Let's Get Down To Business

Posted on Wed Oct 11th, 2023 @ 3:16pm by Lieutenant Commander Victoria Aries

1,352 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Ethics, Morals & The Prime Directive.
Location: Main Engineering

It was back to Engineering for her, the words of the Captain rippling in her ears and she knew that she was going to have one helluva time getting everything under control involving the entire ship. She keyed the turbolift to not stop at any other locations until it got back to Engineering and she put her mind to those seven all-important engineers that headed up her subdepartments at the moment.

Lieutenant Ar'den Zh'dan was an Andorian, technically her official Assistant Chief and rather knowledgeable about the ship all of his own. He headed her Engines subdepartment and had been one of the people who'd actually BUILT the Dreadnought, not just one of the people assigned. She felt bad for taking what probably should have been his slot, but the Admirals and Captains had their own reasons, no doubt.

Lieutenant Brianna Harmon was her human Weapons subdepartment head, the one who had to make sure that all 27 of the phaser arrays, four torpedo tubes and the 66 point defense turrets that EACH housed a pair of pulse phaser cannon and two micro-torpedo launchers were in good operating shape. That was a massive task all of its own, Victoria knew.

Then there was Lieutenant Xavier Teldarian, a Betazoid who had the equally daunting task of ensuring ALL of the small craft on board were in tip top condition. While the fighters had their own maintenance crews, he was available to them when he wasn't servicing the Defiants or any of the massive flock of shuttles and runabouts that the ship boasted. Victoria made the mental note to make herself available when possible to assist him and his small army.

The other one she'd make herself available for was the one in charge of the computer systems, Lieutenant Leslie Vernet and she definitely wanted to track her down at some point. She knew a Captain Andrew Vernet from her OCS time on the Warspite and figured she may be that little sister that he'd gone on about being in some sort of important post. She smirked at that one.

The defensive systems, ie the shielding systems, navigational deflectors and the like, were watched over by Lieutenant Flora Vivant, a Trill whose face hadn't changed in that initial meet of the senior engineers. But, she was apparently very good at what she did, just standoffish.

Lieutenant Bax'la Drovin was yet another one of the faces, a near human from Sigma Iota III who had charge of the life support systems, arguably one of the most important of them all. She apparently liked to dress provocatively, but was also apparently very good at her job.

Finally, the last of the senior engineers was the one in charge of Damage Control, a Lieutenant Harold Bennington who spoke in a high English accent, but whose voice was clear as a sunny summer day. Perfect for someone who was due to be the director if and when the ship took some sort of damage. He seemed to be the heart of the engineering crew and laughed heartily when he found out how her last name was pronounced.

They were waiting for her when she exited the turbolift again, all standing around the center table and just kibbitzing with each other. The warning that she'd given them had allowed them to return from where they'd been at the time. "The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." The six officers gave pro-forma chuckles, "But seriously thank you all for coming back, I know you're all busy." She waved at the center table, "Harry, can you bring up the holo?"

"Of course, mum." The Englishman allowed, keying in a few commands and a skeleton-view of the Dreadnought came into view above the table, one of the ways that it could be told just how big the ship herself was. The deck markers were just too close together and Victoria went slightly paler than before.

"Thanks. Okay, so I know that you all have been on board much longer than me, not that it's too hard to do it." She glanced around at each of them, "I'm still trying to comprehend what I've walked into, but I'm not one to just sit back and let everything be, I do intend to be as involved as I can be. Yes, I know that I can't be everywhere at once, but I'm available at all times to all of you. So, to start with: What's the status of the ship? Any known problems or issues?"

"Life support is only at 95%." Bax stated directly, cocking one hip to the side, "That's up ten percent from a week ago, though, I'll have it up to a hundred percent once I find that last glitch. I've narrowed it down to a handful of possibles, but each involves taking part of the system down to take it apart." She shrugged sharply, "Can't do it no faster."

"All right," Victoria nodded, "Keep on it and keep me updated. Next?"

"Structural integrity is a bit wonky right now, and the worriesome thing is that at least part is with the engines. I'm not sure what happened, but it's something from the construction of the ship." This was Zh'dan, the one who'd been in on the Dreadnought's initial build. The fact that it came from him and he seemed apologetic about it reassured Victoria a bit, but he continued, "There's a lot of new technology aboard and we were experimenting with new construction techniques. We thought we'd gotten the glitches out, but there's a lot of ship to go over and things might have gotten overlooked."

"Keep running things down." Victoria said softly with a slight smile, "How big is each engine again?"

"Size of a Galaxy-class." Zh'dan remarked with a snort of laughter.

Galaxy-class nacelles were large, yes, but she'd been aboard one and going over it with a fine-toothed comb would take oh... Eight hours, "Good, go over her two nacelles a day, shouldn't be too hard. Two crews go over one each, let Beta review the scans and you and I can go over the results each morning. Three days and we should be fine."

There was silence in the room as the seven of them gave each other glances that ranged from outright shock, to the amused smiles between Vernet and Drovin, then Zh'dan cleared his throat, "I'm sorry, Commander, I think I know where you're going, but it's not quite as simple as you think." He punched in a few commands on the center console and the outline of a Galaxy-class starship appeared, just about the size of... "This is to scale, ma'am." He said quietly.

The Galaxy was lined up nearly perfectly with the nacelle and from stem to stern maybe outmatched it by a dozen meters in length, but beam and height? "Oh." Victoria said, definitely going pale, "I see." She shook her head and reset her thinking, leaning onto the console to stare blankly into the holo, "Let me rethink things. Put together an inspection schedule by this evening and we'll take it from there. Anyone else?"

After everyone had shaken their heads about no major issues, one of them finally spoke, "Mum, I know you're just arrived on board, but I'd like to run a couple simulations with you at your earliest discretion." Bennington smiled at her, "Even if just to see what we do in DCC. Exercises like these will give us a chance to know what you're like in a crisis and help you get to learn the ship a bit better."

"Very well." Victoria agreed without knowing precisely what she was getting herself into, "Let's put that on my plate for tomorrow, then." She straightened up again, "I'm out of the area for the rest of the day, I need to pick a few things up and explore the ship a little bit. Ladies and Gentlemen, my comm is always on and I'm always available, no matter the time of day or night. If there's nothing else," She smiled broadly, "Have a great rest of your afternoon."

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