The Tiburon

Posted on Wed Mar 28th, 2018 @ 4:32pm by Second Mate Quinton Beck & MERCHANT RANKS Fala Gaz (NPC) & Master Steward Othor Jaxz Ghost of the Second Star
Edited on on Thu Apr 12th, 2018 @ 4:10am

3,775 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Meanwhile...
Location: Second Star Hangar Deck
Timeline: Current Mission

-Start-

{Advanced Starship Design Bureau- Mars}

The cloaking device worked fine, that wasn't the problem.

"If I hear one more word of the Treaty of Algeron... it's dead man, the signing party blew up with the Hobus Supernova. Put the cloak on there, apply phase shifting manifolds and let's call her done!"

Aidan Kryscinski was the latest and greatest of the Daystrom crowd for Advanced Starship Design, this whole fleet lay at his fingertips but his last month saw him retrofitting some thrice blasted to hell derelict with rare and advanced systems. The damned ship wasn't even here, but rather he had to remotely manage a work site all the way across the quadrant to blinking Talar! He knew an Intelligence vehicle when he saw one. The sooner it was out of his office and no longer bringing him trouble the better. His counterpart was Srivaam Pandinthaani, otherwise known as "The Hobgoblin" For his insights into Romulan technology and also a royal pain in the ass.

Case in point, this useless debate about a dead treaty beating a dead horse in redundancy.

"No, the Klingons are still signatories-"

"To hell with the legalities Soo, Its 2800 and I'm going home, we don't need to go back to the drawing boards over a technicality which won't ever come to light-"

"All I'm saying is we can avoid the whole problem by using Kraylor tech."

"Except that cloak is easily pierced under a Polaron beam."

"Would have to know they are there first."

And another full circle in logic brought them back where they started an hour ago. Really it had started two days ago when Intelligence gave him this inane project, a series of secrets wrapped in tinplate.

"I'm making an executive decision then. Do whatever you want, I'm going home."

Aidan signed off on the duty log, completing his shift. He would be coming back in five hours anyway, but the transporter would have him home and in bed within twenty minutes. This bundle of joy had cost him too many nights away from home, what were they thinking?

Two dozen alien techs repurposed and reverse engineered into this prototype. If it was successful they planned on making a hundred more, but Quantum Singularity drives coupled with Breen energy matrices created so many problems to overcome he felt like the father of a new science. This ship they had found... who built it and why? Even before his tech was put in this spycraft was capable of the impossible.

He heard another group of techs in debate as well,

"...The fusillade deflector is freaking Cardassian, but the Grid projection is coded for Federation standard, I can't get the syncopy under eight percent..."

Aidan smiled, this was a problem he could solve.
"The Corps of Engineers had several resplendent algorithms to macro sweep the coding from Cardassian Para-Unicode to Federation BASICII. Deep Space Nine may have them still running in their system if you wish, you can have them send you their tables."

No good deed went unpunished, he became engaged again for several minutes, enough for Srivaam to chase him down.

"Beta Team reported in, Warp trials failed past 8.6, like I told you, there is no way to compress the warp field without causing failures while running anti-tachyons through parallel nacelles. We must consider the singular Nacelle-"

Aidan didnt care, this was a problem he had already relegated to tomorrow so he cut his colleague off again,

"-Tomorrow! Soo... please."

The old man pulled his lab coat off and put it on the wall peg as he left the office and all its problems behind. He was only eighty one years of age, but after this last week, that felt old, really old. He rounded the bending corridor to the transporter room only to find further dismay.

"Out of order during final build due to interference with Instrumentation. Please refer to the Transporter in the Replimat on Deck 4."

Aidan sighed, defeated because he knew what was coming next.

Srivaam caught up to him, "Oh, good!..."
***


{Second Star Hangar Bay- Current Mission Timeline}

Doral Rivinn ran a tight hangar deck, with the primary Hangar being exactly large enough for the Tiburon, and little else he didn't have much to do. Multiple struts and IDF fields would keep the ship in constant ready launch status, and they had just strung a series of Pattern Enhancers to allow site to site transport directly to the vessel gantry. Now came the frantic scurrying to clear the deck of the debris from the last three days of rebuilding the deck to accomodate.

"PMC's due in five, berth arrival imminent at 2500. That's in eight minutes fellas!" Doral called from the Shuttle Overwatch office, His Tellarite bellow echoing in the cavernous space. Coordinating traffic for the other shuttlebay as well, Work Bees dotted the air traffic grid aft of them and he had to clear them to make room.

Vicente Escudero piped over the comm,
=0=Bridge to Shuttlebay. Confirmation Tiburon inbound within 15 minutes. Captain notified yet?

"Snap!" Derrick exclaimed suddenly, he had forgotten how long it took from the bridge to the shuttle bay, it took almost a half hour sometimes.

=0=No sir, I'm a little busy if you don't mind letting them know.

Judah materialized in the hangar overwatch office next to Derrick. "How can I help, Vicente sent me?"

Judah also materialized elsewhere on the ship, letting the Command officers know to assemble, he was talented like that. His multiple projections were a new innovation he was working on, the applications were endless. Now he could help them clear and run the final safety checks.

=0= Rivinn to Avor...
Waiting for a reply from Avor he glanced at Judah to say, "Coordinate the flight patterns of the workbees to stow as many as possible in SB2, the rest will have to be decoupled and stored inside the Tiburon."

"Aye Aye!" Judah ran off, leaving Doral behind to his misery.

=0= Avor here, little busy?

Doral didn't care, he knew Avor well enough in the short time to know he wanted to be there when this ship returned.

=0= Your ship... is coming soon. Thought you'd like to be here.

There was silence for a moment, Doral hated to be in a rush, but Avor spoke soon enough.

"We will be there."

***

{Main Hangar deck}

The room fell silent as Doral called over the speaker, "Tiburon inbound, Captain to the Hangar!" Up in the master control room, he saw the Hangar clear within seconds, the berth ready

"Captain is right here, thanks." Quinton Beck was beneath the Control room on the hangar deck itself. Admiral Ferrell was there too. The men had just come from one of the many hearings to be had on this ship and the Second Star herself. Seeing his old ship revived and repurposed was a morale boost sorely needed, Ferrell had seen to the recess.

"Alan was an amoral scoundrel...." The admiral loved his own speaking voice, Quinton had ignored much of the content but that got his attention.

"He married your sister."

Most were too busy to notice the two men having words. The deck was somewhat clear still as the notice was last minute. Still, most of Engineering was able to make their way to see it. N'tach and Christopher Callahan arrived separately, though they seemed perfectly amicable with one another.

"Yes... well at any rate I hope this is rebranding for you. You have done more than he ever could."

The deck crew stood and watched the cavernous doors open behind the massive overwatch bay windows. The ancient hangar bay had been repaired but the doors and mechanisms were still the original parts and nearly two hundred years old. One bay door swung open as it should, bu the other clearly ground against itself as it sputtered into its open position.

Quinton was in awe, the approaching sprite took form in his heart before his eyes could see it clear.

Then, with only the inside of the Starbase to look at, a sliver appeared, growing as the distance across the shuttlebay closed. It still looked much like an Icarus class escort, but compressed into a fearsome form, no extras.

They played a guessing game with what they could see.

Lid'a was first to venture a guess, "Check out the baffle design over the plasma exhaust systems... it cloaks!"

Another ops tech replied, "The Deflector look like it's half the secondary hull, I think you're right, but how?"

Vicente furrowed his brow, "Where are the engines?"

Christopher Callahan answered, "Its a singular Nacelle variant arrayed cross the aft anterior... no wait... its dipolar spiromagnetic so its split variant in a helical arrangement...?" He squinted, looking at the vessel on approach.

Kas smiled in recognition, the Ferengi used this variant and it could be fast as hell. "Good eyes. That is a Quantum Impeller drive. Currently coupled to quadruple Impulse manifolds, baffled and routed to Stealth systems, those systems were native to the original vessel-"

Avor was excited, "Look at the laser etchings, it lets us choose how we want to look to scans." Avor had been trying to scan deeply but it made no sense. Their old Stealth systems left a void in scanners, and now this new system replaced void with a controlled return. "If I didnt see it with my eyes I wouldn't know it was here."

N'tach finally answered everyone's questions."A mission vehicle, suited for any purpose."

As attention was garnered Ferrell introduced his gift to the crew. "She comes with Holographic stealth paneling, biological charge units, and even phase shifting. The Total Stealth package comes with Omniversal Deflector grid and is VTOL atmospherically rated."

N'tach smiled, proud of the work he and the Engineering crews had done in such short time. Standing next to Quinton Beck and Admiral Ferrell he realized he was proud of his Starfleet Service for the very first time.

The Admiral took the floor, "We will have a more formal introduction later, but this is Starfleet's Mission vehicle, we have... "leased" this hangar for the purposes of responding to distress calls or conducting vital operations in places where the Second Star is in proximity. We understand you will have use for it as well so we have made sure to include many systems which we feel will enable you to have non combat options for mission completions. Our Captain Beck had a ship in mind, already outfitted with a very advanced stealth system so before you now lies the former Second Star, reborn into a Phoenix class Escort. Fellow crew, we give you the Tiburon."

Small applause broke out, and stewards appeared with refreshments, Othor had finally arrived for the impromptu affair. Quinton moved to stand next to Kas and Avor, eager to see their reaction. As far as they were concerned it wasn't the same ship where Dure was killed by Tasco, but Quinton saw them flinch.

"It's the old bird, trimmed down to four decks. We removed what was damaged, replaced what we could. If we ever need to leave, this would be our ride."

Avor knew Kas was offended at the notion so he quickly spoke, "Oh no, we are already home. That is... just a vehicle."

The moment grew heavy and Quinton withdrew in silence, letting Kas be silent. She had not said much to him outside of work since Dure died.

It was time to talk to her. He needed Kas to be that person who solved problems before they happened, he needed her.

Lid'a was reading the specs on her padd..." It says here onboard energy supplied by Modified containment Omicron Molecules. Looks like precursor tech to Omega level particle technology."

Another technician chimed in, "What the hell are Arva emergency power nodes?"

N'tach was on stand by, glad to answer, "Particle physics can result in severe power drains, Arva nodes absorbs virtually anything and convert it to plasma for a net gain in energy potential over time."

"Omniversal deflector capacity? I've never heard of that, what makes it so cutting edge?" Lid'a couldn't wait to study the specs.

N'tach showed her on the pop up display. "The attenuation is in harmony and can be modulated along the entire spectrum, no frequency is outside of the dish range."

"...Magnetascopic interference, Chromoelectric forcefields..." Avor recited the litany of systems with a daunted expression, I'm sensing a pattern.

Talloc was all about the weapons, "...Self Replicating Mines, Multiple launch firing platform, this is a variant of the Minosian Echo Papa firing paltform..."

Fala was reading a mile a second, "The hull is coated, like an armour plating mixed with pulverised Mizinite, Monocrystal Cortenum, I'm also showing Monocalcium Particles, that's Tamarian isn't it?"

Toriza knew what she was referring to, "Yes! I know this, blocks transporter signals. Looks like they are giving us a ship fit for crime, not combat?"

"Rescue..." Ferrell had a mischievous look in his eyes.

Chris Callahan was impressed, and didn't buy it for a second. "Magnesium Carbonate infused into the hull, even further anti intrusion shields, this is one impenetrable rock meant for hard places.."

Toriza saw the familiar hook and hoop configuration, "This is an Aceton Assimilator!" She had only ever heard of the things, but it was a priceless tool for anyone who needed to power ships systems safely. They had offensive applications too, it made her consider the other systems... this ship was a twin blade with a pointed hilt. It was silent, over powered and had options to satisfy the tactician.

Ferrell had let the break in his speech be filled by them, but had to sing the coda.

"So, let it be known that we do not expect you to answer the call to duty unarmed or unaided. This ship has been re-purposed to protect the Second Star, and will not tolerate tampering. Stay to your duties, and let the professionals perform the operations. Captain, anything else?"

Quinton Beck wanted to save his big speech for the whole crew in the theater, but felt compelled to say something.

"Gathered crew, I want to thank you for your hard work, rest assured that just like this ship represents, the Second Star has powerful friends who want to see us safe. We will weather any storm, we will deliver the goods. There will be a formal commencement of our journey tomorrow, until then, carry on."

Admiral Ferrell looked disappointed but let Quinton get the last word in.

"I've got a spectacle in mind, don't wanna do two shows sub par if I can have one event be a spectacle." Quinton looked Ferrell in the eye, hoping there was trust enough.

His uncle was trying, and for Quinton who had essentially been abandoned by his Father, it meant a lot. Ferrell conceded to Quinton's authority with an admission of admiration,

"What I wouldn't give to be on this ship one month from now. I need to return, you just take your time okay?"

With a bare nod, Quinton remained as Ferrell left.

"Kas." He spoke without looking at her. She always listened for his voice though, and she always answered...

"Yes?"

She wasn't far away, but her reaction was instant.

He summoned his finest "aww shucks" expression. "Can we chat, up in the bridge of this... familiar place. Like old times."

Kas leveled a gaze at him that revealed nothing of the woman inside. So it was surprising to hear her agree so easily.

"Of course." She parted ways with Avor and Lid'a who were enamored with the specs and a ship that wasn't rotting away.

So leading, Quinton walked up the lowered ramp heading to the bridge, Kas followed.

{Tiburon}

The simple cargo hold had been converted into a suite meant for missions. Simple ramps and ladders gave way to spiral walkways and ascension poles. Recessed alcoves held tools, equipment, anything and everything needed for missions. Memories of the ship it once was played over their tender feelings of loss, adding to reverie a tinge of bittersweet. The interior was five rooms on four decks, the lowest of them Engineering, where they stood now. Above them, the Living Quarters and Armory/Infirmary took another level. Then came the Operations level, bridge, master controls, then at the top was their Mission control suite. shouting from the bottom floor reached the top, each deck insulated from the hull via shock absorbing struts.

"It's not the same ship." Kas said it flatly, answering many questions at once. The hull was the same, but the purpose and the history was wiped clean.

Silence between them outlined the gulf which had formed between them as well. A much needed interruption offered itself when Quill came down from the Small Sick Bay conversion.

"You know this is quite the modern affair." Quill seemed quite calm despite the design flairs and such.

"I had to down grade the ascetics of the EMH as Bunny might be threatened." He chuckled. "The Phase Dermal unit is very much a new toy to play with. Able to break down the skin's Dermal structure and reconfigure it is quite astounding."

Quill was impressed, though he had never seen a Starfleet Intelligence worktruck, the toolkits were always special.

"It will make reconstructive surgery quite a bit easier on both myself as well as the Patient. The amount of bruising or skin rejection will be nearly nullified with this system. I am impressed with the advancements of this system, the Two Biobeds are state of the art, they can break scans down to the quantum level, I could tell if a person is from what section of space and if they are from the prime or Mirror universe by their molecular signature."

Quill smiled brightly, Kas also enjoyed seeing the Captain squirm at the mention of the Mirror Universe. His father had gone there a time or two allegedly, but that was in his childhood.

Kas needed to say something, it was getting awkward to stand in silence pretending everything was fine.

"It's A Starfleet outfit now, not our ship, as I was saying." She looked pointedly at Quinton.

"The pharmaceutical replicator is something I became teary over, it is capable of so closely manufacturing synthetic raw materials that could rival the more common medicinal remedies. I could almost not need a garden or fungal lab to get the more exotic drugs, this can replicate within the 75 percentile the common fungous for Viral remedies and even the more biological based drugs."

Quinton let himself breathe a bit, "So that's the origin of the chemicals Talloc confiscated, your medicinal kits?"

He hesitated. "Though the work with the toxins is amazing; nearly as good as my Research and Development unit on Earth. With this I will cure the common cold I think." He smiled. "Might even get some good hopps and grapes for experimenting."

"I'll say Dr. Quill, I look forward to seeing you in action, not that I mean enjoying injuries per se, but cosmetic work... the like. You may do well to introduce yourself to the marines and Intelligence division they will be operating on this ship quite often."

Kas didn't like that, her old sensibilities and feelings of ownership hadn't been lost. "We fly it, they can die on away missions all they like, our job is to operate the ship."

Quinton kept his eyes neutral, but he didn't like the sound of that.

"I am looking forward to a confidential relationship with those that board this ship." Quill replied. "I am a healer; this facility has potential to bring wounded and those doing good for the universe." He grinned. "Of course I will enjoy these new toys I just hope a majority of my work is... superficial?"

"Kas, can we go talk to Othor now?

Othor had been with Dure at the end, when Dure decided to lead the spy away from his family and have a standoff. He was the last person to see Dure alive, and past experience had revealed Othor carried other peoples memories and had trinkets from his captured memories.

The last time Kas had spoken to him, he was out of his mind, and held four wedding rings his fevered madness had carved from some materials in his quarters. They had each stood for Avor, Kas, Inia, and Dure, only the ring for Dure was wooden, and Othor had scorched it into a dark charcoal soot color.

It gave her nightmares, every night she managed any sleep, that burned ring, and the loss of hope burned in her. Othor had been in repose, recovering from his ordeal but now there was time.

"Dr., I hope you continue to tour, this will be a ship well used. Please excuse us, we have a matter to attend to." Quinton almost put a protective arm around Kas to usher her away, but knew the sentiment would not be appreciated.

He lightly punched her shoulder, "Let's go, eh?"

From the entry ramp her voice croaned, "I'll be delighted to show the good Doctor around."

Fala's voice creaked, she wasn't so old as to be out of the dating world, but far beyond flirtations. She hadn't known the touch of a fellow Ferengi in a decade, and there was little point to hiding her interest in the handsome doctor.

"That would be delightful." Quill as he turned from gazing upon the toys. "One always enjoys the company of a Lady."

Quinton chuckled, even Kas managed to find a genuine smile. Leaving their tour for later they walked back out into the shuttlebay.

Fala was shameless, "Take my hand doctor, show me things."

Quill gave a knowing smile; He had his own way of things and not many other Ferengi Females tended to like his company; he was not the typical Male; he respected them and; frankly, not many females of his heritage would appreciate it as they really did not know how to deal with it.

"Anything for a Lady." He bow politely as a Gentleman should before taking her hand. "I do like your attire, very good to see a lady that will put profit into such stunning attire and spare not the expense for perfection." He said genuinely.

"Oh I guilted this right off a young Bajoran boy, poor thing tried to get me for fourteen slips. I have to get these things for myself, no husband to dote on me you see?"

His response warmed her heart,

"There is nothing wrong with a pampered woman."

With teeth akimbo her smile was deepening.

"Then pamper me dear, somewhere with a view."

-End-

Austen
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