Helping and Testing

Posted on Tue 18th Oct, 2022 @ 6:29am by Commander Paul Graves PsyD

1,141 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: The Hunted
Location: Captain of the Port's Office

Beginning

Henry stood on the promenade looking at the individuals who just unloaded from their ships to check out the various stores and shops the starbase had to offer. People browsing was one of his favorite things to do with his sister Isabella. Henry remembered how he and Isabella use to create stories about strangers. What their lives were like, and why they were looking for items in the shops? He wondered if those games prepared her for the life she led within Starfleet intelligence.

The engineer was then startled out of his people watching by the unholy growl of his stomach. Embarrassed, he hoped no one else had heard it as he looked around. "Where is Paul?" He muttered to himself as he looked around the promenade for his friend. Henry and Paul would usually have lunch together a couple of times a week. But, as of late, Henry had been busy with his duties as the Chief of the Port, and finishing the work on Samurai.

One corridor away, Paul too was looking at all the people passing by. He was late for his meeting with Henry, and it astounded him how much difference a few minutes could make in crowd size. Stupid crowds. Does everybody and their dog have to be out at this hour? Well, grousing about it wouldn't get him to Henry any faster. Paul stepped out into the mass of people and did his best to shut them out, concentrating only on the spark of Personality he now sensed that was Henry. At last, Paul caught sight of him and waved.

"Sorry I'm late," he said as he got close enough that Henry could hear him speak. "Meeting ran long. Are you as starved as I am?"

"Starved?" Asked him, Henry, as he waded through the throngs of people in the corridor. "My friend, a crew of nurses just left the area from resuscitating me, due to starvation. Now, let's go." Henry grabbed the shoulder of his friend and guided him towards Jades.

"So what happened in the last meeting that made it run long?" Henry asked, letting curiosity get the better of him.

"That's part of why we're having lunch together," Paul said. "I was meeting with people from Operations who are updating and checking the short-range proximity sensors and strengthening the deflector shields. There's a small asteroid field moving toward the station--you've probably seen it on long-range sensors. We're trying to keep it out of the way of traffic."

"You know, the Samurai could help out with that." Henry said as he began pondering in his mind. "Actually, you've never been on Samurai since I became her skipper, have you?" he asked, trying to pique his friend's curiosity. "How about we have lunch aboard Samurai and I will give you a tour of what you have security clearance for?"

"I'd enjoy that," Paul said. "I've never had a good reason to ask for a tour. I wouldn't have wanted to disturb the people doing repairs when she first arrived, and since the repairs have been done, I haven't even thought to ask."

"O.K., then!" Henry said as he tapped his comm badge. "Commander Perry to Samurai, two to beam to phaser control." The engineer smiled at his friend and the sparkling transporter effect washed over the both of them. Before he knew it, he was in Samurai's phaser control area with Paul standing beside him.

"O.K., Paul, time to test your knowledge of starship weaponry. What do you see here that is out of the ordinary?"

Paul blinked at the question and then studied the room. It contained minimal crew at the moment, as no one was needed to fire phasers at anything. The control room was spotless, just as he would expect on a Starfleet ship. The stations looked good, ergonomic. His eyes widened. "This looks like a self-modifying workstation that will adapt itself to the user. As for the phasers..." Paul looked them over. "These aren't the normal type. They look close to it, but--Are these an upgrade? I read somewhere there was a version of ship phasers coming out that uses a reconfiguration of the fushigi crystals to create a more powerful nadion pulse."

"Well look at you, Dr. Graves." The engineer said, truly impressed with his friend. "This is the only Starfleet ship with this phaser configuration. See, since I was stationed at Utopia Planitia, I have still been helping them with certain designs for our future starships. That's partly how Samurai stays in my possession."

"So Samurai is the test ship?" Paul asked.

Henry walked over to one of the control panels on the wall of the phaser control room and inputted his command code. On the opposite wall, a panel slid out exposing a case of Isolinear chips and crystals.

"See, here are the crystals. In this configuration, along with these Isolinear chips, we can triple the output of our ship's phasers." Henry waved Graves over to take a look at the technology.

Paul gave a low whistle as he looked at how the crystals and isolinear chips were arranged. This layout was noticeably different from the usual one. "Triple the output? That would ruin the day of certain enemies. I hope this advancement stays well under wraps."

Henry closed up the panel and entered his security code again. Although he heard the customary acknowledgment tone, he pulled at it with his hand to make sure it was secure.

"It had better stay secure. or else, we would be in a world of trouble. Imagine if our own designs were used against us in battle." Henry shuddered at the thought of his designs being used to take the lives of those they were created to protect. He hoped they wouldn't be used against anyone, but he wasn't stupid. He knew that there were races out there in the void of space that didn't concern themselves with diplomacy.

The engineer looked up and focused back on his friend. "You know Paul, I wish we had these upgrades back when Suzuki was commanding Samurai. We may have saved a lot of lives that day." He unconsciously hung his head as he drifted back to that dark day. He could even begin to smell the smoke and burnt circuitry that filled his lungs as the ship was being bombarded by enemy fire.

Paul nodded. "That's how things always seem to happen, isn't it? You get the improvements you want only after you need them. Or, as one of the ladies at Pearl with a Chainsaw once told me, 'If wishes were fishes, we would all eat sushi.' You all did the best you could with what you had at the time. Sometimes it just isn't enough. Blame the enemy, not yourself."

 

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