The Meaning Of Command

Author: Chaoseternus

Chapter 10: HyperDrives

Peters watched the screens out of the corner of her eye as Liberty made its jump to the Alpha Centauri system, slowly vanishing into hyper, its cargo pods loaded with foundry equipment and scaffolding for the restoration of the former outpost of Ra to operational status. Brigadier General O'Neil had been screaming for these supplies for two months now, but with Merchant involved with relief efforts, there was no ship that could have delivered equipment intact to the system, the few hyper capable tugs the RSS had could have taken it sure, but not enclosed, which meant risking damage to the priceless equipment. It was hard enough to explain to the manufacturers what the Royal Navy had wanted it for in the first place, without having to get replacement parts so soon.

With a sigh, Peters turned her back to the endless supplies of paperwork lining her desk. For now at least she was still the senior officer of the RSS, and that had proven to mean she was on call 24/7, needed a mechanical digger to shift the paperwork, and was just itching for Thompson to return to duty. Another month or so, and you can go back to just worrying about the Sol system, not the whole RSS she consoled herself.

Peters looked up from her paperwork with a groan as a knock sounded at her door, quickly she glanced at her clock, 0342, Liberty should just be arriving at Alpha Centauri then.
"Come in!" she croaked out, then cursed, and cleared her throat, clearer she shouted "Come in!"

Dodge entered the room, temporarily commanding Thundersdawn despite his status as an SGC officer; Dodge had proven himself uncommonly capable, if a little unorthodox at times. She was glad to have him, except when he had that expression on his face. That expression just screamed 'problem' at her. "We just received a distress signal from Liberty. Their stuck in the interstellar gulf, a safety shut down their hyperdrives, they say it's a rebuild job"
"Shit!" she cursed, and leaned backwards in her chair, "Persephone?"
"Looks like the same problem Captain" Dodge paused, then added "and every single major hull, the Prometheus's, the Dauntless's, and the sole Merchant, they are all using the same basic engine design" Peters run her hands through her hair as she quickly ran through the options, "Okay, the small craft, any sign of the same problem there?"
"Not as yet, but without Persephone or Liberty's engines to investigate, we don't really know how the problem is being caused in the first place" Dodge grimaced as he finished his Coffee, "we need to get those engines out and we need to strip them, and fast" "Okay, the Yorktown is airtight and sound, only internal work left yes?"
"Pretty much, you want to move her?" Dodge replied, his eyes flickering as he ran through the ships status, "Okay, she should be in good enough condition to be moved to an external airlock though it'll probably need a tug, I'll check, then have Persephone moved into her bay"
"What have you sent after Liberty?"
"Apart from the hyper she's in perfect condition, so I've scrounged up a couple of Hyper tugs from Alpha to grab the Liberty's cargo pods and take them home with them, and I've sent one of ours after the ship herself"
"Good, okay I don't think we need to issue an advisory about this drive issue yet, but have one prepped. Also talk to operations about keeping RSS and SGC ships within speaking distance of each other for the time being, we can't have them going off on their own if there is a possible drive issue. Also get the SGC's drive experts up here stat; you'll need to talk to Hammond and Carter about that"
Dodge nodded, "I'll get right on it" Peters waited until Dodge reached the door, then smiling slightly she called out, "oh and Dodge?"
"Yes Captain?"
"The SGC is purchasing two Dauntless'es, one batch 1 and a batch 2, we just got word from the SGC, the batch 2 is yours, congratulations"
Dodge grinned, another ship, beautiful. And he would get to see it born too, which was even better.
"Thank you, Captain"
Peters smiled as the door closed behind Dodge and mentally began ticking off the seconds… "Waaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhwhooooooooo!"
Grinning, she turned back to her paperwork.