Supernova (Part 3 of 5)

Posted on 20 Sep 2018 @ 12:44pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant JG Manuel Lucero & Ensign Miraj Derani & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Luke Wyatt & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Azra Ghoc & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen & Master Chief Petty Officer Kai Mazen & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Gorvel & Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald Andrews & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Crewman Draia Thero
Edited on on 20 Sep 2018 @ 12:58pm

3,494 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Rigel II - Avondale Shipyards, USS Galileo-A
Timeline: MD 146, 1741 hrs

Previously, on Supernova (Part 2)...

"...I..am fine? Thank you?" answered Saalm's confused voice, clearly surprised at the hologram's direct reply. "Commander?" she then said, asking Warraquim to verify.

"Just a few small glitches that need to straightened out, nothing that will prevent proper launching." Allyndra was hopeful that was all it was. She too was a bit surprised at the EMH response but then again she had told it/her/whatever to be more outgoing.

"Understood. Thank you, commander," Lirha replied. "We'll be underway soon."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 7, Engineering

"ATTENTION USS Galileo departing in T minus two hours..."

"Two hours eh." Donald said sliding his chair across to a different console. "Guess we should get the warp core fired up." He said loud enough for the rest of the engineers to hear. He looked across at the heart of the ship, the warp core was practically new, only around 50 hours on it but it was a tried and tested design albeit a more powerful one than the older version of the ship.

"I supposin' that might be a good idea. Nothin' more embarrassing for the Captain then to go to warp and nothing happens." John replied.

"What do you think," asked Draia Thero, "the Captain would do if that happened?" Having been called to duty stations while she was out of uniform, Draia was hastily pulling on an engineering jumpsuit --mustard in colour-- as she scampered from out of a utility closet. "Blow us out an airlock and tell us to push?"

"That would not surprise me Draia." Donald replied. Back in the 'age of sail' they'd often pull the ship along using the ships small boats if they had no wind. "But lets hope that it doesn't happens." He tappd his combadge. =/\= Engineering to bridge. =/\=

The voice of a junior engineer came through to Saalm's commbadge while she was now seated in the primary command chair. "Bridge, go ahead."

=/\=We are ready to bring the warp core online.=/\= Donald announced.

From across the compartment, and well outside the pick-up of Donald's combadge, Draia added, "Probably," for her own amusement. For all her doubt, Draia inspected and confirmed the warp coil alignment at the LCARS console she was handling.

Azra had taken a turbolift down to engineering. She walked quietly through the busy area, keeping to non-essential areas. Her goldenrod collar helped her to avoid some notice here. It was easy to listen in on the conversations around her.

Although all of the senior officers aboard were fairly experienced, she noticed a few new enlisted personnel. People who carried out their tasks with all of the ceremony and exactness taught in Advanced Enlisted Training, but without the comfortable ease more experienced crew often had. They'd learn, and if she did her job they'd never get sloppy.

Catching sight of Azra Ghoc through the corner of her eyes, Draia Thero audibly gasped and hugged her console tighter. For many of the engineers aboard Galileo, Ghoc could fade into the background. For the Cardassian Crewman Thero, Ghoc was an unfamiliar reminder of back home. And she'd had a hell of an impressive Starfleet career so far, the way the other enlisted told it.

"Chief!" Draia said in needless alarm. "Ohmigod, Chief," she went on. Draia started to ask, "Is everything... all right?" Quickly, she realized she didn't know why she was panicking or what she wanted to know. She supposed she had never seen the Boatswain in engineering aboard her last posting; at least, not at a ceremonious time like this. Waving a grey hand at the warp coil diagnostics, Draia asked, "Am I... doing this right?"

"Everything is fine, crewman," Azra reassured. She looked at the console where Draia was working. The diagnostics were largely automated, but the trick was in how the data was interpreted. Of course, Azra wasn't an expert in engineering, let along warp coil diagnostics. "Rely on your training, and you'll do fine. You have plenty of mentors around you. Don't be afraid to ask them questions."

"Thank you, Chie--" Draia started to say, when an interjection from the comm system interrupted her.

"Engineering, bridge," sounded Saalm's voice over the comm, "we're ready for core initialization." The vessel's impulse fusion reactor was already online and powering all primary, secondary and auxiliary systems, but before the new Nova-class could reach its true potential, the matter/anti-matter reactor was needed to provide primary power to the nacelles in order to achieve warp travel.

Kavala stood her hands grasping the railing which surrounded the upper level of main engineering, the room was quiet as only a few crewmen moved about waiting for the order to begin the initialization sequence. Although new to the ship she had served in her fair share of engine rooms. Though this, be it small was impressive. Kavala had always served on small ship older ships so to be serving on the fleets flagship Nova refit was an honour and a privilege. Her train of thought was broken when the Captain's voice rang around and so began the work. "Aye aye Captain," She said looking around the engineers around her beging to move in unison. "Mr Hollenday, if you'd please bring up the temperature and pressure to 2-point-five million Kelvins, Miss Mimi prepare for injector alignment"

John began to bring the system up to temperature. The whole system had to be brought up to 2.5 million K using a combination of energy inputs from the electro-plasma system; and the MRI, and a "squeeze" from the upper magnetic constrictors. It was sort of like getting an old steam engine fired up. Slowly stoke the fire, to warm the water, before one really got things cooking. It took a while at least fifteen to twenty minutes. Finally indicators read the correct temperature. "System at correct operating temperature," he noted. "We should be ready for the first little bit of antimatter matter injection."

"Checking injector alignment." Donald said after moving to a console opposite John. "3cm reaction radius, good enough, beginning antimatter injection." As he started the process a minuscule amount of antimatter entered the reaction chamber compressed and guided by the Mcs towards the dilithium crystal and the stream of matter coming from the top injector.

Kavala's role, which was not just limited to overseeing the process was to monitor and control the generation of high levels of energy channelled to the electro-plasma system. As she watched the screen she grew nervous, at any point of this untested ships start-up the process could fail, no matter how many simulations ran, on the day if any part failed it meant bye bye main engineering, hell maybe bye bye Avondale shipyards. She waited patiently as the crystal alignment cradle positions the dilithium within the dilithium crystal articulation frame making sure that the edges of two facets lay parallel to the matter/anti-matter streams. "The reaction is reading at 1017 hertz, its within the EM frequencies tolerance." The tolerance that she spoke so confidently of was the EM Frequencies which was mediated by the dilithium and forced below the Upper EM frequencies of 1020 Hertz and the lower limit above 1012 Hertz. "Matter and Anti-Mater ratio stabilized and confirmed at twenty-five to one"

So far everything seemed good, but now was coming up the big reaction. He just monitored his station, but could not help muttering, "Hold onto your butts."

Kavala having done her part watched the core eagerly and nervously waiting... suddenly, Phrom and a ring of boysenberry light shooting in both direction from the center chamber of the warp core. Phrom, and another........Phrom and again the intervals between each getting shorter......Phrom.....Phrom... Phrom, Phrom, Phrom the thrumming bled out into engineering like an old earth steam engine starting to move for the first time it’s wheels turning and getting faster. The blue rings matched each phrom and then the finale like the whistle of steam. “Warp Core Initialisation Complete, Warp Core operating within nominal parameters,” said the computer sounding around main engineering and Kavala cheered, high fiving an engineering officer to her right. “The girl is good to go!” In her excitement she almost forgot. “Kavala to bridge, main engineering reports green across the board. Standing by for warp one entry.”

Despite all the celebrations there was still a lot of work to be done and diagnostics to be run. “Right people before we go anywhere let’s run a full diagnostic on all warp core functions.” Kavala returned to her station and began searching through the data and more specifically data regarding to the Warp Core containment. She put the request into the terminal and waited.

Looking up from her own diagnostic panel, Draia called out, "Warp field coils are converting plasma at" --she had to look back at the display and take a breath-- "98.2 efficiency." Despite her checking and double-checking, her voice still cracked when she spoke.

"Heck of way to travel," John muttered. "Constantly riding the back of annihilation."

In space, USS Galileo was situated snugly within her drydock berth's arms and came to life when the warp core powered up. The matter/anti-matter reaction chamber channeled the massive flow of raw energy through the EPS power taps then through the power transfer conduits before reaching the plasma injectors. Both of the Nova-class' dormant nacelles began to flicker and glow with blue luminosity while the warp field coils powered up.


Deck 1, Bridge

Miraj felt the mistakable prickle of the warp core through the skin of toes. The prickle turned into a tickle that put a giddy grin on her face. He was waking up, "He's Alive!" she cackled to herself, in her best mad scientist voice "Alive!"

Mimi laughed slightly at Miraj's reaction. "Warp core is online, beginning power transfer to primary systems." Slowly she routed power from the core and reduced the power from the fusion reactors.

Vansen looked over at Mimi before he looked back at his console. "I am initiating primary power flow to all secondary systems..." he said before he did it, smiling as he saw the results. "Holding stable." But he kept an eye in case there were any changes to the readouts.

Ullswater closed her eyes and under her breath muttered a quick prayer that what she was about to do would not break the ship or forever damage her standing among the crew. Then she thumbed in the control sequence to activate the long range and lateral deflector arrays and after a moment of silence her workstation proudly announced that both the long range and lateral deflector arrays were now online. With a similar pride she herself announced to the others, “Long range and lateral deflector arrays are now online and functioning normally. We should not be colliding with any rouge particles today."

Manuel swiped through the scrolling lines of return strings from the diagnostic algorithms that were sorting the systemic pings of the bridge consoles in review of their own respective internal modules. Remembering the old Galileo, he thought that he'd feel a little more nostalgic, again, since it was such a routine part of the maintenance and pre-flight phases on any ship. But this was a whole new animal, it seemed. Just as the his amazement at the recurring and subjective dissimilarities crossed his mind, the data he was looking for rendered with a speed that clearly surprised him. He didn't hesitate to report. "Electronic Counter and Counter Counter-Measures are a go; Modules are fully operational."

"All science stations show ready," Marisa reported. "All connections to auxiliary systems are operational."

As everything was verified and announced, the lights on the conn seemed to ripple. In the same time Miraj had a confirmation that everything else was on and working that she could physically feel, in the hum of the ship that massaged at her feet. She was starting to fidget with anticipation. Soon. Soon. "Warp, Impulse, Thrusters, Astrogation. The board is green. Ready to chart course, captain."

Blake followed the reports bouncing around the bridge, as well as keeping tabs on the small consol by her arm. She scrolled though the information flow, nodding with satisfaction. "The ship is ready and able to achieve warp," she assured the Captain before opening a channel to the drydock. "This is the USS Galileo, we are fully powered and ready for flight."

A short moment passed before a male voice replied across the comm. "Galileo this is control, we confirm flight-ready," the controller said after consulting his own station's console and sensor readings. "Standby for ordinance transfer in five."

"Understood," Scarlet assured before the channel closed. She glanced to Lirha, unable to keep the slight smile from her features. It was starting to feel real now, and it only spurred her on to want more.

PADD in hand seated in her chair, the captain looked to her XO to oversee the final and most dangerous maintenance phase before departure -- the transfer of the ship's torpedo ordinance and probe compliment. Each man-sized coffin was loaded with either an antimatter or zero-point quantum warhead, each of which was capable of destroying Galileo in its entirety if accidentally detonated from within the primary hull.

"Head down to deck four and let me know when the transfer is complete," Saalm said to Blake. "Take Master Chief Mazen, Chief Ghoc, and Ensign Ullswater."

"Yes, Captain," Scarlet pushed herself up quickly, keen to get things moving as she headed to the lift with swift strides. She tapped her commbadge on the move, to summon the team along with Wyatt for good measure.


Deck 4, Torpedo Launching System

Entering the room it was clear to Luke that he was first to arrive at the Torpedo room, before now he had only been in this room just once when he first explored the ship. The racks currently empty stood uniform along the walls and the floors, all connected on a sort of conveyor system towards the launchers. Running his hand along the empty frame work of the system he knew that one day these may be the very thing to get them out of a difficult spot.

"Have I interrupted a moment?" Blake asked lightly as she moved into the somewhat barren room, humour in her eyes at the way he ran his hand over the metal.

Ullswater entered the torpedo room following shortly after the commander. She looked up from her PADD to acknowledge the Chief of Security with a quick nod and a "Sir." before going back to pouring over the manifest in her hands as she walked over to one of the wall consoles on the upper level and began to check that everything matched up.

Azra walked into the room a few moments later than she had intended to. Not enough to be late, but she wasn't early either. "Good job on the briefing, Commander," she said as she stood next to Luke, "I listened in from the hallway."

Galileo's Boatswain looked at the console, which noted the number of torpedoes stored in this bay. In front of her was a reinforced railing looking over the feeding mechanism. From here she could start counting once the torpedoes arrived and were loaded into the racks.

"Spacedock to Galileo, we're ready to begin transport at your command," said the voice of the shipyard's dock controller over the comm within the two torpedo magazine-launchers.

Luke looked around the room "Everyone set?" he asked each having their own job at ensuring the torpedos ended up where they needed to be safely and carefully as possible so not to blow up and destroy the ship and probably the station before they even departed.

Scarlet gave a brisk nod, glancing upward out of instinct before replying to the controller, motioning with her hands for the others to be ready to move. "Energise."

Blake took a slight step back as the large shell shimmered into existence in front of them, nodding to the others. For such a solid looking thing, the transfer of the torpedo on the anti-grav dolley to the rack it would be secured in was a delicate and nerve testing process.

Ullswater watched the materialisation sequence of this presumably deadly weapon before climbing down the stairs to the lower layer. Tricorder in one hand and PADD in the other she cross referenced her readings with what the manifest suggested she should be seeing. "Everything looking normal so far..." she said, confirming her results.

"If anyone feels the need to bend over and kiss their ass goodbye, better do it now," Kai said. Kai only knew anything about torpedoes because they exploded and blowing things up was part of his training as a Raider.

Luke followed behind Ensign Ullswater checking the arming process and ensuring the torpedo was secure and in safe when Kai spoke. "There wont be any need of that Master Chief, if we do this right the next time we see these torpedoes is when were sending them towards the enemy." He checked the next torpedo as each transport became more and more frequent the starbase clearly wanting to finish this phase of the departure.

"Your mouth to the *Great Bird of the Galaxy's ears," Kai said, opening up a tricorder and scanning each torpedo as it came in.

Ullswater raised her eyebrows but continued to scan the new cargo and confirm each listing in the manifest. "I rather hope that we'll return here one day without any of these warheads detonating, through accident or use."

"Unfortunately Ensign, space isn't as friendly as it once was and while I don’t like to fire phasers and detonating warheads, I've learnt that if you're going to be on the frontier it’s a very likely aspect of space travel. Especially if you’re a smaller ship, the bullies out there tend to think we’re weaker." Luke said as the last of the torpedoes began to materialize.

"You don't need to tell me what it’s like to be small." She responded idly, her mind more focused on the tricorder in front of her.

One by one, the sixteen photon and eight quantum torpedoes finished transporting into the firing room and were promptly inspected, sorted, and stowed. However, the majority of the ordinance the new Nova-class ship carried was scientific in nature and consisted of thirty long- and short-range instruments.

Luke finished up stowing and inspecting the last of the torpedoes which made a grand total of 24 torpedoes. Which wasn't a lot if he thought about it and would have perhaps if they had more time put a request in for at least half a dozen more. "Ensign, I believe these are more to your expertise." He said referring to the 30 or so scientific instruments which took up precious torpedo space.

As the torpedoes were loaded onto the racks, Azra counted, verifying the number and types that arrived against the manifest the Operations chief had handed her. As the last torpedo was stacked she called out, "All munitions accounted for and identified as per the manifest."

Sofie slotted the her tricorder back into its pocket, the final checks complete. "Looks like we can say the same for the probes too." She called out and then patting the casing of one of the probes with her free hand she said triumphantly, “Now let’s get them out there and do some science."

Scarlet nodded with approval, scrolling down over her PADD for one last check over the list before she was happy to sign it off. She sent the report through with a final tap of the screen before motioning to the door with the PADD. "Good work everyone...let's get ready to sail."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Miraj Derani
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Mimi
Deputy Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

PO2 Donald Andrews
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

Ensign Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Commander Luke Wyatt
Chief of Security
USS Galileo-A

Chief Petty Officer Kala Gorvel
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Wyatt]

PO3 John Hollenday
Engineer's Mate
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

MCPO Kai Mazen
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo-A

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

Crewman Constantin Vansen
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A

Crewman Draia Thero
Engineer's Mate
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

CWO3 Azra Ghoc
Boatswain
USS Galileo-A

LT (j.g.) Manuel Lucero
Asst. Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science officer
USS Galileo-A

RSS Feed