What's With All This Matter?

Posted on Tue Dec 19th, 2017 @ 6:49am by Warrant Officer Koh Otassu & Lieutenant Renee Salchin

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Engineering
Timeline: TBD

One of the Engineering Crewhands was on something of a mission. Looking high and low, here and there, until he found what he was looking for.

Pips.

"Pardon me, ma'am." the crewhand said. "There's an ensign by the main doorway over there..." he motioned with a thumb, "... that's looking for an Engineer to help with a replicator design and mass issue. You're the first Engineer of rank I could find, so do you think you could help him? Replicator stuff is a little over my head still, to be honest." he admitted.

"You can't miss him. Trust me." and he made a motion with his hands on top of his head, holding his hands up and straight like... ears.

Renee nodded, trying to decipher the hand motions, then it hit her: One of the new ones, a Ts'usugi, an Ensign at that.. A new engineer? But they would have just come in.. "Got it, thanks, Perlamin." She replied after the interminable second had passed, making sure she showed that she knew his name then saved her work and made her way to the door, heels clicking along the deck.

'Replicator problems?' She thought to herself, wishing she had seen the furry blue Thux around, this was his specialty after all, but this could be interesting... Ts'usugi tech and she might get a good look at it. She found the bunny-appearing officer outside the doors and beamed at him, "Good ummm.... Afternoon, I think it is now? What can I do for ya?"

The Ts'usugi at the gates gave Renee a smirk in return. He was tall, though the ears added about an extra foot in height. Black fur all over, with a white plotch over his left eye. "I think it's past midday somewhere, so yes." he gave a soft chuckle. "I'm Koh, a transfer here to the Wellington, it's nice to meet you." he gave a nod in greeting, "I'm a new recruit to the fighter squadron, but my Blink Fighter doesn't use the same energy system as the other fighter craft." he started.

"Now, we know that your federation and the Dalacari Republic both use antimatter reactors, so our thinktank worked up a filter some time ago that *should* also work with Federation energy systems. The plans for the filter are in my fighter's dbase, as is some reserves for your fabricator to kinda pay for the parts." he chuckled again. "So I guess what I'm saying is, Hi I'm new here. Could you spare a cup of muons?"

"Well, a muon here, a muon there, soon we're talking about REAL energy." Renee grinned impishly, her eyes almost at his eye-height only due to her heels, the ears she couldn't match, "But we won't charge for refueling you, or even for any repairs you might need. It's part of what we do here."

She gestured for him to come with her as Renee started to walk towards the turbolift to head to the fighter bay, "we cam go get these plans for the filter... But you stressed the word 'should', so you don't know for sure.. if there is any way I could get some of the specs for your own power plant and really anything in regards to that, I can take a look at things to either fine-tune that filter or even improve or redesign it. My actual billet is in R&D, so I'm used to looking at things from outside the box looking in."

He gave her a smirk, his ears curling slightly to a more relaxed forward posture. "Real enough for a fighter, that's for sure." he commented, and then followed behind as she walked. "Well, we.. I mean the Ts'usugi, aren't a hundred percent sure about your power system. We know it works a hundred percent perfect with the Dalacari systems, but we built the filter system to their specifications." he mentioned. "I can get you the specs and needs for a Blink Fighter, no issue. As for a fine tune or a re-design, let's not re-invent space unless we really have to. I don't want to be a two-hundred thousand kilometer smear in space because of a fine tune gone wrong." he commented as they boarded the turbolift.

Once they got to the fighter bay, it was easy to tell which fighter was his. Federation design, Federation design, sleek trans-atmospheric alien design.

"There she is, the Mark One Blink Fighter." he motioned to the craft. "Sleek, invisible to radio detection, and quick."

Renee's eyes widened at the sight of the ship, running her hands over the skin of the fighter without touching it, "She does look nice, and yes, absolutely would love to see the specs and such... But don't worry, the only thing I plan on really studying is the interface for the power and the filtering systems, find a way for that to be more efficient. I don't forsee too many problems in the long run, that's for sure."

"Well, the filtration and conversion systems are stored in dBase, so..." he looked around, and snagged a PaDD from a nearby maintenance table. A few taps, then a few more. Then a few more. "Ahh, there we go. Sorry, still a little use to things on the old carrier. Starting the transfer now. Once it's done you'll have the specs for the conversion filter." he commented, just watching her examine the fighter with a smirk on his features. "She's saved my life a dozen times over, easy. Here, lemme give you a little history lesson."

He cleared his throat, "For the longest time, the Ts'usugi had hit a ceiling. Blink space, that was as fast as we could actually go. Kept running into that pesky throttle wall. So the Emperor has a commission of scientists at their beck and call to answer any question that they might have. Why is the sky violet, What's the eleventh observable ring of Cathan composed of, Why are little fried dough clusters so damn tasty... literally any question. So, the Emperor at the time asked if Blink Drives were the fastest possible. And they went to work."

"What they came up with astonished everyone, when they came back and said 'No, something is faster', and presented the Emperor with the first Dark Ship, capable of outrunning light." he explained, then gently patted his fighter, "We never abandoned our old ways, though. We refined the Blink Drives until they were as fast as we could make them safely. They're much smaller than a Dark Drive, and less energy intense. So, we either go much much faster than light, or almost as fast."

He popped open the cockpit to key in a maintenance sequence, and the whole of the craft behind the cockpit lifted and opened. Inside the guts, just under that shell, was an engine the length of the craft. A measly thirty percent of the engine was equal parts superthruster for atmosphere flights and impulse vector thrusters for vacuum operations. The remaining seventy percent of the engine itself was an alien puzzle. Elegant in its construction, with power relays, capacitors, and a half dozen little rails that looked like proto-nacelles.

"The Blink Drive." he paused for effect, not to mention to impress a pretty lady, "The heavy muon reactor is underneath and to each side, but I figured you'd want to at least see it."

"Interesting..." Renee said in wonder, "I really look forward to looking at it in detail." She dropped to the deck and weaseled her way underneath to look up at the reactors from between the pair, "That looks like it's the port compatible with Dalacari systems, I'll double check that, but yeah, I can do something to mate our parts." She instantly blushed at the double entendre.

He chuckled, "Yeah, the induction port is down there somewhere. Could also just pull out the fuel rods to directly charge them, but I prefer the slow and methodical port rather then just slamming in some rods." he did that on purpose. "Feel free to look around. You might feel a tickle in the teeth if you touch it though. Some of the mechanics back on the carrier mentioned a tickle, but it's totally harmless. Side effect of the drive." he gave her fair warning.

He twisted to look at her kinda sideways under the fighter, his ears flopping to the side that gravity demanded they flop to. "So, like it?"

"Oh yes indeed." Renee reached up and touched it, feeling the tickle that threatened to give her the shivers, wondering what actually caused it, "You're going to have to keep an eye on me, or else you might come down to take her out and find her in pieces!" She touched a few more places, but didn't remove or move anything. New stuff, didn't want to do anything to the ship, at least not until she had some time to study the specs.

"Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem." he chuckled, "Once I'm all cleared, and the little issue of power and such is taken care of, I'll take you for a spin." he offered. "Sure, could do it in the holosuite but we Ts'usugi prefer to experience things for real if the chance is presented." he said with a smirk. He watched her touch and inspect the muon reactors, a smirk on his features.

"Lemme know what you need. Got some trade matter in the system, plus cashed in some fabricator credit to make sure I had plenty to spare for munitions, accessories, and barter. I wasn't really quite sure what you all used for barter so, I just brought the essentials. You know, some seventy six, and a bit of seventy four." he decided at this point to sit on the deck cross legged, rather than risk losing more bloodflow.

"As long as you are on board this ship, Ensign, you don't need to barter for repairs, rearming, refueling and we'll even take care of room and board." Renee wanted nothing, absolutely NOTHING more than to take things apart to see how it worked, but resisted. Instead, as she looked at her new- No, the Ensign's toy, she was designing the most efficient interface to recharge his ship. "If you can give me a couple-three hours, I'll be able to refuel you definitely. With something we don't have to just hope is compatible."

"So I should keep some on hand for when I'm not on the ship." he said with a nod, "And please take your time. I'm not the son who tells the farmer how to harvest, so you do whatever you need to. All I ask are two simple things, ma'am: It works, and I don't die because of it." there was a smirk to his features. He held up that PaDD he was fiddling with before, "Technical readouts for the Fighter are copied here now, along with the diagrams for the usual hookup we use with Dalacari systems. Where we go from here is unknown territory." he gave the fighter's underbelly a pat. "I know every bolt and every fasten, but the connection you're making here today that's... well that's new."

"Tell you what.. Before I do anything to hook my new contraption up, I'll let you inspect it to make sure it won't hurt your girl here." Renee smiled brightly, "I won't do anything to hurt her, you have my word."

"As a Son of Ts'usu, I accept you at your word." Koh said with a nod and a rather serious tone. Sounded like that was a big deal where he's from.

Renee oatted the side of the fighter gently, then hauled herself out, eyes bright, "I suppose I should go get started on this, then, before she gets too hungry, shouldn't I?"

He gave a nod, offering her a hand to help her stand, "I appreciate any assistance, and I look forward to working with you."

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Ens. Koh "Ghost" Otassu
Fighter Pilot
USS Wellington

Lieutenant Renee Salchin
Research and Development Engineer
USS Wellington