== Main engineering, Chimera=== What seemed to be a simple task of walking down to main engineering took Keylor 3 days to accomplish. One thing he disliked about being the captain of a ship was that if any thin, big or small, arose, some pesky yeoman found you and dragged you away, no matter what you were doing ( or about to do). And after being pulled in several directions, he would always end up in Main engineering after the lieutenant had left. But this evening he had made it a point to sneak about, avoiding yeomen and arriving in main engineering undistracted. As he walked in to engineering he looked around for the CEO office. It occurred to him that it had been quite some time since he had walked abut the ship. For some odd reason he never seemed to get below deck 8, where he ran his morning jogs. He made a mental note to be more visable in the future. Not seeing the DCEO in the office, he turned around to ask one of the attending Engineers where McTaggert was. Sean entered the basement, still clenching his fists. First Garsha, than this Walsh character, it was just to much to take in one day. And what the hell did Walsh have to do with his brother. Even Sean himself hadn't had any news on him for months, and this moron had the nerve... Sean stopped this line of thought and focused on Engineering. Next to his office, he could see another green collared officer, his back facing him, standing by several, rather nervous looking engineers. "What the hell" he muttered and approached the group. "What is it now" he spat as the officer turned around. Sean stopped abruptly, as he recognized Bgen. Bretam. "Oh crap." he muttered and stood to attention. "Sorry Sir, thought you were somebody else." Keylor looked a little puzzled at the officers tone. {May be this marine captain was on to something?} he thought. Not sure if McTaggert was having a bad day, or was always like this, he continued with the assumption that it was just a bad day. "Ah Lieutenant McTaggert." He said in a jovial tone. "So how goes the modifications to the ship? I hope everything is going well and you are assisting the base engineering team?" he asked. Still fresh in his mind was the annoyed letter form the base engineer. Keylor hoped the two had smoothed out their difference by now. He waited for Sean's reply. Sean threw a hard look at Keylor. "Well Sir, the modifications will start tomorrow, but we're already working on it." he approached the console and accessed the simulations the and Rodgers had worked on earlier. His mood bettered somehow, seeing that Rodgers had modified the model significantly, improving the efficiency of the faulty areas. "This is what is to be done, and that's the result of it" he pointed at the ongoing simulation. "If you ask me, this is not a good idea, Sir. We are risking too much. In a battle situation, the shields will hold less then they should, and the risk of surpassing an acceptable power level. The EPS strain is just too big, as you can see yourself." he finished. "In a worst case scenario, one well-placed shot to the warp core area and we are finished. Sir." Keylor looked at the display. "Hmmm." he uttered in his throat. "That can be a problem. Can't you enhance the power grid with the auxiliary power? May be throw in a few buffer thingies and a few flow preventers or something?" he said coyly waiting to see how Sean would react. "Buffer thingies?" Sean sneered involuntarily. The General might be a good Starship Captain, but his technical knowledge was... below average to say the least. "We can't just 'buffer' the power. Let me try and explain it in laymen terms if you don't mind." he ran the simulation again and started to point at different areas of the hull. "The Chimera has an enhanced deflector shield function. Instead of running on 8 main emitters and being sectioned in 14 grids like a regular Federation Intrepid class, we have 5 more redundant emitters in sensible areas, sectioned in 20 different shield grids in total. Regularly, we can depend on the main EPS flow to maintain an optimum functionality of the shields, even if faced with, say, Breen weaponry." Sean watched the simulation progress. "These modifications basically change the way the emitters detect and process incoming radiation data to recognize chronal particles. Every grid gets added a set of sensors and secondary emitters to deflect these particles as our regular shield does normally with a huge chunk of the radiation spectrum." He paused and enhanced the engineering hull. "Now here's the catch. The merging of both systems produces an extra inertial force on the hull, hence forcing the emitters to produce 20% more energy per bundle. This energy has to be taken from somewhere and that somewhere is our impulse system." Sean pointed at the different plasma flows, as they unfold through the ship like a spiderweb. "Our strength relies mainly on the fact, that we are not using full power to the shields in even the worst combat situation, were as now, we are forced to do exactly that, only because of this experimental crap. Especially vulnerable areas, like the Main Hangar entrance and the deflector shield have already been altered (really interestingly) by Ens. Rodgers to reach an acceptable potential of deflecting capability, but" he pointed at the warp core expulsion hatch. "This area is and will remain a direct access to our main power supply, aka warp core; and we can't just 'buffer' this area like nothing. If we do that, we will affect the power distribution flow on the entire ship. It's not possible. Therefore, this is a risk to the ship, to my basement and also to the crew." He took deep breath. "I don't expect to meet a Borg cube wherever we are going," he continued, "but, the potential danger is present and the Chimera is NOT an experimental ship. It IS a warship for pete's sake, and they are taking away our defensive potential." he glanced over to Keylor. "The other thing we can't improve further is related. The inertia created by both systems running alongside influences the harmonics rotation factor." he moved on as the sim continued to illustrate his words, "Meaning, if we get a shot, the shields will automatically adjust to the weapons frequency but change the rotation. This process is, in normal cases, immediate, but, again thanks to these jerks, after the mods it'll be at least 0.03% slower. Sounds like nothing, but that nothing can be decisive in a battle situation." Sean stepped back and looked directly to Keylor. Maybe the General would now come to senses and avoid this plan. Keylor looked at Sean as he rambled on. Though Keylor knew little about engineering, he understood the engineers concern. But the pure fact was that if SSF command recommends for the Chimera to have the prototype, then they should have it. "That is all well and good Lieutenant. But the point is we need to have these shields. Any way, we have little choice in the matter. Our next mission is taking us to the Spinward Marsh, a place known for temporal anomalies. Without these prototypes, we could hit an errant anomaly and change half the crew in to teenagers or worse babies." For a brief moment, Sean pictured Walsh turned into a toddler and himself giving him a decent whoop, and he couldn't hold back a smile. Keylor continued. "For us to perform this mission, we need these prototypes up and running by the time we get there." He looked at Sean. "Now what about running the prototypes by themselves? I assume they have some deflective capability. Our main concerns are the temporal anomalies. Once we reach our objective, prophets willing, we could switch back to our standard shields. Or at least could that be an option. If we could switch back and forth, would that solve some of you problems?" he asked. "And if that is not an option, then what about making sure critical parts of the ship are shielded. We can evacuate parts of the ship once we get to the marsh. Shield the nacelles, engineering, the shuttle bay and other essential areas, and allow for gaps in areas where if we were effected, we could still continue our mission." He waited for Sean's reply. Sean sighed impatiently. "Sir" he said in a tone teachers would use with especially slow learning students. "The whole idea of this new prototype builds up on normal shield functions. They cannot be run by themselves. What these buggers do, is "modify" the shield structure. Otherwise it wouldn't cause these problems at all." he crossed his arms and looked sternly over to Keylor. "Oh that is a bloody shame. Would have been nice for special forces command to send me a brief on the shields. I guess that idea will not work." Keylor said interrupting briefly. Sean hesitated, then continued. "And what do you mean with 'gaps'. This ship has no 'gaps'. We make sure there will be no 'gaps'. All sensitive areas are hardshielded anyways, the only thing we can do is reinforce this, but that is by no means as good as it should be." He said shaking his head. How could the General not see the risk, was beyond him. Keylor raised a hand and waved it. "Never mind then. Just thinking out loud." He then turned back to the diagram. "Looks like you have a problem to solve. Because we can't go without the prototypes, and we certainly are not cancelling the mission until you and the base engineers figure this out. You have 10 days and 12 hours to get everything installed. Though the upside is you can continue to work on them the 5 days or so it will take us to get to the marsh. So aside form another warp core," he looked around at the tightly packed engineering section, "What do you need to make this happen?" Sean raised his shoulders. "A miracle, if you ask me." he shrugged. "We'll have her ready, Sir, but don't expect everything to work just fine, cuz that is not going to happen. There are too many factors that we cannot calculate. That's the price you pay for betting on experimental technology." He turned off the simulation and faced Keylor again. "I also gave some stuff to Major Walsh for his team, following instructions from Marine Captain Garsha" he added with a bitter side tone. "I supposed you already know this, but the modification are not only on ship level, but also on tricorders, weapons and tactical systems. It feels like they want to try several things at once and decided to use us as test fields." Sean sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this, Sir".he finished. "The ship modifications are not the only ones?" Keylor murmured.He was really starting to get a bad feeling about this, and apparently Sean was too. Too many unanswered questions too many variables. "Me too, Lieutenant." He said quietly with a displeased look on his face. "but then again, we are to follow orders, no matter how unhappy they make us feel." The memory of the dream he had had a few days before were now resurfacing in his mind. He was starting to believe that the dream was more of a message than an active subconscious. "So lieutenant" he asked after a while. "You would not happen to know a Angus McTaggert. A Starfleet officer who once served on the USS Archer. " Keylor looked a little embarrassed, "I have not looked at your personnel record, but is he some relation to you?" he waited for his reply. Sean looked annoyed at Keylor. This was the second time in the day his brother came up in a conversation. Would he ever be able to get rid of his shadow? He was the older one, even if Angus had advanced way more then himself. "He's my younger brother" he finally replied grumpily, turning away, "should I keep you updated of Garshas doings on our ship, Sir?" he added in a loud voice, trying to get away from that subject. Keylor raised an eyebrow. He obviously touched on a rather sore subject with the lieutenant. For now he would be content with the knowledge they were siblings and leave it at that. "Yes, but don't bother with detailed reports, you can save that for the briefing when we finally depart. Just let me know if you have any troubles that would affect us leaving, or anything you need but cant get. The goal here is to get it done, not to burden you with paperwork that can wait." He replied. Sean nodded. "And a hell lot of paperwork it'll be, if we are to maintain and document this whole thing." he replied more to himself then to the General. "Quite frankly, if it was for me, they'd stick it all up their... Sorry, Sir" he interrupted himself hastily. "I mean, I better get to work. Lots to do and stuff. You know. Sir" Sean finished unsure, rather annoyed with himself of loosing it in front of the CO. He saluted briefly and turned around. Watching Sean start to walk away he wanted to touch base with him before he totally became engrossed with the Herculean task at hand. "Oh lieutenant. I understand that there have been a few problems between the base engineering team and our engineers." He said remembering yet another report he read earlier that day from Garsha of the base engineering team. "I know this is quite a shake up in a short period of time, but we really don't want to impede the task by battling egos." He paused for a second. "You can't do this alone, and neither can he. It is going to take all of you to get the job done... From what you have shown me." Sean felt as if he was hit by a hammer. "Ego, Sir?" he couldn't refrain himself from answering. "This is about a bunch of idiots trying to ruin my ship with their crappy systems, General, not about some stupid ego-trip. I thought I explained that clearly." he uttered through clenched teeth without turning. "I better get to work, Sir, with your permission..." he added and continued his way. Keylor frowned a bit, "Lieutenant" he called out to get him to stop. Keylor walked up to Sean and spoke in a quieted voice. "You can't tell me that you are not somehow being protective of the ship. And somehow offended when someone comes aboard and starts giving you orders. But don't consider these engineers as idiots. They just were not plopped in here to make a muck of things." He paused as a crewman walked past. "This is a shitty deal, cramming prototype equipment into a ship and not really having a good idea of how it should all work. But If my hunch is right, this crappy system is going to come in handy, no matter what the disadvantages are." He paused again. "But I am not getting that "spirit" of cooperation here. Just this morning I received another report from Garsha about one of his engineers being impeded by an Ensign when they were transferring equipment on to the ship." Sean looked really annoyed now. "Sir, with all due respect, I was given the task of looking over the ships systems. If taking care of having this ship ready for any situation is considered being overprotective, then I am guilty, and if that is not what you want from your engineering crew, then I am definitely not on the right spot." Sean was on a roll now. "In the end of the day, Sir, you want your morning coffee as well as maximum warp acceleration when you need it, and not having it will probably ruin your day. And that's what the Engineering team, as well as myself make sure off, like it or not." he took breath and continued. "As for that report, if it is referred to Rodgers carrying out my orders of checking every system that is beamed onboard as a security measure, then I will tell you two or three things. First of all, I assume responsibility of it, he was just doing what I told him to do, as any of the team would. Second of all, I think it is in the best interest of the ship to make sure what is going to happen right from the start, and WE are after all blamed if something goes down the gutter. And third of all, if this Garsha character has any problem with my crew, he should have the balls of coming and talk to me instead of whining up all the command chain. That's all I have to say, Sir" Keylor nodded and raised a hand. "Easy there Lieutenant. No need to get defensive with me. I understand and I have no problem with our engineers checking out everything that comes aboard. Nor do I have a problem with you making sure you have everything in as tip top shape as it can be. And I do understand that once we leave here that your team will be the one with the burden of making it work and maintaining it. BUT! If everyone is going around puffing up their chest like bullfrogs, then nothing will get done and I NEED this stuff put in on time." He emphasized quietly. Sean looked with disbelief. "Sir, we are not getting anywhere here. Engineering will do what is necessary, within the given deadline and with enough spare time to have a baseball game, that I assure you. Again, we just want to make sure that this is not going to blow back into our faces. If there's any attitude problem, it's the attitude of following orders and making sure everything goes well at the same time, something I cannot say about those blind thickheads from Bragg." Keylor grimmaced, "You WILL DO MORE than is necessary. You and your team WILL be civil to the other team. IS that understood?" he pointed at Sean without touching him. "The way I see it, with everything going on, a fight is bound to break out. And that is the last thing we need right now. I have no doubt in your abilities chief, I have no doubt that you will do what is right by the ship. I have no doubt that you will be able to replicate my coffee and give me warp 9.5. But everyone needs to take it down a notch and not get is such a huff about things." Sean started to say some thing but Keylor interrupted. "Now you make that happen. Take some happy pills, pass them out to the rest of your department but DO IT! I don't want to hear you or any of this team insult the other engineers again. And I don't want to hear that MY ENGINEERS gave any one from the base an attitude. Don't get me wrong, I am not telling you to sacrifice quality, Just stop the posturing and foul attitude and find a way to work with the other engineers in a civil way." Keylor said straining not to yell at Sean. His face started to turn read and a few veins in his neck started to bulge. Sean was livid and leaned forward like a bull getting ready to fight. For a moment, none of them said a word, and a deadly silence fell over the Engineering section. Sean looked around and saw, that the rest of the crew had stopped everything and was watching the confrontation. He breathed deeply and finally stood straight. "Is this an order, Sir?" he replied in an icy voice. Keylor took in a deep breath and then hissed back at Sean, "Would. it. be..anything... else?" he said between his teeth. Sights locked in on sean, he had failed to notice the hush that now deafened the engineering room. As he slowly regained his senses, he realized you could have heard a pin drop on the floor. He slowly took in a breatha nd stood straight up. No one said a word as Sean stood ther, along with the rest f the engineers present. After a minute or two Keylor tugged on his marine green tunic. "I will have a talk with Garsha and explain to him how every one need to find a way to get along. This is a two way street and I am not blaming only one side." Keylor stated as he calmed himself. Keylor started to walk to the doors to the corridor outside of engineering. He stopped just after circling Sean, "Oh and Lieutenant. If this attitude on either side does not cease. I will personally pound the offender, no matter whom it is, in to the sand. If you get my drift." He growled in a hushed voice. Sean couldn't avoid a fierce grin. "Hell, Sir, I certainly hope you do." Keylor nodded and then turned and headed to the corridor. ===End log=== Bgen Bretam Keylor Captain & LT Sean McTaggert (NPC)DCEO