08-31-2023, 07:27 PM
Benjamin listened to D’Mar as she spoke. He wasn’t surprised when she saw it as the test it was immediately; he would have been very surprised if she hadn’t. Instead, he listened for what she did and didn’t say.
He chuckled politely at the small joke, and nodded along with the recitation of facts. She was well versed in the class, as he’d expected. The Vesta was fairly high-profile; while not the biggest of ships like the Ross and Andromeda classes were, the Vesta was something unique. A purpose-built explorer in the modern age was something special, and while not as big as the heavies, she was definitely big enough to hold her own on extended missions. It was something everyone wanted to know about. Benjamin smiled as she finished up with “Is there something specific you would like to test me on, sir?"
He shook his head gently. “No,” he said, “I’m sure you know all about the class, and I’m sure you know some specifics about Artemis’ history as well, like our battle with the Megasphere and the jaunt out to the Delta Quadrant.” He sighed, dispelling the ghosts of those lost in battle before they could grab him again.
“What I want you to know, however,” he continued, “is that there’s more to being an engineer than knowing what they built your ship out of. Yes, we’ve got a Thrawn-type Dual Core,” he said as he pointed at the thrumming twin columns that provided the ship with all the power it needed. “What the spec sheet won’t tell you is that the third coil on the port core assembly tends to drift more than the others and needs extra calibrations to stay in line with the rest.
“The spec sheet can tell you that each deck has four dedicated EPS lines that branch through them, two port and two starboard, and provide power to the majority of systems on the deck.” He chuckled as he thought back in time. “What they won’t say is that the second port line on Deck 7 fluctuates sometimes because Crewman Kirnat, our resident Brikar, stumbled while trying to fix it during a battle and dented the support stanchion, and since that’s part of the saucer’s base framework it hasn’t been repaired.” He’d made some stupid joke at the time about rocks and duranium, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it had been.
He walked slowly around the room, keeping D’Mar with him as he went. “What I want to impress on you, Ensign, is that there’s a difference between being a good engineer and a great one. A good engineer knows the manuals, knows their systems, and could strip down and rebuild any of them at a moment's notice. Every one of your colleagues here,” he said as he motioned at everyone around them, manning their consoles and getting the ship ready for launch, “could do that for me.
“A great engineer, like Lieutenant sh’Thanis who just got a promotion to a ship of her own, can do that. But they also know how their ship feels and acts, and can sense her little temperaments and quirks before they become a problem.” He felt his smile waver, remembering that his friend was gone, and remembering just what a wreck his life had become recently, but he pushed that aside for now.
“Once we launch, I want you to take some time and get to know the ship,” he said. “She’s in as good of shape now as she’s likely to be short of a full rebuild at Utopia, so it’s a good time to get a feel for her. Report back to me in the morning and we’ll see what you’ve found. Any questions?”
==Tag D'Mar==
He chuckled politely at the small joke, and nodded along with the recitation of facts. She was well versed in the class, as he’d expected. The Vesta was fairly high-profile; while not the biggest of ships like the Ross and Andromeda classes were, the Vesta was something unique. A purpose-built explorer in the modern age was something special, and while not as big as the heavies, she was definitely big enough to hold her own on extended missions. It was something everyone wanted to know about. Benjamin smiled as she finished up with “Is there something specific you would like to test me on, sir?"
He shook his head gently. “No,” he said, “I’m sure you know all about the class, and I’m sure you know some specifics about Artemis’ history as well, like our battle with the Megasphere and the jaunt out to the Delta Quadrant.” He sighed, dispelling the ghosts of those lost in battle before they could grab him again.
“What I want you to know, however,” he continued, “is that there’s more to being an engineer than knowing what they built your ship out of. Yes, we’ve got a Thrawn-type Dual Core,” he said as he pointed at the thrumming twin columns that provided the ship with all the power it needed. “What the spec sheet won’t tell you is that the third coil on the port core assembly tends to drift more than the others and needs extra calibrations to stay in line with the rest.
“The spec sheet can tell you that each deck has four dedicated EPS lines that branch through them, two port and two starboard, and provide power to the majority of systems on the deck.” He chuckled as he thought back in time. “What they won’t say is that the second port line on Deck 7 fluctuates sometimes because Crewman Kirnat, our resident Brikar, stumbled while trying to fix it during a battle and dented the support stanchion, and since that’s part of the saucer’s base framework it hasn’t been repaired.” He’d made some stupid joke at the time about rocks and duranium, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it had been.
He walked slowly around the room, keeping D’Mar with him as he went. “What I want to impress on you, Ensign, is that there’s a difference between being a good engineer and a great one. A good engineer knows the manuals, knows their systems, and could strip down and rebuild any of them at a moment's notice. Every one of your colleagues here,” he said as he motioned at everyone around them, manning their consoles and getting the ship ready for launch, “could do that for me.
“A great engineer, like Lieutenant sh’Thanis who just got a promotion to a ship of her own, can do that. But they also know how their ship feels and acts, and can sense her little temperaments and quirks before they become a problem.” He felt his smile waver, remembering that his friend was gone, and remembering just what a wreck his life had become recently, but he pushed that aside for now.
“Once we launch, I want you to take some time and get to know the ship,” he said. “She’s in as good of shape now as she’s likely to be short of a full rebuild at Utopia, so it’s a good time to get a feel for her. Report back to me in the morning and we’ll see what you’ve found. Any questions?”
==Tag D'Mar==