Sovereign's Journey

Preface

UNSS BRUSSELS - AUXILIARY ENGINEERING

THURSDAY, 28 MARCH 2083

“It’s not right, just not right.” Lieutenant Rachael Shumway worked through the figures from the glittering and colorful display in engineering. “You are not going to get any thanks for pointing this one out,” she muttered to herself and shook her head and looked around her work area. To say that Lieutenant Shumway’s duty station was drab would have been an understatement, but she didn’t care as long as that duty station was located aboard a colonial starship. Real estate in UNSS Brussels’ spine was at a premium, especially in the engineering section located at the center of Brussels’ massive Alcubierre ring which made travel in hyperspace possible. Auxiliary engineering was a five-by-ten-meter space just forward of the hyperspace core. Her work station, like the other six auxiliary monitoring stations in the compartment was clean and efficient, but lacked any of the comfort found in the command module on the other end of the ship. As a navigation officer, she knew she would spend most of her career in more pleasant surroundings, so she didn’t mind the orange piping currently topping the collar of her uniform. She knew it would be temporary. Ship’s navigators never looked forward to their rotation as engineering officers, but Rachael didn’t care all that much. While it wasn’t as intellectually stimulating as plotting and maintaining a course in hyperspace, the engineering behind creating a hyperspace bubble was what made her job possible in the first place. To be honest, she thought the process was fascinating. She only wished she hadn’t been assigned to monitoring drive core readings. Auxiliary engineering was packed with equipment duplicating all of Brussels’ primary systems, so junior engineering officers just had to make do with whatever work space could be squeezed in among the hardware. Her station tonight faced the forward bulkhead and away from the transparent deck-to-ceiling bulkhead between the engineering space and the hyperspace core. She loved the organic patterns created by the swirling plasma contained within the core, but she hardly had time for such musings right now. Looking up from her console for the third time in the last twenty minutes, Rachael fidgeted, tapping her finger tips together nervously. When she’d first noticed micro fractures in the plasma housing, she’d written it off as a scanning anomaly because the containment readings were well within specs, but she could just feel that something was wrong. She was deep into the second shift and monitoring drive core plasma readings when the issue arose. The task had been beyond boring, but now, digging into the troubling puzzle made the time pass. Pushing back from the console, she looked at the overhead bulkhead and closed her eyes to think through why her scans revealed micro fissures, without any resulting degradation in drive performance or any detectible plasma leakage. Brussels had just completed her post-refit shakedown and passed with flying colors, yet she’d rerun the scan four times and even asked Tor, Brussels’ AI, to validate the results. There were definitely micro fissures developing.

Sighing, she looked back down to the panel in front of her. Staring at the communications icon located there, she thought she should try one more time to get Commander Bailey to understand that the harmonics were wrong, and that she’d confirmed that micro fissures were developing.

“Damn it,” she whispered to herself. “If I call back up there again, he’ll just dismiss me with another one of his witty little retorts.” On the other hand, she thought, if I don’t let the moron know, he will find a way to blame me for any problems that happen as a result for not telling him with sufficient urgency. She glanced back at the readout and made up her mind. She would try once more, by appending the scan results and Tor’s confirmation, and this time she would copy Captain Andrews. Commander Bailey would be furious, but at least she would be covered. It wasn’t like he wasn’t already going to trash her in her performance review anyway, she thought. She sneered at how much of the fleet, like life in general, was nothing more than scrambling through a maze of bureaucracy meant to keep one down rather than reward personal achievement.

“LT, come look at this.”

Looking over her shoulder, Rachael spun in her chair, climbed onto her feet, and crossed the compartment to look out at the plasma swirling within the core. “What do you have, Chung?”

“It might not be anything, Ma’am. I was just thinking the plasma is moving a lot faster within the chamber than normal.” The young petty officer turned to look back at his watch officer. “Is that normal? I’ve never seen it do that before.”

“No, its not, Chung. Please log your concern. I’m going to try again to get the bridge interested.”

Petty Officer Chung snorted with derision “Good luck, Ma’am.”

Crossing back to her station, Rachael dropped into her seat and spun back around to face her panel and the communications icon that had been taunting her for the last half hour. Taking a deep breath, she tapped the icon. “Bridge this is aux engineering. I need to speak with Commander Bailey. I believe it is urgent.”

“Are you sure about that, Shumway? He and the skipper are having some sort of debate. He sounded pretty pissed the last time you tagged him.”

“Just put me through, Lieutenant Jessup. I’m doing my job. Maybe he should consider doing his.”

“Pinging him now. Good luck. I suspect you are going to need it.”

Tapping the icon a second time, Rachael accessed her findings, including Tor’s confirmation and transmitted the data to her department leader and Brussels’ commanding officer.

“Ms. Shumway, I believe I instructed you to log your concerns and to stop pestering me with minor maintenance issues.”

“Sir, I validated that the drive core is experiencing molecular disintegration. I ran it several times and…”

“Lieutenant Shumway! I get that you probably think that you are some kind of prodigy, and that you are too good to be in engineering, but frankly, I’m just not interested in your theories! I am done with this, and you will not call back up here for any reason. Do you read me?”

“Sir, with all due respect, the harmonic flow is way off! If you would care to come down here, I could show…”

“I am not in the habit of debating with junior officers, Shumway. One more word and I will relieve you of duties until I can find some hole to stick you in. I looked at the containment scans when you reported it. Any degradation is very minor and well within tolerances, so log your concerns and quit pestering me. Stop trying so hard to make a name for yourself. Is that clear?”

Wincing, she closed her eyes. “Yes, Sir. Abundantly clear.”

“I would have thought I was abundantly clear the last two times. Bridge out.”

Rachael bit down on the anger she felt, always felt, when she got kicked in the teeth for being efficient. The system demanded you excel, but if you did, you got jammed up for being excellent and made enemies. Standing up, she walked over to stand next to Chung as he stared helplessly at the undulating plasma. The petty officer smiled with understanding in his eyes. “You tried, Ma’am.”

“Thanks, Chung. I don’t like this at all. I may not be a real engineer, but I do know when a sine wave doesn’t look right. This pattern cannot sustain itself.”

“No, Ma’am, I agree. I want you to know that I just added our findings as a note in the log, and I reached out for the senior chief.”

“Thanks, Chung. I really appreciate that.” Folding her arms, Shumway debated whether to keep bucking the system. She knew there were consequences for speaking up as the captain pointed out to her. She took a deep breath and decided that she should go bring the senior chief up to speed herself. It wasn’t like she wasn’t already committed. “You know what, Chung? That was a really good idea. I think I’m going to main engineering right now to walk Chief Daton through what we’ve found.” She smiled at her petty officer. “Can you hold the fort for a few minutes?”

“Aye, aye, Ma’am. I can keep an eye on things, no problem, Lieutenant.”

Rachael headed for the hatch as she spoke over her shoulder. “Back in fifteen.”

With quick strides, Rachael was through the hatch and across the access way, stepping into the waiting starboard maglift located just outside of auxiliary engineering. The circular maglift was three meters across with diffuse lighting in the walls. A hand rail extended around the lift, but it wasn’t necessary as Brussels’ inertial compensators eliminated any sense of movement. She reached toward the icon panel to tap in her destination. Shumway muttered, “Damn idiot.”

“Deck five, main engineering, Lieutenant Shumway?” Brussels’ AI interjected.

“Yes, Tor. Thank you.” Shumway frowned standing straight again and adjusting her uniform; you were never alone. Every nuance of emotion and reaction was recorded, and she knew it.

Nervous about what to say to Brussels’...