Setting the Record

Posted on Thu Aug 22nd, 2013 @ 8:07am by Lieutenant Jawhn Benson & Captain Jacob Lambert

789 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 2 - Whispers in the Clouds
Location: Engineering
Timeline: Day 2 - 1200

Lieutenant Benson stood at the main control panel in Engineering and cursed it and the circuits that bore it. He'd come up with some pretty creative expressions that had those around him both laughing and giving him a wide berth. After a lot more swearing and a good round of whacking the panel with his wrench, he finally got the damn thing working again.

Jacob was sitting in his ready room. He still wasn't used to the small size of this ship. Only being 8 decks, space was a bit of a premium, so the designers of this ship had made rooms such as the ready room smaller than he would have liked. He was checking his computer for weekly status reports from his department heads. The engineering report was the one he was currently reading. "Lambert to Benson, if you are free can you please report to my ready room."

"Aye Captain! I'm on me way." He had a thick accent. It was hard to place, it sounded a little British, a little Irish and a little bit of gargling marbles. He left his station, pointed to his replacement with a grunt and a gesture. The doors slid open for him and closed behind him. Benson headed for the Bridge.

It wasn't long before he was standing in front of the door marked "Ready Room". He hit the buzzer with a jab.

"Come in please." He spoke aloud to his empty room. As the door opened, the Chief Engineer walked through and stood to attention at his desk. "At ease Lieutenant. Please have a seat. I assume you are aware of the changes to our mission parameters?"

"Yes, sir." He ran one hand over his blue, bald head, his fingers instinctually finding the ridge there. "Although why they gotta be taken this one away from us I donna know why. We could've found 'er on our own, if'n ya be askin me."

"I know Lieutenant. Gamma Command seems to thing that there may be hostile unknowns out here, and while this little ship," he tapped his desk with his palm a few times "is a tough little ship, if something can make an Excelsior class ship disappear, we wouldn't have a chance, hence the Cassiopeia taking the lead." He studied the Lieutenant's face for a moment, watching him as he processed this new information. Jacob hadn't known him very long, he had only been on board since the ship left New Bajor, which was around the time he took command anyway. But from what he had seen, this Lieutenant Benson was damned good at his job.

"When da we rendezvous wit' the o'her ship?" Benson asked. The man was damn good at his job, he could rattle off the numbers of the isolinear chips in order, for several configurations, from memory, but he also wasn't one to brag or live large because of his position. "An' wha'cha think be happenin' ta the Galavant?"

"The Galavant, Gamma Command is hoping, is just adrift from some sort of systems failure. Though they think someone or something may have attacked the ship, which is why we are rendezvousing with the Cassiopeia. They should be on our long range sensors at around 1400 hours, then we should arrive at their position at around 1600 hours. We will be performing passive and active scans along the way, and once we arrive we will be transferring our sensor's logs to the Cassiopeia, and vice versa to ensure we don't miss anything."

"I'll be gettin stanby crews ready ta go so we donna waste no time when we do find 'er. Sensors are up, runnin and ready for the task. We may hafta move fast, we won't be knowin if'n they'll be havin life support or not. We'll hafta arrange transport as well, just in case." He rubbed his bald head again. "Is there anythin else ya be needin outta me, Captain?" He rubbed his hands together like he was eager to get started, but his face showed none of it.

Jacob wondered if Benson ever took a breath in-between words. "No, that should be sufficient. We need to give the other departments something to do." He let out a chuckle.

The answer to Jacob's question was no. The Bolian stood. "Well then Cap'n I should be gettin back ta my duties. I'll have a couple of rosters for ya by 1400 hours. Dat sound acceptable ta ya?"

"Yes it does, carry on Lieutenant. Is there anything else?" He waited for Benson's response, before he was going to head back to the bridge.

"I can't think of nuthin else Cap'n. Thankee sir." He bowed a little and headed for the door to the office and back down to engineering.

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