Scoping the Task

Posted on 23 Dec 2023 @ 4:48pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander & Lieutenant JG Rafe Caradec & Ensign Mimi & Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor & Lieutenant JG Vren Vral & Senior Chief Petty Officer Goldie Brown & Chief Petty Officer Afthinam Naime & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Petty Officer 3rd Class Helliun 'Hel' Inant

3,181 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 19 - Tomorrow's Galileo
Location: USS Galileo-A, USS Galileo-B
Timeline: MD 01, 1555 hrs

[ON]

USS Galileo-A's Transporter Room 1 was a small yet traditional Starfleet beaming chamber consisting of a six-pad arrangement of primary energizing coils and phase transition coils integrated into a raised platform with an operator console at the opposite end of the room near the door. A Betazoid operations officer, Ubax, was situated there at her station awaiting the impending arrival of the repair team designated to travel to the Galileo-B and assist with whatever critical duties they'd been assigned.

Sera arrived early to the transporter room with a satchel slung over her shoulder which held her personal tools of the trade.

She recalled Commander Graves, a particular irascible engineering instructor, who had informed their class quite in quite the imperative manner, "There are many hyperspanners, however this will be yours!" as he held up the aforementioned tool. "Learn to love your equipment. Know their idiosyncrasies and adapt to their temperaments."

He had continued on in a most illogical vein, however she had taken what was the presumed point of the diatribe to 'heart.' Sera never went far without her own equipment. She knew the ins and outs of their individual variances and knew just how to extract the appropriate response from them.

It was an engineering thing. She was not alone in this particular 'quirk.'

Sera acknowledged the female operations officer with a tilt of her head, while she waited for the rest of the engineering staff to arrive.

Hel came in moments later, her hair sensibly tied out of her face, a pile on her head. She wore the overalls rather than the standard uniform, clearly expecting to get dirty. The grin she gave was easy, relaxed and playful. "Ready to try not blow up a future-ship?" she said playfully.

"I'm sure when you do blow it up, Hel, it's going to be truly beautiful." The similarly overalled Naime accompanied her in, the pair of them clearly also wearing their usual light-hearted attitudes. "Just give me some warning first, alright?"

"Hey! Thought we could. I mean, after all, it's not every day that we get the chance!" John quipped as he followed after Hel.

"Although explosions do have an inherently fascinating nature, allowing such an exothermic reaction aboard Galileo-B would be counterproductive to our overall goals." Sera looked at Hel with a rather pointed expression, which did not marry well with what she said next, "Perhaps...next time?" She raised a brow as a punctuation mark on her rather unorthodox comment and stepped upon to the transporter pad.

Mimi was the last to arrive having had several last minute important things to do before leaving the department in Amul's capable hands. She saw the other crew already assembling on the transporter pad and moved to stand behind John gripping his hand for a few moments.

Ryan followed the small group onto the transporter pad a small tool box in hand and a small smile on his face. The banter was something that he enjoyed listening to and was glad that this was how he was leaving his old ship. It felt like it was a lifetime ago that he had walked these corridors and interacted with his same friends, and each interaction pulled at his heart strings in someway. "I will give you all a quick orientation when we arrive. Thank you for volunteering to assist."

Sera said nothing to Ryan's comment before they all dematerialized. Nonetheless she found it satisfactory that she was standing behind him so he could not see the ironic brow raise.

Volunteering? We volunteered for nothing. I believe orders were involved.


Deck 3, Auxiliary Shuttlebay

USS Galileo-A's Deck 3 corridor outside the alternate shuttlebay was an interesting place to say a prayer. However, that's where it ended up. Rafe stepped through the shuttlebay doors, joining Darius and Sylver, to prepare the Celeste for operation. He would have much rather used the Pisa exclusively, but this was going to require quick hands-on work, with no downtime.

He had already talked with Commander Warraquim regarding the ridiculous amount of hours they were going to have to work straight and had received the necessary stimulants to keep them on point. He had distributed them to his flight personnel with the same words of caution Allyndra had given him.

Rafe looked from one to the other and said, "Remember your zero-G training. You expend way more energy controlling your movements when your working than normal. Be aware of this and try to minimize waste of motion. You shouldn't have to be outside the B very much. But just in case, you're going to need the stimulants under the "normal" extreme circumstances, and when you're in space, even more so." With that, Darius headed back to the bridge to man the helm, and Sylver joined Rafe in setting aside supplies for repairs, as well as helping him into the Celeste for deployment outside the Galileo-B.

Let's see, Rafe thought to himself: Plasma cutters - check, duotronic sensors - check...he continued to go down the list to make sure they had everything but the kitchen sink. They couldn't be wasting time going back and forth, especially when lack of sleep could be a factor.

Rafe tapped his comm badge, "Caradec to Captain Tarin. We're about ready for deployment in case you wanted to join us for any other concerns of which we need to be aware."

"Darius here again, lieutenant. The captain's not on the bridge right now. Stand by and prepare for Celeste launch...I'm opening the auxiliary bay doors," relayed Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius to his department head. After several long seconds, his console displayed green launch parameters across the board. "Cleared for launch. Go after it, L-T."

Sylver stepped into the auxiliary shuttle bay launch room to help with the launch. Caradec turned and saw the bay doors open. As they opened, he activated his comm badge, “Sylver, turn off the artificial gravity.” Sylver’s fingers moved across the panel and Caradec’s feet slowly left the shuttle bay floor as he moved in the Celeste towards open space. As he cleared the force field, the Galileo-B came into view and the anti-gravity sled activated to follow him.


USS Galileo-B, Transporter Room

The golden sparkles always seemed to linger in her peripheral vision after teleportation for a brief period of time after re-materialization. Sera had never made mention of it to anyone, but she had also never heard anyone else make mention of that particular after-effect, so she presumed it was simply a quirk of her own particular perceptions.

The transporter room here held the same components and yet the feel of the place felt different. Sera found that designation to be rather...fascinating. How quickly could things become familiar.

Sera looked over to the other NCOs with her and dipped her chin at them. Their futures depended on the job they were going to perform here today...or was it their pasts? She made a soft sound. Temporal mechanics were not her forte.

Goldie Brown waited in the transporter room of the Galileo-B for the repair team to arrive. It was a lifetime ago--several lifetimes--since she was on the old Gal and she wondered if she'd remember her old crew. Or some of them, anyway. As they dematerialized, she smiled in greeting.

Ryan gave the room a quick once over before nodding to Golide. "Good day, Chief. I have brought help in making repairs." He said before focusing on the team accompanying him. "Welcome aboard the Gallileo-B. Let me introduce you to Chief Goldie Brown, she is part of our Operations team."

"I knew you would make Chief petty officer one day Goldie." Mimi said, it had been some time she had last seen the woman but it was definitely her.

"Mimi!" Goldie ran over to the Nekomi and hugged her. "When I learned what we were doing, I hoped I see you again. As for CPO, I just had to stick it out long enough for the higher-ups to give in and promote me." Goldie knew it also took hard work and knowing when to keep her head down, but lasting as long as she did definitely had a lot to do with it.

Mimi hugged Goldie quite tight. "I am glad you are still around Goldie, I have some interesting tales to tell you."

"Me, too. Hopefully we'll find some time to talk," Goldie replied.

"We will have to make some time." Mimi smiled. "It is good to see you again."

The doors slid open and a tall Andorian walked into the room. Were it not for the livid scars on his face and the streaks of grey running through his hair one might have mistaken him for the Galileo-A's new Chief of the Boat.

Jaw clenched, his lifeless eyes swept over the room in a single movement, taking in the 'guests' from the ship that started it all, before landing on his superior, "Commander," his tone was sombre and lacking in energy, "I apologise for my lateness. I was waylaid during my final assessment of the deflector."

Ryan nodded his head at the Andorian. “Understood, but no apologies needed. We all have our hands full at the moment.” His tone light. “How did the assessment go? Just the basics please we can go into detail a little later.”

"With respect, Commander," Sera began, "Details regarding the deflector dish assessment are rather important considering what is being required of us." She tilted her head and regarded the Andorian who appeared rather illogically familiar. "Unless, of course, this cannot be adequately conveyed while in motion? I will of course, not expect that which is impossible to perform."

She had been unable to satisfactorily answer her subordinates questions, which was an age old challenge within chain of command, but that did not mean she would simply...accept. She was Vulcan after all. Only so much could be restrained.

Ryan shifted his attention away from Vren and onto Sera. "Ensign, usually when someone prefaces something with the phrase, with respect, it seldom comes across as respectful." Ryan started keeping his tone light but professional, as he studied the Vulcan woman. "That being said you are not incorrect in your assessment, I believe we are all assembled. While I had hopped we can conduct the briefing at the deflector proper, I suppose we start the briefing here." Ryan said before shifting his attention back to Vren. "Belay my last request Lieutenant. If you are able, please give us a full run down of your findings."

Sera tilted her head and raised a brow in a befuddled manner. That was not what she meant at all. Why did any discussion have to be performed here at all? Would it not be more efficient to do so over the item in question that required repair? She simply did not understand humans' logic.

She pulled her tricorder off of her belt and flipped it open and tapped in some commands to place it into a passive scanning mode and then with a flick of her wrist, closed the device up again and returned it to the notch on her belt built for such an item.

Vren looked impassively from his chief to the Vulcan. His watery eyes scrutinising the visitor from the past. His mind flicked through the files he had spent time examining on the journey to the Pleiades. This was Ensign M'Lyr'Zor. Her history after the point they'd left the timeline was... interesting. Certainly not the prim and proper Vulcan she proported to be. Marked with reckless behaviour. Fraternisation with the enemy.

"Very well Commander," his voice was a dead monotone. He stared at Sera as he began to outline the damage, his antennae twitching backwards, "There are microfractures throughout the dish's surface, compromising its structural integrity and significantly reducing its efficiency. The primary emitter coils have experienced an overload due to the excessive power draw, leading to a complete burnout. There is a misalignment in the secondary emitter arrays."

He took a PADD off his waist and glanced at it momentarily, "We have a substantial number of EPS conduits that have blown out, affecting secondary systems. Damage extends to the subspace field emitters and the graviton polarity penerator. The navigational deflector control circuitry has fused, and we've got fracturing in several waveguide conduits." He placed the PADD back onto his belt. "Various systems will also need to be realigned and reconfigured as repairs are completed." He finished, continuing his dead stare at the Vulcan engineer.

Sera forced herself to remain still and not fidget. The Andorian, and more importantly, his antennae were all but pointed straight at her. She was uncertain where such outright aggression was coming from. One thing was certain - he was behaving like a predator...and that brought forward some very old, ingrained instincts. Her people evolved from apex predators too. Although she made no other movements, Sera's eyes never left the strange Andorian ones.

Goldie was happy to help with the realignment, once the repairs were done--along with whatever else she was assigned. Except for Mimi, though, she wasn't getting happy vibes from the rest of the Galileo-A crew. She could understand it, sort of, but she hoped it wouldn't affect their work.

Mimi listened to the lieutenant's report. "Do you believe we will need to send a team EVA on the dish surface?" she asked knowing just who to grab from the Galileo if he said yes.

Vren's eyes slowly shifted over to Mimi. He could see the resemblance to Asha. "The workbee will be able to conduct most of the repairs," his tone remained exceptionally dry, "but hull sensors around the deflector have become misaligned so a manual inspection by EVA may be advisable."

Sera slowly exhaled, releasing the unnamed emotion with it as his eyes finally left hers to focus on something different. She had questions, most assuredly, but not was not the time nor place.

Was there no one here that could perform these repairs? Sera idly wondered. They had been made pawns in a game not of their choosing and now were expected to repair the thing that had brought them all to a future of nightmarish proportions. Vulcan or not, this was agitating. Meditation was required. Meditation was a pipe dream given what the scope of the repairs needed on the 'B.'

Her attention turned back to the Andorian, although she didn't want to bring his attention back to her...she had...questions.

"And what is the expectation time-wise on when these rather substantial repairs should be completed by?" Because if it was less than a few weeks...well then.

Vren glanced at Alexander, then fixed his gaze back on Sera. His antennae slid backwards again. He began again in his emotionless drawl, his unblinking eyes meeting hers, "The deflector itself must be repaired in the next three days. Anything else is secondary. Those are the admirals orders."

"Does the Admiral want any other miracles within those three days?" Hel had folded her arms across her chest and was grinning. There was no malice in the words, just an engineer's usual people got get that it isn't just replicating a new one attitude.

"I believe... the deflector will suffice," Vren said as he slowly panned his gaze to Hel, "If you wish to get back at all."

Hel chuckled, raising an eyebrow as she held Vren's eyes. "Well, we will see what we can do..." she said, her voice almost a low growl before she winked.

Vren cocked his head ever so slightly to the side. This one was a strange one. After a few moments he slowly turned his head to his chief, "Commander, I am happy to direct repairs on the primary and secondary emitters." He looked back at the Galileo-A engineering team, "Do any of you have particular expertise with emitter coils?"

"With those found in the twenty-fourth century, sure!" Naime piped up raising a hand. With her last twenty years of engineering there wasn't a part of a ship she wasn't at least somewhat comfortable with and she'd guess of the four engineers there she was probably the best to volunteer for this job "I hope that the materials science of the future hasn't advanced too far from molybdenum-duranium."

Sera inwardly nodded at Chief Naime's volunteering of herself. She was still new to Galileo but she was starting to see what her engineers were made off. Naime did have the requisite knowledge and experience to work on the emitters...they were finicky 'creatures,' that often required a delicate hand. Sera knew how to fix them, but she had never been required to work on them before. Nonetheless, there was something about the Andorian...Sera did not want Naime to go alone.

"Unless contraindicated, I am amenable to accompanying Chief Naime." Sera added, returning her gaze to the Andorian.

Ryan surveryed the room for a moment as he processed the information. "Very well. Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor and Hel, prepare to suit up and work on the deflector. Lieutenant JG Vral, work with Ensign Mimi and take whoever else you think you might need to work on the EPS conduits, start at the subspace field emitters and the graviton polarity penerator and work your way to the secondary systems. Chief Goldie and I can handle the inspections." He said as he gave out tasks to the crew.

"I will not micro manage how you make your repairs or tell you how to do them, you are all experts in your field. Ask questions if situations arise. Lieutenant JG Vral anything else you would like to add?"

"No, sir," Vral's dead eyes broke from the Galileo-A engineers and matched his chiefs, "I will keep you updated on our progress." He beckoned towards Mimi and Hollenday, then slowly turned and walked robotically to the door.

"Come on John, time to get our hands on some fancy future technology." Mimi said; her ears and tail twitched with curiosity as she followed Vral out of the transporter room.

[OFF]

--

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

Ensign Mimi
Deputy Chief Ops
USS Galileo-A

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

LTJG Vren Vral
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-B
[PNPC Vala]

CPO Goldie Brown
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-B
[PNPC Wyatt]

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

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

LTJG Rafe Caradec
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A

LCMDR Ryan Alexander
Operations Manager
USS Galileo-B

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