Courting the Engineer

Posted on Sun Jun 30, 2019 @ 10:18am by Admiral Zachary O'Connell & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes

Mission: Refits and Reviews
Timeline: MD 5 || 1030 hours

Since talking with Breckenredge, Admiral Zachary O’Connell hadn’t long to formulate his plan to snare a shipless Captain. The direct approach would not work. He would have to take an indirect action by starting with someone else, someone who just happened to be among his short list of potential acquisitions anyway.

“Computer,” the Admiral inquired from within the turbo lift’s solitude, “locate Master Chief Thomas Barnes.”

The computer replied almost instantly. “Master Chief Barnes is on Deck Five, Section Twelve.”

“Well then,” Zachary said, tugging at the bottom of his uniform. “Take me there.” For the next few moments, he found himself impressed with the turbo lift’s speed and its lack of transferring its inertia to the passenger it carried. Before long, the doors parted, allowing Tom to exit into a corridor.

Unlike the rest of Triumphant, this section had been darkened, lit only by emergency lighting. All along the corridor, panels had been removed, exposing tens of meters of internal workings. New holes had been drilled into the corridor support braces, indicating new piping was about to be run through. Plenty of new pipes and couplings had been piled nearby, stacked neatly with tool chests placed about for easy access to certain items. Personnel occupied the corridor as well, preparing for installation of the new power lines.

While he was making his observations, one of the engineers called out, “ch’Dane, I hope you remembered the interlocks this time.” The blonde looked up a moment later, only after when no response came, to find a silhouette in the dark corridor. “Um… this is a restricted area. Really for your own safety.”

“That’s all right,” Tom said, stepping forward into the light. Nodding towards the blonde crewman, he added, “You might make sure to apply two coats of anti-static primer to the holes you drilled. These Type-J conduits are great for power flow, but are sensitive to static electricity, which can easily build up in these corridor braces. Don’t want to risk shorting out couplings, especially in a corridor junction.”

“Uh…” the crewman said, looking back at her work, and then back to the four-star admiral. “You’re an engineer, Admiral? Sir?” Then, she fully realized who she was talking to. She leapt from her knees to her feet and stood at attention.

“Former life,” he said with a smile. “At ease. I’m looking for Master Chief Barnes, your supervising officer.”

The blonde stammered for a moment, still amazed she was talking to a top-ranking flag officer. “Yes, sir. Of course, sir.” She looked around, trying to re-orient herself. Looking back to the Admiral, she jabbed a thumb behind her. “Second left ahead, sir.”

Zachary fought the urge to chuckle at the young woman’s expense. “Thank you, crewman. Carry on.”

The Admiral left her to resume her work and walked in the direction she indicated. He arrived all too quickly at the second left, and there he found an open door. The room inside was dark, save for a couple floodlights pointed at a direction of a crouching figure, huddled over an access port of the massive piece of equipment that had been brought into the room. Zachary knew full well what he was looking at, especially since the technology was something he’d given the order to roll out on a few select vessels prior to his reassignment. It was no surprise that the Triumphant was being upgraded as well. “Master Chief Barnes?” He called out.

The hunched figure stopped working for a moment, then turned around to see the new arrival. Tom had been fully engrossed in connecting the primary power leads that had been installed in the generator, despite the fact the power lines leading to the generator room had yet to be installed. Portable generators had been temporarily installed, just for early configuration and alignment. What frustrated him was that nothing yet worked. Most of Tom’s team had moved on to bringing in the next armor generator to the next section, while Tom and an assistant remained behind to work out the kinks in hopes to be able to make adjustments when the next generator was ready. A few minutes ago, Tom had sent that assistant for some tools, and Tom hadn’t thought he’d be back so quickly. For that reason, and others, Tom was surprised to see an Admiral there. “Admiral?” He asked, rising to his feet. “Can I help you, sir?”

Zachary didn’t answer right away, instead, he stepped forward taking a look at the armor generator. He no more marveled in its design than he did wonder what was wrong with it. Everything he saw so far indicated an installation, yet there seemed to be so few people involved in the project. “What’s wrong with the generator, Chief?” He asked, stepping forward to brush his hand along a pipeline.

“Just a few minor kinks, sir,” Tom replied, wondering what the flag officer was doing there. “Is this is a surprise inspection, Admiral?”

O’Connell chuckled, looking back at the enlisted man. “Not exactly,” he told Tom. “But, am I correct in assuming that you’re suffering from power and alignment issues? Rumor has it that there were a couple flaws in the replicator patterns and instructions. I’d have thought those patches would have been sent down the pipeline by now.”

“Sounds like poor management,” Tom quipped, still confused with the Admiral’s presence. “Sir.”

Zach kept his smile. “Here,” he said, removing his belt and starting to unzip his jacket. “Let me give you a hand. Do you have a Dualitic inverter?” Tom nodded and pointed over to the nearby tool chest. “Great. Make room for two over there, and make sure you’ve got a cravitic caliper set for two-point-six.”

“Aye, aye,” Tom said awkwardly. “I take it you’re an engineer by upbringing?”

Zach chuckled again, now that he was down to just his red uniform shirt. He grabbed the inverter and joined the Master Chief at the maintenance hatch. “Something like that,” he said, getting down on his knees. “Run the calipers on the A-Seven and A-Eight regulators to ensure maximum torque. My last engine room was aboard the USS Delphinus, Sovereign class. She’s also where I began my command journey.”

It was Tom’s turn to chuckle as he started to make the adjustments. “Sovereigns are nice. But, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Saber. Only served on one of those.”

“Sabers?” Zachary began running the inverter over a few of the relays. “I’ve always wondered what possessed those designers to come up with a configuration like that. My best theory was that someone lost a bet over whether or not a drunk design would even function.”

“Yet they became a mainstay of the Sixth Fleet,” Tom pointed out.

“That they did,” O’Connell verified. “And if it weren’t for those Sabers, the Federation would never have been able to respond to the crisis in the Argolis Cluster as quick as they did.

Tom glanced down at his tricorder, which had remained open at the bottom of the hatch in all of this. “Looks like we’re now receiving seventy percent of available power, but its not enough to bring this to life yet. Run the inverter through the material flow tube, make sure its polarized properly.”

“Good call,” the Admiral said, purposely ignoring the fact a Master Chief gave the Admiral an order. “Regulators B-Two and A-Five should be registering at four point six and one point seven respectively. That should get you up to ninety four percent.”

“Thanks.” Tom moved further down the hatch to make the adjustments. “I have to admit, Admiral, I’m a bit surprised to see you here.”

“I seem to have a knack for that today.” Zach brandished his smile again. “Truth is, I’m actually here for you.”

“Am I to expect a recruiting speech?” Tom finished with B-Two and moved back to A-Five. It made. Sense, actually. Tom just as easily have been served orders. But this… this was headhunting. “Tricorder is reading ninety-six percent power flow.

Zach finished with the inverter and shut it off. “Should be good to turn it all on now and verify alignment diagnostics.” As Tom shut off his tools and prepared to power it all up, Zach rose to his feet and followed the Master Chief over to the diagnostic console, he answered, “Depends on how open you are to hearing about a new exploration initiative.”

“One that the Triumphant won’t be going on?” Tom began the initialization process. “Frankly, Admiral, I just got assigned as Chief Engineer. I’ve got a life here.”

“You’re also one of two Master Chiefs in a twenty-lightyear radius,” the Admiral countered. “The other option has already announced plans to retire. Make sure,” Zachary said, pointing at a couple places on the schematic, “that your emitters are aligned to three-point-nine degrees, and the titanium flow is set for three meters per microsecond. Anything less will clog the flow couplers.”

Tom made the appropriate adjustments and began the diagnostic. “If that’s the case, why court me and not order me?”

“Exploration is demanding,” the Admiral explained. “Far more demanding than anything most personnel experience in their lifetime. There’s little relief, and it lasts for years at a time. I accepted the leadership of this endeavor on the condition that its key members would volunteer. And that includes the upper echelon of non-comms. I know you like a challenge, Mister Barnes, or so your service record indicates. I figured this would be right up your alley.”

Tom shook his head and focused his attention on the screens as the results began to filter through.

Meanwhile, Zach retrieved his jacket and pulled out an isolines chip from a pocket inside the left flap. “The details are all here, Mister Barnes. I’m about to go see Captain Weisz and give her a similar speech. I understand you two will be a package deal, which is perfect really. You both can think it over, but the offer’s only good for the next twenty-four hours.” He patted the Master Chief of the shoulder. “Don’t wait too long. And don’t give the Captain a heads up. That one is an order.” He gave Tom a smile before turning and leaving.

Tom remained behind, staring out the door for a few moments, bewildered by the experience. Of all of the things he expected for a moment, that certainly wasn’t one of them. He shook his head as he picked up the chip. Curiosity got the best of him, prompting him to place it in the open reader slot and begin to read.

He and Maddy had much to discuss later.


~~To Be Continued…~~