The New Moonshine Crew

Posted on Thu Jun 9th, 2022 @ 5:06pm by Ensign Duncan McManus & Lieutenant JG Ethal Reade & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Kiyara de Vos

Mission: Mission 6 - Memory
Location: Deck E
Timeline: Day 289 20:00
940 words - 1.9 OF Standard Post Measure

The still room was well known to most people on the ship now after it nearly exploded due to King’s death and the neglect to the moonshine inside. It had certainly been eventually for the damage control party trying to explain to the captain what was occurring and why the shipboard alert system had kicked in due to atmospheric issues thanks to the fumes. She had given her permission for it all to continue if people could be found to safely operate the still and continue to process without any issues. Duncan found himself looking at the parts he had spent hours on in the first weeks building to keep his sanity from thinking on the what ifs and the people they had lost. “I built this.” He announced to the person who walked though the door.

"It's impressive." Kiyara remarked, even though it had been a pain to clear the room and fix up any damage it had done to it they had to admit that the craftsmanship that had gone into it was impressive. "Crude. But impressive." They walked up next to the Ensign and squatted next to the still, "I'm sure we can make some improvements, build in some safety precautions and redundancies."

“Well I did not exactly have all the parts and it was meant to have an operator.” The Ensign reminded almost taking offence to his still being called crude. It had been impress he had been able to find enough scrap parts to create anything let alone a working anything. If it had not been for King’s death it would have carried on perfectly.

Ethal found her way down to the still room. She was asked to see what help she could provide to make the still safe to use. She did not drink herself but her dad make his own moonshine at home so she had experience with the process and handling of making moonshine. Ethal stood outside for a moment to prepare herself and with a deep breath, she opened the door and walked in.

McManus turned as the door opened and waved. “Ah here is the creative mind.” He teased having approached the woman a couple of days ago about taking over from where King had left the process.

For a moment Kiyara wondered exactly what had gone wrong in that interaction when Ethal stepped in and saved them from more awkwardness. "Oh, good. I was thinking of making some upgrades to the set-up, would be good to know if there's anything specific we should keep in mind."

"I have a few ideas on improving the process going forward and have drawn up a few schematics on both the still and the fermentor." She handed over a copy of the schematics to both Kiyara and Mcmanus. On the schematics, it showed tweaks in areas of sensors and a computer hook in which was noted with subroutines for both safety and quality checking.

“I made it on the sly last time so this time I have more resources.” McManus said shortly trying to not sound too cross about all the hard work that had been wasted in the damage but like the Phoenix it would rise from the ashes.

"Luckily you have us now." Kiyara smiled and went over the schematics proposed by Ethal, "and the adjustments don't seem all too elaborate. We'll be back brewing in no time."

"It is a shame it went out the way it did last time, but now we have the resources and the captain's blessing to build back better and make some great drink." Ethal smiled at McManus trying her best to help reassure him as it was never nice to see your work get destroyed.

“So how long do you propose this might take?” Duncan asked looking over what had been proposed properly. He had other duties so it would not be a full-time job unless Sloan released him but it was highly unlikely to brew alcohol. Even if it would make everyone really happy.

"MTTR to old functionality is a couple of hours, twelve max." Kiyara looked at the proposed upgrades once more to try and figure out what number they would be landing on. Knowing that they could be honest with their colleague. "Upgrade up to spec. Sixty-four hours, if we apply ourselves."

"Sloan is not going to allow me freedom so sixty-four hours is going to be about two weeks after shifts for me," Duncan said calculating if he did four hours a night on this project he would still be within in sleeping margins which he needed to be at the moment with how tired and exhausted he constantly felt.

"We can divide and conquer, that should shave down the number of days needed, and also share the load a little." Kiyara awkwardly gave Duncan a pat on the shoulder, it had been his baby, his project, and they realised it must've hurt him to see it like this, "we can get it back up in no time."

"I also have no problem using any spare time I have to help get this up and running." She said with a smile. This may not have benefited her but it would benefit the crew and that gave her all the motivation she needed.

“Okay. Well I am more than happy to have company on this project. It was a good idea and something we could all use and it could be used to barter if we ever need it.” Duncan was thinking ahead to situations that might not happen but it showed the maturity that the man was gaining.