Promotions and Torpedoes

Posted on Fri Feb 19, 2021 @ 6:42am by Lieutenant JG Finchley Kerr & Commander Ajani Carter

Mission: Episode 2: Rising Tides
Location: Ordnance room
Timeline: MD06
1089 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Ajani was now some what pissed off. Her Tactical Chief had resigned from the Eagle and was on the Arcadia, along with the Eagles CMO and a handful of others. Someone, somewhere was messing with her crew and she was not in the least happy about it. Until she could track down and have a private face to face 'chat' with said person she had a ship to run.

"Lieutenant Kerr" she said opening a communications channel her to, soon to be former, Intel officer. "Report to the Ordnance room at once" she had chosen the weapons room as she was about to promote Kerr to Chief Tactical Officer and he would be spending a fair amount of time right here. Plus she was fed up of her readyroom as it was.

She frowned and wondered if she had allowed to much of her annoyance at Fleet Personnel to creep into her voice.

Finchley tapped his COMM badge and replied "On my way Sir."

Looking at Karadis he said "Keep on trying to decode those messages, there's obviously a common denominator between them all that we're missing, something, one line, a simple word or phrase. If we get that, we have an chance to get the whole kit and caboodle!"

Karadis was about to come back with a witty retort about her bosses phraseology when something from deep in her memory resurfaced "Eureka!"

"You, who?" Finchley asked, uncertain of what Karadis had just said.

"Eureka, it's when you reali..." Karadis began to explain, then stopped, saying "Oh never mind, go and meet the Captain."

"But come back and see you later, is how that sentence finishes though, isn't it" Finchley replied.

By that point Karadis was already at the console in the room and was looking up the library database. Realising finally what Finchley had said she replied "Yes, just get gone!"

Finchley left the room, feeling like he'd missed out on something, but didn't know what. A short while later he arrived at the Ordnance room and entered it. Seeing the Captain he said "Reporting as bark...I mean, requested Sir."

Carter let the slip of his tongue go by her. "Two things i need to bring to your attention Mr. Kerr." she started turning to face him. The room was busy, it served as the magazine for the forward torpedo launchers and the HQ of Tactical Operations. In theory it could be used as a bridge in the event the purpose built one was destroyed. "First, I am promoting you to the Chief Tactical Officer, Mr. Sonak has requested a new assignment and is already on the Arcadia. Instead of bringing in someone else i don't know i have decided you will fill that role."

Finchley wasn't surprised that Sonak had requested a new assignment. He'd only been in their presence a very short period and they didn't seem to want to be on the Eagle.

"Very good Captain, I will do my utmost to fulfil the duty" Finchley replied.

"Your duties will include continuing as Intelligence Officer, I am folding the intel department into tactical. I am also splitting Security from Tactical, tactical and intelligence will keep you busy enough without including security as well. Questions?"

Finchley was glad to hear he'd be continuing with his Intelligence duties, after all, it was what he felt he did best "Not so much a question Sir, but I'd like you to brief me on what the previous Chief Tactical Officer was doing up till they left, and what it is you're looking for me to do in regards to the current mission from the view of Chief Tactical Officer" he finished.

"To my understanding they had no on going projects. However, this does bring me nicely to my second point. We will shortly be going into battle against a superior force. While those ships are likely to have been stripped before being sold I am not taking any chances. I would like you to take a dozen of our torpedoes and fit them so that we can fire at the edge of the system and they will coast in dark mode, lock on target and then reactivate and home in."

It was a big ask, their torpedoes were not designed with this kind of trick in mind. But with only three ships she wanted every edge she could wrangle out of her ship and crew.

Finchley's hand went up to his chin and stroked it as he began to think of how he could work out a way to get the the torpedo's to perform as the Captain wanted "That's a toughie Sir" he replied "but not impossible. If you're able to get the information for me, I'll could use some sensor reading of the system we'll be sending them through to see if there's anything we can use to our advantage...and also make sure we avoid anything that can damage them of course. Can I ask what time scale we're looking at?"

"The Devils Brew and the Potomac are just under 20 hours out, and it will take us 6 hours to reach the target. You have 10 hours, i need those torpedoes to reach their targets within 10 hours after we launch them" she frowned listening again to what she just said in her head. "I think that made sense" she frowned a little and then looked up and smiled, "The system is on record" she told him what the Federation called it and asked the computer to bring it up on screen. It was a pretty straight forward system.

Finchley's head was now calculating how much time he had. There was so much to do, he had to build a guidance system with and inbuilt timer that would activate to put the torpedo's into stealth mode whilst still shielding themselves against any early warning system that the pirates would most likely have engineered, then reactivate, without drawing attention to themselves, guide to the target and hit them with enough of a payload to destroy them.

"I'm going to need Karadis for this Sir" Finchley said.

"Use who you need Finchley" she said "I have faith" she turned to leave "10 hours Lieutenant" she added over he shoulder.

Finchley watched the Captain leave. Ten hours was all he and Karadis had to come up with a plan to get ship torpedo's to do a job they were never designed for.

"Just another day at the office then..." he said to himself as he to left the Ordnance room.