Adjustments and Observations

From TFC Galactopedia

Commander Laddire O’Donnel smiled as he hung upside down into the guts of engineering, below the anti-matter injection assembly of the total conversion reactor. He unclipped the tool he wanted from his web harness, a little device that he had inherited from some friends in the Corps of Engineers and thought should be made standard issue for all engineers, especially for having to work in such odd positions as this one he was in right now. He began adjusting the flow regulator on the magnetic stream for the anti-matter systems. He and his engineering crew had spent the last few days while Galaxy sat in orbit about Titan adjusting, tinkering, and generally trying to improve upon the design that Laddire himself had helped create.

He gave a rueful chuckle at the thought of Dr. Leah Brahms shocked horror at how much he had actually changed in the procedures to not only make things more efficient, but streamline the system to make it less ‘glitch prone’ as he thought of it. The haughty civilian had pronounced the engineering systems ‘perfect’ when they had frozen the design specs years ago, and he was quite sure she would have balked at any changes suggested.

Ladire however, had actually served aboard starships underway and knew that what you came up with in the labs, often needed tinkering with in the field, case in point, this magnetic flow regulator assembly. The design specs called for a brand new system, but it had been ‘fluttery’ ever since the reactor had been powered up for the very first time. Laddire recalled something similar aboard the Nebula-class Benjamin Franklin had happened, and had decided to fabricate up the same solution that had been used there. That had involved completely replacing the new assembly system with one from a Flight II Ambassador-class reactor design. The supposedly older, less advance design Laddire had found was actually more efficient than the newer one designed for the Galaxy. He had already sent a report back to have the newer design stripped from the [i]Yamato[/i] along with schematics for the installation process he and his boys and girls had come up with for the current flow regulator.

“How’s it look chief?” a young voice asked, muffled by the sound of engines about him.

“She’s done lass,” the engineer announced as he clipped his tool back to the harness, doubled himself up and grabbled hold of the Jefferies tube lip to haul his body out of the hatch. He smiled at the young Propulsion’s Mate enlisted rating, probably on her first assignment that watched him, a Bolian with her soft blue skin highlighting her reptilian features examining him. “What is it?”

“Nothing sir,” the enlisted rating returned flushing deeply. “Just…” she looked. “Sir, you helped design all these systems, and only a week out of the yard and your already changing them? I don’t understand.”

“Aye, that ah did lass,” he smiled at her, then picked up a pad. “But, when we wahr puttin’ this Lady togethah, we wahr also tryin’ out new ideas. Some work, some don’t, and sometimes, what yea think is great and wonderful, needs tah be changed, or modified.” He gave a smile, “that’s ah lesson tah learn, yea never need to be afraid to change something if it doesn’t work right, even if yea be the one that comes up wit it.”

The Bolian blinked but nodded, Commander O’Donnel was not as she had expected honestly. The few designers she had come across in her short time in Starfleet tended to be rather smug and over proud, demanding to know why this or that was changed, well, she had guessed that stereotypes shouldn’t be adhered to all the time as Commander O’Donnel tapped his combadge. “Karl?”

“Commander?” the thick german accent of his chief of damage control and second in command called out from the main engineering display four decks up.

“Go ahead and bring this flow junction online, slowly.”

“Aye sir,” the young officer returned and Lad could just feel the flow regulator come on line and he smiled, not even having to consult the readings on the diagnostic boards, he knew the procedure had been a success. “No problems Commander, the adjustments have solved the flow regulation problem.

“All right, now we can’ tell tah Cap’in that the Lass is ready fer ‘er speed run trials.”

==

Sub Commander Tavet Raul refrained from snapping at the young Uhlan that had disturbed his rest. He was on edge he realized, not a good sign, especially with the situation they were in. It did not help that the situation itself was what was causing the heightening of his temper.

“What is it Vellu?”

“There is activity at the moon station, we think the vessel is moving away.”

Raul nodded thoughtfully as he sat up from his bunk. “What is the status of the cloak?”

“Engineering reports approximately eight hours before they need to bring it off line for cooling and maintenance.”

Raul nodded as he shook his head out slowly and ordered some water from his cabin’s replication system. “Then we have six hours to see if this new Starfleet ship will actually do anything today before we have to hide in the seventh planet’s atmosphere again.”

“Yes Sub Commander, I shall tell Centurion Torvack you are on your way to the bridge.”

Raul waved his paw to dismiss the youngling before stripping of his night clothes and donning his uniform. He had so enjoyed the thought of his own command, Keerma, his betrothed had been so proud, but four lunar cycles away from the Empire, away from the war raging between the hated Klingons and his people, he was beginning to wonder. He knew this assignment was important, but still, it felt as if they were sitting, doing nothing, and his warrior’s blood boiled to take a fight to the enemy.

Calm he thought as he finished donning his uniform, adjusting the rank insignia he had earned upon taking command of the RIS Vel’san. While the detested Vulcans were fools in many rights, calm was one thing they had gotten right he believed, one thing many of the People of Romulus could learn.

This assignment especially so, Vel’san was a small ship, only a third the size of the current D'deridex-class ships now beginning to enter service, she had much, much smaller emissions levels, and, combined with the fact that she mounted the newest, most advanced version of the cloaking technology available, made her a perfect intelligence gathering vessel.

And that he admitted as he walked out of his quarters and the short distance to the bridge, was why his ship and crew had been sent to the heart of Federation territory to observe this new vessel. It was a very rare occurrence, and one that made every single crewmember nervous. Earth still held bitter tastes in the muzzles of his fellows, even two hundred years after the end of the disastrous War of Expansion. Not many Romulans really believed that the Federation that had formed so soon after the war was anything more than a tool and puppet of United Earth. Why after all, would they have their three most powerful construction yards all centered in United Earth territory? Or that he majority of their ‘Starfleet’ be the core of what use to be the United Earth Navy?

Sneaking into the Sol system was most probably the toughest of assignments for any new commander could be asked to perform. It was latterly in the heart of the Federation, and cloaking technology required a cooling period and other servicing problems that made the mission a ‘run and hide’ one, finding gas giants, ionized fields or other obstacles that made Federation sensors blind to hide in between the runs where the cloak was active. His most nerve-wracking test had been entering the Sol system itself. No Imperial ship had ever reached Sol during the War, and very few had made runs such as his, since no one knew exactly what sort of sensor nets were strung about the system. There had to be some, after all, that was what ringed the home system of the hated Klingons, to make sure no Romulan would dare attempted what he was here, and Federation sensors technology was light years ahead of anything the Klingons could produce.

Yet here he was he thought as he entered the bridge. Hopefully the information his crew gathered would be of use. This new vessel had not been reported by the Tal Shiar, strange that, but he wouldn’t make any comments on that. The intelligence agency was not omniscient as it wanted the Empire to believe, why else did the Romulan Navy have intelligence ships like the Vel’san?

He put those thoughts again out of his mind as he looked at the image of the steal gray vessel as it moved slowly away from the orbit of the moon. “Any change in power readings?”

“Yes Sub Commander, we are detecting increased power readings in the super-luminal drive systems,” Centurion Arut Torveck responded from his place at the intelligence section. “If they follow the same pattern that ships at their Anteres Yards do, this vessel is getting ready to begin a high speed test.”

Raul nodded as he watched the readouts. “Helm, plot us a coarse to where we can observer the opening portions of this speed run, and on an intercept coarse for the seventh planet. WE are approaching the limit of the cloak.”

“Yes Sub Commander,” the Uhlan manning the helm responded crisply as Raul joined the grizzled wolf Centurion at the intelligence display.

“Big ship,” the elder officer grumbled.

“Not so big as the D’deridex Arut.”

“Bigger than us by far though, and a lot more Terran ships in this system.”

“Then we shall avoid the Arut, we shall avoid them. The Senate needs this information that we will provide, and we cannot get that information to them if we get detected.”

“Yes Sub Commander,” the Centurion gave a smile, humoring the younger office. “Just so long as you remember that.”