Preparation for Departure

Posted on Wed Mar 15th, 2023 @ 8:22pm by Lieutenant Commander Klarth & Captain Linda Wilson & Commander Sandy "Phantom" Risa & Lieutenant Commander Yadira Risen & Lieutenant Brandy "Raven" Davies & Lieutenant JG T'Sarn
Edited on on Wed Mar 15th, 2023 @ 9:12pm

1,954 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Into The Void
Location: Captain's ready room, Engineering & Bridge
Timeline: After the staff meeting

CAPTAIN'S READY ROOM

Captain Linda Wilson retreated to her ready room. Tomorrow they would depart the Void for an entirely new universe. A scary thought. Still, this was their mission. She wasn't sure what they would encounter but whatever came their way, they would face it head on. "Captain Wilson to Engineering." Time to start making preparations with the Dimension drive.

Over the coms the Captain heard, "Lieutenant Commander Vallick here, Captain. "

"Get the dimensional drive ready. I want to depart at 08:00 tomorrow morning!"

"I will begin the preparation immediately. Ouch!...Okay, okay... Lieutenant Commander Risen and I will get started on that immediately. And I just wanted to say thank you Captain Hadenbeer for making the two of us Co-Chief Engineers. Ouch!...what do you mean she isn't Hadenbeer anymore? Why didn't anyone tell me that?...No I haven't been living under a rock, I've been taking care of this warp core....Captain....Wilson. "

"Good! Wilson Out!"


ENGINEERING

"You mean they didn't tell you that? Jumping gee whiz, fine time to find out Vallick. Watch out! Your fingers!" Yadira grabbed his hand and pulled it out of the way as the drive platting fell into place. "You could have lost not only fingers but your hand. You ok Vallick?" Yadira queried.

Vallick looked at his hand and said "Thanks for the save that hand is my meal ticket." Then he looked at Yadira and said with a wink "And it's also my sex life." Then he started to laugh. Then he said "Hey what's this?" and he held up two fingers. Yadira didn't guess so he said. "It's a worker from a transparent aluminum factory ordering four drinks." Then he started to laugh hysterically.

Being the type of person Yadira was, she joined him in laughter.

From her tertiary station overseeing the matter/antimatter mix for the warp core engine, the Vulcan hybrid officer T'Sarn looked over towards the almost slapstick antics of the two Chief Engineers. She regarded the two senior officers in a dispassionate manner, wondering how Lt Commander Vallick had been able to be unaware of the change in leadership. While it was true that there had been no formal announcement to the ship, rumor of the Vedala-selected and Admiral-Janeway-approved Captain had been circulating since yesterday afternoon.


BRIDGE

Brandy was fighting with the helm control panel. "Stop fighting me. If I input the same coordinates you change them up WHY!" she yelled. Like the panel would talk back to her right? Brandy got to the point where she just pulled the panel and started to undo one optic cable and put a different one in the place and the other where the one that she had just put in. The panel came to life once again. Getting up, mumbling in Klingon, then in Gaelic, she input the coordinates again and this time it worked finally. "Some idiot put the optical cables backwards, idiots" An exasperated Brandy said.

Rayek stood at his station, trying his best not to fiddle with his collar. He'd been informed by the Ops staff after the meeting that his selection of uniform - the black shirt with grey shoulders and yellow turtleneck underneath - had been completely outdated. They'd graciously provided him with the proper replicator specs and it was this new uniform that Rayek was now wearing as he reviewed security reports and video files as he worked on his investigation of the Shorn incident.

The Romulan glanced up from his console at the yelling and then Klingon cussing coming from under the Helm console. Lt Commander Davies' ending statement that the optical cables were put in backwards caused a slender eyebrow to arch in surprise. No other had seemed to have that same issue. The apparent problem was isolated to just the new arriving officer. This prompted a suspicion that she was also not of the ship's dimension; and Rayek wondered if Klarth ever did get the medical's done for each of the new arriving officers. He'd have to ask him later.

Though it wasn't the Romulan's department, he could foresee problems arising from the Flight Chief's arbitrary console changes when it came to the helm being manned by staff other than herself. He wrote up a maintenance support request for the Flight console... to be able to alternate the optical cables with an brief explanation of the changes made by the Flight Chief and sent it off to Engineering. It was their problem now.


CAPTAIN'S READY ROOM

"Computer open intraship."
"Intraship open" came the reply

"Attention all hands. This is Captain Linda Wilson Speaking. Captain Hadenbeer has been sent home due to her injuries at the hands of the Orion assassin who is now in the custody of Starfleet. She will be ok physically. I am now captain of the lionheart! We have been charged with the mission of exploring alternate dimensions. We are not in contact with Starfleet so more or less on our own! We will be heading out at 08:00 tomorrow morning. Be prepared. Wilson out!"


ENGINEERING

T'Sarn lifted her head when the tones over the intercom sounded a Captain's address. She listened attentively to the announcement. Having had next to no interaction with the former Captain, there was no sense of relief at hearing of Hadenbeer's favorable medical outcome. T'Sarn felt a slight curiosity about this new Captain. The Vulcan had heard she was an Orion and that she knew and was approved by Admiral Janeway of all people. T'Sarn had high expectations for the woman. Lastly, news about the ship's new mission matched with what rumors had suggested.

When the announcement end, the junior officer looked towards the co-chiefs. Lt Cmdr Vallick had already stated that he and Lt Cmdr Risen would prepare the dimensional drive for tomorrow's jump, still it didn't hurt to offer assistance.

"Do either of you require assistance with your preparations for tomorrow's jump?" she asked.

"Yeah sure, we hold use another set of hands" said Vallick. Then he smiled at Yadira and added "Just watch your fingers.

On the maintenance duty roster, Rayek's request for a flight console check appeared. Vallick saw then and then said. "Hold on T'Sarn, first you better go up to the Bridge and see what's wrong with the flight console. Some damn pilot thinks she's an engineer."

The Vulcan hybrid nodded at the order and gathered an engineers toolbelt and copied over the workorder to her PADD before heading off to the turbolift. She called up for the Bridge.

"Vallick, that would be Brandy. She will find the slightest problem and actually find and fix it. She is a CAG officer and has knowledge of engineering. She fixes her own fighter. The girl is a whiz, but let T'Sarn go and make sure," Yadira said, watching him work on the dimensional drive.


BRIDGE

As the Vulcan engineer stepped off the turbolift onto the Bridge, she encountered a security crewman who, not recognizing her as someone pre-authorized for bridge duty that day, asked for her authorization to be present. T'Sarn showed the crewman her workorder. After having the document verified, T'Sarn approached the Flight officer on duty.

"Excuse me, ma'am. I've been informed that there was some issue with the Flight Control console. Would you mind transferring main control to the auxiliary station while I check your console for problems?"

"Sure, go ahead," Brandy said politely and transferred control to the auxiliary station.

Once the flight console was vacated, T'Sarn began her check with a diagnostic. It would take a couple minutes to run through completely, while she waited for the results she looked to the flight officer. "Can you describe what the problem you were experiencing with the console was?"

"Everytime I input the coordinates, the navigation computer changed the bloody input. No matter how many times I put them in, the damned navigational computer changed them, so I pulled the panel off and switched two optical cables and now it works fine," Brandy said smiling.

The Vulcan nodded at the described experience before turning back the console and removing the panel to look at the two optical cables referred to. The first thing she noticed was that their configuring was opposite of what should be. The old adage of black to black and red to red... was in place for a reason. But when she tested the console, the Flight officer was absolutely correct. No errors appeared in the diagnostic, despite the clearly switched cables. She scanned the cables themselves individually and at first didn't notice anything amiss. It was only when she compared the scan to that of an adjacent set of cables that she noticed the discrepancy in the material's molecular rate of decay. The switched set of cables seemed to be far, far older than the other but only along the last foot of cable. This baffled the Vulcan and she sent the readings to her Chief's for their input.

She closed back up the panel and tagged the console 'Out of Service'. "For the time being, please avoid using the main helm console, until we can determine the cause of this problem."

"Oh great! Well thanks for your help T'Sarn" Brandy said. Now came the fun of having to get used to the aux control station.

Sandy was not too happy with the main station being out of commission but it happened and there wasn't much that could be done till engineering could figure out what the problem was.

Vallick saw the readings and came up to the bridge to look at the station himself. He took one look at it and said a bunch of things the universal translator couldn't translate but the meaning was clear. He tapped his communicator and said " Ripley put down whatever creature you're feeding in that menagerie of yours there is something I need you to see." He immediately tapped it again and said "Captain, you better come take a look at this."

(Tag Captain Wilson)

Lieutenant Commander Ripley came to the bridge and performed some scans. "It's like they aged years in seconds. Either we ran into a micro subspace anomaly or it's a side effect of that sudden and violent dimensional jump we did."

Vallick said "I was afraid you were going to say that because that means this could happen anywhere on my ship! Elle you little imp. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Elle appeared and said "What should I have done? Hand myself over, I'm the ship. If I'd done that you all would have been reassigned and the Lionheart would be dissected into pieces in a vain attempt to explain how I came to be."

"Some days I think that would have been for the best!" said Vallick right in Elle's face. Then while still locking eyes with Elle he asked "Ripley, is there any way to detect this decay?"

"Unfortunately all I detect is old wires, I don't detect any chroniton particles or other residuals."

Vallick paced around the bridge before saying "So in other words if there are more of these side effects around the ship the only way we'll be able to detect them is when the system fails!" by the end of his sentence he was so agitated he was practically shouting.

Well hard to miss that! The captain came out of her readyroom at hearing all the noise. "Alright! That is enough! What is the problem?" after they explain it to her. Alright, I'm ordering a once over. We will not wait for anything to fail. I want the lionheart thoroughly examined. Elle, I am sure you can guide the repair crews to the proper places. I want us ship shape before we go anywhere!"

 

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