Tour: Auxiliary Control

Posted on 18 Nov 2024 @ 8:10pm by Lieutenant Commander Theodore Marsh III & Chief Petty Officer Tarsa Rogers & Commodore Harvey Geisler & Ensign (Provisional) Bertrim Wysocki

2,108 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Bait and Switch
Location: Auxiliary Control
Timeline: June 29, 2390 || 0930 hours

The final leg on Harvey's tour was Auxiliary Control. Stepping into the room brought back all sorts of memories, and not a single one of them pleasant. The first Black Hawk he commanded was an Akira, an older version of this current and uprated class. During the ship's final year, he had spent several weeks commanding the ship from Auxiliary Control as the bridge was rendered inoperable during a mission in the Hadyn Nebula. In fact, it was from this very room that he and Commander Thiago Teixeira piloted the ship as it plummeted to the surface of New Bajor, giving the crew time to evacuate and barely steering the disintegrating craft away from populated areas.

Thankfully, the room was a completely different design, finding itself more like a battle bridge that one would find in a Galaxy class. It helped take away so much of the sting. Harvey still didn't find it easy, having commanded three different starships over the course of four years. Hopefully, this Akira would be sticking around for a while. If he lost another ship, surely Command would force him to start flying a desk. Those weren't as easy to crash.

"Status report, Mister Marsh," Harvey said, spotting the Operations Chief at his station.

"Welcome to our new bridge, sir," Teddy said, getting up from his station and moving to MSD. While smaller than the one on the main bridge, the Master System Display in Auxiliary Control filled the same purpose: provide an overview of the status of ship's systems and allow for a user to drill down to a more detailed view, based on system or section of the ship. "We were able to add some additional dedicated power and data connections as well as doing some....mostly minor code edits to harden the systems of this room and the conduits feeding into it."

"Temporary bridge," Harvey stressed. "The last time I was in one of these rooms, terrible things happened. I have no intention of staying here longer than we need to, Mister Marsh. That said, experience tells me that the more hardening we can do, the better. I'm especially concerned that we'll have override capability for the helm and power systems."

"The loss of the previous Black Hawk," Teddy said. "I read about that in Commander Teixeira's logs. My goal is to have this mission go much better than that."

"I sure as hell hope so!" Harvey practically exclaimed. Then he shook his head and collected himself. "Apologies, Commander, I did not mean for that to offend or be an attack on your character. I've already lost two ships in this quadrant, and I'll be damned if that becomes a hat trick."

Maybe there is something to the stories about the Black Hawk being cursed, Teddy thought.

"I'll do what I can to help avoid that fate, sir. Here's hoping whatever is out there agrees to play along."

Harvey couldn't help but chuckle at the remark. "One can certainly hope." He sighed, and then extended a padd he was carrying. "This is from Engineering. It seems Mister Frex has an interesting idea about modifying the main deflector to have it push an anti-polaron pulse into the shields to give them an extra boost.

"Excellent!" the Operations Officer replied, taking the tablet. He started reviewing the information. "Not sure if I'll have any notes; Frex is a proper engineer while I'm more of a technician/paper-pusher hybrid."

"Still, a second opinion's always needed," Harvey remarked, "especially since it'll tax our power systems a bit differently. Do you mind looking it over?"

Marsh nodded, his eyes still fixed on the device in his hand. "Looks solid to me," he voiced after thinking through the logistics of the chief engineer's idea. "Shouldn't take too long to implement...unless we find an issue balancing the power loads across the grid. Might add upwards of, let's say, two hours. On top of everything else we're doing."

The Commodore nodded, voicing, "Excellent. Let's just hope the theory actually proves itself. Anything else of note at the moment?"

Shaking his head, Teddy replied simply, "Nope." He held up the PADD. "I'll get to work on this."

The Commodore nodded at Teddy, and voiced, "Carry on, Commander." Harvey then moved his way to the front of the room and stood beside the helm while Ensign Wysocki flew the ship. "How's our girl doing?" he asked the provisional Ensign.

"She is as stubborn as a tubba but soars like a sinoraptor," Socks answered.

The Commodore wasn't sure if he should take offense to the ensign's choice of descriptors. "Tuba, I've heard that before, but I always thought those Galaxies and Nebulas were like that. But a sinoraptor... I'm not even sure what that is."

"The sinoraptor is a predatory bird on Bajor very much like Earth's harp eagle."

"Oh," Harvey replied, along with a double nod and a blank expression. The structure of the word had made him think of one of Earth's ancient dinosaurs. Given Socks' upbringing, the reference to the Bajoran bird made a lot of sense. At least he didn't mention the albatross. "Well, I'm sure the ship will loosen up some as she continues to settle in from drydock."

"What did you mean by 'loosen up, sir? Don't think I get that one."

It seemed it was Harvey's turn to explain a metaphor. "Loosen up? Um, well, you said she's as stubborn as a tuba, which is a large, bulky instrument. Lots of resistance as it moves in the wind. But as one gets used to her and knows the nuances, you start to know how to really move her so she glides like a gazelle."

"Tuba?! The instrument?!" The Ensign held in his laughter, "No, no. It's a big cat on Bajor, Commodore."

The Commodore shook his head. "At this rate, Ensign, we're going to have to either give each other more background for our metaphors, or we're just going to have to try to avoid them. So, give it to me straight. How's it feel flying the Black Hawk? I'm sure it's not at all like what you've trained for at the academy."

"I really enjoy flying her, Commodore. There are a few tinks that I have to make adjustments to on my console but that only takes time with more familiarity on what the ship can really do... I'm looking forward to really testing her limits."

With that, Harvey smiled. "I hear that most engineers worry most about the nacelles, especially with the support struts being so thin, and they're mounted at the rear instead of the front like most. They're incredibly strong, so don't worry too much about the strain."

"I'm an engineer and I'm not worried about the nacelles. But then I'm neither a structural nor warp engineer," Tarsa, who was using a nearby console to run some diagnostics, chimed in.

"Copy that, Commodore. Pedal to the metal," Socks grinned.

Harvey assumed that this time the ensign was referring to the older human expression referring to speed with automobiles. "Shifting over to department head business, have you selected a shuttle and a standby pilot for our runner?"

"Yes, Warrant Officer Davis and Crewman P'Masha as his copilot. She joined me on my personnel run down to Gavara."

"And they are clear that as soon as we are attacked, they are to launch and run like hell without turning back?" Harvey inquired. "Do we have a code phrase in place that could recall them should we actually wind up being successful?"

"Yes, Commodore. I went with 'the cat is out of the box.'"

Harvey nodded, unsurprised that the expression was again one that he hadn't heard of. "That's easy enough to remember, and random enough to know that it's not a fake recall. Good work, Ensign."

"I certainly thought so, sir," Wysocki looked up over his shoulder to the Commodore smiling, "thank you."

* * *

Chief Rogers finished her diagnostics and moved to the MSD. Commander Marsh was still standing there, reviewing the status of the upgrades. "All the new power relays are up and running. I was able to squeeze a little more efficiency out of them too. I think the power systems are as solid as we can get."

"Thanks Chief. You've been very helpful. We should grab a drink sometime," Teddy replied, sincere in his appreciation for the assistance.

Tarsa smiled. For a man, Marsh wasn't bad looking. "You're not really my type, Commander...."

"Oh! Sorry!" Marsh said hurriedly, interrupting the engineer. "I meant that strictly as a friendly affair, two colleagues sharing a drink after busting their asses to make sure we don't all die."

"Relax Commander. I knew what you meant," Rogers laughed. "But I've also heard you've been getting friendly with several people since you arrived. People talk. Well, some people at least."

He groaned internally. "So I'm getting a certain reputation already? Lovely."

"Don't worry too much, sir. You're new and still getting settled. We all know how it can be to join a new ship, especially when a lot of the crew have been around for a bit. It doesn't get any easier when you're a senior officer," Rogers said. She hadn't intended to make the senior operations officer self-conscious.

Before Teddy could respond, the environmental station chirped. Both Marsh and Rogers moved to investigate. "Might need a little longer, Commodore," Marsh announced after reviewing the cause of the alert. "The dedicated life support backup is acting up. We should be able to get it resolved in...." He trailed off and looked at Rogers.

"Less than an hour," Tarsa in-toned confidently.

Having finished with Ensign Wysocki, Harvey had retired to his seat in the middle of the room and was taking a look at the armrest controls. His ears had perked up and was half listening to the conversation happening over at the MSD. In fact, he'd smiled and almost chuckled when Rogers thought that Teddy was making a pass. Harvey's mind wandered back to the drinks he shared the other night with Teddy in Talons.

But, when he heard that something was acting up, Harvey found himself on his feet and joining the other officers over at the MSD. "Was that main life support or the backup?" he asked, making no attempt to shield the fact that he'd been eavesdropping.

"Backup," Tarsa stated before Marsh could reply.

"What she said, sir. Nothing we can't resolve quickly," Marsh added.

"Then let's get it resolved," Harvey ordered. "The last thing any of us will need in here is losing life support. Still, we might want to keep a few oxygen masks in an equipment locker. Better to be prepared than not."

"On it, sir," Rogers quickly replied.

Teddy looked at the red-headed engineer. "What she said," he added with a chuckle. "We'll let you know when it's done."

Throughout all of this, Harvey wondered if he should have felt annoyed. After all, the ship was only a month old, and this particular room was meant to serve as a backup should the main bridge be disabled. He felt as if it should have been ready immediately out of drydock, or its priority considered during the shakedown. Harvey decided that oversight was his alone. But at least now they'd be ready anytime this room would be needed.

Ultimately, Harvey nodded to Commander Marsh and Chief Rogers. "Thank you both. I'll leave you to it." Without waiting for another word, he turned and moved back towards his chair.

Marsh gave Geisler a nod and turned back towards the veteran systems engineer. "Shall we get to it?"

Tarsa nodded and began tapping out some commands on the panel in front of her, pulling up a detailed schematic of the life support system, with a focus on the infrastructure dedicated to auxiliary control. "I can go grab a power kit from the engineering stores. We'll need a relay and reinforced shunt. And a tertiary data connection to the life support sensor feed wouldn't hurt either."

"I'll meet you in the Jefferies tube," Teddy replied. "While we work, you can tell me who's been spreading rumors about me."

Rogers chuckled as she headed for the turbolift. "Not gonna happen, Commander," she said, walking away. "If you can ever convince me to accept your invitation for a drink, I might change my mind."

Before he could respond, the non-comm disappeared behind the turbolift doors.

Is she playing hard to get or making fun of me?, Marsh wondered. Either way, this is fun.

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