Structural Integrity and Beer Brewing
Posted on Thu Mar 25th, 2021 @ 12:19pm by Cornelius Warner MS & Lieutenant Alan Harrison & Lieutenant JG Kikua Mahone & Master Chief Petty Officer Lucas Nilsson
2,167 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Frizzle
Location: Silver Tongue Brewing
Timeline: MD 01 : 1200 Hrs
Alan never much liked formal meetings in stuffy rooms, so whenever he had a chance to choose a meeting's location, he jumped at the opportunity get out of the office. Today's meeting of the engineering senior staff was to be over lunch at Silver Tongue Brewing, an establishment that had gained quite the reputation among the Starfleet contingent on the planet. Alan had had the opportunity to partake in the bar side of Silver Tongue a few weeks ago, but this was his first time here during the day. The maître d' (if that wasn't too formal of a term to refer to them by) quickly escorted him to a table set for three near a window at the front. He hoped Kikua and Chief Nilsson had planned enough time for the walk over.
Kikua had yet to make it out to the Silver Tongue, though it was not due to a distaste in alcoholic beverages. As of late, he found himself inundated with work and efforts to retrain himself on the finer details of colony design.
But a meeting was a meeting, and Kikua still found himself a way to appear, plopping himself down at a seat around the table, reflexively testing out the cushion with a bounce before settling in.
Lucas briskly walked into the brewery, hoping he wouldn't be the last to arrive. During his two and a half decades in Starfleet, he'd never set foot in a bar while on duty. I guess there's a first time for everything, he chuckled to himself. The new Chief Engineer seemed to be a bit more relaxed about such things than most, but he guessed there still wouldn't be any beer at the table.
Lunch was Cornelius' favourite time of the day, the way the sun filtered in through the large bay windows and lit up the brick and copper about was as close to perfect as he could get. His eyes watching as Tamara seated a group of Officers in Engineering Yellow (Gold he would be corrected by someone if he wasn't careful) in the large front windows at one of the tables. The woman winked at him as she moved past, and he rolled his eyes as he scooped a collection of printed menus - yes the 24th century hipster had made sure local trees were used to manually print the menus for the place, and he slipped around the bar to the collected individuals.
"Gentlemen," he said as he approached, expertly sliding the menus in front of them. "Thill just finished grinding chuck for burgers, and had the baker make us bun fresh. Serving with hand cut chips, crisps if you prefer Earth's old vernacular, seasoned with sea salt. Fresh salad today is a rose vinaigrette with veggies from the local greenhouse. Fresh cask of 11th Hour opened this morning, if you want the freshest beer. Coffee and espresso is fresh and real too," he said with a wink and a smile. Wiping his hands on the apron to dry them, he produced a notepad and pencil, and raised an eyebrow. "Can I start you off with drinks?"
Alan could go for a beer right now, but he figured it would be better to act professional in front of his subordinates. "Unfortunately this is a work meeting, so I'll have to stick with tea for now. Black, preferably," Alan said after glancing at the menu.
Lucas decided to follow the example of his superior and said, "Ice water, please."
The confusion from Kikua came in the form of a head tilt. Appearing at a brewpub for any sort of meeting seemed to insinuate that a little drinking may occur. But, he turned to Cornelius, grinning big. "I'll take a coffee. I haven't had a real coffee in... Well..." Not in a long long while. He shrugged, letting the thought trail off awkwardly.
"Tea, black, an ice water, and coffee," replied the bartender with a smile and a wink, as he made the note. "I'll bring out cream and sugar just in case, and we do loose lead tea, so it'll be in a pot," the man added, tucking his note pad away in his apron. "Be back in 2 minutes," he concluded as he walked away to prep the drinks.
"How are things going with reinforcing the caves?" Alan asked, trying to bring up the topic of work without sounding too formal.
"Oh, you know, sir, getting the civvy engineers to work quickly is always difficult," Lucas responded with a smirk, "But overall, it's going well. We should have it certified as structurally sound within a few days. I'd trust our structural enhancements enough to move my quarters into that cave."
"The roots would still be a problem. Tripped and fell on one of them myself back during the initial expedition," Alan chuckled.
"Roots?" Kikua rifled through his notes in his PaDD. "If it's already in the cave, why not utilize it as a structure to help keep it steady? It won't be the only thing keeping everything upright, but if it's there, no harm in giving it a shot. It seems to already be part of the caverns anyways, if I'm reading these science scans right."
Lucas chimed in, "That's a good idea, sir. I'll talk to my team and see if we can't integrate that somehow."
"I was actually thinking more of the tripping hazard, what with further expeditions being planned," Alan said with a chuckle, glancing toward the knee he scuffed in the fall.
"Oh!" Kikua grinned. "We had to do this sort of thing on Leto, and you know what worked the best? Setting up some warning signs and all that, but whatever we had as a trip hazard, we set up these little devices that were this strange color orange that was so bright it was impossible to miss. They had these little reflective surfaces so they could be seen in the dark too. We could use those, at least for a temporary fix."
With the timing and grace of a well practiced waiter, Cornelius returned, depositing the drinks in front of the individuals who had requested it. "The tea pot is hot," he said, pointing to Alan's tea as it steeped away in it's glass pot. "One coffee, with creams and sugar just in case, both a real and not replicated so they're stronger than you are used to, start light." he chided to Kikua, before lastly placing the water and three six ounce glasses filled with a deep amber liquid in them. "Those are samples of the 11th Hour, the Captain usually has a beer when he stops by regardless, and I know how you fleet types get," he added. "Drink 'em or don't regardless they're on the house. Now, food?"
"I'll take a club sandwich with a side of mixed vegetables," Lucas said first after briefly perusing the menu. He eyed the 11th Hour, wondering if he'd get a chance to sample it.
"As for me, I'll have a burger with fries," Alan said. Even with the cuisine of the galaxy within his grasp, there was something he loved about classic foods from Earth.
Kikua, who was only mildly distracted by his coffee options, looked over to Cornelius with a half smile. "The burger sounds great."
"Noted," the Cornelius said, jotting the orders down quickly on his pad, before shoving it into his apron, and then looked around at the three men. "I'll enter those shortly, and if you need anything just wave," he offered a wink and made his way back to the bar.
"So boss," Kikua started in, pouring a tiny hint of cream into the mug of coffee. All the while, he was the first to take one of the offered glasses of beer, and while he did not drink it, it did pointedly make it next to his coffee. "What do you think? I can put some of these devices all over... or, we could probably erect paths somehow..."
"Reminds me of this old Earth device they used to use on roads to mark lanes of traffic at night. Very simple, but very effective. Although these days we could easily put something with fancy technology, I would worry about disrupting the natural ecosystem any more than we already are, sir," Lucas interjected.
"Sure, add them to the list then," Alan replied, following Kikua's lead and grabbing a glass of the brew sitting in front of them, "As long as they can be seen with a flashlight, they should be enough. Although I worry that if someone decides it's a good idea to run through the cave without a flashlight, they might not see them..." he trailed off, taking a sip of his tea.
And Kikua's brow rose. The answer seemed obvious enough to him. "We fix that with lights, right? Set up an unobtrusive generator toward the entrance and get some lights going so that it's safe for everyone to get in and out without issue."
"If I may, sir," Lucas interjected, "There are many miles of tunnels in there, most of which are still unexplored. How many of those would we plan to provide light to?"
"Good question, Chief," Alan said. Turning back to Kikua, he continued, "I know you've been more hands on with the preparations than I have. Do we know how far into the tunnels the group is planning to go?"
Figuring he would have to be the first one to break the ice, Alan took a sip of the beer in front of him. It was quite good - no wonder the other senior staff members had been talking so much about this place.
"Just the tunnels that have been cleared by the prelim teams." Kikua explained. "It only goes about halfway through what the scans uncovered, but Br-er, the Captain was pretty vocal on making sure we take it slow and careful." As he took a small sip of the beer, he paused. "There's a small group in Science who wanna keep digging deeper, so I was thinking about how we could take those little root-marking devices and turn them into lights without too much trouble, so when we do get clearance for deeper, we can set up more quickly so we don't get mobbed by people after some adventure."
Lucas followed Alan's lead and took a sip of the beer. However, he was content to stay out of the discussion for now.
"Excellent," Alan replied, "We should see if we can send an engineer down with them just in case. Also, it'd never hurt for the colonists to see us helping out in the community," he looked around, "Starfleet hasn't always had the best relationship with colonists, so anything helps. Chief, would you be interested in helping out with the expedition? You could explain to the kids how we structurally reinforced the cave to make it safe."
"Actually, sir, I'm quite claustrophobic," Lucas said nervously.
"Ok. Maybe it's not a good idea after all. The kids would probably just bug you with endless questions about starships anyway instead of learning about how we reinforced the cave," Alan responded.
Kikua shook his head. "If they even noticed he was an engineer. I'm sure there'll be other opportunities for the Captain to corner someone into babysitting-I mean... Chaperoning." The young man sat upright. "Anything else we need to discuss, Sir?"
"Nope, that should be all! We probably all have a lot to get sorted out anyway." Alan waved in Cornelius' direction, intending to ask for the check. He also took the opportunity to finish the beer in front of him.
Approaching the group, the purveyor of the bar stopped at the edge of the table. "Hope everything is going well gentlemen," he said with a smile, and scooping used dished into his arms with practiced ease. "Anything else, another round perhaps?"
"I'd love to, but I think we'd better get to work. Never a dull day in the Fleet! At least that's what the recruitment poster said..." Alan chuckled.
"I think you and I remember those posters a little different friend. I think they said 'Explore strange new worlds' when I was a kid. And Haumea is about as strange as she gets. I'll forward the bill to your personal accounts, square up whenever," the man said with a smile. "And be safe with, whatever it is you're digging around for, don't need people coming back harmed or anything," Cornelius said with a playful wink before wandering off to take care of other things.
"I'll see you tonight!" Kikua called after Cornelius excitedly, before turning to the pair to explain himself. "A couple of the others wanted to meet up and just pull a get together after all that work we did in those caves so far. I said I'd scout a place out. But that's for later. Gotta keep working, right Sir?"
"Indeed, Lieutenant, that's the spirit," Alan laughed, "Shall we head back?"
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