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Posted on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 @ 7:37am by Commodore Andrew Clifford

769 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Mission 84 - Blockade
Location: SB 400
Timeline: Return from recovery mission + 24 hours.

OFF: I had started to write this, so I'll post it anyway.

ON:
Instead of leaving the Vanguard with everyone else, Andrew had decided to remain aboard for another 24 hours. It gave him the opportunity to refamiliarise himself with the Sovereign class starship, and allowed him to avoid having to find anywhere else to stay while his quarters on the Starbase were being maintained. He has been having trouble with the computer controls for well over a month now and as soon as he boarded the Vanguard for the previous mission he turned the place over to the base engineers to sort it all out once and for all.

Before leaving the Vanguard he tapped his comm badge, "Clifford to base engineering"

Ensign Williams here, Sir. How can I help? \>

"Just checking on the work in my quarters, Ensign", Andrew was impressed by the speed of the reply.

Just checking, Sir... All sorted, Sir. It was a flaulty module in the command processor. \>

Andrew was releaved, he was a bit concerned that this would be one of those intermittent faults that never happened when it was being investigated. "Excellent, Ensign. Hopefully I'll get some uninterupted sleep again. Clifford out". The thought of having the lights coming full on again, in the middle of his sleep cycle, did not appeal.

Understood Sir, Engineering out \>

With that job sorted he gathered up his gear and headed off ship towards the base. As he walked down the boarding ramp he paused to look out of one of the viewing ports. From here he could see halfway across the docking area. Not far away from the Vanguard he could see the Kearsage and the Avenger, both with sections of the upper primary hull removed as the phasers were being upgraded. He continued scan across the ships docked and in the very distacne he could make out the engineering hull of his next port of call, the USS Princeton. With luck the work on the comupter systems should be drawing to a close and his own project of getting the old ship up to warp 8 could begin. Metal note to self, call meeting with Commander Coleman et al, to decide on the best way forward.

He reluctantly moved away from the view port and continued onto the docking ring. From there he walked the half mile to the Princeton. Again using the boarding ramp instead of being beamed aboard, he walked up to the security guard, who attempted to pipe him aboard. He looked at the guard and his expression said all it need to. The guard lowered the whistle from his mouth without blowing a note.

Andrew Smiled, "At ease, you know who I am and you know how I feel about pomp and ceremony for the sake of it."

The guard smiled back, "Yes Sir, but I don't get to pipe many people aboard and it is nice to be able to now and again."

Andrew smiled as he continued walking, "Don't worry you can pipe us all aboard when we relaunch the old girl back in to active service." With that he left the guard to his post and heading towards the engineering decks. The first thing that struck him as he walked through the ship was the number of panels that had been replaced since his last visit. The place was looking like it was getting back together. The bridge, however, still looked like a battlefield. There were more panels open than closed and each one had an engineer buried deep with in it.

He called out, "Who's in charge here?"

A figure looked up from the panel she was working on, "I am, who's ask.....? sorry Sir."

Andrew walked over to her. "Not a problem, Lt. How's the work progressing?"

The Lt. stood up and straightened her uniform, "Ship wide we are a head of schedule, the bridge interfaces are proving more problematic, Sir. Overall we should still finish on time."

Andrew looked into the panel she was working on, "Ok,thanks for that." he paused deep in thought, "Are you able to spare any engineers for another task, or will that slow the work down?"

She looked around the bridge, "It would be tight but we could probably spare a couple of bodies if it was urgent, Sir."

Andrew shook his head, "No, get this work completed and then we'll see about any additional work that is required."

The Lt. went back to work and Andrew left them to it. The bridge looked a mess but he was sure it would be ok when the launch date arrived.

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