"This Ship Smells Like..."

Posted on Sat Apr 2nd, 2011 @ 3:09pm by Lieutenant Three of Seven & Ensign Allison Seely

Mission: Renegades
Location: Jefferies Tube Somewhere Between Decks 6 and 7, USS Arizona
Timeline: Before "Pit Stop"

The knuckle-draggers and spanner monkeys of the Arizona's underbelly had occupied themselves during the transit with the most mundane of functions for an engineer, that being a survey of all parts and equipment in order to ascertain appropriate parts requisition requests were submitted and filled upon arrival at Deep Space Ten. It was far from glamorous work, or even work at all. More an administrative burden marked by counting the tools in inventory, taking stock of commonly replaced articles or available blank media. It even got down to the air filters and the carbon scrubbers.

Air quality was not an area with which Three could claim any expertise, making working on the environmental systems somewhat difficult. From a purely mechanical standpoint, the drone could appreciate and understand the functionality of the process which maintained a stable environment throughout the ship. But, as Three neither breathed nor had any sense of smell, if there were any kind of impurities or 'odors' in the system - whether as a result of installation or a defect in some part - that was not something which Three would ordinarily detect on it's own.

Of course, a task with two engineers assigned to it was a poorly efficient project. The amount of man-hours, more appropriately man-minutes in this context, caused the Borg some distress as he worked alongside the ensign. For Three to engage in an inefficient practice was like a saint acting against their own religion.

Allison yanked one of the air processing assemblies out of it's socket above the Jefferies tube, lying on her back. The lack of forethought in this idea hit her the moment she did it, as a small rain of particulate matter not properly stored and recycled by the system dropped over her face. She let out a yelp of surprise, which was quickly stifled by coughing. She dropped the assembly on the decking of the tube next to her, before sliding out of the tube and into the intersection node where the tube met others and the vertical shaft. Three was... closer than she was comfortable with. Admittedly, it was a small compartment, but being face-to-face with... it? was mildly disconcerting. "It smells like sewage," she stated.

The drone just looked back at the woman with it's usual blank expression. "The waste matter reclamation system does not intersect the environmental air subsystem," Three noted, completely serious, as the Borg crawled past the ensign and into the tube where the child-sized mechanical body gave the former Ocampa a rather generous range of motion in comparison to most fully grown humanoids. "There could be a pocket of methane in the conduits however," Three noted absently, picking up a tricorder and scanning the interior of the component system that was now open.

Allison made a clear path for the drone after brushing the random specks off her face, noting jealously how much easier it was able to navigate the Jefferies tube, given its smaller size. Maybe Starfleet designed the dang things for Borg children to crawl in, because the tube sure wasn't meant for adults. Allison unpacked one of the replacement assemblies and checked it over for any obvious defects. "So... nobody thought you might need a sense of smell? ...Sir?"

"Olfactory senses seem hardly necessary when one does not breathe, Ensign," the drone answered simply, taking note of the tricorder readings. "There are some ambient bacteria present which the filtration system has failed to eliminate. I will attempt to re-calibrate the purification protocols," Three remarked, abandoning the earlier line of conversation without preamble even as it pulled a tool from the kit they had brought with them and began making adjustments to the side of the filter pack.

"Seems like it would come in handy here," she replied. She figured the old filter assembly had managed to reach its end of life a bit early, possibly from over-taxing it, if that smell was any indication. She might have to check the environmental systems logs later to see if there was an incident that might have resulted in a larger-than-usual load on the air purifiers in this section.

"On the contrary, by the expression on your face I would assume I am better off without one in this instance," Three countered, somewhat playfully, as the drone was struck by the rare instance in which it could turn a phrase. Setting the tool aside, the drone reached up to install the new filter and begin sealing up the environmental system at this junction. There were, by Three's estimation, twenty-seven such units to inspect on this level alone. Tedious work. Were the Arizona a Borg vessel, the self-repairing protocols would have removed any such need for a physical accounting of such minor accord.

Allison cracked a smile, "You probably are. Couple dozen to go. After you, sir."