Jury Rigging

Posted on 03 Dec 2018 @ 5:49pm by Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Staff Warrant Officer William Griffin
Edited on on 09 Dec 2018 @ 2:30pm

1,557 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: The Kalisa Conundrum
Location: Main Shuttlebay
Timeline: MD1 || 1200 hours (Stardate 66176.6 - March 6, 2389)

"Multi-adaptive shielding," Griffin said loudly, quieting the hum of his mechanics' conversations in the shuttle bay as they turned to focus on him and the schematic he had up on the big display panel. They were nine strong, alpha maintenance team and there wasn't one of them under thirty, they were the best fighter maintenance had to offer, all senior petty officers and warrant officers, and highly experienced. "I know all of you did the course when Starfleet was working on the prototype stealth fighter, I did it too. Lieutenant Geisler is here to lend us a hand."

Joey, unable to help it any longer, waddled her way toward the group. As pregnant as she was, she was a bit surprised to be asked to help, but hard work was something she'd never shirk away from. As long as she was able, the Intel Chief would be in the thick of it with the rest of the crew. "As Warrant Officer Griffin said, I'm here to lend a hand," she stated, looking toward the runabout.

They didn't have a whole lot of time to make the magic happen, but she had faith they could get it done. Since the group was more familiar with the Chief Engineer, she felt this would be best explained by him.

"What do you need, chief?" Chief Petty Officer Remara, his replacement as Chief of Fighter Maintenance and one of the best engineers he knew, piped up. "How can us lowly grease monkeys assist the great chief engineer lord mucky-muck Griffin?"

Unable to help herself, Joey arched a brow. Would she allow her people in Intel to speak to her that way? Probably not. She did appreciate her team and often let them know it, but it appeared to her that these individuals were pretty tight knit. "We're all here for a reason, and I think Lord Mucky-Muck here will explain."

There was a moment of heavy silence, and then a murmur of laughter spread around the team and Griffin felt a tension lift from his shoulders, he had been afraid, somewhere in the back of his mind, that his boys and girls in fighter maintenance had seen him as some kind of traitor for abandoning them and moving to ship's engineering.

"I need you lot," he waved at the assembled team, "to do what you do best. We've gotta install a MAS system in that," he stabbed his finger at the runabout sitting center stage in the hangar, "and we've got about two hours to do it. None of the kiddos in engineering would have a clue where to start and I don't got time to educate 'em, Cap'n needs this fast."

"Well hell, is that all?" One of the chief petty officers, Rosh Hatan, spoke up, shooting a shit-eating grin Griffin's way as he rolled one shoulder in a lackadaisical shrug. Griffin turned to Geisler and gave her his own grin, "ma'am?"

Joey turned her attention toward Griffin. "You've got a good bunch here," she said, nodding toward the others. "And since this is more your field than it is mine, I'm going to follow your lead, though I am a bit familiar with MAS systems."

"Any technical help you can give is welcome, ma'am," Griffin told the chief of intelligence, "but we'll do all the heavy lifting." He turned back to his team, "let's get started, first thing we'll have to do is rip out the runabout's existing shield system. John, Pete, and Mohinder will handle that. Jasmine, Rosh, K'Var and Mike, start modifying the power distribution network on the runabout to accept the new generator. Lieutenant Geisler, Slyvia, Jarel and I will build the MAS generator. Questions? Suggestions? Smart-ass comments?"

"I have none of the above, but that's only because time is an issue. That will likely change when this is over, though," Joey said, looking toward the others. She couldn't speak for them, but found herself hoping they were thinking along the same lines she was. "I may not be able to drink right now, but when this is over, I'll buy you all a few rounds."

"That's motivation enough for me," Griffin grinned, "right! Let's get to it, boys and girls! We've got two hours! Chief, Mr. Kim, Lieutenant - we're over here." Griffin led the way over to a maintenance workbench with an integrated replicator and computer. The rest of the team dispersed to their various jobs, chattering all the while.

Joey walked up to the work bench with the others and took in a calming breath. They were working under some seriously limited time constraints, but if anyone could get it done, she knew this crew was it. She cracked her knuckles and turned her attention to Griffin. "What do you want me working on? With this many hands, I'd prefer not to step on someone else's toes. Proverbially speaking, of course," she said. "And, this is your field more than it is mine, so you're in charge."

"You're in charge of quality control," Griffin explained to Joey, "I want you double-checking and testing as we build, we don't have time for a do-over." He paused to punch some commands on the integrated computer, bringing up the specifications for the shield generator. "Computer, replicate a generator housing to these specifications."

As Griffin and his people took care of the heavy lifting and rebuilding the new MAS system, Joey checked everything multiple time just to be sure everything was working properly. As luck would have it, and with Griffin and his former crew handling the harder work, she knew they'd get it right. "Thing are looking good, it's just too bad we don't have the time to take it out for a test drive when this is done. Still, I have nothing but faith in your abilities," she said to Griffin and the rest of the team.

Between the modifications needed to the vessel itself to shoehorn the much larger shield generator module in, the changes to the runabout's power distribution network and the building and testing of the generator itself, it had taken every nanosecond of the two hours the Captain had given Griffin, his team and Lieutenant Geisler to install the multi-adaptive shielding on the runabout.

Griffin stood from where he had been kneeling over the now-working system and wiped his hands on a rag from his back pocket. "Thanks, Lieutenant, couldn't've done it without yer help." He gave her a grin, "maybe we should give every small craft one of these things."

"I think you could have, but it's very sweet of you to say," Joey said, offering Griffin a smile. His positive attitude was definitely contagious. "Maybe we can talk to the Captain about equipping some of the shuttles and fighters with this particular system. It couldn't hurt anything."

"Before we even think about that, we gotta get ourselves out of this damn zone." Griffin grumbled, watching Remara talk to her people over by the runabout, there were grins all around. "We barely got the resources to keep the ship going, ship-wide upgrades ain't gonna happen 'til we're back in Federation space." The Chief Engineer gave Joey a rueful grin, "maybe we can do it while she's in drydock."

"If the Captain is in board," she pointed out. And, at the mention of resources running low. Her brow furrowed as a new worry set in. Joey didn't want to have her babies in this part of space. It felt extremely tainted to her. No, she wanted to be in their own part of space when the time came.

Griffin noted the furrow in Joey's brow and felt a little bad, wondering if he had laid on the doom and gloom a little too thickly. It was in his nature to see the bad in every situation, then make light of it, but sometimes that didn't come across very well. "Once we get this mission done and get what we need, I'm sure we'll get out of here." He told her, the regular gruffness in his tone reduced by a degree.

"We don't have much other choice," she said. "We certainly can't stay here cut off from Starfleet."

"Couldn't agree with you more," The Chief Engineer grumbled, then tapped his comm badge. =/\= "Griffin to the bridge, the runabout Mississippi is ready and sitting in the main shuttlebay, whenever you are. =/\=

Joey hoped they'd be okay in the meantime, but that didn't keep her from worrying. A wave of discomfort fell over her, causing her to grimace. It wasn't painful so much as annoying, and there was no keeping it from her face, either. "Do you need me anymore?" she found herself asking. "I still have another meeting and don't feel so well."

"No Ma'am," Griffin replied, wondering to himself how a person so very pregnant was still on active duty and not in her quarters resting, but it wasn't his place to comment. "Thanks for you help, from all of us."

"I'm glad I was able to help out, and thank you as well. I may not actually be there, but don't forget drinks are in me," she said, offering him a smile. Joey waved at the others before she turned to head to her next destination, counting down the seconds until she'd be able to put her feet up.

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