Up to Date

Posted on Wed May 22, 2019 @ 8:42pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Commodore Michael Aravan

Mission: Refits and Reviews
Location: Engineering
Timeline: MD 1 || 1000 Hours

The thrum of the single warp core of the three running was barely perceptible. With the ship docked at Deep Space 10, the other two hadn't been needed and the Commodore was pleased with the way everything else had gone. He was also pleased to be told that his migraines would likely never return again. What he wasn't pleased about was the circumstances that the new Assistant Chief of Medical had been introduced, but that was for his and Maddy's ears, and the current Chief of Medical and Security's ears as well. Too many ears Michael decided and then looked around for the newly switched Chief of Engineering.

Repairs after the ordeal in the Badlands had gone better than Tom could have hoped, leaving him in a quiet Engineering to better familiarize himself with the ship's internal workings. As Operations Chief, he was responsible for managing the ship's resources. As Engineer, he was now responsible for the maintenance and upgrades of all of the systems, which was an entirely different matter. Today, he'd chosen to analyze the tricore and the dynamics between each of the systems. Tom was doing so at a side station, reviewing data on a screen with two padds set nearby; one of which was a glossary and the other a notepad. He was so absorbed in his studies that he did not notice the newest arrival in Engineering.

After spotting the Ops Chief, who was nearly as tall as he was, Michael walked over to him, his voice raised like normal when Engineering was in full swing. "Mister Barnes!" he called as he walked over and slapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh crap!" he called out, nearly jumping out of his skin as he didn't expect visitors, much less a firm slap on the shoulder and a loud voice ringing in his ear. He spun around to see the Commodore standing there. "Comm... Commodore?"

Michael gave a chuckle and removed his hand. "Sorry, Chief, but you looked occupied. Is this a bad time?"

"Not really," Tom replied, closing his eyes and shaking his head. If only he could still cycle those bonsais through the transporter, but he would simply have to look for a new opportunity in the future for a subtle way to retaliate against the prankster flag officer. "What can I do for you?"

"It's that time, Master Chief," the Commodore said after he removed his hand from the other man's shoulder. "Time to upgrade our armor and you're going to be point for it. We've been assigned as a test bed for ablative armor and all the schematics for it have been sent to your station."

"Armor?" Tom turned and keyed in a command into the holographic screen to see that the schematics were indeed there. He opened the file to see a simulation of the armor wrap itself around a wireframe of the Triumphant. "Whoa," he remarked. He'd heard of this armor thanks to the stories of Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant, but the technology had been quickly hidden away. He already had lots of questions, the first and foremost of them being the power requirements to generate and sustain the armor.

"I take it that you like it?" Michael asked with a smirk. "I know it'll certainly keep your department busy, but I'll work in a rotation for you to get to spend some time on Deep Space 10 while we're there."

Tom chuckled. "Frankly, Commodore, it's a sad day when Engineers need to be kept busy. If it's all the same to you, I'm still catching up on learning my billet on the Triumphant. I'd be using my time off doing the same thing I'm doing now."

"You'll be getting an assistant chief soon to help out, and you have a fine department that's kept the ship together with all we've been through," Michael said. "Just keep an eye on Lieutenant Devereaux. He's a bit unruly, but he's a damned good Damage Control Specialist."

Chuckling again, Tom added, "Devereaux? Seems like quite the character to always be on the Commodore's mind for someone who's not a senior officer."

"Just keep an eye on him, Chief," Michael said. "And don't let him do an unless otherwise directed. Put everything, and I do mean everything he is not allowed to do in writing and get his retina scan, voice confirmation and a fingerprint from him saying he acknowledges it."

Tom found himself absolutely curious why the Commodore was so vehement that he be careful with Devereaux, and all of these conditions that were being laid out in front of him only caused Tom's smile to fade. "Commodore," Tom said, looking carefully around Engineering to be sure no one was in earshot before looking back to Aravan. "If this means that much to you, why don't I just look into transferring the Lieutenant to a new billet elsewhere? I have quite a few connections, and I'm certain I can find him something quickly."

The Commodore shook his head vehemently. "Under no circumstances will you attempt to remove him from this department, Master Chief Barnes. He has almost twenty years of experience, but he hates his rank. Claims that if he gets made Ensign, he won't have to do PADDwork, but his skill in Damage Control is on par with some of the best in the Federation. He'll try your patience just to see what you're made of, yet work even with a burned or broken hand until the job is done."

He raised his eyebrows even further, prompting Tom to say, "Commodore, you've never micromanaged your Senior Staff like this before, at least not me. Who is this guy to you? If I didn't know better, I'd say this is some sort of long-long half brother that you are still responsible for."

"I'm the first commanding officer ever to convince him to not attempt to get demoted in his career, Chief," Michael said. "The only one he's shown enough respect to from what his record says. I plan on keeping it and turning him into a fine officer if I can help it. And like I said, he's one of the best DCS in the fleet."

The engineer bit back a sigh. He could appreciate the Commodore's zeal to see someone achieve more than a foolish ambition, but Tom couldn't allow himself to compromise the ship or the team he was charged to lead for the sake of one man. "I'll keep an eye on him, Commodore," Tom simply replied, choosing to say nothing further.

"Good," Michael said. "If you need extra hands on the ablative armor refit, I'll see if I can get Admiral Breckenridge to send some over from the station."

"I could use a few," Tom quickly jumped in. "I'm sure they've already taken care of a ship or two, so it'd be good to have some extra bodies that know what they're doing for the installation."

"Then I'll see what I can do, Master Chief," Michael told him. "Do you think you'll need anything else?"

"Probably not." Tom added a shake of his head to further illustrate his thoughts. "I'll need a bit to review the schematics with the team, and we can probably get started first thing in the morning. I might need Ops' assistance as well as we integrate into the power systems."

Michael gave a nod. "Then get to it, Chief. We'll be on another mission before you know it." With that, the Commodore turned and walked out.

Tom raised and lowered his eyebrows, still processing what the flag officer had said about a member of the Engineering team. "One problem at a time," he muttered before looking back to the ablative schematics. "One problem at a time..."