There, but not...

Posted on Fri Feb 19, 2021 @ 8:41am by Lieutenant JG Finchley Kerr & Chief Petty Officer Shr'Nesh Karadis
Edited on on Fri Feb 19, 2021 @ 8:55am

Mission: Episode 2: Rising Tides
Location: Forward Torpedo Launcher, Deck 5
Timeline: MD06
1027 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Finchley grabbed an engineering kit and made his way towards the Forward torpedo launcher. As he did he tapped his COMM badge and said "Karadis, drop what you're doing just now and meet me at the Forward Torpedo launcher."

[Science Lab 1]

Kardis was deep in thought trying to decipher a coded message when Finchley's voice came through her COMM badge. Lazily tapping the badge she replied "Wakey wakey boss, you just told me to go to the Forward torpedo launchers, I have nothing to do with them."

"No, you just thought you had nothing to do with them" Finchley replied "now you do, so up sticks, grab an engineering kit and meet me there pronto, we have a job to do and not a lot of time to do it in!"

"Okay, I'll be there shortly, Karadis out" she said, closing the link.

[Forward torpedo launcher]

Arriving at the launch bay, Finchley put the engineering kit down and walked over to one of the torpedo's. Kneeling down he placed a hand on it and said "Well, looks like we're going to have to shake you up a bit."

Karadis arrived a few seconds after Finchley and on hearing him speak to the torpedo said "Shall I give you two a moment?"

"Ha bloody ha" Finchley replied "you'll not be laughing in a second when you hear the task we have involving these torpedo's."

"I take it that it's not straight forward then?" Karadis asked.

"Not really" Finchley replied "we've got to figure a way to program their target pre-launch, launch them, get them to initially fire up as normal, then shut down to basically 'glide' through the system we'll be in, use just thrusters to keep them on course but avoid making it look like thrusters are being used. Once they reach the planet they're heading for, re-activate, get their guidance back online, avoid any defence systems in place and then destroy their targets. All of this has to be worked out by us in ten hours, before they get launched."

Karadis blinked slowly a couple of times before saying "Oh well, if that's all we have to do, what're we going to do with the other 5 hours we'll have spare, I should have brought my deck of cards...ARE YOU INSANE, WE CAN'T DO ALL THAT IN JUST TEN HOURS!!!"

"That's a little bit of an over reaction Shr'Nesh" Finchley replied.

"No, a little bit of an over reaction would have been me thumping you upside your head with this engineering kit, 'then' shouting at you" Karadis replied, shaking the kit for effect.

Finchley gave 'that look', then sighed "Well, that's our job, it's what's needed right now."

Karadis glared at him then set the engineering kit down. She knelt next to the torpedo as well and said "Right, make sure all the safeties are working and let's see what we're working with."

"Yes Sir, straight away Sir" Finchley replied with a mock salute.

Karadis just gave a forced smile and said "You know I know more than you about mechanics and you know more than me about timers, programming and guidance systems, but between us we might get this one done."

"It'll need more than just this one!" Finchley said, and on seeing Karadis about to protest, added "but we need to start somewhere."

[5 hours in]

Finchley sat back, his arms, neck and back hurt from being hunched over the torpedo "Do you think that's it, will it work?" he asked Karadis.

"The theory part of it says yes" Karadis replied "the practical part though I'm not so sure of."

"Let's go over this again then" Finchley said "we've stripped out the lining, replaced the wider onboard sensors with close proximity sensors so that we can run a feed from the main computer that allows for random trajectory readings and thruster corrections. The proximity sensor also allows for the torpedo's to make sure they remain equidistant from each other and not 'wander off' so to say, they stay in formation. The fuel cell has been replaced with a smaller one as the torpedo's won't be using forward thrust as much but will be using initial thruster momentum to 'glide' through the system. This in return allows more payload to be put in to ensure that when the torpedo reaches it's target, said target is completely obliterated."

"Yes" Karadis replied "however, to try and ensure the torpedo's don't get detected on the way, we've left their onboard shields in place and set up a random background radiation signature pulse, anyone reading it will think it's a blip as it's not a regular pulse. The main onboard computer still needs to have the re-activation sequence and final target programmed into it for when they reach the designated planet, but that's to do with you and the Captain."

"She'll let me know what she wants done in regards to that" Finchley said "what we need to concentrate on now is getting the rest of the torpedo's sorted the same as this one."

"Oh joy" Karadis replied sarcastically "and how long do we have?"

"Four hours and twenty minutes" Finchley said "easy peasy!"

[3 hours and 50 mins later]

"I think my arms are going to fall off" Karadis said as she slid to the floor.

"I think I was using your arms for the last thirty five minutes because I could feel mine" Finchley replied, sliding down beside her. He looked at her and said "You've got a grease smudge on your nose."

Bursting out laughing, Karadis said "We just spent the last nine and half hours trying to sort a way to get these bloody things to do something they weren't designed for, and your worried about a grease smudge on my nose?"

"I didn't say I was worried, it's just...you know, appearance is everything, we have to set a good example for the rest of the department" Finchley said.

"We are the department" Karadis replied "The Intelligence Department only has 'us' in it!"

"Oh yeah, about that, there's something else I need to tell you..." Finchley began.