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Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #25 –
Miles finally got done with his side and was just finishing a small impulse line dis assembly when she spoke up, TO be honest I haven't been following any of the rumors, too busy with the work orders in my and Covington's bay here.  Everything i hear says were gonna hide out in Klingon space.  and there's something about a celebration where they are gonna open up one of the holodecks for something after we rendezvous with the Harbinger.  Honestly I am just trying to get the fighters and the deck as complete as possible before that just in case that damn future ship shows up on our doorstep while were sleeping." 

He smiled thinking to what she said she was good at.  "So how much red tape would I have to take a machete to get you working on a reverse engineering project?"  he said having glanced at his knee PADD that he kept with him noticing the message from Sten about having her mentioning something about contracts when he had mentioned the Reaver to her.

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #26 –
Rumours often stemmed from truth in some fashion, and if there was an event rumoured for the evening, Narik would try to learn what it was. Perhaps it was worthwhile. At least, it could represent some kind of distraction. If she was lucky, she might find business opportunities.

Speaking of which, the Vulpinian brought up something that definitely sounded as such an opportunity, and yet she had a feeling that it was the same project that the Covington man had talked about. Reverse-engineering something would not make much sense unless it was foreign technology and design, and the prime suspect of requiring such was the Reaver attack fighter. His question, though, seemed to suggest he thought her demands steep, and it made her chuckle and shake her head. "Not much... I merely require your soul, Miles Renard."

Resolutely, she jumped down from the wing and walked over to the trolley that held the cleaned thruster assemblies, but the look she eventually gave the pilot leader showed that she was - of course - jesting with him. "I be no Starfleeter, pilot. I have no rights like you do here. No guarantee that my will and word is worth more than the ash we are cleaning out of these thrusters. My conditions are made both to preserve my own freedom in the undertaking, since I will not be treated a slave to any extent or fashion, and to safeguard the project I lead from that it won't make its deadlines because of obstructions in your Starfleet chain-of-command. I have no time to scratch the backs of numerous people across the ship because of your starship politics. I want the results. The quality product delivered in the agreed upon time."

With both gloved hands, Narik picked up the thruster assembly and walked back towards the fighter, tossing her head to clear her eyes from sweaty, purple hair. She gave the Vulpinian a glance as she passed him by. "A girl both has to protect herself, and safeguard the quality of her services," she said when she reached the wing, she stretched up on her tiptoes with her back towards the pilot, reaching high to put the assembly upon the edge of the wing before she'd climb up. Yet she didn't just yet, turning to Renard first.

"I am good at what I do, and it's up to you and your bosses if you take my word for it. I need able hands, and know that if I make requests, from the Covington man or someone else, they are made a priority - not to be ignored because I hold no fraxing rank."

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #27 –
"Good, mate. Now I'll let you get to work. Need anything in the bay or something moved, let me know. Last thing we need is folks getting their panties in a twist or one of your welders crushed by an impulse engine." With those words spoken, Sten stepped out from between the two fighters and looked around, only to spot Renard and Cinsaj in conversation. And if he was any judge of body language, she was talking about business deals. Bloody civilians.

Walking towards his squadron commander, the old Chief only caught the last part of the conversation, where the Boslic was demanding any of her requests be given priority. Who did she think she was? Perhaps she was a well-regarded engineer but a fighter bay was not a design floor or a drydock. On a flight deck on a ship that was involved on active operations, there were always concerns that took top priority.

And that was when Sten had to interject. "Miss Cinsaj, this isn't a space dock but an operational deck. If you make a request, it has to be balanced with everything else that has to be done here. And as Commander Renard will confirm, rank doesn't mean a whole lot here. And while he is in command, all matters pertaining to this deck and ground crew come through me."

Covington spoke matter of factly, not berating the civilian. Instead, it was to inform her of the order of things. Granted, Iron Fox could make her fully independent and make Sten and his staff subordinate to her work, but the Chief had faith the Vulpinian would follow his custom and leave the operations of the flight deck in Sten's experienced hands.

"And Boss, before I forget, there's word of a shindig tonight. So I'm planning shut things down for 2000 so everyone can attend. We're making good time with our birds and we should have everything ready to fly by mid-afternoon tomorrow and fully combat-ready by midday the day after. And that includes the Harbinger fighters."

The Chief then took a deep breath. Renard had to be made aware of a few things with the visiting pilots. And as such, Sten effortlessly jumped and hauled himself onto the wing before reaching the Lieutenant Commander. And, with his voice low, he spoke. "We ran in some trouble with Riptor and he's not welcome here until it's time to get him off the ship. Things got close to blows but Kilinvos did that for me. Men's a menace, boss, and he's making my people nervous. He's making me nervous and that's not easy. If you can find some reason to keep him out of here, I'd appreciate."

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #28 –
Miles sighed as he shook his head just a bit at her responses. "I didn't mean it in a bad way, and I wouldn't even think to ask you to even look at the Reaver without a proper contract.  Given it's origin in one possible future and its advanced design, anywhere else this project would be the most classified piece of hardware on this ship.  As such without a proper contract letting non Starfleet personnel anywhere near the thing wouldn't only be absurd but would be a huge security risk.  Without a contract you indeed aren't touching it.  As you said it protects you but conversely it protects us as well.

He nodded hearing the words of the deck chief.  "Indeed, rank means nothing on the repair floor it's all about competence and engineering skill. Sten knows the blueprint on these fighters better than anyone and that's why he is in charge of repairs and I am merely a pawn to get the job done.  Frankly the pips mean jack shit when working on this bird and as far as that goes you being the more experienced engineer makes you my superior at the moment when it comes to the job of my bird being repaired."

He knew there was still some things that had to be worked out but he decided for now he did need to give her an idea of the rough contract he had being drawn up within his head. "That said the red tape I was referring to was somehow creating a contract that will catch the Captain's eye, that he will turn his attentions to it despite the stacks of PADD's that are guaranteed to be littering his desk at the moment.  As such the basic details on the contract would put you directly under Sten as a special adviser, any discoveries theory and technological innovations that would be credited will be co credited to Sten and yourself equally.  His say will obviously be the final say but given your level of expertise he will obviously understand that your advisement and opinions are key to this undertaking.  Do those basic conditions satisfy your needs, or should I alter the initial draft of your contract?"  the last words were said in a very friendly way making it clear he was open to further suggestion.

He couldn't help but think about the words the chief had said. about the other squadron.  And he couldn't help but be glad that he wasn't the only one that wanted the other SCO off of the Theurgy ASAP.  It was only professional courtesy that held his tongue.  He man was an SCO even more a wing commander at one point.  Under normal circumstances the wolves would be folded into his squadron rather than the current situation of Phantom's squad essentially being folded into the wolves.  Miles could feel the tensions mounting to a near boil and didn't know how much more this could go on before things boiled over.

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #29 –
When the Covington man had walked past and overheard what she had been talking about, Cinsaj had half expected the burly human to tear his hair and start shouting, yet the flatskull seemed mature and wise enough to not make a scene just because she suggested something that might have undermined his authority on his flight deck. It was nothing personal, just good business and what she thought would have been most beneficial for the task at hand. So instead of pulling herself up onto the wing, she felt confident to remain on the deck - folding her arms underneath her breasts and cocking a hip while she listened to the two men lecturing her as cordially as they could.

They were actually both rather respectful, and that was something she liked, even if she could guess what they might be saying behind her back - men as they were.

Having listened to the rough idea of the concept, she shook her head a bit. "It is not like I can pull this off with my own bare hands, deft as they may be with all kinds of machinery and technology, but for this to not take the weeks and months that we do not have, I would require a provisional rank of my own, and the mandate to - with that human Tatiana Marlowe's approval, I suppose - extract engineering crewmen that can assist in this project on a regular basis," she said without batting an eye, expecting them to see the necessity as plainly as she did. It would not be the first time she'd need a Starfleet rank to get a job done, sufficed to say.  She never bothered to learn the chain-of-command beyond that provisional ranks opened doors otherwise closed.

"Rank may not mean much here," she said in a cursory explanation, "I can see how that makes sense, and if you cannot trust me to the extent to head this project on my own and want me to share credit with Sten, I don't care as long as he is not getting my latinum when we make it through this. You Starfleeters never cared for latinum anyway so I hardly think you'll object to that. Right, Covington man?"

Giving the tall human a grin and a wink, she continued. "I need rank to pull manpower when required and not be bothered with attitudes about me being civilian when I do so." She turned around and jumped up, catching the edge of the wing and pulling herself unto it. "I want VIP Quarters lodging and the highest Security Clearance you can give me so that I may get the information I need from the Federation databases. The higher the quicker and more accurate results you will get. That Riptor and his ilk may not come within ten feet from me... Oh, and I need a workplace close by to this Hangar and a replicator that does not require those rations you use. I do not care if you have me belong to Operations of Engineering since I may still be a Special Advisor, or whatever you called it, to Covington man here. My primary focus will be the Reaver anyway. In turn for all this..."

She rounded on them after getting on her feet, stance wide and hands on her hips as she looked down on them. "...you will have a fully operational Reaver within three days, piloting requirements and instructions included. In fact, you will even have a fully operational simulator for piloting it. Within one week, I will present potential upgrades to these fighters we are cleaning now. Then, the schematics will be drawn up for production of the upgrades as well as the reproduction of more Reavers... I'd say within two weeks unless I run into something along the way. The schematics for required components will, of course, include the replicator input data to make them."

Smiling, Narik picked up the thruster assembly in her hands. "As for the price of my services, I think you will find my fee agreeable," she said, thinking that it was seldom she was in a situation where the clients had next to no choice. With no competitors, she set the marked price, and given the fact that her life was at stake, she felt compelled to include some risk supplements. It was only right, wasn't it?

"Do we have a deal? Pending the Captain's approval, of course..."

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #30 –
Miles nodded listening to the contractor's request.  "I Planned on placing in the request to have you assigned to Sten's crew as an Engineer with the provisional rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade.  This should be enough to command the necessary respect from any ensigns of noncoms from engineering you may need.  As for the and such royalties to the information you obtain I can say nothing on that matter as that's something you will have to negotiate with a Captain.  as or the VIP quarters they are all empty as there are none on this ship so i imagine having your quarters reassigned to one of those shouldn't be that difficult. the replicator on the other hand may be more difficult to swing as we are rationing out of needs to preserve power for ship functions in the instances of battle. But I will note that request.  as for your office there is only one office near the bay here and its that one over there.  It is primarily my office but Sten uses it as well when necessary.  If you will accept being considered an equal to us two in sharing that office then you have your office and use of the squadron briefing room as well.  Since you mentioned Riptor and the other members of the squad from the Harbinger, that won't be a concern. They will be off this ship before repairs on the Reaver begin."

He smiled as he looked over to the civilian, "So, the real question now is,  Do you want me to keep helping you out on my bird or would you rather me get that contract drawn up and sent to the Captain now?

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #31 –
Sten having said his piece about the Harbinger pilots, he listened to what both Iron Fox and Narik had to say. And he considered their positions and again, he spoke. Perhaps to some types of officers, he would be considered out of one but there were certain privileges that came with a forty year career and being considered the subject matter expert for flight deck operations and fighter maintenance.

"Hang on, Boss, I know it's your call what goes on that draft, but I got a few points I want to put in. All common sense stuff."

Sten took a breath and started to enumerate his concerns. "Mostly, it's all safety points. First, nothing gets done to that fighter until it's been completely de-fuelled, de-ammo'ed and rendered safe. So Miss Cinsaj, your first priority will be to make sure we can pull its fuel pods and antimatter bottles without blowing ourselves up; I'll handle the weapons aspect. Second, no direct connections to the ship itself. All power and computer connections go through scrubbers and isolators and first time we fire up its power plants, she gets fuelled and powered up in space, not on board. Third, I say we secure the deck, all work stops, period. Fourth, any fancy lights start flashing and alarms sound, drop whatever you're doing and clear the deck. Fifth, whenever you work on that thing, you'll have some of my techs working with you and if you need extra hands, draw from my people first. They're the ones who'll work with that thing, not Engineering types after all. And anyone you bring in gets cleared through me, get kept to a minimum and they get babysat by myself, Marquette or Thomason. I don't want a gaggle of random types all over my deck getting in the way and getting hurt. Sixth, if we're at flight ops, you shut down. And lastly, if you deviate from my conditions, I'll shut this down on safety grounds and jettison that contract myself. I got a deck to run and a ship that depends on me doing just that and I won't let a project, even a nice one like this, get in the way of that."

Then, Sten took yet another deep breath and continued. "But from my end, you'll get all the support I can give you and all the credit for the engineering work. And any of Harbinger's pilots give you any trouble anywhere in this ship, I'll have... words with them and kick the whole lot out of my hangar until it's time to get rid of them."

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #32 –
When the two men started to make counter offers and list safety concerns, Narik listened while she worked, carrying the assembly to the chamber and crouching down above it. She had been on the verge of replying to Miles before the tall human had interjected with his precautions.

"Please, Covington man," she said and rolled her eyes at the two flatskulls. With a deft heaving motion of the heavy thing in her hands, she grunted as she slid the assembly into place. It responded with a satisfying mechanical sound when the seals shut around it. "I know Starfleet safety regulations. There is no need for concern. In all scenarios when dealing with unknown technology, you pick the teeth from the serpent before you peel off it's skin and start gutting it. Otherwise it might be the last serpent stew you make. I understand that there was a hologram flying it first, right? I'd like to add that even if the emitter was busted, all components reminiscent to be some kind of computer should be removed as well."

Standing up, Narik thrust her chest out as she brushed back her purple hair from her sweat-glistening countenance, and then she dropped down from the wing. After she had straightened, she walked back to the two officers that she was making a deal with. "However, I was not born the last cycle. It seems you still want me to be babysitted at all times, Covington? You having a hard time trusting me to work without supervision by people you trust? Then you can just as well count me out." She gave the human a grin, knowing that they could not afford to loose her.

Not with the potential that the Reaver held in the battles to come.

"Also, when I do pull staff to assist me in this undertaking, and these men and women that report to you are a priority for me to select from, I do expect them assist me in a timely fashion. So therefore, if they do not comply and feel that they have check with you first, Covington man, the rank I will be given doesn't mean frax, doesn't it? If they wait around for you to clear everything they do, I will go straight to Engineering and get the help I need from there. The only reason you want to clear the people working with me is to keep tabs on me. Starfleet does not mistrust their own crew without reason. The engineers have worked in your bay before, have they not?"

She smiled warmly to the tall human and clapped him on the chest. "No hard feelings," she said and tugged once at one of the zippers on his overalls as she stepped away. "I would try to do the same in your position." She turned to Miles, finally answering his question.

"I can get your bird ready to fly on my own, Miles Renard," she said with a confident smile, heading over to the trolley in order to get the next thruster assembly. "I'd rather see the draft of the contract, even though I like watching men who are not afraid to pull up their white sleeves and do some real work. You will know where to find me when you are done, unless you want me to review it in your office before it is sent to that Chameloid that I hear runs this poor damned ship."

Picking up the machine part with her dirty yet toned arms, a thought occurred to her. "Oh, you might want to inform Tatiana Marlowe that I will be here instead of Engineering. After I pulled her out of that volcano above the Engineering Outpost, she had a mind to write a contract of her own with me. Tell her I am not interested anymore."

OOC: Lol, I am just sticking to this woman's character, and it is turning out to be quite interesting. It certainly spices things up, don't you think? ;)

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #33 –
Miles just sighed listening to the two. then turned around, "I understand your position on this but you are less informed on the subject than you think.  Yes engineers of different areas have worked in here at certain times, times when all flight operations are canceled.  With no ongoing operations this is a shuttle bay garrage.  When there's fighters launching and landing this deck is a whole different beast.  He isn't wanting to babysit you; he is wanting to make sure some bookworm from the engine room that's too curious for their own good don't end up up on the floor with their entrails spilling out of a wingtip shaped hole in their side."

"When flight ops are ongoing, which when we are operating under normal conditions is pretty much 24/7, the only people on this deck are pilots and Stens crew.  The Captain, XO, and a few other senior officers like ops lead and the chief engie are allowed but they know theirs a red line painted on the floor that even they don't cross unless they are expected past it. unlike the engine room we don't have a convenient forcefield, or railings, or safety layers of transparent aluminum to protect some goldshirt that has their nose in a PADD from getting them-self killed.  Frankly I could give a damn about babysitting you and I am pretty sure he feels the same.  His wishes to have his chosen people working with you is because you will most likely be working while fighters are launching and landing.  Frankly if you think that its more important to have everything your way than it is to make sure some egghead don't get his skull caved in by a crate of microtorps then you probably aren't the right person for the job."

"That said I will put a footnote in the contract regarding your requests Ma'am and I will leave it to the captain to write up the official contract if he even wants to write one up for you regarding this project.  For all I know the captain may order us to jettison the Reaver and blow it to dust without even looking at it any further for temporal prime-directive reasons."  with that he turned around again heading to his office.  "I'm fast at writing, so it should only take me an hour or so and I'll be back with a draft for you both to look over.  After that I'm sending it to the Captain and it'll be out of our hands and for him to decide what to send back to you.  Sorry but I ain't got time to moderate a contract negotiation and until the Captain or someone else higher up than me thinks Sten's got it wrong on his deck rules I ain't gonna pull rank on em."  With that he walked off into his office.  If the lady decided she wanted to close the door on the deal than so be it.  He didn't have time to deal with a bossy civilian who thought she could dictate the rules on the ship he was protecting.

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #34 –
In the meantime, Master Chief O'Connell was surveying the bulkhead and assigning personnel to work on it as they filtered in either singularly or in small groups.  He couldn't help overhearing bits and pieces of the interactions between Miles, Sten, and Narik though (or was he just nosey?).  

Was it his imagination or was she bargaining for a latinum toilet?  What did this gal not demand?  As his maintenance technicians arrived he became more curt with each one as his irritation with the Boslic grew.  She honestly didn't care if they all died and the Federation was conquered from within!  No skin off her butt, her planet wasn't part of the United Federation of Planets nowhow.  The fact that she was on this ship and in the same amount of jeopardy as everyone else didn't seem to bother her none.  Was she studying to be a halfwit or just too lazy to yell 'Sueee' in a pig pen?  It's ungentlemanly to frown in the direction of a lady, but that girl's knife was so dull it wouldn't cut hot butter.  She was so contrary he half expected her to shoot herself if a doctor told her she'd live.

Billy Bob did smile when Miles finally gave her the no-shitter and stuck by his chief.  If you wanted both your pilots and the ship they launched from to stay in one piece the flight deck was Sten's domain, and Commander Renard understood that as opposed to some of the pilots from the Harbinger apparently.  Or certain Boslics.  Thus endeth the sermon.  Question was, did she have to get the last word so bad she'd give herself away sneaking out of a penal colony?


Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #35 –
Narik paused in her work to watch the Vulpinian from underneath the ride of her forehead as he spoke to her.

The commander did raise a few points that she could comply with, and at times, she glanced towards the human - Covington - as if to verify that what was being said was actually true, and that it wasn't mistrust for her as a civilian that had raised the finer points about personnel admittance to the Hangar.

Shrewd as she was, though, she picked up on the fact that there had been no reasonable explanation presented as to why she could not work alone with the Reaver - as harmless as safety regulations would make the machine. It hardly mattered since she had little means to sway the Vulpinian to not side with the Chief, and the human - in turn - could hide behind the fox-man's verdict on the counter argument she had made. She would play nice, for now, thinking that these Starfleeters seemed genuine and not prone to take advantage of her.

Still, she would be a fool to agree to anything based on a hunch.

"Whatever you say, Miles Renard," he said and shrugged dismissively, continuing to work, "I will be here, most likely, continuing to work on your Valkyrie."

Narik glanced towards Covington once before returning to work.

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #36 –
When Renard spoke, Sten simply nodded. In his forty year career, he had seen his fair share of gruesome accidents. Especially when working with the development teams when the fighter programs were just getting off the ground. But even as the base of corporate knowledge was being built up and the hazardous nature of fighter decks was becoming widely known - largely a result of people being seriously injured or killed in a variety of mishaps - there were still accidents, cases of outright stupidity and blatant disregard for safety protocols. Not to mention just folks who weren't trained deck hands not paying attention to what they were doing or disregarding ground crews' directions and wandering into harm's way.

And if Narik Cinsaj couldn't live with the fact Miles and Sten were responsible for the safety and lives of everyone within the fighter assault bay then she could go pound salt and try to go and bully the Chief Engineer. Not that Covington wouldn't send a heads-up about the Boslic contractor to the various Chiefs so they could rein her in and make sure she wouldn't walk all over their new department head. After all, Sten didn't know a damn thing about that Lieutenant Marlowe and how she'd be able to withstand the headstrong civilian but he couldn't in good conscience feed her to an engineering consultant wolf despite the rivalry between the engineering and flight deck departments.

As the Boslic went back to work, Sten met her gaze, his face impassive. He was consummate professional and passionate about his work. And part of it was ensuring his flight deck was as safe as it could be and operating smoothly.  And a dead body in the middle of the flight path would shut down flight ops as surely as a compromised deck substructure with the added cost of a life lost to a preventable occurrence.

Stepping away from Renard's fighter, Sten called out over the rock music. "Master Chief O'Connell, when do you think you can tell me how bad my deck is banged up?"

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #37 –



"I think I can Sten, but what you really want to know is how long it will take before you get to use it to launch our guests into the black where they'll be out of our hair," William O'Connell replied.  "I'd reckon 'bout four days to get it perfect, three to use in emergencies and two to use if you're insane."  He put his hand on his chin and frowned as he surveyed the flight deck.  "We're going to have to tear up that section of bulkhead and send it to materials reclamation before we're done," he added as he pointed to a section near the hanger doors.  "Tearing it out and replacing that section alone will take at least a day right there."

"Of course, I'll have to disassemble and repair the flight deck tractor beam or there's almost no point fixin' your flight deck," he added.  "If your pilots can't make a landing most folks can walk away from replacin' the bulkhead seems like a wasted effort now don't it?"

"The good news is that the shuttle bay doors are closin' again," he announced with a hint of pride.  "We've been using the magnetic field to maintain atmospheric integrity all this time, but the field is down forty percent but that was no way to maintain a safety margin to my way o' thinkin'.  Me and the guys would have been here earlier but I didn't want to take the chance of everybody being shot out into space like a bunch of New Year's Eve poppers."

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #38 –
O'Connell's reply was as flippant as Sten was accustomed to. At some point, the old veteran would have to take that not aside and remind him to mind his manners. After all, even if Covington wasn't the poster child for proper protocol and address, he did keep a respectful tongue in his mouth, unless there was a dire need to deviate from a certain standard of professionalism.

"Welcome to the realities of combat landings, Billy. The pilots are trained to land manually and they usually get their birds in gently enough without any help from a tractor beam when they have plenty of time times it. But combat and emergency landings? There's no time to do it pretty and even if the tractor beam didn't get shot off by that nightmare ship, there wouldn't be time to use it in a case like that."

The Master Chief was a sharp cookie. In fact, Sten thought he was actually hiding behind that redneck act to appear dumber than he was. And sometimes, it worked well enough but others, it was just aggravating. But despite his expertise, O'Connell wasn't a deck ape and he could not be expected to know all the intricacies of high-velocity fighter retrievals.

"I was expecting the banged up deck surface but sounds like the substructure's compromised worse than I thought."

And that would be a problem. Iron Fox would want to be back in space sooner rather than later. And the Captain, well, definitely wouldn't like the fact the fighters would be grounded for that long. But if the deck was unsafe then there was no way the Chief of Flight Deck Operations would allow fighter operations. If the deck gave way, there was no telling the damage the landing fighter could cause...

"But I think I'll recommend some extra high-speed retrieval training. It wasn't just the hard landings that looked a bit sloppy, but my guys were a bit off their game too. I never minded a busy deck but the tempo's starting to affect the time we've got for drills and holodeck simulations."
 

Re: CHAPTER 01: Damage [1120 hrs.]

Reply #39 –


"Hey, it gets plumb loco during combat," O'Connell shrugged.  "And you're right; the substructure's compromised worse than you thought, but not on this deck.  The problem is that I've got six men to do an eighteen man job.  If you're aiming to get those birds out in the black toot sweet we're gonna have to get creative."

O'Connell put all of the past aside as he surveyed the flight deck.  The fear and anger he felt with Starfleet gunning for them, the distrust of the Harbinger's personnel, the shame and self-loathing he felt whenever he was aroused by a beautiful woman, none of it mattered anymore as he viewed the flight deck with the eyes of a chief.   How to cut down the repair time with the resources available without sending any officers or enlisted men to sickbay or the morgue?

The simple answer was to ask the new chief engineer to budget him more men.  She already had most of his guys spacewalking to repair the gaping holes in the hull.  Billy Bob was hesitant to get her involved because she was an unknown variable.  Ditto for the unhelpful Boslic girl.

So how do we get the deck repaired with the resources available without interfering with the work on the fighters?  The short answer is you don't, but maybe it was possible to keep the interference down to a minimum.  "Gravity," he said as he snapped his fingers.  "We move the Harbinger's Valkyries out of the way and we shut off the gravity.  We pump out the atmosphere and work in EV suits.  That way there's no resistance as we move the deck plates around during the installation phase.  If your people don't mind working in suits and in zero gravity we could probably fix the flight deck in a third of the time."  He tore his eyes off the chamber to look at Sten.  "Allow our guests to leave earlier too.  If you're right about those fellers, there's no sense forcing them to stay."
 
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