Assistant Engineer's Log

[Archie Phoenix 0]

From the spacious confines of main engineering and the shuttle bay to the cramped control room of the Hadrian’s Wall, Archie’s surroundings had taken a Renazian turn. Renazians typically disliked large, wide-open spaces (the larger and more wide-open, the worse) and found a vague sense of comfort when enclosed in a small, walled area. Archie knew this to be true of his people, but, curiously enough, he always felt stifled in cramped spaces. He spent as much of his childhood outdoors as he could manage, mostly retreating to the rooftops of the myriad buildings that practically blanketed Renazia’s surface. There, at night, he would gaze at the stars and wonder and dream things which people who spend their lives indoors never wonder nor dream.

 

Like trash bins on wheels with vast computer operation capabilities. Archie wasn’t certain if this ‘R4’ was an alien-looking machine or a machine-looking alien. The messages it was flashing across the operations console demonstrated some level of intelligence, though whether this was a programmed intelligence or a sentient one was not clear. Either way, it was able to direct the Hadrian’s Wall’s computer to perform calculations at a rate no Renazian operator could hope to achieve. Quite a handy tool if the engineers were to be called on to do things like rigging a shuttle’s hull to thwart sensor scans.

 

As Archie analyzed the results of R4’s calculations, he knew this would be an imperfect system. For one thing, it would require almost all of the shuttle’s power being diverted to the hull integrity field to sustain the cloaking effect, leaving barely enough for the impulse engines and life support. Cloak or no, those engines would need to be run at low power to avoid sensor scans; the shuttle would not be able to achieve high speed without revealing itself. Lastly, since this system was based on the programming used to control the Belleau Wood’s cloaking device, there was no guarantee it could fool the Axrekravians anyway. If they’d recovered the Belleau Wood device and already had time to study it, they would be more alert for further cloaking attempts and would have modified their scanners appropriately. If there was truth to the rumors circulating around engineering that the Romulans were in the area, that would be one more party not easily fooled by this system; they were the masters of the art of cloaking, after all.

 

As Lieutenant Sema’J stated, though, it was as good a start as anything. To further mask the shuttle, Ensign Black was rigging the communications system to jam any incoming scans. A jammed sensor scan would arouse suspicion, however; while it would not reveal the shuttle’s presence outright, it would illicit questions to which Arcadia’s command staff would need good answers. If all of these questionable variables fell into place well, maybe they could pull off … whatever it was that a cloaked vehicle was necessary to pull off. Archie had no idea what this was, nor did he ask; he only accepted the information he was given and did as he was told.

 

Was that ‘kissing up?’ Archie wondered with a glance back at Jordan. He was familiar with the term and its meaning, having heard it several times at the Academy. He was somewhat surprised when Jordan accused him of ‘kissing up’ to Lieutenant Sema’J. He was certainly eager to be on active duty and wanted to show that he required no further orientation. But was his enthusiasm bordering on the … overbearing? That was exactly the impression that Archie was trying to avoid, and he was already sensing that Jordan was annoyed by him.

 

Finally out in the vast reaches of space … yet sitting in a cramped shuttle making modifications aimed at hiding it. Archie had to again remind himself that the other races often desired the confinement and separation that he sought to avoid. He would have to continue adjusting himself. When he was off duty and back in his quarters, he would consult his Archie comics -- they could provide the wisdom on such matters that his own life experiences could not …