Welcome Aboard. Kinda.
Posted on Sat Mar 15th, 2025 @ 6:03pm by Senior Chief Petty Officer Harriet Hastings & Lieutenant Commander Richard Dalziel
1,134 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
The Foragers
Location: USS Valiant, Empok Nor
Timeline: 1 Week after Get the Party Started
Harriot, was (and wasn't) looking forward to the next couple of months. Valiant would be entering space dock to have the next round of modifications done to her hull and the Captain and command team, including the department heads wouldn't be going with.
The Yard birds would love that...and Harriet was going to have to be riding them like rented mules to make sure they didn't break her ship while they were upgrading her.
Right now, she was slouched into a beach chair near the personnel ramp, flipping through a reader on current events and waiting for the Valiant's new CEO.
[Doctor Emily Dalziel's Quarters]
"Good bye, Love." Richard said kissing his wife.
"Safe travels, My Richard." Emily said. She'd just been assigned to Empok Nor's Infirmary. Richard had been living with her while he awaited his next assignment. Now that time had come. The Valiant awaited him.
"Thanks Love." He replied slinging his carryall across his shoulder and heading out the door.
Once he was gone, Emily prepared herself for her next shift in the Infirmary. She'd miss Richard, but she knew what she was getting into when she accepted his marriage proposal, all those years ago.
Richard arrived at the Valiant's berth to find a shorter woman dressed in a Command Red uniform with the rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer.
"Good day, Senior, I take it you my welcome aboard party." He said "I'm Lieutenant Commander Richard Dalziel, your new CEO." He told her and handed her a PADD with his orders."
Harriet had seen him coming. But the best way to gauge the measure of an officer was to see how they treat enlisted. Harriet stood, dropping the PADD into her chair and saluted, then accepted the PADD. "Welcome aboard Valiant, Commander. The Captain asked me to extend his regards. He and a majority of the department heads are away on a hush hush meeting, but Commander Ral will brief you on that later. She and Lieutenant Meren are aboard the station, but otherwise indisposed."
Harriet linked the PADD and then let it cycle the orders, updating the ships manifest and the PADD before offering it back to Richard. "The bulk of the crew is on leave sir, though we make sure to leave a fire watch in the bay. Valiant and the enlisted crew are going to be pushing off in four days to the yards, where Valiant is getting her face lift finished."
She stepped back and gestured toward the ramp. "Now, Commander, it's up to you. The Captain said you might be entertained being able to walk around and on the Valiant while she's landed. I can show you to your quarters then engineering. Or I can leave you to your own devices. What strikes your fancy, sir?"
"I'll take the guided tour, please, Senior." Richard said. "That is if, I'm not keeping you from anything more pressing."
"Nothing pressing, no sir," Harriet said, "The senior's are pulling duty so the enlisted could get more time off. Same reason the Captain insists on landing Valiant as much as often as he can. It requires fewer members of the crew to stand watch. The power plant gets shut down into house-keeping mode and we're drawing shore power for everything else. Station security provides patrols and monitors things."
As she talked about the normal, standard operating procedures, she led him around the Valiant, pointing out various repairs and systems work that had been done. Their footsteps echoed slightly on the metallic surface of the bay floor. She stopped to show him a projector assembly near the dorsal side of the ship's nose cone. "One of Valiant's secrets", she told him, "Is the holo-projection net. With it, and some fiddling around with the drive and electromagnetic signature, we can present a totally different image of what Valiant looks like on sensors and the naked eye. It's called a Q-ship rig and we've used it successfully to hunt pirates and to do some clandestine scouting. It's fussy though and anytime we get into combat or a really bad meteor storm, it's off line until we can replace or fix the projectors."
Richard examined Q-ship rig, his optical implant scanning for defects. "A great idea, but I suggest reinforcing the shields around the cone and using a power regulator inline with the EP conduit, to reduce sudden power fluctuations."
Smiling, Harriet led them up the ramp and toward engineering. "Sir, I think I can speak for the Captain in that you pretty much have free rein in getting upgrades and things. Unfortunately, the yard has their list and likely won't listen to me yelling at them for what you and the Captain might want. But I do know the Captain plans to have everyone back aboard when we take her back. Or rather he's going to run it through the grinder before he signs off and accepts it from the yard."
It wasn't a very long walk to Engineering and the lights came up as they entered the compartment. "Here she is sir, "Harriet said proudly. "Welcome to Valiant's heart."
"I could help talk with the Repair Chief, I was one myself." Richard said. Looking around. "Very nice, a Mk 3 compact Warp Core, nice to see one place."
"Yes sir," Harriet said, taking three steps and patting the warp core's housing fondly. "It's a D model. We have had a problem having to resequence the harmonics every other day at least. Which is something of an annoyance."
"I'll see what I can do about on the voyage to SpaceDock." Richard said. "My guess is a faulty magnetic compensator."
"Not sure you're coming with us sir," Harriet confided. "But we'd appreciate it. Jov...Propulsion Specialist, CPO Jov that is, worked on it right up until he took leave to get married. Let me know if you'd like to see your quarters sir, then my tasks are officially complete as far as checking you in."
"Sure, thank you for your time Senior." Richard said.
"My pleasure sir," Harriet said. "I'll be out by the entryway if you need anything."
"I'll keep that in mind Senior." Richard said.
Once the CoB was gone, Richard entered his quarters, they were small, Emily would say cozy. He smiled. Having been an engineer so long, he knew how to utilize space. Pretty soon he had his quarters set up for his needs.
Pulling a component for his pack and a set of precision tools from his pocket, he started repairing it. Looking around his quarters he said to himself. "This might be fun."
END?
Lieutenant Commander Richard Dalziel
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Valiant
COB Harriet Hastings,
USS Valiant.
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