Post Number 65 *Getting Organized*

Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 3:08pm by Captain Marius Pontmercy & Commander Jordan Haines & Master Chief Petty Officer K'Ral De Bruinhiena
Edited on on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 3:08pm

1,862 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Obsidian

ON

Master Chief De Bruinhiena felt his ears twitch as he lead the more junior officers into the Conference Room. It wasn't as if he'd never been in a meeting like this, but 99 times out of 100, it wasn't good news. Which was why his ears seemed to raise and lower and move from side to side all at the same time. Taking his seat, the hienian pulled out his datapad, mostly to take notes for whatever was going to be in store... and to sneakily check to see if there were any update messages from the other Chiefs about the repairs.

For the most part, the most senior enlisteman on the ship sat in silence, only giving Pontmercy a courteus nod of the head. He'd met the human... well... he rightfully didn't recall exactly when, but he knew they'd bumped into one another before. Probably at some manditory function that was supposedly not manditory or casually passing through one of the many Starbases that dotted Federation Space. Then again, Hienians, just like Caitians and several other non-homonid species, tended to lean more towards their olfactory and auditory senses for identification rather than their eyes, and the Chief was drawing a bit of a blank, even though the voice did sound slightly familiar.

As he was trying to solve the puzzle, the officers began making their inquiries after Pontmercy made the mistake of opening the floor to an early round of questions, and the first one made him chuckle to himself. "If they don't like replicators, we can always break out the MREs," what what he wanted to say, but the Captain beat him to the punch. Not that he was upset about not being able to get a word in. In fact, he did like the idea of trying to find some of the rarest members of the StarFleet enlisted branch.

Truth be told, most of them had been phased out eons ago when replicators became smaller and mass produced, but the rate of Culinary Specialist was still around. Only problem was that they were almost exclusively assigned to Embasseys, Flag Ships, and Deep Space Exploration vessels. If you wanted to find one for any ship outside that, you just had to grease the right wheel and/or call in a favor.

As he thought about it, K'Ral did remember one Senior Chief Culinary Specialist that still owed him a favor. Senior Chief.... Duder. Dorothy Druder. The human still owed him for finding those bottles of Chateu Picard 2245 she needed for some reception at StarFleet Headquarters not long after the Dominion War.

His stylus moved to take a quick note as he was lost in his own thoughts until Lietenant V'Lar spoke out. The Master Chief cocked an eyebrow. The half-Vulcan was certainly out of line with her tone of voice, if not also incorrect in her statement. Technically speaking, all ships were assigned to a Starbase and had a home port. The truth of the matter was that almost all StarFleet vessels were assigned a home port of one of the Federation members; Earth, Vulcan, Andorria, Tellarite, Cait, Alpha Centauri, Betazed, along with the other 170 plus other systems. The size of the fleet varied wildly between them based on need, but they were assigned to those starbases at their home port. However, when the vessels were deployed for whatever reason, they would be assigned to a Sector Command and told to utilize the starbases under that command for resupply, or even be told to head to the closest Starbase to be given missions by the Sector Command as necessary. The old Master Chief had been through the process more times than he really wanted to recall, and the only real reason he'd even looked into the inner workings of StarFleet paperwork was when he had to play Yeoman for his CO during the Dominion War until they were able to limp back to DS9. The Miranda he'd been assigned to was home ported at Earth, but had been assigned to the Bajoran Sector Command for mine warfare operations.

Again, the Captain took full control of the situation as the Master Chief continued to play the fly on the wall, though, he did almost snort at the 13 month estimate for getting the station back in working order. Most repair estimates weren't based on reality... necessarily. They were based on averages. Sure, some jobs were going to take much longer and some half the time, but 13 months seemed... excessive. They already had a working industrial replicator on the ship. Four of them in fact. Two where put in when the ship was built. The third and fourth had been strategically transferred equipment from an alternate location (that alternate location being their previous Starbase's long-term storage facility). The third and fourth replicator had mostly been used for spare parts to keep the first two running while they'd done major repairs to the ship. However, they could use the original two replicators to fabricate the needed parts to bring the other two on-line.

K'Ral held his seat and his tongue as the junior officers filed out of the ready room. "Sir," he nodded to the Captain. "I believe the time estimate isn't as... dire as you think." The Master Chief stated as he looked at Pontmercy and Haines.

“It never is.” Jordan grinned. “Commander Haines, I don’t believe we have met. “They always want to use the furthest date out they feel comfortable with to protect their integrity. I can’t blame them I wouldn’t want the reputation of making promises I can’t keep.” Pontmercy look at the Master Chief.

"What are your estimates, realistically then," he asked. He did not like the idea of waiting that long, at all.

"If I had to guess based on what we actually have and not what the computer says, it would be closer to 9 months. The computer thinks we only have one industrial replicator, which is a fair assessment. Most starships don't have carry more than one unless they're deep spacers or engineering ships like Galaxies or Lunas. Thing is, sir, we actually have four; two active, two in storage. We can use the two working ones to fabricate the parts we need to bring the two we in storage that we stripped for parts on-line, that way all four of them can start working around the clock," the Master Chief mused as he looked down at his pad. "It should cut it down to probably 4 months? Maybe 6 at the most? Lot of variables, but with 4 of them churning 24-7... as long as the damage assessment is accurate... and they usually aren't... ballpark it at 5 months?" Marius blinked.

"That's excellent news." He looked at Jordan. "I'd like you and the Master Chief to meet with Engineering and Operations to devise a plan to make this happen. I want shifts assigned, and realistic personnel numbers I can take to Starfleet if we need more."

“I am good with that.” Jordan nodded. “Chambers is a damn good engineer, We need to respect him and listen to what he has to say as well. In my experience you do not make the chief engineer angry.”

"Not if you want everything running smoothly." Marius nodded. "Master Chief, please inform Ops and Engineering of the replicators, and get them operational asap. That's your top priority."

K'Ral was happy the two officers didn't ask any questions as he looked down at his pad just to shoot a quick message to Senior Chief Fabrication Worker Murphy, the one who was in charge of the industrial replicators. "Already on it, sir. I let Senior Chief Murphy know that he needs to get the other two up and running." The hienian paused for a moment before pressing his Com Badge.
"Senior Chief Toraro. Captain's got a new priority project for you."
A small grunt came over the badge, along with a clattering noise that sounded like an engineering panel had just been dropped onto the floor. "How much of a priority? And what kind of project?"
"Refurbishing the stations dilithium generators and fixing the power grid."
"Don't they have guys for that?"
"Nope. Station's empty except for us."
There was a groan, followed by a long sigh. "So we're rebuilding the station right after rebuilding the ship?"
"Pretty much."
"I'll finish up here, talk with the LT, and get a work detail ready, but I need to know what I'm working with first. Survey should probably take an hour before I can get a parts list to Senior Chief Murphy. And that's just the generators. Once we can get those fixed, finding out what isn't getting power is way easier."
"How long until you think you can get started?"
"Half hour? Hour tops? Depends on the FNGs. I'm having to repair and teach at the same time."
"I figured you were used to that by now."
"Yeah, you'd think so, but some people have a taller learning curve than others, and they always give the slow learners to me. WC1 Johnson and WC1 Meyers should be finishing up their sections now. I'll call them and tell'm to start assembling the team."
"Understood. I'll give Master Chief McCoy over in ops a poke. He'll want to send over some people with you too."
"It's really that bad?"
"You probably don't want to know."
"Captain's gonna owe us soooooo much beer after this one."

Marius fought the urge to roll his eyes, but glanced sideways at Commander Haines.

"I suggest you meet with Lieutenant Chambers in Engineering before getting to far ahead of yourself. You both will need to coordinate your efforts, and as he is Chief Engineer, he will need to assign crews to work with your people."

“He can be touchy if not spoken with first.” Jordan nodded. “Before I learned to respect him, he made my life uncomfortable. Faulty shower things like that. Just go see him.”

“I don’t that'll be too much of an issue, sir. Senior Chief can handle the details with the LT once he finishes with whatever he’s got on the maintenance schedule. Those two are getting along pretty well.” Marius nodded.

"I agree, but I still think it is a good idea for the two of you to talk about plans. We want everyone on the same page."

“I am in agreement with the Captain.” Jordan said seriously. “We need to be a team and that includes keeping each other in the loop.” Marius looked at the two of them and then sighed.

"Well that should do it, you have assignments and I have work to do as well. Dismissed," he said.

Jordan nodded and stood up, waiting for the COB to head out. He wanted to make certain the Captain got some quiet time. He seemed to be a bit on edge. He wouldn't pry thought because that was the last thing Jordan would want if it were him.

Off:

Captain Marius G. Pontmercy
Commanding Officer
Starbase 11 - Obsidian Station

Commander Jordan Haines
Executive Officer
Starbase 11 - Obsidian Station

Master Chief Petty Officer K'Rai De Bruinhiena
Chief of the Boat
Starbase 11 - Obsidian Station

 

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