Star Trek: New Frontier

Chapter 4

Terri sipped on a fresh cup of coffee on the Main Bridge of the Juneau—waiting patiently for the next Engineering and Science Three update. All this waiting around and waiting for something to happen wasn't her normal routine at all.

Another quiet sip from her cup. Then she was momentarily distracted by two engineering teams that had somehow managed to lug a giant console from one of the maintenance lifts to the Bridge and maneuver it around the Captain's chair just so with enough room to spare.

"Excuse us, ma'am. This just came off the USS Ganges spare equipment stores. We're looking at getting another from the USS Washington—which just happened to dry-dock three hours ago with significant gamma radiation storm damage."

"Well that's really unfortunate," she sympathized. "Isn't the Washington an Excelsior-class starship?"

"Older. 2360s-generation model. But she's been through a lot of upgrades over the years. Hard to believe. But this class in particular was meant to last beyond its design limits."

"Apparently." His friend interjected. "Anyways...the next console replacement should be arriving right...behind us."

"Really?" Terri quipped with sudden interest. "Both the helm and tactical/navigation consoles?"

The first engineering specialist grinned. "These aren't your regular show ponies, Captain. These are still high-tech pieces of equipment we're working with here on a very short notice."

The maintenance lift doors slid open effortlessly and three more engineering techs came spilling out with their load as well. Another console. This was still in its shipping box—like the last one before her.

"Where do you want this, Donald?" One of the techs grunted unhappily. "My arms are getting tired and ready to drop off at a moment's notice."

"Oh, take your flabby self over to the port side power trunk and start unboxing it. Then plug in the umbilical power taps and support junctions into the primary EPS grid. I'll join you freeloaders in a second."

The man shook his head. "I swear...these guys of mine can't go anywhere without a collar or a leash to speak of." He said with a small chuckle of his own. "Excuse me, ma'am. I have work to do."

His friend looked at him—horrified. "What am I supposed to do with this thing, Donny? You know I can't lift shit by myself! And this piece weighs more than I do!"

"It's only 80 kilograms, man. Use some of that brawny strength of yours to slide it across the carpet like...so. Then you'll be fine."

"Like hell I'm doing that! This is brand-new carpeting! I am not putting a groove or a run into it!"

"Sean...shut up and do your assigned job," one of the other techs came over and started to test the weight of the first boxed piece of equipment on her own.

"You don't see me complaining—now do you?"

"That's because you have the strength of a legendary Amazon, Brittany. That's not the point. I don't want to have to report to Sickbay Three on the account I wrecked my back."

"Wuss." She retorted with a bob of her eyebrows.

Terri tried not to laugh in the presence of everyone here, but the atmosphere at present was pretty contagious to say the least.

"Is...um...Sickbay Three operational now?" She inquired half-seriously behind the lip of her home-crafted coffee mug which spelled out the phrase: "THE BEST STAR DRIVER AROUND."

It was a gift from one of her ex-CO's off the Talladaga—when she was just a lowly lieutenant—manning the helm station during one of her legendary delta shifts.

"Well, I don't know how operational it is. It's barely stocked properly and only has a few senior staff on hand. Doctor Kelly Peterson hasn't even reported on board yet. Along with Doctor Rachel Pratt and Doctor Frax from Bellios Nine."

Terri sighed. "So we have no medical staff on hand—save for a few interns, wet nurses, and some field specialists—am I right?"

Brittany looked at her partner in question. "I told you this ship was a glorified mess." She complained at length. "But you didn't believe me when we first boarded her nine months ago...!"

"Well, the only thing operational then was life support, a few food galleries, and internal gravity. But that was it—I swear! You're the one whom wanted to do a full systems' analysis of the affected hardware of the Juneau. Remember? You had to pull my arm and my useless rank to get on board this broken tub!"

"That's because I haven't had a bleedin' chance to see one of these Resolution-class beauties before!" the other woman argued passionately. "And to find one in pristine condition with its space frame intact and in storage no less...?"

Terri giggled at the ongoing outburst—thinking back to her Academy days when her roommate (and future Captain) would go on for hours about gravitational lens phenomena and stellar nurseries—until she couldn't think straight after 0200 in the morning.

Ah...those were the days.

But Brittany was a hair bigger in height than her shipmate was, so she decided to intervene for the sake of both the ship and skeleton crew in question.

"Calm down, everyone. Save it for the mission profile at hand. If we're going to be heading deep into the Delta Quadrant, I'm going to need stout hearts and cooler heads." She offered diplomatically—before both Cathy Bates and Archie came into her immediate view with a status report on Science Station Three.

"We tried all we could, Captain. But the power trunk servicing Science Three is fried. It's going to need a replacement." Cathy said.

"Where's Seth and Janice at?"

"Off duty. You have one Lieutenant R'lor on duty in Main Engineering—looking after things in their absence."

"Anyone else we can rely on for a quick swap out?" The woman questioned up front.

"Well, there's, ah, Ensign Jeri Hendricks. But she's in Sensor Maintenance. I doubt she has either a Science Class IV rating or an Engineering rating of three or above—in order to do the job adequately."

"Shit..." Terri breathed. "This just keeps getting better and better."

"But we have a Level 2 Maintenance Tech on board. Two in fact."

"Name 'em."

"Lilly Mason and Chad Greene." Cathy rattled off the top of her head. "Met them at the Officer's Lounge on Deck Twelve—during the reception."

"Where are they at now?"

"Quantum and Transphasic Torpedo Storage—doing inventory of our immediate stores."

"Tell me we have some good news in that department...?"

Cathy looked at Archie for a second. Then shook her head knowingly.

He nodded cagily in response.

"We're almost depleted of torpedoes, Captain. Most of the stores from Decks 21 to 23 were removed within the first three months after being stored in dry dock."

"...and?" Terri pressed both her senior staff.

"They still might be on the Starbase. I'll have to run a line to Admiral Freeman's office and see if he knows where the bulk of our inventory disappeared to." Archie tried to be as cheerful as possible. But Terri could see that Human emotions were still a challenge for him off and on.

"All right, go make a call to Greg's office and get Lilly and Chad up here on the double. I want to speak with them pronto. Maybe they can do some high-tech wizardry that is in dire need this 11th hour...?" She vouched. "We have less than 3 days now to get this girl back to specs and back in action."

"And if we can't?" Cathy wanted to know.

The other woman smiled thinly at her. "Then you best be prepared to go out and push us out of dry dock. Because we're leaving—whether we are ready or not."