The Hardaways' Hardware (Part 3 of 3)

Posted on 22 Jun 2012 @ 9:51am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Chauncey Remington III (KIA) & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Anthony Hardaway Ph.D. & Eric Anderson

2,650 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: Starbase 152 - Decks 100-102, Science Labs
Timeline: MD 07 - 1530 hrs

Previously...

"What do you think you are doing?!" Doctor's Hardaway's voice cut through the soft hum of the scientists and their equipment, cold and sharp as tritanium. He strode up to Peers and Quinn. "Did Commander Remington not tell you to wait for me?" he demanded of them. But no, the man for all his playing at politeness was as inept as the rest of them. "You will do this under my direction and you will do nothing without consulting me." He frowned and nudged Peers aside to read the manifold's console. "You might have ruined the test that's been running for the past three hours."Ignoring them after that, he began to fuss over the manifold controls, checking seemingly insignificant readouts.

Quinn smiled at his assistant and whispered loud enough for only Peers to hear him. "That, my dear. Is how you get a disgruntled scientist to expedite things in a more... Starfleet-like timely manner." Quinn turned and looked at Hardaway. "So Doc, let's get this show on the road. How about you show me the proper way to disassemble this girl, so I don't have to guess. If we miss the deadline, you may have to deal with a horde of clumsy Klingon's. I don't want to fight with you, and I really am smarter than I look. Just because I don't have a Ph.D. after my name yet, does not make me an idiot. So let's work together and get you, your team and the propulsion drive onto the Galileo safely. What'd ya say? We can duke it out on the Holodeck later."

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Peers nearly buckled at the sound of the doctor's shout, but once again Quinn's words grounded her. For a moment anyway. Horde of clumsy Klingons? She only knew about the one ship that had escorted them through Klingon space. Horde? Maybe he was just trying to jump-start Hardaway. That had to be it. She bit the inside of her lip and looked between them.

Hardaway looked away from the console and frowned at Quinn. "My degrees are a result of my intelligence, not the other way around," he informed the engineer, sounding as if he doubted very much that Quinn's intelligence could hold a candle to his own burning intellect.

Walking around the manifold, Anthony ran his hand over the surface of it. It was large and circular and looked like a jumble of scrap metal, not a piece of Starfleet technology. Being cobbled together from pieces on the station, it nearly was a jumble of scrap metal. "First," he said without looking at the pair behind him, "the insides of this device is filled with all manner of delicate parts and rare alloys. We need to transport everything carefully. It wasn't made to come apart, you will need to manually remove the crystal core. It's attached to a panel in section twenty-three, behind a series of interlinked phase inducers. I can't tell you what the crystal matrix is, that's classified, but it's highly unstable. I'm sure the commander would prefer if his station did not disintegrate into subatomic particles..."

Markum scratched his beard while grinning. "Well, if it were me, I suppose I would use a Corzanium mixture in the matrix, since it's the only known element strong enough to withstand powerful pressures such as those from an event horizon, or the mouth of a wormhole." Markum walked over to section twenty-three and took a knee. As he fidgeted through his tool kit he asked the Scientist. "Have you ever tried to harvest Corzanium from the event horizon of a black hole Doctor? It's tricky. I did a few times back when I was with the Xenotechnology Research Division of Starfleet."

Lilou glanced between them. If they were building an FTL drive that wasn't attached to the core power for the station, why wouldn't they build it to come apart? They would have to, wouldn't they, to be able to install it and actually test its functionality? She didn't ask though. In point of fact, she didn't say a word. Her job here was to do as she was told and keep from complicating things.

Anthony almost looked horrified. Almost. "The core is flooded with Ununoctium gas, it stabilizes the crystal structure. You can't add anything to it." He gave Markum his elitist look. "No one ever said science was safe, Mister..." he hadn't bothered to remember their names, but before Markum had a chance to reply, the doctor went on. "As long as you don't drop it, we'll be perfectly fine."

Meanwhile...

Remington followed Anderson into the lab down the corridor and quickly looked around at the equipment. "We won't be able to get half of this to the shuttles in time," he mused.

Shrugging his shoulders, Eric found he couldn't care less. "What did you think we did around here, sat on our ass and pushed paper around? Of course there is a tonne of equipment and people which have to be shifted. Have you no idea at all what is going on here?!?" Finding himself riled up at the thought of idiotic Starfleet underestimating the work they had done, the scientist slammed his fist into a worktop table. "I mean like what the hell is it that you think we do?!?"

"I told you, I don't profess to know," Will said calmly, "No doubt you're more knowledgeable about such things than I am. I, however, am an operations officer and more knowledgeable about logistics." He reflected that he didn't have a clue what Anderson did, and it might have been paper-pushing for all he knew, but he was not in the mood to ask. Instead he handed the man a PADD. "Here's the list by priority, from Doctor Hardaway. Let's start with the first thing. There are operations personnel from the starbase outside to help us. You show me where this stuff is and I'll see it moved."

And the man in front of Eric wondered why he was being so uncooperative. This man called himself an operation officer, part of his job was also basic maintenance, therefore he should know and understand the engine which they were creating. Grabbing the PADD, Eric read the first item as being the artificial fabricators. As the tests were underway, the fabricators were not needed right now and therefore could be moved. Grinning widely, Eric marched up to the far wall where four boxes, a size of five meters by five meters. Each box weighed a tonne and given the transporters were out of commission, it would be no easy feat to get each box onto an antigrav lift. "Here you go, figure this one out."

Will studied the devices and frowned. "What are these, exactly?" He asked. "Doctor Hardaway insists the manifold is vital and we're disassembling it. But we don't have time to do that with every massive piece that won't fit through a shuttle door."

Shrugging his shoulders, Eric looked at Will with a smirk, "What would I know, I'm only a scientist, you're the operations officer who knows all about moving objects and making them fit in places. All I know is that Doctor Hardaway has these listed as priority. As you said earlier Mr. High and Mighty, it's your job to get them moved."

"Well," Mr. High and Mighty replied, "it's also my job to decide what we can move, and unless Doctor Hardaway doesn't want any other equipment coming along, this thing has to stay along with anything else of similar size besides the manifold. I will ask him about it myself. For now, let's move to something that will fit on an anti-grav lift." He frowned to himself, wondering what exactly the scientists thought was going on. They did not seem to realize the importance of getting the project moved quickly. Going to a panel on the station's wall, he opened a comm from there. "Sienna Operations crew, report to science lab one fourteen alpha."

Shrugging his shoulders, Eric smirked once again, his mind on the ass of the woman who'd been left with the manifold. He was starting to try plot ways to get back there. It gave him a very strange thrill when he realized his advances were getting to her and he couldn't help but laugh when her lapdogs jumped to try protect her. This assignment was starting to become fun, watching the Starfleet personal chasing their tails. "What ever you command Mr. High and Mighty. Next on the list is... the partical phase inverter." Pointing to a container of a size of one meter squared, he knew it would take two to three men to lift it. A smallish piece of equipment, it was still very heavy.

Four operations officers walked into the lab as Eric was speaking. "All right, and what's next?" Will turned to the men in yellow and gestured to them. "Get that antigrav lift running and bring it over here." They moved quickly to follow the commander's instructions.

Debating on weather or not to mention that they shouldn't drop it, given the unreliable power source it was connected to, Eric figured he valued his life over causing trouble, "If any of you drop that box... well I only hope that you already have your wills written." smirking, he stood back not bothering to offer a helping hand, just because he valued his life didn't mean he had to be nice.

"In Starfleet, operations officers are trained not to drop heavy expensive science equipment. But I appreciate the warning." He turned to the crew when they brought the antigrav lift hovering in and gestured with his hand as he gave instructions. "You two, go back to the cargo bay and find another antigrav lift and any equipment you have for heavy lifting." He looked to the remaining two as he went over to the device they were trying to move. "Let's get this disconnected from the station's power supply. Anderson," Will used his most convincing tone of command, strong and forceful, "help us lift it, it's about time you earn your keep."

Raising an eyebrow at the tone of voice, Eric smirked as he realised he must have been getting to the officer infront of her. To think a Lieutenant Commander thought he could push Eric around was amusing. Deciding to play along for abit, he walked over to the operations officers and started giving them directions, "Right guys, most of the weight is concentrated in the middle so from that I'm sure you can figure out the best way to lift this." Walking over to the control panel, he pulled open one of the panels, starting to turn the power grid off to enable safe transfer. As he started to enter the commands he frowned as he realised something wasn't right, "Have one of you been messing around with this?" Suddenly a warning came up on the monitor causing him to go white, "GET DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Diving into the officer beside him, he used his weight to throw both of them away from the equipment as a flash of light was seen in the room and an explosion rang out.

Will knew the sudden signs of danger when working around touchy technology. He didn't think, he just let instinct kick in, his reflexes faster than anything he could have accomplished without them. It was an experience he had had before, though one never got used to it, the feeling of being nothing more than an observer as the body moved of its own accord. He knew his hand was going out to yank the operations officer beside him away from the device, even as he turned on his heel and pushed off the floor with one foot. His body dove behind the nearest cover, the anti-grav lift, managing to yank it to its side with the adrenaline spike that coursed through him. The anti-grav generation would repel some of the blast, he knew by intuition. No sooner had he pulled the other man over and braces his shoulder against the metal surface than the blast hit them. Stars and pain blossomed in his head as it collided with the lift. It did not send them far, but Will went sprawling all the same.

He felt as if an hour passed before he regained his senses, but it could not have been more than a minute. His ears rang as he sat up and looked around. "What the heck was that, Anderson?" he demanded, his own voice sounding far away as he looked around for the others.

Holding his arm against his chest, Eric gritted his teeth against the pain, looking around to do a brief headcount, trying to ensure everyone was ok, there should be 6 people including himself. "Some complete idiot was messing with the power grid of this room." Looking around, he managed to isolate the piece of equipment which the explosion had originated from, one of the four artificial fabricators. Thankfully it seemed that the explosion had imploded, preventing the rest of the equipment from being damaged. It was the aftershock which seemed to have taken everyone off of their feet.

"Did any of you touch the power grid before I got to it?" At this point Eric realized he'd needed to act like a grown up, if things had gone any other way, people could have been killed or vital equipment as part of this experiment could have been damaged.

"This is the first time anyone from my team has been in here," Will assured him, getting unsteadily to his feet. He walked over to the panel Eric had been working on and peered inside, squinting and shaking his head to clear it. "I think we have a saboteur on our hands..."

Cross, Eric moved over to Will's side, gently nudging him to allow him room to be able to access the screen of the power unit and get an overall view of what was happening. He refused to believe sabotage had occurred, of the scientists here, there was a hatred towards Starfleet for ripping them out of the station but none of them would risk the experiment and the equipment. "You must be mistaken..."

"Mister Anderson, you still do not seem to understand the danger Project Sienna is in. You said these controls have been tampered with? No one does something like this by accident."

Seeing red, Eric hit out at the control panel, using the fist of his bad arm. As the sheer pain caused his face to go white, he realized that the officer was correct, "H...Ho...how...." Gritting his teeth against the pain, he forced himself to focus, "How many men have you got? All equipment to be transported needs to be checked to ensure nothing further is wrong."

"We'll take care of it. You better get to sickbay."

Realising this was one time he needed to step down and let the man do his job, Eric sneered at Will, "If any more of this equipment becomes damaged, I will hold you solely responsibly." Turning on his heel, he stalked off to to the station sickbay, his mind still on what had happened, focused on getting fixed up quick as possible so he could get back to the store and oversee that else further was damaged.

[OFF]

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Eric Anderson
Sierra Scientist
NPC'ed by Polaa N Dhuinn

Anthony Hardaway, Ph.D.
Project Sienna
played by Chauncey William Remington III

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. Cmdr. Chauncey William Remington III
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Chief Warrant Officer Markum Quinn
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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