Steadying himself, Nico looked around the lift, he recognized the Andorian and a few other officers.

“Hey Traan.” Nico said.

‘Yo Nic….does this mean I’m gonna miss drinks with the boys?’ Traan sighed. He wasn’t that disappointed to be honest, all they ever did was gossip and complain about the other shipyard sections screw ups, both perceived and actual. Traan was starting to actually get tired of the constant animosity. Sure it was mostly in jest, but it certainly didn’t do anything to increase teamwork or esprit de corps in the yard. They were all still Starfleet, and they all still had to work together whether they liked it or not.

Nico nodded and looked around the turbolift that was headed towards the Operations center, “Everyone okay?”

Jaso was shaken from his thoughts at the words. He hadn’t registered the turbolift stopping, being too engrossed in today’s work queue. Jaso looked up from his PADD, and around at the other occupants, “Physically yes, but this will certainly put me behind today.”

“I’m good.” Traan said as he sighed, crossed his arms and leaned against the turblift wall.

Just then the comms speaker in the turbo chirped to life. “Greetings, this is turbolift control. We have experienced a malfunction in the lateral turbolift trunk on the Alpha line. Please remain calm and standby, techs have been dispatched. We will provide more information as needed when it becomes available. We apologize for any inconvenience. Be aware the turbolift may reengage with little or no notice.”

“Oh for Kirk’s sake! They don’t make those announcements if it’s a quick fix…we gonna be here a while gents. Anyone got a travel dom-jot set in their pocket by any chance?” Traan said.

Jaso sighed and sat down, “That was Laudni. If she’s working on the problem, we’ll be here for a week,” he said, without looking up from his work. “Power Operations has known about the Alpha line turbolift trunk fracture for a week. It’s estimated to have been nearing fracture for longer.”

He typed on his PADD, ” If she were smart, and looking at the relay lines, she would route the power to…” he studied the PADD. “No… turbolifts need more than Zeta’s line… Kappa has too much already… Route the power to the Lamda-Iota relay 588-63, on the Kappa-27 subset, we’d be moving in 10 minutes. Fifteen if you count the reroute, and another 10 to make sure it doesn’t degrade other turbolifts in this sector.” Jaso smiled, “Which I’ve already done.”

Nico nodded like he pretended he knew what the young man was saying. “Traan you know you are headed to Ops with this turbolift right?” Nico smiled as the turbolift began to spin. Sitting down on the floor, the room kept spinning. Nico closed his eyes and imagined he was in a field, in hopes that it would offset his claustrophobia.

“What? I thought this was A2 lateral?” Traan was now concerned he wasn’t even on the right turbolift. This could mean atleast a further 6 minute trip back down to the promenade.

Traan rolled his eyes at himself “Oh no…this is A2 vertical isn’t it? I’m just hopeless sometimes.” He laughed it off, realizing his own ineptitude.

“So yeah, how long?” Nico asked in a panicked voice.

Jaso wrinkled his brow; perhaps his joke wasn’t received as he wanted. No, there was something else. The lieutenant was frightened. Starvation? Enclosed spaces? It was difficult to tell. “I was exaggerating,” he said plainly. “Laudni is…” he searched for the polite word, “thorough, but it wouldn’t take her weeks.” He paused, “If being here is making you uncomfortable, I can assist the repair crew.”

Traan jumped in “If you can help, you’ll get no arguments from me Lt” Traan reached out and patted Nico on the shoulder, trying to reassure him, after picking up on his tone.

“You alright bud?” He asked.

“I am trying to recenter.” Nico replied, it was a trick his last counselor taught him, the box trick, Take a deep breath and count the sides of the box, and release said breath. “I am claustrophobic. So the faster the better please.”

Traan turned to Jaso and shrugged as if to say ‘well better get on that then’.

“Deep breaths are never a bad thing.” Traan turned back to Nico and smiled and patted him on the shoulder again. “So, Lt, let me know if you need a hand with anything. I work in the shipyard, so I’m pretty handy with technical stuff.”

“I won’t,” Jaso simply said, standing and straightening his uniform. He tapped his combadge, “Erdian to Laudni.”

This is Laudni, go ahead, came a measured response.

“You’re currently working on a stalled turbolift on the Alpha line,” it was more a statement than a question.

Yes sir, but how do you-

“Call it a vested interest,” Jaso said, typing commands in his PADD, “I’m sending you information on power rerouting. If you bypass the fracture using the Epsilon-Gamma-Gamma-36 node, it won’t interfere with the operation of other turbolifts. Then you can-”

I’ll have to speak to Power Operations to authorize the use of that node.

“You’re speaking to its head,” Jaso said. “I’m granting you authorization. I’ll file the appropriate paperwork and dispatch a member of my team to your site once I get to my office.” He typed into his PADD, notifying the office. “Once the turbolift reaches its destination, take it offline and my team member should be there by then.”

Understood Lieutenant, standby… Laudni out. And the channel closed.

“We’ll be underway in about 10 minutes,” Jaso announced. “We’ll only go as far as the next deck, so you’ll have to use another turbolift to get to your intended level.” He crossed his arms and waited. Jaso couldn’t spare the team member, but if it got the turbolift moving, so be it.

Traan sighed in relief, atleast he wouldn’t be too late for drinks with the boys. Oh, and atleast Nico wouldn’t have a complete breakdown in front of him….again.