Trial by Fire

Posted on Sun Jun 15th, 2025 @ 4:50pm by Lieutenant JG Alicia Santos & Ensign Eric Banner

740 words; about a 4 minute read

Alicia stood near the control panel of Holodeck 2, her arms folded as the last lines of the Anzaq Engineering Response Program finished loading. Around her, the scene shimmered into place: a flickering engineering bay, red alert panels flashing, smoke curling from an EPS conduit overhead. The artificial scent of overheated circuitry filled the air. She heard the doors hiss open behind her and didn’t turn. “You’re three minutes late, Ensign,” she said, her tone neutral.

Eric stepped into the simulated carnage, slowing slightly as he took it in. This wasn’t the calm, sterile training environment he was used to. He was definitely not in Kansas anymore. “Sorry, Lieutenant,” he said quickly, brushing a hand over the slight sweat already forming at his collar. “I was about to grab a bite to eat and take a shower when you called me. So... what is this exactly?”

She finally turned, her expression unreadable. “This is what happens when the EPS grid overloads mid combat. You’ve got power surges across the warp manifold, coolant failure in junction 6-Alpha, and a fire suppression system that’s conveniently offline.” She tapped a control. A klaxon screamed. Panels sparked. A force field failed in the simulated background. “You’ve got five minutes to stabilize core flow and isolate the surge before the containment field collapses.” She arched a brow. “Think you can manage?”

Eric hesitated for half a beat too long. He could feel his heart racing and not in a good way. But he nodded stiffly and moved toward the primary control station, running his hands over the console like he could will it to cooperate. Taking a look at the readouts on the screens, he started. “Okay. First—reroute auxiliary power to core containment. Then isolate the surge in the EPS relay... 12-D...?”

The computer bleeped an error. Then another.

“Dammit,” he muttered as he typed in commands and was rewards with error beeps. “I thought that... no, that’s wrong. That’s the wrong relay...” He finally moved to a panel and pulled the cover off. He was greeted by simulated sparks and a warning from the computer: Plasma conduit breach imminent.

“Stop,” Alicia said sharply. She crossed the space between them quickly, her tone firm. “You’re reacting and taking guesses. That gets people killed.” She tapped a command into her PADD and then pointed at the plasma schematic now displayed behind them. “You didn’t verify the source of the surge. You jumped to a fix before confirming what was broken. You don’t need to be fast. You need to be right. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.”

Eric’s shoulders slumped, frustration rising behind his eyes. “I just... I thought I had it,” he admitted. “In ops, if a power draw spikes you just reroute and file a report. It’s numbers and thresholds. You don’t have to worry that a relay’s going to explode in your face.” He looked down at his hands, then back at the simulation. “I feel like I’m in over my head down here.”

Alicia nodded slowly, folding her arms again. “You are," she said. “And that’s exactly where you need to be.” She stepped past him and pointed toward the display. “You’re going to walk through the scenario again. No time limit. No judgment. But you’re going to narrate every move. Every system. Out loud. If I don’t hear any solution that will end with a passing result, you start over. You will make mistakes. That’s not failure. That’s engineering.”

Eric looked at her, then at the chaos still smoldering in the holographic simulation. This time, he took a breath before moving. “Okay... EPS conduit 6-Alpha is overloading. I need to verify flow to see if it’s feeding into the warp core surge..." He moved more deliberately now, his eyes flicking to the schematics. “Secondary injector is offline... but the containment field is still up. I can patch the flow, maybe stabilize it if I isolate the failed junction.”

She watched him work without comment for a full minute, then gave a faint, approving nod. “Better,” she said quietly. He still a long way to go but it seemed that he was starting to get at least a basic understanding of what he was doing. Taking a step back, she continued to watch as he continued, slowly, but surely.

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