Bombs...Away?

Posted on Wed Aug 16, 2023 @ 10:13pm by Lieutenant Elijah Cooper

405 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Shakedown
Location: Torpedo Bay - Forward Section

Elijah had spent the better part of the day looking through the various technical manuals and reports on the tactical systems of the Challenger. He wasn't kidding when he told his new CO that she packed a lot more firepower than the Iowa. In the Saladin class they were lucky to hold their own against a fully armed BOP, with the Challenger, however, it would take more than a lone BOP to threaten the starship. The defensive systems were just as impressive as well. The deflectors alone were able to output about 10-15% more than the Iowa as well, allowing them to take considerable more punishment.

It was all very impressive, except for the fact that he was now standing in forward torpedo bay, trying to track down an issue with the actual launching mechanism. As in the mechanism would fail after the third launch in a row. The armed and highly explosive torpedo would get stuck in the actual tube. Luckily, the last time that it happened they were able to remotely shut the weapon down before it detonated and took half the ship with it.

He just stood there, scratching his head, staring at the offending piece of equipment.

"Anything that I can help you with sir?"

Elijah spun around, so lost in thought that he didn't even hear the door open. There was a young ensign standing there, short and compact with muscle. He was holding a PADD and was indicating the launch tube. "Ensign Zayde Park, engineering division."

"Oh, sorry, lost in thought," Elijah replied. "But maybe you can help, after every two torpedoes fire the whole launching system goes offline. Sometimes with a live torpedo in the tube."

Zayde looked at the status panel above the launch tube. "Is that a live round in there now?"

"Test weapon," Elijah said. "At least I'm pretty sure that it's a test weapon."

"What?" Zayde asked.

"I'm kidding," Elijah said. "It's totally a test weapon."

"Very amusing sir," Zayde said, not trying to keep the relief out of his voice. "Did you run a diagnostic?"

"Twice," Elijah said. "Comes up clean."

"Hmmm, might be a software problem then," Zayde said. "Let's have a look at the computer subroutine and see if anything pops out. If that doesn't work then I have a few other options that we could try."

Elijah gestured to the launcher. "By all means."

"Great, let's get to work."

OFF:

 

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