Heart of the Ship

Posted on Mon Nov 6th, 2023 @ 12:10am by Lieutenant Barbax

419 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Short Treks
Location: Engineering, USS Pegasus

Main Engineering aboard the Pegasus was far from what Lieutenant Barbax had expected. While most Engine Rooms aboard a Starfleet vessel were mammoth rooms filled with people and workstations, the Engine Room of the Pegasus was a quarter the size of its contemporaries. Dome shaped, the Engine Room featured a single entry that led directly to a metal staircase that took a user to the platform containing the Slipstream Core. While one of the most complicated forms of propulsion known to the Federation, the Slipstream Drive itself looked relatively simplistic when first viewed. A transparisteel reactor housing showed an incredible maelstrom of energy inside that powered the Drive systems. Three workstations were directly attached to a protective railing while a large Master Display showed a schematic of the Sovereign II Class vessel on the bulkhead wall. Two additional workstations faced the Drive, with the starboard console assigned to the Chief Engineer.

The Denobulan spoke, "I expected something... bigger."

Standing behind Blake scratched his neck taking in the room around them. Barbax had echoed his thoughts exactly - it was almost alien walking into main engineering to find it so small and lacking in personnel in comparisons to the traditional set up. He looked over to Ash whom unlike everyone else knew the Pegasus and her Slipstream on a very intermate level: "I would assume this is normal, right?" he asked.

Ash nodded. "Yep, this is normal." The Chief Engineer replied and grinned, widely. "I deeply enjoyed being Chief Engineer and then XO of this ship." She continued while staring up at the Slip stream core. "She's been places no other ship has gone since or, likely, will ever go again and is, at her core, a War Ship. The amenities on board will drive that home, very, quickly." Ash advised and headed the direction of what looked like a utility closet. "If things haven't changed, this is the Chief Engineers 'Office'." Ash announced, making, air quotes, with her fingers on the word office and nodded to herself as the door slid open to reveal a 2x3m room with something akin to a work space and a couple shelves. "My old shoe box with room for only one shoe." She mused, aloud.

Barbax shrugged, "I still expected something bigger." He walked over to one of the railing mounted computer consoles and logged in, checking the information that the computer terminal was sharing. "At least our command codes have been transferred over. That's a start."

And they got to work.

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