Tinkering

Posted on Wed Sep 26th, 2018 @ 5:59am by

Mission: Season 2: Mission 2: Just Breath
Location: Liorga's and Anya's cabin
Timeline: downtime
1930 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Sitting in her cabin, Anya had the model of a Constitution Refit class cruiser sitting on the table in front of her. The saucer and stardrive section were separated and the hull open, she was tinkering with the internal systems. Configuring the antigravity unit just right so the ship wouldn’t just float but respond to commands from her PADD proved more challenging than the security officer had expected but she wasn’t ready to give up yet.

Liorga came in from her shift, it had been a rough one, but still good. The new Ensign, Norris, was nuts, but sweet enough and very efficient; if she kept going this way they’d all have easy shifts in front of them. Her eyes fell to the table where Anya had a wonderfully detailed model of a Conny, “Well, well, well, that’s nice.” Liorga congratulated, “Is it just decorative or does it do anything?”

“Hey”, Anya greeted. “It doesn’t do anything yet. Except float off and crash into walls. I’m trying to make it obey commands, though. Full lights and sound model, I wonder if I can put in miniature phasers and torpedoes.” She grinned. “Just the visuals, though. I’m not building a combat drone.” Those were outlawed for a reason, after all.

“Well, sounds like someone might be in need of an engineer.” Liorga laughed, taking a seat across from Anya, “I’m happy to give it the once over for you.”

“I’m having issues making the antigrav generator respond properly to simulated start of impulse engines and firing of manoeuvring thrusters”, Anya explained. “It doesn’t look natural, and it has no collision prevention yet.” She turned her PADD around and slid it over for Liorga to see.

“That’s because you’re not compensating for the artificial gravity.” Liorga began, “The reason ships like these could fly in space is because they didn’t have to counteract the effects of gravity. You’ll need to generate more power, but just a little. I can do it for you, use a micro-isolinear chip.”

“I was going to put this into the primary hull.” Anya held up a sarium-krellide power cell usually found in a type I phaser. “I’d have to recharge it manually but it should have more than enough power. Can an isolinear chip help regulate it? That would take care of so many issues I’ve been having…”

“Regulate and boost it, yes.” Liorga nodded, “And I can add a charging port, or possibly even an extra micro-generator… Tell me, is there a mini shuttle for this ship or is the shuttlebay just for looks? If it’s just decorative I’ll connect a micro-generator and it will kick on just long enough to recharge the main battery.”

“Yes, it’s just decorative. It opens and closes, though. I just can’t build small enough shuttles that actually work.” She manually opened the hangar, and inside were two decorative shuttles and a work bee, glued to the deck. “I want it to fly around, shoot phasers, torpedoes, have shield visuals. And I want to build a D7 as well, and have shows in the lounge.”

“An admirable pursuit.” Liorga nodded, “Here’s another idea to go with it, we can make some of these for sale, too. You do the outsides, I’ll do the insides, start padding the retirement funds. I think these would be popular. What do you think?”

“That’s crazy talk… retire from Starfleet! Nuts!” Anya remarked, laughing. “But sure, I can do the outside. It comes right out of the replicator.” She grinned. “I didn’t actually make any changes, except for the name that I’ll still have to apply.”

“That makes things easier.” Liorga nodded, “If these catch on we can do some specialized racing shuttles, make some serious coin.”

Anya cocked her head to the side. “You’ve got the right hairdo, but those lobes… they’re just not big enough. Though, with the doctor’s help, and a tooth sharpener…”

“Yeah, okay, we won’t be doing any of that.” Liorga laughed, “However, the drones are a great idea.” She felt herself getting hot, though she knew Anya had no idea what the Ferengi had done to her and she genuinely liked the pretty brunette she shared quarters with, they’d discuss it some other time.

“I just like to tinker”, Anya explained. “I’ve built other little things before, but never something this complex. Mechanical gears, a crossbow, most complex thing I built was a motion sensor coupled with a speaker making annoying sounds.”

“Well, that’s where I come in.” Liorga offered, “Tell you what, I’ll install the engine here, and make the micro-generator if you’ll replicate me a roast beef sandwich and a glass of peach tea. How’s that?”

“That sounds like a deal too good to pass up, and definitely weighted in my favour”, Anya grinned and stood to walk to the replicator. “Roast beef sandwich, peach tea, imp stool omelette and argonian ale”, Anya ordered, then carefully carried the tray back to the table.

Liorga had the power cell from the phaser installed already, “This is simple if you’ve done it a few times. You’ll get the hang of it.” She promised, “In the meantime I’m going to install the micro-generator in one of the shuttles, that way nobody can see it.”

“You can build a generator that small?” Anya wondered. “What fuel does it use?” She sat back down and placed Liorga’s dishes on the table next to her.

“The motion of the generator will recharge the motor, it’ll only need a small chip of trilithium.” Liorga said, “And, if I do it right, I can use it to keep the power source cool as well. I’d need a small fan, but that’s doable.”

“Trilithium?!” Anya blurted out. “Hey, I don’t want it to explode.”

“Less than two millimeters in total size.” Liorga comforted her, “Not enough to explode strapped to a pound of C-4.”

“See-what?” Anya blinked. “Come on, don’t confuse a simple point-and-shooter with your engineering jargon.”

“C-4, old style plastic explosive.” Liorga explained, taking a bite from her sandwich, “Some of the Bajoran resistance cells still used a modified form of it against the Cardassians.”

“So, you’re sure this is safe? I don’t want to be responsible for injuring a dozen people in a show gorn wrong”, Anya said.

“Completely, I’ll even shield it if it makes you feel better.” Liorga offered, sipping the tea, “It’s all fine, we made these on a larger scale at the training center…”

“Okay, I trust you”, Anya said. “And I usually trust people only as far as I can throw them.”

“That’s usually the safest way.” Liorga laughed, “But thanks for the high praise.”

“You haven’t seen how far I can throw yet”, Anya laughed, eating her omelette and watching Liorga work.

“Be careful.” Liorga winked, “I’m brittle.”

“Joker”, Anya remarked, chuckling.

Liorga drained her tea and smiled, “Yeah, this is going to be easier than I thought.” She paused for a second, then continued, “By the way, which vessel is this going to be?”

“I haven’t decided yet”, Anya said. “Excalibur, maybe?”

“That would be a good one.” Liorga nodded, “Definitely rare. Funny story, one of the men who rescued me, Jason Driver, he raised me from fifteen on. His grandfather was Chief of Security on Excalibur.”

“Rescued you?” Anya asked. This was the first time she’d heard of any rescue. “What do you mean?”

“I was…” Liorga began, “I was kidnapped when I was very young, never saw my mother again after. When I was a few years older I was sold to some scumbag Ferengi pedo…”

“Oh…” Anya managed. The otherwise quick-witted woman who always had a mocking comment ready for pretty much anything suddenly didn’t know what to say.

“Anyway, one day Starfleet came to bust his operation.” Liorga continued, “Scumbag was killed in the firefight, Jason found me locked in a torpedo tube in the hold where they were trying to hide me. Took me home with him, raised me, only father I’ve ever known.”

“But he must have been on the Ambassador, not the Constitution, right?” Anya asked, if only to have something to say she felt more familiar, more at home with.

“No, sweety, his grandfather was the one on Excalibur.” Liorga corrected her with a laugh, “Jason did serve on Enterprise at one point in his career though. Also served on the Lollipop, it was a good ship.”

Her story had thrown her off so much, she’d completely lost her capacity to think straight, it seemed. But then, the Lollipop? “Who calls a ship the Lollipop?!”

Liorga laughed hard, lovely Anya had missed the joke, “You’re cute.” She said between chuckles, “No such ship, I was trying to lighten the mood was all.”

Anya shook her head, laughing. “Hey, I wouldn’t put it past some people in Starfleet, at least not entirely. You had me there for a moment.”

“You’d like Jason.” Liorga mused, “He’s a lot like you in a lot of ways. Looked at everything else in Starfleet and found security was where he wanted to be.”

“It’s a great place to be”, Anya said. “You get to have fun during the rough times, and you don’t have to pick up the pieces afterwards, like medical or you engineers.”

“Right?” Liorga laughed hard, “You guys wreck everything and we have to fix it.” A couple more turns of the screwdriver and she turned to Anya with a smile, “There, that should do it, all we need now is that piece of trilithium and we’re in business.”

Anya beamed. “Wonderful. Even like this, it looks great.” She picked up the saucer and snapped it back onto the drive section, then activated a flight pattern that took it around the cabin. As it flew, the ship made the various Constitution engine noises everyone was familiar with from the old video files.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Liorga said, swelling with pride as she finished her sandwich and tea, “Seems to hold the pattern really well, too.”

Anya tapped a few buttons and it went into evasive manoeuvres, then it came very close to the wall but avoided it narrowly by doing a barrel roll. “Yes, and it doesn’t crash into things any more. Thank you, Liorga.”

“You’re very welcome.” Liorga smiled, “I’ve already got plans to make one for myself.”

“I can help you with the paint job”, Anya offered. “I’m better with a brush than with a hyperspanner.”

“Well, that’s how we’ll divide the labor then.” Liorga nodded, then stood and stretched herself out, “Back aches…”

“Bad enough to want to see the doctor about, or do you think a back rub will do?” Anya offered.

“Doesn’t merit bothering the doc.” Liorga shrugged, she only went to sickbay for legit emergencies and this wasn’t one.

“If you want a back rub and aren’t afraid of trusting an amateur, lie down and I’ll have a go”, Anya said.

“Any port in the storm.” Liorga shrugged, lying down on her bed, “Okay, work your magic.”

Anya finished her ale and cracked her knuckles. “Well, here’s hoping Deltans don’t have any breakable parts I don’t know about.”