Just Engineers

Posted on 2024, Wed Nov 13th, @ 11:04am by Admiral Kate Harlow & Senior Chief Petty Officer Larry Lamontagne

1,418 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: E1 "Shadows of the Empire"
Location: Sub-Commander in Cheif Office, Space Dock, Earth
Timeline: 1 Hour Before Mass Voyager Crew Meeting Meeting

Kate sat at her desk, organizing a few notes as she waited for the two crewmen to arrive. She had been the chief designer and overseer of the Lamarr class during its construction, and she knew they were among the first assigned to the newly commissioned USS Voyager-A, a Lamarr-class vessel that had drawn the attention of many in the fleet due to its advanced design and capabilities. It intrigued her, and she wanted to hear firsthand accounts from those who had experienced the ship.

Larry entered.

"At ease," Kate said, motioning for them to sit. "I understand you've both had the opportunity to serve aboard the USS Voyager-A. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the Lamarr class. How does she handled there in the field?"

Larry grabbed one of his many P.a.d.d's that he was trying to keep control of, then spoke. "The gravic plated lining of the cetacean's lab, cross pods, and transit tubes were having problems with the Nav station Interface. We have two different watches that do nothing but supervise the computer tweaking the fields to compensate for the inertial mass of the pools and creatures in that environment. We have had three situations that involved a human getting thrown into the pool, computer equipment going for a swim, or one of the Cetaceans going for a walk. The equipment was soon replaced, and the personal force field for the Cetaceans has since been upgraded. The Catacean involved said [It was a stimulating experience, but he/she/they/them did not want to repeat it.]

"Noted, The gravic plated lining was a worry when we first designed the class, it really closely resembles the Sovereign class, but the class is not mean't for a war or even major space battles, yea it has the durability of a war ship but most ships after 2380's are, The Lamarr class was built for science and exploration" Kate replied.

Larry said, "The next thing was the Integrated holographic projector system throughout the ship, Origin system Installation only covered 59% of the Ship. All vital areas, damage control stations/equipment were covered. The downside was that not all areas reachable by humans were covered. Three system upgrades and modifications have taken place, but four more are still being implemented by Star Fleet Corps of Engineering. We are scheduled to have an engineering team perform a ship alteration for this system next month. This upgrade will fix several known issues and interference reports with decks 6, 8, and the main one is Deck 13 having problems with sensor data being corrupted...

Kate hovered her hand over a nearby replicator built into the desk and a glass of water appeared, she picked in up and took a sip and put it back. "I will get in touch with the Corps at Plantia, With this being the first Lamarr class its sort of a testing ground, Arksen shipyards at Valt is being refitted and added onto to be able to refit the biggest ship in the Guardian task force, the Halo as we speak, Which means the Voyager should and will be able to get any refits, minor or major completed at Valt instead of heading back to earth or even Plantia." Harlow replied as she typed in the notes padd on her desk.

"Ships of this class were equipped with bio-molecular weapons, isokinetic cannons, nuclear missiles, phase cannons, phased plasma torpedoes, phasers, photon torpedoes, polaron torpedoes, spatial torpedoes, quantum torpedoes, tetryon cannon, and tricobalt devices." Larry continued.

"Yes, Our Chief Weapons Technician made the choice for that, which I finally approved after he gave me hours of slide shows and talks, and if not blowing up my inbox and making countless visits to my office on the other side of Plantia, His reason was basically, Was after Frontier Day, Star Fleet and the Federation Enemies might take advantage of our weakness and attack any Exploration vessels, So within the last few months of construction I approved and he begun the process of adding the weapon systems"

Larry asked, "When will the Installs happen, with the upgrade planning vs our deployment schedule, it looks tight."

"It Depends on When you all return from the Mission I will be assigning after this meeting" Kate replied.

Larry thought for a second, then said, "Well schedules are flexible. The Engineering teams have been deployed and worked while the ship was deployed before. This is why they make the big bucks!"

"For this mission I don't want Engineers installing new or upgrading the Ships tech, Not with the Visitors that will be on the ship. Now I want to ask, I'm looking for a Engineer of any rank to lead a new development project that's gonna be at Utopia, I need someone who is willing to work away from it and still work and maintain duties on the ship or duty station they are assigned, Would you, Larry, be interested? It would involve a promotion, And it would not be a small promotion, Most likely it would be right to the top of the Enlisted ranks, Of Master Chief Petty officer or Chief Petty Officer"

Kate stood and walked around the desk and sat on the edge near Larry's seat. "If you take the spot, You won't have to worry about it till you're back from the Science mission I have for Voyager"


Lary shuddered, thinking about all that extra work he would have to do in addition to whatever project that he was about to get. He said, "Yes, mam, just don't promote me too high. I will never get any work done! I have noticed, the higher the rank, the less sleep they get due to the mountain of paperwork and chores that come with the aforementioned rank. Also notice the higher the rank, the later in the day they leave on liberty or shore leave! But i can understand not wanting to rock the boat and taking systems off line mid-mission...But yes I will be your loose cannon, wrench in the works, and or spreader of chaos!"

Kate laughed. "Most likely it would be to the top of the Enlisted Ranks, Either Command Master Chief, Or Master Chief, But with that said, You don't want a Officer rank, Which is where most the paper work goes, Trust me I know, So We will keep it at Chief Petty Officer, Hows that sound?" Harlow asked Larry

"Ummm... Yes, Mam," Larry said, shaking his head. Of all the luck, being efficient enough was okay, but being noticed doing it was worse. "This is why you make the big Bucks? Do you ever get liberty? Will I?" Gone were his plans of taking two weeks time off to explore several interesting Nebulas. But he had to try to find the Bright side of things. There had to be one.


Kate could see some hesitation in his response. "If you want Petty Officer, Wait before giving me a choice, Do something you enjoy for a bit before making the choice, But as of now..." Kate reached behind her desk and pulled out a box. "Your now Your Senior Chief Petty Officer, Congrats" Kate told Larry as she passed the box over to him. Inside was the brand new rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer. "The rank was something I already planned on giving, Just added little extra to it" Kate said with a smile and wink.

Larry look at the symbol of all that work , blood , sweat and hopefully few to nor tears. "Yes, mam." Larry said as he gingerly took that box, like it was just waiting to bite him. "Ill go get new uniforms from the Quartermaster. Right Away" Forcing a smile, Larry came to attention and rendered a smart salute> "Permission to be dismissed?" Larry kept a neutral face ans the words No good deed goes unpunished jumped in his head. He wondered what he did to garner this much attention... It must have been bad, or he was spectacularay unlucky.

"Your Dismissed, Congrats" Kate then walked back to her desk and pulled up something and quickly sent it to Larry's PAdd. "I just sent the original design for the Lamarr class, it was a mix between Sovereign, Intrepid and the Mark III Constitution class, But the final design was current one."


Look looked down at the data packet, that downloaded to his Padd. "I will need a bigger Tablet... Much bigger indeed!"


Kate laughed. "I will see you around Petty officer"

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