That's the Spirit!
Posted on Mon Aug 31st, 2020 @ 8:30am by Captain Luka Mahone & Lieutenant Alan Harrison
1,554 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Equivalent Exchange
Location: Merian Vessel NCC-62812
Timeline: MD 10 - 0824 Hrs
When Admiral Matthews and the crew of the Titania arrived in the colony's atmosphere, Luka was informed of their acquisition of a garrison vessel. It was an acquisition that Luka chose to ignore until he had a better chance to speak with the newly-minted Chief of Engineering. And then it was a line item he chose to put off when he realized a Merian came with a potential weaponry package. It served as a constant reminder of the decision he would have to make.
But there was a point where he would not be able to ignore it any longer, and a meeting was set up with one of the engineers in charge of their initial set-up of their...
Unnamed...
Vessel.
"So," Luka stated plainly as they stood upon the bridge of this Merian-class vessel, "... Why... isn't there a name for this ship yet?"
"Oh, the Admiral thought it best for you to re-name it," stated the young ensign, as if that explained everything. "... But we can worry about that later. What did you think so far?" She seemed more keen on hearing from the gold-uniformed man standing next to Captain Mahone. "The QSD is new tech for us, so we're eager to see what everyone makes of it. And what use you make of it!"
"Well I've only heard about QSD, so it'll be exciting to see it up close and in person!" Although Alan tried to speak in a normal voice, he struggled to contain his excitement. The Quantum Slipstream Drive was one of the most revolutionary technologies of the 24th century (although the Federation had reverse engineered it from Delta Quadrant technology). It would allow Federation ships to travel at speeds that would have been unimaginable just a decade or two ago. "As far as the name goes, Captain, may I suggest the 'USS Whittle'? He invented the jet engine on Earth in the early 20th century, which allowed for significant improvements in the speed of atmospheric air travel. An Englishman if I remember correctly."
Luka looked between the two engineers. "... This 'QSD' is pretty new technology huh?" he asked cluelessly, observing the ensign's vigorous nod.
"Yes, sir! Voyager actually brought it back from the Delta Quadrant almost two decades ago now, but we've just recently been able to get it to work for extended periods of time on our own ships," the Ensign responded enthusiastically, "However, it's usage is still limited to a number of hours at a time due to heat dissipation issues, particularly at higher speeds."
Realizing that he and the Ensign had likely begun annoying Luka with their over-excitement at the new technology, Alan waited for a pause in the Ensign's increasingly technical explanations and interjected, "Forgive us, Captain, but we engineers get quite excited about things like this. The QSD is hands down one of the greatest advances of the 24th century and we live for these sorts of things." He smiled briefly at the Ensign to let her know that everything was fine and that she had just gotten carried away with technobabble, as all Starfleet engineers seemed to from time to time.
"... Well, I'll at least take naming into consideration," the Captain continued hesitantly. "I'm fairly certain if this one came with a name, there's someone somewhere who'd like to see it with it's original one. But I'll confirm that with the Admiral before we get too far ahead of ourselves." Although, he had to admit the Lieutenant's name was fairly spot on. "How about these suites I keep hearing about, Ensign?"
"Yes! Absolutely." The bubbly woman pulled out a pair of PaDDs, each with identical data, handing one to Luka and another to Alan. "So, the Admiral saw fit to make sure you were equipped with the engineering suite, which more suites potential need of the colony itself, such as assisting in any building throughout the planet that cannot be supported by shuttle or ground crafts. But, your orbital base has the equipment necessary to change your roll bar out to accommodate the other three suites. It's a simple fix, and most of that information should be on the specifications for an engineering team." She beamed at Alan. "You'll find that the roll bar specifications are slightly modified from your typical Merian to help better suit engineering teams of multiple levels of engineering expertise. We had a senior level cadet assist us with those modifications. So, if you think anything looks off, let us know. It's slightly experimental."
"Roll bar, Ensign?" Alan asked. He'd never heard the term before, but presumed it was one of those "cute" nicknames ship designers had a habit of giving to parts of ships. Even if he could guess at the meaning, it never hurt to ensure everyone was on the same page as far as terminology went.
"Roll bar?" The ensign's eyes lit up and she stepped next to Alan, pulling the design blueprint up and pointing the part out. "It's the part that makes everything adaptable, Sir. The design on the Merian is M-shaped, but the 'M-bar' does not quite... roll off the tongue."
Alan groaned slightly to himself at the Ensign's joke, and continued, turning to Luka, "I see, so it's basically just adaptable excess space that we can repurpose as needed, Captain. Although I imagine Command might get upset at the cost if we change it out too frequently."
Luka turned from the engineers to look about the bridge, choosing to ignore the blatant joke. "... So, this is smaller than I expected." He gave Alan a clueless look. "I assume it's not going to take a full on team to keep this ship maintained? Not that we won't have enough people to spare on the colony, but maybe we could do that... rotationally? I don't even know what we're going to use this for-" He held up a hand to the ensign, who looked to be taking in a big breath. "I know we have plenty of options."
The Ensign let her breath out, before bouncing on the balls of her feet. "I should have brought a flight controller with me, so you can hear this baby purr."
"Perhaps also just a skeleton crew when it isn't in use?" Alan suggested, "However, I imagine it'll probably require a good-sized engineering contingent if we want to go anywhere, given how advanced the QSD is. We'll probably need see if we can rope in some of the civilian engineers to help with things planetside whenever we want to take the ship out for a spin."
"Oh, I'm sure if we had some civilian engineers who had the proper clearances. The Quantum Slipstream technology is proprietary and-"
Luka held up a hand, causing the ensign to clam up quickly. The Captain gave her a curious look. "... Do we have a trained crew who can take this on a test run now? I know a few people who wouldn't mind a small cruise around the system. Maybe if you see it in action, Lieutenant, we'll have a better idea of how to... properly man the engineering staff, hm?"
"I think I can wrangle up some people. I imagine Kikua and the Chief could keep a handle on things for a bit, as long as we don't take too many of their structural engineers. I think a bigger issue is how we'll identify ourselves to flight control. The 'USS Unnamed' just doesn't roll off the tongue, even if the ship does have a roll bar," Alan beamed, not passing up the opportunity to make another roll bar joke.
"..." Luka made a point to ignore the pun. "Do we have a registry number at the very least?"
The Ensign perked up. "Yessir, you do. This ship is registered under the number NCC-62812."
"Then we'll use that." Luka gave Alan an excited look. "We can deal with names later. It would be a shame to let this ship just sit here when we could have at least a little fun, right?"
"Agreed, Captain," Alan said with a chuckle, "If you'd like to go now, I can make arrangements with my department to send up some of the specialists the Admiral also brought with him."
"Oh yes let's do that." The Captain smiled at the young Ensign, who seemed to share their excitement. "What do you say, a little test run to show off all this hard work?"
"Oh yessir! It... It might take a few days to gather who and what we need, but we can make it happen on our end!"
Luka folded his arms against his chest, a sure sign that he was deep in his own thoughts. He had been for most of this week, what with the looming training and more issues to tackle for the colony hovering over his head. Training he could handle, but there was an itching suspicion the Captain had that one of these multiple upgrades would come with the addition of some undesired personnel.
But it was a thought that he would have later. He was much more eager to see this little ship in action. With the smile on his face, it was hard to miss that excitement. "... Then all I have to do is talk to the Admiral."
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