A Fine Start

Posted on Tue Jun 18th, 2013 @ 5:08pm by Lieutenant Commander James Christie

Mission: Renewed Beginnings
Location: USS Iapetus - Various
Timeline: MD8 0758hrs (BackPost)
Tags: Engineering Layout

[Proxima Maintenance Yards]

James Christie stretched his legs out, making full use of his long stride, his uniform jacket hung open and flapping exposing a vast area of mustard coloured under shirt, the heavy battered black duffel on his shoulder swung back and forth as he half ran down the corridor. There were a handful of well wishers clustered around the large windows either side of the docking hatch, which was stencilled "USS Iapetus".

Jock was fairly sure that the ship wouldn't leave without him, but since the transfer notice had only come through that morning he couldn't be sure that Iapetus even knew he was coming so he'd just flung a few essentials into a bag and started running.

He slide to a halt in front of the hatch, smiled at a small child in the arms of it's blue skinned mother, and tapped the hatch chime. It slowly dawned on him that boarding hatches weren't usually closed, and that the security officer who should be there to welcome him aboard was noticeably absent.

The child began to cry.

Jock tapped the hatch chime plate and stepped back in hope. The ship was clearly still there, although he could see the umbilical lines being powered down for retraction, and if he wasn't mistaken the thruster ports were opening.

~A'cht this is'nae goin' weel~ He tapped the chime again more forcefully a building sense of panic in his chest.

This time the chime elicited a response, a startled sounding female voice issued from the grill, "Hatch Officer, You know we are undocking right?"

"Aye Lassie, gonna be opening this door an lettin me in? Am yer new chief engineer!" Christie tapped the panel self importantly.

The panel was unimpressed "Sir, I will require some ID from you, please state your full name for the computer."

"Lieutenant Commander James Christie" Jock was very careful with his pronunciation.

"You are cleared for entry" The voice sounded calmer, "But make it fast Sir."

The double hatch slid open and Jock dived in, "Aye Lass, That it'll be".

The airlock cycling seemed to take forever. Jock used the time to work out what he should do. This was a newish ship, Luna class, but the basic hardware was of the same generation as the Nova class USS Fife, his previous "bairn". Engineroom first, better get the smell of the place into himself before anything else, besides if the ship was unmooring then the bridge would be a little busy for greetings.

The airlock finally finished it's cycle and Jock stepped out into the ship's corridors. A young woman in an Ensign's uniform stood waiting.

"Ensign Price, Hatch Officer, Welcome Aboard." she said stiffening to attention.

"Easy," Jock waved his free hand, "Ta fer lettin' me in likes. Noo whit' the best way tae Engineerin'?"

Price pointed down the corridor helplessly, "Turbolift is that way Sir"

"Cheers" Jock nodded to her and hefting the bag back onto his shoulder he set off.

[USS Iapetus - Deck 11 -Main Engineering]

A few moments later the turbolift slide to a halt and Jock stepped out, before him stood the large double doors of his new home. Main Engineering. He took a deep breath zipped closed his jacket and stepped forwards, the doors opened and welcomed him to the gentle chaos of a ship about to get underweigh.

The main warp core intermix section, two decks high stood pulsing gently in it's octagonal chamber at the far end of engineering, surrounded by catwalks and service gantries. The intermix chamber was roughly half way up the visible column and he could see engineers working at their consoles around the foot of it, where it disappeared into the deck. The crystal alignment console looked oddly blackened, as if by fire. Jock grunted, making a mental note to yell at somebody.

Nearer to him along the walls of the main section, really just a triple width corridor down to the core chamber, were more engineers monitoring panels and making slight adjustments to the various ships systems overseen from here. In the centre of this stood the master systems desk, a holographic cutaway image which could be manipulated to display any of the ships systems, surrounded by configurable consoles for it's control. Doors went left into the CEO's office and right into the Engineering Labs.

The layout wasn't wildly different from any other starship Jock had served on, but it had a certain newness to it, post refit making it gleam slightly in his eyes. Standing by the MSD, gesturing emphatically in a commanding manner, stood what appeared to be a Vulcan woman. Jock stalked over to her.

"Hiya Lassie, am yer new Chief." He stuck his hand out instinctively, Jock had met a fair few Vulcans and knew they didn't like to be touched so he was surprised when she grabbed his hand enthusiastically.

"That is good, if slightly surprising. I am Lieutenant T'Lara, and I am your Deputy." She released his hand and smiled at him. Jock swallowed and tapped his front teeth with his tongue, a sign of serious thinking.

"Yer naw aw Vulcan are ye?" He ventured.

"I am Half-Human on my Father's side. I assume you will wish to examine the logs of our refit?" T'Lara gestured at the door to the CEO's office. She was glad to have a new chief, standing in for the last few days of the refit had been exciting and valuable experience but it would be nice to pass it off again.

Jock grunted, a perky Vulcan, that would learn him not to read the personnel files before joining. Reminding himself that he'd only had a few minutes notice he let himself off. Just this once.

"Aye, I'll be doin' that. Ye just carry on fer noo and get us intae space." Jock stood a few paces back from the MSD and watched as T'Lara gave final orders.

He could hear the dull rumble of the impulse drives and by turning he watched the ratings at the impulse control panels monitoring and caring for the reactors. This Helmsman seemed to know what they were about as the power demands were all nicely graduated. Jock had seen pilots making sudden and violent demands on the impulse drive to try and correct for bad flying. That just lead to more work for the engineers.

A couple of minutes later he similarly stood and watched over the officers around the core as they dumped plasma into the nacelles and tuned the intermix for warp power. Then he smiled at the glow and pulse as the ship moved to faster than light.

"Slick wee boat' we have here Lef'tenant" Jock nodded to her, retrieved his bag and quit making everyone nervous by going into his office to read up on his new ship.



Lt Commander James Christie
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant T'Lara Johanson [NPC]
Assistant Chief Engineer

Ensign Jaquil Price [NPC]
Security Officer