Unexpected advancement

Posted on Fri Sep 10th, 2021 @ 10:04am by RESIGNED & Captain John Wells

Mission: The Long Way Home
Location: Deck 5 & Captain's Ready Room

[ON]

[Deck Five]

Van Der Luan had spent the last hour working through the ship's weapon's systems. The torpedo launchers and phasers were operational, but the targeting sensors were down. Several circuits had been fried in the battering they had taken transiting the Black Hole.

Engineering and Operations crews had their hands full with other tasks so Van Der Luan had pulled a couple of the best Tactical personnel, rolled up his sleeves and started on the work himself.

Right now he was laying on the deck, tunic off, head and shoulders deep in an access panel and up to his elbows in charred circuit boards and isolinear chips as he tried to replace the targeting subsystems of the ventral sensor array controls.

He pulled out the last circuit board and tossed it over his shoulder. "Alright, that the last of the burn out ones, give me the new board" He said and reached back over his head with his hand open.

"Here you go Chief. It's the right way up and I double checked the connections, should snap straight in" Chief Petty Officer Sally Mitchell replied and a moment later she pressed the board into his hand.

Van Der Luan brought the circuit board forward, twisting it slightly to get between the hatchway and his shoulder, then lowered it down into position and pushed it into the slot until it clicked into place. "Ok it's in. Power it up"

There was a series of beeps behind him as Mitchell tapped into a control panel and the circuit board hummed into life, a series of colored diodes blinking on and off as it ran an installation diagnostic. A minutes later they all turned green.

"Ok one down, three more to go" Van Der Luan grunted and shuffled around a bit to ease away from the edge of the hatch than was digging him in the ribs and Mason handed him another board.

As he fitted it into place he heard footsteps arriving behind him.

"Master, the Captain wants you up in his Ready Room" A voice he recognized as Security crewman Ron Jenkins

"Huh, ok." He finished securing the board and pulled himself back out of the access hatch, getting to his feet and stretching out the crick in his back.

"He say what it was about?" He asked Jenkins as he wiped the dirt off his hands with a rag.

"No Master, but I heard they put Chief Vurdug in medical stasis" Jenkins replied.

Van Der Luan frowned, that did not sound good, Klingons were tough, but she had taken quite the blow to the head. It must have been be more serious than expected.

"I'm sure it's just a precaution" He said, "You know the Chief, she'll be alright" He finished reassuringly, giving the young crewman a nod. "You stay here and help Chief Mitchell"

He turned to Mason. "Ok finish up here Sally, then check on the port phaser array, make sure it's getting data from here. If it's not there mush be a break in the circuit somewhere else"

Mitchell nodded "We got it Master"

Van Der Luan finished cleaning his hands, retrieved his tunic and headed for the nearest turbolift as he put it on.


[Ready Room]

He stepped out onto the Bridge, the place was a hive of activity as half a dozen Engineers and the bridge crew all worked on the damaged panels and stations.

He crossed to the Ready Room door, tapped the chime and entered.

"You sent for me Sir?"

"Yes, Master Chief come right in."

After taking a sip of an old earth drink called, 'Diet Pepsi' Wells Continued...

"Master Chief, good officers like you are hard to come by and Starfleet needs people like you. Understanding that you cannot rise in the regular enlisted ranks anymore, I am going to do something I think should have been done a long time ago."

Taking another sip of his drink and than handing a box to the Master Chief, Wells continued...

"Master Chief, I hereby promote you to the rank of Warrant Officer. You will continue in your normal duties. However, with this rank comes another caveat, if our COS ever becomes unable to perform her duties, you will automatically become the COS.

So, if all that is okay with you, I will ask you to put on the right rank pips, because you are now out of uniform.."

Van Der Luan was momentarily at a loss for words as he let that sink in. The promotion was unexpected, the extra responsibility he knew he could handle, but the ominous part was this probably meant Vurdug was more badly injured than he had believed.

"Sir, thank you sir!" Coming to attention to accept the small box from Wells. Opening it he withdrew the new rank insignia and replaced those on his collar. Then snapped off a salute to Wells and stood at ease.

"Thank you sir, sincerely. I will not let you down" He said "I take it Lieutenant Vurdug is not doing well then?"

"No, she is not. The bigger issue, is we must have a Chief Of Security on duty at all times. You are now it."

"Understood sir. I can give you a Security & Tactical update."

"Go head" responded Wells.

"Well as far as Tactical is concerned, we're working through some repairs, the main problem was most of the phaser targeting systems were fried during the transit.

We've replaced about sixty-percent of the isolinear chip boards, used up the whole stock but Operations are replicating us more boards. Should be done in about another five or six hours. Another hour or two to recalibrate and we should be back in business.

On the Security side we have four crewmen in Sickbay, they got tossed around some, couple of broken bones and fractures. Nothing serious and the other two shifts can pick up the slack"

"Very well, carry out the plan of the day and the needs of the ship" responded Wells.

"Aye Sir!'

[OFF]

Captain John Wells,
Commanding Officer

Warrant Officer A Van Der Luan
Chief Security Officer