Tomcat Upgrades - Aftermath Part 1

Posted on 11 Feb 2025 @ 3:48am by Lieutenant Leland Hawksley & Lieutenant Commander Paul Sharpe & Lieutenant Karyn Somers

3,526 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: General Sim Postings
Location: SB 51 Shipyard
Timeline: Current

[ON]

It had been some time since the sabotage attempt and Leland knocking him to the floor to save his life but getting injured in the first place and almost fatally, Paul was feeling a little apprehension as he approached the bay where the Tomcat was docked, as he approached he saw Karyn leaving with a tall guy in tow, probably a new crewmember for the Tomcat he surmised, it was unusual as Orientations never usually had new crew visiting the ship itself.

He shrugged showed his identification to the security officer on duty and entered the now highly secured area, walking over to the console he brought up the latest reports, all cosmetic damage had been repaired, but the physical damage not so much, a new warp core and conduits that leader to the nacelles had been replaced but not calibrated, he made a note and checked the computer systems, signing off the console he headed to the ship and its engineering room.

- Tomcat Main Engineering -

Paul finally arrived in the Tomcat's main engineering room and walked over to the maintenance panel in the wall nearest the warp core. He walked over to it, pressed the latches, and removed the panel. It still had scorch marks on it, which made him shudder. Gripping his tools, he got down on his knees and deactivated the power running through this section, then uncoupled the front panel to work on it. As he got engrossed he began to talk to himself.

"Okay, this checks out okay, urgh that needs replacing," he said to himself as he removed the destroyed component put in replacements and connected it to the rest. He placed the circuitry panel on one side as there was nothing wrong with the rest of it as he progressed he became more alarmed at the damage "I got lucky!" he quietly exclaimed to himself, there was a whole circuit plate that needed to be replaced as everything on it had been fried. Sighing heavily Paul extricated himself from the maintenance area and stood with the item in hand, he noted the part number, and took the destroyed item to the industrial replicator, to recycle the old one and replicate a new section.

Eventually, with this task done, Item in hand, he returned to engineering sighing heavily and mumbling to himself "I hate sabotage" As he returned to the section he was working on, he had to apply thermal protection to the new part and surge protection. After completing this he moved further into the maintenance area as he found more melted sections, which needed replacing, he sighed the damage to the Warp Core did a number on the computer systems.

His Commbadge sounded, he tapped it and heard a familiar voice =/\= Somers to Sharpe, I just thought you should know Paul that we have finally caught the saboteur, she was impersonating her prime universe counterpart, who has been located and rescued, but the bomber is from the Mirror Universe and she has confirmed that she was sent to hinder Starfleets operations in the Mira Sector, so I am guessing there is a Spatial wormhole somewhere in this sector =/\= Karyn said.

=/\= Thanks for the update Karyn, I'm glad the person was caught, I assume the station is no longer in lockdown =/\= Sharpe asked.

=/\=Confirmed, but I will still keep security on that section =/\= Karyn said.

=/\=Okay good to know, harpe out =/\= Paul said logging off and returning to his task.

Even though he was busy, he still knew when someone unexpectedly entered the area. His position in the maintenance duct had him lying on his back—he was lying on one of those mechanics ' trollies. He heard footsteps and slid out part-way. As his head was nearest the exit, he was looking at a familiar face, but the wrong way. With a grime-smeared face, he gave a genuine smile. Also, he had since grown a beard.

His trolley practically shot him out as he used his legs to propel himself. He only stopped as he grabbed the edge of the entryway, but his smile was big as she spoke. "Leland, so good to see you. I hope you are well. I take it the docs have cleared you?" Sharpe asked.

Leland smiled as he waved from his crouched position down the bulkhead, holding to the surface. “Someone needs help in Engineering?” Hawksley rolled up his sleeves.

Slipping head-up into the main viaduct, Leland, a Class 5 Starfleet Engineer with a Left Occular Implant—V 4.2—Advanced Retroceptive Analytic Prosthetic, easily scanned the environment, including temperatures, pressures, electrical fields, power, and analysis.

On this date, Leland began program preparation to repair the matter-antimatter injectors. While the matter and anti-matter injectors are shut down, Leland can enter the deuterium storage tanks for a detailed component inspection and, if needed, replacement at a later date.

Addressing Commander Sharpe, Leland cocked his head, “I’m preparing the team to enter the deuterium tanks inspection at some point shortly."

“Commander, you'll find my Terran report in your inbox."

'An Engineering theoretical primacy photorealistic tracking technology of ion-logical habitants of alternate universe particle theorem. L. Hawksley, Federation Engineering Corps; Particle Physics and the Terran Universe, Identifying undercover inhabitants, radioactively.'

Pulling himself out of the tight space, Sharpe stood up "I got the computer and Power systems in hand Leland, I inspected the warp core when I got here and there is significant cosmetic damage along with physical damage and those conduits going from the core to the Nacelles they were badly damaged, you want have a look and see Leland?" Sharpe asked.

"Good job Sharpe." Leland smiled and shook and then pulled in for a bro hug. Sharpe didn't seem the type like his other colleagues and friends on the Tomcat.

"Sure, Hawksley nodded, seeing the hard work that the Engineer was placing into this operation.

*Nods* "Also, Station Security has caught the saboteur. It was a Terran agent. Security has him, and he is in for a grilling that would put their agony booths to shame," Sharpe said with a wry smile.

"Who is the bugger?!" Hawksley furrowed his eyebrows, blood boiling within him, the source of his psych ptsd appointments right now.

Hawksley surged with testosterone. The need to punch the man in the face at the very thought of him being found, alive out of all things. Placing his hands cupped into each other, batting them like a baseball batter.

"Not impressed." Leland walked around the engineering complex room.

"Enhance your calm, John Spartan!" Sharpe said, and then he got a strange look from Leland. "My wife had me watching the Demolition Man film. There is nothing you can do regarding the Terran. I need you to get to work on the warp core and such; that is your speciality," Sharpe said.

Leland bowed cheekily in Sharpe's direction, a grin in his eyes. He was being medically monitored from the station's sick bay in his long jogger pants and white T-shirt with a communication badge.

He turned back to his terminal screen, and the bot assembly sequenced out overlay; Hawk could access all the information he could ever want and or alter the resources being dedicated to the new Tomcat, already well on its way to being repaired and then improved, completed upon and then an eventual re-christening.

“Would it be correct to call this a re-christening of the Tomcat, Sir?” Hawksley asked as he began his usual banter from his station while working in the same department. The starbase had multiple computer planning labs, which was rare.

"No, I do not think so Leland, and while we are working on this please feel free to call me Paul, I think you have more than earned that right" Paul said smiling as he got back into the tight space and began scanning again.

Leland grinned to himself. It was true. He should have been calling Sharpe Paul by now. “That Is true.” Leland turned to Paul, placing his trusting, friendly, large hand on the man’s shoulder.

Leland enacted a resource purging of the available bots, prompting them forward for their set assembly, which was all pre-programmed. is true.” Leland turned to Paul, placing his trusting, friendly hand on the man's shoulder.

When Leland left to look at the warp core Sharpe got all the way in, and picked up from where he left off, as he finished one section Sharpe tapped his commbadge =/\= Sharpe to Hawksley =/\=

Leland breathed in and out, flexing his thighs as his work boots slammed against the sides of the collodium hydride shaft of the core complex. Leland was mountain climbing the outside of the warp core.

Highlighting the various joints and subvents from outside the core, Hawksley tapped his Communicator.

=/\= New Officer =/\= Hawksley posited, his eyes searching for micron fractures in the casings.

=/\= Do not sound surprised Leland it is easier than shouting, so have you heard that the Tomcat is getting a new officer?" =/\= Paul asked.

=/\= That is exciting! Who are we taking on, Sir? =/\=

=/\= I believe it is Master Chief Warrant Officer Glenn Stone, he will be joining as Chief of the Boat so that the shuttlebay will be his domain and if memory serves his position automatically places him on the Command Staff =/\= Sharpe said as she squinted at the section he was looking at *grumbles* "there was some serious damage here" Sharpe said quietly to himself as he deactivated the section and pulled the destroyed piece, he looked it over and realised he would have to crawl out of this area to go replicate a new piece, but before he did that he decided to see if there were any other components that needed to be replicated to save himself further trips.

Leland was about to tap Sharpe on his shoulder, unsure if he should startle the Officer. Instead, Hawksley opted to communicate vocally. “Paul.”

After extracting himself from the crevasse Paul stood up "What is it Leleand?" he asked walking over to where the CEO was working damaged items in hand.

Hawksley punched a few LCARs and pulled up a few programs in the Federation Engineering Case Studies archives. “Perhaps I can code in a nanobot recovery pathway prefix.”

"It would save a few weeks' worth of manual labour."

Checking over his plan, hmm, that could work, but keep them isolated from the main system of those nanobots, I want to limit any chances of further issues" he said "Now if you will excuse me I have to go to the Industrial replicator and replicate some new parts and a new one of these" he added holding up a large internal section of the ships computer systems.

Leland shook his head and walked along, helping him!

Hawksley walked along and helped Sharpe roll along the module piece on the anti-gravity cart. “The Anodyne relay nodules…” Hawksley took the engineering handy rag he had used out of his back pocket and wiped the cooling nano tubule pathways surrounding the main sub-core. The whole piece of computer machinery itself was probably 45 lbs of duranium metals and silica damage to LCARS and ISO Linear Chips.

"The Saboteur left a mess in his wake, you know we should get some Anti-Grav lifters as then it would only take one of us to move something this big!" Sharpe commented.

"Well, we got one. I will place an order for supplies." Hawksley punched in on his com to request the station supplies chief. Hawksley hobbled along with his duranium shiny cane.

"Done and done."

Leland then stated. Hobbled over to the aft set of redundant cooling node axial aberration and pulsed the flexor generation unit... "One second." The antigrav cart made it easy for Sharpe to slide on the ice. If Hawksley couldn't bend or break his back while recovering from physio, he could at least make things easier for Sharpe.

Sharpe returned after a time with the replacement components and used his newly acquired anti-grave lifters to pick up the price and take it over to the opening, he was thankful that it was small, but it was dense. When it was down he disengaged the anti-gravs rolled the piece inside and took the time to line it up, he tapped his Commbadge =/\= Sharpe to Hawksley=/\=

=/\= Hawksley to Sharpe, =/\= The coms opened. =/\= Heavier than it looks. Just be careful not to strain yourself—I've seen what happens when you push too hard, and recovery isn’t a walk in the park. =/\= Leland chuckled.

=/\= While you're getting that situated, I'll check the coolant flow readings and ensure the redundancy protocols function. I’ll prep the recalibration sequences before that hydrostatic cooling node fails.

Also, I will alert staff that if they see any loose CRD panelling or connections while working, they must report that immediately as level one. We can't afford any more surprises at this station after the Saboteur's little escapade. =/\= Hawksley reported his immediate duties after entering the hover cart requests that Paul referenced.

=/\=Okay, going silent while I concentrate on reconnecting this piece =/\= Sharpe said and got to work as he became engrossed he fell into the habit of talking to himself as he worked.

An Hour later...

Finally finishing his task Paul connected ODN cables and gel pack connections and shuffled back as he finished reconnecting each layer, eventually he was outside the cavity connecting up the final cables, then he ran his tricorder over and was satisfied with his job and replaced the cover on the wall and stood. Then he walked over to the console and ran a level one diagnostic check, while that was running he walked over to where Leland was. "So how goes the warp core and such?" He asked.

Hawksley regarded the Commander. “Results are nominal. I’ve ensured that the core theta threading matrix segment will be sized appropriately for when the following dilithium core segmentation arrives.” He chuckled. "It's a level 4 theracose matrix. That's incredible."

He turned from the holographic screen and waved it closed.

"You did good work; that was a tough unit." Hawksley walked with his physio cane to him, planting his hand on the back of Sharpe in a friendly slap.

*Giving one of his few Genuine smiles* "Sure is" then the alarms went off "shit!" Sharpe exclaimed walking over to the displaced panel in the wall.

"Leland disconnect the warp core from the computer system, there is feedback building up, looks like a computer trojan virus, damn those Terrans," Sharpe said silencing the alarm and pulling off the cover panel exposing the internals, he ran his tricorder over and found the infected area.

As he disconnected the outer grille "Leland disconnect everything from the computer systems and the computer link to the Starbase NOW!" He exclaimed as he deactivated the panel with the infected section.

“Acknowledged,” Leland spoke in a grave tone, acknowledging the discovered Trojan horse, which was situated to cause a loss of shipboard controls and a core failure, resulting in a cascade failure and destruction of the starbase alone.

“SH--!” Hawksley narrowed his eyes, focusing on the readouts that Sharpe had identified.

“Initiating emergency egress of LCAR, Main Engineering, Main Computers Core systems…” Leland was shocked; his face showed anger, persistence, and relentless need to overstep the Terran Trojan virus. All the while, Hawksley found a back door to the Trojan virus as it was uploaded from a vessel a few light years outside the Starbase sector. How could this happen? Hawksley recorded and tagged the signal origin for after….

“Core shut down IN 3 2 1………………” The sound of core fluctuations halts to an energy stall.

“CORE SHUT DOWN COMPLETE!” Leland turned in Sharpe's direction. Leland had no idea how the Commander deduced the imminent threat but was incredibly relieved.

*Looks at Leland* "Did you locate where the trojan came from?" Sharpe asked as he pulled the section in which the trojan virus was sealed.

Leland looked up confidently, nodding. "I've got the coordinates; I'm passing them to you." He then transferred them to Sharpe's pad.

Holding the section up, I need to get this to security, log the information you found with station Security and mark it a priority the Computer Security Section will need to have everything with them" Sharpe added as he started an in-depth anti-virus scan and looked up at Leland.

"Okay, I have started a Trojan Security sweep of the systems on the Tomcat. It will take the rest of the day to complete. To aid in the search for any further Trojans, I have added my own section of code. So, since we cannot do anything serious, we can leave early, but first, we need to speak to security, and you need to tell them what you found," Sharpe said.

Hawksley nodded, "Sir." He cocked his head to the side, not used to seeing this side of Sharpe.

Paul tapped his Commbadge =/\= Sharpe to Somers =/\= he began.

=/\= Somers here, what is it, Paul? =/\= the Voice asked.

=/\=Karyn I need you to get to my location pronto, we have just averted a Terran trojan horse aimed at the Tomcat, and we have stuff for Securities computer specialists =/\= he said.

=/\= Affirmative be there in a few, Somers out =/\= the line went silent, a moment later Karyn and two security officers transported in on a site to site.

She looked at Paul "What, you said pronto, do you know how many levels and location security is from here" Karyn said simply.

"Well, this section of the ship systems has the core program of the Trojan horse on it, I have initiated a security virus sweep of the Tomcat I would advise you to do the same for the Station, especially in light of what Leland has to report," Sharpe said handing the small piece of section over to one of the officers then turned back to face Karyn "all power has been shut down to the Tomcat and its computer systems isolated from the Stations" Paul added.

Karyn nodded and looked at Leland "Okay Lieutenant, what is it you discovered?" She asked.

"Lieutenant Somers." Hawksley had passed the event log that was purged from the computer's processor matrix. "I've purged the trojan connections, processor mirroring. "I believe the signal, the trojan signal, was transported metastatically into the processor main unit in engineering itself."

"You have the coordinates for a Terran vessel hidden in the L54 448 Gaseous Cloud, 3 parsecs over." Leland firmed his position as he stood.

Both Karyn and Paul looked surprised at each other rather than at Hawksley and as one both said "Excuse me!" both looked back at each other but Sharpe allowed Karyn to continue she took the event log and scanned it visually and then swore in her native tongue "Cachu!" It was so fast that the translators were slow to catch up and just like in the old English dubbed Movies of Far East creation the translation came out after her lips had stopped moving. "Shit!"

Karyn sent this to CinC and Security and sighed "Dammit, we do not have any ships capable of going after it at this time, do you have any idea on the type of ship that is out there, if not it make its size at least?" She asked Hawksley.

“Yes, Ma'am. Planar graviton sensor quads have estimated the vessel comprises a mass of 13,850,000 metric tons, a length of 1,607.2 meters, and a width of 764.4 meters."

Leland activated a linear display graphic design that showed a vessel of opaque dynamics shrouded inside the nebula.

“The station's Dynode kinase reactors have detected a powerful Verteron drive unit.” Hawksley eyed the graphic design on the vessel's desk.

Karyn looked at the image. "Please send that to CinC and the tracking Lieutenant. I have to return to Security to coordinate things. We have a fighter complement, so we might have to send the lot," she said.

"What is the smallest ship currently docked?" Sharpe asked.

"Nebula and obviously we cannot use the Tomcat" she answered.

"well that blows the idea I just had out of the water" Paul said and sighed.

Karyn shrugged "Well I have to be going now so I will see you around Paul" she said, Sharpe nodded and watched her leave.

He turned to Leland. "Well, let's lock things down, allow the computer to run its diagnostics, and return to this again. So go spend some time with your wife, Leland. I will let you know when we can continue," Paul said.

Hawksley held the padd in his hand and cocked his head to the side as if he still could not give up the concern over the vessel. He knew there was nothing that could be done, and it was currently not posing a threat.

"Yes." Leland snaped out of it. "Yes. That would be good. See you Paul." He then turned to leave.

[OFF]

Lt. Leland Hawksley
CEO, USS Tomcat

 

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