Engineers are Territorial Creatures

Posted on Sun Apr 30th, 2017 @ 11:03pm by Captain Tim Williams & Lieutenant Commander Jean Reynard & Lieutenant Griffen Tanol

Episode: Preparations
Location: USS Highlander - Cargo Bay
Timeline: MD01

Tim, Jean and Grif were the final three crew members to enter the cargo bay, which was crowded with so many yellow collars and jumpsuits it made Tim wonder just how they'd all of been able to fit in if he hadn't ordered it cleared of all containers and shelving units. Commander Bralt and a small group of his yard staff were stood near the door, and turned to face the three officers as they entered.

"Ah, Captain; Commander; Lieutenant. I'm glad you could join us. May we begin?"

Tim nodded to the supervisor, as he and the others moved to join the group of Highlander engineers and technicians facing him. "The floor's all yours, Commander," he said, sweeping out with his arm as though he was introducing an act on a stage. The stern-faced engineer's gaze was suitably withering at the theatrics.

"The USS Highlander is in for a three month refit, the aim of which is to prepare the ship for an extended stay in deep space in the Delta Quadrant," the Commander began. "The refit will be extensive, with seventy percent of the vessel's systems scheduled for work of varying scope. Your Captain," Bralt paused for a moment, clearly not happy with what he would say next. "Has insisted that the ship's own compliment of engineering and operations staff be utilised wherever possible, to which the Corps of Engineers has agreed. My team will be in charge of the work, and will supervise it through to its completion, and additional staff from Utopia Planetia will be used where necessary to augment your existing workforce. Your department heads and your captain will remain your commanding officers, but your work on the refit will come under my supervision," he paused in displeasure once again, clearly not used to or happy with the pull that Williams had with his superiors, "with oversight from Captain Williams."

"I don't know what he's so grumpy about," Jean murmured quietly to Griff. "We're the ones who need to be experts when it breaks down thirty thousand light-years from tech support."

"He's a yard engineer, he thinks exac gsdgds specs are the way the entire fleet works. Man doesnt understand the work a real ship does out there. He doesnt like the idea we're going to find ways to make it better." Grif replied leaning her head closer to Jean.

"The refit will cover multiple ship systems, and as such you will be split into teams to focus on the areas you specialise in." Bralt held up a PADD to read from its contents. "Weapons and defensive systems engineers will be reporting to Lieutenant K'tresh. Power systems specialists shall report to Chief Andreas. Control systems operators will report to Chief Utot." Bralt continued reading from the list, naming almost every category of system on the ship and assigning a supervisor to each, accounting for his entire team standing behind him. Finally, he reached the end of the list. "Your supervisors have further instructions for the specific areas of the refit. All specifications can be accessed via the Utopia Planetia Yards computers for any situations where a crossover exists. With the exception of the following personnel, you are all dismissed to report to your designated supervisors for work assignments." He held up the PADD again, switching to a different list. "Captain Tim Williams. Lieutenant Commander Jean Reynolds. Lieutenant Griffen Tanol. Lieutenant.." The list carried on. Tim recognised the names as those that he had recently processed the clearance for the Slipstream Drive technology; most were propulsion specialists, but added into the mix were a few computer systems specialists, deflector and structural systems specialists and power distribution experts. With the exception of the entire propulsion systems staff, each of the engineers and operations specialists called were the most senior in their respective fields aboard the ship.

"Thank you for your time," he said, once he had finished with his second list. His group of staffers behind him then moved forward, calling out for their respective groups and leading them out of the cargo bay.

Once there were only those names that Bralt had called out left in the cargo bay, Bralt called for the computer to seal the doors and alter the monitoring systems in the room for a classified briefing. "The details of the following brieifng are classified. Discussion of the following with anyone not cleared by Starfleet is punishable by court martial. The one upgrade the Highlander is receiving that is not available to all on the Yards database is a major addition to the vessel's propulsion systems. The vessel is being fitted with a functioning Quantum Slipstream Drive, enabling speeds far above those currently possible with warp technology. The upgrades required for the drive are extensive. The structural integrity upgrades that are required are not covered under the same classification and are being progressed by Lieutenant K'tresh. Systems not being covered by other teams are a complete replacement of the main and navigational deflector arrays, the installation of a dedicated computer core to handle the slipstream calculations, and the installation of the core drive itself, including additional subsystems such as the benamite recrystalisation matrix. This will involve interfacing with a number of other systems onboard the ship, most predominantly the control and power distribution systems. Knowledge of those interfaces will be restricted on a need-to-know basis, with the work required to integrate the new drive taking precedence over all other projects onboard. The Slipstream Drive upgrades will be overseen directly by myself. You have all now been given access to the drive specifications through the Yards' secure database. Does anyone have any questions?"

"How will this affect the existing warp drive?" Jean asked. "Seems like we'll be bolting a lot of extra stuff onto the warp core, is there going to be any performance tradeoff there?"

"The warp systems and the slipstream drive are completely independent systems, and the computer will have protocols installed which will prevent the two being in use at the same time." The engineer responded. "They share very few systems, with those that are shared - such as the deflector array and power distribution grid - are getting a significant upgrade, which may actually result in a slight efficiency upgrade to the warp systems. The new computer protocols will ensure that only one of the two drives can make use of the deflector and propulsion systems at any one time. While there will be an additional drain on the power systems to keep the Slipstream Drive and its accompanying computer core operating when not in active use, the power distribution upgrades should compensate for that, meaning minimal knock-on effect to the warp engines."

"I assume our warp core will be getting upgraded to a newer model?" Griffen asked as she looked at the rest of the engineers gathered in the room, "Our core is effcient yes, but slipstream is another ball game, the more power we have the better. The added strain on the structural integrity fields even wtih upgraded ones means power draining."

"The slipstream drive generates its own power; if we had enough benamite crystals, we could outfit a ship with only the slipstream drive and ditch the warp core all together," Bralt said. "Meaning that the additional power being generated whilst the QSD is running will be routed to all systems essential to safe slipstream travel automatically. That being said, the ship's existing conventional warp core will be replaced with a newer iteration of its current design. Starfleet's engineers have made numerous incremental upgrades on the existing warp core design utilised by the Highlander, and all of those improvements will be included in the upgrade - the details of those specific upgrades are not restricted to this briefing."

"How difficult is it to get more of the crystals?" Jean said. "And how much of a spare supply are we getting? I have visions in my head of those 23rd-century starships where the dilithium cracks and everything stops working."

"I can answer that one," Tim said, speaking up from amongst the group. "Starfleet's supply of the crystals is limited; it's a very rare substance, at least in our quadrant of the galaxy. The exact amount of crystals that we're receiving has been calculated by Starfleet to be an estimate of the quantity we'll use over two years, to fit in with our standard resupply cycle. But that's under a lot of assumptions, the primary one of which is that the drive won't be used excessively during that time. One of Starfleet's standing orders for ships in the Delta Quadrant is to keep an eye out for any potential new sources of the crystal; the QSD technology itself came from there, so logically there should be more of the drive's required fuel there too. Until we find a new source, we're going to have to manage our use of the drive against the crystals we have."

Bralt took a few moments to scan the room to see if there were any more questions to be asked on the drive, before concluding that the briefing was over. "Individual assignments for this part of the retrofit project are available on your PADDs. Thank you for your time. Dismissed."