Uprated systems

Posted on Friday October 27th, 2023 @ 1:34pm by Lieutenant Commander Rachel Williams & Captain Franklin Johnson & Lieutenant Colonel Phoebe Graydon & Lieutenant Commander Ahkhsu Trensu
Edited on on Friday October 27th, 2023 @ 1:36pm

3,565 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: The Grand Tour: Part Two
Location: Various/Main Engineering
Timeline: Current - During dparture
Tags: Grand Tour, 2395, Character Development

[ON]

[William's Quarters]

It was the morning after the night before, she could not remember how she got home, she sat up in bed, and her hair looked like she had an electric shock, her mouth was dry and like sandpaper, and her vision was blurry and she had one massive hangover *groans* trying to moisten her mouth she stumbled from her bed, she was still in her outfit but he boots were in the middle of the room, she took her dress off and put a dressing gown on and walked over to the replicator and got herself a raktijino extra strong, while she was waiting for it to cool a little she had a sonic shower to freshen up, she wished it was real water, but this would have to do.

Eventually, she got dressed in a uniform, she had to put on dark glasses to help with the brightness, with Padd in one hand and a cup of strong coffee in the other she left her quarters and headed for engineering. The engineering systems told Rachel that the ship had left spacedock and had gone to warp, engineering was running smoothly, she was glad for this as so far no amount of medication had rid her of the hangover she still had.

[Engineering]

Rachel arrived in engineering and went straight to her office, she logged into the system and updated her computer with the Padd she brought in, she did a few signatures then it was time to get prepared for the ship to lease spacedock. She walked over to the nearest console and found that the engineering systems were running smoothly, or so the display said, she was so engrossed in her duties and running around like a headless chicken that she jumped a little when her Commbadge went off, the Captain was asking for a status update.

=/\= Engineering, Commander Williams, how's my ship for flight? =/\=

The voice of the Captain asked, she tapped her comm badge to make the connection =/\= She will fly Captain, all systems are in the green, might I speak to you the XO, and Commander Trensu? It is in regards to those weapon and defensive upgrades =/\= that she had asked with a response.

=/\= Absolutely, Mrs. Williams. Do you need to talk now or after the launch? =/\=

=/\= After launch Captain will do, my office in engineering if possible? =/\= Williams responded.

=/\= That will be most suitable, Mr. Williams. Captain Johnson, out. =/\=

When the link had closed, Rachel returned to her officer to Prepare the brief, then to the test console and put in the parameters, it took some time, but eventually, she got it running and just in time too as engineering doors opened and in walked the Captain, First Officer and Trensu the CoS, the noises in engineering seemed loud today, she braced herself mentally and turned to face the new arrivals.

"Greetings Captain, Colonel, Commander," she said with a smile.

The launch had gone to standard and the Captain was overall pleased. His arrival, along with his Executive Officer and Chief of Security, had been a quaint and short trek through the ship. He gave a smile to Rachel.

"Mr. Williams! I'm here as promised," he greeted, standing somewhat to the side so the others could form up. "What do you have for us?"

Trensu was not far behind the Captain. He was still recovering from the night before his hangover was getting to him. Getting a boost from Eiban some old remedy. It had Fruits, vegetables, herbs, and vitamins. It did not taste all that good but did help some. After seeing Rachel. Trensu would call her Williams right now. Maybe he could offer one to her later. Right now the lights made him blink a lot and bothered him some. The ringing in his ears did not help either. He just hoped he could make it through the day. Being out-drunk by Williams would be funny to others on the ship.

*Looks at Trensu with a smile* "You have a hangover too huh? I sympathize with you, woke up with a blinder of one this morning" she said casually, then looked at the Captain and First Officer and quietly cleared her throat to cover her embarrassment.

"Please have a seat, I will brief you on what upgrades have been done to this ship, none of it was easy, but I did find an empty spot that I could install a little surprise, call it a kinetic backup if you will, can I offer you something to drink?" She asked, they were in her office so the need to be polite was required even though a hangover made her irritable, and she looked at TRensu "Perhaps a strong black Raktijino for you Commander Trensu?" She asked.

"Nothing for me," said the Captain as he politely declined the offer. He sat where instructed, a smile on his face as he anticipated the results of what was to come. Truth to be told he had looked over the report, so he knew some of what was going to be said. Overall, however, he was rather excited to know more.

Giving a smile Trensu replied to Rachel, "Yes, Vulcan Black tea would be great Rachel." Trensu paused looking almost horrified. " I mean Lieutenant Commander Williams," Trensu said quickly trying to cover his mistake. It might have been too much whisky Trensu thought.

Rachel nodded and went over to the replicator "Vulcan black tea hot and a William's special" she said and two drinks appeared, she picked one up and passed it to Trensu, as the Colonel had not spoken up she did not bother, so she sat back down, with her drink and took a sip, before beginning.

"Okay *looks at the Captain, then slowly looks at Trensu* "I got permission from the Captain to upgrade the ship's defensive and offensive systems, if I had a minimum of 5 years in space dock I could have Beam arrays to complement the Phaser Beam Banks, but I have to work with what this ship has, but the Beam Banks are now on par with a Type Ten Phaser Bank setup both dorsal and Ventral, the Pulse cannons are on par with what the Defiant class currently use. Could not do much with the torpedoes as a stint in spacedock would be required for that, but I did manage to smoothen the torpedo launch functions and got the reload speed up by five per cent above current base readings" She paused to allow for any comments.

"Very impressive!" remarked the Captain happily.

Trensu looked impressed. he looked over the notes. "Williams, very nice work. Do I have to ask where did you get the power to do all this? What would happen if I fired all the phasers and Connons at the same time?" asked Trensu He thought he knew the answer but wanted to make sure he did not blow a few power relays and couplers if he did fire all that at once. This was one of the significant problems on the defiant.

*Gives Trensu a sad look* "The ability to fire all Phaser banks at full power is no longer an option, but there is a 0.003 recycle rate between different Phaser Banks both Dorsal and Ventral, if you fire them all together then you will have to face the Captain's Ire as it will blow all offensive systems also where we had two holodecks we now only have one, something had to go to make such upgrades possible" she said in a dire tone.

She looked at the trio, but the Colonel remained silent, nothing unusual for her she had been told, mentally shrugging Rachel looked at the Captain "Now for the surprise "since the improvement of SIF and Shield's systems obtained by Starfleet and stronger hull metals currently in use the need for Hull Polarization is no longer needed, I found an empty system area of this ship that has been there since the construction of the ship and remains through its many refits, despite all the upgrades that have been done the Miranda class, especially this ship is overdue to be relegated to the reserve fleet and taken off frontline duties as it is a Miranda Class and the class has seen a lot of action and has been the backbone of Starfleet since the early 23rd Century. With this in mind, I managed to reinstall the ability of this ship to polarize its hull plating, but only as a last resort, should the shield generators get destroyed or stop functioning then activate hull polarization and while we would feel the hit the energy would be dissipated" she paused to take a drink of her beverage.

"As you know the early Starfleet ships used such technology to make their hulls tougher, the same principle is applied, here but today our power transfer systems are much, much better and so were easily adapted to modern times and Ta Da there is the surprise" Williams finished.

"That's absolutely genius," remarked Franklin in awe. "Polarized hull plating? Fantastic! It would make an excellent last resort in cases where we're in a pickle, for sure. Hopefully, we'll never use it, but it could also allow us to lower shields safely. Losing that one holodeck will be a setback, but we still have the Arboretum which is actively tended to by many of the crew. I'll update the ship specifications."

"I concur with Captain," Trensu started to explain. "Most excellent work and idea I did not think of using old technology for defence. My calculations show we might be able to take one or two hits from disrupters or phasers. Now I have another one for you. Something was have been thinking about but am not sure how to implement it. The sense we are all here saves another meeting.

We do have other power on this ship. Runabouts and shuttles, the problem is that we can run them from our Main Ship power but the system only runs one way. If we could reverse the power flow. We could in ah... Pinch as some say run are Runabouts and shuttles at full power to power some systems on the Main Ship to boost offensive or defensive weapons or even Polarized hull plating or use their sensor backup for the Main Ship. If we lose systems on the main ship or get one shot the cannons and fire phasers at the same time if needed. " Trensu took a drink of his tea.

"I know the power drain on the Runabouts and or shuttles would be tremendous and might disable them for a few days. But would raise our survivability rate some are in a bad situation not to mention surprises are opponents. I got this idea really from Williams seeing how she rerouted some of the power distribution on the Main ship. Thank you, Williams," concluded Trensu's explanation of his idea with a smile.

"We do have another Holodeck, and powering the shuttles before a mission would be advisable Captain, let me explain a bit more about the upgrades, the holodeck we lost has been converted to some extent, while the Phaser Banks are now on Par with Type tens, they are enhanced as far as they can be, no further upgrades can be done to the weapons outside of a five to ten-year stint in drydock undergoing a major refit, during which time the ships space frame will be to repair and strengthened and such, but as that is not going to happen I have upgraded the weapons as far as I can," Williams said and paused.

"The Polarized Hull Plating function should only be used as is known in an emergency *Looks at the Captain and First Officer* this does not mean this ship can go toe-to-toe with a heavy Cruiser, it is there to help keep the ship alive a little longer while we exit the area stage right. *Looks at all three* The second Holodeck is now essentially a Sub-section of Engineering with equipment useful to Security. There will be an engineer checking on it and one posted there should we enter battle and the engineer at the time will balance the new uprated weapons and power systems. As for the Security aspect, there is now a holographic-equipped planning table in there for Security ground missions, and some emitters are still installed to facilitate planning it can also be used to take the Cadets through some classes in Security, Tactical, and Away Team planning, think War Room and you would be close to its actual use" Pauses.

"So it will have two functions, sorry three *pits a finger up as she makes the point* One will be for balancing and monitoring the uprated weapons and SIF, Shields, and emergency Polarize Hull plating power distribution and mainly in times of battle, otherwise everything will be monitored from main engineering. Two used for Security and Tactical Operational planning and briefing of assigned away teams, it can at a pinch be used for science briefing and holographic tests, but its main use is as I have said. The Third and Final use is, that it is a valuable tool to train the Cadets we have on the ship, it does not matter if they are security or not, all Cadets should get some Security and tactical-orientated lessons, any questions?" Williams asked finishing her brief, then she remembered something and Looked at Trensu "if you could hang back after this meeting I will brief you on the minor interface change to the Tactical console on the bridge" she added.

"None from me," Franklin said. "I'm rather impressed. I can't believe you've managed to incorporate both systems. This will greatly assist our cadets in ways far greater than simple studying would. Nice work!"

"Williams, this is outstanding work. Give your engineering crew a pat on the back too. this is impressive work from you and your department. I have learned more from you and your department. I would like to work with you and the training regiment for the systems it will be great training not only for the cadets but also for my department too. I have no further questions. Your report is great and very informative. I thank you for your hard work, " answered Trensu with praise for Wiliams.

Phoebe nodded in agreement. "Good work Lieutenant Commander, to you and your department. Keep it up!" She added, having kept quiet in the background for the meeting.

"I concur with Phoebe," Franklin said. "Outstanding work."

"Thank You, Captain, Colonel I will need Commander Trensu to remain behind a bit longer so I can brief him on what his tactical console on the bridge will look like, also any further upgrades for this ship are shipyard based, no more upgrades can be done outside of one, this ship Captain is at its fullest, treat her well," Williams said to the Captain as he and the Colonel were getting up to leave.

Franklin nodded, looking to his XO briefly with a smile before departing. He was extremely impressed!

When the Captain and First Officer had gone Rachel turned to Trensu "Your heads thumping too?" She asked.

"Yes, it is, not that coffee did not sound appealing. The Vulcan tea has some other things in it that help. It's a bit different than Earth teas I am sure you know. That's if you can get by the strong taste of it." replied Trensu with a smile wanting to just hide at the moment. He found Rachel attractive but did not know what to do.

He took a sip of his tea "Your, weapons upgrade is truly genius Rachel. Personally, I think you should give a briefing to the cadets so they see what they can do after graduation this was thinking outside the box." commented Tresnu praising her work. Trensu was wondering what the real reason she asked him to stay back he was quite aware of the tactical changes and some of his adjustments to them as well to make sure there were no mishaps with the shield and weapon systems.

*Smiling* "Thank you Trensu, if you will follow me, I need to bring you up to speed on the new update to the bridge console" Rachel said standing up and leaving her office, and walking over to a makeshift version of a tactical console and waited for Trensu to catch up with her.

standing and following Rachel, Trensu tried to clear his mind. He found his eyes wandering and mind drifting as he watched Rachel move. Trensu has always been nothing but professional with everyone he works with never thinking of anything else. Trensu's head ake did help him out some as he closed his eyes for a moment getting his forces back.

It had been some 50 years from the last time Trennu thought any woman was attractive. Trensu wondered sometimes if it was not a protection mechanism so Trensu would not get involved in a romantic relationship. Knowing that he would outlive most people he met. Losing friends over the years was hard enough.

Walking to the panel Rachel saw standing by "So, what is new?" asked Trensu trying not to look at Rachel too much and looking at the panel.

"This console is not connected to the ship's systems directly only the computer, this is intended to show you how to apply the Polarize Hull plating command when required Computer simulates a loss of shields and runs the process," she said and looked at Trensu "watch the screen carefully" she added. As the simulation played out using recorded motions by Trensu from past uses the simulation showed reports of the shields weakening and then failing, suddenly a computerized button appeared on the screen and the simulation pressed the button, and the console registered hull polarization and simulated the physical impact, then it ends.

"Computer reset simulation *Looks at Trensu* Okay, now you do it, the simulation used recorded motions of you working a tactical console for the show and tell, now you try," she said.

"I see you made this easy I think you for that teaching other tactical officers will be easier." Commented Trensu. Following Rachel's instructions Trensu was doing the right thing up until the end he taped where the button was going to paper too soon. Trensu quickly reacted and taped on the button but was 1.5 seconds late which made the simulated physical impact cause damage. "I see, it is in the timing you made it look easy," said Trensu.

Trensu reset the simulator and tried it again getting it right this time. "There, Do I get a pass this time Commander?" asked Trensu.

*Smiling* "Yes, you did just fine, but it would be pointless training the Cadets up on this if they were never going to do bridge duty on this ship as this upgrade is unique to this ship, and was only possible because she is an old ship. But what you just did is set up for automatically activating should we get to that stage and the bridge crew get incapacitated and the ship loses its shields and secondary armour, but otherwise the Tactical officer controls it, any final questions before I let you return to your duties Commander?"

"No" Then he hesitated before speaking again "Did you have fun last.. I do remember when Polarize Hull plating was used I will just have to refresh myself on the system," said Trensu with a smile. "Maybe we can talk later. Maybe have a coffee in the officer's lounge?" asked Trensu knowing that he would probably not get an answer right now.

*Looks at Trensu* "As for the drink let me know when, last night what little I can remember I had fun, the morning after was not nice as for the hull plating the default setting is automatic, but you have done remarkably and swiftness comes with practice. *sighs* Okay I think that is it, I will let you get back to your duties Commander, as I need to get to mine" Williams responded.

Struggling a bit with what to say Trensu just stared at the panel for a moment. "I do remember having fun as well and the morning after is a bit ruff," commented Trensu with a slight smile on his face as he remembered. "Thank you Commander this is good work. I would like to stay a little longer but we both have duties to attend to. I have another meeting calling my name I thank you for your time today and last night." said Trensu. taking a breath and letting out. "Good day, Rachel," Trensu said as he started to leave he stopped at the door as it opened hesitating for a moment then walked out.

With a nod in response Rachel watched the Security Chief leave engineering to return to his duties, she sighed again and wondered if he was trying to "pick her up" Time would tell she knew. Suddenly alarms sounded, something had gone wrong in engineering "Back to work" she said exasperated.

[OFF]

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Lieutenant Commander Rachel Williams
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lieutenant Commander Ahkhsu Trensu
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Lieutenant Colonel Phoebe Graydon
Executive Officer
USS Poseidon

&

Captain Franklin Johnson
Commanding Officer
USS Poseidon

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