Modifying the Kwando

Posted on 29 Oct 2024 @ 11:39pm by Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Ranul Frex

2,954 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Cover of Darkness
Location: Shuttle Bay
Timeline: June 20, 2390 || 1930 hours

It was late when Camila entered the shuttle bay and headed towards what looked like a derelict runabout from a battle where it had lost. It was still a perfectly functioning and equipped Starfleet runabout, though it had been disguised for the mission to track the pirates to their base.

She tapped her combadge as she opened the hatch. "Commander Di Pasquale to Lieutenant Frex."

Tapping his combadge, Frex replied, "This is Frex. What can I do for you Commander?"

"Could you meet me in the shuttlebay at the Kwando with an auxiliary generator and pattern enhancer, Lieutenant? I apologize for the lateness of the hour."

"No problem at all. Just give me about 20 minutes to get with the Quartermaster and I'll be right down with everything," Frex said as he headed out of his quarters and towards the turbolift. He made it down to the Quartermaster and got the requested items before heading down to the shuttlebay. Frex wasn't sure which one was the Kwando, but after looking around for a few moments, Frex finally found it and made his way over.

Frex looked around to see if he could find the Commander, but she wasn't readily seen. So, Frex called out and said, "Commander? You in there? It's Lieutenant Frex with the equipment that you asked for."

Camila came out of the hatch and noddled. "Come on in, Lieutenant," she said. "Do you need a hand?"

"I think that I can get the pattern enhancer, but I do need a hand with the auxiliary generator though. That thing is a beast to try and carry around," Frex replied as he pointed to the generator and how large it was. Frex had the Quartermaster beam that one straight down to the shuttlebay, while he carried the enhancers down himself.

"Grab an antigrav sled and we'll bring it aboard," she said and pointed out one with crane arm to lift heavy objects onto it.

Frex loaded the auxiliary generator onto the antigrav device and got it onto the Runabout. Once onboard, Frex asked, "Which one would you like me to fix first Commander?"

Camila headed back to where he was. "I don't need anything fixed Lieutenant," she said. "I need the generator hooked up to the transporter and the pattern buffer enhanced to it's maximum."

"Oh, that was my bad Commander. Just something I always say because nothing is truly 100% up to snuff for an Engineer and there's always something we can fix up. But, if you don't mind me asking, why does a random Runabout need its transporter systems pushed to their maxes?" Frex replied as he started to pull the panels open for the Runabout transporter systems.

"It's going to be used to store items, Lieutenant," Camila said. "A lot of items. That's all you need to know."

"Okay, just one more question and I'll quit asking. The stuff that you're going to be storing. Are they going to be organic, inorganic, or both? I'll need to know to make some specific modifications to the transporter system and tweak it to make sure it can handle that specific type of power," Frex offered up as he looked back at Camila and reached for a tool he needed to start working on the system.

"Inorganic," she said.

"Okay, got it. I'll quit asking questions about that. Now, mind if I ask for a bit of help down here for a moment. I need another person to help me align the new power matrix and make sure its up to your specs. Mind handing me that Isochronious Asymmetric Compensator, so that I can make sure I get the transporters aligned for ya?" Frex asked with a smile as he looked up at Camila.

"Sure," Camila said and looked in the toolkit, realizing that she had no idea what that was. "Which tool is that?"

Ranul couldn't help but chuckle when he heard Camila ask about the tool and saw the look of confusion on her face. He looked up to her and said, "It should look like a little metal cone on a Christmas tree stand. I think it should be near the top of the case, if I remember where they put them in most engineering kits."

The omber haired woman looked into the kit and finally spotted the item she wanted. She puled it out of its slot and handed it to the Trill. "This is why I like Security. A phaser is much easier to identify."

"See, a phaser isn't just a phaser to me. You've got the type 1, type 2, and type 3 personal phasers. Then, you've got all of the phasers that starships have. So, while I help to make sure the phasers work for the ship, I probably couldn't go as in depth on phaser tech as you probably could Commander. You've definitely got me beat there," Ranul replied as he took the device from Camila's hand and continued working on the transporter for the Runabout.

"Maybe not, but I appreciate everything you Engineers do to keep our phasers operational and everything else on the ship," Camila said. "You do a lot of work under pressure and get it done well."

As Ranul worked on the transporter system, he looked back at Camila and said, "So do you guys! Without the security and tactical people onboard, lord only knows where we'd be!"

She shuddered, knowing where they'd be and how many parsecs their atoms would be scattered in and a likely universe they'd end up in again. She shook off the morbid thoughts and smiled. "Thank you. It's not just a job at times, but it's worth it."

"I've worked with some good Sec/Tac people before at my various postings. I'm glad that you guys are here to help make sure that we're safe," Ranul said as he went back to work on the transporter systems.

"So have I," Camila said. "This has been the only ship I've served on, despite it changing several times. I only served on Deep Space Eleven prior to this posting."

"How long ago did you serve on there? I have a friend of mine that has worked there for as long as I can even remember," Ranul said as he handed the device back to Camila before turning back to the transporter systems of the Runabout.

"Two years, from twenty three eighty-six to eighty-eight," she said. "I was on the original Black Hawk when the Consortium made their attack on the Federation and had to fight my way to the communications center on the station."

"Damn, that must've been tough for you guys! You might've run into my friend that worked there, but he was on the Engineering team. His name was Jonathan and was one of the engineerings that worked on the computer systems for the station. I think you'd remember him if you'd see him," Ranul said with a chuckle as he put the last two chips into the system. He looked back up at Camila and asked, "Take a look at the system really quick. See if that part is up to snuff that I've gotten fixed thus far."

The Security Chief shook her head. "I was the Armory Officer on the station and didn't go out much," she said as she ran a diagnostic. "Or hang out with Engineers, as you can plainly tell."

"Engineers can be fun! We just have a tendency of telling some pretty corny jokes about the warp core sometimes. Like, what did the Engineer tell the warp core when it was stressed out?" Ranul asked Camila while she ran the diagnostic.

"What?"

"Chill out or you're going to have a meltdown" Ranul replied with a small chuckle as he grabbed a few more things from his engineering bag.

She gave a slight chuckle, but didn't really find it funny. "I guess that's why I'm Security. The diagnostics look fine. What's next?"

"Well, if you're willing and able, I'd love to test the transporter out and make sure that everything that's being transported doesn't blow up mid-transport. I've got a transporter tester and everything here in my bag," Ranul said as he pulled out the tester out of his bag and held it up, waiting for Camila to give the go ahead.

"Blow...up?" Camila asked, a bit nervous now. "Surely you don't mean dispersed?" She remembered a time when Bast was trying to beam a weapons shipment into space using wide beam dispersal to get rid of the evidence.

"Blow up....disappear...I want to make sure that the transporter doesn't do anything that it's not supposed to do. Want to make sure that you guys have the best possible use of it while you're out on whatever mission you're on or using it for," Ranul said as he brought the test tube over to the transporter pad and went ahead to test the transporter. He ran it through a beam out and beam in, where it went perfectly.

"Of course," she said after a moment. The Black Hawk had seen its share of...interesting...Engineers, but this one was turning out to be a character. "Well, thank you for ensuring that it didn't blow up. I want to make double sure that nothing in this buffer is going to be lost."

"Well, something else I can do is to make sure the annular confinement beam is working as closely to 100% as possible. I might have to pull some tricks that I learned at the academy about Captain Scott's time in the transporter, as well as Voyager's use of the transporters for the telepaths in the Delta Quadrant to make sure you get the best use of it as possible...as long as you don't ask too many questions," Ranul said with a chuckle as he was thinking about the best possible way to tweak the transporter using some of those techniques and finished up running the test module through the transport cycles.

Ranul looked over at his bag as he got the module off the pad and said, "Mind handing me the tricorder really quick. I want to run a few scans before I work on the annular confinement beam."

Camila handed him the tricorder. "I don't think that will be a problem and any tricks you have will be welcomed."

"Well, if you don't mind any trick I might have, I had a Bajoran roommate at the Academy that gave me some tricks that his parents learned during the occupation that I might be able to tweak for the transporter for you," Ranul said as he began scanning the module to make sure nothing negative happened to it while in transport. Nothing came back negatively and thus, Ranul looked up at Camila and said, "The good news is that the stuff I've done thus far have done thus far have worked with no negative effect on the module."

"As long as it can be undone when we get back," the Security Chief said.

"Okay, the next step in all of this is that annular confinement beam. This might take two people to work on, so do you mind going to the secondary Sec/Tac console there and monitor a few things for me? I'll let you know what to look for, if you can pull up the transporter subsystems on it," Ranul said as he pulled another panel on the floor open and crawled down on the floor.

The ombre haired woman moved over to the console and waited for his instruction. "Okay. Give them to me."

"Okay, I'm going to put the test module back on the pad to run a few more test runs. I want you to tell me what the annular confinement beam level is up after each transport and how long it took for each transport cycle to complete. I'll be running some scans on the module to see how it did within the transporter and how to make the beam a bit tighter, making adjustments as we go along," Ranul asked while putting the module back on the pad.

Camila began to call off the readings as he made the adjustments. "How much will this affect the buffer?" She asked.

"Well, depending on how long you're planning on using the transporter and if you're planning on storing anything within the buffer for longer than a few minutes, you'll want the annular confinement beam as close to 100% as possible or again, one might disappear. I read a paper about the first Earth Starfleet vessels that had transporters had some issues with that kind of stuff. I think it was the NX-01 Enterprise that almost lost their Chief Comms officer because they didn't know much about tightening and maintaining the annular confinement beam. While you're doing something inorganic, doesn't hurt to safe over sorry," Ranul said as he continued working on his adjustments to the system.

"Then we need to get it to one hundred percent, because the buffer is going to be loaded for days," Camila said.

Ranul shook his head and said, "Alright, then. We'll make sure to get it to 100% and I'll do my best to make sure that it stays as close it for your trip. Mind if I ask how long you're going to be gone? Cause, if it's going to be more than a few days, then I'll leave a little guide on how to make sure it doesn't go on the fritz for you."

"I shouldn't need it more than three days," the Security Chief said as she checked the readouts. "Anything beyond that should be normal use."

"That shouldn't be too bad then. I thought it might've been for a week or longer. But, since it's just for three days, there shouldn't be much, if any, degradation," Ranul said as he got up and went to stand next to Camila, looking over the results of his upgrades to the transporter. As he was looking over the updates to the transporter, Ranul said, "Just make sure that you guys are safe out there, wherever you guys might be going to."

"I have that taken care of, Lieutenant, or as okay as we can be in the Gamma Quadrant," Camila said. "Two to three days and it'll be empty again."

Ranul shrugged and said, "Well, we can make sure that everything works to peak performance while we're in the Gamma Quadrant. Even with what we've got here. But, the good thing is that the transporter seems to be up to the best specs. You guys should be all set with that. What else was there that you wanted me to work on?"

"Is the auxiliary generator linked and ready?" she asked him.

Ranul chuckled and said, "That's what I was missing. I knew there was something else you wanted me to work on." Ranul looked over at the Aux Generator and back at Camila before pointing at it and saying, "Might if I get some help getting it to the rear compartment?"

"This should be fun:" The Security Chief said as she moved to the antigrav sled and powered it up. "Lead it and I'll follow."

As the pair led the device into the rear compartment, Ranul looked back and asked, "So, what made you want to get into Security anyways? I can't remember if I asked that or not. But, were your parents Starfleet Officers or something or did you want to go into service on your own?"

Camila thought about it for a moment. "I joined so I could be a better big sister," she said finally as she thought about her little brother, Thomas, and the grief she had given him when they were younger until she changed to being a good big sister.

Ranul walked over to a wall panel and opened it up, exposing some of the internal circuitry behind it. Ranul began working on it and looking it over as he looked back at Camila, asking, "How many siblings do you have and are you older or younger than these sibilings?"

"Just my little brother, Thomas," she said, glancing at the chrono. It was now two hours past her shift and she still had to load the runabout and get to Medical. "What about you?"

Ranul finished up a few more things and hooked up the generator to the Kwando as he replied, "I've just got two brothers, who are both younger than myself. But, the good thing is that the auxiliary generator has been hooked up for you. Just let me know where you want it stored and out of the way and I'll put it there."

"Wherever it'll fit will be fine," Camila said. "It only has one purpose."

"Okay, I'll put it in the corner for you. Was there anything else that you needed done?" Ranul said as he put the generator in the corner and out of sight.

"That should be it," Camila said. "Thank you, Lieutenant."

"Yeah, no problem. Thanks for letting me ramble on while I worked, Commander," Ranul replied as he gathered up some of his tools.

"When I get back, I'll owe you a drink and we can talk with less pressure," she offered.

"I'll have to take you up on that offer, Commander. But, if there's anything else, feel free to let me know!" Ranul offered up as he finished collecting up his tools and found his way out of the runabout.

Once Camila did a final systems check, she shut everything down and sealed the runabout up, then headed to try to get some much needed sleep. It was going to be a long couple days.

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