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Posted on Fri Jun 12th, 2015 @ 8:02pm by Commodore Kathleen O'Shea & Lieutenant Commander Ritsu Tainaka & Lieutenant Stacy Pierce

Mission: Bloodpath
Location: Powerhouse Alpha-Six

As Kathleen awaited the two officers that she had summened to arrive, she pulled out her PADD and started putting together an idea. They needed much more power than they had available from the generators that they had brought along. After speaking with a local team of utility engineers, Kathleen believed that she had located an option. But it was going to require some creative engineering. Which was exactly why she was glad that Ritsu had made the trip.

Stacy entered the command tent and quickly made her way to the closest table, almost dropping the PADDs she carried out of her hands. She really wished she had thought to bring her messenger bag. "Good morning, Captain."

Kathleen smiled at Stacy. "Good morning. It's good to see you again. How have things been progressing?"

"See for yourself." She said with a smirk, and indicated toward the back of the room.

There was a rather large bang, the smell of smoke and the sound of someone cursing in Japanese. A few moments later Ritsu appeared in the tent her hair was slightly messed up and she had some grease on her cheek. Her sleeves were also rolled up and her arms had obviously been in some sort of machine.

"Sorry about that" she said with a smile. "Well its working now, even if it took a few crosswires to get it going" she explained grinning.

"So...does than mean we can expect work to begin on the main hydro-flow generators soon?" The river located a couple of kilometers north of their site had once been the location of a local engineering project. It was designed to use the rivers current to power a series of generators, much in the way that ones in a dam did. The problem was, they had never been able to meet with enough success to warrant continuing the project. But Kathleen believed that some simple re-engineering could change that. "Once we have them back to nominal status, we can begin the modifications."

Those modification were quite simple. She was going to have small impulse generators mounted at the head of the flow chutes. That should have the effect of increasing the water flow by an adjustable factor. Additionally, the impeller blades would be modified as well for better functionality.

"I've got three of my engineering teams on it" Ritsu said. "They're having a little trouble interfacing with the outdated systems. I was going to head over there next to see what I can do. From the last report I read was that the conduits were not strong enough to handle such raw power, so they'll need strengthening" she explained.

You could literally see the cogs in Ritsu's brain working around and clicking away as she pondered over the problem. "Give me two hours" she said.

Kathleen nodded her approval. "Very good. And when you have a minute, come see me. We have some things we need to discuss. Rather important, actually...but not for here." There were too many ears around them. It was not common knowledge yet that they were breaking ties with the Federation. Kathleen wanted to keep it that way for a bit longer.

"Understood. I'm going to head over to the river after this. I'm driving if you want to come along?" Ritsu replied.

Kathleen checked her chrono. "Why not...I've got a bit of extra time."

"My tools are in the van... they gave me a van!" Ritsu said with a smile. "Apparently Engineers need them..." she shrugged in confusion to try and hide her excitement.

Kathleen looked over the vehicle...wondering if it might not be more dangerous than the invaders. She looked at Stacy, who just shrugged and shook her head as a response. "Well...it is certainly...well...it's a van."

"Well, it did make it's way here under it's own power. More or less..." Stacy added.

Kathleen held her smile. "You...ah...we have other means of transport if you require it."

"Hey" Ritsu said as she climbed in and started the engine. "This thing runs fine, mainly because I rebuilt it" she explained. "Getting in?"

'You only live once.' "Sure." She replied as she climbed into the passenger seat. As she glanced back, she saw Stacy still standing outside. "Don't even think about it...hop aboard." With a sigh or resignation, Stacy opened the back door and jumped into the only seat in the rear. At least there were seat belts...

To be continued...