Odd Feeling

Posted on Tue Mar 24th, 2020 @ 3:59am by

Mission: Cruel Meridian
Location: Deck 12 - Maintenance Access
Timeline: MD1 - 1600 hours
886 words - 1.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Douglas sighed as he hefted the carry bag and climbed awkwardly into the Jeffries tube. Deck 12 was relatively empty on third shift luckily, so no one saw the inelegant mess of legs that mangled it’s way into the tight tube. Douglas winced as his pack bounced off of the wall, a dull metallic thump sounding out behind him. He finally breathed a sigh of relief once he closed the tube hatch behind him.

He tugged the pack back onto his shoulder and began the crawl through the jeffries tube. The air felt close, the slight hum of ionised air making the hair on the back of Douglas’ neck stand on air. This close to the secondary shield generators there was always going to be something. Douglas smirked as he remembered Lancaster generators used to make his tongue feel numb. He blinked as he fell out of his memory and back to the present, the strap on his shoulder now starting to dig in uncomfortably.

A few minutes of squirming through the Majestic and Douglas reached his objective. One of the control panels for the the Shield generators. A minor error had been reading from Engineering on the regulator for the plasma line and Douglas wasn’t about to ignore anything when he had no idea on the feel of the Majestic yet. Maybe, once he got to know the ship a bit more, some of her quirks might become apparent. He’d worked on vessels before where readings that looked like errors were just part of the ship’s charm. But he didn’t know Majestic well enough to say yet. So Douglas grabbed a repair pack and decided to check it out himself. He carefully grabbed ahold of the edge of the panel and with a metallic pop, pried it loose and off of the wall. He lay the panel down and reached into his pack, pulling out a hand held scanner and set to work.

He held the probe in his hand and ran the diagnostic, trying to keep one eye on the scanner display and the other on the probe. The readings squawked out on the scanner and Douglas let out a curious “Hmmm.” The readings weren’t exactly conclusive but certainly didn’t rule out a fluctuation in the generators output. He glanced up to the open panel but his eyes struggled to focus on the exposed power grid. The lines blurred and Douglas rocked back slightly before he blinked the feeling rapidly away and steadied himself. He shook his head and regained his composure before he continued with his scan. As he reached into the wall cavity further he knocked one of the lines and cursed as he dropped the scanner probe. He let out a harrumph and placed the scanner carefully on the ground, before reaching is arm down into space and grasping for the probe. After a few seconds of squirming he felt the cold casing of the probe and clamped his fingers around it, pulling it out; he hated to think what Chief Murphy would have said he lost a probe.

Douglas logged the readings on the scanner and noticed one of the lines showing as faulty. That must be the problem. The engineer smiled at the Jeffries tube bulkhead; not old enough to have any faults so serious yet. He smirked as he realised he was talking to the ship, in his head and moved to scan the faulty line again. As he reached into the wall cavity further he knocked one of the lines and cursed as he dropped the scanner probe. He let out a harrumph and placed the scanner carefully on the ground, before reaching is arm down into space and grasping for the probe.

Douglas pausend. He got the sudden feeling of deja vu. Like he’d done this before. He glanced around the Jeffries tube and shook his head, frowning. He reached into the wall, twisting to reach in farther and felt the probe, just with the tips of his fingers. A brief moment of wiggling his digits around and he just about worked the probe into reach. He pulled out the tiny piece of equipment and frowned again. He was sure this wasn’t the first time he’d grabbed this probe. The feeling was odd. Douglas has Heard- people talk about deja vu but never experienced anything so vivid himself.

He tried to ignore the sensation as he repaired the minor fault in the power line, but even once he rescanned it and it flashed green across the board, he couldn’t shake the feeling. He felt the hairs on the back of his arms and neck standing on end and goosebumps prickled his skin. He quickly set about reattaching the planet to the wall and quickly, much quicker than on the way in, crawled out of the maintenance access.

As Douglas manoeuvred himself out of the hatch back onto deck 12 and stood up he tapped his comm badge, “Petty Officer Robb to Engineering. I’ve found the source of the fault with the secondary shield generators,” he glanced back at the access hatch, “It should all be looking good now. I’m on my way back,” he said as he walked away, trying to forget the odd experience.