LtCmdr Connor Dewitt - Your Call (Part II)

[Tim]

((Main Engineering, Deck 12, USS Khitomer))

Connor was about to ask the next question when his combadge cut him off.

Zerva: =/\= Lieutenant Zerva to engineering. =/\=

Dewitt: =/\= This is Dewitt. Go ahead, Lieutenant. =/\=

Michaels: Response

Zerva: =/\= We’re going to need a torpedo loaded with filaments and a speaker-filled probe chaser. =/\=

Connor’s eyes followed the colors on Michaels’ diagram without his brain processing any actual information from it. His brain just did not know what to process for a second as it had fully comprehended Ezra’s demand.

Dewitt: =/\= Ah… how… what? =/\=

Michaels: =/\= Response =/\=

Zerva: =/\= The speaker filled probe was an idea I got from gunnery Sargent Martz. We’ll use it to clear a path between us and the Alliance. The music will cause the filaments to dissipate around it as it passes through. Essentially we would be plowing our way through with music using the probe and ensuring the torpedo makes its mark. =/\=

Connor wasn’t even sure that was what he was speechless about. They wanted to load filaments onto a torpedo? An interesting idea, but how should they safely ensure that a mass would grow into a torpedo casing without attaching to the surrounding lab again?

Connor did not even know what to say to that.

Michaels: =/\= Response =/\=

Zerva: =/\= And energy probe? Just to be clear, you said your probe would attract the filaments to a power source? Instead of pushing the filaments away from the Khitomer, you want to bring them closer?

Connor took a deep breath. A speaker probe would not work in space. They would have to use the energy output of a probe and modulate it using one of the lullabies. Maybe that could work. Maybe not. But that did not even solve the problem of loading a torpedo with crystalline masses.

Michaels: Response

Dewitt: =/\= Lieutenant, I prefer your idea of a speaker loaded probe to push away those masses instead of attracting more. We would have to use an energy signature and modulate it with a lullaby, because sound does not travel in space. But I have no clue if it would work. ::beat:: To modify a torpedo we need at least half an hour. =/\=

Zerva: =/\= I understand. =/\=

Michaels: =/\= Response =/\=

Connor stayed quiet for a moment and took a breath. Brom flashed before his eyes.

Dewitt: =/\= Ezra, this is risky. Not only for the ship, but also for the people modifying the torpedo. ::beat:: We will start working on both the torpedo and the probe. If this becomes unnecessary, I want you to contact me immediately. If I don’t hear from you, we will have everything ready in thirty minutes. Dewitt out. =/\=

Connor looked into Thelan’s concerned eyes as the commline closed. The room had become quiet. It was that quietness that preceded the storm. He felt like everyone was watching him to make the call. Briefly, his brain brought him back to the damage control teams in all those corridors. Then to Semara on the bridge with the Lattice Allaince in front of her. A threat that would mean certain death to a lot of his crew.

Valeris: I have some reservations, sir. But it’s your call.

Dewitt: I share your reservations, Commander. ::beat:: We will use Engineering Lab two to modify a probe and a torpedo. ::to Valeris:: Prepare to beam both into the lab immediately and have non-essential personnel evacuate the adjacent sections. ::pause:: Lieutenant Michaels, work with Vidya to identify masses to load into the torpedo. At least five that are small enough to fit. ::beat:: Once you’re done, you’ll all accompany in the Engineering Lab.

He let the room breath for a second. He hoped he had not just made the wrong call. They would find out either way.

Michaels/Valeris/Vidya/Zerva(?): Response

The Executive officer nodded and turned towards the exit to head to Engineering Lab two. The he turned around again to face Michaels.

Dewitt: ::quieter:: One more thing Whatever happens in the next thirty minutes, I want a list of who is on those damage control teams. I want names and decks. And I want to know what they fixed. ::pause:: Not for the report. I just want to know.

He turned around and left his team. The names needed to become faces again. He knew the engineers. He almost did not know anybody else under his command. It frightened and gave him comfort at the same time.

((Short time skip, Engineering Lab 2))

Engineering Lab Two was the smaller of the two work spaces they used as labs. It was the one that was not adjacent to vital infrastructure. The one they kept for the jobs that needed clean floor space and a closed door. Three workbenches along the walls and a center pad surrounded by deck-mounted emitters for containment. A diagnostic screen on the wall where the full schematic of whatever they were about to take apart could be spread out. It was usually a quiet room.

By the time Connor walked in, the probe and the torpedo were both there. Valeris had beamed them in ahead of the team. The probe sat on the floor next to the work bench. The torpedo casing sat on the center pad with two transport enhancers tucked in beside it.

He spent the next few minutes alone. He pulled the outer panel off the probe and laid the inner subassemblies in the order he wanted to return them in. Then he pulled the schematic of the torpedo casing onto the corner screen and zoomed in on the magazine seat. He did not open the casing yet. That was a job he was not going to do without someone else in the room. He had been an engineer long enough to know which jobs you do not do alone.

Then the doors hissed open. His team assembled in the room and he allowed them a beat to orient themselves.

Dewitt: Computer, erect a level eight containment field around Engineering Lab Two. Seal the lab perimeter, authorization Dewitt, theta-nine.

The blue shimmer flickered across the bulkhead as the computer made an affirming noise.

Dewitt: ::quietly:: Alright. Let’s get to work.

Michaels/Valeris/Vidya: Response

TAG/TBC

LtCmdr Connor Dewitt
Executive Officer
USS Khitomer
A239901CD3