Making the Impossible
Posted on Tue Jul 26th, 2022 @ 3:49pm by Captain Etan Kaz
Edited on on Tue Jul 26th, 2022 @ 4:47pm
Mission:
01-Crossing the Line
Location: Hangar Bay
Timeline: Following “Formulating a Plan”
The Hangar Bay of Deep Space K-17 had been more or less untouched for the better part of the last few decades. The air was stale, the lights flickered overhead, and a thick layer of dust had settled on every surface in the vast room.
Rei and her squad came into the bay, bags of equipment carried either on their side or over their shoulder. As the bay doors opened, the rabbitess was greeted by the sight of a site in disrepair. No, disrepair was the kind term that the offices of public diplomacy would use. This was a disaster. This was a corpse of a station.
This was a challenge. “Okay everyone, wipe your feet before you come in. Don’t want the dust to mingle.” she joked, but inwardly she was shaking her head and screaming. Who was in charge of this department? Who was in charge of basic housekeeping? Maybe the briefing wasn’t sufficient. “Look, it looks terrible, and I won’t lie, it is. We’ve all been in worse spots, and we’ve all pulled through.” she started. “We’ll use tin cans if we have to, but we’ll get the job done. Now, let’s find a spot to set up shop and get ourselves settled while we wait for the rest of the team to arrive.”
“Hornet leads the way, ma’am?” one of her engineers said, and she giggled and gave a nod, “Hai, Hornet leads the way.” slogans and cheerful little catchphrases had such a profound effect on team morale. It was the same back in the Navy, only here the slogans were a lot more cheerful.
Taking a few moments on the turbo lift ride to gather her thoughts as ideas, as well as put into order the wave of questions she had about the fleet of shuttles that sat in the hanger of the station. The fact they were type-f’s was both a source of joy being able to see, touch and, work with classic styling. Also source concern their state of repair for one and how to make completely outdated look modern or at least appear recent.
The lift shuddered to a halt on the hanger deck, she stepped out dragging wheeled box that came to her shouldered when set on the floor, a complete set of tools, an assortment of common spares and made her way down a short corridor and into the expansive hanger, the space was good, as she looked a little closer the dim lighting around the edges, particularly the shuttle parking areas, leaving the quite a few of the shuttle partially in darkness, that screamed unready.
She could see gathering to one side was a reasonable size group of engineers, most likely the Hornets contingent, they looked as if they had arrived shortly before herself and were as familiar with their surroundings as she was. Catching the attention of the nearest uniformed person who seemed at home, a bolian petty officer who appeared to be crossing the bay, “Specialist, could you point me to your officer in charge at present?”
“That would be LIeutenant Krell, just over there Lieutenant Commander, so you got all the luck with this lot.” He said with an open arm gesture. “I’ll take you to them, follow me.” He changed direction slightly making for the Lieutenant.
Rei noticed the new arrivals, but her ears perked at their conversation. Seemed they weren’t local to the station either. She turned to her crew and instructed them to remain here and get settled while she investigated. Well, less of an investigation and more of a tag-along. She crossed the distance to join up with the newest addition and to go meet the officer in charge.
“Lieutenant Rei Yamashi, Chief Engineer of the Hornet.” she introduced herself mid stride as she came up to the Commander.
“Very pleased to meet you Lieutenant Yamashi, your Captain was praising your unique approach to situations, which I think will be needed in the coming days.” She greeted the officer that had met and attach themselves making the duo a trio, questions about her intriguing species would have to wait. “Lieutenant Commander Ewo’tOst Merrova, CO of the Cardinal, but spent most of my career in operations .”
“A pleasure, likewise.” she returned the greeting. “I was EOD and Demolitions during my Three.” she stated, as though the term was significant. “Studied heavy into engineering paths during primary and electoral placements.” she continued as they walked. Hearing that praise of her capacity had reached other ships caused her to almost skip a step. “As for my approach to problems, I’m just doing the task the best I can.” modesty in the face of achievement. A telltale sign of her upbringing.
A tall Bajoran man stood with them, his uniform had clearly seen better days: “Lieutenant Krell Mekat.” He said with a nod. “Engineering Officer on the station.”
Rei gave the Bajoran a nod, “Lieutenant Rei Yamashi, Engineering department head, USS Hornet. Presenting Lieutenant Commander Ewo’tOst Merrova, Shipma… *ahem* CO, USS Cardinal.” introductions seemed to be second nature to her. Nevermind that she was probably practicing Merrova’s name over and over in her head just for this moment. “Unless the Commander has any questions to begin the meeting off with, we can move to the meat of the issue.” she turned her pale glance towards the Cardinal CO. It was an interesting quirk of biology, but the eyes of the Daughter of Ts’usu had no shine to them whatsoever. Color, yes, depth, in abundance, but not a single shine. No gleam, no reflection, nothing. Just pools of color that one could get lost in.
“Thank you Lieutenant. I think….” Ewo said quickly, trying to cover the inward cringe at being effectively presented, awkward childhood moments flickered in her mind for a moment, tempered by the aborted phrase, another thing to ask the Ts'usugi engineer, that and the urgency of the task at hand providing a bit of an anchor. “The briefing I had stated time is limited, so let us get into it. To establish a baseline Lieutenant Krell, do any shuttles work? Do we have status for those that do not? Do we have any unknowns?”
At that point a chirp sounded for the Bolian enlisted man. “Vilgi, Char, want your opinion on something, storage area four.“ The Bolian excused himself and headed straight to the cargo area.
“Huh…” Rei shook her head, watching the Bolian scamper away before she turned to face Merrova. “In lieu of an answer, give my team and I ten minutes and we can inventory the shuttles here. Separate them into Parts and Prep. Might be faster to just ask the spiders which ones fly, though.” she said, a soft smile on her features at her joke.
Krell shot a pointed look towards Rei. He knew this might be the general attitude of the visiting crews, he just wasn’t prepared for it to be vocalized so early on. Taking a deep breath, “I umm…there are 40 or so Class F shuttles in here, most of them should work to one degree or another .” He hoped he didn’t convey anything but a willingness to help.
And his tone came across nicely to the rabbitess, “Oh that’s excellent.” she wasn’t aware he was still so close, otherwise her words MIGHT have been chosen differently. Might…
“In any case, we can inventory the cargo hold and bay, see what we have to work with.” she paused, “Is there a general manifest?”.
“Not one that’s been kept up to date.” Krell admitted. “We really don’t come down here often, not much need.”
Rei gave a nod, her lengthy ears giving a slight bob at the motion, “Well then, we can see about an inventory while we’re down here. At least be better guests.” perhaps it was an apology for her earlier slight being heard. Or perhaps just being a good guest was in her nature. Six of one, as the Ferengi would say.
Keeping quiet during the exchange, Ewo mulled over the number of craft they had to work with and work on, forty was quite a number and for her ruled out actual pilots, she glanced over at the crews from both ship and station, and instead of attempting a head count asked both. “How many in each of your teams?”
“I have twelve with me, including myself. Couldn’t afford to completely drain the Hornet.” Rei responded.
“Just me. The other station engineers are working to fully restore the shields and weapons.” Krell was embarrassed to admit.
“That is quite understandable given the circumstance. I appreciate you being here, insider knowledge of the station will be of great benefit I feel.” Ewo responded with a flicker of a smile as a means of reassurance.
Keen to keep moving past any tension, breaking into teams and combining personnel might help, of course it might blow up in her face, time would tell, she outlined her starting point for the frankly huge task in front of them. “My thoughts are teams of three on a shuttle focusing on engines, navigation, and shielding. A two or three looking at the communications board so we can slave the shuttles guidence to it and have it act as control that way we do not have to find forty pilots and the left support power can be used elsewhere, with a number of personnel taking inventory. Anything else to add?”
“We’ll need a way to spoof biometrics, otherwise anyone with a scanner and a thought in their head will realize they’re just kites.” Rei mentioned, then cupped her chin in thought. “Shouldn’t be too hard to spoof a false signal, though. Might even be able to do it without making too big a mess.”
“True, that can be dealt with along with making them look like something other than what they are.” Ewo commented with a knowing nod. “Call your teams over we can start dividing up, and getting some work done.
That was the moment Vilgi called out. “Boss, have we got a treat of find, haven’t we Char.”
Between them the pair carried a sizeable starfleet crate, with a slightly newer look that the station. “Have we ever, found it in storage, probably ended up here by mistake a number of years ago, logistic slip up.” The human woman chimes in, they cross the space and set the crate down, unclasping it and lifting the lid to reveal the contents. “I give you four holoemiters, not recent kit, I’d say they were making this model when the mark one medic holo was being trialed, there another box but that had a bit of accident and the lids caved and one emitter is damaged but it’s something.”
Ewo looked over the contents, crouching and picking the primary housing of one up, the sealed case making sure no dust was present. “It most certainly is, we should get a parts breakdown. Lieutenant Yamashi, would the Hornet be able to manufacture the components we can not scavenge do you think?.” She asked passing the component over, before she stood as people started to gather.
Rei examined the object in question, turning it this way and that. “Shouldn’t be a problem. I can put in the requisition immediately, and if we need the extra matter to make what we need we can beam the empty crate into the buffer.” she replied, handing the component along in the most low-stakes game of Hot Potato in the quadrant.
“Firstly I would like a navigation or communications specialist, please make yourself known?” She asked
Krell shrugged, “I’m as close to a specialist about these comm systems as you’re going to get.”
“I would like you to work with the Cardinal’s Helm officer, Lt. M’Riz, regarding setting up the control for the shuttles, the bay should have dedicated communication board for shuttles, see if you can engance that and slave the suttles navigation control to it.” She started throwing a glance over to the Caitian officer.
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” M’Riz said, “assuming, of course, that things haven’t degraded too badly around here.” He looked around at the area, which had obviously seen better days.
“Rei you are with me, the rest we divide into teams of three, three teams take a shuttle, your focus are propulsion, navigation and shields. The fourth are to take inventory. Yamashi you know your crews better, please divide them as you see fit.” Ewo stated with a note of decisiveness, she perhaps selfishly elected to work along with the Hornets chief engineer, she also felt it best to turn the team formations over to Rei, with the bulk of the team being made up of Hornet personnel and her being more aware of who worked well together as well as the technical skills. “Any more questions before we begin?”
“Teams of three, understood.” Rei confirmed the order, “And no questions here. We know what needs to get done. Now, if you’ll excuse me for just a moment.” and the rabbitess made her way over to the cluster of engineers from her ship. “Hornet, ears up.” she called, and the batch of them turned towards her. She had a comradery with them, it wasn’t CHIEF and CREW over in that bunch. There was honest respect, consideration, and allowance. Though at the end of the day, she had the most pips. Not that that invalidated opinions.
She started by detailing the needs of the operation. Specialties and aspirations were discussed, and volunteers for each group were selected first, then assignments were handed to the remaining crewhands. In the end, her four teams were selected. All in all, the process took about five minutes and mostly the crew sorted themselves.
Rei returned to Ewo, and gave a nod, “We’re all set. Four squads of three set and ready.” she reported, no shortness of pride in her crew in her voice. “They’ll get the job done.”
Lieutenant Commander Ewo’tOst Merrova
Commanding Officer
USS Cardinal
Lieutenant Rei Yamashi
Chief Engineer
USS Hornet
Lieutenant Krell Mekat (NPC)
Engineering Officer
Deep Space K-17
Lieutenant JG M’Riz
Chief Conn Officer
USS Cardinal
Petty officer Vilgi Morr (NPC)
Bolian Engineering Specialist
Deep Space K-17
