[BACK POST] Bad News for the Captain

Posted on Friday October 21st, 2022 @ 10:20am by Lieutenant Commander Paul Sharpe & Captain Franklin Johnson

2,104 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Concluding Affairs
Location: Various/CRR
Timeline: Current

[ON]

When it was a quiet moment and after he fixed the emitter on the bridge Paul decided to inspect the ship's structure and systems, most of it could be done by looking and a data Padd and Tricorder, but there were areas that he would need to use the terminals for, he had been doing this on and off for days, he had a good engineering team so they knew what they were doing and he left them to it.

Considering his key profession is security he was still in disbelief that he was finding his footing in Engineering, sometimes though he did miss bridge duty, popping onto the bridge to check the systems from the bridge was not the same, but he was finding it easier this way, eventually, he returned to his office in engineering, as he compiled the reports, he comes to the conclusion that there was not much more that could be done where the ship was concerned, sighing heavily he tapped his Commbadge.

=/\= Sharpe to Captain =/\= he begun

The Captain was just finishing reviewing some reports handed off to him by a Yeoman on the bridge in his Command Chair. It had been a rather dull and boring shift, but folks on the Poseidon had somehow always managed to produce the required professionalism necessary for the job. At the end of the day, everyone's dream job was to be here in space and on a spaceship, after all. Regardless, he greatly appreciated his crew and how they took things in stride.

There were some days he wished for some excitement. So when his combadge chipped from the Chief Engineer, he surprised even himself with how swift he tapped the combadge.

=/\= This is the Captain, Mr Sharpe. Go ahead. What can I do for you, Paul? =/\=

There were the briefest of pauses, this was the first time the Captain had ever used his first name, but he quickly recovered =/\= Might I have a word with you and the First Officer in the CRR please Captain? It is about the state of the Poseidon =/\= he said both plainly and cryptically, as he headed for the CRR.

=/\= I'll be right down. Franklin, out. =/\=

The Captain nodded to a Lieutenant on the bridge. "You have the conn, Lt. Dexter," he replied to the second shift rotation chief for the day. They would assume temporary command until his return. He went to the Captain's Ready Room, quickly arriving. Normally he'd be the first one here!

Paul was in the CRR, he had only just arrived, she was looking out of the small window into the space at the back of the Captain's desk, when the Captain entered, he was the first, followed by the First Officer.

"Mr Sharpe!" greeted the Captain. "It seems we trade places for once, how can I help?"

Hands behind his back he came around the desk "may I sit Captain? You might also want to sit too" Sharpe said as he pulled out his Padd and called some things up.

"Alright, said the man who entered my office and called me here," Franklin quipped jovially with a smirk and chuckle as he sat down behind his desk. "What's the issue, Chief?"

Looking at the Captain with a friendly smile, but a neutral tone "it is good on occasion for the mountain to visit Mohammad!" he said then remembered his interaction with the XO "that was meant as humour Captain" Sharpe clarified "but I want to wait for the XO, I hate repeating myself, that drives me nuts" he added.

The Captain smirked and gave a nod. "Alright then, and no offence taken, Chief."

With a nod in response, Sharpe looked up then to the Captain "the First Officer not coming, hmm I can recap at a later time or perhaps you can bring her up to speed Captain" Sharpe said.

"I'll catch her up to speed shortly after the meeting," Franklin Promised.

"Okay, it has taken time to check every system on this ship, to my surprise I noticed this ship had a small number of Bio neural gel packs installed, I traced them and discovered they power the EMH only, this is good, but the Miranda class was not designed for such advance technology. I am surprised the Starbase techs who upgraded the ship before you took command managed to get two different techs working. They jury-rigged them into the systems, the fact the EMH works is a miracle and I am sad to say if this ship entered a large or medium battle those jury-rigged techs would break and thus we would have no EMH should something happen to the Medical area" Sharpe paused.

"Also, I did another structural assessment and the plan I had for transverse bulkheads would have worked, but this ship would have been in dry dock for five years and that is a conservative estimate, with this information I run a simulation and the results were not good, the moment the simulated emergency bulkheads began to drop into place they failed and weakened the frame of the ship. So I cannot use or recommend that for this ship, then there is my work with the holographic warp core for simulating emergency power in a tight situation, I got it up to three and a half minutes, then the connection failed so I took the program for it offline it seems not much can be done to lengthen this ships service life and then there are the random replicator and computer console failures" another pause.

"The last one I repaired was in the Security Chief's office and there were melted circuits and isolinear chips the less said about the ODN relays the better, and that was not the only computer system fail, there have been others. I also took the time to inspect the ships spaceframe as best I could as we are not at a shipyard or starbase and there are microfractures and corrosion of said spaceframe" He said and paused to allow the Captain to absorb what he had said and give him the option to ask questions.

"What you're telling me, Chief, is that my ship is getting far too old?" the Captain asked, an eyebrow raised. "Are you suggesting we apply for a new ship?"

"Plainly put, yes Captain, the few bio-neural gel packs we have that only operate the EMH are jury-rigged I am honestly surprised they have survived this long the Miranda Class was not meant to carry those nor was it made to have an EMH, but we have one and it is putting a strain on the systems of the ship, we may have to lose the EMH altogether I am sad to say. But as your Chief Engineer, I am giving you my expert opinion, we need a new ship. *pauses* I have heard Fleet resources have built their first Reliant class ship, this ship is based on the Miranda class frame, but built from the ground up all current tech is part of the ship not attached to it like this ship. But you would need to speak to Fleet Command about that, I have seen the plans for that ship class, it holds more crew than the Intrepid Class, but I am only giving you options, what you do in the end Captain is your choice" another pause.

"To prolong this ship's life I will have to take the EMH offline, deactivate the gel packs and return those ships systems they are going for back over to isolinear chip format which can run the holodeck. I know I have not long gotten the EMH operational, but it is detrimental to ship systems and for now, should only be used in an extreme emergency, but the program will eventually have to be fully deactivated. By doing this I can give an estimated lifespan of this ship, regardless of the updates she got before you took command of her" Sharpe paused and allowed what he said to sink in.

Franklin nodded, the weight and heaviness of the implications laid out plainly before him. He heaves a heavy sigh, looking around the room they were in as he tried to properly appreciate what had been said. He then looked back to his Chief Engineer.

"I'll let you in on a little secret, Chief," the Captain said, though his expression was sombre. "The Commodore had anticipated this long ago and put in a requisition order with Starfleet. After our battle at the nebula, we discussed our options. I'm stubborn, and so is he, but we have a ship that's awaiting completion pending his order. It's an Intrepid class. All we have to do is give the final go-ahead and we can begin decommissioning the Poseidon."

He moved to one of the walls, rubbing a hand gently across it. "But not yet," he said, almost as if trying to convince himself. "Not yet, Chief. She still got some spunk in her. She got life. You feel it too, right?" He looked over to his Chief, an almost begging expression in his eyes.

*looking at the Captain* "well I can confirm two years guaranteed three at the outside, but we would need to totally deactivate the EMH and the jury-rigged Gel Packs, they are not helping matters and ironically are a detriment to the ship's systems. I was hoping we could keep the EMH available, but if you want to hold onto this ship a little longer I will have to return the ship to the status of no EMH on her if she is to survive, but I can download the EMH program to a storage unit and when you decide on the next ship I can transfer her over, I would have to merge her matrix with the current EMH Mk1 stock hologram of that ship. *pause* To aid in lengthening the ship's service life to 3-years at the most I would ask you to try to keep her out of a prolonged battle or any battle for that matter. While they are not building any more of the Miranda classes, if this old girl went into the yards at Utopia Planitia the most the engineers could do is strengthen the frame of the ship, but for that and the age of the ship you are looking at 5 years minimum in space dock when it will be easier and quicker just to decommission her and give her an honourable retirement," Sharpe said.

"But the issue with the EMH is a decision only you can decide upon, this ship was not really built to cope with an EMH" he paused as he had a thought "the only way we can keep the EMH is to revert its freedom to one location. The Galaxy Class had holodeck and during the Dominion War had EMHs installed, but like the Voyager was confined to one area Sickbay, so I can do that and deactivate the gel packs, but this would confine the EMH to Sickbay, but it will also aid in prolonging the lifespan of this ship. But Captain you will have to upgrade after three years at most, you have the options and sadly the service life I mentioned is non-negotiable to keep her running more than three years will put your life and that of your crew in danger every day after the third year, but the options are there and the choice is yours" Sharpe finished and fell silent.

"I think I like that idea, let's confine it to either Sickbay or Engineering," the Captain suggested.

"EMH will be confined to sickbay, it is only right and the original equipment on this ship can handle the EMH in one place, so I will get those neural packs disconnected and reconnect the original hardware properly, who knows some systems might improve with the original hardware restored, for that time will tell, but is there any questions for me Captain before I go and do the task I recently mentioned?" Sharpe asked.

"No questions," the Captain replied, giving a nod. "Have a good day."

With a final nod and an "understood Captain," affirmation Sharpe left the CRR, feeling sad that all that EMH work he has done, now had to be undone, this was the second saddest moment in his career in Starfleet and that did not count the private ones outside of the Fleet.

[OFF]

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Captain Franklin Johnson
Commanding Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lt Cmdr Paul Sharpe
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Poseidon

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