After a good night's sleep, Blake was ready to move on with his assignments. Long overdue tasks were awaiting, most of them pushed aside as he was focused on the Warspite and nothing else. But now that Dagon's requests have added up to the list, some of which are halting the project's completion, he is forced to depart the Atacama for the time being. Leaving his quarters, he proceeds to find Juliet in order to do one last briefing with Dagon. He founds her in one of the workshops, fixing one of the Legion-made exhaust systems. A knock on the doors and a gesture to come was enough to get her to follow Blake.
"I'll be leaving in an hour. I don't trust him, but he kept his promises so far. Keep an eye on him while I'm gone. "
She casually nods and they move on. Upon reaching Dagon's quarters, they knock on the door and get no response. Where is he? They move on and enter the hangar. Looking around, they are trying to spot Dagon. Blake chuckles when he sees him. Standing in front of a holoprojector, and he was already far busier than those two were. Neck-deep in papers, he already started with preliminary analysis and damage reports.
"Well ain't that a sight? Listen... I have some things to take care of. She'll be your go-to for the time being."
Juliet steps forward. A mid-aged woman that would surely be considered attractive to most men. Her appearance was far different from Justin's, but her temperament was the same. Serious, straightforward and cold. As her hands were smeared with grease, she decides not to offer a handshake. Keeping her poker face on, she speaks.
"James, right? Name's Juliet. Time's wastin' so lets cut to the chase. Justin said you'll be calling the shots. Well, call them."
Meallan had a pen on his mouth that he was munching on while thinking and doing calculations for the past twenty minutes. But said pen found release from its dental torture and fell to Meallan's hand that placed it and the paperwork on the nearby table in a quick manner.
"Hullo there, guv'na. Miss Julie."
He extended his hand, forcing the contact and shook both of them rather vigorously, not minding the grease that he cleaned to an old rag he removed from his pocket.
"So yer a grease-monkey? Glad ter meet yew because we're gon'a need mawer ov you. Know what I mean?"
He looked at Blake that just nodded and turned around to leave. Meallan looked at Julie, obviously a no non-sense like her brother, and seemingly knowledgeable of the inner workings of a space-craft. He looked around and picked up a data-pad that changed the image of the holo-projector showing off the IR scans of the Warspite.
"So, first things first as me daddy used ter say. A solid strut to support the preliminary repairs. And a shield to keep them rads and 'roids away from the lady, aye?"
He turned around to look at Julie and pulled up a drawing schematic of the strut and how to pin it to place and the relation of it to the Atacama base.
"The strut is aesy as pickles. Basic, with railins for them robo-arms to help us. Ay'll sae.. Two days of work and we're done fo' that, Miss. Ay've asked for suits to EVA wet-work out theire and 'nough metal to built it to yer brother. But what is only da entrance fer da main plate."
The full spectrum scans of the Warspite came to view, this time showing several layers of the ship in different colors and depth.
"We gotta scrub 'er down 'ard. Her bones are dipped in rads an' ge'in' eaten. Also, plug all 'em 'oles. Room by room. Every bulkhead, every armor plate. After that, we can repressure da lady up an' work in peace ter get 'er movin' again. Whadda ye say?"
Juliet waves to Justin as he was leaving and turn again to Dagon to continue the discussion.
"We've received a shipment of quality steel and Kishiro-made EVA suits not long ago. We've been preparing for several months, so there's an abundance of other materials, machinery and supplies as well. A strut won't be an issue. Deliver those schematics to our foreman and they'll be on it momentarily."
Focusing on the holo-projector, she carefully observes all the layers of the scan. The foremost layer was displaying exterior damage and hull ruptures. There was a large concentration of them around the ship bridge and command centre. A possible consequence of desperate Gaian pilots trying to cut off the serpent's head. She points at it.
"We can use the forward launch bay as an access point towards the interior and to move the heavier machinery inside. An airlock extension that would connect the base and the ship would ease the transport of materials and handling, as well as allow the men to ditch the EVA suits as soon the hull is patched and life support restored. But this damage... It'll make it difficult. We can send out two teams to weld the exterior hull ruptures and two to patch up interior simultaneously. Once we gained some ground within the ship... Well, we can send out teams to patch it up, level by level, compartment by compartment. Then we can start working on the shield. We've already managed to pull one Bustard-grade shield emitter off the black market, but it hasn't been delivered yet."
He smirked and dropped the rag on top of the table, making sure they were alone.
"Got to train, Miss. Beer?"
Meallan asked, leaning behind the holo-projector and pulling out two beers from a small refrigerated case. Julie nodded and he threw her one.
"Mind the shake."
Was his reply as he opened his and took a long chug, clearly savoring the cold, gold-like liquid. With a content sigh, he turned at Julie and pointed at the Warspite scans.
"We need that shield fast, because the strut will suffer from solar radiation fast without protection. Never-mind the rocks floating around. But yeah, strut, shield and plug the holes so we can re-pressurize her whole."
His finger pointed at the engine area that flashed red, detecting his input and zoomed in.
"The scuttling-protocols fills the engines with fuel and lights it up, causing a controlled blow out. Didn't happened here, which I suspect it was due to a security fail-safe. Probably there were pods around when the chambers were flooded and the system locked the ignition to prevent an explosion with them around. Or there was the possibility of a massive boom. Don't know until I get my hands on the secondary and tertiary command-network relays in that section."
The beer found his lips again, but this time it was a quiet, fast one.
"Which means that those big spots covering 90% of the engines we see there? It's fuel. And with the rads being thrown at it, it corroded everything it touched. Now, it's just big lumps of radioactive corroded metal. So...."
His blue eyes turned to Julie, serious.
"We're going to need engines. And I haven't even begun on the power-cores."
The holo-projector zoomed out and flashed three locations in the ship and he made a three symbol with his hand.
She opens the beer and takes a sip. LIstening carefully to all Meallan had to say, she stood silent and nodded in agreement every minute or so, to confirm that she's paying attention.
"My brother will deliver the shield tomorrow. Getting it to work shouldn't be much of an issue, as its core consumption is rather low. After all, we won't have to fine tune it or overclock to soak up a large amount of hostile fire, it'll only serve to deflect smaller asteroids and protect the ship from radiation... And we can hope it will be enough. The module can be jury-rigged in the forward launch bay using Inquisitor's power core. It's not much, but it should cover the basics... Shielding, propulsion, auxiliary systems, sensor arrays. It will be depleted rather soon, but then again, it doesn't matter. We'll be looking for proper replacement once it's in the yard."
Taking a moment to more closely observe the situation with the engines, she takes another sip of the beer and stares at the area Meallan pointed out for a minute. It was damaged beyond repair.
"Draining the fuel, replacing burnt panels... A day of work. But there's no chance that engine will run again. Finding one on the black market could take weeks, and producing one is something we've never done before. Well... This is why we brought you here. What do we do?"
With a finger, he clicked a folder on his datapad and opened a file that came into full view on the holo-projector.
Timelines, milestones, workflows, materials, expected shortages, needs, risk assessment, meetings, outlines, analysis, projected expenditures flew off around the screen.
"My initial analysis is that we need a proper yard. Now, you and I know we can't make one here. It's a security liability for your base, since it will make it ping on every ladar and sensor in the system. Nevermind it would also take a couple of years plus the increased traffic and stressing out all of your supply chains. So no can do on that end, you'll agree I think."
He sipped the beer and one of the graph popped out and he pointed out with one finger, named "Reactionary Thrust Ratios" and the viability of several engines jury-rigged onto the Warspite.
"My idea is the following. The power core is all but burned meaning we got to make a new one. We can't do that here either. What we can do is scrap it, and temporarily install a converted Legion gunboat power-core."
Her eyebrows rose, something he knew if she was an wrench monkey as him, that a gunboat powercore doesn't have the power needed for the Warspite. He rose his hand in the air, nonchalant.
"We then slap four HLE-27's. I know you probably don't have them lying around collecting dust and are in your Inquisitors, but while the LFXC power-core gonna be junk in the end, the HLE's will be under working condition to be refitted back into your gunboats."
With a touch in the data-pad, the numbers appeared for energy and thrust ratio prediction.
"It won't be able to cruise at more than a hundred, but that is good since it will allow it to navigate properly without incurring stress to the inner strut and armored plating. Nice and slow. To wherever you get me a shipyard."
The energy level flashed on the red.
"Expected time of life of the LFXC is eighty-six hours once it starts running. It will juice up the four engines and run on red all the time with the shield setup I have in mind. It can't power a full cruiser sized shield, but I can jury-rig a couple of freighter shields on it that will allow a decent hull coverage. Now.."
He put the can down and looked back at Julie.
"If she gets caught in the way, it's a dead duck floating on the water. It can't run, it can't fight. The strut won't hold out on a jump and cloaking will just fry it since we don't have the capability here to manufacture ionic charged plates. We'll need that shipyard."
The holo-projector receded back to the main workflow UI.
"Eight days for the preliminary repairs and four more to perform the needed changes to the LFXC and HLE-27's. With testing, of course. Ain't keen on building death traps."
He clicked the data-pad again and a new UI emerged with a list of several software programs and solutions.
"Also, at first, we can setup a very basic fly-by-wire controls, but we got to keep in mind this baby was built to outlast us all. Security failsafes, lock-downs, targeting software, life-support, power management, shield systems, master control, etc. Either we do it from the ground up which will need very good people, since I ain't that good of a programmer.. Or we get it from the Hackers. We can't pull out a Inquisitor systems for this, so military-grade baseline systems for cruisers will be needed and built it from there on up. Unless you have those already."
Listening carefully to what Meallan had to say, she takes the last sip of her beer. Dropping the can in the trash nearby, she turns around and silently approaches the console. Switching to the star chart of Liberty and its bordering world, she swiftly plots in the route Warspite will have to handle. Few more clicks and the nav map pans into their destination: Vieques Shipyard.
"There's your yard... My brother has made a deal with the Congress and made sure that we receive all we need to complete the reconstruction. And, that we handle it undisturbed. Our scouts are already grid-searching the area for potential weak spots in local surveillance networks so we're able to slip unnoticed. But still... It's a long way to go."
After concluding her input on the matter, she turns towards the panel once more. A few seconds later, the image snaps to a 3-D model of an Inquisitor-class gunboat.
"And there's your Inquisitor. Justin won't be happy to hear we disassembled the Spearhead, but we have no choice. The ship has been overhauled several months ago and both its HLE-27's and power core should be in excellent condition."
"And I'm rather sure I can jury-rig that damn shield to the Inquisitor core. It'll be outputting bare minimum, but that's all we need. As much as freighter shielding would be easier to handle, how many would we need? Ten? Twenty? A complex array is more prone to faults than a single component."
"Software... I'll leave that to my brother. But as cunning as he is, I don't think we'll be getting one soon. We should look for alternatives. Four thrusters strapped to the hull to cover X and Y axis movement and using HLE's throttle for the Z axis. We can control all of it remotely using wireless modules. That should get us to Puerto Rico."
His smirk was evident as Julie spoke. He picked the can and finished it up with one quick gulp and pulled the Warspite operational scans again.
"Having a proper yard will boost this up plenty. But.."
Meallan smirked once again and a new layout appeared on top of the operational scans. A gunboat shield bubble versus an arranged array of freighter ones and its power consumption.
"It's a gunboat powercore we're looking to power this whole show. Four engines when it normally powers two, plus a shield that ain't the right size, its just asking not to work. The array of shields covers more hull, while draining less energy. Obviously can't swat fire thrown at it, but for the job here is more than enough."
The Warspite scans slowly turned on an axis, giving movement to the background of the two persons talking inside that bay.
He finished cleaning the table with a rag and pulled up the systemic view of the Warspite. All the necessary systems were green and his boyish smirk gave way to a proper smile. She was space worthy again. Not battle worthy. But the first steps to it were done and looking at the pressurization readings, alongside the engine output charts, he would almost pat himself in the back. He opened a channel to Julie and sent the message.
"She's ready, Julie. Tell your people to get prepped for the long haul."
Closing the comm, he sat over a small crate, and placed the rag over his face. For the better part of two weeks, the small team managed to create miracles out of thin air, from the makeshift yard to the coupling of the cruiser shield onto the connection of a small powercore, engines and rebuild the essential systems to make her fly by wire. All that, with very little sleep. Yet with this small win, Meallan allowed himself some much needed shut-eye.