Training Systems and Setbacks

Posted on Sun Jun 15th, 2025 @ 3:27pm by Ensign Eric Banner & Lieutenant JG Alicia Santos

859 words; about a 4 minute read

Alicia stood near the diagnostic console in main engineering with her arms crossed and her eyes tracking the progress bar on the level three EPS rerouting simulation running on the secondary systems display. It had stalled again, which wouldn't have been such a problem if it hadn't been something that had occurred several times already. She sighed just enough for the ensign standing two meters away to notice. “Banner,” she said evenly, “Walk me through your last five commands. Out loud. Start from when you accessed the plasma tap.”

Eric wiped a hand across his forehead. His posture was rigid not out of confidence but out of sheer stress. His PADD trembled slightly in his grip as he tried to remember exactly what he’d done and why it hadn't worked. “Um, yes ma'am. I started with rerouting plasma flow through conduit 6-A. Then I opened the secondary bypass valve to equalize flow. Ran a diagnostic on the constrictors...”

Alicia’s console let out a warning chirp and the simulation’s warp core display flashed 'Instability Detected' in red.

Eric winced as he noticed but he continued. “...and then I tried to regulate output through the EPS flow regulator. But the surge came back worse.”

Alicia nodded, tapping her stylus against the edge of her PADD. She appeared calm, but she was far from calm. “And that’s because you never isolated the origin of the surge in the first place," She said as she stepped closer and pointing to the schematic. “You redirected power flow without checking the distribution grid. That bypass valve didn’t equalize anything. Instead, it created a loop. You fed the spike back into the system. Again.”

Eric’s shoulders slumped. His voice dropped a little, more to himself than to her. “I don’t get how you all keep track of this in your heads. In Ops, if something spikes, you reroute it, log it, move on. This? It feels like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle while it’s on fire.” He looked up at her, trying to hold her gaze but it was clear he was frustrated. “Maybe I’m not cut out for this.”

Alicia stared at him for a long moment, just long enough for him to squirm slightly under the silence. Then she exhaled slowly. “You’re not cut out for this yet.” She agreed as she turned back toward the panel and pulled up the simulation history. “You’re trying to memorize procedures like they’re lines in a manual. That works fine on a good day when there isn't an emergency situation going on. But Engineering isn’t about a checklist. It’s about understanding the systems and reading the signs before the alarm goes off. Because when the alarms start going off, you've already lost half the battle. Then it becomes a completely different problem completely. Once those alarms start going off, the ship is already in danger, and the longer they're going off the more danger the ship and the crew are in.”

She paused. “You need to stop looking for the fastest answer. Start looking for the right one. You can't always go by the book in an emergency situation. That's what's going to get us all killed.”

Eric bit his tongue. There were a dozen things he wanted to say in defense, and not one of them would make him sound less green. Instead, he nodded, trying to keep the frustration from showing too plainly.

“Okay. Let’s run it again. No shortcuts,” Alicia said.

Eric sighed before he squared his shoulders and forced himself to focus. “Conduit 6-A. This time I’m checking the distribution path before I touch anything.”

Alicia watched Banner for a moment, noticing the change in his tone. It wasn't perfect, but there was progress. “That’s more like it,” she said, voice softening slightly. She stepped to the side of the console and stood close enough to be a quiet presence at his shoulder.

Eric’s fingers moved more carefully this time, his eyes focused on the display as he murmured each diagnostic step under his breath. He still hesitated every time the system threw a warning, but he caught them and corrected them. Unfortunately, he was too slow on his times and it was clear that it was bothering him. When he finally finished the simulation, Eric sighed and took a step back.

Alicia nodded silently as she made several notes in her PADD. She finally sighed and looked up at Banner. "Alright," she said as she glanced over and noticed the time. With another sigh, she continued. "That's enough for today. I'll expect you tomorrow morning for more training. Be sure to study over those manuals I gave you."

"Yes, ma'am," Eric said as he sighed. Starting out of engineering, he glanced at one of the clocks mounted into the wall beside the door and groaned. He had just spent ten hours in engineering simulations, and he could very well expect the same or more tomorrow. With a sigh, he headed to his quarters. He knew that he was going to need the rest.

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