Engineering Arrangement

Posted on Tue Sep 23rd, 2025 @ 2:27pm by Captain Calypso Skyie & Tessa di'Orion & Lieutenant Trey Fletcher

Mission: A Princess Of Tial
Location: Main Engineering

A red Command uniform was what caused the main engineering room door to open, but it was followed by an elegant blonde wearing a gown of red and white that flowed around it's wearer, and a golden necklace of a half-fallen sun, or half-risen depending on how one looked at it, around her throat, which looked out of place on board the ship. Peeking out through the folds of the gown on the left was the hilt of a weapon as the Captain was speaking. "And this is Main Engineering, where our warp core that provides us with all of our power is. A Matter and Anti-matter annihilation reaction, which any of our engineers could better explain."

The other woman, also blonde and the same height as the Captain smiled broadly. "Now this is my area of true interest, being what you would call an engineer. I met a charming pair of young ladies on the planet of yours, so I must presume the person they said was their senior officer is still on board?"

Trey had noticed the duo enter and paused his diagnostic. He secured his toolkit and put it aside before coming around from one of the computer stations and approaching the pair. "Captain...." he said, hesitantly. He nodded to the guest. "Ma'am," he said. "How can I help you?"

Calypso spoke first, waving to the engineer. "Her Grace would like to take a tour of engineering if at all possible. She's a priestess of Skull'a'Dea, is it?" She got a regal nod from the Tialan. "And that's their engineering deity, or whatever is close enough to it." She turned to Sera. "I'd like to introduce Lieutenant Trey Fletcher, our Chief Engineer. I'll leave you in his hands for this portion while I go grab a cup of something to drink. Lieutenant, you can cooperate fully with Her Grace, consider her with 'need to know' privileges." She fixed him with a glare, still not over with how they'd met.

Before he could get any word in, the Tialan woman extended a hand in a very human greeting with a smile. "The pleasure is mine, Milord."

Trey looked surprised but then gave her a smile. "I would respectfully disagree, Ma'am," he said, politely. "But if you would follow me, I'd be happy to show you around. Is there anything you wish to see first?"

"I'm at your mercy, Milord." Sera gave a sweeping gesture, "As Lady Skyie said, I am an engineer myself and while our best technology is primitive in comparison to yours, I can tell you that I'm interested in anything you would be willing to show me. Most especially how you can afford to power a ship this size and with such delights as the holodeck and weaponry that I've seen. We're working with high efficiency fusion right now, but it still limits us to your equivalent of warp four and laser arrays that apparently won't even pierce your navigational shielding."

"Well, part of our solution is a diversified power generation structure," Trey said. "We rely on several interrelated power sources, some of which power main systems, some power secondary systems. Our MARC--Matter/Antimatter Reaction Chamber--supplies the bulk of our power needs, including our warp engines. We use deuterium-fueled impulse engines for sub-warp travel needs, as well as auxiliary fusion reactors to power secondary and tertiary systems across the ship. While those may not power the warp core, they can be more versatile when not at warp and offer more options in a ship-wide emergency." And of course, we have battery backups to store emergency power as needed."

He took her around the base of the warp core, pointing out the various components and how they work to generate power. He also showed her a tray of dilithium crystals that were in the process of recrystallization.

"We have yet to master the creation of antimatter, nor even to successfully store it." Sera admitted, "We can create it under controlled off-world circumstances, even keep it for a few minutes or hours in a magnetic containment field like we use for our fusion power. There seems to be no limit for you and your people when it comes to mastering it." The wonder in her voice was obvious, "I would say we are at least several decades from being able to create something like this, unless you would be willing to provide technical manuals for us. Of course, the ability to make the precursors for what we'd need may still be beyond us as well." She laughed.

"We would need to see what technology your people have of course," Trey said. "I'm sure we could give you some tips on how to develop your own antimatter technology. If you can manufacture it off-world, you could begin with some low-level projects and work your way up."

"I'm certain that by now you have been provided with technical specifications of our own ships and weapons, if your sensors are as advanced as I expect them to be over ours. Would you be willing to give me your opinions on our current level in regards to how we would fare out in the great wide galaxy? We do still rely on missiles and shells in some of our better weaponry, but that's intentional." Sera stated as a partial answer to her own question, but was still interested in an outside view.

Trey shrugged. "Old school weapons like missiles wouldn't do nearly as much damage as our weapons. Energy weapons are preferred but that requires power generation that like you said you aren't doing yet. Not to mention the ability of other species to fire at you means you would need stronger shields than you can create right now. If it all comes down to power, then focus on that. No one goes into space with weapons first. Communications, power generation then shields then weapons. Conquer in that order. Engineering is all about procedure or so my professors told me" he said smiling.

“We do, but that comes with our experiences.” Sera made a gesture to the side, “We were but fledglings in space when they first came and destroyed our first ventures into orbit. After they left, we tried again, but eighty years after that they returned, tried to take captives when we fought back, but we knew already not to allow that. They tried to invade us on the ground but were destroyed when they did. This time they stayed in orbit for two months before leaving, making more attempts to invade.” Sera’s eyes met Trey’s, “They will return again and we will be as ready as we can when they do, so we go up there with weapons first.”

Trey frowned. "Who is 'they'?" he said, concerned. "If there are hostiles nearby you should probably tell the Captain."

“We don’t know where they came from, we don’t know where they went, these amalgamations of creatures and machines.” Sera shook her head, “The first time it was a small craft,” She sketched it in the air, roughly, “Likely a scouting vessel, but we had little in space and nothing to fight back with. It destroyed what we had and departed after a few days and a single attempt to land and then deploy their people. The second time, they came in a spherical ship and we greeted then, only for them to destroy one of the ships outright and attempt to capture the other. From the first we knew they desired our capture, so we decided it should never happen. They came down to our world several times, but we cut them down or they broke down, then they left. They called themselves ‘The Borg.’”

The color immediately drained from Trey's face. "The Borg?"

"You've met them as well," Sera said, noting his reaction.

"Yes, Ma'am," Trey said. "If you'll excuse me, I should report this immediately."

"They are not around the corner." Sera stated as if she knew precisely what she was talking about, "Even they are required to pass through the asteroid shell at one of several known locations. We had several minutes warning when you arrived." Sera gave him a smile. "Besides, Lord Fletcher, perhaps you can assist us with another issue that our fleet units have: we can only transmit by voice, plus our sensors don't have video capability. I know that makes us seem backwards, but we haven't been able to crack that particular code."

Trey stood nervous. Minutes of warning was both a lot and nothing at all. Still it wasn't like the ship had noticed them nearby when they arrived. "Right...sensors," he said. "Let me show you our sensor array. We can see if we can adapt any of the setup with your technology." He tapped his combadge. "Fletcher to Romany."

"Romany." The voice answered tersely.

"Please meet me at the primary sensor control on Deck 9," Trey said. "Our guest would like to see about upgrading their sensors."

"Yes, sir, will be there in five minutes." He cut the comm, straight to the point.

Trey gestured to the turbolift door. "If you'll come with me, Ma'am?" he said.

"Of course, Milord." Sera gathered the gown as she stepped inside the turbolift, "I'm sure that with your assistance, we will be able to defend ourselves much better."

"Fortunately for you you're in good hands," Trey said. "This is the finest engineering crew in Starfleet." He led her to the door and out of Engineering.