Emergency Stations – Almost

So there I am, warming my seat in the MCR, reading a book (the computers having been taken offline for a server upgrade), when the morning cook comes in.

"Hey Lacqui," he says.  "Is there anybody doing hot work¹?"

I look at him, then at the clock.  "It's 5 in the morning.  Why would anyone be hot working now?"

"Well, then, you may want to smell this."

He leads me to the galley entrance, where there is the unmistakable smell of burning electronics.  My first reaction is that it is a power generator (#1 generator, currently undergoing a maintenance/inspection, is located directly beneath our feet at this point).  I go down into the AMR, but find that all is good down there.

Then we did our Toucan Sam impressions².  This led us to the CCR door, which is a secure area, and therefore locked.  Fortunately, the duty tech (my on-watch supervisor) is awake, having done his rounds an hour before.  A quick discussion with him, and we go wake up the officer of the day.  The OOD is responsible for all the keys on board; he and the duty tech go to the CCR and investigate, while I return to the MCR, and prepare to press the Big Red Button (action alarm).

It turns out, after all, that there was nothing to worry about.  A transformer blew, causing the electronic smell.  The smoke was sucked directly into a ventilation intake, which spread it throughout the forward part of the ship.  In the end, no major damage, no need to wake everybody up, and a bit of fun out of the normal, boring, duty watch routine.