Go, No Go For Launch

Posted on Wed Sep 21st, 2022 @ 8:06pm by Captain William Maddox & Commander Ayanja Tusalo & Lieutenant Commander Javiylah MacArthur & Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral & Lieutenant Commander TaijanSuda ch'Thulhu & Lieutenant JG Fox Jasper & Lieutenant JG Stanislav Finch

3,284 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: The Song Of Silver Wings
Location: USS Daedalus, Conference Room
Timeline: One Day Before Launch

"I know we've been rushed, but I need your honest feedback: are we good to launch?" Maddox asked the assembled senior staff. "I want honest answers, and suggestions on how to get your departments mission ready. If it's equipment shortfalls we can make it when we get to the Reef Stars using local resources. If it's not something our replicators can make with local resources, we have a Starbase here that can."

Suda threw up deuces with one hand and went back to his casual position--slouched shoulders, arms crossed, and total disinterest in the bureaucratic side of this duty post.

With a quick look around those gathered, Fox then raised his arm for permission to ask his question. "Captain," he said, boldly and with minor concern. "It's more a personnel question than an equipment shortfall, but... slight problem.... I don't seem to have a Chief Flight Control Officer yet?"

"Commander Murdock was meant to be joining us," Maddox said guardedly. "Unfortunately he has volunteered for other duties within the Fleet."

"Voluntold, more like," Suda quipped. "At least somebody had a guardian angel..."

"Voluntary reduction in rank and assignment to Starfleet Office of Personel. Pretty much taken his name out of the hat for a shipboard assignment for a while," Maddox expanded. "Some people see any amount of risk as being to much."

"Pussy," muttered Suda under his breath. It took a real piece of work to back out of a mission so hard that it meant losing a pip. If that was how this Commander Murdock felt, they were better off without him.

Fox had the drift down just fine, but no one had specifically spelled it out for him yet. This Commander Murdock's problems and to-do list had clearly shifted, but the young man only really cared about his own immediate future, literally, right now. He looked from Suda to Maddox before speaking again.

"So he's not gonna be here." Fox confirmed. "And... I'm covering his position?" There was a brightness in his dark eyes that suggested this was very much a good thing, if wholly unexpected.

"Why? You gonna cut and run too?" Suda teased with a straight face.

"I'm the Chief Flight Control Officer?" That question was infused with youthful surprise, and ended with both Fox's eyebrows raised.

"Until you prove to me that you are unfit for the post, but your file suggests that's not likely to happen," Maddox explained. "You're a good flier, and the Chariot class will treat you fine. Regardless of her looks."

"Yes!!" Fox reacted simply, right hand tightening into clenched fist that held back (barely) from punching the air. "Won't let you down, Captain," he promised faithfully. He'd not done the job before, within Starfleet, but doubt was never an option. "Thank you, sir."

Aarix wasn't paying much attention, his nose instead buried in the PaDD he was typing in. They were hoping to launch in one sol and Aarix hardly felt ready. While the decision to launch didn't depend on his nerves, it depended on the readiness of the ship, the two were correlated to some degree. The installation of the nacelles went beautifully, but there was an efficiency problem in the core that had been driving him up the bulkhead. If it were anything else, he would have no hesitation telling the Captain to go for it and he can troubleshoot along the way. But a problem with the core meant an unsafe warp, and an unsafe warp meant bits of a brand new ship spread across several million kilometers of space. To anyone looking over his shoulder, the wide PaDD in his hands was littered with equations that had more letters and symbols than numbers.

"Chief?" Maddox asked, noticing the million-lightyear stare current occupying his chief engineer's face. "Now would be a good time to tell us all that everything is battened down and won't fly off the mounting points the moment we tap the RCS thrusters."

"Hm?" Aarix looked up when he realized he was being talked to, seeing eyes on him. It dawned on him what the question was, and a pit of dread settled into his stomach. He didn't fear command figures, but it wasn't easy telling them when something wasn't working how they want it to. Especially knowing that everyone was ready to see the ship off, being the bearer of disappointing news was a heavy burden. Could the messenger be killed if the messenger was also the original sender of the message?

Aarix then sighed and looked back down at the PaDD, as if his sigh could just wish away his problems. "That's what I wish I could tell you, Captain," he began, his eyes scanning the equations again. His eyes held hints of the stress weighing down on him for the last two days. "In terms of structural integrity and ship assembly, everything is fine and ready to go, but there's a problem with the core that my team has spent two sols trying to resolve. Efficiency is at 72 percent and calculations show that if we attempt warp with anything less than 85, the core has a very high chance of losing stability. Unless we can fix this in the next 6 hours, I'm afraid it's a no-go."

"Not necessarily," Maddox said slowly. "The Proteus drive will be doing the leg work to get us to the Reef Stars, and its self-powered. So I guess my question to you Teral is if the problem is something you need a Starbase to fix, or if you and your team can fix it on-site in the Reef Stars once we've completed transit?"

"Would the instability you're projecting affect our ability to use the warp drive, or just our ability to use it to it's full potential?" Aya asked from her seat, skimming the ship's specs. She didn't bring up the issues of power generation if their core wasn't running at optimal efficiency. While less dependent on the core for their main power than 24th or 23rd Century Starfleet vessels, without a core, they wouldn't be much use to the crew of the Icarus.

"Given the closely packed stars we'll be sailing through, not being able to achieve a high warp factor shouldn't be an active detriment to our mission," Maddox mused.

"I would feel better about launching if engineering had someone who specialized in warp core mechanics," Aarix said, making a note to see if the starbase could spare anyone.

The conference room doors which had been sealed for privacy let out a musical chime that was fraught with discord before the maglocks released. "Ho!" Finch walked through the now open doors with his hands spread wide like a gameshow host. "There is a meeting of the senior staff and moi was uninvited. What the actual fuck, guys?" He pressed his hand against his chest in a gesture of offense, but his face soon effected a teasing expression. "Come on. There is a distinct lack of Intelligence on this mission already. Let's not make it worse. Never fear, though. I am here to service your every need." He waggled his eyes at the ladies present.

"Mister Finch," Maddox said. He said it in a tone of voice best described as 'mortally wounding but set to stun', or something to that effect. The vocal equivalent of a leather blackjack. "Given the nature of this briefing is mission readiness and not field intelligence, I didn't see fit to request your presence. At all."

"Of course you would think mission readiness and field intelligence are unrelated." Finch reached up to the taller man and booped Maddox on the nose with his pointer finger as he passed. "Cute as a button, you!" He took an empty seat and quickly kicked his feet up on the conference table. "Did we get to cabin assignments yet or is there still time to place bids?"

"I'll assign you to a goddamned coffin if you ever touch the captain again," Suda cut in with a harsh glare. "Fuck around and find out."

Finch crinkled his nose and mimicked Suda's "fuck around and find out" threat in a sniveling whisper, but otherwise he fell silent.

Having stood up to back up Suda, Fox retook his seat and kept his mouth shut. But he was intrigued now as to who and how this apparent moron had made it on board. Clearly some kind of wannabe spook, but at what level was he batting? The act (if it was such) was annoying, and suitably distracting. Just like 'intelligence' to throw chaff into the mix though. One to watch for sure, or maybe push out of an airlock hatch when no one was looking/

Wanting to move the briefing along by any means necessary, Maddox turned to Javi.

"Commander MacArthur, I appreciate you stepping in to oversee the onboarding of supplies and the DSRV, your expertise there has been invaluable," he said. "Though if you're not going to use your office, I'll start having messages sent directly to your combadge instead. I can appreciate a member of the senior staff who works with her department to get the best results."

Perplexed by the reference to an unused office as she had been utilizing the small one that the computer had told her was for the SAR lead, Javi took a moment to comprehend the rest of what the Captain said. Senior Staff? “What office and department, Captain?” Surely, he was mistaken, she had no idea what he was talking about, she had no department on this mission.

"Operations and the main computer can direct you to it, your office I mean," Maddox said slowly. "I assumed you were already aware of the appointment given your work facilitating the launch process. I'd have thought the lack of red tape and oversight would have clued your in by now?"

"Given my Fleet-wide clearance and access levels, no, sir," Javi was surprised that she had to remind the captain of said fact but apparently she had to. She also wanted to highlight something that had been asked by others to her over the past few days, something she hadn't had an answer to. "Computer, who is the Chief Operations Officer assigned to the U.S.S Daedalus?"

Aya raised her eyebrow somewhat incredulously at the Captain, as he ambushed Javi with the new assignment. Of course she had floated the idea when the ship's originally assigned Chief of Operations had become... unavailable. Still she had hoped to discuss it first with Javi before any final decision was made.

The computer made an indistinguishable noise before it tried again,"...there is currently no Chief Operations Officer assigned to the U.S.S Daedalus."

"Fantastic," Maddox grumbled, rubbing his thumb and forefinger into his eyes. "Let's hope it's only the red tape that's falling through the cracks and nothing mission critical. Consider yourself so assigned then Lieutenant Commander MacArthur. Much like your SAR team everyone gets to do the work of two people."

“Understood, Sir,” Javi was resigned at the news that she now had a department to lead along with her team. It was a logical choice given her service record, not to mention her current rank. “The DSRV had trouble with the starboard impulse drive, necessitating a replacement, and concurrent issues with the inertial dampers, also being addressed.” The team had a rough drill when the impulse drive went odd, causing them to corkscrew without inertial dampers. “Operations,” She paused, the irony of having a report for…her new department not lost on her, ”Has been doing their best with multiple issues regarding requisitions…and loose components that need to be pulled, refined, and replaced. So far, nothing we’ve found would be unrepairable away from the Starbase. Submitted with Chief Petty Officer Harkness’s compliments, Captain.”

"Excellent," Maddox said. "Chief Teral I want updates on the warp core. Get it functional or tell me what you need by end of the day to get it there. Same goes to all departments, get me lists of what you need and I will get it for you. In fact..."

He looked at Finch for a second.

"I'll be heading to the Starbase after this meeting to speak with Rear Admiral Tordon concerning some staffing issues that have come to my attention. As senior Fleet in this sector, he can get us pretty much anything we need," Maddox said. "But if there is nothing else, I think we can adjourn this briefing. While I'm gone, Commander Tusalo can man the store as it were."

"Aye, Captain," said Suda. While he was listening, his narrowed eyes had neither blinked nor shifted away from Finch ever since he heard Maddox say that he was the Daedalus Chief of Security. Every ship had rats, and he had identified one of the biggest right at the start. A grim smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

While he had been doing his level best to ignore the Andorian's weighty stare, Finch could only resist the shiver in his spine for so long. "Okay, I think my work is done here. Toodles!" He jumped up and did his best not to trip over his feet while running out the door.

Whilst Maddox was a forgiving officer, willing to take the time to bring out the best in any of his staff, he hoped holding his hands up in a placating gesture to his remaining staff went some way to telegraphing his intention to 'fix this'. By 'this' he meant Finch. And by Fix...

Well that was to be determined, but there were options.

"Is he head of a department too?" Fox asked, eyebrow duly raised and sarcasm leaking into his tone. "Maybe make a good test subject for some rescue drills, sir?" He ventured, unable to avoid that malicious glint backlighting those dark eyes.

"He may prove to be far more trouble than he's worth in any duty besides the very specific tasks we actually need him for. But I'll leave that up to the Team to determine if you want to take time with the... Lieutenant." Aya still felt an uncomfortable shiver run up her spine when ever Finch had that slimy smile on his face.

"Miss me with that little cumstain," Suda said. "What is he actually doing here? And what do we need an intelligence officer for? There is almost no intel for this mission and what little there is was not briefed to us by him. He can go play in a structure fire for all I care, but keep him out of our way."

"That's the idea behind having a specialist who... is unorthodox in their methods. The hope is he will be able to gather intelligence quickly, especially that which a standard field operative wouldn't be able to do in such strange circumstances." Aya hated towing the party line. It was the downside to being XO. She could disagree as much as she could in private, but once the Captain made up his mind it was her job to make sure the crew backed the play.

Suda scratched his chin. "So he's our proverbial canya in the cobalt mine, huh? I can live with that. They're always the first to die."

Watching the to and fro between XO and Security Chief was enlightening, and Fox took a quiet moment to observe the intricacies of that verbal interchange. He definitely landed on Suda's side, but the way Tusalo spoke told the young Lieutenant a lot. She defended the need for Finch to be on board, for reasons Fox didn't yet understand. As Suda had said - the intel side of a rescue mission seemed somewhat redundant - but Fox wasn't dumb enough to assume that either he or the Andorian had access to all the information the top two officers would have. He grinned at Suda's reference to avian warning signals, but he was also curious so asked outright. "What exactly is Lt Finch a specialist in?"

"Intelligence," Maddox said and shook his head. "And no, that's not a joke. I know going into an unknown region of space with an Intel officer seems a little like putting the cart before the horse, but there are aspects of our mission where he might prove useful. SFI doesn't promote on time in service, so on paper, he knows what he's doing. Even if he's a little...eccentric."

With a nod, Fox decided to leave it at that. Intelligence was, in his point of view, a broad all-encompassing word that didn't in any way answer his original question. And he could think of plenty more words to describe the weasel of a man who had come and gone so rapidly from this briefing. Eccentric wasn't even the first one on his list. He looked to the Andorian as Suda chimed in and he kept his mouth shut.

Suda shrugged. "Natural selection will solve the problem that is Finch. The real problem is how natural selection might rub out someone else we actually need." He tried to sigh but it came out more of a grunt. "What I wouldn't give for a doctor with real experience in frontier medicine. Saving lives is easy with unlimited resources, but we'll be on our own where we're going and people are going to get hurt. No way around that."

"I'm working on that. Again trying to find a doctor willing to go into the unknown, the true unknown, its a tough sell. But I have a line on one or two names I want to reach out to. We have a few more days," Maddox said with a sigh. "But only a few."

"No pressure," Aarix commented, more to himself. His comment was coupled with a brief eyebrow raise, a silent gesture that the last thing he'd probably be doing was feeling excited for the voyage for as long as he had work to do. "I'll keep you updated on the core. Realistically it shouldn't be too much of a problem, but replicating parts for a new core sucks when there's no starbase nearby, so I plan to take full advantage of our reources while we have them."

"So we're delaying the launch?" Asked Fox, resisting the urge to put his hand up in the air to ask said question. If he was 'Chief Flight', and Finch was 'Chief Intelligence', Jasper had to wonder who the hell they were going to drag out of what clinic to fill the 'Chief Doc' position.

"Not an option," Suda said. "Nerds always say there's problems as if the universe wasn't made from them. Just be ready for when their job ends and ours begins."

Fox gifted the Andorian a smart nod, and might have been about to say something about nerds and medics, but the XO took the verbal stage.

"Correct, if an in-elegant way to put it." Aya said looking around at the assembled crew, her eyes falling and lingering on Javi a moment. "We're out of time, if we've got any hope of passing through the Reef Stars we have to launch in the next four days, or we'll miss our window. It will be months before it would be safe enough to attempt another crossing... so we'll find a way."

Only having listened with minimal interest to the discussion, Javi slipped out with a nod towards the Command Team, her attention focused on the PADD in her hand and reaching out to Mara in order to bring the...her department together for the initial briefing and leadership announcement.

 

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