Not Exactly Forward Thinking

Posted on Mon Mar 2nd, 2020 @ 10:53pm by Captain Marcus Duval & Lieutenant JG Eric Davis

Mission: Mission 49: The Stars Look Down
Location: Various Locations - USS Spirit of Winter
Timeline: 1130Hrs - November 9th, 2391

Commander Marcus Duval sighed softly as he looked over the replicator waveguides. "So.. We've been out of spacedock not even twenty four hours and I gotta tell the skipper that he can't have his cup of java?" he let out a soft sigh, imagining his afternoon just committed an act of seppuku.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric Davis nodded his head. "That's about the long and the short of it, yes Chief." Davis regarded his former Chief, not afraid of him in the least. Davis was rather non-descript looking with short blonde hair and blue eyes.

Duval had known Eric from when the two had worked together shaking down the refitted version of the USS Nebula. "Unbelievable." the older Engineer shook his bald head. "This... is six kinds of stupid.." Duval growled. "

"Oh I know. I'm also working on repairing it." Davis explained.

"Well... Next you'll be telling me that the main warp control system committed seppuku next."

"Don't knock it Chief, the day is young afterall..." Davis chuckled softly, it was an inside joke between the two when on the first day of her trials, the USS Nebula's main computer crashed and needed to be cold booted up, a process that took about twenty minutes or so and left both men with something of a superstitious streak and Duval in particular with a rather evil sense of humor.

"Alright... Lets get this sorted out." Davis sat down at the computer station as he called up the replicator control program software. "Alright..."

Meanwhile Duval tapped the replicator. "Computer, a hand an cheese sandwich on rye bed please." what came out was a small collection of sludge. "Davis, you're not kidding."

"What did you order?" the younger, blonde haired man inquired. "A slice of cheesecake.?"

"I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich." Duval gingerly reached in before he touched the sludge. "Ehh." he quickly whiled the oily goo from his finger, then he tapped the 'recycle' button on the face of the replicator control display. "Thats just nasty." before he turned back to Davis. "So... Can it be fixed?"

"Well. its not the waveguides... Well asides from the fact that these are defective."

Duval sighed as he slapped his hand against his face, in a rather dramatic facepalm. "Oh god dammit." Duval sucked in a lungfull of air as he realized he was losing control of his temper. "What else is wrong with this ship?"

"You got me Chief." Davis chuckled softly.

"Alright, something for me to bring up at the meeting for Beta Shift in forty minutes or so." he paused. "Tell me you can fix the replicators by then?"

"I am uncertain where the instability is occurring... I'll need to go through the program code again, line by line."

"Oh." Duval sighed softly. "Well that's not gonna work.. You got anything else?"

Davis almost smiled. "I am uncertain. I know someone touched this though..." he paused. "Let me try a little something... A little something Professor Jennifer LaSteel taught me at the academy." he quickly called up the computer settings as he did a quick check. "Yep. I thought so.."

Duval raised an eyebrow. "Oh... do enlighten me?"

"I'm going to restore the old information from the old patch... Since sometimes the guys when they do their updates forget to scrub their code clean of line errors and discrepancies."

Duval listened in silence. "Nice... will it work?"

"We'll know in about a minute or so." Davis responded as he tapped the display before him. "Okay... uploading old information to the datacore now... and .... try it?" he turned to Duval. "The system should be working now."

"Well... we will see." as he turned back to the replicator. "Computer. One glass of water please. Two degrees celsius please?"

The glass appeared as Duval gingerly reached in, he plucked the glass from where it stood as if trying to hold back the effects of entropy. He lifted it to his nose before smelling it. "Nadda." then he placed it on the nearby before both men.

"Wow, you really have become paranoid." Davis commented aloud

"No... I don't want to poison myself by drinking something that's not water but looks like it and acts like it."

Davis nodded as he handed his Chief a tricorder. "Here." he nodded his head as he found himself in agreement with Duval's attitude on the matter. "Check it... just to make sure."

"Yeah... Last thing I want is to end up in sickbay."

Davis raised an eyebrow as a sardonic smile appeared on his face, he couldn't argue with that either.

"Okay. It checks out... its water." and with that, Duval lifted the glass to his lips before draining the entire glass in one smooth motion, then he placed the glass down before he blinked, then he opened his mouth as he lifted his right hand to clutch at his throat before making various retching noises.

"SHit!. you okay!"

"I'm good." Duval suddenly dropped his act as he smiled.

"You asshole!" Davis responded. "You fucking had me good.."

"I have a reputation to uphold. Besides... you were such a tempting target.... Besides, you've always been a good sport Eric... Never question that."

"Working with guys like you... Yeah, I kinda have no choice on the matter."

Duval grasped his check. "Et tu brute." he sighed. "So... your issue is resolved?"

"Looks like it, I'll run a full systems check just to be sure... could you run the diagnostic check before you go off watch... Let me know what the results are would ya?"

"Sure." and with that Duval gathered his gear before departing, heading back to engineering where he arrived a few minutes later.

He went over to his station as one of the engineers passed him, growling about the replicators not working. Duval tapped the display before him as he keyed the system for what he wanted. A Level Two diagnostic of the replicator system, then he tapped 'run'.

A few minutes later, the results came back on his computer diagnostic check, it came back "All systems nominal. 100%" he sighed. "Guys, the replicators are working now."

"Nice!" came the response from one of the others around him. "I'm going for lunch on the starbase so I won't be around for the next couple of hours... Parker, you're in charge... any ideas when that new engineer we're getting is supposed to be showing up?"

"I heard it was sometime this afternoon." Lieutenant John Parker responded. "Have a good lunch sir."

"I will." and with that, Duval departed Engineering.