Let the Refit Begin

Posted on Fri Jan 27th, 2017 @ 1:10am by Captain Tim Williams

Episode: Preparations
Location: USS Highlander - Bridge
Timeline: April 17th, 2392

"Slave all systems to drydock control," Tim said, as the viewscreen showed the ship settling into position in the cradling arms of the dry dock superstructure which would be her home for the next three months. Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards was busy today, with almost all of the many drydocks in orbit of the system's fourth planet occupied. The red globe of Mars was clearly visible at the bottom of the viewscreen. The last time the Highlander had been here had been during her extensive rebuilding over four years ago. Now she was back to get some much-needed upgrades to prepare her for her next mission.

The reports of his bridge staff echoed around him as they reported the drydock's mooring clamps and umbilicals connecting to the ship. "Set condition blue," Tim ordered once the rest of the docking procedure was complete. The lighting around the bridge altered, shifting from its usual neutral white to a cool blue - still well lit enough not to convey the ominous air the red alert lights did, but it was a noticeable difference. He opened a ship-wide comm channel. "All right everyone; shoreleave is granted to all crew not actively involved in the refit. Everyone else, the yards engineers will be aboard to brief you all on your assigned tasks within the hour."

As the bridge staff started to file out, Tim retreated to his ready room, the bridge not really needing anyone to watch over it whilst they were in dry dock. In the meantime, he had a few tasks of his own that needed doing before the yards engineers arrived. Orders for the assignment of his new first officer and chief conn officer had been transmitted this morning and needed his signature, and he also wanted to go over the details of the refit. The Highlander was due to become one of a very elite group of ships within Starfleet; as well as being fitted for a long-term deep space assignment in the Delta Quadrant, she would be one of the first ships to receive a working Quantum Slipstream Drive. The technology had been amongst the engineering gems brought back by the USS Voyager from its own foray to the other side of the galaxy - along with the graviton catapult technology that Starfleet would be using to send ships to the Delta Quadrant, and though it had taken the Corps of Engineers many years, they had finally managed to produce working designs for both methods of propulsion. The Highlander would need to have its entire structural integrity field stripped out and upgraded, the main deflector dish replaced entirely, and some of the internal compartments stripped out to make room for an additional computer core to handle the complex calculations required for safe slipstream flight. It had taken Tim months of cajoling his contacts at Starfleet Command when he had heard rumours of the drive being ready for field use, and he had had to agree to letting yards engineers do a complete inspection of the ship after a year of using the new drive and being assigned to a mission in the Delta Quadrant, but he had finally managed to get them to agree to let the Highlander be one of the first ships to be refitted.

One of the tasks that faced him now as a consequence of the new drive however was the review of security clearances for his entire crew. Although Starfleet expected the other powers in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants to find out that Starfleet had managed to work up working drive units before too long, the technology itself was considered top secret. As such, every member of the crew had to be cleared to even be around the drive, and the engineers who would be working on it needed to have an even higher security clearance to receive the details of how the drive worked. The senior staff would have to be cleared too; as a Captain Tim already had the relevant clearance, but he would need to make sure that his first and second officers received the appropriate clearance, as well as his chief of security (a position for which he still needed to find a replacement for Lt. Commander McIntyre) and obviously his chief engineer. His new helm officer, despite being just an ensign, would also need to be cleared once they reported aboard, since they would need to use the drive while piloting the ship. He had managed to convince Starfleet to let him give Ryan clearance as chief science officer to know the science behind slipstream travel and the effect that might have on the ship, but that still left Counselor Taylor and Doctor Takanashi without any clearance aside from that to allow them to serve on the same ship as the drive, and Starfleet wouldn't budge on that unless they went through the bridge officers course and became command officers capable of taking over the bridge if necessary. Tim didn't particularly like keeping any of his senior officers out of the loop, but he understood Starfleet's reasoning behind the decision, and knew when to stop pushing.

All of this meant that he had a lot of paperwork, and a large stack of PADDs on his desk to go through. And the worst part? Even when his new first officer did show up, he wouldn't have the clearance level for Tim to dump the worst of it onto him instead. And Tim was far more eager to get his hands on the new drive than he was to fill out clearance approval forms.