"Ending With a Bang"
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Stardate: 60333.1900
The USS HATHOR, despite its smaller size compared to most other ships in Starfleet, had proven to be as sturdy as any of the other ship's the Oltharian giant had ever serve on. Even with all available power shunted into the transporter systems, the ship had not shown any difficulties in keeping up with the comet as it drew ever closer to its final destination.
The sensor-testing portion of the shakedown cruise had quickly turned into a full salvage operation with the history of an entire civilization hanging in the balance. Knowing the importance of safekeeping the knowledge and wisdom of the past, the Oltharian had been driven to see each and every crystal contained within the comet be brought safely onboard before it was too
late. The task had been demanding to say the least but thanks to the dedication and zeal of the crew, the insurmountable job had been transformed into almost routine, placing the conclusion of their efforts well within range.
"Commander," Lieutenant Dawson called out, still referring to the Oltharian Lieutenant Junior Grade by the rank the ANUBIS' CEO had first known Elan by. "The buffers in transporter room 1 are starting to show signs of fatigue. The buffers are normally cleansed after every 20 transports, but
because of our rush to get these crystals onboard the buffers have gone through at least five times that amount."
"Taking the transporters off-line will back us up by a minimum of two
hours," the Oltharian noted as he glanced over the engineering consol
at the man who actually held a higher rank than he.
"I can have all of the buffers cleansed and refurbished to near-mint condition in one hour," Dawson stated sounding very confident in his ability to do as he had claimed.
"A single hour's delay would allow us to get all of the crystals onboard and still retreat the HATHOR to a safe distance before the comet crashes into SENMAAR II," the Oltharian engineering officer nodded, glad to see that David had not lost his enthusiasm in the performing of his work.
"There is one problem though," the ANUBIS' CEO added in all seriousness
making the Oltharian giant wonder if there had been something that he
had missed. "In order to get the job done in one hour, I am going to need
to be in two places at once," David explained gradually relaxing his
seriousness as he spoke.
"Or you could use another set of hands on the transporter buffers of the other room," Elan added having figured out where the Lieutenant's line of thoughts had been going. Within seconds the Oltharian had reached down for one of the engineering kits located beneath the consol and had joined David on their way out of Main Engineering.
--==(/\)==--
"How is everything going?" Doctor Summers asked as she stepped into the
small room which housed the second of the HATHOR's transporter systems.
"The cleansing of the buffers is proceeding on schedule," the Oltharian replied stopping his work just long enough to show proper respect to the Healer. "Thanks to the assistance and expertise of Lieutenant Dawson we will have everything back to full operating status well in time to finish the beam-out of the crystals."
"That is good news," the woman said, the tone of her voice giving a faint hint that her thoughts had been on an entirely different matter. "It would be a shame to not be able to save the work and thoughts of those people," Lieutenant Summers added as she sat down on the steps leading to the transporter platform, in plain view of the working engineer.
"Please forgive my rudeness Healer," Elan said as he cast his eyes
down, "but is there something wrong? Something that I may be of assistance
with?"
"No," the Chief Medical Officer replied almost before the giant had finished asking his question. Some time later though the certainty of the Healer's answer vanished as she amended her reply, "well maybe yes. It's about David, we had a talk earlier and…"
Elan stopped the woman from continuing by raising a gentle hand up. "I
need not hear more, and I am sure that whatever concerns you have for David
are well meant but I can assure you that he is fine."
"How can you be certain?" Doctor Summers asked, looking onto the giant
who appeared much less intimidating thanks to his having been sitting on
the floor of the transporter platform.
"Because as we speak he is hard at work in Transporter Room 1," the
engineering officer explained with a knowing smile. "As a Healer would
you not be able to tell if another Healer was troubled by something?"
Lea nodded, hoping that she would know her own staff well enough to
recognise that there was something wrong should there actually was.
"Well, as an engineer I can assure you that David did not walk into that room with the idea that he would escape from his problems," the Oltharian explained. "His mind was as focussed as could be and because of my having observed this, I can vouch for his state of mind. Whatever was bothering him, if there actually was something, has been dealt with to his satisfaction allowing Lieutenant Dawson to carry on with his duties unhindered."
The Healer smiled as if a large burden had been lifted from her
shoulders. "Thank you Elan, now I have to go and find Susan."
"Why is that?" The Engineer asked perplexed.
"Because I have to warn her that she has competition in the field of counselling," the Chief Medical Officer said in a teasing manner as she stood up and left the Engineer to his work.
--==(/\)==--
Lieutenant Junior Grade Elan Talak Fairborn 2005 post #600
Setting: USS HATHOR, Main Engineering
Stardate: 60333.1915
Setting: USS HATHOR, Transporter Room 2
Francois Charette {f_charette@hotmail.com}
Robotics Engineering Officer
NEW ALEXANDRIA
&
Chief Engineering Officer
USS HATHOR
