"Cargo Bay 2."

[FredM 0]

"Cargo Bay 2"

U.S.S. Cairo, NCC-42136-A

Stardate 0302.24 @ 12:33

Docked At Starbase 345

 

 

      "No, not 1827/A!!!" a voice cried out. Moments later a series of computer generated alarms sounded throughout the cargo bay. At the same time, a series of junction boxes where a dozen engineers had spent several hours working exploded into fireworks. After a few moments, the alarms had been silenced and more than a few hypospanners had been fused to power couplings inside the boxes.

 

      A Bajoran bearing the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade cursed openly in the direction of the other seven yellow collared officers standing nearby. "We're trying to bring the pattern buffer sensors online not offline! You were supposed to remove all of the isolinear chips in section 1872/A, not 1827!," the engineer proclaimed. During the next few minutes the other seven people in the bay started a series of arguments placing blame on everything from Human brain capacity to echoes in the room. In the end, the result was the same. They had caused more damage than good.

 

      "Well, now instead of trying to get the pattern buffer sensors online we now have to repair who knows what else," the Bajoran Lieutenant said in a somewhat calm voice. The team had been in the bay for the last two hours attempting to determine what had gone wrong with the cargo transporter in Cargo Bay 2. For no reason whatsoever, the sensor array connected to the pattern buffer had experienced a total system crash. This was the subsystem responsible for alerting the transporter operator if a piece of cargo contained hazardous material. Such items included dangerous chemicals, weapons, potentially explosive substances and the like.

 

      Since the ship had recently spent most of it's time running supplies to distant Federation outposts, all transporters were checked and double-checked on an almost insane schedule. As far as Lieutenant Junior Grade Aerso was concerned, that only added to the mystery of why the sensors had just suddenly crashed. What was worse, just yesterday the newly appointed temporary Chief Engineer had come aboard. While First Lieutenant Facon wouldn't think twice about such a mistake, the Bajoran had no clue how Lieutenant Drew would respond.

 

      Any thoughts the eight officers in the bay had about cleaning up the problem before their new department chief arrived quickly evaporated when he stepped into the room. In a rush to make a good first impression and perhaps minimize the effect of the current situation, Aerso quickly approached Drew and smiled. "Sir, Lieutenant Junior Grade Aerso. Just trying to repair some problems with the cargo transporter sir," the Bajoran said in a clearly nervous tone.

 

      For his part, Lieutenant Drew simply smiled and raised an eyebrow, "Is that so?" It was an expression most in the room could tell was forced. The response was a prompt one from Aerso, "Indeed, sir. In fact, we had planned to have the problem fixed before you were even aware of it. I was assuming you would be busy in Sickbay or settling in." At these words the new Chief Engineer's face turned cold, "You were mistaken. The ship is my priority, not a Doctor's records." With that, Lieutenant Drew slowly approached the series of junction boxes open near the transporter console.

 

      Clearly sensing he had said the wrong thing, Aerso promptly followed and attempted to explain the situation. "Well, sir, we've had some minor setbacks but I am confident...," the Bajoran said before he was cutoff. Drew, apparently now seeing what systems were being worked on, looked at Aerso with pure anger, "Why are you working on this transporter? I solved this problem last night! The pattern buffer subsystem was bypassed on purpose and the work schedule was clearly changed to reflect this! A problem such as this one cannot wait until morning! We have too much cargo to beam aboard and not enough time if we can only use Cargo Bay 1!"

 

      During the next five minutes, Aerso...as well as his team...would be ridiculed for not following procedure, reading reports in a timely fashion and putting off critical repairs until morning. The Lieutenant Junior Grade would spend the night writing a personal log questioning the wisdom in having a transporter's sensors offline during mission similar to the one they were about to begin.  However, Aerso would also admit that since the ship still had several tons of cargo to beam aboard and not a lot of time to do it, he could understand why the system had been bypassed. They weren't liable to end up with a shipment of diseased stembolts while docked at a Starbase.

 

      The Bajoran would write about the work schedule his temporary superior officer had quoted. In fact, the work schedule Aerso had been handed showed the repair was not complete. "Desk jockey who can't tell the difference or just some idiot trying to make me look bad by giving me an outdated schedule?" he would note in his personal journal. Even when he had sworn things could not get worse, a staff meeting was called by the Chief Engineer. Yet the only person not in attendance was, in fact, the Chief Engineer. Had he forgotten or had the entire engineering department misread the schedule? Maybe they would get lucky and Doctor Berio was busy giving him a physical.

 

      All things considered, the Lieutenant Junior Grade was pleased that Lieutenant Drew was only aboard for a few days. Any longer and he was certain he would have to spend years in the temple begging for forgiveness from the Prophets because he'd killed someone in cold blood.