No rest for the weary
Posted on 14 Mar 2011 @ 3:54pm by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal
2,001 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
M8: The Kzinti War!!!!
Location: Engineering
Timeline: Current
[SB 517]
He stood there, looking into the mirror before he left his quarters. Well, they weren't his anymore. Today he would receive orders for a star ship. Now which one, who knew? He had been waiting a few days, only having just put back on his uniform. Having been awhile, he was getting used to it again. His hair was freshly cut, he had shaved, and would set a good example. He had been going over a couple different star ships systems, just so he was ready regardless of what ship he ended up on. He left the quarters and entered the code to reset the lock. Checkin out.
He wandered through the bowels of the station, only to find his way to the assignments office. A Lt. Cmdr. sat in the office, doors closed. Nate pressed the door chime, and the doors opened. He walked in and snapped to attention "LT. Stryker reporting" he said. "At ease, Lieutenant. I finally have an assignment for you. A ship coming in for repair. I know you applied for a couple others, and we had originally assigned you to one of the others, but I think these folks need you more. You've been assigned as Chief Engineer to the U.S.S. Achilles. They've taken damage from a battle, so you'll be getting to work right away. Here are your orders". He was handed a PaDD and Nate browsed over the approval.
Silently he was elated, but didn't show it. It was the one he had wanted, and was glad he beat a few other folks to the station that were coming for assignments as well. The Lt. Cmdr. looked at him. "Lieutenant I know you've been out of the show for a bit, but try and do your best. We normally wouldn't assign someone with your level of experience, but they need a CEO asap and we have no one else to spare". Nate glanced at his orders again, just to make sure he had been officially assigned to the crew, and no longer fell under the stations Command. He had not been impressed with the attitude of the assignment officer, and wouldn't stand for it. "In that case Sir, someone as myself will endeavor to not disappoint someone as you that does nothing else but sit on your ass all day long. When you get a real assignment, let me know. A Field Officer such as myself will relish the opportunity to school you in the fine art of ground warfare. And if you keep it up, I'll see to it your taught the hard way". The man sat there with a look of disbelief on his face. "Lieutenant, how dare you......" Nate snapped to attention, performed an about face, and exited the office. His orders were his key to leaving, and he would be more than happy to discuss the issue with his new CO.
Making a bee line for the nearest turbo lift, he stepped inside. "Achilles" he stated, confident, ready to start his day. The lift didn't move for very long, and when the doors opened, before him was a doorway to the umbilical. It had been quite some time since he walked across one, and preferred the transporter, but walked down it as such. Almost forgetting, he tapped his com badge. =^= Stryker to transporter room 16, please send my gear aboard the Achilles.=^= =^=Aye Sir=^= came a reply. As he ended the walkway, he stepped onto the new ship. It was quite impressive, but he couldn't wait to see Engineering. Normally he would go see the Captain, but seeing the damage to the ship as he walked the umbilical, he figured he would at least get a status report, and hoped the Captain wouldn't be too upset with him. He prayed his enthusiasm would save his butt.
[USS Achilles - Engineering]
He stepped onto another turbo lift "Engineering". The lift took a couple minutes, and silently he could only figure that the crew would receive him well, but didn't expect too much of a warm reception. After all they just had been in battle, and he was the new guy. Only time would tell. Hopefully helping them get the ship back together would earn him some respect. He walked out and saw the doors to Main Engineering. Walking through them, he was amazed by the size of the warp core as well as the size of Engineering itself. He stared in awe Wow he thought to himself, bumping into a young crewman. "Why don't you watch.....Sorry SIR ! Please don't get upset !". Nate kept walking, ignoring him. It was awesome. And it was his. Then he saw a large set of doors to the side. It was his Office. Sweet!
Nate sat at his desk. It felt strange having an office to call his own, but happy. Engineering was his domain, and he relished the opportunity. Of course along with it, he had a lot of responsibility, and would see to it. Not having met any of his personnel yet, as they were all busy repairing systems around the ship, he figured there would be time for meet and greets later. The Achilles had taken a beating, and Nate wanted it fixed asap. What was the point of having a new toy if it was broken? Plus having a Klingon Captain, he figured the ships combat readiness was of the greatest importance. Glancing up at the ships status display, he frowned.
Too much to get done. Guess I'm not going to sleep tonight. Looking over the Engineering roster, he figured out rest times for each of his people. It felt strange calling them that. His. He sent out the new rotation to the team leads, everyone would be working double if not triple shifts. Including him.
Da`nal had just left sickbay and was on his way back to the station when Lance caught him waiting on a turbolift. "Ah Captain, glad I caught you. Commodore Sorn has sent us a Chief Engineer, he came over with the stations repair team and the Apocalypse has sent over a few engineers to lend a hand."
"Excellent....finally some good news." Both the Apocolypse and the Imperator flown in a loose formation with the Achilles around the civilian vessels they had picked up along the way. "What of the ships we escorted to the station?"
"Their wounded are being seen to but Starships are first on the repair lists. So they will be here for a while." Lance handed him a padd. "Here is the updated damage and casualty reports."
8 dead
23 wounded
4 MIA
It were the MIA that really irritated him. The Marines had been on training maneuvers on the planet. Though most had been recovered; Captain Derek Longwinter, Staff Sergeant Jason Frey, Sergeant Dawn Brianna, & Lance Corporal Cyfian Harper had been unrecoverable due to interference. It was thought that the Kzinti weapons fire might have disrupted the lock or that they had purposefully deployed a device to hinder the transporters. Then again it could have been the terrain itself.
Needless to say he was not in the best of moods when he walked into Engineering.
As he entered, Engineering was a buzz of activity. To an outsider it would have seemed chaotic but his eyes saw one bringing order to that chaos. Stepping over him as he glanced at the padd in his hand, "Lt. Stryker?"
The young man looked up, noticing a red uniform, four gold pips, and a Klingon face greeting him. He snapped to attention. "Captain, It's good to meet you. I apologize for not going directly to the Bridge, but seeing the state of the ship, I wanted to stop by here and get things rolling along first". He silently prayed to be let off on this one. He knew the first day was not the best time to make a bad impression. Then again, the Captain was a Klingon, not Human. He had understood they preferred work to be done and formalities to be the latter. He guessed that Da`nal was the same.
"Normally I like to meet my senior officers, however thse are not normal circustances. Your commitment to your duty is commendable and your obvious determination to get the Achilles readied for battle Honors me. What is our overall status?
"Currently Sir we've about got all the weapons systems back online, I intend to begin an overhaul on them as soon as the systems are re-polarized. I've then rescheduled repair of the rest of the standard systems IE hull repair, containment systems, warp systems, etc. to the repair team from the station as well as any individuals that we have left as weapons repair and overhauls are completed. Shields will be included in our work with the weapons systems. I'm hoping we can give her a bigger bite. I'll also be adding an algorithym that will help with all 3 portions of the ship in MVAM, allowing targets to be jointly selected and fired upon. If need be, automated as well". We should be complete with repairs and overhaul in about 4 days". He cringed at giving his Captain such a long time line, but there simply weren't enough personnel to complete everything he wanted done immediately. He had already given the order to have them working 16-24 hour shifts, with 8 hours off in between.
His new Chief seemed to have all the bases covered but 4 days.... "I am on my way to a briefing on the station concerning the plan of action to be taken and how we are going to 'reply' to the Kzinti incursion into Federation space. MVAM automation is inherant to the Prometheus class Lieutenant. So unless your algorithym improves on what is already in place there is no need to reinvent the wheel, but I like your enthusiasm.
"As the weapons are nearly complete, focus on the hull and the engines, also make sure the cloaking device is operating properly. I can not say what our next assignment will be but rest assured it will no doubt be combat related."
Nate was glad to be corrected by his Captain on that and not one of his Junior Officers. He still had some things to learn about the ship obviously, and figured he would be playing catch up for quite some time. He just couldn't let the rest of the Engineering staff know that. "We'll make the changes that you want Sir. And also, I know the station is quite taxed on Engineering personnel at the moment, but if it would at all be possible, could you ask for a couple more Engineering teams from them? I can promise you that we'll cut off a substantial amount of time on repairs. We can use all the help we can get. Including any personnel with light Engineering experience from other Departments. At this point, I simply need more bodies to hold phase converters, etc. I have a plan, just not enough folks". As he said those words, he was certain he had echoed what hundreds of other Chief Engineers had told their Captains over the last Century.
"I will see what other assistance I can gather. In the mean time request any additional personnel that can be spared from the departments."
"Aye Sir. I'll send out a notice to the other departments. Is there anything else particularly that you want me to focus on? Or any other notes you may have for me ?" he asked.
"Very Good. I will be on the station if needed. Inform the Lt. Commander Phoenix-Patil as she is in command until the XO and I return." With that he turned to leave and see just what the Admiral had up her sleeve.
Nate went back to punching away on his PaDD, already regretting the decision to let two of his Officers have some time off....
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Captain Da`nal
Lieutenant Nate Stryker
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