To borrow a bit of cheese from Tra'Marr'Sratt's first real engineering teacher (the one she had a crush on as a child -- don't forget we are talking about Coynites here -- not your average crush), "If the bridge of the ship is it's brain, its mind, then main engineering is its heart and soul." Unfortunately there are few other ways that allow a person to understand fully the true importance of main engineering. Of course we could bring up R2-D2 and its relationship to Luke Skywalker's X-wing; without the little astromech to keep the X-wing together, Luke may not have been able to complete his trench run, and the death star may not have been destroyed. Main Engineering co-ordinates the activities of the Propulsion Module, with the Chief Engineer as it's head making sure that each challenge is met appropriately. Main Engineering is also their to prevent problems that may occur without proper preventative maintenance.
The Main Engineering deck
is where the fabrication shop and most of the workshops are located. The
main section has two parts to it, with primary and secondary systems monitors.
If something should happen to make the atmosphere toxic in the primary
section, power can be transferred over to the secondary systems, and the
emergency door closed. Here also are a few escape pods, directly accessable
from the corridors leading port and starboard of the primary systems. The
fuel systems controls are found on this deck, in line with the primary
power conduits, and from here any of the engines can be accessed through
the latice of walk- and crawl-ways.