A New Pair of Hands (Backpost)

Posted on Sat Oct 31st, 2026 @ 11:26pm by Lieutenant Zachary Addams & Ensign Sora Arden

1,808 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Kintsugi
Location: Main Engineering, USS Tokyo

Sora stepped into Main Engineering, adjusting the strap of her shoulder bag as she took in her surroundings. The Tokyo had clearly been through quite an ordeal, judging by the number of exposed panels, maintenance equipment and repair crews scattered throughout the compartment.

It was certainly a step up from the Hawthorne.

Her attention drifted towards one of the nearby engineering displays, where several power distribution systems remained flagged for repair. A temporary bypass caught her eye, and she found herself studying the arrangement for a moment longer than intended. Someone had been rather creative with the power routing. She could appreciate that, although she was curious whether it had been a deliberate solution or something thrown together when everything went sideways.

Either way, she wasn't about to start questioning somebody else's repairs before she'd even introduced herself.

Checking her PADD, Sora located Lieutenant Addams's office and made her way over, straightening her uniform before giving the doorframe a polite knock.

"Lieutenant Addams? Ensign Sora Arden, reporting for duty, sir." She offered a friendly smile. "Just transferred aboard from the Hawthorne. Hopefully my orders have arrived before I have."

Zach glanced up from his terminal, then did a double take.

She glanced briefly towards the engineering deck, her enthusiasm getting the better of her professional composure for a moment.

"I noticed you've got quite a bit going on with the power distribution network. Emergency repairs and power management are something of a speciality of mine, although I'll admit the Armitage-class systems are going to take some getting used to."

Her smile widened a fraction.

"I'd be happy to get stuck in wherever you need me. Is there anything you'd like me to concentrate on first, or would you rather I familiarised myself with the ship before I start getting my hands dirty?"

Zach blinked as she finished. "Hi," he said, slowly, catching up. He looked back at his screen and pulled up her file, scanning it quickly. "Well, everything seems to be in order," he said. He picked up a padd, downloaded some information and tossed it to her as he stood up. "Come with me," he said, coming around his desk.

Sora caught the PADD, glancing at its contents before looking back at her new Chief. Well, that was a quick introduction. Not that she was complaining.

"Right, coming," she replied with an easy smile, tucking the PADD beneath her arm as she joined him.

Her curiosity got the better of her as she glanced towards the engineering deck. "So, where are we starting?"

He led her back into Main Engineering and pointed at some of the damage. "As you can see, we had to rewire a good amount of the ship to make it back to the base without stalling out. Unfortunately, a good chuck of the front of the ship was taken out, and we've had power surges to deal with since. Now that we're finally docked, we've been able to take the engines offline, but now we're trying to map out the damage and see what needs to be replaced. "If you're up for it, I'd love another tricorder in the tubes to check power distribution in the insides of the ship.

Sora followed his gesture, studying the exposed circuitry and damaged sections of the compartment with growing interest. She'd read some of the reports about the Tokyo's encounter with the Iconian starbase, although the accounts she'd heard from other personnel had been rather more colourful. Seeing the damage for herself certainly put things into perspective.

"I'd heard you took quite a beating out there, but bloody hell," she remarked, looking towards one of the temporary power connections. "Sounds like getting back to Starbase was an engineering miracle in itself."

She turned back towards Addams with a small smile.

"Sure, I'm happy to get into the tubes. I've spent enough time crawling around behind bulkheads to feel right at home." There was a touch of amusement in her voice, although she was already considering the task ahead. "Might be worth checking those emergency bypasses as well. If you were rerouting power just to keep the ship moving, I'd imagine there are a few connections that aren't quite where the schematics say they should be."

She shifted the PADD in her hands.

"Where would you like me to start, sir? I can work my way through the distribution junctions and flag anything that looks questionable."

Zach let out a lungful of air and ran his hand through his hair. "Let's start on Deck 8. There was some serious damage there to the shield generators. We literally had to have a live conduit running through the corridor. I'm guessing all that rerouting caused some of the problems as we took more damage. If we can either rule that out or isolate that deck, we can see if the rest of the problems go away or not." He beckoned for her to follow him and grabbed his tool kit, heading for the door to engineering.

Sora raised her eyebrows at the mention of a live conduit running through a corridor. "Wow, you really had to improvise, huh?" There was a note of appreciation in her voice. She'd seen some questionable arrangements in her time, although nothing quite on the scale of a starship's shield generators.

Zach shrugged as they stepped into the turbolift. "The joy of engineering under fire," he said. "You 'make it work' until you don't have to anymore."

She glanced down at her PADD as she accompanied him, considering what he'd told her. Starting with Deck Eight made sense, especially if they could narrow down where the surges were coming from.

"Has that temporary feed been isolated since you docked, sir, or is some of it still connected?" she asked. "I can start checking the junctions along its route, see if anything looks out of place."

She looked back towards him with a small smile.

"Not quite the tour of the ship I was expecting, but I'm definitely not complaining."

He gave her a wry smile. "Better tour than I got on my first day here," he said. "I pretty much had to dive right into Engineering. Learned the ship junction by junction as I was getting us ready for battle. And no, to answer your question, we got the temporary generator disassembled once we cut power. The deck's clear of live wires."

The doors opened onto Deck 8 and they stepped out. "We've physically isolated the power grid from all the damaged sections, so we won't have to trace it to the exposed areas. So, all that's left is to make our way through the ship bit by bit and scan as we go."

Sora glanced along the corridor as they emerged from the turbolift, taking in the signs of ongoing repairs. She was glad to hear the temporary feed had been removed and the damaged sections isolated. Getting accidentally electrocuted on her first day wasn't particularly high on her list of ambitions.

"Good. I'd rather keep all my fingers, thanks," she replied with a small grin.

"Well, I can't promise, but I'll do my best to accommodate," Zach said, smirking.

She brought up the distribution network on her PADD, studying the junctions that remained connected to the deck's power grid. It seemed straightforward enough, at least until they started finding things that weren't where they were supposed to be.

"So, we're working our way through what's left connected, checking the knuckles along the way?" She caught herself and gave a small, slightly sheepish smile. "Junctions, sorry. That's what we used to call them back home."

She slipped her tricorder from its holster, glancing between the schematic and the corridor ahead.

"I can take readings as we go, flag anything that looks off. Hopefully we'll get a better idea of what's going on once we've had a look."

She glanced towards Addams.

"Guess I'll be learning the ship junction by junction too, then."

"The best way," he said, pulling a hatch to the jefferies tubes open. "When I first got on board, I spent almost thirty-six hours in there, going deck by deck. This ship is our home, and we need to know every weld, every bolt, every gel pack in it, because when the pekh hits the fan, I don't want us wondering where something is." He tapped his tricorder and sent her the map he'd made, himself. "Something to get you started. Here's everything I've mapped so far. You take port-side, I'll take starboard-side scans." He gestured into the tube. "Ladies first."

"Thirty-six hours?" Sora gave a low whistle, glancing between the open hatch and the map he'd transferred to her PADD. "And I thought I was keen."

Zach shrugged and gave a slight chuckle. "Less keen, more 'we're about to go into battle, so I don't want to die.'"

She studied the layout with genuine interest. Having something mapped out this thoroughly would certainly make getting acquainted with the ship easier, particularly with all the emergency modifications that had been made.

"Makes sense, though. We had all sorts of old service passages back home. Some weren't even on the original plans anymore." She smiled faintly at the memory. "Used to squeeze through places most adults couldn't fit. You learned pretty quickly which routes were safe, where you could get out, and which exits you really didn't want to come out of."

She'd spent years navigating those passages, often with little more than a battered torch and a rough idea of where she was going. Getting lost could be the least of your problems, depending on whose territory you wandered into.

"At least I've got a decent map this time," she added, looking back at Addams with an appreciative smile, which he returned.

She secured her PADD, checked her tricorder and crouched beside the hatch, peering into the narrow passage ahead.

"Port side, got it." She glanced back at him with a playful lift of her eyebrows. "And here I was thinking you were going to ease me into the job."

Still smiling, Sora ducked into the tube and began making her way towards the first junction, careful to keep an eye on the route he'd provided.

Zach gave a snort and slipped in behind her, pulling the hatch closed. "Welcome to the Tokyo," he said, dryly.

"Thank you, sir," Sora replied with a grin, her voice carrying back through the narrow passage.

She turned her attention to the map on her PADD, settling into a comfortable rhythm as she crawled towards the first junction. There was plenty of ship left to explore, and she was rather looking forward to getting to know it.


Lieutenant Zachary Addams
Chief Engineer
USS Tokyo

Ensign Sora Arden
Engineering Officer, USS Tokyo (NCC-91101)

 

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