Downtime

Posted on Wed Mar 1st, 2023 @ 8:40am by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Chief Petty Officer Charles Stephens Jr. & Petty Officer 3rd Class Keith Potter
Edited on on Sat Mar 4th, 2023 @ 4:51pm

1,246 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Prelude to Rebirth
Location: Main Transporter Room
Timeline: 01 August 2395

[ON]

Potter loved having the ship in refit dock. First, there was nobody around, asking him to beam them here or emergency beam them back. And the bridge definitely wasn't yelling at him about how important or dangerous so-and-so thing was. Besides the engineers, Potter was almost entirely alone on the ship. And since the engineers didn't trust the ship's systems yet, they had absolutely no use for him. That meant that he could simply put the transporter system in auto-deny mode and be free to do whatever he wanted. It was almost as good as when he'd been stuck in that prison.

The difference was that he could transport himself anywhere he wanted. So he slept on board the ship and then picked a different place each day on Earth and went sightseeing, all without using any of his leave. He had free reign of the food that Kalstri had left behind and the holodeck was there for when he needed some spicy action. In effect, he was living a perfect life with zero stress.

The only fly in his ointment is that occasionally the engineers did need to use the transporter. He would receive a notice of an auto denial, transport himself immediately to the transporter room, and explain that it was probably a power surge in the main transport coupling from all the repairs and definitely not his fault. Then he'd transport them wherever and start the whole thing over again.

He'd moved a cot into the transporter room and often slept in it to save time. Potter didn't care what the rack felt like as long as he could sleep. And so he did.

Charles had a short but good trip to Earth. He was anxious to get back to Empok Nor. It really had become his home away from home. He had one last thing to do and that was check in on the refit. He had seen quite a few transporter flags come across the system he wanted to get eyes on the issue and make sure it was being taken care of.

Charles appeared on the transporter PADD and immediately had the most confused look on his face. There was no transporter tech behind the desk and there was someone curled up on a cot in the corner of the room. He looked around to see if this was really all that was there. After clearing the room he quietly stepped off the pad and made his way to the console. He punched in some commands and was glad his codes still worked. All of a sudden the lights in the transporter room went red and the alarm started to sound.

The chief component of Keith Potter's psyche was a basic primal urge to preserve his life at all costs. He shot up out of the cot, knocking it over as he did so, sending it clattering across the floor and into the wall. He grabbed at where his phaser should have been but wasn't, settled into a poorly executed martial arts stance, and spun in a circle so fast that he slipped and fell, landing on his backside.

His breathing was ragged as his brain finally caught up to what he was seeing and hearing. "Uhh, what the hell?!"

"So you concur with my sentiment when I arrived and found the post abandoned and a hobo sleeping in the corner," Charles said with a mixture of authority and sass. "So what the hell, Chief?"

"Shit," Potter said and struggled to his feet. "Come on CPO! You can't tell me you never bent the rules when you were stuck on the crap duty assignments. I got called back way earlier than everyone else, even the captain. Why? Because those refit engineers couldn't be bothered to beam themselves and their junk on and off the ship. It isn't that hard! A hydraxian clogle could do this job. Push the toggles up. And then I sit here for hours with annoying officers making me do stuff that is NOT my job. So, yeah, I admit it. I am a hobo sleeping in the corner sometimes."

"Well if you feel your time isn't being utilized properly maybe we can get you reassigned to working at HQ where you kept very busy and never have any downtime." The sass had left his voice. "You have a job to do, you are expected to do it. I didn't want to go through the remedial command classes but I showed up and took pride in my job.:

He walked over to help right the overturned cot. "I am here because daily reports have shown multiple and I mean multiple transporter auto-deny flags. Which leads me to believe we have a transporter issue that is going unchecked, or we have a personnel issue. Which is it Chief?"

Potter's brain processed everything the CPO said and the implications faster than anyone would have thought him capable. He quickly calculated which response would lead to the least trouble and the least amount of work.

"Well, Chief Stephens, the reality is that there have been some issues with the transporter. And normally I'd have resolved them myself but there was nobody to relieve me and Chief Harlan is... well he's Chief Harlan and I think that's enough said. So while I would have liked to fix the hardware issues, I couldn't responsibly leave my post when the ship's repair schedule could have been affected."

"Well, I will talk with Chief Harlan and also with spacedock personnel to ensure you are rotated on a normal shift schedule so you don't find it necessary to make yourself at home when you are assigned a post and a job to do. Then with yourself well rested you may find the time to pitch in a ensure we don't have any more issues before the refit is complete. If I see further notices I will have all transporter logs turned over to SFI and have my friends there ensure there is no funny business going on." He finally took a breath. "With the tensions with the Maquis and all I would hate to have the ship being sabotaged."

Potter thought about what the Chief had just said for a second before replying. He knew that Chief Harlan was a hard-charging engineer and would probably find things for him to do that he didn't want to do. But on the other hand, there were a lot of places to hide on the ship. He'd done a thorough job finding them for situations just like this.

"Aye, aye, chief!" He said. "I'll be glad to help Mr. Harlan anyway I can. And you don't have to worry, the transporter will be completely operational." He stood up straight, almost at attention but not quite. "Is there anything else I can do, chief?"

"Let's get the cot stowed and make this area look like the workstation it is intended to be." He said as he strode out of the Transporter room. Charles figured if he was here he should get a look at some of the work being done to the old girl.

[OFF]

Chief Petty Officer Charles Stephens JR
Chief of Boat
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Petty Officer Third Class Keith Potter (NPC by Llwyedd)
Transporter Specialist

 

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