285: Needed not Wanted

By Lt. (jg) Rada Dengar
80512.2350
Directly After Four to Go

-= Tri City Tower area of Stra II=-


Surveying the city from above Rada had reflected back to the ancient ruins he had toured as a child back on Angosia III, he recalled how the area had been described as a dead city and whilst he had accepted that term at the time it now seemed to be quite a misnomer.

This city below was truly what Rada would consider dead, those old ruins may have been faded and damaged but there was still life. A thousand tales were told by those old walls of a civilisation and a people. This city however seemed nothing more than a material existence which could be taken away in a moment, like the switching off of a light bulb, there was no life here. It seemed as though whatever illusion of life had survived here had been merely been sustained by the ever increasing flow of electronic stimulation pumping through the citizenry. There was such loneliness to this city now; the streets were empty or at least might as well have been, there was no community marching proudly together to bring life back to their home, no community at all.

They each descended from the Stella Polaris onto their platform. The area was dimly lit and not at all inviting. An odd silence filled the air as they were quickly and subtly surrounded by the security teams which would be their escorts. Were it not for the fear Rada could see in their eyes he would have sworn that this was an ambush. It was a clear sign of the climate that with their own security detail, security officers out numbered the people actually there to solve the problem three to one.

A small man dressed in bland grey attire approached, his outfit and actions seeming a complete contrast to the ostentatious appearance of his amber skin and pitch black hair. Perhaps this gave some insight into these people, a vivid nature faded into its own shadow by the constructs they adorn themselves with.

He constantly fidgeted with his fingers as he spoke and his eyes refused to meet those of the Polaris’ crew, instead constantly glancing downward to the floor.

“Welcome to Stra II. Um, we appreciate whatever help you can give us,” he said. Rada noticed the man staring for a moment at their energy generators, almost longingly.

Rada was still quite unaccustomed to the fact that as the Chief Engineer he was expected to be the one to do the talking regarding Engineering matters and it wasn’t until Kellyn gave him a subtle nudge that it occurred to him. “Our first priority will be getting your Weather Modification Net back into proper operation so we’ll need to have a look at your Central Power Allocation Grid.”

The man didn’t like this idea one bit. “You can’t, um, the Weather Modification net, it’s um… too complicated and um… dangerous. I suggest that you concentrate your efforts somewhere um…” he was struggling to find the words for somewhere that can be repaired without requiring any knowledge of the Central Power Allocation Grid.

“I mean I think it would be best if our own Engineers, since they’re more familiar with the system, worked on the power distribution side of things and you concentrated your efforts on repairing the damage up here”

The fact that this man was hiding something was in no doubt, Reece and Dengar exchanged glances.

Rada didn’t know what to say, this man could not be serious as to expect them to be able to repair this system without being able to examine the problem back to the source. He had a slightly melancholy thought considering that with the lies he’d told and characters he’d played over the years he may have at some point been viewed like this, he dismissed that thought knowing that he was a much better liar than this man. The man was clearly very nervous about something and whilst Rada knew he couldn’t convince him to ignore the problem he could at least try to make it seem unreasonable for him to continue with his objection.

“We know how fragile your systems are”, none of them had bought that excuse but they had to play the game, “but I can assure you we’re complete professionals and that we will treat them with the utmost care…”

“We’ll even stick them back together using the extra thick masking tape, just for you.” interjected Reece although his humour was lost on the Strasa.

“But not only would any attempt to repair these systems without starting at the power allocation be impractical, the risk of power surges make it down right dangerous.”

The man didn’t want these people here but knew that they needed all of the help they could get to get back on line, after a few seconds of indecision he replied, “We will show you the um…systems you can work on safely and you can communicate with our Engineers in the power allocation centre to avoid power surges.”

Rada was beginning to worry now “That’s not good enough,” he replied barely managing to keep his voice under control, his eyes diverting to Kellyn momentarily as memories of how he had recently seen her fighting for life after the power surge on the Alchemy.

“We don’t…” Rada stopped himself when he observed that several of the surrounding security personnel were now resting their hands on their weaponry.

There was a little more conviction in the man’s voice now “You will work only on the systems we authorize, to do otherwise would be…dangerous.” They all exchanged knowing glances, this was going to be harder than they realized.

Lt. (jg) Rada Dengar
Chief Engineer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012