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Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

[ Lieutenant Frank Arnold | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]

Attn: @rae @Auctor Lucan

Lieutenant Frank Arnold, Chief Gearhead, not the best Gearhead, but Chief Gearhead nonetheless, strode into the Conference Lounge for the final pre-departure engineering briefing with the Captain, maybe even Thea as well.  He had doubts about bringing Thea up to speed though since she was aware of all the work being done to her components.  Still, it wasn't a bad thing to talk to the ship's brain and possibly it's heart from time to time.

It had been a long and hard three weeks.  The extent of the repairs, refits, and upgrades had dwarfed his expectations, and if it wasn't for the dedication and tenacity of the crews, Frank was quite sure they wouldn't be where they were now.  Despite the sheer amount of grunt work, the ship was ready to go, and before coming, Frank had released the Engineering crews to enjoy what little time was left to relax.  As the main man in the reactor room though, he couldn't really let himself calm down till he discharged this final duty before the ship was due to depart Qo'nos.  Even the few times when he'd tried to do something relaxing, he tended to get into situations that were the complete opposite, or his mind had wandered back to some task or other that needed someone's attention.  So he stayed on the ship, working on little projects to bring everything up to his spec on what was needed for the next phase of whatever the Captain had planned.

Sitting in his seat, Frank took a minute to swivel his chair and look at the red haired Trill, who's even more exacting standards, and boundless caffeine induced energy had made it all possible.  When he'd sent the message for the briefing, Frank had been very humorously pointed in making sure that she had slept the night before, cleaned up, and ate while she downed her first pot of coffee for the day.  He wasn't sure if she'd followed any of those directives, but she looked it, and that's what counted.  He also included a list of things he wanted covered, primarily the state of the engines, the QSD, and the PDPC system, but also anything else she though would be pertinent. In effect, he was making it her time to shine.  He smiled reassuringly as he plugged in an isolinear chip bank and brought up the ship's schematic from the built in holo projector with the various changes that had been made.

"Azrin, you have a lot to be proud of.  I'm sure we wouldn't have gotten as far as we did without everything you did and all the running around the ship."  Lieutenant Arnold leaned back in his chair and grabbed his coffee mug to take a sip.  "Between the QSD, the point defence systems, and the making the engines hum like they just got a massage on Risa, the ship is in far better shape than when she left shipyards."  The smile and twinkle in the Chief Engineer's eye seemed to grow. "So would you please stop looking like you want to fiddle with table's circuitry."

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #1 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @RyeTanker @Auctor Lucan

It was hard to not look like she wanted to fiddle with the table's circuitry when she really did want to fiddle with the table's circuitry.

Azrin was an engineer. The universe had degreed it long before she had figured it out herself. It was a fact of her existence, written in her genes, plainly obvious to everyone who'd known her since she was a little girl. She wasn't comfortable without something mechanical in her hands, a puzzle for her mind to decipher while her fingers danced along. That was why she'd never been up here before, and had never spoken to Captain Ives despite having served on this ship for eighteen months. She'd always preferred to stay down in engineering, leaving the tedious administrative work to the chiefs.

In hindsight, Lieutenant Arnold had known just how to play her. Dangle something as rare and impossible and exciting as the slipstream drive in front of her, tell her that it's secrets were hers to uncover… and slip a promotion in there while she'd been too distracted to notice.

Arnold had given her implicit instructions for today’s meeting - clearly he’d gotten an accurate read on her during the past few weeks - and Azrin had done her best to follow his instructions. Sleep, not so much, though not for lack of trying. Tossing and turning on the bed, then pulling her sheets to the floor in the hopes that the warp core’s vibrations would soothe her to unconsciousness. That had gotten her a few hours, before the insomnia reared its ugly head once more. Cleaned up, yes! That was something Azrin knew how to do - one didn’t survive in Starfleet for this long without some basic skills - and the day was young enough that she hadn’t accidentally dirtied herself during a repair. Her uniform was pressed and neat, red hair braided in a crown around her head, and skin scrubbed clean. She had eaten - that was not something she’d ever had a problem with, unless she was so engrossed in her work that she simply forgot. She had also drunk an overabundance of coffee. Though Azrin wasn’t sure if Frank had added that bit as a joke or not.

“I am proud of it,” she protested automatically, her focus more on the schematic pulled up on the projector than on Arnold. She was still mentally rehearsing everything she needed to report. “Well, no. Not really. You know, I’ve never thought of it as something to be proud of before. It’s more like… making the ship feel better? I wonder if Thea does feel better? I should have asked her! I’m still not used to that, being able to ask. I certainly don’t feel right unless everything is humming in tune. I hope she feels the same.”

“Besides Chief, if I’m supposed to be proud, then you definitely should be. You did a lot of work and masterminded the whole thing.” With the influx of paperwork crossing her PADD as his assistant, the trill couldn’t imagine how much the chief had. And he was still managing to get work done. “But I’ve never talked to the Captain before. Feels like being called to the principal’s office. I’m much happier down below up to my elbows in a panel.”

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #2 –
[ Captain Ives | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Ellen Fitz
[Show/Hide]
Adjusting the cuffs of his uniform, Captain Jien Ives entered the conference room in his male form - oaken eyes lifting to see the two officers already having arrived. He smiled faintly to them and approached while the sliding doors closed behind him.

"At ease, please," he said quietly, heading for his own chair at the end of the table. He walked the outer side of the room in doing so, glancing out towards the vista of Qo'noS surface. "We still have no word from Chancellor Martok. No sign that it is time to leave," he said, taking the opportunity to brief his Chief Engineer about the situation, along with the Trill that Ives had looked forward to meeting. "The Klingon forces have reached the Romulan border, but Donatra and her fleets have yet to make it through the RNZ. Fortunately, with the Savi QSD drive, we only need short notice before we cross the distance to the border and join Martok. Circumstances which has allowed your department to complete repairs after the battles against House Mo'Kai... or so I hope?"

Jien said this with a hint of a question, accompanied with a slight rising of an eyebrow. Before Frank may answer, however, Jien's brown eyes shifted to Azrin Ryn. "I regret that I have not had the opportunity to speak with you after you were thawed, Lieutenant, but welcome back among the crew. I am sure it has been a trying time for you, waking up to a mission like ours. Nonetheless, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Knowing that Ryn had served aboard during the failed diplomatic talks at Romulus, the Trill wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the ship, even though many of the faces were new to her. He had great empathy for her situation, but the performance reports about her conduct had been stellar... barring some less pleasing messages from the Savi delegation.

Looking back at Frank, they both know it was time. "Report. Where are we at with the preparations and repairs?"

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #3 –
[ Lieutenant Frank Arnold | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]

Attn: @rae @Auctor Lucan

Frank had gotten most of the way up as the Captain in his male form entered and quickly followed the command to sit.  The Chief Engineer felt slight traces of nervousness, afterall, he was still meeting with the Captain despite having met at least once before during a very redacted meeting on things that involved clocks going in many directions.  Still, Frank took the opportunity to sit and listen as he was brought up on the strategic situation.  Overall, it was in a state of flux, it wasn't all terrible, merely unknown.  Having fought in the Dominon War, Frank had stared defeat in the face multiple times.  During that time, he knew they were losing, and eventually winning.  It could be seen in the systems that had fallen, then been regained.  Places where ships and friends had been lost.  Those were concrete.  Where Donatra was was simply a questions mark, and there was no point in speculating.  The Klingon's were on the border waiting for the Romulans, nothing more, nothing less.

Instead, he turned to what he could handle and  began manipulating the LCARS console in front of him and the lights dimmed to half, making the hologram of the ship brighter and more crisp.  "Of course Captain."  Another series of commands began to highlight portions of the ship in flashing red over the hull.  "Sir, the ship is ready to depart at your command pending the return of all crew members.  If you had asked me this same question after Aldea, I would have asked for more time, but thankfully Theurgy was in much better shape pulling into Qo'nos than she was pulling into Aldea."  The Engineer manipulated the display and the areas around the Fighter Assault Bay, several interior sections began to flash on and off.  "The worst appearing damage was due to Klingons boarding the ship.  It's a good thing they didn't have to much of a clue as to what was truly dangerous there since they mainly shot up and set fire to crates of equipment and didn't penetrate to the fighter magazines.  If they had gotten to those, it's likely they could have at least severely damaged the ship, if not outright disabled us.  Detonating the magazine in the FAB has a good chance of causing collateral damage to the aft torpedo launchers, deuterium storage tanks, and the upper assembly of the main warp drive."  The Chief Engineer mentally shivered at how horrendous the damage was likely to be against a deliberate boarding action with intent to do damage instead of by accident.   "We've done what we can to isolate the fighter and torpedo magazine from the rest of the ship with additional force fields and bulkhead polarization emitters.  As much as I hate to say it though, we may just have to vent the whole FAB into space to snuff out the fire if we can't transport the stuff out." The engineer shook his head and frowned very hard for a moment as he silently lamented what would amount to the annihilation of the Flight Deck personnel and hoped it wouldn't have to come to that.  Pressing several more buttons causing green dots to begin blinking across the ship.  "Sir, working with Lieutenant Chambers in Operations, we've installed transport inhibitors across the ship.  They're currently set to auto activate if any of the ship's shield facings go down during battle, but we felt it was necessary to leave their ultimate utilization at your discretion so we can reprogram the parameters as necessary.  This should prevent any unauthorized visitors such as boarding parties and warheads from being beamed aboard the ship.  It could cause issues with movement across the ship, especially during casualty evacuation and the fundamental nature of the tech is something we haven't been able to overcome, so the best we could come up with was an on/off switch for when we need to use the Transporter."

Chief Arnold shrugged at the limitation of the system and extracted an isolinear chip from the carry case before handing it to Captain Ives."Sir, I don't like having that many transport inhibitors on the ship, but we could suffer a lot of damage internally. What I've given you though is a program for a hard wired back door to all the inhibitors to force them to shut down or start up.  This is for you to input your authorization after we leave."  Frank sat back as he further manipulated he holo display after sliding the chip over.  Orange lines soon spread through the ship like arteries.  In essence they were since this diagram represented the ship's complete EPS relay map. "Sir, this was probably one of the most extensive and tedious tasks.  Lieutenant Ryn and Chambers conducted a full review of the Theurgy's EPS grid due to the number of exploding relays and those that were either injured or killed by them and we found several, well I don't want to call them faults, but more like oversights in how they were designed.  Simply put, the relays and conduits, while elegant from an engineering design perspective, were not sufficiently robust.  We don't know what led to the decision to design them the way they were, but Engineering with a good deal of help from Operations spent most of our time reinforcing the system with software changes, additional vents, and bypasses. It wasn't easy and we had to look to the 23rd century for how they kept their EPS systems relatively hardy, especially since the Starfleet of that era was constantly expecting to fight a war at any point, and designed accordingly."

"Most of the remaining repairs were relatively cosmetic by comparison.  The ship didn't sustain any major hull breaches, though there were numerous fractures all over, but that's expected of a ship in combat."  The next bit Frank had mixed feelings about since it could be considered a final gift from the now frozen Samantha Rutherford.  Mentally shaking his head, he ploughed on.  "Thanks to Commander Rutherford's efforts in securing the priority access to the shipyard's replicators, we were able to build and install additional Class III industrial replicator in each Vector's engineering section.  Should the ship need to separate again, they can at least build the components to keep them going.  Each Vector will generally need a handy asteroid belt for raw materials, and I've programmed in a low energy solar collection film so the Vectors can harness the power of a nearby star if need be instead of using their onboard fusion or antimatter stores.  It may take longer, but it won't be as wasteful of hard to acquire resources."  The big engineer blew out some air as he leaned back in his chair. "Sir, we've restocked all magazines with Starfleet Mark 26 photon torpedoes.  We looked at restocking Quantums as well, but since a lot of that tech is still highly classified, I decided at the time we couldn't risk using the Klingon replicators in case the design falls into let's say unsavoury hands, especially with such a large Orion Syndicate presence in system."

Chief Arnold stared at his PADD to see if there was anything else and minutely shook his head for the rest was minutae by comparison.  "Now sir, Lieutenant Ryn was in charge of the QSD in addition to several other systems, so she can cover those."  With that, Frank set his PADD down and grabbed his coffee mug as he turned towards his Chief Assistant and smiled reassuringly.


OOC: To kill a character via EPS related explosion, roll a D20 on a DC 6.  If roll has passed, the bypasses work as intended and find another way to kill the character.  (laugh)

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #4 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @RyeTanker @Auctor Lucan

Unlike Lieutenant Arnold, who had moved at a normal speed and only made it part of the way up before the captain bade them to sit, Azrin had jumped fully out of her chair. The engineer, often jittery due to the dangerous amount of caffeine she consumed, surprised herself by standing shock still at attention. Clearly, Starfleet Academy ingrained muscle memory so deeply that it beat even exhaustion and stimulants. She sat down slowly, feeling thoroughly out of place with this whole experience. Engineers were meant to be on the other end of the ship, not chilling out on Deck 1. Her earlier moment of stillness was quickly proven a fluke, as once she was back in her seat Azrin was instantly dying to move. Hidden beneath the table, her fingers toyed with the fabric of her uniform pants, while further down her feet tapped silently on the floor. And no, she definitely couldn’t pop down to get a closer look at the mechanical innards of the table, no matter what cool ideas it might give her. Because then the Captain and Frank would both be mad at her.

Nothing in the chief engineer’s report was news to her, given that she’d been there for the planning and had taken part in a few of the mentioned projects. However, Azrin listened intently anyway, her ears trained on her superiors while her body fidgeted below. One of these days she was going to sleep easily again. Azrin held that belief steadfast, for all she’d done nothing to bring the day about faster, but she knew she’d really go crazy if she let go of the notion. Her body would remember how to sleep, she would drink less - still a lot, but she’d used to drink less - coffee, and everything would go back to how it was before her time in stasis. Until then… at least the amsonia left her more time to work.

When Arnold turned and smiled at her, Azrin had to fight the momentary urge to snatch up his coffee and drain it for some liquid courage. It would be fine. The Captain wasn’t scary. This was just the place that young engineers went when they fucked up so badly that the department head wasn’t able to deal with it - ah, who was she kidding? She hadn’t been young in years.

Nor had she been important enough to come up here.

“Right! Yes. The quantum slipstream drive is–” Beautiful? Wondrous? The most incredible piece of technology she’d ever been permitted to work on? “Powered up and can be engaged whenever the Bridge needs it sir.” Azrin had caught her gushing praise at the last moment and turned it into something productive, trying her best to school the look of reverence on her face into a professional detachment. Though she was certain she’d failed at that. “There was nothing wrong with it besides the lack of benamite crystals, which were all used up during the last jump. An away team procured some more, and a team from engineering and science has been looking into making them last longer this time. The Savi have been really helpful in teaching us how the drive works - within the rules of their own Prime Directive.” That was an exaggeration, but Azrin had promised herself that she would try to be nicer to their strange alien partners, reluctant to help at the best of times and contemptuous for the rest. Azrin was certain that Corgin would be much happier if she never saw the red headed trill again, but there was no point in complaining to the Captain about that. “And we’ve been working on optimizing the output based on what we’ve learned, and data from the past jumps. The main problem is still power. The Theurgy, marvelous as she is, simply can’t generate enough, unless we have even more warp cores hidden somewhere-” Azrin paused, hesitated, and backtracked, not sure this was the time for jokes. “Anyway, we don’t generate nearly as much as the Savi generate on their ships, which is why we can’t travel as far, need more cooldown time, and keep breaking our crystals. But - uh - you probably knew that already Captain, since you’ve been here the whole time.”

“While we were overhauling the EPS grid, Lieutenant Chambers and I optimized the grid to route more power to the slipstream drive.” Power exchanges were never perfect, there was always something being lost somewhere. Chambers had quickly proven himself a master of relays and siphons. “I don’t think we got enough to stay at slipstream for any longer, but the more power we can push through, the more the benamite will maintain its integrity. We’ve also upgraded the benamite reclamation system, so we can recrystalize what we break.” Rare as the crystal was, she wanted their small supply to last as long as possible. She just wished they had enough to actually do some test flights. Azrin had spent a few weeks researching, but her first time activating the QSD was going to be when it counted.

“Not to forget the other propulsion systems,” Talking shop had put her in her comfort zone at last, as Azrin leaned forward with a grin to take control of Frank’s hologram, spinning the ship around so the nacelles were front and center for Ives, highlighting them with a gentle blue glow similar to the ship at warp. “We repaired the minor damage, recalibrated the warp coils, replaced some injectors, realigned the magnetic constrictor coils - all normal maintenance, but we had the time to be exacting, so we were. All three cores are ready to go - separate or together - and are humming like a symphony.” Before their escape from Earth and her horribly long sleep, Azrin had spent most of her year on the Theurgy obsessing over the interconnectivity of the three warp cores. Finally getting to test her theories, she was obviously proud of the results. After living on a starship for so long, most career Starfleeters ignored the slight vibration of the hull beneath their feet. Azrin had always found the hum to be immensely comforting. And on a ship like this, maddening when not in harmony.

The trill glanced down at her notes, knowing she was forgetting something. “The point defense cannons! The system was installed, tested, and put into operation over a week ago.” It felt like forever, but it had only been what, ten days? “But a functioning system wasn’t good enough, so we’ve already been updating it, replacing the emplacements with a new multibarrel design by Petty Officer Nigel-Timmons that will be able to respond more effectively to incoming targets.”

“And,” another glance at the console, “That’s all folk- Captain. That’s my report, sir.” Azrin felt her cheeks burning. So close to the end and she’d gotten so engrossed in the report that she’d forgotten who she was talking to!


OOC: Sorry for the wait!

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #5 –
[ Captain Ives | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Ellen Fitz
[Show/Hide]
Relieved to hear that progress with the repairs and upgrades had reached a state when the Chief Engineer deemed them ready to depart, Jien listened in quietude when the report continued. As he sat in his chair, his oaken eyes moved between the two speakers, and thought about the report that Commander Tiran had given him at the beginning of their repairs at the Aldea Prime Shipyards. As Arnold pointed out, it was quite another situation this time, where they hadn't suffered the collective onslaught of Klingon, Savi, Asurian and Borg weapon's fire. This, not even mentioning the way a jury-rigged Reman cloak had misfired and damaged the shield emitters in the middle of the Battle of the Apertures. This time, thankfully, it was 'only' House Mo'Kai and their formerly loyal Houses that had challenged Thea's defences, and the amount of damage they had suffered add amounted accordingly. By comparison, the repairs orbiting Qo'noS had been within capacity to deal with.

While he made no comment about the munitions magazines in the Fighter Assault Bay, Jien wondered if the same measures had been taken for all torpedo storage magazines, and not just the one in the flight hangar on Vector 2. Those were even larger and arguably posed more of a threat to the Theurgy, so perhaps Arnold had noticed some kind of discrepancy in the specific storage adjacent to the fighter bay. Could it be that he deemed it more exposed to boarding parties? Whatever the reason, and since it was good hear that the new Chief Engineer had found ways to bolster the protection of that area of the ship, Jien dismissed the thought, deferring to the man's judgement about the other magazines already having adequate protection. Moreover, Jien was impressed with the work on the EPS grid, since clearly, Arnold and his team had detected a design flaw in the prototype tech that inhabited Thea. That the updated conduits were not serviceable for their mission had become clear from the cause-of-death reports, since Jien could name several officers at the top of his head that had fallen victim to plasma overloads in the bulkheads.

In a way, perhaps it should have been expected, since Thea had three warp cores... and regulating the flows of all three in a way that didn't overload some area of the ship had been one of the greatest challenges during her construction. It was no surprise at all that more bypasses, vents and recalibrated software had been needed. It was easy to forget, sometimes, that Thea was the first ship of her line. A prototype put through her paces for six months straight.

Then, there was the installation of transporter inhibitors, and Jien reached out to accept the isolinear chip from Frank. While he listened, Jien studied the chip in his finger tips, thinking about the inherent risks the inhibitors posed when it came to emergency transport of personnel and deployment of officers of all Departments during a combat situation. Frowning, he wasn't entirely convinced that an automated setting would be beneficial, being a double-edged sword, but he was grateful that Arnold had considered this already and given him access. Jien would not let the access of the inhibitors remain solely his either, but he needed to give it some thought. Likely, he would make the shipwide transport inhibitor network a manual activation, and he would look into options where Medical might override it.

Frank wasn't done, however, finishing up his report with the stand-alone abilities of all three Vectors if they were separated for a longer timer, like they had been in the Azure Nebula, and how the Helmet, the Sword and the Stallion would all be able to replicate spare parts for repairs without depending on the other Vectors. The Solar collection film, which was no more than a transparent coating as far as he'd read reports, was a nice addition for dire circumstances, and the restocking of torpedoes was a welcome report since it had been a part of the agreement with Chancellor Martok. Jien wasn't surprised to hear about the quantum torpedoes, and with a faint smile at the mentioning of the Syndicate, he added. "Not to mention Klingon Houses that are less keen on the Kithomer Accords and wish to hurt the Federation in any way they might get away with... the selling of Federation replication logs even being profitable for them."

Still thoughtfully turning the isolinear chip over with his fingers, Jien's brown eyes had shifted to Ryn when she began to speak of the work on the QSD and its affiliated systems, like the benamite reclamation efforts. That the Savi were difficult to work with was a grave understatement, since he didn't just have the experience of dealing with the delegation aboard but the Voice of the Savi rebels as well. In fairness, he didn't count the experiences aboard the Versant, where he had been abducted and tortured by the Scion Admiral Semathal, but the diplomatic strains of dealing with the 'amiable' faction of that race was enough to sprout grey hairs overnight. Hopefully, the onboard delegation would depart eventually, when it was agreed upon that the Theurgy crew didn't need oversight and assistance with the new tech. The QSD was the asset of which most progress had been made, but the Science Department was still working with the Savi when it came to mission critical incentives, like the separation of hosts and parasites via transporter technology.

It wasn't until Lieutenant Ryn had finished up her report with the point defence system and its upgrades that Jien rose from his chair and slowly began to pace the room - the inhibitor system chip still turning idly in his hands. He had a number of questions that he felt weren't covered in the report.

"Excellent work," he said to begin with, meaning to delve further into the recognition of their hard work further in a bit, before continuing. "Do you have a progress update on the slipstream initiatior installations on the hull of Vector 2, Lieutenant Ryn? I know it was just started the other day, and that there is a lot still to be done before a partially assembled Thea can utilise a QSD leap, but knowing the status will inform tactics for the rendezvous with Chancellor Martok at the border of the RNZ."

Then, he directed himself to Arnold, looking at the chip in his fingers. "Commander Jaru Rel and the Chief of the Deck has already submitted a readiness report for our warp fighters, yet what of the Allegiant and our other auxiliary craft? A number of our shuttles have undergone repairs, some more than once." Raising his eyes, he continued. "Same question for the vessels that aren't ours, but who's owners are supporting the mission. Are the Apache and the Sabine fully repaired and ready to be deployed? I know from reports that both of these vessels have undergone repairs by teams from your Department, but I am unaware of the results. Just like with the partial QSD abilities, the readiness of our smaller crafts inform what we are able to do at the RNZ."

Purposefully, Jien had yet to voice his choice in regard to the inhibitors, since he was still thinking about how to best utilise the opportunities they presented. This, without hobbling critical functions during emergencies.

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #6 –
[ Lieutenant Frank Arnold | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]

Attn: @rae @Auctor Lucan

Frank nodded at the question for it was a prudent one given the number of missions that ship had to take on and what it meant for the parasite compliment.  Fingers tapped away at the holo control panel for a moment and the hologram of the ship disappeared into the projector for a moment before being replaced by a graphic representation of each shuttle, runabout, and a few extras the Theurgy had picked up.  Most of the smaller vessels spun around in green marking full readiness.  "Sir, most of the shuttles and runabouts are good to go."  The engineer's fingers manipulated the controls and five not so good ones were brought up.  Four were marked in yellow, and one in red. Lieutenant Arnold took a moment to consult his PADD to see if there were any last second changes, but found none before continuing.

"The Allegiant, Tesla, Jemison, and Rosalind Franklin are undergoing final systems certifications by the deck crews.  In the Jemsion's case, I'm not sure what inspired Ensign Pierce and PO t'Jellaieu to take that one through a mine field, but luckily, they're both highly skilled pilots, so the shuttle came through fine.  Though I did make it clear, they were to both keep their hands off the shuttle while it was getting fixed."  Frank shook his head at the memory of him tapping his foot on the deck as the shuttle landed and handing out a dressing down for the extra work that was being incurred when the rest of the ship needed fixing. "In a way, it's lucky the Jemison was damaged as it was so early on after pulling into dock since we had to down check the craft after and give it a full over haul.  The repair crew expects to have the checks completed by the end of Alpha watch.

A few more button taps and the Captain's yacht as well as another shuttle came forward on the holo and Frank's face became like stone.  "The Allegiant and Rosalind Franklin both suffered heavy internal damage.  On board the Allegiant, internal explosions ended up killing one crew member on the mission to Breen and severely injuring another, while the Franklin suffered lots of interface damage when Commanders Fisher and Rutherford resisted the boarding." The big engineer's nostrils flared in a moment of anger before continuing. "Overall, the repairs were extensive, but routine.  We just got back both ships yesterday from the Klingon's after they conducted a baryon sweep, and we opened the interiors to space to remove any excess biological contaminants.  System checks should be completed on those by the end of Delta watch."

A further control manipulation brought up the holo representation of the cargo shuttle Tesla and the big Engineer's mouth twisted in a wry smile.  "The Tesla should also have it's final system checks run at the start of Beta watch.  The forward shield emitter didn't pass muster, and it became simply faster to replace the thing rather than try to trouble shoot it."  Lieutenant Arnold turned to his assistant to give her some context.  "The Tesla was used to drop a ground team on a rescue mission for the survivors of the Sabine on Qo'nos. PO t'Jellaieu, same one that was on the Jemison when it went through a minefield, was the pilot at the time and executed a high angle orbital insertion.  She pretty much dropped the shuttle like an asteroid on the planet and pulled out at the very last second.  It didn't help that the shuttle came under fire later."  The Chief Engineer turned back to the Captain. "Damned fine flying overall, but hard on the systems.  Anyway, barring any other replacements that need to be made, I expect to hear that the Tesla will okayed for operations some time tomorrow."

Even though the last item was in a glaring red, it's predicament caused the Engineer some amusement because of who it's owner.  Sir, this leaves us with the Sabine.  That thing might have Starfleet written all over it, but Miss Sera vers Aldnoah is most certainly not.  I think she doesn't like us pestering her for updates on her ship, though when she does reply, it's usually a request for some part or another that she needs to make a fix.  Some of those requests have been uhmmmmm, quite terse, and a little colourful."  Frank's lips twisted as the amusement rolled from one side of his mouth to the other  as some of the crew had been put out when they'd needed to pass the request along to him for authorization.  "Sir, I'm going to make a visit to see the the Sabine either tonight or tomorrow.  I think I may need to bring a gift along to get a full status report on her."  Frank finished as he tapped a button and the holo of the small craft disappeared to be replaced by the Theurgy once more.

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #7 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @RyeTanker

Of course, she’d forgotten something. Even with notes! How was that— Azrin glanced down at her notes, confirming what she’d already suspected. She’d completely forgotten to even put the latest slipstream project on there. What was the point of notes if she wasn’t going to take them right? It was a train of thought that would spell disaster for her future logs, so Azrin simply decided not to think about it anymore.

Luckily, she had two things going for her, despite the mistake. First of all, the trill was — in her estimation anyway — very good at ‘winging it.’ Second, Captain Ives had questions for Lieutenant Arnold too, and he had to answer first, being higher ranked and completely unflappable. She had gained a great appreciation for her department head in the few weeks they’d known each other. He was a calm, steading presence, especially compared to the bubble of barely controlled chaos Azrin lived in.

As the chief engineer spoke, Azrin tapped at the console, trying and failing to look inconspicuous as she queued up some visuals for her report. She didn’t like hearing about the sad fates of the Theurgy’s shuttlecraft anyway. They were repaired now, but that didn’t make the damage reports, coupled as they were with injury and death, any more fun to hear. Working at the console kept her face hidden, which Azrin was grateful for. However, she couldn’t help shooting Arnold a curious glance at the mention of colorful language. She had never had the opportunity to meet his predecessor, but she’d read many of Blue Tiran’s logs while researching the slipstream drive. More than enough to assume that anyone who’d worked under that chief engineer would be immune to colorful language by now. Azrin couldn’t imagine what this Sera vers Aldo person was saying.

Somewhere along the way, she made a note to herself to look up who the senior staff was now. The Andorian deckhand who’d yelled at her and Via a few days ago had mentioned someone named Ravon, so she’d assumed that Commander Rel, the old pre-stasis head fighter pilot, was dead. Apparently not. It might help her to know the next time Via woke her up for emergency Valravn repairs. At the very least, they’d know who to run from.

Then, it was her turn. “Right, the new initiators.” A few taps brought up the image she’d been preparing, Arnold’s hologram of the ship shimmering slightly before splitting, Vector One breaking off and floating upwards before vanishing. The slipstream initiators were highlighted in various colors. Most of them were green, which made it look like they’d done a lot of work, until looking at the locations and remembering that the ones on Vector Three and to the port and starboard had been there the entire time. The additional initiators on the newly revealed topside were a mess of red and yellow. “We just started installing them. Yellow ones are in place but not active, red is where we’re going to place one. The install should be done in three days,” barring any complications, but she wasn’t about to tell the captain that, “then we need to create a separate program for the control matrix to account for this hull configuration and power draw. We’re working on the calculations now, variable changes to maintain the phase variance without Vector One.” Technically, the Savi had programmed the drive to account for that on it’s own, but she couldn’t bring herself to simply trust it without some mathematical data of their own to back it up.

“But,” Azrin hesitated, not wanting to tell the Captain what to do when he was planning things, but at the same time… “This is an in case of emergency option right? Using it this way? Without the power draw from Vector One’s warp core, it will be a bumpy ride. We’ll probably only get one jump out of it, because it will wreck the benamite crystals even faster.” And Thea had introduced the idea as a contingency plan to abandon Vector One entirely, something Azrin was stubbornly against even considering. "If we really damage it, I don't think Corgin is going to tell us how to fix it. The Savi aren't too keen on us experimenting with how we use the drive." For all she'd tried to be nice to the Savi earlier, Azrin couldn't think of a good way to spin that into something lighter.

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #8 –
[ Captain Ives | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Ellen Fitz
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When Frank showed the status of the shuttles as a projection above the conference table, Jien Ives looked them over before the Chief Engineer moved on to speak specifically about those that weren't green-lit for deployment. Among the green-coloured ones in the first view, Jien had spotted the Apache, which was likely the reason why Arnold didn't bring up the detailed status of the Reman shuttle. Jien was glad to hear that all shuttles were likely to be ready for the next phase of the mission within mere hours or the next day. What was, of course, unless the owner of the Sabine hadn't managed to damage her ship whilst they orbited Qo'noS.

Pleased that the small armada of shuttles Thea had aboard her hadn't been neglected despite the amount of repairs and upgrades the Engineering department had completed, Jien turned his attention to Lieutenant Ryn, and he wasn't surprised that the installation of new initiators hadn't progressed further.

The Trill seemed concerned about the project, however, and Jien nodded when she mentioned emergency usage. Sitting down in his seat, he changed... into her female form.

"Yes," she said, her tone of voice altered but the inflection and faded accent remaining. Medical had approved of her frequent shifting over the course of their stay at Qo'noS, saying her morphogenic matrix was in a state of recovery because of it, but that she needed to keep shifting in order to make a full recovery. So she did. "The QSD holds a lot of potential as a tactical resource that will aid us greatly. Though our experience thus far has informed us that we might face emergency situations more often than not, and there is no telling what the enemy might throw at us. We have faced extraordinary ordeals, forcing us to use Multivector Assault Mode for durations ranging far longer than merely tactical. The Versant forced our ship to retreat separately in order to increase the chances of at least two Vectors escaping that Savi dreadnought. Luckily, all three managed to escape into the depths of the Azure Nebula."

With that context plain, Jien leaned forward a little, looking at both Arnold and Ryn interchangeably when she explained her rationale.

"Though if either me, Commander Stark or Commander Cross were put in a situation where they had to choose between the survival of the crew and the mission," she said, leaning her head in one direction, and then tilting it the other way, "or the integrity of that quantum slipstream drive, then I promise you... that drive will be overclocked until a point where it melts through the bloody deck plates, and the crystals turn to sand."

Jien hoped she had made her stance clear enough, and she took the edge out of her words with a faint smile. "The mission and our survival must be our priority, always, and as rare as that device might be, it's just another kind of engine."

Jien could but hope that the two engineers before him could see her point. She waited, however, to hear them agree, or offer some kind of counter-argument.

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #9 –
[ Lieutenant Frank Arnold | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]             Attn: @rae @Auctor Lucan

It was common knowledge that the Captain was s shape shifter. Knowing and seeing it on the other hand evoked a cognitive dissonance that took a bit to get over.  Frank felt as if he'd blinked and missed something important as he was watching him, then her. Frank did the only thing that made sense to him.  He blinked a couple of times to make sure his eyes were still working.  The Captain continued logically where she'd left off and Frank nodded since he knew the priorities.  At the end of the day, he could advise on what to do, and unless the course of action was going to do something blow the ship up with everyone on it, ultimate responsibility on resource usage was the Captain's. 

However, since the discussion involved the drive system and that was primarily Azrin's area of expertise, Chief Arnold turned to his assistant and gave a look that said If you have anything to say, or you think we should know about, now's the time to put it out there.  Frank ended the thought with a sip of coffee since he didn't have much else to do.

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #10 –
[ Lt. JG Azrin Ryn | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @RyeTanker

It was common knowledge that the Captain was a shapeshifter. Common knowledge for people who weren't single minded obsessives who only cared about cool technology. Azrin only remembered that quirk of the captain's biology in an abstract 'people have talked about this many times but I wasn't fully listening because that circuit looked funky' kind of way. So when he turned into a woman right in front of her eyes, the engineer jumped noticeably, banging her back against the chair. Her first mad thought was that someone had kidnapped the Captain via transporter and replaced him. But seriously, what kind of stupid plan was that? If they were going to replace him with another person in a Starfleet uniform and captain's pips, couldn’t they have at least chosen someone who looked like Ives? Had Starfleet found them instead and sent another Captain here to take command? That was really fucking dramatic. Were they being boarded?

And why wasn't Frank shouting?

Then this new captain started talking about the slipstream drive, continuing the conversation she'd been having with Ives, like he hadn't just been replaced by some misgendered replican-

'Riiiiiight. I knew that.'

Belatedly, probably because she'd seen the shift in person, Azrin did have to admit that it was fairly fascinating. She'd been a man and a woman, but for as long as that host lived, the body was consistent. Her former bodies were memories, not something that was likely to change at any moment. It sounded… disconcerting. Remembering helped her breathe a little easier at least, until Azrin realized her moment of total panic had left her a good six words behind what their shapeshifter Captain was talking about. Talking to her about. Directly. Wow did she wish she'd managed to convince Frank to let her stay in engineering this morning.

She caught up just in time for Ives to make her point, which rather left Azrin wishing she could dissolve into sand and be scattered across the deck plates too. The point was made so well that she didn't feel even the slightest desire to point out that melting the slipstream drive by overtaxing a system that worked by drawing massive power loads from all three warp cores would definitely destroy the entire ship. She definitely already understood that.

"I didn’t mean- um.” Azrin paused to gather her thoughts, a rare instance for her, before saying carefully. “You're in charge, Captain. We're giving the ship the capability, and I- um- part of that is making sure you’re fully informed of what will happen if you decide to use it. I didn’t mean to overstep or anything. Just tempering expectations for engineering’s miracle working ability.” Sometimes, an ‘in case of emergency button’ could only be pressed once.

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #11 –
[ Captain Ives | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @RyeTanker @rae
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Smiling faintly, Jien raised her hand in gesture for the Lieutenant to be at ease.

"No need to apologise, I do appreciate your cautionary words. After all, it is your duty to warn those with lesser knowledge in your field about actions that may have dire and even permanent consequences, be it for Thea, isolated systems of hers, or the crew as a whole," she said leaning forward with her hands folded on the table and raising her eyebrows a little. "I do hope we won't end up having to use this emergency option, but if we can do so without endangering the crew, and it will serve the accomplishment of our mission, we must."

All things considered, it seemed to Jien that the Engineering department had preformed well beyond expectations so soon after loosing their Department Head. The loss of Commander Tiran was still felt, along with that of her fiancé - Commander Ducote - but Lieutenant Arnold had barely lost a beat in taking over Tiran's responsibilities. At the beginning of their stay in orbit of Qo'noS, Jien had told Arnold that since he was a new addition to the crew - having stepped aboard during the repairs at Aldea - he was to be evaluated. That, Jien had - keeping a close eye on the reports from him as well as his subordinates - and on top of his performance during the mission to Breen as well as Andor, not to mention Praxis, she was certain her decision was the right one. The test that Arnold had completed a few days ago had more or less just confirmed what Jien already knew, and she considered it more of a formality than anything else.

Another thing had become clear as well, in her scrutiny of Arnold's performance, and that was that more people than him had earned recognition. Recognition that, incidentally, had been reported by Arnold himself. Fortunately enough, with both candidates present, Jien could act on her observations without having to schedule separate meetings for it.

"Given the times upon us, and the outcast status of ours in the eyes of the fleet," she aid, and got out of her seat. With the isolinear chip still turning in her hand, she continued, "I regret that any and all commendations I make are restricted to the bounds of this ship and crew. I can but hope that - when Starfleet recognises our claims and the truth we defend - my commendations are acknowledged. I am proud of this crew that, despite everything, keep fighting for what is right, no matter what the people of the Federation may think of us. Each and every crewmember that continue to perform beyond expectations should be lauded for their efforts to do what is right, in love of a Federation kept ignorant of the enemy's hold of Starfleet Command."

Having reached her Yeoman's desk, Jien picked up what she had come to collect with her back turned to the two engineers. "The duress we are under could arguably challenge that of any ship in the fleet's history, persecuted as we are and cut off from support, with allies few and far in-between. Only since our victory - some would argue a pyrrhic one - in the Azure Nebula have we seen better times and prospects for the mission, but the enemy remains relentless. So, given these conditions, excellent performance is to be merited. Thea, would you join us, please?"

When Jien returned to them, Thea appeared in a shimmer of light, standing next to the desk as witness. Meanwhile, Jien rounded the outer corner of the table so that the two engineers wouldn't see what she had in her free hand.

"You both have performed beyond expectations. In view of your individual qualities and your demonstrated potential to serve in the higher rank, you - Lieutenant Frank Arnold - are hereby promoted to the permanent rank of Lieutenant Commander, effective as of this stardate of 57699.31." As she said this, she placed one box - containing a black pip - in front of Arnold, before turning her attention to Azrin Ryn, presenting her with a box containing a golden pip. "And you, - Junior Lieutenant Azrin Ryn - are hereby promoted to the permanent rank of Lieutenant, effective as of the same stardate. Please stand, both of you."

Thea was smiling, standing witness, with her arms behind her back and recording the event with her optical sensors, just like Jien had asked her to do once summoned. So, the AI's projection did, while Jien walked around the table to pin the new pips on the collars of the two engineers, each in turn, and in curiosity, she waited to hear if they had anything to say in response to her little surprise.

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #12 –
[ Lieutenant Frank Arnold | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]    Attn: @rae @Auctor Lucan

Frank stood as ordered To be fair, its not hard to figure out what they're going to do with you when you're told to take the Bridge Officer's test. He'd failed the test on the first two attempts. After thinking about it, the Chief had realized what the test was really asking. The Chief had only cringed internally when he'd made the hard choice of sending both Lieutenants Ryn and Kala into the anti matter injection system to make the emergency fix without any radiation gear. It had been especially hard given Azrin's history with the system to start with. Frank wasn't sure if whoever had setup the simulation had taken the details to an extreme; or it Thea's programming had evolved to such a point that she could generate a heart wrenching scene as he saw the combination of determination, yet absolute vacant looks on the two women's faces when they had been ordered to die so everyone else would live.  When he'd looked around Engineering after the two had headed into the Jefferies tube, some had looked sad, but a few wore faces of hurt and betrayal as they'd stared right at him.  The only consolation was that the scenario had been simulated and they're faces had disappeared as the program had come to and end.  His steel look had never left though even after it was over.

His face betrayed none of tumult that he'd experienced in among the order as he put a smile on and shook hands with his Captain. "Thank you sir.  This is an honour for both of us." After Captain Ives had removed and pinned the new full pip on Lieutenant Ryn's collar, he turned to her and shook her her as he offered his wry grin. "Well Lieutenant, not JG, Azrin Ryn, looks like we're truly stuck with each other now.  Though now that I think about it, with that full pip on your collar, that means you've got the extra rank for me to shove all that paper work on you."  The big engineer crossed his arms.  "In fact, since the Ensigns are being worked to the bone in the tubes, I think there's a dozen other reports I need you to start generating so we can work them even harder.  What say you?  Think there's enough coffee or raktajino on the ship to keep you going through all that reading and assigning?"

Re: Day 18 [0850 hrs] We shiny? Yeah We shiny.

Reply #13 –
[ Lt. Azrin Ryn | Conference Lounge | Deck 1 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @RyeTanker

To her relief, the Captain had understood her explanation, nodding along eagerly as Ives expressed hope that they wouldn’t have to use the slipstream drive with the ship partially assembled. All of this research on how to make their benamite supplies last longer, and here she was installing an option that would deplete it exponentially faster. She really needed to find that solvent Corgin had been talking about.

When the topic was changed to something not engineering related, Azrin felt her attention waning. Nice as the sentiment was, commendations weren’t something that interested her. All she’d ever needed was the trust of the higher ups when it came to working on warp cores. Getting the chance to work on the slipstream drive was the greatest gift she’d ever been given in her life. Frank putting her in charge of it was a dream come true. How could a commendation compare to the endless joy she found in engineering every day?

Her demeanor did noticeably brighten when Thea was called into the room, the trill beaming at the AI and mouthing a silent “Hi!” in her direction. She hadn’t been overly focused on what Ives was doing — some people were pacers, and Azrin was a tinkerer, so who was she to judge? — until she put a small box in front of Lieutenant Arnold. At which point Azrin nearly bounced out of her chair. Frank was getting promoted! That was amazing! He’d been a wonderful department head in the two weeks she’d known him, so she was certain that he’d be an excellent commander. Azrin bit her tongue to keep herself from interrupting the captain with some exuberant congratulations, bright eyes so fixed on Frank that she didn’t notice a box had been placed in front of her too.

"And you, - Junior Lieutenant Azrin Ryn - are hereby promoted to the permanent rank of Lieutenant…”

Wait, what?

Thankfully, her muscles had been well trained to follow orders. Even in the midst of her confusion she still stood up when told, head turning between Ives, Arnold, and Thea in shock. Frank, as always, looked entirely calm. That in itself wasn’t overly surprising. He had to be the most unflappable person she’d ever met, planting himself in engineering like a mountain while Azrin whiled around in her own personal tornado. Maybe he’d been expecting his own promotion, well deserved as it was.

The Captain was only slightly taller than her in this form, but Azrin still tilted her head out of the way when the hollow pip was plucked from her collar and replaced by the new shiny one. “Thank you sir,” she said right on Frank’s heels, his own appreciation kick-starting her words. Then the newly minted Commander Arnold turned to her, and immediately confirmed all the reasons Azrin had never wanted another promotion. She dropped his hand and groaned. “You ruined it! This could have been a great moment! I was about to go plan a party for you! Root everyone out of the tubes for a congratulatory party! But now I have to do paperwork.” She said paperwork like it was the most terrible thing in existence, a horrible necessity keeping her from something better. “There are so many more fun things we could be doing!”

There wasn’t enough coffee. But maybe if she got some grease on it, people would still think the pip was hollow? Then she could go back to work as normal? How high ranked did someone have to be before they could get a yeoman to do their paperwork for them?

- FIN
 
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