Warp Speed Briefing [Engineering]

Posted on 15 Feb 2013 @ 2:41am by Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis & Petty Officer 1st Class James Watt & Petty Officer 3rd Class Thanis Rothgra

1,410 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 7, Main Engineering
Timeline: MD01: 1500 hrs
Tags: engineering, briefing

[ON]

There was never a time when they could all be somewhere else. And since that was the case, Lilou had elected to hold their briefing informally in Main Engineering. The idea of cameras and recording equipment all around them made her itchy, but there wasn't anywhere else they could go and keep an eye on the anti-matter fluctuations. The new chief engineer crossed her arms and gazed at the warp core as her tiny department filtered in.

"Hey, chief."

Petty Officer Watt swung down from one of the bulkhead supports and walked towards Peers. He smiled pleasantly and moved to stand beside her. "Inspecting the bulkhead integrity."

Lilou nodded to Watt, glancing up, "And?"

"Fit as a fiddle, chief."

"I appreciate you're picking up extra time on other shifts," she said. "We're going to need to pull together over the next few weeks. Anything you need?"

"No, problem. And no, nothing I need right now." He paused, glancing at her, "What about you, chief?"

"We'll talk about it once everyone's here," Lilou said with a small lift of her brows. Why wait until now to tell her that Saalm wanted the a boost to the Galileo's speed? Why not mention it when they were dry-docked on Vega and could have actually made a better effort. She looked up as Thanis hurried in, "You've got white on your face."

Thanis rubbed his nose. "Sugar," he explained. "You should have seen the pastries that were out this morning! Sir," he added. Then looked at Watt, "Hi."

Watt gave Thanis a nod. "Afternoon."

Willis walked into Main Engineering, well, more liked crawled through a jeffries tube and leaned against the bulkhead, waiting.

"Willis," Lilou nodded to him. "I'd like to see you top of Beta in the office if you've got a few spare."



When everyone was in and settled, Lilou made an attempt to straighten her sleeves. "Right, guys, so here's the deal," Lilou rocked back on her heels a little. "First off, thanks for showing up off shift. We'll make this sort and sweet and get you on with your days. So. The mission as it stands," she shifted her PADD and squinted at it a bit, "Okay. Basically, like the rumors have been saying, they found a new solar system out here in Sector 025 Block 292 Grid 04, and they're calling it the Rojar system. There's six planets, and two of them are in the habitable zone, and apparently some of the moons for one of them are Class M. So - that's good news for the Planetary Sciences Division. And good news for us, in a way, because it means we get to push those brand new shuttles out and check them in real time. Now the guys up top have given our science department fifteen days to conduct their initial survey, and then Starfleet'll send support ships depending on their assessment of the system. I have a bunch of notes here about the preliminary scans of the system. If you want to know anything, just ask."

James moved back and leaned against one of the engineering supports to the side and slightly behind Peers. Crossing his arms and leaning his head against the metal, he listened, attentive but with his eyes half closed.

The chief cleared her throat, "Now, apparently there's some concern about the Borg in the area - hold on, I'm not finished. Captain Saalm says we wouldn't be risking it if there were any scans of them in the area. Lieutenant Liyar says there's a one in one million point seven eight five chance that they're even remotely in the vicinity. The bigger problem is pirates, or anyone who knows about the resources down on those moons. If we pick up anything on sensors of the Borg or Romulan pirates or any hostile force, the plan is to get out of here with all deliberate speed. And on that note, we've got our call to arms. Should anything happen, we need to be able to move this girl as fast as possible. Peak efficiency in the warp core, full power in the impulse engine, backup power pulls. But more than that, I think we're looking at a little retrofitting as far as its feasible. This ship isn't built to go past Warp 8, but I know, and you know too, that if we're dealing with pretty much any Romulan class, we'll be outrun in a half second at 8, even running hot. So. Alternatives are what we need. Anyone have any ideas?"

He waited, but when no one seemed terribly eager to jump in, Watt cleared his throat. "I'm not a warp core engineer," he said, "but you'll probably want some help with the SIF and IDF systems. That I know something about, if we can make them bear more force safely, it would help alleviate some of the problems. We might need to lose power elsewhere, but it's better than trying to do any retrofitting on the fly while running away from Romulans."

"If we're going to try to jerry-rig some extra speed on her," Lilou said, nodding, "I'd want to do it now. Well. I'd want to have done it when we were dry-docked, but-" She shifted her shoulders uncomfortably at the merest hint of questioning the captain that had slipped through in her tone. "Anyway. We'd be fixing her up in orbit. Not on the run. Which we won't be. Everything. Is going to be fine." Unlikely, considering the last several weeks, but they'd been through so much, they couldn't possibly be attacked again, could they? Not something to think about now. "Anyway. Yes. Check out the SIF and the IDF. See what we can boost. Anyone else?"

Willis raised his hand. "Ma'am? What about resetting the EPS mains and re-regulate the distribution of warp plasma through the EPS conduits, and only give the rest of the ship what it absolutely needs lets say, when the ship goes to Red Alert. The program to make the switch is pretty basic. Also, what about reinforcing the plasma injectors to handle more pressure so we can force more into the nacelles, giving us an extra boost for a short run...before the manifolds blow out."

"She did ask for a sprint," Lilou said. Although she doubted that would help. Getting a little further, faster, wouldn't help if they were dead in space moments later giving whoever was chasing them plenty of time to catch up. She tugged her braid of her shoulder and worried the ends, thinking. "All right. Set up the program switch then. I'll look into the plasma injectors and set up an order list for everyone. Anything else anyone wants to add?"

Willis raised his hand again. "Ma'am, if our coffee maker was to be switched with Ops, how much trouble would the switcher be in...hypothetically?"

Lilou laughed, then remembered the cameras and sobered. "I'd rather not speak to hypotheticals just at this moment, Willis, unless it has to do with the task at hand. I can say, I've passed along all five of the requests you've submitted for a replicator upgrade for Engineering and have yet to hear back from Ops. I'll look into it." She looked around the others to see if there was anything more.

"Let's do this, then," James suggested, pushing himself lightly off the metal strut and and standing straight. He would begin looking at the SIF/IDF system immediately.

"Great," Lilou nodded, then snapped her fingers on a hiss, "Nope. One more thing. Sorry. Ah... Captain says we're going to have some 'press' on board for the next couple weeks. They're coming on from the starbase tonight. They'll probably be bothering Command and Science, so just keep your heads down and they should leave us well enough alone. And I... think that's everything. Mission parameters are on this PADD marked 'mission parameters'. I'll leave it here," she put it beside one of the consoles, "if anyone gets curious. We all good? Good. Class dismissed."

[OFF]

ENS Lilou Peers
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 James "Striker" Watt
Operations Officer
USS Galileo
(pNPC Psylus Anon)

Senior Chief Petty Officer Arthur Willis
Engineering Computer Specialist
USS Galileo
(pNPC Markum Quinn)

Crewman Apprentice Thanis Rothgra
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
(NPC)

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