Wanna Watch?

Posted on Thu Jan 25th, 2018 @ 5:57pm by Lieutenant Renee Salchin & Lieutenant Commander Shaille Levine

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Security Office

The blonde haired human flounced into the main security office, heels ka-clicking on the floor. They had first been muffled as she came up, then fairly echoed as the doors slid open, revealing the brightly shining and smiling face. The skirt fluttered with the air movement and her jacket was undone, revealing a shiny gold shirt underneath it. Eyes locked on the nearest officer as the obviously heavy carryall she had slung from her right shoulder shifted and heeled the engineer, oh it HAD to be an engineer, over a few degrees before she caught herself.

With a shake of her head and a roll of her eyes, Shaille stepped in, helping to grab the heavy carryall. "You know, if you're going to lug stuff like this around, you really should invest in some more appropriate footwear," she quipped. "Or else you're going to end up falling over and breaking something."

Renee reluctantly let her take the bag, "I've never had a problem before, isn't going to happen now!" She smiled brightly, "You know why I'm here?"

With a shake of her head, Shaille slung the carryall over her shoulder. "Not a clue, but just tell me where you want this," she replied easily.

"Over there, here." Renee gestured and slipped past Shaille on her way towards the primary consile, "We've been in the process of replacing every single damned chip on this boat and I drew Security. Anything you need to save before I backup the data and wipe the system?"

Shaille groaned. "A bit more notice would have been nice," she shot back, moving to the primary console. "We're in the middle of an audit of the security systems." With a shake of her head, her fingers danced across the console as she started her own backup first before allowing Renee access. "So how long is this going to take?"

"Fifteen for the backup, it's essentially a complete image, ten for the wipe, about ten for the chip replacement another ten for the reload and then, of course, have to debug and reverify that it took, say... another fifteen minutes? Hour tops. For this one." Renee gestured around, "Lots of em."

“So, what you’re saying is I am basically going to be sitting around here twiddling my thumbs for the rest of my shift?” Shaille replied with a frustrated sigh. “Well, I guess it’ coffee time. Want one?”

"Wish it were otherwise." Renee shrugged, dropping to her knees and unsealing the carryall, "If it helps, if it drops into the pot, I can have you up and going in five minutes. Might not be what you're used to, but it'll at least be something."

With a shake of her head, Shaille walked across to the replicator and ordered herself a raktajino, sipping slowly at it before turning back to Renee. “Unless the entire system is back up to spec it won’t be able to complete the audits properly and it would just need to be redone anyway,” Shaille replied. “Do you may as well take your time.”

"This really is going to be boring." Renee removed an access panel from the back of the console and plugged in a set of wires that connected to a tricorder and punched a button, "Lot's of sitting around, chatting, or watching movies and stuff like that. Any preferences?”

“I guess chatting it is, at least that way I can pretend that I am still doing something productive,” Shaille replied with a laugh. “I’m Lieutenant Shaille Levine, Tactical officer, obviously,” she offered by way of introduction.

"Renee Salchin, also a Lieutenant and well... If you couldn"t tell I'm an Engineer, somethin's wrong." She traced a circle on the tricorder then sat back onto the floor, "Grab a seat? Nothing but time."

“So do you engineering types make a habit of springing upgrades on us at the last possible moment?” Shaille queried as she took a seat and crossed her legs.

"Upgrades?" Renee shook her head, wrapping her arms around her legs, "Nope, this is one of the last of the fixes, the chips that we've been replacing throughout the ship. I don't know why we saved here for one of the last replacements, but we did. The upgrades we save fo when it's REALLY a pain in the ass for everyone. You know, in combat, sensors for when we're scanning something, that sorta thing."

“Well, so long as you don’t mess with my weapons when we’re in the middle of a melee we will get on just fine,” Shaille replied with a laugh.

"Only if they break during it." Renee agreed, "But at that point, all bets are off. Now... If at some point you want me to work on them to improve them? Then I can probably do something to help with that."

“What kind of upgrades did you have in mind?” Shaille countered, her interest well and truly piqued. “Upgrading weaponry is always something I am interested in.”

"It's more a pulse phaser upgrade, but can be adapted to a non-strip style phaser array. By extending the aperture about a meter, I can fit in a revolver style barrel fitted with up to ten crystalline rods." Renee's eyes closed as she called up her memories, "Tenth of a second delay in firing, but the phaser pulse hits the rod, which has a crystalline matrix that redurects the energy into a tighter focus and adds energy as it converts its mass into energy as well, before it's sent to the target. Even if it hits a shield, it's putting in about thirty to fifty percent additional power over around half the footprint of a standard pulse shot."

Shaile nodded appreciatively. "I've seen something vaguely similar done before. I'm no engineer but I think the problem that was encountered last time was with feedback from the crystalline rods and changes in the vibration frequencies. Quite a few rods were harmed in the making of that particular endeavour which ended up causing a huge amount of damage to the weapons systems because the crystalline rods shattered. But I suppose you could potentially negate damage to the surrounding systems using a low frequency containment field around the individual rods to contain any pieces in the case of an actual breakage, so all you'd need to worry about then was divination. The increased phaser power would definitely make it worth tinkering to see if it could be done."

"That's the beauty of these rods, it's a synthetic crystal made from uranium and inert plutonium with some other little elements. The initial phaser energy bloom hits it and converts it to plasma which is focused through a secondary lens to 'condense' the energy into a new containment field for the trip to the target.' Renee sighed, "It really is hard to explain and I don't have my video of it with me."

"Well, there you go," Shaille replied with an easy laugh. "It would be interesting to see it in action, the additional power output to the weapons would be a massive benefit, especially given we have no idea what technology we're going to encounter out here. Even the ability to burn out another ships shield emitters quicker would be massively beneficial."

"And part of MY job is to come up with stuff to make that sort of thing happen." Another tap of buttons and the screen went blank, "My main billet is R and D, and I have details on quite a few projects I'm working on."

"So you're into R&D and you're out here in the boonies replacing chips in generic ship systems?" Shaille shook her head and laughed. "Well, at least some things never change... Do you want help with this? Or do you at least want a coffee or something? I feel bad sitting around doing nothing."

"Coffee would be lovely, make it any way you want." Renee sighed, "You know, after I make sure this works I can start tiering these replacements. It would take more systems offline at a time, but would speed it up by a helluva lot." Renee smiled, "And I'm not just into it, I came off an R and D base with the mandate to come out here and play with it all."

Replicating a coffee for the Lieutenant, with an added shot of vanilla, Shaille handed it to Renee before returning to her own seat. "You may as well get it done as quickly as possible, there's not much any of us can do until it's all back up and running anyway, so the sooner the better."

Renee took a sip of the coffee and smiled in pleasure, "Sounds good to me too. I need to try to work out how to get enough resources for another project. Let's put it this way, I need tungsten and uranium in rather large quantities. Really, really large quantities."

Shaille quirked one eyebrow, her mouth turning into a small smirk. "You do realize that both substances, but particularly uranium, are still pretty tightly controlled, especially all the way out here?" She asked coolly. "Though now I really want to know what you have in mind, because, this sounds far too good to ignore!"

"Asteroids, some of them have a nice mix of the elements, and of course there are some planetoids that are lousy with the stuff." Renee made a throwing away gesture, "But depleted uranium again, the non-radioactives. Bond two uranium atoms with a tungsten, then collapse the molecule and you have a very energy-reactive armor that sheds phaser fire like water. Kinetic hurts it, but it gives you a lot of energy weapons resistance even if your shields go down."

"You really do spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff don't you?" Shaille asked with a laugh. "There are always ways to get your hands on sufficient quantities of anything with enough determination and perseverance, and of course, someone prepared to look the other way."

"Or duly authorized." Renee pointed out, 'These projects are a couple years or more in the making. In fact, if Hippogryph ever makes it out here, there is a lot more new stuff we might see. That's the testbed ship we have for the base, special unique design I helped with. Easier to install and remove new gear that is truly in development and incorporates most of the things we already have that are good to go."

Finishing her coffee, Shaille returned to the replicator and recycled her mug before returning to her seat again. "So, in all this R&D have you ever thought about developing some more user friendly quarters?" Shaille asked with a grin.

"Quarters? What are those? I personally find a nice comfy bulkhead to curl up against!" Renee set her cup down with a wink, before sliding underneath the console and starting to pluck out chips, "Next you're probably going to suggest beds and pillows?"

With an open laugh Shaille leaned forward in her seat, watching what Renee was doing with intent interest. "I was thinking more along the lines of a nice full size bath with real running water... Hell, I'd even replace my bed with it if I had to!"

Renee's eyes narrowed as she selected a couple more chips from the console, then reached out and made a grasping motion for the carryall, "Can you grab one of the boxed sets in there for me?" Then thought for another moment, "What if... I could take your bedroom area, put in a bath that takes up that space with a fold down bed on top? Plumbing it isn't too difficult, I don't think, I have an idea on that, but a bath/bed combination.. Just have to make sure the tub is dry before you drop the bed on it."

Moving from the chair to the floor next to the carryall, Shaille opened it up and grabbed the first boxed set she found, handing it across to Renee. "Seriously? That could actually be done?" she questioned incredulously. "I'd given up on a real bath any time we weren't close enough to transport to a planet!"

"Am I not the greatest engineer the galaxy has seen?" Renee asked as she flipped the top of the case open and began reinserting chips into the console, rhen laughed, "It might take a couple days to work everything out, but yeah, I can do it. I also have someone else requesting a hot tub in their quarters."

"A couple of days? Seriously? I was expecting maybe a couple of months at the very soonest! There really is something to be said for just stretching out and relaxing in a nice bath, surrounded by scented candles, maybe a bit of mood music? Don't you think? And all the better if you have someone to share it with," she finished with a wink.

"Well, if you find that special somepony, I mean somebody, that means I should make it that much bigger, shouldn't I?" Renee giggled, sliding the last chip into place, "But very mu cheaper relaxing it would be. Okay, it may take more than a couple days, it'll just depend on the amount of free time I have."

"Well, I'm more than happy to wait," Shaille replied, grabbing Renee's now empty mug and recycling it before returning to the master console, waiting for signs of life.

Renee rolled to her knees in front of the console and pressed a few of the darkened keys, the console obediently came to life at her touch, "Now just to reinstall the image annnnnnd... but yes, absolutely doable."

Shaille watched as the console started to come back to life and sighed. “Well, that all happened surprisingly quickly. I suppose this means I have to get back to my real job now.”

"You could start I guess, but eight more to go, still... Make sure this one works first?" Renee got out of the way.

Stepping up to the primary console, Shaille keyed in her access codes, her fingers dancing rapidly across the keys as she moved through systems with quick succession. “It’s a little sluggish,” she replied easily. “Is that likely to improve when the other chips are replaced?”

"Possibly..." Renee got to her feet and went next to Shaille, punching a few buttons, "Diagnostic says... All right, the new chips are still in the process of resetting the pathways to the most efficient routing... Give it a few days and it should be back to normal or potentially better."

"Alrighty, here's hoping the next few days are at least quiet," Shaille replied with an easy grin. "If it doesn't pick up I'll let you know."

"Good, and since it DID boot up, I'd best get started on the rest of these, should't I?"

"Another coffee?" Shaille offered with a laugh. "It seems you have plenty of time!"

"Offerings of coffee and donuts will always be welcome. Especially maple donuts?" Renee asked, hopefully.

"Oh my God!" Shaille exclaimed. "Do you like bacon? I found these INSANE maple bacon donuts in the replicator... so good they are positively evil! Are you game?"

"I'm game, but I've never thought bacon and donuts could go together, except on a plate next to one another.." Renee was skeptical, but always willing to give something new a try.

Replicating two more coffees and a plate of the maple bacon donuts, Shaille carried them across carefully. "It's like the bacon is all sweet, but still bacony and soooooo good!" She grinned as she set the plate down. "If you don't like them I'll get you some regular maple ones, believe me, these won't go to waste!" she exclaimed with a wink.

Renee reached for one and bit into it carefully. She chewed for a few seconds, then swallowed. "Regular maple ones are better..." She snatched her donut away from the hand reaching out, "Don't you dare! These ARE good, just the regular ones are better!"

With a laugh, Shaille replicated a second plate of plain maple donuts, making sure to store away in her mind that coffee and maple donuts were the way to this particular engineer's good graces. One never knew when that could be a very important thing to know. "Here you are," she said easily, setting the plate down and helping herself to a maple bacon donut. "So, what's what on this ship?" she asked, making herself comfortable. "You've been here longer than me..."

"Your guess is as good as mine." Renee snagged one of the REALLY good ones this time, "I'd just gotten on board when pretty much the entire senior staff got blown to dust, we had an outbreak of treason and murder and now we're on our third CO in the last monthish and our fourth Marine CO, third Chief Engineer, etcetera. I hope things settle down soon, because I thought I was crazy.."

"Daaaaaamn..." Shaille shook her head. "I'd heard things were pretty intense, but I had no idea it had gotten that bad. Is the worst of it over now? Or should I not bother unpacking?"

"I THINK the worst is over. Captain Bartlett seems to be pretty good, and human, and Cor is a really good engineer as well. Thank GOD he was the one who got asked to take it over, I wouldn't want to! Too much paperwork!"

Shaille took a sip of her coffee and sighed with happiness at the sugar fuelled caffeine buzz. "Good... I really don't want to trek back to the Alpha Quadrant because things go pear shaped here," she grimaced slightly. "My ex and I didn't part on very good terms and really the Alpha Quadrant is far too small."

"Well, my ex, my most recent one at least, just left the ship without even saying farewell, and to think he said he loved me and wanted to marry me." Renee shook her head, "He'd better hope I never see him again."

With a shake of her head, Shaille groaned. "Oh God, how gutless!" she exclaimed. "Seriously? He just snuck out?"

With the old Chief Engineer and several of her handpicked officers." Renee rolled her eyes, "And he doubtlessly expects me to wait for him and pine for him for years and years."

"I hope you've already moved on!" Shaille replied with another shake of her head. "Plenty more eligible men out there without waiting for a complete loser."

"That beach on New Earth was rather filled with some rather fine specimens." Renee blushed, "Took one home to his place for a night, or part of one at least!"

"I had heard that it was really something worth checking out. I wanted to get down there but our transport was running late so we never made it. Damn, hopefully we will get back there soon! So, did he take your mind off it?" Shaille asked with a grin. "Tell all, let me live vicariously!"

Renee had already set up at another console and grinned, starting the procedure on it, "Let's see... Well, Temperance and I first went shopping for swimsuits and then we saw this volleyball game going on..."

OFF:

Lieutenant Shaille Levine
Tactical Officer
USS Wellington

Lieutenant Renee Salchin
R&D Engineer
USS Wellington