they last replaced?" He desperately wanted to ask Shar Jen about the organic component to their technology that the nanites had found but at the moment he wasn't supposed to know about it. He just hoped that it would come up at some point when they were poking around in the warp engine. He knew that the Xindi used organic technology in their weapons and if he could gather some information about how the Tien used it, it might help them against the Xindi.
Suddenly all the nanites in his head were shouting at him all at once. He held his head and told them to be quiet, but nothing seemed to shut them up. He let out a cry of pain. It felt as if his head was about to explode, his legs wouldn't support him anymore and he sensed that he was falling towards the floor. His vision blurred and he could see Shar Jen bending down beside him a concerned look on her face. He heard her calling for Lieutenant Reed, but everything hurt so much.
"Shut up!" he told the nanites. "Shut up!" He tried to curl into a ball, rocking himself as if that would help alleviate the pain that was pushing its way out of his skull and over his body. He couldn't hear what the nanites were saying, they were all talking at once. Someone pressed a hypospray to his neck and he was mercifully unconscious shortly after that.