Passing The Torch Potentially

Posted on Wed May 1st, 2024 @ 11:26am by Commander Benjamin Jamesson & Lieutenant Andre Rhodes

Mission: Contagion
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: Pre meeting
1924 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Benjamin yawned as she climbed out from the Jeffrey tubes and stretched out his back with a significant crack that echoed around the compartment. He really needed to get his back looked at after days and days of crawling around in spaces where his bulk was a bit of a hindrance. He could not win either way sometimes with the engineering of Atlantis but at least he had tracked down the power surge and stopped it so the laundry room would be less likely to be plunged into the dark.

He moved back out into the main Engineering section and looked around for the man that he had left in charge of prioritising items. "How is it going Lieutenant?" He wondered.

"One sec." Andre replied as he finished discussing things with a Crewman, sending them off and handed over a PADD.

"We got a fair bit in need of swapping out. Top of the list, we can fabricate ourselves but some of this stuff, well, we're gonna need a dry dock at some point and hope whoever owns it has some Starfleet spec parts." Andre explained, "I know, we're not going to find those but we have to start thinking about it sooner rather than later. Later as in...we're drifting in space without something like a compression coil."

The man took the PADD and started to look over the wish list for a potential dry dock. He had heard nothing from the bridge that they were going to be able to dock inside or connect up to offer some stability. It was a shame their time of Relea had been cut short and that Sloan had not had this list as he was sure the former chief would have gotten on top of it.

“And how did you come about this list?” The man wondered not having considered some of the bigger jobs himself. He knew that they were impractical now but he wanted to know the other man’s train of thought as he had not had a Rhodes on his Atlantis.

"Just took inventory and compared it against Starfleet's specifications regarding refits. Again, some of this stuff, we just need raw materials and some time to make it ourselves. That's something these ships were made with in mind, unlike some of the shorter ranged classes. But there's just some stuff that is beyond what we have to fabricate - it was assumed no NX would be this far away from Jupiter Station." Andre replied, "There's other stuff there based on damage we've sustained or just excessive wear and tear."

"Now, some of this stuff, we can stretch it out by reducing the use of certain systems. But others, well, we can't exactly turn off the warp drive and coast at warp." He chuckled at the bad joke.

Benjamin smiled at the poor joke. It was telling that the man was trying to add humour to the situation because he knew it was bad. He would have given a lot to have brought his NX Atlantis from the other universe to help keep this version alive if he could have but alas his venture to this universe had been a blip in the universe rather than something usual.

“Would be our great great great grandchildren getting home if we did that. Might as well find a M Class planet and just make a home.” He sighed thinking back to a conversation he had, had back in his universe around the very same thing. “What systems would you turn off?” He wondered the younger man. He could see a great talent in the man but he needed to force it out.

"At this point, it'd probably be more of a rationing - start cutting back on things we've taken for granted. Like the laundry room. We don't need to be running it all 24/7." Andre started, pursing his lips for a moment, "I mean, some of it just can't be helped - we can't really ration use of the engines or whatnot. But nonessential systems, we could cut back on those."

Benjamin offered a small smile at the notion and shook his head. It was not going to happen at all- the engines were the only thing going to get them home.

He paused again, letting out a sigh and shaking his head, "Sir, these aren't going to be easy decisions to make. I'm hoping to maybe figure out ways to make our stuff stretch out longer. One good thing about these ships is they were built to be adapted in the field. And we might even be able to adapt stuff we find into our systems. If we have to give up some creature comforts to stretch stuff out, we can tighten our belts."

"I mean, if it came down to it, we can switch to a sawdust soup diet, take sections offline and force everyone to hot bunk in the few quarters we leave online." This time, Andre wasn't kidding around. He was presenting a very grim form of cutting back that could be possible if things got that dire. "But honestly, sir, that's the stuff I learned with the MACOs - adapt and survive. But Starfleet taught me to work the problem, find solutions. I'd rather we instead look at how we make the best of a bad situation. Scavenge and barter, trial and error, maybe by the time we get Atlantis home, they might even name the refit with all we did after us."

"Well we have the fu... what the Realians gave us to still work with properly." Benjamin pointed out before he paused thinking that the future ship core was not known to everyone outside of the senior team and Leroux had wanted to keep it that way after O'Connery's reaction to accidentally seeing the ship manifest from next year from it when she had helped establish it. It was also why the thing was not hooked into any system unless they needed to find something specifically.

Andre shrugged as he grabbed a rag off of a workbench and wiped has hands with it.

"I wouldn't know much about that sir, that's kept pretty close to the vest." Andre replied with a shrug, "I'm not saying we go to all this right now but we do need to at least keep in mind that we need to keep an open mind. Starfleet built these things well but if we're gonna make this work, we have to be willing to take risks and push the envelope. Not saying we throw rules and regs out of the airlock, just...this ship's not going to work as-is and we're fooling ourselves into the grave if we think so."

Benjamin nodded. Thinking outside the box was the theory that he had come to but seeing that someone else was considering it was brilliant.

"We just need to remain aware of our long-term needs because I'm not counting on any shortcuts home until we're either docked at Jupiter Station or over Earth. When you combine optimism with realism, you get an engineer." Andre chuckled.

“That we do. I will talk to the captain about getting you proper access to the things that might help the out of the box thinking and help with that optimism and realism.” The temporary chief engineer was relieve that he was not the only one that was living in hope even if this earth held nothing for him. “So if you were me what job would you do first?” He asked.

"Take stock of what we got, what we're using, what we need and what we can conserve. Then we start looking for how we can maximize what we have without going too far into cutting things down. Start figuring out how we can adapt tech into our ship. If I could, sir, I'd float a long term plan to upgrade the warp drive. Maybe we can get more out of it - I'd take Warp Six, Six Point Five, but I'd also take it being able to last much longer." Andre replied, kind of missing why the question was being asked.

"Honestly, I'd like to see how we can upgrade everything we got - sensors, tactical, comms. Like I said, maybe they'll name the refit after us if we can make even some of it work. My main goals would be either make what we got last as long as we can or make it better. Both if we can swing it without breaking it."

It was great to see that someone had similar ideas to what Sloan had intended and then some. He had hoped that he would be able to move away quicker to his own thing now that he knew that Andre had some sense of the departments future.

“Then float it lieutenant. I might not always be here so I need to know that other people are interested in making this ship the best NX class that there ever is. Even if we get home in a 100 years and everything has changed I still want this ship to be know for the engineering.” Benjamin had been passionate about his ship doing that but that passion had moved to the ship he was currently on and the crew on that ship. He really needed to arrange for the man to have access to the future core to make some of his ideas work.

"When I get some downtime tonight, then, sir. I'll start drafting that document together. Tomorrow I'll have a team start the inventory while I run the numbers on expenditures and we'll huddle up around lunch. As for the warp drive, well, that's gonna take longer but I can start first by seeing what the wear and tear looks like, make sure she can take the strain. That'll at least tell us if we're going to have to choose between speed or endurance or if we can have our cake and eat it too." Andre explained.

"Figure I can have that in preliminary form for you and the Captain by the end of the week. But even then, it's going to be a long term work in progress. We're going to be doing a lot of trial and error, reinventing the wheel, and just plain throwing stuff at the bulkhead and seeing what sticks." Andre explained, "Just making sure we're clear that I'm not hiding a Warp Six core in my other jumpsuit pocket - this is going to take time."

"If you were hiding it I am sure that you would have spoken up before now Lieutenant." Benjamin laughed. This interaction was one of the most pleasant that he had, had outside of Calanthe. It was not always easy trying to talk to people who had mourned him but Andre had never had that issue either than had not interacted much before he had died or the man was used to weird. Either way, it made it all so much easier to have discussions without people looking at him oddly.

Andre laughed in reply, nodding. "Yes, sir. We got a lot of work ahead of us, but this is the right bunch for the job. We'll do what we have to so we keep flying."

"Keep flying straight on till morning," Benjamin said with a genuine smile. It did not happen often but something like this brought out a proud side of the man and he knew exactly what he was going to say to Leroux now about Engineering.