From: Shawn _ (alamo_nate_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Feb 03 2008 - 17:37:01 PST
=Spark Plugs=
(cont'd from "Freeze Out")
LOCATION: Cargo Freighter GRIFFIN, docked with GATEWAY
SCENE: Main Engineering
STARDATE: [2.8]0203.1807
The lights still flickered- a symptom of intermittent power-failures caused by faulty conduit connections- and it gave the beaten-up looking interior of Main Engineering a look not unlike that of a mad scientist's laboratory. Jake Crichton, hunched over a pulled-apart panel, did his best to ignore the ambiance, but when Lt. Commander Drake appeared suddenly behind him, it was enough to make Crichton jump.
"You startled me, commander," he said.
"Sorry to sneak up on you like that," Drake said. "Force of habit, you know."
"Right," Crichton said, shaking his head. "All that skulking around and spying."
"We prefer the term 'intelligence gathering'," Drake shrugged.
"What can I do for you?" Crichton asked.
"Daisy sent me to check on you," Drake said, looking around the wreck of the GRIFFIN's Main Engineering. "She wants to make sure this junkpile is in ship-shape by the time we head out tomorrow morning."
"Well," Crichton said, moving towards another terminal and activating it. "Main power is on, but its a little spotty- I'm working on getting that fixed right now. The ship's engines are at about 65% power... I can probably boost it to 80%, but I wouldn't advise taking her on any high-speed chases."
"And defensively?" Drake asked.
"Our offensive capabilities are basically nil," Crichton shrugged. "This ship has some knock-off Mark 2 Firebrands installed in its forward phaser banks, but one of them is burnt completely out, and the other never worked all that well to begin with. Defensively, its a little better- I already managed to get shields back to full power. We've got no ablative armor or bio-restorative hull, but it should be enough to keep us in one piece if the Dominion gets trigger happy."
"Just as well about the phasers," Drake mused. "We don't want to appear too imposing anyway. Will it be ready to go by morning?"
"I'll have my teams work on it through the night," Crichton nodded. "By morning, she'll be as good as she's going to get without a complete refit."
"Good to hear, lieutenant," Drake smiled.
"So what's the plan?" Crichton asked.
"Our first stop will be the site of the initial incident," Drake said. "A small township called Elcar Village. I looked into it- apparently, it's a tiny farming community, only about 100 Andarans live there. The victim was the town's elder, an Andaran by the name of Mykel."
"And the perpetrator?" Crichton asked.
"A 12-year old boy," Drake said humorlessly. "His name is Blin, he's the son of a rancher named Haxer. Currently, Blin is being held prisoner in Elcar Village, until arrangements can be made to move him to the capitol city for trial. We need to see him before that happens- we can run some tests to determine what caused him to..." he trailed off, looking for the right word, and not finding it, "..you know."
"So we're flying to a Dominion-controlled world in *this* heap," Crichton said, gesturing around him, "..so that we can try to bust into an Andaran jail and do a quick brain-scan on a twelve year-old murderer, all while *avoiding* any Dominion attention?"
"Yeah, that's the plan," Drake nodded.
"And I'm excited to be a part of it," Crichton said with a sarcastic chuckle. "Well, nobody said life on the front lines would be easy."
=========================================================
NRPG: Hope I did okay with Drake.
Shawn
a.k.a.
Jake Crichton, Lieutenant
Chief of Engineering
GATEWAY Station, GS-2
---------------------------------
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Oct 15 2008 - 03:10:22 PDT