Unexpected Company

Posted on 17 Feb 2015 @ 10:30pm by Lieutenant JG Tobias Todd

572 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: M13-A: From the Old to the New
Location: USS Achilles

The work load to get the ship ready for such a monumental mission was immense. Most of that work fell towards engineering and security, but that didn't mean Tobias was in any danger of getting bored any time soon. The whole sensor array was working at 100% - according to engineering - but computer simulations could get you only so far. And as long as they were still preparing for the journey they might as well make use of every available resource.

=^= Todd, USS Achilles, to Station. Fire the next sensor probe on my signal, MkII with random vector and velocity.=^=

=^= Understood Sir, waiting for your signal. =^=

Precisely 1.73 seconds after his signal, the probe was launched into space. Immediately dozens of columns streamed over the screens, showing various kinds of radiation and particles emitted by the probe that were picked up the Achilles' sensor array.

=^= Everything appears to be in order, fire the MkIII whenever ready. =^=

13.27 seconds later the next probe launched from the station, repeating the process of the last 5 probes. The total schedule called for 173 probes to test everything they might possible need, which might be anything after all. He had encountered surprisingly little resistance when he proposed this plan. At least Starfleet didn't try to cut any corners on this mission.


He projected to be finished after roughly 14 hours but several delays made it actually closer to 17 hours and all he wanted to do was get some sleep. The only thing left to do was to compile the list of issues he had to raise with engineering which fortunately consisted only of minor corrections to the systems or the software. While he compiled a list of the later issues, part of his consciousness reviewed the code segments in question. This part, however, came to a screeching halt at a particular unremarkable code segment. The segment was unremarkable in that way that the error was extremely minor and the corresponding system rarely used. It took him nearly a full minute before he realised what bothered him so much about this segment. Hew new this code and he knew who had written it. And there was an alarm attached to the code should someone call it up on a station not located in engineering.

Tobias had hardly called up the the personal data when he almost stormed out of his rooms and headed towards engineering. He was no longer tired. As he arrived in engineering with an all too well known smile.

"Almost three days after I have taken up my station, honestly I was expecting this visit sooner. Good thing I attached that little alarm, eh brother." Elara, his little sister who he had believe to be far away on earth.

"What are you doing here? You don't graduate from the academy until next year."

"I got a special recommendation for this assignment. Aren't you happy that I'm here to watch out for you?" Her grin had become almost unbearable by now. She knew perfectly well that she had caught him off balance and knew exactly what buttons to push to keep him there. It was a special talent of hers.

"I'm ... I'm not sure ... ?"

"You see, I can hardly leave you alone." She stepped forward and gave him a very familiar hug which he returned after a moment.

This journey had just become considerably more significant.

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Lieutenant JG Tobias Todd
Chief Science Officer

Ensign Elara Todd
Computer Systems Specialist

 

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