UTFS Intrepid – Pod Bay
Chief Engineer Jim Dockins and Assistant Chief Zack Smith
Dockins walked over to the Pod Master Console and took a seat. Smitty grabbed a vacant chair and rolled up behind him sitting in it backwards leaning on the backing. The PMC itself was large, taking up most of a wall. It held the master controls of all twelve pods, and one panel of controls for each pod. Four panels were currently lit up, several rows of green lights gleaming brightly. Translucent, dull yellow screens floated above the consoles reporting information, diagnostic results, and command interfaces for each pod. Dockins reached out, grabbing the corner of the floating display and moved them one at a time into a semi circular arrangement in front of him so he could have easier access to each pod. They all reported the same thing: launch status green. Each pod was loaded into a special airlock specifically designed for sensor pod launch and capture.
“See, Chief? I told you it was no big deal. They’re all hot and ready,” Smitty said in a smug tone.
“You got lucky is all,” Dockins muttered. “Let’s make with the fireworks shall we?” He hit a button on a fifth, smaller display opening a comm channel to the bridge. “Captain? All pods are green to launch, I have control. Launching in five,” he moved his hand over another, larger button on the smaller display, glowing distinctly red. “Four, three, two, one,” Dockins counted down, sweat running down his face. Smitty white-knuckled the backing of his chair, and a hush fell over the technicians in the room.
“Launch!” Dockins called slamming his thumb onto the red button. There was an immediate sound similar to that of rushing of air, and a rumble in the deck plating, then nothing. Data began streaming down the four displays, and Dockins began a running commentary of the pods’ progress. “All pods launched, heading straight and true on designated courses. Pods are jumping to designated coordinates. Jumpouts completed! We are already receiving downloads!” A cheer went up from the technicians and was echoed across the ship.
“Well done, Chief,” came the Commander through the communications line. “The data crunchers have it from here. I’ll be expecting launch reports by this time tomorrow,” and the line clicked off.
“Hey, he actually complimented you, boss! When I grow up, I wanna be just like you,” Smitty said with a lopsided grin.
“You dumb bastard, you’re older than I am. Go get your damned report ready,” Dockins said, although he wasn’t able to suppress a grin of satisfaction. He turned to the rest of the staff, “Same for the rest of you. You heard the captain; I need reports from each of you. Hard part’s done, now time for the paperwork. Get to it.”
The staff dispersed, leaving the pod bay. Dockins moved each of the screens back into position and double-checked the data feeders and backups to make sure the data was being sent in triplicate to the separate, redundant memory banks. He then locked down the PMC and left the pod bay headed for Main Engineering, his home away from home. Smitty was waiting for him at the hatch.
A deep, rhythmic, humming grew stronger as the two men headed aft. The hallway opened up onto a massive spherical room almost eleven stories tall. The walkway had transparent flooring allowing full view of the bright swirling vortex of purple light. The Patterson Drive Reactor, a near-inexhaustible energy supply was the marvel that made everything possible. Created accidentally by scientists in 2052, it had changed everything. Power ceased to be a precious commodity and no longer acted as a defining facet of political power. It had turned the world upside down. Now, two hundred years later, it powered man across the stars. The vortex below was the heart of the Intrepid and Dockins’ only love.
“Chief, you need a girl,” Smitty said as he caught the gleam in Dockins’ eye. “It’s unhealthy. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you was an otaku,” the old veteran laughed, using an old word for someone who spends too much time secluded indoors. Dockins rolled his eyes and power walked the rest of the way to the Engineering Bunker three levels above, leaving Smitty behind.
“Report status,” he said as he entered his sanctuary. Commander Philip may run the ship, but he was nothing in here. Main Engineering was Dockins’ world and it revolved around him. He had been allowed to hand pick his own staff, which he had done. He’d picked the best and brightest.
“Everything showing green, Chief,” said the brunette at the console, Engineer’s Mate Caroline Cho. Another engineer came by and handed Dockins his mug of coffee.
11-02-07
“Chief,” called a technician flicking through floating displays at a station in the back. “I have a few reports of power spikes in Green Block. They’re reporting flickering lights and someone reportedly saw a spark.”
Dockins sighed. Half the time, these types of reports proved false, but even so, reports of sparks weren’t something he could ignore. “Alright, get a technician up there to check it out. I don’t want to have anything explode during the data dump.”
“Already sent out Fledgely, sir.”
“Good. Has anyone confirmed that all three redundancies are operating on the data streams? I don’t want to be blamed because some piece of information was deleted by an egghead and the backup wasn’t complete.”
“Yes, sir, I’ve checked and double-checked the redundant backups,” the technician flicked one of her screens forward, than back, checking again. “Everything’s running smoothly.”
“Excellent, now all there is to do is-“
“What the hell?” Smitty said to himself from his station, just loud enough to pull attention.
“Smitty? It better not be bad news, I don’t like bad news,” Dockins said as he got out of his chair to take a look at Smitty’s holo-display.
Smitty moved slightly so Dockins could see more clearly. Some of the technicians also bunched up to see what was going on. “I’ve lost contact with Pod Three, she’s stopped singin’.”
Dockins nearly choked. “Say that again?”
“Here, sir,” Smitty said pointing to a line of data on a graph. “There’s a sudden spike in data transmissions here, I think it might be emergency warning signals or some such, because here, the whole board goes red, and then here, there’s nothing.”
“Smitty, you better swear to whatever God you believe in that it wasn’t a meteorite,” Dockins said quietly, then turned to the gaggle of techs behind him. “Get everyone up, everyone off-duty just went on active. Get them on the backup stations in Orange Block. I want everyone working on reading the data streams, get me an answer of what the hell just happened. Caroline,” Dockins stopped to look through the sudden chaos of running engineers for the brunette that had been in charge when Dockins had entered. He finally found her looking at him over her shoulder while manning her console. “Check the other pods, make sure we haven’t lost any others, and keep a constant eye on the streams. Grab someone if you need help.” She nodded and pulled up three holo-displays.
“Smitty, I have to go tell the Captain, you stay here and find me answers.” Dockins left the bunker, the purple light and pulsing hum of the PDR filled the large room briefly as the door opened and closed behind him.
Dockins rushed through the open walkways of the Core to the nearest lift. He stepped in and rode it to the top, Red Block. He then walked through four airlocks to the bridge anchor. He passed the security check and then rode the command lift to the top where the flying bridge sat nestled atop the long angled tower. The Command Tower
“Chief, we just lost communication from the number three Pod,” Commander Philip started as Dockins came up.
“I know, sir. We’re trying to discover the cause now. I’ve activated my entire engineering staff. But honestly, sir, it is going to be difficult to find out what happened to the pod unless we investigate ourselves. We can read the datastreams as much as we like, but frankly, they’re only going to tell us what we already know: something catastrophic occurred and the Pod is dead to us.”
Philip nodded, “I agree. Helm, prepare to move the ship. Set coordinates for the last known position of Pod 3 and prepare for quickjump.” Philip inclined his head back to Dockins. “Prepare your team for EVA. We’ll be there in a few hours.”
“Understood, sir.” Dockins saluted and left the bridge.
Lovell leaned forward, “Do you think it was a meteorite?”
“If it was, Dockins is going to be shitting bricks for a year.”
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