Change In Plans

Posted on Sun Jul 29th, 2018 @ 5:56am by Captain Charybdis MacGregor

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Present Tense
Location: USS Victory, Deck 14, Main Engineering
Timeline: 2285

Maur reappeared in Engineering, arms loaded. "Vanlith! Where you at, son!"

He was grinning ear to ear and just plowed through the work teams, station and crew, headed for the largest open area in Engineering, that broad space in front of the warp core. "Lieutenant Vanlith, we got work to do, c'mere, son!"

Unlike his departure three hours ago, he was now in uniform and looked far more cheerful than he had been. "I got great news!"

Emerging from underneath a console, Wyatt Vanlith quickly moved from his work station to in front of the warp core. As soon he was next to the Chief Engineer, he stood at attention. "Lieutenant Junior Grade Wyatt Vanlith, reporting as ordered, sir!"

Never one particularly quick on the uptake, the continued military protocol and stiffness presented by the young Lieutenant was finally beginning to sink in. "Relax, Lieutenant, I'm not on duty, I just look it." He tossed down some blueprints and got down on all fours, unfurling the paperwork. "Now, come down here and check this out."

He started pointing and various junction points annotated on the saucer diagrams. "We need to get crews, three-person teams, to check each one of these by spec and guarantee they're working as designed, that's phase one, if you're with me. Phase two is we're going to be pulling them, one at a time, and beefing them up so they'll handle double their current power loads."

Maur grinned at Vanlith. "You mind if I call you Van, Wyatt, Vanlith, what's your poison?"

Wyatt studied the blueprints the Chief displayed out in front of him, his eyes moving rapidly back and forth, scanning every single detail with extreme precision. "Understood, sir. I also prefer Wyatt." The junior officer's brain finally caught up with his words, then blushed a tad. "If that's O.K. with you, sir."

"Relax, Wyatt, I ain't here t'bite yer head off, off duty, and I am, call me Maur." He smiled gently at the younger man. "All right, project one is we need to get," he kicked a leg back, his heel connecting with a clang against the warp core, "that piece of junk off my ship. I know where there's another, I checked on the way back down here, it was originally slated for one of the new Constitution-refits, but that's been temporarily shelved in favor of a pair of Miranda-class cruisers, and won't be needed again for at least a year."

He looked up and grinned. "Skipper said she's going to square us getting it. But that also means we need to check all power-load bearing members, we're going to start in the saucer and work our way aft. Our load requirement is 200$ of Fleet regulations."

His face lost the smile. "We're going to need the load capacity, because we are going to juice this lady to the utmost, we will be the fastest ship in the fleet...and that means the first thing we do is drop the new core in, get two people good with shield technologies to start looking at power loads so we can install reinforcing microshields around the entire core. Those are sitting in a warehouse in San Francisco, I'll write the orders for pickup, you appoint the folks to go get 'em, I'll meet 'em in the hanger bay with Captain's requisition and the keys to their shuttle."

The smile came back. "And nobody leaves us. We've got some lumps of coal...but we're going to put on the pressure and see who becomes a diamond."

 

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