A meeting of Engineers

Posted on Saturday April 13, 2024 @ 4:01am by Commander Telas (Tel’hasu) Jaxx of the Eighth House of Betazed

2,637 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Prologue: First Steps
Location: Truckee, Nevada, Terra
Timeline: Current

It was a nice day on the outskirts of Truckee. It was very chilly in the mountain town, with some snow having fell earlier in the day. Senior Chief Isem reading more of the engineering papers that had come out recently. He was still waiting for someone to stop by, or for Starfleet to send him some orders. He had already worked on every mechanical thing in the home and was bored with the waiting.

He shuddered at the thought of how it would be when he retired, not that he was going to think about that for at least another century. Sitting on a porch, bored out of his mind. All of the things in the house running at peak efficiency

Then he felt it. A familiar, albeit closed mind and it was drawing closer. He smiled. After all, it had been months since the former acting XO and former Operations Chief of the Poseidon had paid him a visit. Plus he could have news, or better yet, orders.

Telas materialized from the transporter beam at the base of a winding trail that switchbacked up the quarter mile or so up the hill that the cabin sat upon. As soon as he arrived, he sent a common telepathing greeting common to Betazoids when they arrived at a residence.

Telas had been to Earth many times over the years since joining Starfleet all those years ago, but never to the rustic areas of the Terran Homeworld. The area the Chief had chosen just outside the small settlement, was surrounded with coniferous pine trees that bore white, melting snow. The air was crisp with cold as Winter had only recently turned to Spring, the sounds of birds chirping and animals scurrying about as he climbed the path, enjoying the experience.

Atop the hill, sat a small cabin of rough hewn wood, seemingly put together by hand. A thin line of smoke flowing out of the chimney into the mountainous chill air. As Telas approached, the wooden door opened with a creak and there stood a tall presumably human looking man, save the black pupil-less eyes, who appeared to be in his late 20’s. Of course, he knew better.

The man was an El-Aurian/Betazoid hybrid. He had always felt a kinship with the Chief, both because they shared a passion for engineering and a common hybrid background. Also, like Telas himself, he was a more rare genetic pairing. If Vulcan/Betazoid hybrids were rare, El-Aurian/Betazoid hybrids were even more so. They were now quite rare in the galaxy, thanks to the Borg.

Isem had gone to the door and opened it. After all, the man was half Vulcan and they normally didn't do well in the cold. “Commander. Come on in and get warm.”

“Thank you, Chief,” Telas said, walking inside the cozy cabin and looking about. The decor was functional but seemingly comfortable with a few technical manuals and the latest upgrade specs for most active ship classes in Starfleet laying about.

Isem shut the Door and led the Commander to the living room, where the fireplace was. “So what brings you out here? Good news, I hope?”

“Indeed,” Telas said to the Chief when they entered the living room, wood cracking in the fireplace softly as they approached. “We have been assigned a ship. Unfortunately it is… not what we were expecting, to be honest.” His tone somewhat suggested that he was not pleased either, but did his best to conceal that. It was a sore point for him as well. “USS Mohawk, Springfield class… likely the last one in service.”

As he named their new assignment, he reached down to his left thigh pocket, pulling out a small PADD and proffered it to him.

“She’s not in the best of shape,” he said matter of factly, “and we will need to overcome some large design flaws… but I have some ideas on that.” Here he paused to give Isem a moment to read the full ship’s status and it’s needed repairs.

He had also downloaded into the PADD his initial thoughts on the ideas he had for improving the Mission pod design flaw: reinforce and upgrade the superstructure of the ship where the mission pod attached to the ship. The flaw would cause too much vibration in the superstructure at speeds over warp 7.1, which causes a misalignment of the warp coils, therefore the static warp bubble would burst and drop them out of light speed.

He had previously done some research on the latest construction materials of high earthquake regions on multiple planets within the Federation, finding the best metallurgical alloys currently known that were very flexible, highly vibration resistant, while also containing an extremely high tensile strength. He also had upgrade schematics on how to increase power to the SIF generators themselves and by upgrading the EPS manifolds within the engineering section, specifically along the dorsal aspect of the ship; the ones closest to the mission pod docking clamps and the superstructure that was causing the problems.

“What do you think, Chief?” Telas asked after several moments of silence.

Isem looked to the padd, then up at the Commander. “Were they out of oberth class ships to stick us with?” He joked. He closed his eyes and sighed. “I mean its not the worst ship I've seen. And with over one hundred years on me, its also not the slowest. As for your ideas, they look great, but how much time do we have? Redoing the pylons would take time on a drydock. Plus didn't this class lose a torpedo launchers when different pods were attached?”

“The pylons can thankfully be replaced relatively easily,” he said, a small curve of the right side of his mouth showing his response to the Chief’s dig on the ship. “That section of the ship can be opened up and the pylons replaced within three to four days, tops. Admiral Moogana will be inspecting the Mohawk later today so it may be possible to get Command to prioritize our request, the Four willing. As to the photon torpedo launchers, there was a recent upgrade to the shuttlecraft pod, thankfully adding a pair of launchers, one fore and aft.”

“If we are keeping the same crew, most of, if not all, of the engineering staff have been cleared for duty.” Isem keep looking at the plans. This could Work. “If we get approval, my crew could tear it down fast. Plus maybe we could work on some other, outdated things. That is when my orders come in...” He paused As he pressed a button and saw another screen. There sat his order for the Mohawk. “Nevermind. I see them now.”

“That is my hope, yes,” Telas said, nodding in agreement with Isem’s sentiment of doing further upgrades. “She has just undergone her scheduled refit, so most systems are as up to date as they can be made currently. But, we will nevertheless go over every inch of her from stem to stern, Chief. We will get her to our exacting standards, as usual. I have approved double shifts for both Engineering and Ops to make sure that all is ready for our departure.”

“Good. Even with a refit I still want to give it all a second look.” Isem replied. “Have you run simulations? On your pylon idea? You know the brass will want facts before hopes.”

“Indeed,” the Vulcan/Betazoid hybrid said, nodding once more. How he enjoyed working with the Chief. After so many years working together, they were always in lock step, anticipating one another and accounting for just about every eventuality and next step. Not to mention that most of the time, they communicated with each other telepathically, in the Betazoid style, which usually sped things up considerably. “I am still running them, as a matter of fact.”

Reaching down to the right thigh pocket he pulled out another PADD, this one active, with numbers scrolling across its surface as the simulations continued to run. At the top right of the screen was a counter, ticking upward the number of times the simulation had run under a variety of scenarios. So far, it was at 17,456 total simulations with a 1.71% failure rate; far below the necessary tolerances, including the standard deviation. As he handed the PADD over to Isem, it pinged softly, the screen flashing green with another “pass”.

Chief Isem took the padd and began watching the current simulation. Then he asked without looking up. “How many of the failures were the same thing? Plus what is the most common problem the simulation sees.” He paused for a moment, then added the most important question. “And how many results in the destruction of the ship?”

“Most of the main failures,” Telas said, looking over the Chief’s shoulder at the PADD running the next simulation. “89.721%, to be exact, usually have to do with a failure in the structural matrices of the compound alloy not sufficiently flexing enough to absorb the vibration of the ship going past warp 7.1 with the mission pod attached. Subsequently resulting in a failure to maintain the static warp bubble. No different than where we are currently, and that is including the upgrades planned to the SIF generators. They are not sufficient by themselves to stop the problem.”

The other roughly 10.279% of failures,” he continued, taking a step back and looking at the Chief, arching a pencil thin eyebrow as Vulcans were want to do. “Are for varying reasons, such as the EPS conduits overloading in the planned upgrade areas causing loss of main power, or cascade failures in the EPS conduits, blowing out the entire main power grid, or the most severe but least likely, is the complete shearing off of the mission pod from the hull, causing catastrophic damage to the ship. Thankfully the latter has only been .021%”

There was no need to elaborate on the last point as that would lead to the venting of the ship’s atmosphere across half the ship and/or cracking it like an egg.

“I Like that percentage. Under two percent is good, given how many times its been ran. Keep it running while you take to the Admiral, so we have an even better number.” He looked up. “I'll meet you on the ship. We can approach the brass together. I will need to let my daughter know we are getting close. As you no doubt know, she will be with me when we leave the station.”

“I’m here to collect you, Chief,” said Telas as he retrieved the PADD from Isem as it was still running the simulations. He sent his report of their plans to the Captain as well as direct access to the simulation as ordered, then turned off the screen and replaced it in his right thigh pocket.

“Oh.” Chief Isem blinked, then he smiled. “Give me five minutes to get in my uniform and let my daughter know we're going to make sure the new ship meets our standards.”

“How is Desimo? She must be five by now, am I correct?” Telas walked over to the nearest table where a picture of both Isem and Desimo stood on the porch of what looked like the outside of this very cabin.

Isem went to a nearby room and changed into his uniform. He was close enough to hear the commander. “Yeah. And each day she is a bundle of energy and questions. The biggest is when were we getting a new ship.”

“Like father, like daughter,” Telas said almost mirthfully in his British sounding tones as he once more arched his right eyebrow severely in the signature Vulcan fashion. “And, how has she been? I know it has been rough for you both.”

Isem sighed. Death was not new; he had already lost one family, nearly one hundred years earlier. This time was not easier. He shook his head before pulling on his uniform top. “Yeah. Been a lot of tears. Some from Desimo, more from me. But we are taking it one day at a time. What about you? The telepathy must make it hard for you this past year.”

“It was… difficult, yes,” Telas said, nodding though Isem couldn’t see it. “After Wolf 359, I awoke in a Starfleet Hospital on Vulcan about a week later. I had to have extensive rehabilitation due to significant damage in my midbrain as I was psychically overwhelmed. Too many minds under incredible amounts of duress was more than I could handle when my mental wards fell during the battle. I was unable to use my telepathy for about a month, with headaches lasting almost two months after that. It was not a pleasant experience. Thankfully I am back to 100%.”

What he didn’t mention was the increased strength of his telepathic abilities and the outbursts. He would have to reach out to Chief Counselor Sohn and resume his therapy sessions so they could try to get to the bottom of it. She would be well suited to the task. It would also be very agreeable to see her again.

Isem was quickly pulling on his trousers. “I've personally seen to all of the living engineering staff and was at the services for those we lost. I also popped in on senior Chief Patterson a few times over the past few months. He is getting used to the new limbs. He's got a bad case of...what do humans call it? ‘Cabin fever’?” He stepped out of the room and over to the Commander. he had showered earlier. Getting dressed in a hurry was easy. Telling his daughter he was going and she was not, would be hard

“Very well,” Telas said as the Chief exited his room, nodding once in the affirmative. “Chief Patterson should have also received his orders at the same time as yourself. He will also be present. Also, please tell Desimo that you will return after the meeting to retrieve her. That may assuage her. Also, notifications should be going out to the rest of the crew, of their new assignment to the Mohawk so the others should be arriving within the next 24-48 hours.”

“Let me tell my daughter goodbye and we can go.” isem said.

“Very well, I shall wait for you outside so we may beam back to Spacedock,” the XO said then walked over to the front door and exited onto the porch, closing the door behind him. He wanted to make sure to give them a few moments of privacy before their departure.

Nearly seven minutes later Isem was coming out the door. “I have been given strict orders to get her ship ready very fast.” He said as he walked to the Commander. “I'm ready.”

“I knew I could count on you, Chief,” Telas said, nodding once to him then turned and walked down the rough hewn steps onto the dirt path. “It is agreeable to be serving with you again, my friend.”

“Likewise. Plus with a crew that knows each other, we can anticipate problems.” Isem said with a nod of his head.

Reaching up with his right hand, he tapped at the combadge on his left breast opening a coms channel with the customary chirp.

“Spacedock, this is Commander Telas Jaxx,” the XO said, as he lowered his hand to his side. “Two to beam up to transporter pad 147.”

”Acknowledged, Commander,” said the voice of the transporter operator, and after a moment they were engulfed in a pair of transporter beams and after the five second transport process, they dematerialized, their matter streams whisking away to the requested location.

Commander Telas Jaxx
Executive Officer
USS Mohawk

And

Senior Chief Isem Mesu
Chief engineering officer
USS Mohawk

 

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