Preparations

Posted on Wed Apr 27th, 2022 @ 7:06pm by Ensign Kateyo Fenn & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: Ares Ascending
Location: Engineering
Timeline: MD01
1923 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Engineering buzzed with excitement, as it did most mornings. Every day felt like walking into a Christmas scene with consoles lit up and lights everywhere keeping the darkness at bay. At least, that was how Finn felt when she walked through the doors to main engineering. Like the warm fuzzy feeling one gets when they’re cozied up at home with a hot drink and a blanket. Yet this morning was it felt even more alive with the news that they would be headed to Rondac.

“Coffee, with a splash of mint cream,” Finn requested her typical morning affair from the replicator in her office before taking a seat to review the latest reports. Everything seemed in good order, but that wasn’t good enough. Who knew what sort of trouble they’d find when they arrived at Rondac? And with Benedict in tertiary engineering, she had even more to worry about than normal.

“Keating to Paxton, Kimeron, Min’eth, Smith and Fenn, please meet me in my office,” Finn sent for the engineers she thought most suited to the preparation tasks which were already racing through her mind.

“How can I be of service?” George arrived first, having surprisingly arrived to his shift on time after spending a late night chatting with Mason. Kimeron and Min’eth followed shortly thereafter asking the same.

“I have a whole list,” Finn held up a padd while taking another sip of her coffee. “Feel free to grab something out of the replicator. We’ll discuss the tasks once everyone gets in here.”

Teyo walked in with Smith and seeing everyone at the replicator getting drinks they decided to do the same. Once they all had their drinks of choice, they all shuffled back into the Chief's office. Teyo held his coffee and stood towards the back of the room, after his last meeting with Finn, he thought it would be a good idea if he kept himself off of her radar for a while.

"What's the plan of action?" Smith asked in her usual jubilant manner.

"Everything," Finn replied with a smile. "As you all know we'll arrive at Rondac in about twenty four hours. I don't know what we'll find when we get there, but I want to be prepared for as much as we can. Kimeron, you're on sensors. I want them tuned up and running as efficiently as possible. See if you can find a way to increase the range and sensitivity."

Kimeron nodded. "I think I can refine the input processing and free up some energy to increase the range, though it might be helpful to have someone from ops with me."

"Keating to Leiko," Finn called to her ops counterpart. "Do you have someone you can spare to help with sensor refinement?"

"I think I can spare someone for you," Xavier said over the comm line. "Crewman Washington should be with you shortly. Try not to kick him in the ribs, Leiko out."

"Excellent, thanks," Finn rolled her eyes at Xav's kicking comment before looking back at the young engineer. "If you need anything else let me know, otherwise good luck and dismissed." Kimeron nodded and exited the room leaving the others still awaiting assignments.

The CEO looked past Min'eth to two engineers at the side of her desk. "Paxton & Smith, you're on propulsion. Pick your own teams one of you can take the impulse engines and the other can take the warp drive. I expect to see both running more smoothly than a rake going through a zen garden."

"Understood," George's smile was gentle yet a sense of determination peaked out from the normally more timid engineer. He was excited to have his own team and take on the challenging task. The only problem now was figuring out how to make improvements, if there were any that could be made.

"Oh it's on Pax-attack," Smith said as she lightly punched him in the arm. "My team is gonna crush yours." She beamed, welcoming the challenge and looking forward to proving that she was more than a damage control bot. "Girls get first pick."

Finn smiled at the light rivalry. It was that sort of thing that made for a tight-knit department. She wanted her crew to feel more like family than coworkers and it was clear that they were getting there, slowly but surely.

Teyo was a little annoyed that he wasn't put on the propulsion team, that was the area he loved best and knew he would have done a good job, better than shy-boy Paxton at least. However, he kept his thoughts to himself and waited patiently for the Lieutenant to give him his orders.

"Min'eth, you get comms. See if you can add some protective programming. I know comms already have redundancy, but an extra layer wouldn't hurt. There are some interesting code ideas in here that might be useful," Finn handed him a padd.

Min'eth accepted the data device and was instantly drawn to the calculations. "Ohhh, yea, this is interesting!" He murmured, making his way to the back of the room.

Finn chuckled lightly. Each person seemed to be happy with their assignments, and that in turn made her happy. She hadn't been in the CEO role that long, but maybe this was a sign that she was doing something right. Then there was Fenn. Standing in the back, no doubt trying to remain as unnoticed as possible. If only she could fix him. To figure out how he operated and really get him to apply himself.

"Fenn, you're with me. You three," she pointed to George, Min'eth, and Smith, "are dismissed. Good luck, and do let me know who wins the 'propulsion team' award."

"I can answer that now Lieutenant," Smith said as she gave Paxton a smile.

After they cleared out, Finn looked at the obviously bummed remaining engineer. "I don't know which assignment you would have preferred, but I thought you might enjoy the opportunity to work with your best friend. And no I'm not talking about me." Finn said with a smile. Maybe it wasn't what he wanted, but she was really only just trying to make work more fun for the ensign since he seemed to get bored doing anything else.

Teyo smiled his usual toothy grin, "that sounds fine Lieutenant." He was just happy he wasn't being given grunt work to do.

"Keating to Leiko," she called once more to the ops officer. "I don't suppose you'd be interested in joining Ensign Fenn and I in tertiary engineering? I'd like to pay Benedict a visit and see if we can't devise some extra protection for him before we get to Rondac. Your expertise would be much appreciated, and I promise not to kick you."

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A few minutes later Xavier walked into tertiary engineering and saw that his two colleagues were already hard at work. He looked up at the smaller warp core which was currently powered down so that it could feed energy into the egg, or Benny as it now liked to be called. He walked a bit further into the room, happy that the containment field was still in place and for the moment everything seemed to be okay. "How's he doing?"

"I think he's doing pretty good," Finn smiled. "We were just discussing some ideas on how to reinforce the power stream and provide some extra shielding. I just want him to be extra safe in case anything happens when we get to Rondac. Teyo had some good ideas. I thought we'd run them by you and see what you thought," she said. Teyo had only mentioned some brainstorming thoughts since the two of them had been working, but Finn thought it best to let him run with them. A new technique to try to keep the ensign interested in his job and give him the opportunity to lead the way a little. She hoped that giving him some extra latitude in the engineering realm might help to put him on a better path to success.

"I was thinking," Teyo said, grateful for the opportunity to get his ideas across, "we have no idea how long Benedict was on the surface, but we can assume it's been at least a few months by the artificial radiation halflife. Anything artificial is never as good as the real thing and since this is a space-born lifeform it's gonna need natural power and radiation to grow big and strong, assuming that's the endgame?"

"I assume so, go on," Xavier said, a hand resting on his chin.

"Well, what if we introduced natural radiation into its diet? We could use the Bussard collectors and convert the energy." Teyo finished, waiting for his friend to say something.

"I don't see why not," Xavier said with a grin, "in fact I'm annoyed I didn't think of it. We would have to divert extra energy to the structural integrity field surrounding this deck, but I don't see that being a problem. Sounds like the perfect project for an ensign," he finished looking at Finn for her say so.

"Agreed. Fenn, you work on pulling over energy from the Bussard's collectors and getting it converted," Finn looked to Xavier. "You and I can work on increasing the structural integrity field surrounding the deck in the meantime?" She asked, unsure if Xav had other obligations.

Xavier nodded, a little too enthusiastically, he was grateful for any distractions at the moment. "Let's get to work," he said.

Teyo flashed his usual toothy grin, happy for the responsibility of running his own project. He knew it was their cunning way of trying to get him more involved in his work rather than ship drama and he was annoyed to say, it was working. "I'll need to head to the nacelle control rooms to make some calibrations, I can let you know when I'm done."

Xavier watched as Teyo left the room and turned back to Finn who was already bringing up the specs for the ship's SIF. "Look's like you have made someone a happy boy," he said with a smirk.

Finn gave a half-smile and an exasperated sigh. "I'm doing my best with him, but let me tell you. It is NOT easy. I don't suppose you'd like a new ops engineer would you?"

Xavier gave Finn a look of, don't you even think about it. "That wouldn't be the best idea," he said honestly. "I have to deal with his social dramas, I absolutely cannot deal with him at work too, we need to shoulder that responsibility," he added with a grin. Xavier looked up at Benny, "we need to find a way of getting him back to its own kind, we have no real idea when he will hatch and I don't think the Athena will make a good nursery, do you?"

"It might not be the best nursery, but worst case I think we can make it work until we can get him home. Let's just hope it doesn't come to that." Finn said, touching the egg as if to pet it. It was strange, yet somehow she felt connected to the creature, and though she wanted nothing but the best for him, a part of her almost liked the idea of Benedict hanging out post-hatch. "Anyway, let's get this structural integrity field boosted. Afterwards maybe we can grab a drink at the bar?"

Xavier grinned, "deal. Let's not tell Tey though, I don't think I can handle any more drama."