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3 hours 6 minutes...
Tyobe was an M-class world not dissimilar to Earth, with large blue
oceans and swirling white clouds. The Tyobans were
humanoid life-forms with bald heads, golden skin and strange pupil less white
eyes; they had achieved warp travel 100 years ago and had immediately agreed to
join the Federation.
In
orbit of the planet, the USS-Valiant had just arrived following a call
for help from the government of the planet. Something was happening in the
capital and they had called for Federation assistance. The Tyobans
were part of the Federation but preferred developing their own technologies
whilst using the Federation technologies as little as possible, even though the
Federation's were more advanced.
Captain
Alan Kline stood from his command chair and said: "Open a channel."
He ordered.
"Channel
open," Jennifer Mantion reported from the tactical station.
The
golden face of the Tyoban President appeared on the screen, he looked
distressed and was obviously relieved to see the Starfleet captain: "You
must be Captain Kline, I am president Elax. Thank you
for coming."
"It
is no problem, President. Starfleet is here to help."
"Yes.
We are having a problem with one of our power centrals near the capital. It's
the oldest one. There was an explosion and the entrances to the central core
have been blocked. We're attempting to monitor the activity inside the central
core but we haven't had much success. There's some sort of interference. We
need your help to scan the core to find out what's happening, and if possible
help us to get inside the power station and fix whatever's going on."
Kline
nodded: "All right, we'll send down an away-team to your power central to
check out the problem. Meanwhile I'll have my ship run a scan and we'll be
sending reports to you periodically."
"Thank
you very much, captain." The President said. "Good luck."
The
away-team materialized a certain distance outside the large Tyoban power central.
Lt. Commander Janna Sutter was in command, Lieutenant John Stevenson had
brought a three-member engineering team and Lt. Commander Mantion had come in
case there would be a need for a demolitions specialist to blow their way into
the core.
Two
Tyobans came towards them, one of them was a male and
had one arm in a cast and the other one was a female.
"Greetings,"
Said the female with a small smile. "I am Terin,
I command the power plant. We're grateful for your help."
"And
we hope we'll be able to help," Sutter said. "Now, let's get go to
work."
"Of
course," Terin nodded, she gestured to her
colleague. "This is Gedix; he was in the sector
of the power plant in which the explosion took place. He'll be able to give you
technical information on that particular area of the plant. I'll be with you in
a moment...I have to go and get my maps of the plant."
Terin walked away and Gedix
began: "I was working in the central core room when the explosion
happened. We didn't have time to see what was happening; a large piece of the
ceiling detached and blocked our visual access to the core. Everything was
going smoothly until the explosion..."
"Were
you conducting any peculiar operations at that time?" Stevenson asked. "Anything out of the ordinary?"
"No..."
Gedix shook his golden head. "We were just
running our routine scan of all systems, but we conduct one every day so
there's no way it could have been the cause of the explosion."
"I
see," Sutter said. "Maybe we should go and see your power plant up-close,
now."
* * *
The
Tyoban power plant was about 70 meters high, not including the underground
levels. The central core room was surrounded by a thick isolation wall made to
contain any eventual problems which may happen. Obviously it had well held
together after the explosion.
The
shape of the power plant was simple…The central core room was connected to the
exterior world by two structures built on either side of the room. In these
structures, the Tyobans would regulate the flow of
energy through the power lines so as to save up as much energy as possible and
also to make sure an overload didn't happen.
The
Tyobans who had escaped from the plant had assembled
in a small camp outside the structure. That was where they brought the
Starfleet crewmembers…
Terin was waiting for them and she was spreading large
plans of the power plant across the floor so that all could see.
"All
right," She began. "Here is our situation: The core has four coolant
tanks located underground—to take care of the lower section of the core—and
high above the control room—to take care of the higher section of the core…The
higher coolant tanks are actually on a level above the control room, the
ceiling of the control room is the floor of the higher coolant tanks room…And that's
the ceiling that has collapsed…"
Gedix stepped in: "We aren't certain what exactly
happened, but we know that something caused an explosion that destroyed most of
the ceiling of the control room. The coolant tanks are attached solidly to the
wall so they shouldn't have fallen…I believe the higher tanks are still
intact."
"You can't be sure of
that…" Stevenson interrupted. "There are always possibilities…What if
the tank holders failed? Maybe there's plasma coolant all over the place
now."
"The
tank will not have fallen," Gedix said calmly.
"The wall holders are specifically designed to withstand the stress of
three times the weight of the tanks…I'm sure they will have held."
"And
they could have sustained the explosion?" Sutter asked.
Gedix frowned: "The explosion did not seem off
sufficient force to destroy any one of the tank holders…"
"This
is still damn crazy…" Stevenson said. "I think we should assume that
the worst has indeed happened…It's the safest way to start…"
Gedix
was about to speak up but Sutter's commbadge chirped, interrupting him…
She
tapped it: "Sutter here."
"This
is Kline, we have some news for you, Commander."
"What
kind of news, sir?" She asked.
She
heard him sigh: "Bad news I'm afraid…"
She
frowned: "Okay…We're all ears."
"Our
sensors are having difficulty reading the Tyoban power core…It seems there some
sort of bizarre energy blocking our attempts at scanning the plant."
"Is
it dangerous?" She asked.
"Tarses
tells me that it isn't life threatening, but if you expose yourself too long to
it you might experience—after some time—some dizziness or nausea."
"It
isn't spreading, I hope…?" Terin asked.
"No,"
said Kline. "It seems restricted to the central core room…We can't
explain it and it's blocking all our scanning attempts."
"Wait
a minute…" Gregory Eskina's voice said in
the background.
"What
is it, Greg?" Kline asked.
"I
think I've managed to momentarily scan the interior of the central core room."
"Good
work, what've you got?"
"Hmmm…"
The
groups of humans and Tyobans listened in silence for
Eskina to communicate his brief analysis…
"This
is bad…" He said, making some Tyobans gasp.
"My scan shows that the whole ceiling has collapsed…The higher coolant
tanks have broken off from their holders and have crashed to the ground…"
"My
god…" Stevenson breathed.
"And
the core is still active…"
"The
two underground coolant tanks are calibrated to cool down exclusively the lower
part of the core." Terin said.
"Which
means?" Kline asked.
Stevenson
sighed deeply: "Which means that the power core is going to
overheat…"
"…and
explode…" Gedix finished.