What I have and what I need
Posted on Wednesday February 26th, 2020 @ 23:21 hours by Mayterial Droz & Mercy
Mission:
Safe Passage
Location: Docked with Starbase 32
Timeline: MD02
1481 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure
Oil smudged, grease stained and various other unspecified flavors of dirtiness stained the ship's resident Sirran and her overalls, as she lumbered the hallways of Fawkes, ducking underneath bulkheads, making her way to the bridge to find the Captain. She was carrying some components to finish some secondary work on the bridge as well.
It had been an eventful couple of days they had spent at the station, but Mayterial knew that they had to get back out among the stars quickly. The cargo bays were starting to fill up and with the first destination set to be Risa they were also getting some requests for passage. Priority now was to get the licenses sorted for the cargo Groud had provided them with. It was all on the level, but transporting food through core Fed space came with some requirements, boxes she had to tick.
With all that bureaucratic stuff in mind May stepped onto the bridge, looking for their signaller for some help with the permits, she could barely avoid stepping onto a plate that normally covered the tactical console in the back of the bridge. She remembered kicking that very plate when she came back onboard the first day after the Fleeters ransacked the place. It didn't look much different now than it did back then, "What the fuck?" She muttered under her breath.
Mercy entered the bridge not long after May, carrying some components, a repaired circuit board and a new touch screen. "Captain, just the one I was looking for. Got a moment to talk?"
Wading her way through the bits and pieces strewn about the floor May was making her way over to the captain's chair when she heard a familiar deep baritone, "Ah. Mercy, of course."
"Figured I'd give you a status report." as Mercy knelt down amidst the mess on the floor, pulling out some more bits from the partially disassembled console. "Working on fixing those flashing backlight and freezing issues on this console. Problem's deeper than I thought. Also working on doing a long overdue service on your engine and warp core. Scrubbing conduits, honing power distributors, replacing worn cable booms, just minor service that tends to fall by the way side during normal operation." she mused, her words measured as she worked, warm and thick as her voice always was.
Mayterial nodded, those did sound like things that she normally told the engineers that she had on board that it could wait until another day, "Good to hear you have some time to spend on that, how long would that take still? We should really get going as soon as the holds are full." She didn't want to pressure the Sirran, but on the other hand time spent in the docking bay was money wasted.
Mercy considered for a moment. "Ideally I need another thirty ish hours of work to get it all done, but if you really want to launch, I can get you up and running six hours after you give me the word. But that'll just leave all the work to do later. It needs to be done some time." she explained. "Was something else I wanted to talk to you about as well." as she started work on seating the new touch screen and logic board for the console.
Thirty hours didn't seem like too bad of an estimate, the most critical elements in six was also nice. Mayterial felt like they might be at capacity in about another day or so, that would align perfectly. "Lay it on me." She tucked the PADD with the permit requests away into one of her pockets and gave Mercy her undivided attention.
"Think you can get your hands on a small non food grade replicator?" Mercy asked, working her way down the screws for the console touch-screen. "I know they're expensive and I know they're a female dog to install, but it'd make the world of difference for my job. Having one would've cut my work hours for what I've been doing this layover in half and saved you a lot on replacement parts and fluids." She glanced over at May as she spoke. "Consider it an investment. It'll pay for itself over time and mean a smoother and more efficient running engine."
It wasn't the first time an Engineer had requested such a thing, and in all honesty, there had never really been enough resources to do that, May had told one of the previous ones that if they could build it themselves then she'd more than happily spring for the parts, apparently that suggestion hadn't really landed well. "This is something that I'd have to look into, can't make any promises." She wanted a moment to see if they were going to make enough on this run to Risa to cover the costs, "even if it's in the budget, I wouldn't get too excited. I think with the available power and infrastructure in place we couldn't run anything beyond a small maintenance one." She indicated with her hands about the size of a small personal food replicator, "You'd still have to assemble the pieces that come out of it. And I'd have to have the assurance that operating that thing won't harm our core operations." She heard herself sounding like one of the operations Chiefs back in Starfleet and sighed a bit, "I don't want to have to drop out of warp so that you can replace a lightbulb."
"A small, 30 liter maintenance once is all I'm asking for anyways. Anything more would be too much of a draw on the systems. I've already been looking at the ship's power generation and draw and sketching some sort of capacitor bank to counter its immediate power draw. Need be I could build it myself out of parts. Remember, I'm not some backwater tinkerer." The Sirran mused. "It's the small maintenance tasks that take up most of my time on this ship, May." She smiled, flicking an ear. "All goes to plan, the servicing I'll do during this layover gives you two percent more efficiency. My priority is to get this ageing engine back to factory efficiency."
"If you're building a high capacity battery keep in mind the Federation regulations in regards to these things and residential areas on a vessel. We're already in violation of code with you sleeping so near the Warp Core. I don't want to sit any passengers in the blast radius of such a contraption." May could probably talk her way out of the sleeping arrangements of the Sirran, but if passengers got hurt that would be a lost battle before it hit the courtroom, "There's no way I can arrange for one before we leave here though. We'd have to put feelers out around Risa."
"Capacitor bank. Not a battery. Batteries don't have the instant power delivery or drain rate of a capacitor bank. Plus, capacitor banks are nowhere near as dangerous. No chemicals that can react, just plates and insulators. Downside is that they don't hold a charge for very long at all." Mercy explained. "Yeah I figured now would be too late to find one this layover, just wanted to raise the issue."
"Duly noted, I'll put it on the list for the Quartermaster to acquire," May pulled the PADD from her pocket and switched to her personal notes to add this request to the list, "So, just to make sure, if we can get one that's not fully functional you can repair or rebuild it?"
"Depends on how busted it is. If the sequencer is beyond repair the whole unit is junk. Anything else, probably yeah. Sequencer's the most critical part. As long as that's not too far gone I should be able to make it work." Mercy mused, looking at May.
Mayterial made another note on her PADD, "Sequencer, got it." She'd probably need Mercy to check it once they got their hands on one anyway, "I'll leave you to your work, if anyone needs me I'm in my quarters."
"Sounds good. I'm almost done here anyways. Apart from cleaning up the mess." Mercy made a wry face.
"We have some new hands, and Kari also needs to get back into the swing of things," Mayterial wasn't above delegating stuff away to Deck hands, especially menial tasks that didn't need her specialised licensed crew to waste time on them. Time better spend elsewhere.
"Nah I got it. Am about to take a break anyways. Going on eighteen hours now, need some food, a shower and some sleep." Mercy answered.
"Don't forget to clean your hair out of the drain, I've had complaints." May called back over her shoulder as she stepped off the bridge. She'd been meaning to bring that up, but something always came up to interrupt that particular topic.
[Off]
Mayterial Droz
Captain
&
Mercy
Engineer
S.S. Fawkes