Assisting the Relut

Posted on Wed May 21st, 2025 @ 11:07am by Lieutenant Commander Mattys Plaatjes & Captain Andre Hunt

1,496 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Trillius Prime
Location: Engineering

Head Engineer Mezin Alax waited at the docking area for the Starfleet engineers that were coming on board to assist with repairs. This had been the third time in the past nine months that their transport had been ambushed by the L'Dira. The first time, they lost a good portion of their cargo. Second attack they fended off the pirates, but this last one they were going to lose. These Federation people had arrived right on time. There was a slight jerk as their ship connected with the Meridian. As the doors opened the injured was the first to exit, afterwards a team of Human in red and blue uniforms came on board.

"Lieutenant Commander Plaatjes," Mezin announced.

'That's me, eh,' Plaatjes said with a chuckle, fitting his large frame through the airlock. 'A pleasure to come aboard the Relut.' The Meridian's Chief Engineer waved through his team, 'we've brought some of Starfleet's finest with us - I assure you, you'll find no finer engineers in the Quadrant.' He stuck out his hand, 'pleased to meet you ...?' he left the questions unsaid.

Mezin returned the smiled with one of his own, as he extended his own hand. "Thank you for your assistance in this matter. The L'Dira quite a bit of damage this time around. I'll take you all down to engineering."

Taking the hand, Plaatjes pumped it firmly, and grinned, 'it's a pleasure to see another Engineering Room - I'm sure you keep it ship-shape. Now what kind of equipment do you have - your warp engine specs and the like?' Plaatjes wanted to be prepared, and was double-checking the information they had been given with the crew's actual knowledge as they made their way down to Engineering.

"Follow me." Mezin led the team down to the engine room. Opening they walked into the area which half the size of engineering on the Meridian. "We just finally managed to put out the last of the fires down here about twenty minutes ago. Now just trying to see about getting these engines back online."

'Damn, they don't give you a lot of space to work in down here do they,' Plaatjes said as he looked around the cramped space. He moved aside to let the remainder of the Away Team in to the space. He could smell scorched metal and burnt lubricant, unpleasant stings on the nostril. 'Your air filters aren't compromised are they?' he asked cautiously.

Taking a whiff, Mezin sighed in frustration. "Could possibly be." He quickly turned his attention to another engineer. "Go check out those air filters."

'Masks,' Plaatjes ordered, making a circle motion around his face. One of the crewmen obliged, dropping to her knees, and pulling out masks and handing them out to the Away Team. Accepting his with a nod of appreciation, Plaatjes motioned to Mezin, 'we always bring spares, there should be enough for your team too, til we get the filters up and running.'

Mezin nodded his appreciation. "Clearly you have a lot more experience than myself. This is actually my first assignment running things. Prior to that I was on the job for two years."

'I'm older than I look,' Plaatjes replied kindly, with an easy smile and a chuckle. 'Been in plenty of knock-down, drag-out fights in my time. Air filters are surprisingly easy to knock out - even on a state of the art Starfleet ship. The Romulans taught us that a few times during the war.'

"Romulans?" Mezin replied with a confused look. Never heard of them."

Plaatjes' smile grew a little tighter, 'consider yourself lucky then, my friend. They started a war with Earth for no reason, and savagely attacked our people. Thankfully they're the other side of our space - plenty of room between you and them!' He looked around, 'now, let's see to your engines!'

Returning the smile, Mezin led the Chief Engineer down the engines. There was clearly a lot of fire damage that they had managed to put out about thirty minutes prior. "We managed to put the fires out not too long ago. And the damage is bad, but not as bad as it could be."

Nodding, Plaatjes inspected the machinery in front of him. Grabbing a scanner from one of his subordinates, he scanned the dilithium chamber for the ship's core. 'It doesn't look like your chambers were damaged - just normal wear and tear, thank God. Makes things simpler for us to repair, eh.' He motioned his people forward, and they began taking scans of their own, feeding in to one clear diagnostic for Plaatjes to present to Mezin. 'Give 'em a minute and we should have a breakdown of what we need to do, and how long it'll take.'

Mezin sat back observing the Starfleet staff go to work. "Any recommendations on what I can do better for future attacks? I feel as if when things were happening there was way too much scrambling. We weren't prepared."

'Well,' Plaatjes said as he looked over the information coming in. 'It really depends on how many people you've got. For us, we usually have pre-drilled damage control teams we can send to fix a problem immediately. For a smaller ship like the Relut, I don't think that would work, no?' He thought about the question for a moment, then looked at the Trill. 'If I were you, I'd take the data we have here for you, and reinforce the weakpoints - your data networks and the like.

'With your hull plating, I'd keep a subroutine handy to ensure enough power is transferred to it during a fight so you can ride it out. Same with impulse power, you can try to outrun the enemy rather than have to take the beating. Preparedness is your best friend out here.'

The young engineer proceeded to write down all of the suggestions given to him. It was moments like these, that Mezin wished that he could have been able to follow someone with this kind of experience. The last Chief Engineer really hadn't gone too far out or had to deal with the problems they were now facing. "I believe we could probably begin to make those adjustments to reinforce those weakpoints. Going to suggest to the Captain about running some drills down here."

'That's a great idea - simulate as many different situations as you can,' Plaatjes replied warmly, pleased to see an Engineer who wanted to improve and better their care of their ship. 'Before we part ways, I'll check the Meridian's computer library to see if we don't have a list of simulations we can share with you. Every little helps, right?'

"It would definitely help and be very much appreciated. So how long is the Meridian staying in the system?"

'I'm not sure,' Plaatjes replied honestly. 'Long enough at least to make sure the Relut is good and ready to carry on her journey.' He shrugged, 'other than that, I can't say. We have business with your homeworld, but obviously, I can't talk about that. How long will you be away from Trillius Prime?'

"We were just beginning a three-month assignment," Mezin mentioned. "Typically our transports never venture more than five to six months from home."

'Long enough to make you miss home, but short enough to keep them interesting,' Plaatjes chuckled, then cocking his head as he heard a sound. 'Looks like the filters are working again,' he said, pulling his mask off. 'Air should be good for you soon enough.'

Mezin removed his own mask as he took in the air. "My people tend to prefer to stay close to home in order not to draw too much attention to ourselves." Pulling out a device, he began scanning. "Oxygen is raising to normal."

'Shouldn't take long to get through the rest of the stuff,' Plaatjes replied, consulting his own device. 'We'll need to ferry over a few parts from Meridian, but that's no bother, it looks like our bolts are broadly compatible with your systems.' He grinned at the Trill, 'not drawing attention works quite well. Humans make a noise wherever they go, so we always seem to be getting into trouble.'

"Hopefully this won't be the last time we cross paths," Mezin mentioned. There was a certain hopefulness in his voice. Opening up a panel, he took a look inside. "Everything normal in here."

'That's great,' Plaatjes said, genuinely pleased as he looked around the ship's Engineering Bay. 'Hopefully we won't be strangers - the Meridian will be out there somewhere though.' He clapped the Trill on the shoulder, 'I'll get those programs over to you before we head off. Promise.'

"Alright."

::OFF::

Lieutenant-Commander Mattys Plaatjes
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Meridian

Mezin Alax apb Andre Hunt
Head Engineer
Transport Relut

 

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