An Admiral In Engineering

Posted on Mon Sep 16th, 2024 @ 8:20pm by Admiral S'iraa & Lieutenant Commander Victoria Aries

2,113 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Let That Be Your Last
Location: Damage Control Center
Timeline: Post Arrival

He was coming. That was the warning that Victoria had received from an anonymous source, but given two of the words in the message had been spelled rather oddly, as if from another time period, she guessed it was likely from that Executive Officer that had been bugging her from time to time about the repairs. As for who 'He' was? If it were just the Captain, there would be no need for the warning, so it had to be this Admiral that she'd heard from one of her crews working on the port hanger deck had arrived. And so DCC was in a frenetic mode getting everything cleaned up and organized in a 'pretty' manner rather than the way it actually worked best for them.

As for herself, Victoria was running down the lists of what had been damaged, what had been repaired, what was in progress and what was pushed off to the side as relatively irrelevant for the immediate time being. That last list was long, ridiculously long, but it was rather accurate in her eyes. Lieutenant Bennington was getting updates from the external crews and updating her list even as she was reading it and she stepped back briefly to glance over the master hologram in the center to look at the yellow, orange and steadily reducing red notations on it signifying damage.

S'iraa was a feline of action, if something wasn't happening he'd want to know why, if it was then he'd want to know by when it would be completed. Given his size most shifted out of his way and his knowledge of the ship allowed him to get around easily and for this moment Engineering was his destination. He had read that the ship had a new Chief Engineer since he last Mastered the ship so he was keen to see what this Commander could do. If the state of the ship was anything to go by, she'd have her hands full.

Walking into DCC he could see the hustle of officers rushing about carrying out duties but S'iraa sought only one officer. He stopped a Lieutenant who seemed shocked but S'iraa could tell if it was the surprise at seeing a huge feline, or an Admiral. Once pointed in the right direction S'iraa spotted someone fitting the description.

"Commander Aries."

She'd seen something out of the corner of her eye, but Victoria had people to take care of newcomers to the area and make sure that they were where they were supposed to be. At the sound of the voice her head turned and she drew herself up at the sight. A massive uniformed being of fur and muscle stood there, far larger than any of the skaters she'd ever gone up against in her time playing professional hockey. She swallowed as she made herself turn to face him and kept her hands free, "Good Afternoon Admiral, I'm Commander Central, welcome to Damage Control Aries." Her eyes closed as she realized what she'd said, but didn't correct herself as she forced her eyes open again.

There was no mistaking the slight raise of one eye brow at the word mix up but S'iraa let it pass. "I would like an update on the repairs and general operational status of the ship?" Considering what he'd seen from the Bridge of the ship he arrived on it painted a poor picture. While he knew he could ask the Captain or First Officer for an update he knew asking himself was not hindering progress nor divert others from that which he could ask for himself.

“Of course, sir, if you’ll step over here please.” Victoria made room on the long side of the central hologram for him, “Harry, I’ll take it from here for the moment.” The older Lieutenant glanced over the Admiral and nodded, moving to a secondary station. Victoria manipulated the controls to bring the dorsal aspect of the ship hologram into view.

“First, Admiral, thank you for the additional assets to assist in the repairs. With Diligent and Achares’ assistance, we have the detached nacelle, Echo, reattached and have a level One diagnostic running to make sure it’s realigned properly. At some point, we’ll need a dry dock slip or a full-up repair ship with some of the design team out to properly handle it, but we can compensate for any misalignment issues.” She highlighted the warp nacelle in question, then the other which was still marked in red, “Bravo, on the other hand, may need to be rebuilt from the ground up. I have three teams working on a component-level survey as we speak. We are warp capable as of now, but less than fully because I’ve locked Bravo and Echo out of system until we have them up and certified.” She paused in case he wanted to ask any questions.

That answered the propulsion side of things, but there was always more to it. "What about life support, EPS grid, weapons and shields?" His eyes roaming over the hologram before him, absorbing the information it revealed. "Have you had an opportunity to investigate the kinetic projectiles weapons that impacted the ship?"

“We were able to recover a damaged specimen of the projectiles and aside from some short-duration maneuvering thrusters, they are a tungsten alloy and rely on pure kinetic force.” Victoria glanced down at the console, “Stealth coating which is why we didn’t see them coming in. Sensors literally couldn’t see them, sir. Life support was never compromised, and power was only ever down on a local basis and only until it was rerouted. Lieutenant Massy has that under control and has performed Admirally.” She cringed, another verbal gaffe.

“Shields are fully functional, we had them down for rescue operations when the attack came in. We do have some damage to one of the phaser arrays, but the combat capability of Dreadnought has only been very minimally affected. The armor took most of the hits, which is basically cosmetic. Point defense didn’t even see them coming in, which is why the bridge is in the process of being rebuilt right now.”

"I saw on my way over one of the Escort bays in the stern of the ship has been damaged. Are the escorts themselves functional or did they sustain damage in the attack also?" S'iraa asked knowing that to know what the ship could do, part of it meant knowing what it couldn't. He expected to meet with the Captain and the First Officer again but he at least wanted to get a heads up on the condition of the ship instead of going into the meeting blind.

"Both escorts are fine, one has some very minor shock damage, but is still fully operational. Their forward sensor array needs recalibrating, that's it." Victoria manipulated the hologram to swing the rear end of the ship back towards them, highlighting several spots of yellow, "One of the hatches needs to work done to it to make sure it opens properly, but worst case scenario I believe the emergency ejection system will still clear it so the escort can launch. We've already repaired the impulse manifolds so our sublight speed and maneuverability, such as it is, is no longer impaired at all."

Though the large bulk of the ship took the brunt of the damage the ship was made up of more than just the parts and sections used by Starfleet personnel. "Were any of the internal sections damaged, crew quarters, civilian sections, cargo holds, fuel storage tanks or emergency generators?" While the situation wasn't perfect, he knew from past experience that a paniced civilian population would draw vital man power and resources away from repair duties.

"Localized decompressions only, from the reports, no casualties caused by them and the emergency forcefields deployed automatically. All locations have been visited and repaired." Victoria made a single gesture to the hologram, "The armor really did it's job well, Admiral, prevented any real penetrations. If this were anything smaller, like a Galaxy or Akira, the damage would have been far worse."

"You are new on board, correct?" S'iraa spoke, he obviously knew the answer but Victoria didn't. He wondered how she was fairing knowing that a posting such as hers to the Dreadnought, the largest ship in service and typically filled by full Commanders, was a role she currently occupied. "What do you think of the ship? How are you handling the responcibility and pressure that comes with your role?"

"I have the best sub-department heads in Starfleet, sir." Victoria stated proudly, "Any of which I would endorse for their own engineering section on any Starfleet vessel in the Fleet." She truly was reliant on them and she knew it, "That has made the transition and running of Dreadnought much easier, especially since most of them have been on board since the ship launched. I am a recent arrival and my officers haven't been easy on me, they expect me to know what I'm talking about and what I'm doing and I do hope I haven't disappointed them. I'll admit that I was asked for to take over Engineering here, Admiral, I'd have expected maybe even a Captain in charge of this engineering section. There's more people in Engineering than on board my last ship in total."

"I will be placing my flag aboard the Dreadnought." The statement not merely casually but a bold and direct statement. Admiral's Flagships were held to a much higher standard, expectations were high, performance exceptional and action swiftly executed because the ship and its performance was a reflection of the Admiral on board. "She may not be as agile as a Defiant, or graceful in appearance as a Galaxy Class but she is none the less, my Flagship. You are right that given her unique design and status that more ranking officers would be in charge of departments and that may well come to pass in time." While it wasn't strictly a threat to Victoria, it could be viewed as an opportunity for her.

'Which means I'll be transferred or made a sub-department head.' Victoria thought to herself and kept it right there, to herself. She'd been made a Lieutenant Commander shortly before arriving on Dreadnought and while Admirals had plenty of leeway in granting promotions, she was so far out of the zone for potential promotion that it was laughable to even consider. "You can expect Engineering to keep up the quality of work that you would come to expect of any Admiral's flagship, Admiral. I expect that in a month, give or take a week, Dreadnought will be fully repaired aside from some cosmetic armor damage."

"Good, I'd like you to copy me in on status updates to the command staff. While I am not out to step on Captain De Havilland's toes, this is still my Flagship." Feeling however that he'd taken up plenty of the Commander's time with this current conversation however. "I shall leave you to your duties, I have taken up enough of your time."

"It hasn't been a problem at all, Admiral, and you're welcome to come down to engineering at any time and we'll be happy to have you." Victoria tried to give a bright smile, but knew that it wasn't precisely what she'd wanted it to be. Is there someone on your staff you'd like me to work through, or directly to you?"

"I have no staff, yet, presently I am on my own until settled." S'iraa answered though the reminder did make him consider to start looking for a staff now that he was on board. "Until then, directly to myself." Though he would need a staff soon, there was no way he'd be able to handle updates from all the departments of the ship himself...that was the First Officer's job while he was last Master of the Dreadnought.

"Will do, Admiral, I tend to send out three daily reports, 0800, 1300 and then 1900 for the evening updates. If something else major happens during the day, I'll send an additional one. Once we're back up to snuff, it'll just be the morning and evening reports and they'll be pretty light." She smoothed down the skirt as she stepped away from the console, "And I'm always available, day or night, Admiral."

"Commander." S'iraa spoke, a slight nod and a turn indicating the conclusion of the meeting. He could feel the many sets of eyes on him as he walked but it came with the territory, which he wasn't fully sure on being a large feline or an Admiral but it was the same to him.

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