BACKPOST: An Engineering Prodigy

Posted on 06 Sep 2022 @ 7:24pm by Captain Bane Plase & Lieutenant JG Christina Hartley

2,420 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: USS Sentinel
Timeline: 2385 - 15 Years ago

William Hartley smiled as he finished the brief tour of the Sentinel with his son, Chris, in tow, as they stood in the engine room. "Remember, don't touch anything Chris. I promised I'd get you a tour, but you need to be good," William said.

"I will, dad," Chris replied, looking around as several engineers approached him.

"Sir, we've received word that the ship has been assigned to Captain Bane, who'll be here in the next few minutes," one of the officers said. William smiled at that news.

"Then let's make sure everything's in top condition. Bane Plase is a dear friend, and a hell of a Captain, so let's go and greet him," William said.

"Chris, walk around here, see the engine room, but touch nothing."

"Yes dad," Chris replied, rolling his eyes. "I may be ten, but I am a genius."

"I know son, which is why I let you come here. Now, we'll be back shortly," William said, leaving with the engineers.

Chris went to one of the consoles, now he was alone, and touched a few buttons, shaking his head. "As if I'd break anything," he muttered.

William, meanwhile, headed to the shuttlebay to meet his friend, happy for his promotion to command the newest ship in the fleet.

Moments after William Hartley arrived to the shuttlebay, the Shuttlecraft Amazon slowly appeared, and got larger and larger until specific markings could be seen by Engineer Hartley, and could easily see two occupants through the transparent aluminum window that composed of a bit more than half of the front of the shuttlecraft. The pilot, William didn't know, but the passenger in the right-hand seat, William knew very well. It had been a few years since they had last met, but William recognized him immediately, even if he did look a bit older. From the looks of it, the passenger knew William to, as he saw the passenger nod his way.

He waited patiently as the shuttlecraft pierced through the forcefield that protected the inside and all its occupants from the cold reality that was the vacuum of space. Moments later, it softly touched down inside the cavernous shuttlebay of the U.S.S Sentinel. The passenger stepped out and looked around. A fraction of a second later, someone in the room bellowed out, "Captain on Deck!" William, with his own Starfleet training, snapped to attention just like everyone else did, facing the Captain. William noted that the fourth pip on the Captain's collar was quite a bit shinier and newer than the other three, a tell-tale sign that this old sea-dog would notice that others didn't. The Captain cleared his throat and ordered, "As you were." He then walked over to William, smiled big and shook his hand. "Commander Hartley, it is wonderful to see you again," Captain Bane said warmly, pumping Hartley's hand, a human gesture to be sure, and a welcome one.

"And you, Captain Bane," William grinned as he shook Bane's hand firmly. "I just heard you got the big chair, so I thought I'd come and show you around personally. I think you'll be happy with the girl, we've worked hard on her," William said.

"That is fantastic, William," Bane said, using his familiar. They had become quite good friends in the last several years, keeping in regular contact. "I admit, I am somewhat in awe at the size and complexity of this ship, just from the exterior. My shuttlecraft pilot was good enough to take me on a few laps around the ship prior to docking. The U.S.S. Bloembergen is tiny by comparison," Bane said, referring to the Nova-class starship he had just relinquished command of last week, getting in step next to his friend as they exited the shuttlebay.

"Oh, I know. I've been overseeing the Sentinel project from its inception. It would have been ready six months ago, but you know me, I had to make my own improvements. I think you'll be impressed with what we've done. I even added a replicator into the ready room desk, so you can just order it without getting up. I figure that way, you don't have to worry about losing your train of thought," William explained.

***

In Engineering, meanwhile, Chris was studying the computer system as he accessed several programs. "So much for security protocols," Chris muttered, as he saw the impulse manifold test results, frowning. "Wait, that's not right," he said, checking it.

He made his way to the primary command console in Engineering, calling up the information, seeing that no one had noted the plasma flow rate, seeing that it was running too hot. Chris thought carefully, calling up the specs for what the plasma flow rate should be.

***

"Oh, that reminds me, Amanda wanted me to thank you for the anniversary gift, she loves it, and honestly, it does make the place brighter," William said, referring to a painting from a popular Bajoran artist.

Bane was pleased he and Amanda both liked it. It certainly had cost him enough credits for it, plus a personal favor to the artist, to be collected at some future point. The painting was beautiful, a 3-meter long by 2-meter wide mosaic of the Falls of Yarrmek, one of the premier waterfalls on Bajor, and the crowning jewel of the tour that Bane had taken them and their son on a little more than 5 yeas ago. It was a perfect gift, and, Bane thought, something that would invoke memories and become the centerpiece of any room it was in. "That makes me incredibly happy. Is she here? What about Chris?"

"She's on Earth, and I know she'll want you to join us for dinner tonight. Chris is in Engineering, he wanted to see the ship, so I brought him on a tour. He's looking forward to seeing you again as well," William said, as they reached the Bridge. "Now, the Bridge, as you can see, it's far more advanced than any other so far," William said proudly.

The doors to the turbolift opened almost on cue, like it had been set up that way in a play or a holonovel or something. And William was right; and despite himself, Bane gasped. The Bridge had state of the art technology, with several stations, including Tactical, using holographic control interfaces, and others being far advanced of the shoddy LCARS systems that had been in use since Bane was an Ensign. The size of the Bridge far eclipsed the Bridge of the Bloembergen, too. This one was easily twice the size. There were several stations for Operations, Strategic Command, Tactical, Engineering, Science and even one dedicated for Medical. The Command area was luxurious compared to his last command. The Captain's Chair was adorned with substations for monitoring ship systems, as did the Executive Officer station and the spare command station. It was incredible.

"Captain on the Bridge," the person standing in front of the Captain's Chair had stated. It was his new Executive Officer, Commander Savok. Bane looked around at all the officers and crew gathered, all standing at attention for him. This was the first time anyone had ever said that to him while he was an actual Captain, and he was thrilled and humbled at the same time. Per Naval tradition, Bane stepped over to the command area, to Commander Savok, reached out to shake his hand. As the Vulcan took it, he realized there was something in the palm of the Captain's hand. Savok looked down at it and realized it was a Command Coin. They were very rare to get. "Thank you, Commander. Please, resume your duties. Commander Hartley will be continuing my tour of the ship," he said.

"Of course, Captain," Savok agreed. "Welcome aboard, Captain. I am certain we will speak when you have a free moment. In the meantime, however, we have just received an alert that there is an issue with the Plasma Manifold system in the impulse engines. There seems to be an imbalance, and I was about to summon Commander Hartley to handle the issue. It isn't a danger since we aren't using the impulse engines, but it does need to be fixed quickly," Savok stated.

"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but the imbalance is being fixed, yet no one has been assigned to it. In fact, the engineers aren't aboard right now," an Ensign reported. "It's being corrected in Main Engineering."

William's eyes widened. "Chris!" he exclaimed, racing back to the turbolift.

"Right behind you," Bane said. "Commander, you have the Bridge," he said to Savok, as the doors to the turbolift doors closed.

***

Chris looked at the readout, and sighed as he recalculated the manifold flow control rate. "Who calculated this, a five year old?" Chris asked bitterly, as he made the necessary adjustments, seeing the rating start to correct itself. "And dad thought I'd cause trouble, not sort it," Chris said, shaking his head as he smirked.

"Cause it? No. Be in it? Absolutely," Bane said, rounding the corner with Commander Hartley in tow. "What did you do, Chris," Bane said, realizing the elder Hartley was correct that it was the junior Hartley that caused the issues, the distanced closing between them. Bane tapped on a few commands to see what had happened. He barely noticed the size and complexity of Main Engineering; he hadn't had the time yet.

Chris looked at his Uncle Bane, and his father, who looked both concerned and angry. He faced them both. "I wanted to look at the results from the test flight, and noticed an imbalance in the plasma manifold flow rate, so I fixed it. Whoever calculated it made several common mistakes, including forgetting to carry a five and a three," Chris replied, showing the corrections he had made, including the name of the officer who had made the mistake, an Ensign James Michaels.

Plase took mental note of the name so he could talk to him and make this a positive learning lesson. Had it been allowed to run away, it could have burned away a good chunk of the aft of the ship where the impulse engines were, and where the exhaust ports were. There were other matters to attend to, as well. "Young Mister Hartley, tell me," Bane said, calling him what he did to break any tension in the cavernous Main Engineering, kneeling down to the boy to get on his level. "How did you get past all of the security checkpoints and blocks built into the system? Was this particular sub-system left open as well?"

Chris chuckled softly. "No, the person handling that part, again, Ensign... Michaels, apparently, put a simple tri-coding cypher, which isn't that difficult to break, you just need to figure out the basic starting number, and most people use a number they can remember, so I looked into his records, showing that he also a minor in Earth History at the Academy, so I tried 5-4-20-60, the date of First Contact. Not exactly a difficult code to crack," Chris replied. "Honestly, he may as well have used his own birthday as a starting point."

Plase blinked for a second, and still kneeling, looked up to Commander Hartley. "Tri-coding cyphers are far advanced, even for most Academy Cadets. You know this, right? And how does he know people have records, and that someone can look them up? For that matter, how did he know how to look them up?"

William looked at Chris, a mixture of pride and slight annoyance on his face now. "Chris is... special. The second he reads something, he understands it, and he remembers it perfectly. He gets bored at home, and especially at school. We had him tested, and the doctors wanted to send him to a special school, but Amanda wasn't keen on that," William replied. He then spoke softly. "We were investigated for a few months as Starfleet did think he might have been genetically altered. He isn't; we'd never do that, but apparently, my family does have a history of special kids, genius kids like Chris. He's a prodigy," William explained.

Bane nodded, then looked back to Chris. "You aren't in any trouble, Young Mister Hartley. In fact, you should be commended. Most Engineers would have taken a considerable amount of time to correct this problem, after a great many tests and diagnostics. That time likely would have been far too great, resulting in significant damage to the Sentinel. I will be sure to put in a special word for you in my log later tonight, and you and your father will get special commendations from Starfleet. Now, up you go," he said, picking up the young man from the seat, and quickly locking out the sub-system. "What say you join us on the rest of our tour?"

Chris nodded. "Sure. I know the ship is experimental," Chris replied, with a small smile. William felt relief; it had been a while since Chris had smiled properly like that.

"Okay, so, let's start here then, in main engineering," William suggested, placing a hand on Chris's shoulder. "I'm proud of you, son, and I guess I need to give you harder problems to solve at home," he said, smiling.

"Be sure that you do, Commander," Bane said. "That is an order, Commander." Bane was using his command voice, and for the first time since Bane knew William, he outranked the Engineer. "Young Mister Hartley here could be Chief Engineer of this ship someday. Heck, if I have anything to say about it, based on this performance today, and giving him a much more stringent course of study, he will be Chief Engineer on any ship I ever serve on." He then looked at Chris, smiled and winked. "I have high expectations of you, Young Mister Hartley."

Chris nodded. "Don't worry, I'll make sure I prove myself," Chris said. "I appreciate the challenge," he added.

William smiled. "Well, we'll see once I get you the study materials," William said. "And yeah, I just remember, you outrank me now Plase," William said, using his friend's first name.

"Dad, you've never given me anything challenging," Chris said. "I mean, I tried to tell you, but you didn't understand it."

"Oh, is that a challenge?" William asked, smirking.


OFF

A JP between:

William Hartley, Commander
Utopia Planetia, Sentinel Project Chief

&

Chris Hartley, 10 Years old

&

Bane Plase, Captain
USS Sentinel, Commanding

 

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