Parts, Parts, Everywhere [Backpost]

Posted on 19 Aug 2016 @ 6:01pm by Lieutenant JG Samantha Lopez & Vorian Sulvai

2,038 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Risky Business
Location: Engineering

Sam had been making some small personal upgrades to her bird, trying to increase speed and pitch, and also increase the payload she could carry. Unfortunately, she had run out of the magnetic strips she needed, so decided to go to Engineering, as there was none in the flight maintenance area. Sam walked in, and looked around, walking over to the first person she saw. A Lieutenant, approximately 1.85m with dark black hair colour. "Excuse me, Lieutenant." She said, smiling sweetly.

Vorian was trying to keep himself busy. He may had drank a bit more than he intended last night and coupled with a bit of smuggled in narcotics, his head was trying to see if it could bounce his brain all over the place. Still, he was focused enough and his mind just the perfect kind of numb to keep most of the background noise at bay. As such he didn't feel the extra body enter Engineering as he would normally do, making him turn in surprise at the sudden visitor.

He had his hair a bit loose today as he had forgotten to tie it back. As he took the moment to eye down the smaller officer in front of him, he used a piece of elastic to pull his hair back into his standard ponytail, revealing his shaved sides and Vulcan ears. Staring down at her he raised the eyebrow of his Betazoid eye as he spoke. "Yes Lieutenant, what can I assist you with?"

"Sorry to disturb you, but I need some rather strong magnetic strips, I'm trying to make some upgrades to my craft, but seem to have run out. I don't suppose you have some?" She asked, noticing the Vulcan ears.

"Apology accepted Lieutenant. But strong magnetic strips? What craft do you intend to make upgrades to? I do have some on stock but they have been already assigned to other commissions." taking a second to check her uniform he made the guess that she's a fighter pilot. The Hawk was teeming with them apparently. "Well I do find myself in need of a thermal dissipator and a thrust damper. You help me get into possession of those two components and I will gladly make a requisition order for you or help you find a piece of tech that's been decommissioned so we can salvage it for parts."

"Hmmmmm...I think I've actually seen one of those down in the maintenance bay...hang on, I can check. Lopez to Johnson." She said, tapping her commbadge.

"Go for Johnson!" Came the reply.

"Do we still have the Thermal Dissipator and Thrust Damper in storage?" She asked.

"Aye, do you need it? I can send it wherever you need it." He answered, tapping a few commands into the localized transporter.

"Brilliant, we're in engineering, beam them directly up here!" She said, tapping her commbadge again to end the transmission. A few moments later the items appeared on the table before them. "How do these look?" She asked.

Raising his eyebrow at her as she talked and ordered his parts beamed to engineering he turned his back to her as he went to check the two freshly beamed in items. Nodding slowly he gave his approval. "All right, these should do. Hopefully this time I can prevent a meltdown and/or an explosion." he muttered to himself, but loud enough to be heard.

Returning to his previous position he accessed one of the engineering consoles and began imputing queries for decommissioned components. "Cargo bay 2 has some shuttle spare parts. I can assign some as, damaged due to transportation difficulties. And one. Let us head out and see how many strips we can salvage from the broken components."

Giving Sam a practiced smile which looked rather strange on his Vulcan features he motioned towards the door. "I believe humans have a saying, Ladies first? You and you, yes I did mean you. Please take the dissipator and damper to my quarters. Thank you." he finished as he quickly have a few orders to two of the engineers present.

Sam nodded, exiting Engineering and leading the way towards shuttlebay 2. "So, what are we looking for?" She asked heading towards the turbolift.

Vorian crossed his hands across his chest as they entered the turbolift, closing his eyes and leaning against the wall of the turbolift. "I believe they are called boxes or crates. Big ones at that. The should house some deflectors, a few engine parts, circuitry, basically anything needing magnetic strips. I had ordered them to actually build a shuttle, but I gave up on that idea because my design wasn't feasible."

"The design can't have been that bad...can it?" She asked.

Vorian shook his head and grinned at her. "Oh no, it was brilliant. Very aerodynamic with an extra set of engines for atmospheric flight, making break the sound barrier in just three seconds. The kick would've been so hard that if those inside didn't strap on properly they'd be thrown around like rag dolls. As for space flight, it would've been on par with your starfighter in speed and maneuverability."

"So why wasn't it feasible?" She asked, stepping from the turbolift.

"Well to achieve incredible speeds and maneuverability both in space and in atmospheric conditions, the shuttle needed a great amount of energy. Providing it was not the problem. Keeping the crew inside from getting plastered to the shuttle walls was another story. And then there was the problem with the ship not being able to dissipate the enormous amount of heat efficiently. The dissipation components would burn out quickly and those inside risked ending up cooked alive."

"What about an unmanned craft, remote controlled?" She asked, walking through the doors into the cargo bay.

"What purpose would that kind of craft even have? The point of a shuttle is to carry personnel. Goods you can just teleport." he stated as he walked out and began looking for the shuttle part crates. Took him a little bit, but eventually he found them tucked in a corner behind other mountains of crates. "All right, here they are. Pick one and let us start."

Sam pointed to one of the larger objects. "Suppose we'll start with that one...it's likely to have more magnetic strips!" She said. "Give me a hand with it?" She asked, holding one side and getting ready to lift it.

Grabbing the other side he helped her pull it down. Then took out an old fashioned screw driver and began pulling the sides off. "All right, seems to be parts of my modified impulse engine. Let's pick it apart, shall we? Ladies first." he said offering her his screwdriver.

"Thanks!" She said, smiling, and unscrewing the screws from her side of the engine. "Hmmmmmm...seems to be a few of the strips I need in here, holding the engine to the casing...awesome!" She said, chuckling to herself.

Grinning at her he pulled another screwdriver from his belt. "Glad to know that I do not need to explain how things work to you. Why starfighters and not engineering? I have a feeling you are quite handy with tools." he asked as he began pulling off the strips on his side of the engine, piece by piece.

"I always preferred getting deep into the action, I feel I'd find Engineering a little boring. I'm more of an action girl. What about you? Why Engineering?" She asked, pulling off panels and components to get to the strips hidden underneath the engine.

"Because it is exactly boring and most of the times keeps me away from other people. I have enough action and excitement on a daily basis just by being around other sentients. Don't need to be around them in a combat situation to feel any adrenaline pumping into my system. I suffer from a case of too much Betazoid in my head." he replied half amused letting out a shot sigh. "Took me so long to design this engine. Almost a full week."

"Sorry...I would have found something else if you'd wanted to keep it!" She said, halting halfway through half removing, half tearing off a panel.

"I wouldn't have offered to take it apart if I wanted to keep it. I can always rebuild it. And until I can come off with a solution for my two problems, it will just gather dust here. So don't stop, keep on going." he urged her on.

Sam nodded and continued taking the engine apart and getting the last 2 magnetic strips. "Right, that looks like all of them!" She said, smiling across at Vorian.

"Let's move on to the other one. It's this box here. Give me a hand with it." he said as he picked up the sides of another box. "We will put next to the other engine. We'll pack them back up after this. After all its not proper to leave a mess behind or the quartermaster will have our heads."

Sam nodded, grabbing hold of the box and lifting it next to the engine. "So what's this meant to be?" She asked, smiling.

"The other engine. If you don't get enough after this, we might need to move on to the captain's deck chair." he proposed smiling back at her. As strange as it looked, he was starting to enjoy smiling a bit more often, just like Doctor Jayla Kij.

"I'm hoping we have enough...although taking apart the captains deck chair does sound tempting..." She trailed off, smiling back at the other officer.

"As a last resort, I'll keep him busy and you dismantle his chair. We would be the talk of the Black hawk for our act of foolish bravery." he proposed keeping his smile as he opened the newest crate and began pulling off the casing on the top of the engine.

"We'd also probably be thrown in the brig, and/or court marshaled...nice bit of excitement though." Sam said, smiling at the thought as she again started to take apart the engine and remove the magnetic strips.

Vorian got to work removing all the strips he could on his side. "How many of these do you need? And is the improvement done using them that good? I am very curious about how you intend to use them."

"I think they are...just increasing my speed, how much weight I can carry, how fast I can roll my craft, little things like that that don't need much work." She said as she took out the last magnet on her side. "All done this side!" She remarked.

"Interesting. Can I request a report on your starfigther's performance before and after you add these magnetic strips to it?" he asked politely as he finished pulling out the last magnetic strip on his side. "Done on my side too. Do you have enough or do you need more? We can start with the power grid parts if you still need more strips." he proposed adding the last magnetic strips from the upper part of the engine to the pile.

"I'll have it to you as soon as I'm finished. And yeah, that should be plenty. Thanks for your help!" Sam said, picking up the magnets and heading for the door.

"Hold it right there Lieutenant. I made this mess for you and you will not leave until you help me clean it up. Now let's pack the engines back and reattach the crates. Than you can go." he stopped her on a more commanding tone as he nodded towards the two disassembled engines and parts laying around.

"Oh, yes, sorry!" Sam said, walking back over and helping Vorian put the engines away and reattach the crates. They were soon done and Sam turned to leave again. "All done, see you again soon I'm sure Lieutenant." She said.

After they were finished reattaching the engines and placing back in their crates Vorian made a polite bow towards the pilot. "I am always open for other lucrative trade deals Lieutenant. Fly safely." with that he headed back towards Engineering.

Sam nodded as she left, knowing she'd see the man again soon.

====/\End/\====

Lieutenant Sulvai

&

Lieutenant JG Lopez

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