A Rare Breed Of Engineer!
Posted on Thu Aug 29th, 2024 @ 12:30am by Captain Takami Karibuchi & Commander Hikari Karibuchi & Yulena Shastakar & Lieutenant Fran
1,239 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Season 1, Episode 0: "A Time To Heal"
Location: Lower Engineering, Deck 25
Timeline: Shortly After "Starfleet Runs In The Blood," but exact time TBD
"And down here, you'll find our Main Engineering facilities," Takami stated as she disembarked from the Turbolift, with Hikari and Yulena closely in tow. "Now, if you know a thing or two about tolerances, there's not a lot of engines out there that are capable of maintaining a stable cruising speed of Warp 8- especially not without shaking itself to pieces; I've heard reports that Admiral Krause and his team had to scour the far ends of the alpha quadrant for a design that could meet his required design parameters, but they finally managed to find one in the most unlikely of places:"
The three of them rounded a corner to come face-to-face with a tall, cylindrical tower that stretched a full two decks above them, pulsing a brilliant shade of blue.
"The Mark Fifteen Engine," Takami continued. "A patent for it was filed on Gamma Omega Three about four years ago, mainly for use on industrial cargo freighters affiliated with High Speed Express Courier Services, Incorporated; given the company has very stringently committed itself to getting their deliveries done on-time, no excuses, they require their freighters to be both fast and reliable. A typical Freighter equipped with this engine is easily capable of maintaining Warp 7.6 outright, but on much smaller space frames such as this one, the warp factor is actually much higher."
"How fast are we talking?" Hikari inquired.
"Tests with the prototype showed it was capable of maintaining a cruising speed of Warp 8, a max speed of Warp 9, and an emergency speed of Warp 9.99 for up to 12 hours before the hull begins showing any signs of stress," Takami replied.
Hikari whistled. "That's pretty close to the Warp 10 threshold... you sure that we're not going to turn into frogs or anything weird like that?"
A rather small petite looking woman seemed to appear from no where. She had cat like ears on her head, and a long tail swished behind her. "Warp Ten is infinite speed," she said simply.
"Ah, Lieutenant Fran; perfect timing!" Takami smiled as she turned to greet the newcomer. "Hikari, I'd like you to meet our Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Fran; she was a part of Admiral Krause's design team during development of the Constitution III Program, so if there's anyone here who's more than qualified to know the finer workings of this vessel inside and out, it's her."
Hikari blinked in disbelief. "No way."
"Yes way!" Takami nodded enthusiastically.
Fran cocked her head to one side. "Which way are we on about?"
"Wha- Oh, no, it was a figure of speech, Lieutenant," Hikari chuckled. "Anyways, I'm getting off-topic; Fran, was it? It's a pleasure to meet you; given everything I've heard so far regarding the Constitution III program, this is really big deal, so I'm honored to have a member of Krause's design team on board as my Chief Engineer."
Fran cocked her head to one side as she looked at the Captain. "You are very young." She said simply.
"Very observant, Lieutenant!" Hikari chuckled. "And yes, I'm 32, though I must say, you're not all that bad-looking for your age, either!"
"You are 4.7 cycles of age" Fran said in response. "My oldest child is just older than you. I myself am 31.8 cycles of age." she stated. "What is your need here in the engine room?"
"Wait, hold on... you said your child is older than me?" Hikari asked with a look of surprise. "Wait, so if I'm 4.7 in your years, and you're 31.8, that makes you... how old again?"
"In Human terms, of what you call 'years'. I am two hundred and twenty three. However in Asobi terms, I am thirty one point eight." Fran explained. "My home planet moved slower around our star, so one cycle of the star took seven of what Human's call 'years'. Or so I am told."
"Asobi..." Hikari muttered as she sized Fran up. "I've heard about them before, but this is probably my first time getting to meet one in person..."
"We are of small numbers," Fran replied simply. "I am the third Asobi to join this Starfleet." She explained simply.
"Only the third?" Hikari remarked with a look of surprise.
Fran nodded silently.
"Given their rarity here in Starfleet, we've taken the liberty of uploading a comprehensive record into Starfleet's medical database," Takami elaborated. "It combines Lieutenant Fran's medical records with that of the other two Asobi officers, so in the likelihood that Lieutenant Fran should require medical treatment for whatever reason, Lieutenant Zephyrin should have a fairly extensive reference with which to go off of."
Once again Fran cocked her head to one side. "So. Did you need me?" she asked. "I have a lot of tasks to complete."
"Well, just a couple of questions, and then I'll be out of your hair," Hikari insisted. "My sister here tells me that the Mark Fifteen was repurposed from an industrial cargo freighter engine, but what exactly does that give us?"
Fran pondered for a few moments. "It has long range capabilities and extra safeguards." She explained simply.
"Safeguards such as...?"
"You do not know?" Fran asked. "Then I shall explain. The core has extra reinforced containment fields, supplemented by secondary containment failsafe. Also we have stronger magnetic constrictors to regulate Plasma flow. The cooling tunnels in this core now have a new sensor design to monitor cooling and use the engineering computer to automatically regulate coolant directly to the intermix chamber. Along that, the core can be set to eject automatically if there is a risk of a breach without the need of access codes as a failsafe if the Command officer is not present. Another feature is that the plasma from the core can be ejected through new vents in the nacelles, meaning that we won't have to fuse warp coils anymore on case of an overload."
"The Gamma Omegans are very forward-thinking when it comes to Starship design," Takami winked. "So much so that Krause and his team only really had to polish up the design for the Mark Fifteen to get it to work with our subsystems."
Hikari glanced up at the Mark Fifteen. "Reinforced containment fields? Improved magnetic constrictors? Cooling tunnel sensors? Plasma ejection vents? Sounds like they considered everything."
"The Gamma Omegans have a mantra; 'if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing'," Takami replied.
Fran cocked her head to one side. "It's an advanced piece of technology," she stated simply.
"I'll say," Hikari remarked as she shifted her attention back towards Fran. "Well, thank you again for your time, Lieutenant, and I'm looking forward to working with you on this assignment."
"Isn't that the point?" Fran asked simply.
"Well..." Hikari chuckled as she rubbed the back of her neck. "I suppose you could consider it a gesture of respect; a way of showing that you're a welcome part of this here crew."
Fran gave her a small nod before turning away and trotting off back to what she was doing.
"So, then," Takami began as she circled back on topic. "Where to next?"
Posting by (In order of appearance):
Captain Takami Karibuchi
Commanding Officer, USS Hornet (NCC-42025)
Commander Hikari Karibuchi
Commanding Officer, USS Yorktown (NCC-91781)
General Yulena Shastakar
Annexari Special Representative
Lieutenant Fran
Chief Engineer, USS Yorktown (NCC-91781)
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