Legacy
Posted on Sun Aug 14th, 2016 @ 1:45pm by Lieutenant Commander Thomas Byrne & Lieutenant Commander Le Austin & Master Chief Petty Officer Arathenar ch’Darnath
Mission:
Brave New World
Location: Starbase 332 - Maintenance Hangar
Byrne repeated the directions he had read off the computer screen to himself as he strolled through the corridors of one of the starbases many levels that provided access to the various shuttlebays and smaller landing bays of the station. He was still trying to learn his way around, though he figured he'd never truly learn his way around a station as large as 332. At least the mapping system built into the computer was good enough to give him an idea of where he was going, so long as he knew his end destination.
This particular destination he had found whilst going through the files he had inherited from Commander Gunning. There weren't any details attached to it; just a maintenance hangar, assigned to Gunning in his capacity as chief of security shortly before he left, and passed over to Byrne along with a myriad other things. With some free time on his hands, he had decided to go and check out what was stored there.
The door he wanted was unhelpfully labelled with a long string of letters and numbers, but it matched the number on the manifest listing. It was one of the large, heavy-looking doors, with failsafe latches to keep it closed in the event of a power cut, which were always usually reserved for shuttlebays or holodecks. He entered his access code on the control pad next to it, and the door opened with a characteristic pneumatic whir.
As soon as the doors opened, the sounds of a robust discussion could be heard. "What do you mean it can't be done? Aren't you supposed to be one of those genius engineers that can make anything happen?"
"I. Cannot. Change. The Laws. Of Physics," Lt. Cmdr. Le Austin bit back at the other man. "Do you understand that? They're laws for a reason, man!"
The grizzly Andorian was unperturbed and pressed on, "Bah, laws! Can't you reverse the polarity on something or other? We need this thing to make some pretty tight turns and operate effectively without much room to manoeuvre."
"Oh, sure, I'll just reverse the polarity on the primary manifold and have it put out a tachyon field that would act as an airbag to bonce around on and--" Austin stopped for a second, seemingly thinking hard about that, "Wait... that actually might work..." He said, running over to an open hatch to start adjusting settings.
Ch'Darnath guffawed and said, "There, see? Genius engineer!" He slid down off the shuttle's roof and landed with a loud thud on the deck. As he stood up, he caught sight of Byrne in the doorway. He was off duty, so he didn't salute, but his mien turned serious regardless. "Commander?" he said, his antennae bowing forward slightly. "Is there something you need?"
Austin, now waste deep in the access hatch, responded, "No, no, I'm good." Not realizing another commander had entered the room.
"I was just wondering why I inherited a hangar bay with what looks to be half of a runabout," Byrne commented, looking across the ship in the middle of the bay, and the surrounding pieces of it. It looked as though the ship had been in need of new parts to begin with before more had been taken off of it for... whatever it was that the chief and someone Byrne guessed was another commander on the station were doing.
"Just a little side project, sir," the Andorian replied, his stance locked in an unyielding parade rest. "With the help of some people from Operations, we're modifying this vehicle for use by Starbase Security as an all-purpose, rapid response and deployment craft. It's a prototype ... or, it will be. Sir."
Austin slid out and looked at the new comer, "Oh, Commander Byrne! Sorry, sir, didn't realize you'd entered," He said, standing and walking over to shake the man's hand, "Don't think we've met, but I recognize your face from your file. Lieutenant Commander Le Austin, Chief of Starbase Operations. This here in the Interceptor-class prototype," He looked over his shoulder to the Andorian behind her, "I named her, by the way. You can't just call it 'the ship' without hurting her feelings."
"A pleasure, Commander," Byrne said, shaking the man's hand. "Interceptor-class, you say? A bespoke ship for Starfleet Security?"
"Yessir, it's a heavily modified Danube-class runabout. She's been swapped around and tweaked enough that she deserved a new designation. We scarified storage and cargo space for enough power to amp up the weapons array and powering and maneuvering. She can thread a needle or cut it in two, no matter the need. Once we're done, she should give you air superiority any time you need it," He said, proudly.
"One of Commander Gunning's legacies, I'm guessing?" Byrne asked, taking a guess at who had come up with the idea and managed to get the ball rolling with it. He started strolling around the ship, taking a close look at all of the exposed components as he circled. "How long have you been working on her?"
"It was," Austin confirmed, "And we've been working on her about three weeks now on off ours. I figure we've got about another month or so before she's space worthy, but we're getting there."
"Anything you could use a hand with?" Byrne asked. "I'm pretty handy with a spanner."
"Yeah," Austin said, beaming, "Think you can repolarize the binary lifters on the aft section of the ship? They were damaged during the sojourner attack and I haven't had time to work on them yet," He offered.
"I'll get right on them," Byrne said, grabbing a toolbox and heading to the ship's rear end.
Lt. Commander Thomas Byrne
Chief of Station Security
Lt. Commander Le Austin
Chief of Operations
Master Chief Arathenar ch'Darnath
Master-At-Arms
Starbase 332
