To Our Great Work

Posted on Wed Aug 21st, 2019 @ 7:51pm by Captain Remas McDonald & Lieutenant Commander Shadi Zatra

2,183 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: S1.5:1:A Time To Heal
Location: Canopus Station, Repair Dock 1
Timeline: MD3: 22.00

"Request denied."

Captain Benjamin Ingram, commanding officer of Canopus Station, held up a hand to forestall further comment.

"Arivek Zhuri is now in the custody of the Office of Special Investigations. The OSI are opening an investigation into the events of his curation, and of the death of his previous biological instantiation. Until such time as the Beta Accelerator comes online, allowing two-way travel from Messier 4 to the Alpha Quadrant, the program known as Chief Engineer Arivek Zhuri will not be run in any format." Ingram looked at the Rish starship captain with a scornful look. "The fact he was allowed to run at all after his outing is a mark against you that I'm shocked Starfleet has allowed you to remain on The List."

"He was a trusted member of my crew before and after his nature was revealed. He served the ship well, and as his captain, I feel it rightfully my duty to demand his fair treatment," Remas McDonald growled.

"Ah yes, the 'quality of life' question again. Given he is currently in a solid-state meta diamond memory chit in a secure holding cell, he is safe and not conscious in any way shape or form. For him, it was simply a long moment between blinks," Ingram sighed. "And as much as I like having you dog my heels for the last three days trying to return to you that which never shall, it is getting tedious."

"It's the Rish way. We get our teeth in, we don't let go until we're through. Especially when one of our own is on the line," Remas commented.

"Yes, I've gotten to know the Rish culture a little too well in the last few months we've been out here," Ingram muttered as the pressure hatch behind the inspection gallery sighed open. "Speaking of guests of dubious quality, your crew arrives."

Shadi marched forward ahead of the group, a pep in her step thanks to the regrown leg that allowed her to shed off the prosthetic. She spared no looks for anything but the docked ship. "Look at the work bees! Our tasty ship will be repaired in no time!"

If Captain Ingram's gaze had been a phaser blast, Shadi would have been atomised on the spot as the Saurian act the part of a child in a candy shop, almost seeming to want to push her snout up against the glass.

"If only saying made it so..." he said dryly, looking at the other entries to the viewing gallery and then nodding to the attendant at the controls. The pressure hatch behind them slammed shut, closing with the hiss of equalising pressures. Then the entire room shuddered, and it detached from the surface of the dock's floor and began to rise on RCS thrusters to orbit around the repair dry dock.

From their vantage point the pit like dry dock in which the Traveller was enclosed, with gantry arms festooned with cutting arms and storage racks covering many of her wounds, the damage was still plain to see.

"Major damage across 76% of the hull. Both nacelle's show sub-micron fracturing across all of their warp coils, not to mention the housings themselves. Portside impulse manifold had a crack in it just two inches from the primary reaction chamber. Both forward 20-inch phaser cannon's are warped out of alignment," Ingram said dryly. "Of course you know about the missing Sensor Pod, a good thing your central data core dispersed the data into multiple backups."

"We thank the stars for small mercies," Remas breathed.

"Then there was the killing blow. Engineering hull, deck 16 through 14. You're lucky that last bulkhead held or the plasma lance would have gone right through the number 4 anti-matter pod and turned your ship to atoms. Instead, it just blew out every EPS conduit headed forward from that frame. Luck of the Rish I suppose," Ingram shook his head. "My advice would be to sign over the hulk for matter reclamation. We can find work for you here on Canopus Station whilst Starfleet decides what to do with you. Always more work to be done."

Shadi hissed with contempt. "Jussst like a mammal, giving up when the teat runs dry. Did you expect this clussster would just uncoil and present her cloaca without incident? The Traveller has sssome love bites, sure, sure, but nothing that can't be reattached!"

"What a particularly....unique perspective on your current situation," Ingram said in the same tone of voice one might use to scrap gum off their shoe. "But look at the larger picture. Your vessel isn't a starfaring vessel anymore, it's a resource black hole from which countless hours shall be lost trying to bring it back to readiness. Not to mention precious resources that should be going towards the completion of the Shore Battery network, or even to the Carpathia Colony."

The CO of Canopus Station looked to the command crew of the heavy cruiser.

"Look, in a few weeks maybe a month Starfleet will have refurbished the Alpha Accelerator in the Milky Way and will be able to send through reinforcements. If we petition now, one of those reinforcement slots could be a replacement vessel to help continue your mission of exploration," he said. Ingram's eyes tracked to Remas. "A wise captain should always poll his officers on any new course unless speed is required. And speed is not a factor here."

At some point, unnoticed to anyone, Jolani slipped into the meeting. She tilted her head slightly and asked, "Why is that? Would you prefer that we move at, what is that animal on Earth called without the legs that moves on slime and has antennae? It is small and moves very slowly.... snail? Would you prefer us to move like that? I apologize, but I'm here for flight, not to crawl, Sir."

"And I would be more inclined to believe that were it not for the fact your ship was towed in by tug's as opposed to its own motive power," Ingram said icily. "What I am trying to impress on you is there is a larger schema at work here. You are no longer alone in Messier 4, and as such are no longer of primary importance to ongoing operations."

Ingram held up a hand.

"That is not to say that your...endeavours to this point have not netted us some benefit, highlighting both a Reka controlled system so close to Carpathia and that Myriad ship graveyard. But now we must think upon the larger picture, and where your place in it lies," Ingram said thoughtfully.

Remas smiled. "Let me guess, you've put in a request to Starfleet Command to be put in charge of all ongoing missions in Messier 4."

"I have merely asked for clarification of regulations. Specifically regulation one hundred ninety-one, Article fourteen. 'In a combat situation involving more than one ship, command falls to the vessel with tactical superiority'," the station commander said haughtily. "Unless you are suggesting that your ship is still combat effective?"

"Sssay one more word about my tasty ship and I'll show you combat effectiveness," Shadi hissed.

"Now, Commander Zatra becalm your breast," Remas said soothingly. "Captain Ingram here is being thorough and thoughtful as to the needs of the mission. It would do no one any good to place his opinion out of thought merely because it is not well desired. But the way I see it you need every ship of the line ready to sail. The Ronin is a heavy cruiser, even if she but a shell of her former glory. Repairing her will be a might faster operation than rebuilding or awaiting something that might not come."

He smiled.

"And given as you are trying to persuade instead of command, one assumes that clarification has yet to arrive, or it did so without the backing you desired?" Remas asked with the corner of his smile forming into a grin.

"See?!" Shadi gloated. "We don't have to do what you say!"

Ingram ignored Shadi as much as he could, only bestowing a solitary glare from one eye on her as he returned his attention to the Rish starship captain.

"Given it is my dock workers doing their best to repair a battered hulk of a starship, one might expect a little more decorum from her crew," Ingram said icily, "And whilst, yes, communications from Starfleet Command have not met my considered expectations, they have made it clear that should my engineering staff deem the repair work to extensive I have the command authority to order the vessel scrapped."

He smiled thinly.

"You might have gotten away with...well let's call it 'borrowing' a Nebula class Sensor Pod to replace the weapons pod of this Ronin when she was in the Alpha Quadrant, given it was an older design being used as an experimental testbed. But now that civilisation has come to the wilds of Messier 4, I will be ensuring the following of the letter of the law. Just to be clear, you understand?" Ingram said cooly.

"I'm not quite sure what you might be reaching for," Remas said with his smile still in place. "Miss Shadi? Miss Kohnar? Commander Arlidd? Did we at any point make an unlawful suggestion before the station's administrator?"

"No, but his sweat reeks of piss," Shadi spat vehemently. "It is the mark of cowardice, ssso maybe he intends to rob usss!"

"Why I never!" Ingram snarled. "I'll have you one charge of insubordination for that remark!"

"Pssshhh," Shadi seethed, arms folded. "Not my captain."

"Tempers can run high in a stressful environment like this Captain Ingram, Shadi is merely showing the emotional current. But I do feel it speaks of mood in the room," Remas nodded. "We'll be taking our repairs, and then we'll be taking our orders out into Messier 4 whatever they may be. Though I have a feeling it'll be heading us towards the homeworld of a potential ally. Of which I am sure you can agree we are in need."

"And the sooner I can get you out of my pier slot the sooner you'll be on your way, is that it?" Ingram said, keeping the snarl this time from his words.

"Something like that. Of course, placing a member of my command crew on charges might slow that down a week or two," Remas opined. "But then I am but a mere Rish wanderer, what do I know of such finer legal points as these?"

Shadi visibly lurched at a sudden epiphany. "Hey! Put me in charge of repairs! I was a maintenance lead back on DS9, Captain Remas, and this station is even bigger! And there's probably two industrial replicatorsss! Unleash me and I'll get us spaceworthy in no time!" She hocked saliva deep into her mouth and spat it on the floor in a passing thought for Arivek. "Better than Zhuri ever could."

"Given that Zhuri is in a small metastable crystalline data chit, I', not sure if that's really a bar set high enough," Ingram muttered darkly.

"But it would free up some of your dock workers for other tasks," Remas said. "And the sooner we are done, the sooner we are away from your myirad machinations. Am I not wrong?"

"No...no you are not wrong," Ingram said thoughtfully. He made a gesture to the petty officer manning the controls of the gallery pod, and it began to float gently back towards its docking cradle "I can grant you access to the repair bay, and it's four industrial replicators. The grand majority of the bay is mechanised, which is allowing a year's worth of repairs to take place in two months."

With a hiss and a clunk, the pod connected with the repair gantry's docking collar.

"You will, of course, require supervision, and any large scale repairs or modifications will need to be authorised by Station personnel. I run a station, not a lending house to the impoverished and desperate," Ingram said haughtily.

"You are the very model of charity good Sir," Remas said, as the doors opened and Ingram stepped out to leave them in the docked pod. Remas grinned and stepped closer to the glass viewing wall. He then reached under his uniform cuff sleeve and pulled out a flexi. With a flick of his wrist the paper-like computer went taunt, and images and diagrams began to appear on the transparent display.

"I have one or two suggestions," Remas said with a grin.

"May his vomit never cease," Shadi said with a murderous look at Ingram's departure. The flexi at hand quickly grabbed her attention, though. She clapped her scaly hands together. "Oooh! So delicious!

Jolani continued to observe the scene. She had nothing to add; however, she could not believe what she was seeing with the Saurian. Shadi was pushing the limits as ever. Certainly, it would lead to no good end. But what end was good? None that she had met.

"Then let us about to our great work," Remas said.

 

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