All the Responsibility, None of the Pay
Posted on Wed May 14th, 2025 @ 3:36pm by Captain Ewan Darrow & Commander Jonathan Mantell
Mission:
Take My Hand
Location: USS Vesta
3994 words - 8 OF Standard Post Measure
Ewan ran a hand down the wall as he wandered down the corridor on his way to Main Engineering. The Vesta had that new ship smell all over again thanks to the extensive renovations of the ship's spine, which had included ripping out many of the upper decks to allow for the upper hull to be completely replaced. The colour scheme had been muted just a bit, the vibrant red of the accents replaced with a darker one that stood out in an entirely different way, and the carpets on the decking had been replaced, removing the ruts that had appeared from their regular usage over the years.
She felt fresh and invigorated again. The old girl had an entirely new lease on life.
And then Headquarters had decided to install a program for 'fleet efficiency', a program that he and many other engineers had argued against those many years ago when he had been stationed on Utopia Planetia. A program that he was going to find and rip from the ship's memory banks, then find the hardwired panels he knew they would have put in as well and rip those out. Ewan was not going to have anything that could so completely compromise the ships entire performance and security features. He knew exactly he could draft for help, the man... or rather boy, that he was headed to see now, for entirely different reasons. Reasons that he was sure Jack was not going to like.
As he rounded the corner into Main Engineering, the room was muted. The Warp Core, the ship's heart, was still offline pending final inspection from the Yard Engineers and the removal of the umbilical cord that attached it to Esquimalt. "It never feels right, the silence." Ewan said to Jack as he stopped by the threshold of the warp cores surround.
Jack decided that he would not miss the Nelson very much. The prospect of making his mark on a brand-new ship class had put a gleam in his eye since the first time running an engineering department. Days that flipped between routine and chaos, pinning down someone's old long-abandoned problem to try for a fix and maybe, just maybe, arrive at a band-aid that was more than a little temporary, left the boy engineer dreaming of a clean slate. A ship with no one else's hands on it, no one's problems but those he discovered. Fixes that he knew would work for sure, or at least demand accountability of the shipyard from which the next ship of the class could surely never launch without addressing.
That dream had died in the dark circles under the boy's eyes. Spending far too many hours in the Inquiry-class' excuse for a main engineering, and far too few nights in what passed for his quarters onboard, left Jack wearily glad he could hand off the ship's problems and his notes on correcting them to the next crew. From the immeasurable quirks of the holographic crews, to the short-sighted access issues, to the critical deficiencies in the hull geometry that he could have only ever begun to address, Jack was sure that he and the Vesta crew had thoroughly made their mark. He was also quite sure it wouldn't amount to much. Starfleet was already rolling new Inquiry ships off the line, making the point of the whole shakedown mission rather moot.
He was pleased beyond relief to be coming home to the Vesta. It felt like home, too, in the way that its absence had been sorely missed. Jack would have liked to think the ship had missed him in turn, if he ignored how its gleaming new deckplating and chemically-treated new carpeting whispered his trespass with every mark he made on them. His tennis shoes left extra scuff marks on the floor of his tiny engineering office where he'd left them, but that was the most the Only had done to make his mark so far. He had crawled up atop the Plasma Injector Controls console, backed up against a pillar, and nestled himself there in the eerie calm of an empty engine room.
"You're telling me," the boy engineer quipped back at the captain. Half of the reason that Vesta had never been his to make a mark on, Ewan was still the milestone Jack intended to surpass one day in the Vesta-class' log entries at the Advanced Starship Design Bureau. A wan grin lit his face as the boy swung one leg over the long side of the console, tipping it toward the darkened core at the center of the room. "Wanna start it up and give the station's command deck a collective heart attack?"
Ewan guffawed at the thought as he stared at the core before shaking his head, "No, that would cause some headaches that neither of us would want to deal with, especially since the umbilical is still connected at the moment." The Captain ambled over to the replicator built into the wall by the bay's large master system display table. Ordering himself a combination of Peach and Mint tea with a dash of honey and a Hot Chocolate with extra marshmallows for Jack, Ewan grabbed the cups for both and turned back to the table at the centre of the room, placing Jack's offering on the table as he settled himself into one of the tall chairs around the edge of the table. "Not that I wouldn't like to have the ole girl running on her own power again, but we need a few more systems online before we do that."
There was a pause for a second before Ewan continued, "And a few things to discuss before we set out in a few days, some modifications to the ship and some new... responsibilities." He sipped at his tea, letting the soothing feel of the honey wash over him as the citrusy taste of the tea mixed with it. "So do you want the bad news, or the worse news first?" The captain asked as he motioned the boy towards the hot chocolate.
Jack's foot swung a few more times before he jumped down from his perch, patting out the rumples in his uniform before joining Ewan at the table. The uniform was still in one piece, a rarity in recent days, but returning to port often had that result on him. He had even passed over quarters on Esquimalt this time to move right back to Vesta, and still the bulk of his things were packed away in crates. Like the underfed kid wearing his entire wardrobe to school, sometimes it was just easier to keep the uniform in one piece while the rest of his things were, too.
"I am...not going to like this talk, am I?" The boy peered into the steaming cup of hot chocolate that the captain had replicated for his benefit, eyeing the siren song of its milky-brown surface with suspicion. Captain Darrow knew his chief engineer well by now, Jack realized, too well. He reached for the cup regardless, unable —or just unwilling— to resist. Lifting it to his lips, Jack paused to make the stipulations of his acceptance clear. "It's gonna take me until abooooout," he held a finger on the outside of the drink, lowering it until it marked a point halfway across the cup face, "here to handle the really bad parts."
Jack took a sip from the cup, and despite all attempts of the sugary temptress in his hands, he made very sure that it was a small one.
Ewan weighted the two options in his head for a moment as he tried to consider what one he should tell the Chief Engineer first. While Ewan knew his own worst news was the Fleey Sync bullshit that Headquarters had apparently insisted be installed in the refit, he wasn't quite sure that the Miran would feel the same way. Jack had for so long refused, almost been scared, of the prospect of further career advancement.
No for Commander Jonathan Mantell, Chief Engineering Officer of the USS Vesta, an engineering problem like the Fleet Sync was a problem that could be easily solved and one that Ewan knew the kid could handle. No, the worst news for Jack would probably be his acting stint. It was strange to think of him as a kid at all considering his age, but there they were, both Ewan and Yoshi had at times done fatherly talks with the boy and he knew Karrun had made a motherly talk as well if Allison had told him the truth. He'd grow into it, he'd be able to handle it, but... maybe the one he could address first.
With a sigh, Ewan set down his cup of tea and tapped a few buttons to seal the room and make sure only those with clearance above his would be able to enter, it wouldn't do to have some snooper or junior officer enter during either part of the conversation. "Have you heard of the Fleet Sync program?" Ewan asked as he leaned back on the bar stool and crossed his arms over his chest.
Jack paused over the lip of his cup, his eyes taking in his captain's pose. There wasn't quite enough sugar in his mouth to distract him from recalling, at least one of the padds in his stack had to have discussed the Fleet Sync program. The boy engineer had probably noted it as something to come back to later, it did have a familiar ring in his mind. "Is that the one about ad-hoc communication relays?" he asked, before setting down his cup. Once freed, his mind snapped just like his fingers, making an audible click that could have narrated his understanding slipping into place. "No, wait, it's about the remote controlling ships. I didn't get that far into it, that's more bathtub reading. What's the cliff notes version?"
"It was an idea that popped up in the heads of the think tank people back when myself and Yoshi were helping to build the Vesta," Ewan said as he watched Jack toy with his cup of Hot Chocolate, "You know the types, the ones that give us all these great ideas that are either not practicable or just plain idiotic." With a shake of his head, he continued, "These brilliant officers thought of a program that would allow for fewer officers to serve on each ship and allow the flagship or whoever was in command of a task group or fleet to remotely control every other ship in the group for 'formations' and 'better tactical coordination' or something to that effect."
There was an annoyed look on Ewan's face now, "Essentially, it would let anyone with the proper code control any ship in Starfleet with the program installed remotely. Which in all of the practical engineer's opinions... was fucking idiotic and a massive security risk. A security risk that was apparently installed into the Vesta during the refit."
"My butt, they did!" Jack put down the cup, this was SO not the time for hot chocolate. He eyed the captain's cup with envy, then thought better of it. This was more of a job for root beer, but after. He was halfway to his office before the Only boy realized he was sprinting, calling a quick, "Gimme a sec," back over his shoulder. Jack destroyed the pile of padds, hunting through them and tossing aside anything unrelated until he found the one Ewan was talking about. That he didn't trip on his way back might be a small miracle, given how intently the boy was flipping through the details of the program. "They want to slave the ship to a control host? Or are we the control host?"
Jack shook his head, and his socked foot stamped on the engineering deck plates. "Either way, this is some Looney Tunes business or I'm Tweety. This isn't classified, right? I hope not, 'cause I'm taking this to Sayffier anyway and we're ripping out its guts!"
"You're going to rip it out regardless," Ewan said with a shrug and a chuckle at just how angry Jack was over this whole thing, "My understanding is that it is not classified however. I believe its set up so any ship can theoretically be used as the control host with the right command codes not just flagships so yes, the ship could be slaved to a control host."
"Ugh! Didn't anybody learn from the control codes thing?" Jack threw up his arms, not even trying to be dramatic. Despite his best attempt at being professional around his commanders, even Doc Martin who shouldn't really count anyway, the padd flew from the Only's fingers with the same energy as a child's tantrum. And right now, he felt as far removed from a child as the designers of Fleet Sync probably were from their own brains. "This is such a huge security hole. Catch us on a regular day, just chilling in someone's orbit, and you'd have all the time in the galaxy to hijack the ship."
"We'll there's a whole host of issues involved since my understanding is they can control multiple ships though I'm not sure from how far," Ewan said as he watched the PaDD bounce off of the floor behind the Only and into the larger engine room area. "Not to mention I believe it allows for full control, weapons, shields, etc. The wrong person gets control and they all of a sudden have control of say... an Odyssey that has the power to slag a planet within a few hours without someone interfering."
Ewan sipped at his tea as he watched Jack storm around the table mumbling a bit as he did, "Take the time you need, work with Sayffier, scrub both the hardware and software from the ship's computer and see about removing it from the secure reboot so if we need to do a cold restart it won't reappear."
With the Captain talking sense, it didn't take long for Jack to come back to his. His one last act of defiance was to search out the padd and kick it back toward the table. The clatter felt satisfying, but only just a little. He could feel Ewan's eyes on him, so the boy-engineer picked up the padd to set it back on the table, contrition written on his brow. "Alright, alright, I'm good now. Don't worry, we'll set her free, Cap."
"That's all I ask, I don't want to see her controlled by anyone else then this crew just like you." Ewan nodded as he set his tea down on the table top and took a deep breath, "Now... I suppose on to the other part of this conversation." Ewan leaned towards the boy, well boy was an awkward term since he was so much older then Ewan himself, but he was still a boy... technically. "Unfortunately Commander Stura has met... well a delay is the best thing to call it. The ship that was designated to bring him here to Esquimalt suffered a sudden power loss as it came into dock with Deep Space 3. With its momentum it tore through the nacelle of a nearby California class and both ships are now potentially total loses."
Ewan recounted what little he knew about the collision from what he had read in the Fleet Reports, "The People's Peace Movement is taking responsibility for now, claiming they did this because of Deep Space 3's location and the Lovelace's designation as a QSD ship. Two fold, the Merian class was Stura's ride to us and well now... there's a large disaster he's currently helping to attend to and won't be able to make the miss launch. Yoshi and I have already spoke and Martin has expressed he will not be stepping up to assist this time, he learned his lesson last time and well... You're next in line Jack for Acting XO. You're turn on the mound I believe is the old baseball saying."
"My..." Jack started as he took all of this in. Then fear gripped his throat, keeping him from more of a squeak in response. His collar suddenly felt much too tight, as if the pips themselves had reached across to suffocate him. Maybe he should have been louder when Admiral —then Commodore— Minawara had been here instead of Captain Darrow, with his deadly gift wrapped in a pretty box. The boy-engineer had agreed then, cajoled by the threat of losing the best ship he had served on, to take the third gold pip. But that had come with a promise that the Captain was forgetting now. "No, no, no, no, No, NO!"
"The jacket stays gold, what part of that was hard to understand?" Jack thrust a finger at his shoulder to illustrate the obvious. Everything felt tight on him now, and maybe he could breathe easier if he took off his jacket and unbuttoned the uniform. Only that would have been surrender, relinquishing the last bit of dignity the boy-engineer had left. His uniform, his engine room, those were all he had left to call his own. This offer, this thing that Ewan wanted him to do, it was worse than Yoshi's threat. This was the sum of all fears for the boy whose only flaw had been a love of tinkering.
Command took all of that away from him. All the problems and joy of working on the ship's systems, the beating heart of its engine, was lifeblood to the Only boy. He knew every Jefferies Tube, every EPS relay, every plasma conduit that pumped the ship's own mechanical blood through its frame, giving life in turn to every system and being that relied on it. It was more than life to the boy to be near it, to handle it all with all the care that Doc Martin might attend his patients. And since he'd refused the job himself, too, this might be the only time when Jack would agree with their ship's doctor on anything.
"I won't do it," Jack said firmly, though he kept his limbs in place. An eerie calm had fallen over him, and he strode back up to the table. Lifting the cup back up to his lips, the boy took a drink of the no-longer-quite-hot chocolate, his eyes meeting the captain's as he did so. He wasn't about to trade his days of running the ship's engineering to days of lording over people instead. That wasn't what he said, though, and even the Only's childish retorts felt inadequate here. Jack simply told the Captain to, "Find someone else."
Ewan let out a sigh as he stood and moved around the table to move towards Jack. This was definitely what he expected, maybe not as emotional as he had been picturing in his head, but the defiance and answer, yes that was what he had expected. The father of two knelt to be the same level as Jack. "No. That's the simple answer Jack, No. We've chosen you because we know you can do it. This does not mean you have to switch your uniform to Red, this isn't going to be a permanent solution to all of our troubles. This is a temporary solution because we have no other options. The next in rank is Nolan and he doesn't have the training required to work on the bridge or command." Ewan said as he reached forward and put his hands on either shoulder, "And lets face it, do we really want Nolan in command of all those quantum torpedos? He'd probably try to rip a hole into subspace to see what the results would be somehow."
"This was a decision that both Yoshi and myself came to because we believe in you. Every time we've believed in you, every time we've put our faith into you, you have come through. Despite your appearances and your attitude, you are a model officer Jack. All we need you to be is someone in charge while myself and Yoshi are tied up with the Squid folks. There may be a few tours involved with some of the Shalians, but just like Martin last mission, the rest of the time you'll still be running your engineering room." He looked the boy right in the eyes, "This is something that you can do Jack. Not because you're being forced, not because we have no other options, which lets be honest you know full well if we did, we would, but we can't let Nolan blow us all up we just got the Ves back," He smiled at the small joke, " We choose you because we believe in you and you just need to believe in yourself."
"Temporary, my butt!" Jack wanted to say. He very nearly did, and holding it back probably looked a lot like he was holding back something more explosive. Of course, there were no shortages of explosive things in Engineering. That's where he belonged, where the boy-engineer had always found himself at peace. Even if the ship was falling to pieces —or he was— there was nothing Jack couldn't solve with a spanner and a little noggin power. "It's gonna take a lot more than you believing in me, you know? Just because you went from gold to red doesn't mean I'll be good at it. I just spent a couple weeks fixing everything the drydockers broke, betcha I know this ship better than you do. You don't want anyone else in here when we find the next thing, believe me."
That should have been that. The Captain knew it, and Jack took a long gulp of his drink to make his point.
"I have no doubt that there are areas of this ship that you know better then myself or Yoshi, after all we were part of specific design teams for parts. You take care of the whole ship all together." Ewan said with a nod, "That doesn't change the decision that we've made or the faith we've put in you Jack. Think of it this way, its for a single mission while we wait for the Commander to arrive, you wont have to change your colour if you don't want and you'll even get command-level access.... you'd even be able to override Karrun's limits on her replicators and I know you know hers somehow make the best root beer."
"Hey, don't sugarcoat it," Jack said, tipping the cup from his chocolate-coated lips to make the point. "And that's coming from a lover of all things sugar." There was little but dregs left in his cup now, and while he would have heartily slurped for them on another day, today was not that day. Today, not even the promise of sugar upon sugar in his hands could sweeten the deal he was being served. "If you're gonna make it an order, then order me. 'Cause I think you gotta be pretty desperate to come to me, of all people. You're the Captain, make it an order and I'll be your acting XO. But rest assured, I'm not gonna act like I'm having any fun with it, okay?"
The Captain could, however, be rest assured that Jack was going to make full use of his command overrides, in every way that didn't break the ship that is.
"Well then Commander, you've been so ordered to act as my Executive Officer until such a time as this mission is completed," Ewan said in an official tone. "Now... Allison said she was going to make some of her famous 7 cheese mac and cheese. Shall we?" The Captain said as he stood from his spot and started heading towards the door.
