====== Task Force command office, SB 234: UNITY
======
When the computer announced that Commander Ohmsford was
officially transferred to the 1st Task Force staff,
Lieutenant Pakosii knew what he ad to do. The Commodore
already asked him about Ohmsford twice, but unless the
Commander was officially part of the Task Force staff, he
could do next to nothing. But now ... Ohmsford was under the
Commodore's command and his aide contacted him immediately.
"Task Force Command, Lieutenant Pakosii to Commander
Ohmsford" he activated the comm.
Bren still fast asleep when the call came through from
Commodore Guzman's office and he was startled half to death
by the voice of Lieutenant Pakosii coming through his
commbadge. Grumbling, he reached for his nightstand and
almost knocked off a framed holograph reaching for his
badge.
"Ohmsford here," he croaked, rubbing his eyes.
"Commander, please report to Commodore Guzman as soon as
possible. He has been asking about you two times already"
"I'll be right there," Bren replied as he sat bolt upright.
He jumped out of bed and into the bathroom like lightning.
For the last few weeks he'd been busy overseeing the refits
to the Rapier after the launch of the Chimera and as a
result hadn't been able to officially take over his duties
as Science Advisor yet.
Ten minutes later Bren arrived at the Commodore's office
looking clean and coiffed; he'd gotten used to being woken
up and needing to be ready in two minutes. "Lieutenant,"
Bren greeted Pakosii as he approached his desk. "Commander
Ohmsford to see Commodore Guzman."
Pakosii nodded. He was used to see folks wanting to speak
with the Commodore in worse shape, so he said plainly: "The
Commodore is awaiting you, Commander. Please proceed" The
stern looking marines made the way into Shane's office free,
but all their weapons remained unsheathed and ready to fire.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Bren said and walked ahead into the
Commodore's office. "Commodore Guzman, good to see you
again."
"Welcome, Commander" Shane called standing from his chair.
"Please take a seat. I was already wondering what happened
to you when I did not meet you earlier … "
"Thanks," Bren said as he took the seat the Commodore
offered. "Sorry about that... R&D had one last task for me
to perform and it kept me busy longer than I expected."
Nodding, Shane said: "Well, there is very little of free
time for anyone here. You've sure noticed that we have far
more work and open positions then actual crew. That's a
point I'd like to discuss wit you."
"Yes," Bren replied. "The war has been taking a noticeable
toll and many officers have been reassigned and redeployed."
"My point is" Shane started, "that I know that you're the
same science officer then an engineer and I am in dire need
for both specialists in the task force. You are officially
the science advisor, but I'd like to offer you a temporary
position of the engineering advisor as well"
Bren nodded. With the war in full swing, Science was taking
somewhat of a backseat and engineers were always wanted. "I
accept; what would you like me to focus on?"
Shane smiled: "Well … your top priority would be to
salvage an old ship yard nearby, make it functional again,
allocate the resources and coordinate the building queue
with SSF Command … and, of course, be in charge of the
ship yard facility."
"Sounds like fun," Bren grinned. He had initially thought
that when he was redeployed to 1st Task Force things might
be too quiet for his liking, but from the looks of things
he'd be just as busy... just with less paperwork to do and
more hands-on projects. "Where is the shipyard located."
"That shipyard is located 3 light years away from here, near
an abandoned fleet outpost. That outpost was abandoned 40
years ago cause some accident and the attached yard was
never used before. According my data, it's up to 95%
finished, but outdated with 50 years old technology. It's a
small ship yard, able to produce runabouts and small ships
up to the defiant class, but since it was somewhat
experimental when build, some of the technology could still
be usable even now-a-day"
"Would you like to keep it where it is or tow it here?" Bren
asked. "Having it be close to Unity should make it easier to
defend and readily accessible. I suspect we'll be seeing a
lot of ships coming by for repairs in foreseeable future."
"Thant's exactly my point." Shane said, "we do not
have enough defense facilities to protect both the UNITY and
the yard, so we need the yard to be towed here. We talk
about defenses later – once the yard is here. For now, I
am more concerned about the productive capacity of the ship
yard. A yard is of little use if it can not produce spare
parts for damaged ships … what can we do here?"
"Unity has some excellent industrial replicators, and maybe
R&D can spare us a large scale replicator," Bren mused.
"I'll twist a few arms. It shouldn't be too much of a task
to update the old shipyard. The system is full of resources
as well."
"True. For now we have enough resources … thanks to
Commander Terek. Of course, we need to watch the resources
stream line closely, cause I think we will be soon short of
resources … cause all the repairs we surely will have to
perform."
Shane paused and said: "All, right, let's call this
point a day. Take the Qashqai and bring me the sip yard
here. If you need support or escort ships, let operations
know, I am sure Colonel PontBrilliant will spare some ships
for you. You're dismissed!"
====== End of log ======
Cmdr. Bren Ohmsford
Science Advisor & temp. Engineering Advisor
1st Task Force, SSF Command
&
Commo. Shane Guzman
CO, SB 234: UNITY
CO, 1st Task Force, SSF Command