One Man Shop

Posted on 22 Apr 2016 @ 2:34pm by Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast & Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper

1,694 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Operations Office
Timeline: MD5 - 1400 Hours

Lt. jg Catherine "CJ" Cooper was bopping along, humming some tune or another until she got to the ops office. The department was still a bit light in staff and she hoped there'd be someone able to assist this request but if not she figured she could wing it. Entering the offices she called out, "Hello, I am here to partake of bountiful munificence of the operations department.". Her brown hair as usual was tied back, out of her way as she surveyed the area.

Bast looked up from his computer console, broken out of his deep concentration by the Young lieutenant's arrival. He pushed aside the twenty data padds that were stacked up on his desk, and stood.

"Come in, Lieutenant," he said. "We're a little short-staffed at the moment, but anything we can do to help."

She went over. And though she knew of what had happened she didn't hint at it, didn't give any indication she knew of it. She figured after what he had gone through, he was still working through his own pain and the best thing she could do was treat him normally, "Great we have a boon to ask of thee. This light weight security belt just got approved and we're going to need to outfit the entire security/tactical department with it." She handed him a PADD with schematics of a belt with loops, pouches and the like with a description:

The idea is a light weight belt that could carry a basic survival kit. It included a type two phaser, a small slug thrower for if there was an energy dampening field which was worn in the boot or on the belt, an emergency breathing mask, one flash/bang, a door opener in case of no power, a general multitool, a couple of transport transponders in a pouch, tricorder and pair of handcuffs, a baton and a a small, basic med kit including a dermal regenerator and hypospray. There were a few extra, small places for more loops or pouches for additions or change outs.

"What do you think?" She asked curiously. "Also how possible is it for something you could attach to shoes that was tiny so one could keep their feet in case of zero g?"

Bast took the data padd, and looked over the description. The utility belt was interesting, and he could think of broader applications than what Security was requesting. He opened up a design application, and made a few adjustments to make it more modular. He shifted the weaponry to a new module, which he labeled Security gear, and on a separate panel, he created another, which he labeled Engineering gear, which included a hydrospanner, plasma flow scanner, and other various commonly-used tools. Another panel labeled Medical, and a third labeled Science, completed the modifications. He handed the data padd back to her.

"How about this? This way, we can adapt the utility belt for other departments, according to their needs."

Catherine grinned, "That's brilliant. I had wondered at a larger application but got busy following through with other projects. I mean this is great, our waists are great places to hold things. It's not in the way, easy to wear and we can keep needed items on our person." Then a thought occurred, "Might be a challenge for engineering or anyone who has to crawl through a tight place though, items would have to be kept smallish...oooh or we could make the belt expandable so like you could wear it on your back. Similar problem but allows for flexibility what do you think?" She said as her brain tossed off another shiny idea.

"Let's not overdo it," replied Bast. "We want easy access to our most common tools, but it's all moot if it takes longer to remember where it is on your belt than it would be to reach inside a toolkit case, or if the thing weighs you down too much."

"Right yes, yes, re-focusing. This should work." She said mentally shifting gears, which sometimes was a bit like trying to turn an old style cruise ship on a dime but CJ had alot of practice. "I've made a list of items security officers may choose to mod their belts with and this is the restricted list of items that requires the Chief to sign off on..." She showed two lists, one was a pretty solid list of 'could uses's while the other included items like 'frag grenades' etc.

Bast looked at the list, and raised his eyebrows. "Looks like you're planning on packing up the entire armory there," he commented.

"Well no these are items people may think of they want to add and we're preemptively nipping them in the bud. No crazy stuff unless its authorized. That sort of thing. Sorry if I didn't explain, I sometimes can get over eager and then its like a runaway freight train..." She grinned apologetically.

"That's fine," said Bast, still going over the list. "I can make it so the belt has hooks and pouches and everything, and what you actually choose to put on it is up to the wearer."

"Excellent! If people are anything like others I've known the standard kit will be great but having the ability to tweak it per operational needs will be even better. Thanks for your help oh Bountiful One...er..I mean Sir." She smiled. "Do you need anything else from me for this? I'm happy to help."

"What's your timetable for this? How soon do you need it, and how many do you need?"

She thought for a moment, "There's no huge rush but I would like to get 2 each, one primary and one backup for each security/tactical officer. Sooner rather than later but I understand if you have other things. I figure we'll also need time to train personnel to quickly find things on the belt, get used to wearing and all that fun stuff so the sooner we can get started the better I would think?" She was already plotting to add a leg holster on hers for her phaser to practice quick draw, then she wondered if she could get the Chief to sign off on Wild West style Sheriff badges. She mentally grinned as the image of her in a cowboy hat with a commbadge on the front flittered through her mind.

Temerant sighed, and looked at the stack of data padds on his desk. "If we still had a Quartermaster, this would go a lot faster," he said. "But right now the best I can offer you is three days. In three days, I can have the design stored in the computer, and then you could replicate it yourself. How does that sound to you?"

"That'll work fine. Listen I have a few hours here and there, I'm not much for ops but I do good grunt work..." She offered feeling a bit bad for the overworked and under staff Ops Chief.

"Well," said Bast, thinking, "if you know how to program a matter replicator, you could help yourself."

"I think I can manage that, I have to get back to other duties right now but I can pop back in a few hours do poking around." It wasn't the most exciting but she could do it and usually used time like that to listen to music. Also while working other thoughts would occur to her and she'd make a note. By juggling multiple activities it helped keep her pretty well occupied so she could stay focused on what needed to be done. And it helped she only really needed about 4-5 hours of sleep anyway. She made a mental note to bring information on learning the floor harp.

"Perfect, then" replied Bast. "Come back whenever you can. I'll probably be here if you need help programming the thing."

"Aye Sir, will do..." with a smile and a wave she was gone.

A few hours later having properly seen to her primary duties she returned only to find the Ops Chief still hard at work with a slightly smaller pile of PADD's on his desk. "Sir? returning as promised, if you can set me I'll quietly...mostly.." she said unable to her sure she wouldn't burst into song.

"Welcome back," said Bast, looking up from his stack of data padds. He walked over to an auxiliary console, and logged the Security officer into the replicator computer, and set her up to transfer the data from the padd they'd been working on.

"Now, you can enter any modifications you might want to make, then go over to any replicator station and try out your design."

"Thanks Sir, I'm sure you've better things to do than allow a ham fisted security type to fiddle about with your equipment so much appreciated..." She smiled. It wasn't the most exciting work but she didn't mind she had her work sound track playlist ready to go if needs be.

"Don't mention it," replied Bast. "You know the old Earth parable of giving a man a fish, and teaching him how to fish? I'm teaching you how to program the replicator, so next time you need something, you'll be able to do it yourself. Besides," he added with a smile, "if I leave you hanging something tells me your Chief will have my ass."

There was just a moment when her smile tried to broaden but she got herself under control, "Well she does seem fond of same..." flew through her mind as she tried desperately to keep a straight face. "Yes Sir..." She managed, "Happy to help..."

"Well then Lieutenant, I think you're all set. You can start replicating whenever you like, and just tell the computer what you want to change as you go."

"Yes Sir..." She said and sat, thinking, "I don't think he'd mind if she had his ass..." and bit her lip, happy for the both of them as she focused on the task ahead of her then she put in her head phones and started listening to her paperwork desk jams.

OOC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz1PPq1lzBY

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