The Low Down

Posted on 06 Dec 2023 @ 10:35am by Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor & Chief Petty Officer Afthinam Naime & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Petty Officer 3rd Class Helliun 'Hel' Inant
Edited on on 06 Dec 2023 @ 8:07pm

1,481 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 19 - Tomorrow's Galileo
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 7, Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 01, 1500

[ON]

Sera strode into main engineering. She knew the crewmen she was looking for were still about as they were on duty during the ‘Systems Test.’ What a disaster that had turned out to be.

“Chief Naime, Petty Officers Hollenday and Inant. Please report to the ChEng's office.” Sera called out authoritatively in just the right decibel range for her voice to carry in the space.

It wasn't her office, but it was a vacant spot that she could inform the crew members of their orders. There wasn’t a lot of time to brief her team, but it would be illogical not to. They needed to know what had occurred and what they were expected to do now.

Hel came walking into the office, cocking her head to the side as she watched the Vulcan. Clearly trying to get visual clues from her face before she sighed. "Now what did the bridge crew break this time?" she asked as she moved to lean against the wall, liking the firmness of it on her back. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small packet of some sort of nut, opening it and chewing one. "Because I have one warp core with coolant system that is less than impressed."

"That's not the only thing, that is not feeling up to snuff. For a supposed shake down cruise this was way more than expected and stressed the crap out of a lot of system." John paused and took a position near Hel. "Say, can I have one of those? Haven't gotten a chance to have a thing in quite some time."

Hel grinned, offering him the nuts. "Don't worry, they're just brasil nuts. Nothing exotic from my home world..." she promised. Because truth was, some of the nuts native to her world were toxic to everyone else.

"Thanks. Too bad, I could claim sickbay and not be crawling through more tubes and burning fingers." John took a few and handed the rest back.

Naime popped up next to the two nut eaters, brushing herself down a little with a smile as ever. "Well I think we can all be a little happy that our repairs held up quite well. Despite," she gave a wobbly gesture with her hand "other things. Don't suppose you could elucidate the nature of these other things, sir."

"Yeah, but maybe they shouldn't have," John quipped. "The more things hold together the bolder it seems command is to see what they can do and break stuff."

"If they didn't break things John, we'd be out of a job." Naime winked, at the very least their ship was looking healthier than it had after the last unexpected encounter it had got itself into.

Sera would had rathered listening to the engineering NCOs decry the rough handling that Captain Tarin had put Galileo--and therefore the engineering department--through, than to have to debrief them with what she had just learned.

She held up a hand, which was a respectful request for silence and attention.

"That is why I called you three in here, Chief. A...complication has arisen from this 'Systems Test.' Apparently, to use Petty Officer's Inant's irreverent commentary, Galileo has apparently broken the future."

"If any ship could've managed that it would be this one, sir." Naime tried to keep the tone light but her heart was already sinking. Galielo had broken the future and once again it was up to her crew's engineers to fix what was broken. "Pray tell, what did we do this time?"

"There was data that was knowingly deleted regarding Cold Station 31's research...which purportedly caused a cascade of events that lead to the near annihilation of Federation by the hands of a Romulan-Klingon alliance..."

Sera continued on, explaining how the ship had been brought approximately 25 years into the future, Admiral Saalm, the data presented by Wyatt...and ultimately finishing the detailed explanation with what they had been ordered to do.

"We have approximately one hour obtain whatever tools and equipment necessary to affect repairs to Galileo-B. The deflector dish, in particular, requires significant repairs."

"Sure, fine, we'll weave our magic once more." John shrugged.

Hel sighed and shook her head, but it was more with annoyance. "By the burning sands and dried seas, are we ever going to get shoreleave..." she said before she looked at John, shrugging as well. "Repair crew it is then. But what about our lady? She's not exactly in excellent shape either."

"Although perhaps not 'excellent,' our Galileo has fared far better than it's replacement. Full diagnostics will be need to be run on all major systems to confirm the readouts, but after the anomaly dissipated, all systems read green from the bridge. It was most peculiar." Sera did not particular care for peculiar. It ranked up there with hijinks and shenanigans.

"This deflector they'd like us to fix," Naime's voice was curious but wary, she'd fixed deflector dishes many times in her career but all of those ones had been deflector dishes from the present or past, this was a whole different idea "Do we have manuals for it? Specifications? I'm not seeing what use we'd be as opposed to their own engineers when it comes to this. Unless its been a slow twenty five years I doubt any of us have much experience with this technology."

Sera dipped her head, acknowledging Naime's inquiry. "Your assessment of the situation is accurate. Admiral Saalm stated that we would be reporting to Lieutenant Commander Alexander who will apparently 'orient' us on their ship's technical specifications. We will simply have to..." Sera paused, considering her words, "Do our best. I have no doubt we will be given the bare minimum of information to be able to perform our duties. I would exercise caution in attempting to learn more than what is required...I would rather not contaminate our present with any data or tech that is 25 years ahead of our current technologies."

"I like the optimism that their tech is so advanced to ours," Hel said, but with a small almost playful smile. "Interfaces might be a bit different but if we're brutally honest, the basic principles will always be the same. Unless everyone's cloaking now. Because...I know nothing about that."

"Electrons flow, quantum fluctuations are all basically the same. Physics is physics. A bolt is a bolt, a weld is a weld. We can do this. What's the worst that can happen? Hey, they keep saying as long as we don't blow up the ship, well, maybe this is our chance to prove them wrong." John was almost laughing at the end at his own joke.

Sera raised a brow at the particular verbiage Hollanday used. It was ever so close to 'What could go wrong?'. Indeed.

"I would say, one cannot predict the future. However, if we do not succeed in returning to our own time, then there will be no necessity to do so. We are technically in it. I find our current position in space time to be frankly, unacceptable. So we shall beam over to Galileo-B and somehow save ourselves...and everyone else, apparently."

"I don't know, might end up blowing something up," Hel said with a small shrug, but the smile was on her face to show she wasn't being completely serious. "Depends on what they've done, what damage and how bad."

"If they think we can help them," Naime gave a shrug, this might have to be one of those wait and see things "Then perhaps we can. We won't know until they brief us. Did they give any indication of what equipment we should bring over?"

"As usual, such details were not forthcoming, Chief. So we will have to be...flexible. Bring your kits. We will meet in Transporter Room 1 in..." Sera tilted her head, calculating, "47 minutes. Dismissed."

This was not an ideal position to be in...to lead into a most uncertain situation. She would have to do better with her answers in the future. Her team deserved that.

"We'll be there, Sir." The chief gave an affirming nod, she was sure that the ensign was as frustrated to give these answers as her team would be to hear them. It was what they had to work with. Somehow things never were simple on this ship. She gave a glance to the others "Come on you two, let's get ready."

[OFF]

--

Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor
Deputy Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A

CPO Afthinam Naime
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Ullswater]

PO3 Helliun 'Hel' Inant
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Rice]

PO3 John Hollenday
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

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