What Day Is It?
Posted on Wed Oct 2nd, 2024 @ 8:48am by Lieutenant Naota & Lieutenant Jai & Chief Petty Officer Jericho East
Edited on on Wed Oct 2nd, 2024 @ 11:15am
1,638 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Terrorpin
Location: USS Atala
Tags: naota
Acting Captain’s Log, stardate... computer, fill in the appropriate timemark. Do we even have chronometers hanging anywhere? Is today point-oh-two? It was point-oh-eight when we left, so...
You know what, computer, you figure it out.
The Atala is enroute to Haumea, having completed a second contact with the Aldeans. In retrospect, picking me and Jai for this mission was either totes tone deaf or else Admiral Freeman must really dislike the Aldeans.
In any case, they hadn't had contact since the original Enterprise visit. Well, one of the Enterprises. D? E? A Picard one. It mostly went well.
The ship is functioning well. The mission is as exciting, or lack thereof, as you’d imagine, but Haumea’s position gives us a good launching off point to revisit some species we haven’t had contact with since the 60’s.
Otherwise, we’re currently about two weeks out from Haumea at warp 5. It’d be shorter, or we’d be going faster, except Lieutenant Harrison asked that the engineering team complete some scheduled replacement work on the plasma manifolds on Deck Five. That’s about the most excitement we’ve had.”
The boy wound through the interior of the dimly lit ship. With the EPS backbone under renovation, power consumption had been reduced, with roving blackouts accompanying where the manifolds were being removed and replaced.
A lot of which involved shoving oneself into a Jeffries Tube. Which was precisely where the small Maori found the engineer that he was looking for.
Peeking his head inside the narrow confines, the boy’s brown eyes just blinked as he caught a glimpse of a Jericho East who seemed covered from head to toe in varying amounts of carbon and grease.
“Just how long have you been in the Jeffries Tube?” the boy blurted out.
From behind a soot-marred face, the New Englander answered, “Depends. What day is it?”
Naota took a step back, as the man grabbed the edges of the entryway and pulled himself back out. As he stood back up, Jericho continued, “We’ve completed sections eight through twelve, but the shipyard appears to have installed the junction in section thirteen backwards, so I’ll need Lieutenant Harrison’s help in figuring out just how we un-fuck that.”
Yes, that was the technical term.
Switching to business, the boy craned his head back as he asked, “Any problems with not replacing that section?”
“It won’t connect with the new ducting, but we should be fine at current power levels.”
“I’ll try to leave my foot off the gas,” Naota deadpanned. Then, changing subjects to the reason he’d wandered down to Deck Five, asked, “Dinner?”
Jericho just stared down at the boy blankly. “Dinner? What time is it?”
Naota’s brown eyes just blinked as realization sank in.
“Wait, you were serious about what day is it?”
=========
Medical Officer’s Log, supplemental.
The opportunity to participate in a second contact was particularly rewarding for the chance to dive into research done in the field by Commodore Crusher. The fertility program she designed shows progress consistent with her projections. There were no indications that the Aldeans are suffering from any new complications.
Now that I know these opportunities are out there, I might have explore a posting on a California class. To be able to do this kind of work more often must be extremely rewarding.
In terms of the crew, we’ve only had the occasional scrape or burn from engineering. The quiet has been a welcome change of pace. I’ve manage to catch up on my medical journals as well as try that new Tai Chi program that Sophia had recommended.
A holographic candle flickered, simulating a lamp at the boy’s feet as he sat in quiet meditation. Similar to his time on Vesta, there was always something just slightly disquieting about being aboard a starship. As he tried to quiet his mind, the hum of the ship, the ever so slight vibration of warp, the smell of recycled and filtered air all supplied subtle yet constant reminders of the voyage. Of being far from home – in as much as he’d come to think of the colony as home.
=========
Sister Golden Hair was blaring.
In the Ready Room, which had become his camp out spot for this trip since Jericho had gone native in the Jeffries Tubes, a bowl of half eaten mac ‘n cheese rested on the desk, as the boy danced about.
A game PADD rested on the sofa bed. It remained to be seen if he was going to play or sleep or play until he fell asleep. Probably the latter.
The lights went out for a moment, a fact that Naota assumed was just a result of the ongoing engineering work.
Then they came back up, flashing red.
Even before the alarm had started to echo through the ship, the boy was already flying through the door that opened onto the bridge. “Report.”
“Signal from the colony, sir,” the operations officer supplied. “There’s been an earthquake. Ops has declared an emergency.”
Not much to go off of, yet, at the same time, Naota needed a moment to process even just that sparse announcement. “Give me shipwide,” he stated finally.
“There’s been an earthquake that has impacted the colony. Haumea has declared an emergency. I know you are all concerned with your family and friends on the colony and I promise you’ll have more information as soon as we have it. Right now, let’s all focus on the task at hand.”
=========
[ “Engineering, prepare for slipstream drive. Astrometrics...” ]
Jumping down from a maintenance hatch, Jericho landed on a catwalk overlooking the warp core. With a sharp whistle, the Chief Petty Officer commanded all eyes on him. “All right, you heard the shortstack,” the man boomed, sliding down a metal stair rail to the main engineering level as he boomed, “Let’s move, people! Let’s move!”
Positioning himself over to the QSD control board, Jericho turned his head and snapped, “Flow regulators open. I want power steady at point-oh-eight.”
“Chief, the manifolds are still open on...”
“Reroute flow through the secondary junction,” the Chief snapped, before pivoting to look at an ensign near the warp core. “Casey, how are those magnetic interlocks?”
“Green, Chief.”
Bringing his eyes over the board for a final check, the man gave a nod as the system came up nominal.
Slapping his combadge, Jericho said, “Engineering to Bridge, QSD online. Let’s roll.”
=========
Jai was throwing his lab coat on over his scrubs as the call rang out.
[ “Sickbay, prepare to receive casualties. ”]
Glancing over at a Vulcan nurse, the boy said, “T’Mol, I want you to set up the mess decks for triage overflow. Just in case.”
As the Vulcan gave a nod, the boy stood in the center of the room and announced, “Computer, activate the Emergency Medical Holographic Program.”
“Please state the nature of the medical emergency.”
Tossing the hologram a medical tricorder, Jai offered, “The colony has declared an emergency. There’s been an earthquake. We’re en route back to the planet now.”
“I see,” the EMH answered shortly, before simply remarked, “Triage protocol then.”
Tapping his combadge, Jai looked up and said, “Sickbay to Bridge, standing by.”
=========
From all around the ship, the reports were starting to come in as the crew shook off the boredom of their assignment and slipped into an emergency response mode that was only too familiar.
“All transporter rooms, stand by,” Naota called, before looking forward as he ordered, “Helm, QSV two-point-five.”
That was their maximum velocity, intended for emergencies only. And only for very short duration, but in his head Naota had already calculated that they’d need scant minutes. If even a minute at that speed.
On the edge of his seat at the center of the bridge, he again found himself wishing it was him at the helm as he announced, “All hands, Black Alert.”
As the red lighting rolled over to a dark theme and the alarm tone shifted, Naota quipped,“Hit it.”
“Hitting it,” the helmsman quipped back, as the ship gave the slightest lurch as it suddenly accelerated beyond warp.
From the chair, the boy caught himself holding his breath. The seconds ticked by, until the view of slipstream was suddenly replaced by a planet that was rapidly growing larger.
“Secure from QSV, sir,” the helmsman reported succinctly. “Adjusting angle for orbit.”
Hopping out of the chair, Naota moved to stand next to the helm. “Negative, take us in.”
The helmsman turned to look up at the boy.“Sir?”
“The atmosphere,” Naota clarified. “I want you to put us ten kilometers above the mean surface of the colony.”
Turning his head, the boy added, “Ops, synchronize with the colony transporters. That’ll expand the network. And I want any emergency overflow to the hospital to transfer to Sickbay.”
There was a shudder. Glancing back down at the helm, the boy offered, “You’ll need to factor for the additional drag on the nacelles.” Hands planted on the back of the helm chair, the boy turned to look behind him as he said, “Science, let’s leave the cause analysis for later,” “Focus on life signs and surrounding structural integrity. Let’s identify whose in trouble and get ahead of whose about to be.”
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