God Forging

Posted on Sat Nov 16th, 2019 @ 5:55pm by Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Ensign Briaar Gavarus & Petty Officer 2nd Class 'Big Ethel' Jablonski
Edited on on Sun Nov 17th, 2019 @ 3:31pm

Mission: Family Detention
Timeline: 2396

"Okay, that should do it." Thex said as she connected up the last of the cables and locked it into place. "

She paused as a smile formed on her face as she observed the machinery that had assembled over several hours. All of this to try and make just one of the bracelets that Hera's Amazon's had used. Still, if they could get these built it could revolutionize federation away teams in so many ways. The experiment was being set up on the edge of the Sol system's asteroid belt, close enough for the Hera to Monitor from its berth at Jupiter Station, but not too close to anything that could become problematic.

"Thex to engineering team two we've finished off here what's your status." She said into her mic

"Team two. Ensign Gavarus here..." Adding 'be-frickin'-grudgingly' in her own head. "Just ran another diagnostic and everything is comin' up gold, chief. We're good to go. The current leads are shielded and rated to transfer the maximum generatable power from the Hera's Warp core to see if we can pull this off. We're talking upwards of thirteen billion gigawatts." The two-meter tall, usually testy Tellarite junior engineer responded back with almost none of her telltale sarcasm or snark present. In fact, since the adoption of the minotaur baby, Minerva Carrot, had gone through for Gavarus and her partner, Fiona O'Dell, the usually persnickety porcine had been positively pleasant to work with. But there was a twinge of fear in her voice, as she was currently having to work outside of the confines of a ship to finish the prep.

The irascible engineer was wearing an EVA suit as she returned from the void of space, which she hated working in, to the small shuttle that would return her from the asteroid where the experiment would take place to a safe distance.

"Okay, we're heading back to the shuttle. Monitoring team, is everything okay on the ship?" Thex said into her suits communicator looking up at the distant shape of the Hera.

Back on the Hera, Ensign Mona Gonadie, head of the R&D department, was monitoring the readouts of the test and diagnostics equipment as they prepared for the initial testing. "Everything looks good on our end, Chief. All sensors recording."

Standing on a platform in her own EVA armor in the asteroid field where the test was occurring, safely away from the actual test, Petty Officer Ethel Jablonski looked at what was happening with a bit of apprehension. The bracers she wore with pride on her wrists in service to the Goddess Hera were a mark of honor for the muscle-bound security officer and she didn't know how she felt about the crew trying to tap into that same power technologically. Still, she was also a Starfleet officer and was the person most intimately connected to that technology, and as such had a unique perspective on these tests, so she did her duty. "Ready and standing by, Lieutenant Commander."

With the final confirmation, Thex gave a nod to the pilot as she sat down in the console area in the shuttle. As the last of the engineering team sat in their chairs the Andorian began to run the start-up program. " Okay everyone if everything goes well the machinery will pop out of existence and into its subspace pocket. It will then allow the bracelets to work as the set Hera gave us. "

With that, she looked back at the readings as the machines needed so much power just to even come close to what Hera could do with a flick of a finger. Well, what she could have done at full power.

"Energy build-up should be completed in thirty seconds. Make sure we're at a safe distance ensign. Monitoring team how are things at your end?" The Andorian said keeping her own eyes on the readout.

Mona kept her eyes solidly on the readouts, making sure all data was within expected ranges. "Energy consumption is seven percent higher than expected, but still within projected tolerances. I recommend backing the shuttle off another hundred kilometers just in case."

The shuttle pilot did so as Thex gave him the nod to proceed. The shuttle pulled back as Thex kept her eyes on the data. It kept building, but even she could see the levels beginning to slow and then...

From the asteroid came a bright flash as ripples of dust flew from the asteroid. The shuttle shook slightly as an energy shockwave rocked it before the pilot steadied the vessel.

"Well, we're still here. Monitoring team, how's the local environment?" Thex asked into the coms as she made sure to backup the data recording.

From the shuttle heading away, Ensign Gavarus looked at her monitors to check the actual equipment and connections. "Whatever that... discharge thingy was... it didn't damage the power leads or any of the senors, Chief. The power drain was... 6 percent higher than anticipated, but still within your parameters."

A smile spread over the Andorian's face as she heard that. Looks like something had gone right. " Okay, everyone. The teams are heading back to the Hera. Jablonski would you mind running the test to make sure I've not gone into your bracelets subspace pocket?" she asked nicely.

"I'm on it commander, Commander." Jablonski replied, holding up her wrists, and flicking them slightly. She breathed out a slight sigh of relief as nothing was out of the ordinary and the heads up display in her EVA suit read clear. " All clear, Commander. My own subspace pockets still only have what I keep in them regularly. You aren't in here."  

Well, that's a relief Thex said as she watched the data on her own screen. The energy readings looked good and at the rate of decay, it would have dropped to normal levels in a day or two. She'd like to get some samples from the asteroid for the science team to see any side effects. " Okay, everyone. We'll head back to the Hera and I'll take a look of the readings. After a few tests, we can see if the prototype works as well as the amazonian made ones." She said calmly.

"Anything that puts us back on the ship, I'm good with Chief." Ensign Gavarus grumbled lightly from the shuttle she was in. "Retracting the power leads now and packing it up."

" Very good ensign. " Thex said as she watched everything play out as expected. She was actually rather happy at how everything had gone off without a hitch. True she'd need to look over the data and run the tests, but this looked like it was going to go smoothly.

Like many things on the Hera, this was not to be.