(Star Wars: Going Into the Dusk) Ch 2: Shipboard Life

[Tenshi]

Chapter II: Shipboard Life

Thanks to the exceptional nav computer on board the Shaak Ti and crew of expert astrogators, she was able to reach the borders of the Unknown regions in three quick jumps. That still meant 22 days in hyperspace—half of them on the third jump.

By Zeltron standards, this was a disciplined and well adjusted crew, but so much time spent packed together on one ship, drifting through the gray of hyperspace, the pot began to boil...

* * *​

Keiko's Challenge:

Most of Keiko's first week and a half consisted of assisting Dr. Fandomir in compiling, reviewing, and completing medical charts on the disparate people that made up the crew. As she was assisting the chief medical officer, Keiko worked first shift.

Morning of the 10th day in hyperspace (near the end of the second jump) the communicator in Keiko's quarters buzzed, waking her an hour before breakfast. “Miss Hau," came Doctor Fandomeer's nurse. "I need you in sick bay early. Break your fast and shower with sterile soap. Please arrive within the hour."

* * *​

Sha Lyn's Challenge:

That same day, at the start of first shift, Sha Lyn entered the engine room. Her staff were there waiting—including the maintenance crews for the guns and fighters, all crowding in to hear if she had any instructions for the start of the shift. The twi'lek girl instantly noticed the conspicuous absence of Sergi—the Sulustan shield specialist. He'd been showing up a bit bleary eyed these last few days, but always promptly on time.

 

[DuxT]

Sha Lyn took a quick look through the list of her staff, looking through the crowd to see who was there. Being head of this area of staff, she was directly responsible for a sizable portion of the ships crew. As such she needed to make sure everyone was pulling their weight, like if everyone actually showed up, like Sergi today. This got a frown from the Twi'lek woman, she'd noticed he'd looked off, but he was still showing up. Sighing, she shook her head, planning on looking in on this, but still had the rest of the staff to deal with. "Okay everyone, I want everything inspected and stress tested. Last thing we need is something to give out when we drop out of hyperspace, want the ship in full working order when we reach our destination. I will be back shortly, if you have anything to report, come to me when I get back, that is all." Standard orders really for coming out of hyperspace, she already had them do all this at the end of the first jump, just because the ship was new, didn't mean something wouldn't fail.

As for herself, she turned to her pad, quickly bringing up the crew manifest. As one of the heads of staff, she had unrestricted access to a large amount of crew information, including where everyone's quarters were. It didn't take her long to find Sergi's, which she promptly left to go to. She could of sent another crew member for this, but she preferred to oversee her staff, and their well being, personally.

 

[Tenshi]

When Sha Lyn querried hte comptuer as to the location of Sergi's quarters it was happy to provide her with the information. It also helpfully offered a note from Dr. Fandomir saying that Sergi had taken ill and would require at least three days of convelesence.

Please don't be concenred, a routine surgical procedure should fix him right up.

 

[freeko]

Keiko was starting to regret going on the ship. Of course it was a chance of a lifetime to put it bluntly, but the change in how she went about her day was starting to really wear on her. Nevermind that she could never tell when it was early or late since it was always dark in space. What felt like days at a time would pass while Keiko did not sleep. Her tasks were fairly menial as she assisted Doctor Fandomir, but her work was not the issue. Not yet at least as Keiko was able to focus herself enough to get by through her shifts.

What was likely little more than cabin fever was setting in for Keiko as she could not simply go for a walk and clear her head like she could back home. Med school was far more taxing than anything that she has been confronted with while on duty in the medical bay. Though Keiko has not yet really figured out how to release the tension that she builds up from time to time on the ship, it has not affected her to the point that she has made any mistakes. There was an almost ominous feeling creeping into Keiko's mind that she would make a mistake and having her confidence wane was the last thing anyone needed. Especially if someone's life was on the line.

Keiko was sleeping rather uneasily when the communication array in her room sounded the alarm for an urgent message being sent to her. It was one of the nurses, and Keiko immediately recognized the voice. She was being summoned to start her shift earlier than normal it would seem. Was there some manner of problem that needed the attention of more than the few doctors and nurses that were usually on shift at this time? So far about the only thing that Keiko had seen was some variations of motion sickness caused by the hyperspace travel. In all fairness, Keiko was experiencing the same thing on a less severe level.

Seeing no reason to believe this was some manner of prank or "rookie hazing", Keiko would try to get herself ready for what was likely to be an extended shift in the medical bay. Could this be training of some kind to see how they would react under duress? Keiko would try to get herself out of bed and into the shower. Easy enough as this was, Keiko was feeling uneasy. "I have a bad feeling about this.." Keiko would mutter to herself as she stepped out of the shower. Choosing not to eat anything for breakfast, mostly because her nerves were starting to get to her, Keiko would head off to the Medical Bay to start her shift. The nurse who had contacted her requested that she be there within the hour, and Keiko at least did not disappoint on that front. Reporting for duty with time to spare, Keiko would walk into whatever it was that required her attention well before the hour was up.

 

[DuxT]

Sha Lyn frowned at the note left by the good doctor. She hadn't had much experianced with Dr. Fandomir, outside of her medical when she joined the crew, so just had to trust things would be fine. Still the fact she hadn't been notified directly annoyed her a little, so she sent a message to the good doctor. It wasn't an urgent message, just something for him to get to when he had the chance.

'Dr. Fandomir

Thank you for for taking care of Sergi, please notify me when surgery is complete so I may check up on him. Also, I request in future I get more direct notifications on when my crew has been taken in.

Thank you
Commander Sha Lyn.'

She frowned for a second at the note, was she coming off as too aggressive. Sighing, the Twi'lek decided she had more important things to do that worry how the rest of the crew saw her, going ahead and sending the message. With that said and done, she went to cover for Sergi, inspecting the shield generators and the systems feeding into them. Once again, brand new warship with state of the art generators, so she was't expecting a problem. However she didn't get this far by being complacent.

 

[Tenshi]

Sick Bay:

When Keiko arrived, she found a sulustan laying on the primary bio-bed with a few tubes going into his side. Dr. Fandomir was monitoring the bed's readouts and talking to the more or less conscious man in a soft and cheerful voice.

Two Zeltron girls in their thirties—fit, comely, and wearing snug white nurse uniforms—were laying out an array of sterile surgical instruments.

“Good morning, Keiko,” the doctor greeted her, one eye glancing at the chrono. “13 minutes early. An excellent habit to cultivate.”

The ithorian man gestured to the biobed and explained, “This is Sergi, our senior shield engineer. It seems he's been getting into drinking contests with some of the Zeltrons after his shift.

“As you may no, Keiko, Zeltrons have a redundant liver that helps them process alcohol at a rate few other species can hope to match. Sergi's lack of biological awareness is currently in the process of costing him his liver.

“Nothing modern medicine can’t deal with, of course. We've had Sergei here on dialysis for six hours while we grow him a new liver from his own genetic code. It should be done in the next half hour. I'd like you to install it for him, Keiko.”

Main Engineering:

Checking Sergei’s work logs, Sha Lynn found that he'd spotted an anomaly in the shield harmonics near the end of his shift yesterday. Multiple tests had not revealed the source, or caused a repetition, but he'd kept looking for it through his shift, and the next two shifts on his instructions ran regular diagnostics and watched for the anomaly.

 

[DuxT]

Sha Lyn frowned, an anomaly could result from a number of things. Maybe the shield power was fluctuating, maybe something hit the shield and wasn't detected, maybe the shield generator itself was faulty. Or it could be a glitch in the equipment readout, she dealt with plenty of those in the old Rebel Alliance vessels. Sighing, she began running tests of her own, also glancing through the notes of the following shifts, seeing if they spotted the anomaly.

Roll

Use Computer

 

[Tenshi]

Sha Lyn: Rull Use Comptuers for diagnostics. If you can't find it wtih the comptuers, you'll have to start phyisicaly inspecting systems with mechancis.

 

[freeko]

Dice Roll = 5 +18 = 23

Keiko was going to be the one to operate on the Sullustan male. Doctor Fandomir was going to only observe and assist which would be a fairly complete role reversal between what they had done in the short time that Keiko has been with the rest of the group here on the ship. The two nurses seemed to be somewhat of a distraction as Keiko would end up eyeing them up when she got the chance from time to time. Keiko was starting to feel a bit of pressure on her now, as the spotlight was squarely on her now. Nevermind that there was a Sullustan male's life hanging in the balance were Keiko to screw this up which was almost certainly why Doctor Fandomir was overseeing the operation.

Taking a few seconds to steady her hands, Keiko would start to map out where her incisions would be made along the right side of the Sullustan's body. With a few minutes left to spare before the new Liver was even ready, Keiko would start to ask a few procedural questions to Doctor Fandomir and then ask that the Sullustan be prepared for the surgical procedure. As far as he was concerned, in a perfect world, he would wake up good as new with a new liver if things went well. It would certainly do Keiko or anyone any good were the Sullustan to be awake and react to anything that was happening.

Thinking that the procedure would go fairly uneventfully, Keiko would set to have the Sullustan sedated for roughly 6 hours which should be plenty of time for her to get in, remove the damaged liver and install the new liver as well as give time to let the new organ take. The last thing that anyone would want would be for the organ to be rejected somehow by the body which would not work out well for anyone. With the final preparations complete, Keiko would start to go through a small ritual of sorts to keep herself steady as the Sullustan was sedated and soon to be unconscious. Now it was "go time" as it were. Keiko would start to sterilize the body and ask that he be flipped over onto his stomach for this procedure to begin.

 

[Tenshi]

After a half hour of finessing diagnostic programs, Sha Lyn finally located the echo that had Sergi concerned. She pulsed plasma waves through the shield array at various angles and discerned that it was located in the dorsal-fore shield emitter.

Another ten minutes work and she isolated the problem. It was a crack in the harmonic latices. In dry dock, repairing such a thing would be child's play. Pull out the whole lattice and either reatune it or replace it. In space, it would be more difficult. Some one would have to go onto the outside of the ship and do delicate work with a .7 milometer arc welder. To do so in hyperspace could be dangerous. She'd only have to drift a few meters from the ships hull to be hammered back into real space as a mist of molecules.

The fracture did not present any immediate danger to the ship. Something would have to actively stress the shields to aggravate it. There weren't many micro-meteors in hyperspace to deflect off of the hull. But...

If the jump were interrupted. Say, if a miscalculation brought them too close to a gravity well, or if an interdictor cruiser pulled them out of with an artificial gravity well? Such an event would likely impact the fore shield array directly, shatter this emitter, and potentially crush half the ship!

 

[DuxT]

Sha Lyn frowned as she looked over the problem, cursing out loud in her native tongue. Brand new, top of the line vessel and already there was a break. Though those thoughts might be her being cynical of the new fleets compared to the old junkers the rebellion made do with. She knew she could fix this, just a matter of getting to it and doing a high risk maneuver liker that in hyperspace was something she didn't like risking.

So, she pulled out her communicator, this time contacting the Captain. Unless they were in immediate danger, she really had no authority going above his head, they still had some days till this became a problem. "Captain Kessel, this is Commander Sha Lyn, requesting you down in engineering. We have a small problem that could delay us..." Pulling away from the communicator, she added, once again in her native tongue and hushed so she wouldn't hear. "Or worse..."

Whether or not he replied, she returned to her station. She noted down all the relevant data she needed and was busy pulling up schematics, needing to get a good idea of exactly where she was doing maintenance. She of course, planned to do this herself, a job worth doing, was a job worth doing herself.

 

[Tenshi]

In the captain's office, Akar gave a soft sigh as he worked over his computer. A nearby droid gave a sympathetic warble. The zeltron continued his third read over of the crew's files. Currently with nothing else to do, he didn’t wish to set the bad example of leaving on his shift to find recreation, so he continued working to keep everything from crew profiles to ship capabilities fresh in his mind in preparation for when he did need the information.

The twi'lek's communication came as a bit of a relief. “I'm on my way, commander.”

just a few minutes later, the captain stepped out into engineering. To keep with the informal style he'd called for in this vessel, he now wore a simple enough , with his rank on an arm band, sword and sidearm on his belt.

“What's the situation, Sha?” he inquired walking up to the Chief Engineer.”

 

[DuxT]

As the Captain arrived, Sha Lyn turned to him, pulling out her pad with all the relevant data on it. "We have a crack in the harmonic lactices, something I can't fix without being outside the ship. Right now this leaves our shield compromised and any stress on it could... Well, don't think need to explain the possible consequences of the shield array breaking apart from the inside..." She handed him the pad, letting him look through the data, though she was not sure how much engineering the Captain knew.

"Best time to fix it is when we are back in real space, preferably away from any gravity wells, meteorites or anything that could stress the shields. Otherwise would have to go out while we are mid jump and fix it, risking getting atomised if I drift too far from the ship... So with all that said, I hope our destination at the end of this jump is somewhere in deep space?" Hoping their destination wasn't in a star system.

 

[Tenshi]

Doctor Fandomir
1500 Hours
Sick Bay

Dr. Fandomir watched and listened as Keiko performed the delicate procedure, step by step. He noted with pleasure that—though clearly a little nervous—the human girl's hands were steady and she performed the surgery with textbook precision.

When the new organ was firmly in place and the patient's incision closing up with bacta, the ithorian doctor rested a hand on the intern's shoulder. “Well done, my dear. Very well done.”

 

[Tenshi]

Captain Akar Kessel

The captain's usual easy smile hardened as he read the report. By the time the report was done, his handsome face seemed chiseled from stone. He looked at the twi'lek quietly for an uncomfortably long period of time, then finaly said, “Can you do it, Sha? The only way this is likely to cause us real harm is if we hit an unexpected gravity well. We're not coming out in deep space, and are passing dangerously close to an imperial remnant most of tomorrow.

“The chances of something going wrong are slim, but they are there.”

 

[DuxT]

Sha Lyn sighed, she had been hoping for better news. There was risking he ship or risking herself and she always knew which one won out, not only on terms of morals but in her head too, just made the most sense. Meeting the captains eyes, the Twi'lek nodded, rubbing her temples a little. "Yeah, I can do it, very risky, but better me than half the ship."

Turning to her consol, she opened up her pre made plan to fix it. "I'll get on it right away, should it go wrong, it was a pleasure serving with you Captain." Though the commander was confident enough in her abilites to think she had a good chance doing this manoeuvre.

 

[freeko]

Keiko would simply go step by step through the procedure. It was a fairly long and drawn out process but there was no real issue aside from a few points where she simply hesitated to seek the approval of the doctor. Everything was controlled and Keiko remained steady as she continued the process. As there were thankfully no complications during the procedure itself, Keiko would find herself drained as the assistants relieved her to finish up the bacta treatments which would see her patient's incisions all but disappear as if none of this had ever happened.

Both drained and relieved that the process was finished, Keiko had one thing on her mind and that was to take a shower and get herself sterilized.

 

[Tenshi]

A half hour later, Sha Lyn was suited up in an air lock, acompanied by an astromech droid. One of the technciians had checked over her suit and assured her that all everything was ship shape for a space walk.

The lock depressurized slowly, and the Astromech whistled over their com as he looked out into the dizying grey of hyperspace...

Roll Acrobatics for the space walk.

 

[DuxT]

Sha Lyn takes a deep breath as she stepped out in her suit. Hyperspace was quite the sight, one she'd seen many times before in her career, didn't make it any less confusing or dangerous. One wrong move and it was likely she was never coming back inside after.... Time to get started then!

Slowly, Sha Lyn began to make her way to her objective, taking the most direct route. She move carefully, doing her best not to get lost from her tether or drift off the hull of the ship.

roll

 

[Tenshi]

The lythe twi'lek made her way along the hull with ease, caution and grace keeping her safe 'til she reached the emiter array.

From here she had to pry off a specific patch of casing and use a harmonic phase resonator to realing the crystal. It was delicate work, and could take several minutes. The astromech unit handed her the apropriate tool and kept a few extensible limbs ready to hold the casing.

Mechnaics check to do the rapairs. DC 25.

 

[DuxT]

Sha Lyn, took a breath as she stopped at the array. "Well, so far, so good." She muttered aloud, speaking to no one in particular, though the droids and crew listening in on her gave her the excuse. Turning to the droid, she took the tool, nodding her head. "Thank you..." The Twi'lek girl always believed it polite to treat droids well.

She got to work, prying the casing off and starting to fix the crystal, watching her read out so she was sure when it was done. Sha Lyn was a professional and experienced, this was the part she was least worried about, completing the work with ease.

Roll

 

[Tenshi]

With the repairs done, Sha Lyn was able to head back into the ship. She found the captain and over a dozen off duty personal waiting with a round of aplause. She could see their sincere concern for her in the strained look around the captain's eyes.

 

[DuxT]

As the Airlock began to cycle, Sha Lyn glanced through the veiwing port, seeing the Captain and crew waiting. She blushed a little at this, having not expected the appreciation, she was only doing her job after all. When the airlock finished cycling, the door began to slide open and she removed her helmet, holding it to one side as she approached them, looking a little sheepish with all the applause. "All done Captain, ship won't be breaking up on my watch." Trying to brush it off as no big deal.