Day of Honor - Michael Jan Friedman [21]
B'Elanna nodded. "Go to it."
In one motion, Carey got up and headed for the exit. A moment later, he was gone, on his way to the bridge.
She turned to Vorik. "How are the diagnostics going?"
"I have not detected any problems or anomalies," the Vulcan responded. "All systems appear to be functioning within acceptable parameters."
B'Elanna nodded. "Good." Maybe this day would turn out to be a decent one after all, despite its hectic start.
She had barely completed the thought when she heard something pop. Before she could turn to find the origin of the sound, she heard another one-a high-pitched hissing.
Then B'Elanna saw the reason for it. A conduit was leaking plasma coolant. The gas was coming out in a sizzling, white jet.
She glanced at Vorik. The Vulcan was working at his console, trying to determine what had happened.
"Now what?" B'Elanna asked.
Vorik turned to her, chagrined. "It seems there has been a rupture in the coolant injector."
"I can see that," she told him. Why haven't you sealed it off."
"I am attempting to do so," he replied.
But he wasn't having much luck. B'Elanna darted to the nearest workstation to see why.
In the second or two it took her to get there, the problem got worse-a lot worse. By the time she brought up the coolant system on her screen, the tiny stream of gas had turned into a geyser.
So much for diagnostics, B'Elanna thought bitterly.
If this went on, engineering would become uninhabitable. Worse, a whole range of operating systems would be compromised.
Ergo, it couldn't go on. B'Elanna held on to that thought as she worked furiously at her console. Unfortunately, though she had pinpointed the leak, she couldn't seem to stop it any better than the Vulcan could.
Then she realized why. There was a point farther up the line where coolant pressure had built past the breaking point. If she was going to stop the leak, she would have to take care of the pressure problem first.
"I am having difficulty identifying the cause of the leak," Vorik reported. He was bent over his monitor, eyes narrowed with concentration.
"So am I," she told him.
Suddenly, B'Elanna's workstation seized up. As she had feared, the leak was starting to affect other systems in the vicinity.
Cursing beneath her breath, she tried another workstation-and got the same results. In other words, nothing. And though she tried not to breathe in the coolant, it was already starting to make her head throb.
B'Elanna checked out a third workstation and a fourth before she found one that was still functioning. This time, she didn't try to locate the problem-she just reacted to it. If she cut off every possible source of the gas, she would eventually stern the tide.
At least, that was her strategy. Desperately, she ran her strong, slender fingers over her padd, shutting down access point after access point. All around
engineering, conduits were closing up, containing the gas that flowed through them.
But it didn't seem to be working. The leak wasn't abating-and B'Elanna was swiftly running out of possibilities.
She bit her lip. Think, she told herself. Where else can this damned gas be coming from?
The EPS manifold? It seemed unlikely, but ...
"Try shutting off the EPS manifold," she called over the hiss of the escaping coolant. "Maybe that'll help."
Vorik did as she suggested. It didn't diminish the stream of coolant one iota. "The EPS manifold is not the problem," the Vulcan told her.
"I don't get it," B'Elanna rasped.
Vorik looked at her, his brow wrinkling ever so slightly. "Is it possible the pressure is coming from ... the field coils?"
She considered the possibility. "No," she decided finally. "But let's give it a try anyway."
Vorik tapped out a command on his console-then shook his head. Obviously, thought B'Elanna, the thing had stopped working.
She tried the same thing at her own station. Nothing happened. Pounding on it savagely, she watched the Vulcan dart across engineering and plant himself at another station.
Let this one work, B'Elanna