Prompt: Something is up with the shields. They do still work, but in addition to shielding from outside dangers, they also reflect radiation back to the Valkyrie. That’s generally not a good thing! Your job is to describe a day of working on the shields.
Timeframe: 1,5 weeks – 11th of March

Day One

Shahr wiped the sweat from his brow, and whispered a curse. He had to maintain his professionalism on the job, of course, but are you really doing maintenance if you aren’t swearing? What had started as a nice, relatively cool shift in the science lab had taken him to Engineering and then the Jeffries tubes, where he’d been for the past 4 hours. Long story short: something was wrong with the shields, and somehow he’d been roped into fixing it. It had all started with a steady increase in gamma radiation…

6 hours earlier….

Shahr’s panel blinked red once. Glaring at the offending indication, Shahr tapped at the controls to expand the readout. Gamma radiation around the ship was high. In fact, it had been rising for a while now, but was now reaching unusual levels. Touching his comm badge, Shahr made a call.

“Lieutenant Shahr to Tactical… request to know if y’all are doing some target practice with the phasers up there?” Shahr didn’t see any stellar cause for the radiation on sensors. He didn’t think the phasers would put out enough radiation like that to raise general levels around the ship unless the arrays were going full blast, but he had to ask.

Sil was manning the Tactical station for some time. They had the shields raised but otherwise there had been nothing of noticed. He raised an eyebrow when he was called and it got higher as Shahr spoke.

“Lieutenant Silveira here. Weapons haven’t been powered up. Why are you asking?”

“Hmm, alright. I’m reading unusually high gamma radiation levels outside the hull. Actually, it’s localized specifically around the ship.”

Sil tapped a few commands in the console. There had been no malfunction indication and he was surprised something was wrong, as all Tactical systems were on the green.

“That’s odd. But we haven’t powered the weapons. Could it be something else? Our shields are up…”

Shahr considered a moment. This wasn’t quite his specialty, but he wasn’t out of his depth yet. “I suppose… wait. What frequency are they operating at?”

Sil narrowed his eyes and checking the shields frequency.

“Shield frequency is nominal. Only 0,13 variation which is pretty standard. Let me reach someone”

“Roger. I’m going to check something in the meantime.” Shahr began running a simulation on his console.

Sil opened another comline, keeping the one with Shahr open.

“Silveira to Martel. You don’t happen to be around the Shield Control room do you?”

Martel was stalking down a corridor towards the Armory when his combadge started talking to him. He tapped it and answered, “I can be, what’s going on?”

“We might have a problem. Lieutenant Shahr from Engineering has detected unusual high gamma radiation levels, and since we hadn’t powered up weapons we are looking into every possibility”

Martel had turned on his heel and started jogging to the nearest turbolift before Silveira had even finished speaking.

“On my way.”

A few minutes later, Martel was entering Shield Control. Currently empty as there wasn’t an alert on and the shields’ status can be monitored from Tactical and Engineering. Martel moved to the nearest station and sat down, tapping at the control panel in front of him.

Martel frowned as he saw nothing wrong that he could see. The shields’ status were as Sil said….fine.

“Martel to Shahr and Silveira. Things look alright from here.”, Martel announced as he began to move to various stations and looking at various screens, “Any idea what I’m looking for?”

Sil shrugged even if the others couldn’t see him.

“That’s odd, what else could be signaling a spike in radiation?”

Shahr’s simulation finished. “I might have an answer here. I’m running a simulation to see if it’s possible. Give me a sec…”

Sil frowned. He tapped in on the console so it displayed a graphic cutout of the ship.

“If it’s all around the ship there must be something causing it. A hull failure?”

Shahr’s console beeped in an affirmative-sounding tone. Reading the results, Shahr grimaced. It was nice to be right, but their work wasn’t done yet.

“Shahr to team. I think I’ve isolated the issue. Nothing is causing any more radiation than usual. The ship emits some, it’s standard. But our shields are reflecting it back at us. There’s nothing in space to absorb it but the ship, so we’re basically bombarding ourselves with radiation.”

Martel grimaced as continued to pull up various readouts, “The radiation seems a bit more pronounced by the warp nacelles and deflector dish, but only barely. I almost didn’t even mention it.”, Martel’s tone was something of a verbal shrug, matched by the physical one he made despite being alone, “What do you two think?”

Sil shook his head.

“I think we have a problem. Where are you at Lieutenant Shahr?”

“I’m in my science lab now,” Shahr explained, “but I can head down to Engineering and work on it. Martel, I could use an extra hand. Silveira, I’ll transfer my readouts to your station if you don’t mind monitoring while we work.”

“Carrying myself down there now”, Martel was already heading out the door of Shield Control, “Be there shortly.”

As Martel sprinted to the turbolift he rounded a corner and bowled over two crewmen. With hurried but profuse apologies, Martel helped them up and continued his run to Engineering.

“I will keep an eye at it from here.  Link me up and comm me back when  your both down there.”

“Great, I’m headed down there now.” Shahr tapped in a few commands to send Silveira the radiation readings, then headed to Engineering at a brisk power-walk.

Day Two

Shahr wiped the sweat from his brow, and whispered a curse. He had to maintain his professionalism on the job, of course, but are you really doing maintenance if you aren’t swearing? What had started as a nice, relatively cool shift in the science lab had taken him to Engineering and then the Jeffries tubes, where he’d been for the past 4 hours. Long story short: something was wrong with the shields, and somehow he’d been roped into fixing it. It had all started with a steady increase in gamma radiation…

6 hours earlier….

Shahr’s panel blinked red once. Glaring at the offending indication, Shahr tapped at the controls to expand the readout. Gamma radiation around the ship was high. In fact, it had been rising for a while now, but was now reaching unusual levels. Touching his comm badge, Shahr made a call.

“Lieutenant Shahr to Tactical… request to know if y’all are doing some target practice with the phasers up there?” Shahr didn’t see any stellar cause for the radiation on sensors. He didn’t think the phasers would put out enough radiation like that to raise general levels around the ship unless the arrays were going full blast, but he had to ask.

Sil was manning the Tactical station for some time. They had the shields raised but otherwise there had been nothing of noticed. He raised an eyebrow when he was called and it got higher as Shahr spoke.

“Lieutenant Silveira here. Weapons haven’t been powered up. Why are you asking?”

“I’m reading an unusual build-up of radia-” Shahr paused a moment. Had he had this conversation before? The humans’ had an expression for this… deja vu?

Shaking his head, Shahr dismissed the feeling. “Sorry. I’m picking up increased radiation levels. Specifically, there’s an unusually high radiation field around the ship.”

Sil tapped a few commands in the console, curiously he began to have a feeling of deja vu. He almost knew that there had been no malfunction indication and he was surprised something was wrong, as all Tactical systems were on the green.

“That’s odd. But we haven’t powered the weapons. Could it be something else? Our shields are up… And… Sorry I just had this weird feeling. The shield frequency is nominal. Only 0,13 variation which is pretty standard. Let me reach someone”

Shahr was about to reply, but something Silveira said made him pause. He had a weird feeling too? “Um. No problem. Standing by.”

Sil opened another comline, keeping the one with Shahr open.

“Silveira to Martel. You don’t happen to be around the Shield Control room do you?”

In Shield Control Martel blinked and frowned at the question as he tapped at a console. “I’m already there, weren’t we just….didn’t you just tell me to come here? We were talking about the shields with Shahr, right?”

Martel felt a little confused and off and tried to concentrate on the readouts in front of him.

Shahr got a chill running down his spine. That was unusual, given he was constantly sweating onboard the USS Valkyrie. Shaking off the feeling, Shahr transferred his data to Silveira on the bridge.

“I’m headed to Engineering. Martel, I could’ve sworn we just had this conversation too. Did we already discuss that the shields are reflecting the ship’s radiation back inwards?”

Already heading to Engineering, Martel answered, his voice uncharacteristically clipped and stressed, “Affirmative.”

Martel came to a corner and then suddenly stopped and peeked around, watching a pair of crewmen striding up. They looked curiously at Martel.

“Sorry, just didn’t want to run you over.”, Martel gave a weak smile he didn’t really feel.

“You mean like….last…time….sir?”, the young female Human’s voice trailed off as she frowned in consternation at her Saurian companion, who’s nictating membranes were rapidly working over his eyes in a similar display of confusion. It was the Saurian who spoke next in a slightly sibilant tone that didn’t quite mask his worry.

“What is happening, sir?”

Martel continued on to the turbolift as he raised his hands placatingly, “Hold that thought, crewman, we’re trying to find out.”

Martel grumbled a curse as the turbolift and the crewmen, not quite clearing clearly, wondered why he was asking himself about luck.

Sil narrowed his eyes. Feelings of deja vu were scientifically explained. Recurring memories from doing exactly the same thing over and over. In truth they were all trained in drills and repetition so…

So why was this feeling different?

Day Three

Shahr wiped the sweat from his brow, and whispered a curse. He had to maintain his professionalism on the job, of course, but are you really doing maintenance if you aren’t swearing? What had started as a nice, relatively cool shift in the science lab had taken him to Engineering and then the Jeffries tubes, where he’d been for the past 4 hours. Long story short: something was wrong with the shields, and somehow he’d been roped into fixing it. It had all started with a steady increase in gamma radiation…

6 hours earlier….

Shahr’s panel blinked red once. Glaring at the offending indication, Shahr tapped at the controls to expand the readout. Gamma radiation around the ship was high. In fact, it had been rising for a while now, but was now reaching unusual levels. Touching his comm badge, Shahr made a call.

“Lieutenant Shahr to Tactical… request to know if y’all are doing some target practice with the phasers up there?” Shahr didn’t see any stellar cause for the radiation on sensors. He didn’t think the phasers would put out enough radiation like that to raise general levels around the ship unless the arrays were going full blast, but he had to ask.

Sil was manning the Tactical station for some time. They had the shields raised but otherwise there had been nothing of noticed. He raised an eyebrow when he was called and it got higher as Shahr spoke.

“Lieutenant Silveira here. Weapons haven’t …”

Sil narrowed his eyes. Feelings of deja vu were scientifically explained. Recurring memories from doing exactly the same thing over and over. In truth they were all trained in drills and repetition so…

So why was this feeling different?

Why was he feeling he had this thought again and this same conversation, he tapped in the console without even worrying to see where he was tapping.

“I will respond that weapons aren’t powered up, we will go over the shield frequency and eventually I will open a comline to Lieutenant Martel. Please tell me I am not the only one feeling like we did this, Lieutenant Shahr”

“Definitely, Lieutenant.”, came Shahr’s response.

Sil shook his head, tapped for a relief to replace him at Tactical as he started to walk to the turbolift.

“We need to get together.” He tapped his combadge again hailing Martel, dropping the formality . “Sil to Martel, I think you know why I am calling let’s meet with Shahr.”

“Already headed that way, Lieutenant, be there shortly.”, Martel answered as he strode down the corridor

Martel was already almost to the turbolift, passing by a pair of crewmen while exchanging almost knowing glances with them.

“I know, I know, we’re working on it.”, Martel tried to sound comforting but he could faintly feel the exasperated worry in his tone.

Martel stepped into the turbolift.

“What. The. F-“, thankfully the turbolift doors closed on Martel midsentence.