Trusting Luck

[Keb 0]

Trusting Luck

Keb’s Personal Log, Stardate 50511.24

 

Commander Tovan once opined to me that perhaps I attribute the results of my education, training, and experience to luck. Maybe. Or maybe I just got through school and Starfleet through sheer luck to begin with. Either way, I can’t help thinking that one or the other is going to fail me eventually. I can’t always put my ideas into a blueprint, but hand me some parts and I’ll make them work together, one way or another. I can’t even always remember what I did later that actually worked.

 

I was trying to use the jerry-rigged extra-strength shields I made for the Wyvern and the Griffin to defend Manticore in the absence of the deflectors. But those I made on the fly, in the launch bay, just before Precip took them out to defeat the disturbance. He was apparently successful, but I don’t yet know if I was. It doesn’t count unless they come back alive, and we stopped receiving communication with them prematurely.

 

If they didn’t survive, it will be my fault. I suppose that’s the case if Manticore doesn’t make it back for repairs, as well, but if she doesn’t—I’m not likely to be worried about it any longer, am I?

 

I finally remembered what it was I had done differently, and was able to adapt that into the shield projector I was building. It will project a shield, along with the normal emitters, that will be close to the hull of the ship. The projectors will not need to be mounted on the exterior of Manticore; they will merely need to be near the outer hull. That will save us some time and effort in getting them online.

 

But I need to make a few of them, to cover several points in the network. Why can’t I operate by the book? It’s not as if I don’t read enough books. It would be so much simpler to put it on paper, trust my brain, the computer, and my shipmates—but the only thing I have to trust is my hands, and my luck.

 

It better hold out.