The Need for Haste
Commander Tucker, after inspecting the lift for himself, was forced to admit that getting it to work again and overriding the lock down of the bridge in less than three hours was hopeless. The mechanical failure due to the damage caused by the ion storm was too severe to be remedied in the amount of time given. In fact, he estimated that his people couldn't get the lift operating for at least eight hours without a significant miracle. Trip didn't have anything against miracles. He simply doubted that he could work one himself.
With that said and done, Trip found his way to the ventilation shaft where he second team was working to build a ladder to the bridge. Two technicians were fashioning rough ladder rungs and an additional crewman was beginning to fastened them to the interior of the shaft. Trip glanced at their work and nodded approvingly.
"Looking good." he commented. "Can you give me any estimate as to when you'll be done?"
The crewman he had put in charge glanced at the five rungs already attached and said, "Maybe two and a half hours."
"That's pushing it awfully close. They've got about three hours of air if the instruments are correct. I would hate to have the captain brain damaged from oxygen deprivation on the account of a few minutes of miscalculation. Can you hurry it up, crewman?" asked Tucker, deadly seriously.
"Yes, sir." he stammered, eyes widening the commander's bluntly spoken words. "If you can send two more people in here, maybe we could get an assembly line going, sir." he suggested.
"That's the spirit, crewman ..." Tucker said, leaving the end of the statement open in hopes that the engineer would supply his name.
"Crewman second class Marcus Jefferies, sir." he filled in, trying not to let the disappointment show.
"I'll round up a couple of more technicians for this job. You keep at it, Jefferies." ordered Tucker, ducking out of the confining ventilation tube.
"I thought you had worked with him on Titan, Marc. He didn't even know your name." said one of the other engineers.
"I was positive that he remembered me." said Crewman Jefferies, scratching his head and getting back to work. "I guess he doesn't think I'm anything special after all." he thought with some sadness and frustration. The only thing left to do was prove the commander wrong and do the job right.
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