Engineering Operational Briefing

Posted on Saturday June 24th, 2023 @ 6:53pm by Captain Franklin Johnson & Lieutenant Colonel Phoebe Graydon & Lieutenant Commander Rachel Williams

2,806 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Various
Timeline: After Lost for Words
Tags: Duty Post, Mission, 2395

[ON]

After Sam had left with his repaired item Rachel got back to work, then she realised that she had to brief the Captain and XO on her report and thought that there was no time like the present, she gathered her Padd and some other stuff then tapped her Commbadge.

=/\= Williams to Captain and XO =/\= she began.

=/\= This is the Captain. Go ahead, Chief =/\= replied Franklin from the Captains Ready Room. The leave was almost over and he was busy piling himself into electronic paperwork as he worked to prepare things.

Phoebe listened to the conversation quietly, waiting to hear what the Chief Engineer had to say.

=/\= Might I trouble you and the XO for a short engineering briefing, I feel it is needed as I can update you both on the state of the ship and it is good news from a certain point of view =/\= Williams said as she made to exit engineering.

=/\= Sounds good. Meet me in the Captains Ready Room when you're able =/\= Captain Johnson replied.

=/\= Thank you, Captain, will be with you around five, Williams out =/\

With that she left engineering and headed to the nearest turbo lift and entered "Bridge" she said when the doors closed and the lift took her up and across, it was a short ride and before too long she stepped out onto the bridge.

- Bridge/CRR -

She looked around and the First Officer was not there so she assumed the XO was waiting in the CRR, she tugged down her tunic and approached the door which opened before her, obviously the Captain had made it so, as she entered she saw both her targets, coming to a halt "Captain" she said nodding and looking over to the First Officer and holding her hand out "Please to meet you, Colonel I am the new CEO Lieutenant Commander Rachel Williams" she said by way of introductions.

Phoebe stood behind and to the right of the Captain, as a sign of respect. She took a step forward, gripping the new engineer's hand firmly and shook it. "Lieutenant Commander Williams." She repeated quietly. "I've heard good things about you Lieutenant Commander, I look forward to hearing what you have for us." She said, then released the hand and stepped back to allow the Captain to take the lead.

Captain Johnson watched his CEO and XO exchange introductions, giving a small smile at the proper handshake. He nodded towards Rachel. "Very nice to see you again, Mrs Williams," the Captain greeted. "So what is this meeting business all about?"

The Captain gently tugged his uniform, standing beside his XO as she and Williams exchanged their greeting briefly.

She looked at the Captain head tilted to the left at his use of the Mrs "I am not married Captain" as she lowered her hand, "Might we all sit?" She asked, "I have reviewed Commander Sharpe's reports on the work he has done, even the jury-rigged places, sad that all the holo emitters did not pan out, for the moment. I also might have some good news on this bucket of bolts, but it would take time, it might even allow you to keep this ship running longer than its shelf life" Williams said.

Phoebe remained and stood behind the captain. She'd been sitting down all day in her office filing reports, so it was a nice change to stand for a bit. She listened intently to what the Engineer said. "I had heard about the Holo-Projectors. It would be helpful to get those back working if we can, but of course, it's not necessary." She said with a smile.

Looks at the Colonel with a sad face "Sadly Colonel the current state of this ship will not allow that, the EMH in Medical works perfectly but that is only one area I agree getting the others working again would be good, but currently not advisable unless you want to kill us all in an ODN overload explosion!" Williams said deadpanned, then smiled and the essence of that is one of the reasons I asked for this meeting. Tell me Colonel how does a marine officer cope with sitting for so long, I can see by your stance you prefer standing at the moment, which tells me you had a lot of work which required the sitting position. I have had that same stance too" she said non-committedly.

"My apologies," the Captain said in response to his misidentification. "This 'bucket of bolts' has a considerable history under her belt. She is a veteran of the Dominion War and has survived multiple attempts on her life if I dare say so. I think she deserves as much care as possible to extend that life. Which, by what you imply, should be considerable."

"Yes Captain" Rachel said as she sat down and looked at her Padd briefly before looking up "As you know Captain I arrived here while you were all still on Risa, I took that time to settle in and walk the decks of this ship and discovered some questionable weak points. I have my engineering teams repairing these areas that can be reached outside a Starbase repair facility.

*Pause*

"I went through Commander Sharpe's notes, and some of what he had planned are sound, but sadly this ship despite its many modifications there are limits on the upgrades done outside of a shipyard. Sadly the key areas of the ship where holo-emitters were installed will no longer work, the only place that can currently cope with an emitter is the Medical area so the EMH works but only in one place" she pause to let what she had said so far get absorbed by her audience.

"That's acceptable," Franklin said, briefly glancing at his XO. "It was honestly a gamble if the EMH systems would have even worked! Sharpe was extremely talented in getting them to operate. Thankfully we drew back most of the plans and settled with standard systems. Having an EMH in medical would be exactly where it would be needed, anyway, considering the cadets on board and the busy schedule of the medical staff. I think that's fine right now."

Rachel nodded "On my initial inspection, why you were all enjoying Risa, there were many errors in the ship's superstructure and such, but nothing my team cannot handle. Also, with the latest advances and with your permission my team and I could upgrade current Phaser banks without losing the amount, while only a shipyard could do a full upgrade I can upgrade the Phaser banks from the standard Type eight to a type eight Omega, this will put them on par with the standard type nine phaser arrays of the more modern ships, while the phaser strip is more energy efficient and has the upper hand between the strip and bank set up, more powerful is the phaser array than the phaser bank, but from the reports I have read enhanced weapons would not go amiss out here" she paused.

"The Phaser Cannons type seven can only be enhanced, a brand new type would need to be installed, but they can be enhanced, also retro-fitting the torpedo tubes is doable outside of a spacedock, it will take time, but it is doable after the retrofit this ship would be able to fire both Photon and Quantum torpedoes. The SIF and Shields can also be enhanced, the current warp core is at its maximum for a ship this old, so before I go onto some options, which I feel you will say no to, they have to be mentioned, but are there any questions so far and do I have permission to enhance the weapons, SIF and shields?" Rachel asked.

Phoebe looked across at the Captain. "The weapons could be helpful, especially with our recent luck, I'd be interested in those upgrades, and the shields." Turning back to Williams. "Forgive me, it slips my mind. SIF?" She asked.

"Approved, get the upgrades done on your time," the Captain said quickly after his XO opined. He glanced at Phoebe, then back at Rachel. "I also don't know what that acronym means."

She smiled "It is an acronym for Structural Integrity Field, SIF for short, the structural integrity field is a technology developed by spacefaring species to supplement the natural structural integrity of the material their starship hulls or other constructions were composed of. Engineers used a structural integrity force field to supplement the supports and bulkheads that gave a piece of architecture its shape. This technology was made necessary by the fantastic stresses and probability of a hull breach presented by warp fields and spatial phenomena present in the galaxy" She paused, she read a small part she had memorized years ago.

"To put it in layman's terms it works in a similar way as hull polarization did back in the 2150s, which strengthened the hull of Starfleets first ships by running a current through the hull. While it is a lot more sophisticated today the SIF is the physical energy that holds the ship together against those stresses as I mentioned, so the SIF power systems would need to be enhanced" She paused.

"Now as I initially mentioned about passing on the news that you would likely say no to, I have to give you the option, of a standard big refit that goes for fifteen years, but working around the clock I can get a team to get it done in ten, I mention this as I caught up on Commander Sharpe's idea of transverse bulkheads, that is an excellent idea, but this ship would need to be in dry-dock and be gutted, then the hull frame can be strengthened and the transverse bulkheads installed for a physical backup should emergency forcefields fail. But the refit would bring the systems of the ship up to par with the new Reliant class line of ships which are based on the Miranda class, this upgrade will add at least ten more years to the lifespan of the ship. And I am sure Paul has mentioned this, without a major refit even with all repairs made this ship has no more than five years left before you will have to change ships over. *pause*

"But a major refit will allow a holographic system to allow the EMH free run of the ship, while I can upgrade the weapons, a major refit would allow for extra deployable Phaser banks, similarly to the torpedo launchers deployed on DS9 when the Klingon's attacked before the Dominion War, a full refit could do that, but as I said while you have this option something tells me you have your heart set on one of those newer ships in time, but I felt duty bound to give you the option Captain" she paused.

"Oh, right! Structural Integrity Field," nodded the Captain. They had learned that most basic space-faring principle in the Academy - many like him before then. "My apologies, I just never heard that acronym used for that before. In regards to the refit, it's an excellent proposition, but Starfleet hasn't approved any such refit. We've been approved only the extensions necessary to make this an Academy vessel. As far as I'm aware, there's already a ship under construction to replace this one in time. I don't think we'll be on this ship longer than five more years. However, things could change."

*She smiled in understanding* "That would be up to you Sir to put in such a request, but the slight change in your voice when you mentioned a new ship being built tells me you are looking forward to the possibility of this new ship, but I have given you an option should you wish to go with it" Williams said.

A brief pause "The other idea of Paul's is a good one, sadly I have to agree with his assessment, the time he tested a holographic warp core linked to the main ODN for a few possibly five minutes would not work for this vessel in a hostile situation, the ODN explosions would at best seriously damage this ship or at worst make us go boom. After he tested it began to fail so he deactivated it and mentioned that it could work on a modern ship with gel packs installed, but not on this ship, and I agree it has a 98.98 per cent chance to work on the newer ship she we have one in time" she said and paused.

"I do have one good bit of information before I open the floor for questions," she said.

The Captain nodded, "I do recall that test he conducted. He tried his best to get it working. What information do you have?"

*Looks from one to the other* she settles her gaze on the Captain "Well, I went over the holodeck with a fine tooth-comb just to see what changes Paul had done and I am surprised and happy to announce that when he returned to holodeck systems back to isolinear set up he eliminated the gradual power build-up *pauses and looks off to the side as she ponders* how to put this in non-technical terms *looks back at the pair* when the holodeck had bio-neural gel packs installed they were putting out more power than the holodeck power defusers could take, eventually the excess power which was built up slowly but significantly would have eventually caused a serious internal explosion taking out the holodeck level and the immediate surrounding area from the explosion" she paused to let her words sink in.

"But for some reason, they did not build excess power fast, but it was building up to a crescendo, anyways I checked the full logs and there was an anomaly that caused the holodeck to hiccup as it were during a Halloween simulation! It seems Paul suspected something caused it and that is what made him decide to return the holodeck to stock configuration the best news is the HDs now are operating and 50 per cent above recommended level with no after-effects or power build-ups, I suspect this was aided by the refit this ship went through before you took command Captain. But for some reason the engineers at the starbase this ship was retrofitted thought it would be good to jury rig some gel packs into the holodeck systems and at various places throughout the ship, now they only exist in two places, that is Medical to assist in allowing the EMH to move within the confines of Medical and those integrated with the ship's computer to increase the ships computing speed, okay questions accepted" William's said.

"Ah!" the Captain said, not following but somewhat. He did remember that Halloween adventure, though. Shivering away the bad memory, he gave a nod. "So, in short, and in very short words, what is our status?"

"Avoid Major battles where a pounding is assured, but the holodeck will outlast the ship, otherwise the ship is fully operational," she said blandly with a straight face.

"Ah, the one thing that we seem to fall short in...Major battles..." Phoebe replied, remembering their last few fights.

The Captain laughed heartedly at his XO's comment. "Alright then, I think this addresses the meeting. If there's nothing else?"

*Looks strangely at the Lieutenant Colonel* "And I thought my humour needed work, I see I have some competition in that regard!" Williams said with a friendly smile at the Colonel.

Then she looks at the Captain, "yes that will be all Captain, after the upgrades to phaser banks and structural integrity and shields this ship should be able to manage a firefight long enough to get away, but do avoid long battles Captain for all our sakes. So until further notice the Phaser banks are offline, I cannot enhance the torpedoes more than they already are, so in a pinch you have torps, but no phasers, will make sure the phasers are the top priority, now ask your questions, if any?" Williams added.

Phoebe shook her head. "No questions from me, just keep us updated on any developments." She said, looking at the Captain.

The Captain grimaced at the news of the weapons being offline, but sighed and nodded instead of outright objection. "Understood. No questions."

With a final nod of understanding and acceptance, "Now I must get to work" She looks at Graydon "It was a pleasure to meet you Colonel Graydon" she said with a smile and with a nod in response to the Colonel's response she left the Captain's Ready Room and headed back down to engineering.

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Captain Franklin Johnson
Commanding Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lieutenant Colonel Phoebe Graydon
Executive Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lieutenant Commander Rachel Williams
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Poseidon

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