==Science lab== Keylor walked in through the lab doors and saw Kilpatrick sitting at a bench laboring over a pile of weapons and parts. He was hoping that Kilpatrick had completed his task and was simply calling him down to the lab to show off his handy work of modifying the rifles to work like the protoplaser. Keylor slowed his approach form a standard gate to a slow walk. He cocked his head to one side and then tried to look in to the mess f parts and pieces looking for a completed rifle. "Corporal? Is everything ok? Have you complete the modifications?" he asked. "Everything is fine Colonel; I've finished the modifications" John tapped his tricorder and passed it to the colonel "Here you go Sir; a full schematic on the modifications" Keylor took the pad offered to him. He noted the corporals very direct way of interacting with him. This was not a bad thing, as a marine he is not expected to do anything more than report to his superior officer the facts and wait for further orders. This was a way of interacting that Keylor was familiar with and was most at home with. But since his assignment to the ship, Keylor had learned to relax the starched professionalism, and now he began to wish for less regiment and more interaction from his crew. Keylor blamed his Starfleet counter parts for this. Keylor glanced over the pad. He could make out most of the configuration, at least the part that was the standard rifle. But by no means was Keylor an engineer or a scientist, and the reconfiguration of a device used to harm people to resemble one that was used to heal people boggled his mind. Trying not to look too puzzled he handed the pad back to John. "Honestly corporal, I was never much of an engineer," he grinned, " please explain to me how the rifle resembles the protoplaser the doctor used, in a way a poor old bajoran can understand." he waited for an answer. Jason smiled sympathetically "Well in order to achieve the same results one must realign the primary coil of the phaser rifle and attach an alternate low res power source as seen here" Jason made a motion to the two parts in question of the rifle "by doing that the trigger must be adjusted and the pulse level reduced so as not to fry the internal circuitry when using the lower resolution power feed" Jason paused "Do you understand Colonel" Keylor nodded. "Aye I think I follow you." he grinned. "So in your estimation, how long will it take to modify enough rifles for.... lets say 30 people? And can type II handheld phasers be modified?" He asked, reaching over the bench and picking up what he believed to be the modified rifle. Keylor inspected the rifle as he listened to Jason. Jason thought for a moment "I do believe I can do the work in 29 hours if I have enough parts" Keylor raised the rifle to his shoulder and sighted down the barrel. He then glanced out of the corner of his eye to Jason giving him a odd look ant then returned to the barrel of the rifle. "So Corporal. have you tested this configuration. With sustained rate of fire?. It is not going to blow up in any ones face is it?" He said glancing back down the barrel. "I've done brief tests; it shows good results with sustained rate of fire" Jason paused "I cannot guarantee the safety of these weapons Colonel" Keylor dropped the rifle form his shoulder and looked at Jason, "Guarantee as in how? guarantee that it will work or guarantee it will not blow up in some ones face." He chucked the rifle over to Jason who was standing no more than a half of a meter away. "I don't want to trade casualties from the aliens for casualties from our own weapons." He frowned. I know it will work; but I cannot guarantee it will work safely Colonel". Jason caught the weapon and muttered to himself "I don't know what any sudden jarring of the rifle will do to it" Keylor gave a stern look. "If this thing is not safe, there could be more people looking like me or worse dead. I don't know about you, but my face has had enough damage to it for one life time. " Keylor pointed to the scar on his face that stretched form his chin to his ear. "I want reliability with safety or it is of no use to us. IF you cant guarantee that it is not likely to hurt us while using it to protect us, then may be we are better off arming everyone with protoplasers." he said in a harsh tone. Jason looked up and in the coldest voice imaginable replied "Colonel I was told to modify it so it worked the same way; I was not told that it had to be 100% safe; there's no way its ever going to be 100% safe no matter what I do to it; I've done what I was told to do; either accept it and let me work on the others or find another way to deal with these things Colonel" Keylor frowned, "Accept it?" he said with a tone of offence in his voice. "Corporal, no one ever said it had to be 100 percent safe. But I cannot accept something that is potentially dangerous. If you cant tell me if or what will make these rifles backfire on us, then I would rather defend my self with a fly swatter than take something that could work against us. There is always some level of safety we can achieve and that level MUST be known. Is that clear corporal!" he said strongly. Jason huffed "Take your flyswatter and do what you must do and let me work in peace Colonel; maybe ill have these things ready in time for the away mission in a relatively safe operating condition" Keylor was a bit dismayed at Jason's response. {Apparently I missed something and protocol was thrown out the window and I did not notice.} he thought to himself. Keylor relaxed his pose a bit. "Look corporal. We need something to protect our selves on the station. Something that will not blow up in our faces. Just make the modifications so that you can promise me it wont injure us." he paused for a second. "Get some of the other oda team in here to help you, even get an engineer if you need to. But what ever the end result, we need to minimize the risk for accidents." Keylor looked down at his wrist chrono and then back up to Jason. "Get the resources you need make sure these things are stabile. You have been over there so you have an idea of the kinds of jolts and bumps we can expect to encounter. Refine the modifications if you have to and have enough rifles ready in 12 hours." Jason nodded "That's the reason I'm not worried about safety Colonel; its also the reason I have a bad attitude sir; I'm not looking forward to Freaky Stuff: Part 2; Ill see if I cant grab an engineer to help me Sir" Jason looked at his chrono "12 hours it is Sir; now if you will pardon me" Jason offered a salute and an apology "I'm sorry about the attitude sir" Keylor returned the salute, "That is ok Corporal. We are all feeling a bit under pressure at the moment. " He lowered his arm and took a step back, "If you need help, and cannot get any, contact the XO or myself directly and we will make arrangements to get you some." "Aye Sir" Jason turned back to his pieces of a weapon and shoved them all aside. There were only 29 weapons to go and a little under 12 hours to do it in. ===End Log=== Col Bretam Keylor Captain & Lcpl Jason Kilpatrick ODA Wep. Spec