INOSCULATION

Chapter Five

"Why does that keep happening?" Tom Paris growled angrily as the simulation indicated that the shuttlecraft had torn itself apart again. "The nacelles keep getting ripped off."

"We've reinforced everything and there are no structural issues," Vorik replied as he checked over the logs. "I'm checking the data now."

"Is there a bug in the simulation itself?" Paris asked.

"No," Harry Kim replied as he scrubbed a hand through the fringe that hung over his forehead. "The simulation is accurate. T'Loran, the models are right, aren't they?"

"They are exactly what I can predict. I did refine them based on the telemetry we received from the probe."

"Perhaps there is some flaw in the pylons? I'm reading a fracture in the port nacelle pylon."

"Why don't we try simulating it with a reinforced pylon?" Harry suggested.

"We could also dump more power into the structural integrity fields," Tom suggested. "What exactly is causing the fracture to happen?"

"Subspace torque," Vorik and T'Loran replied at the same time.

"Will you two quit doing that?" B'Elanna growled. "It's creepy."

"I'm resetting the parameters now," Harry muttered as Vorik and T'Loran downloaded the data from the failed simulation into an engineering station. Harry waited until they were done and he'd received a signal from Vorik to begin the next simulation. The engineers nodded and the five of them restarted the simulation. "There it is, a fracture is forming on the port nacelle pylon."

"Redirecting power to structural integrity," Paris said.

"The fracture is expanding," Vorik muttered.

"The field is destablizing," T'Loran reported. "The engines can't maintain the field."

"We're overloading the powergrid," Torres added.

"The port nacelle has torn free," Vorik said calmly.

"I'm dead," Paris sighed. "Back to the drawing board again."

~*~*~*~

A dispirited group of five sat in the mess hall the next evening, poring over reports. They had made multiple alterations to the simulated shuttlecraft and its power systems, engine core, and propulsion systems but the changes were not sufficient to save the craft. No matter what they did to reinforce the nacelle pylons, they kept tearing free from the craft. They'd spent hours going over everything but could not find the cause of the fracture. When Harry had fallen asleep slumped over the navigation console and both Vorik and T'Loran had begun rubbing their foreheads as the characters and figures on their displays blurred, B'Elanna and Tom had finally agreed to call a break so they could get some sleep. They'd agreed to meet for breakfast before their duty shifts started, had gone over the notes, gotten nowhere, and then reported for duty. Now that they were all off-shift, they were back at it in the mess hall trying to figure out what was going wrong.

"It's the pylon again. Every time we get close to crossing the threshold, the subspace torque rips a nacelle off the shuttle," B'Elanna sighed in frustration.

"What if we used a duranium alloy to reinforce it?" Harry suggested.

"No," Vorik sighed.

"It's too brittle," T'Loran explained.

"She's right," B'Elanna agreed.

"More coffee?" Neelix asked as he walked up to their table. Five pairs of eyes glanced up at him with expressions ranging from welcoming to irate. "Ah, you look like a happy bunch."