Shuttle Bay - Deck C

Poppy was trapped behind a heavy door while preparing to reverse the fuel tanks from the shuttle to Atlantis's main tanks. Something is mechanically wrong with the fuel seals on the hose, as well as trouble with the hatch release mechanism.

Poppy tried the stubborn hatch again. No luck. Either her petite form wasn't able to open it or the darn thing just wouldn't budge. She wondered why she was dealing with mechanical problems again. This is what they had mechanics for. This was why she brought them cookies. She turned her back to the hatch and breathed out a long sigh of frustration.

She pressed the intercom again. =Any big stong men that want to come help me get out of here would be greatly appriciated. Soon...= she finished the statement weakly. The warning lights on the control board across the room were bouncing around like a christmas tree. Whatever had gone wrong in the fuel system was not looking very happy.

-Poppy

Jelena's voice came over the intercom, a relaxed tone present in it.

= Does it have to be a strong man? = she asked.

- Jelena Markov

Poppy smiled at Jelena's comment. =I'm not one to be picky while I'm the one locked up. A strong woman is equally welcome.=

-Poppy

There was no response on the intercom.

- Jelena

Help was on the way.... at least Poppy hoped it was. Despite being a rough Mercenary, Jelena was a pretty reliable person when you get in trouble. On the other hand, Poppy hadn't exactly made many freinds since she came aboard this boat.

It wasn't long before she could make out the sounds of the hatch mechanism being strained at. Poppy smiled in relief and took the release level on her side and started trying to open it too.

-Poppy

Then Poppy heres metal giving way, then a snap and a loud thump, some one heavy had taken a fall or worse, then a click and the hatch opens to reveal Jelena standing there and Mark on the floor with a part of the ship in his right hand and he was chuckling

Mark Ho Chang

Poppy was very relieved when the hatch finally swung open. She was a little amused to see the big man sprawled out on the ground. She wasn't sure if it was from him wrenching the door open, or something that Jelena had done to him. Jelena looked none too pleased. Poppy did return her smile as she walked away.

Her attention did turn to the chuckling pilot on the floor and reached over to help him up, not that he really needed it, but she liked to be polite.

"There's something very wrong with the fuel pumps in here. We should get a repair crew on it fast."

She finished speaking as Sue walked up and apologized for Jelena's hasty departure.

-Poppy

--- TIMELINE CUT ---


Ryan walked into the shuttle bay and turned around to close the door behind him, which he then remembered was impossible, since Mark had been a bit overenthousiastic in opening it. The pilot had promised to repair the damage himself, but Ryan suspected that the man might be rather busy with his own work, so the chief engineer made a mental note to repair the damage himself once he was done with finding out what was wrong with the seals to the fuel tanks. It struck Ryan that it was rather odd that the ship had been revised and after that thoroughly checked by Brad and his people, but still managed to show this many defects. For a moment the word 'sabotage' came across his mind, but he quickly dismissed the thought. The bigger the ship, the more trouble it gave you; that was simply what was going on, he told himself.

Ryan walked over to the wall console and pulled up the ship's diagnostic schedules, of which he accessed the file concerning the fuel tanks and everything directly related to it. As the requested file popped up, Ryan went through it to see if there was anything out of the ordinary.



-Ryan Bow

Everything looked Ok on the files but then the odor of fuel caught his attention and then he spotted it, a very slight leak at one of the junctions where a gasket was used, this was the gasket between the fuel pump for the shuttle fueling station and that hose unit that he had worked on earlier
Then a TSB came up, it was a new one that was on the cortex , It was on faulty gaskets on older ships and that this should be dealt with during routine service, a check on the date of the TSB ( technical service bulletin )
Add to that the impact from the explosion which could have caused that hatch to jam up as well as jar the gasket , this meant that no fuel transfer would be possible

James / GM

Ryan wasn't one to swear the moment something didn't go his way, but this was just too much. "Gorrammit!" A leak at the junction meant trouble in a lot of ways. If he could smell the additive to the hydrogen gas, then there must be quite some of the gas in the shuttle bay; with the hydrogen being lighter than air, it would have gathered at the ceiling already. One spark and the entire room would become one big ball of light. On top of that, the pressure on the hydrogen tanks was enormous. If there was a leak in the gasket then there was the immediiate threat of the tank exploding. The principle worked the same like puncturing a hole into an inflated balloon. The only thing that was probably preventing the tanks from exploding was the fact that right now they were almost out of fuel. Still, Ryan needed to get the hydrogen gas out of the shuttle bay and the pressure of the gasket before he could start repairing the leak.

He hurried back towards the shuttle bay exit. Closing the door and opening the shuttle bay hatch would make short work of the gathered hydrogen gas. But why hadn't the internal sensors picked up the build-up? And how come... The door! The wheel had come off, so it couldn't be closed! And welding it shut was a really bad idea with the hydrogen gas still building up.

He reached the exit to the cargo bay and stepped through.



-Ryan Bow

Brandon looked at the disassembled fuel pump. Luckily he had secured the parts he had removed before going to dinner, otherwise they would have all vented with the atmosphere. A quick look at the problem told him it hadn't been his fault - the problem was with a gasket between the fuel line and the hose.

"Glad to see it wasn't because of my work," he commented to Ryan. The chief nodded and both men set to work getting that gasket replaced.

~Brandon~

The fix didn't take long - the pump was mostly disassembled already and the gasket was an easy replacement compared to the fix they had just made in vacuum earlier.

Working together, they made short work of the task. Brandon replaced the faulty spring as well - the hose now pulled out and retracted with relative ease.

"We'll probably want to add some kind of redundant cap system to this though, in case there is another leak we can detect it and cap it before filling the whole bay with deadly fumes."

The chief agreed and made a note to look into it when they got dirtside, before he contacted the bridge.

="Ryan to bridge, we're all done here. Fill 'er up!"=

Wiping their hands and securing the tools and spare parts, Brandon and Ryan headed up for the meeting.

Mark's more than happy voice came over the speaker

=" Great work there fellla's come on up to the bridge, I'll have Kundan set us up with some refreshments for our meeting, OH and I'll remember to have them wash the windows and check the oil while we gas up "=

Mark Ho Chang