Tales from the Los Lobos 24

So much effort just to get a ship launched.

But our dear captain still has a few surprises coming her way

Sito belongs to https://www.deviantart.com/dalekcaan1

Captain Ford belongs to https://www.deviantart.com/knight3000

uniform  textures courtesy of  https://www.deviantart.com/mylochka

1)Janeway: You'll be happy to know that the Constellation has been given a clean bill of health.

Ford: So glad to hear that. The crew was starting to go stir-crazy sitting around here.

Janeway: The crew or her captain?

Ford: Perhaps both.

Janeway: Still, she is an older ship. Sure, you don't want a newer one?

Ford: She's served us well until now. I'd hate to retire her over something like this. If she were to go, she deserves to go out in a blaze of glory.

Janeway: I'll keep that in mind for your next few assignments.

2)Ford: If we were to replace her, what did you have in mind?

Janeway: Let’s see… I have a sovereign available for you

Ford: Not Lyress's old ship...

Janeway: Oh hell no. That's an entirely different headache. No, I have another one that's available

Ford: Tempting.  But aren't you going to give it to her?

Janeway: No, she already has her new ship.

Ford: Oh? What kind?

Janeway: An Odessey.

Ford: Odessey... wait... you don't mean...

Janeway: I’m told she already went out to inspect it.

Ford: You gave that thing to her?

3)Janeway: It was...

*chirping *

Janeway: Excuse me. Yes?

*Ma’am, the yardmaster from Utopia is on the comm. He wants to talk to you.  He seems anxious. *

Ford: I've never known him to be anxious before.

Janeway: Put him on.

4)Yard: Admiral

Janeway: You have something you wanted?

Yard: I just received a message from Captain Heath.

Janeway: Yes?

Yard: She said she has been onboard her new ship.

Janeway: And?

Yard: I asked which one and She said 34a.

Janeway: Yes, and

Yard: I thought it was a mistake as her flightpath was for 34b, but the records showed that 34a was recently commissioned as the Los Lobos B.

Janeway: Yes, it was.

Yard: WHY?

5) Janeway: It was determined that if she could handle a crew like hers, then she could handle whatever was going on with that ship.

Yard: That's highly...

Janeway: What did she say?

Yard: She wanted to discuss reconfiguring the upper shuttle bay in to a dedicated fighter bay.

Janeway: Interesting. And...

Yard: She found several of the storage crates that we put onboard.

Janeway: Storage crates?

Yard: Since no sane person would go on board, we were using it for storage.

Janeway: Storage for what?

Yard: Broken unstable prototypes of things that didn't work. She said since they were onboard her ship she was keeping them.

Janeway: That's all?

Yard: That and she was on her way back to earth to talk to you.

Janeway: Me? Why?

Yard: Because my work crews refused to go onboard that ship. She said it was a perfectly fine ship and I was being uncooperative in scheduling the maintenance crews and supplies to be delivered to prepare her for launch

6)Janeway: Nothing else?

Yard: I asked her if anything happened, and she said that aside from having to crawl through the Jefferies tubes because the lifts weren't working, nothing unusual happened.

Janeway: I see...

Yard: Every other person who set foot on that ship refuses to go back.

Janeway: But not her.

Yard: By the way, only she is on the way back. Her officers stayed behind to arrange the transfer of their crew from the old ship.

Janeway: I see.

Yard: Admiral, no matter what you say, there is not a single worker willing to go onboard her. You can court martial the entire engineering division but we won't...

7)Janeway: What's the ship's status?

Yard: It's on supplemental external power.

Janeway: Switch it to full auxiliary to bring all systems online.

Yard: Ma'am?

Janeway: Since your staff is afraid to go onboard, her crew will do the work themselves.

Yard: But...

Janeway: You will also provide them all the materials, shuttles, any and everything they need to get her operational.

Yard: But...

Janeway: And before you say anything, a Starfleet crew is quite capable of doing yard work when needed. Even in the Delta quadrant.

Yard: I... yes ma'am.

Janeway: But rest assured, when she gets here, she and I will be talking to the head of Starfleet engineering about this. Janeway out.

8)Ford: Were the reports of what happened on that ship as bad as they say?

Janeway: Worse. But whatever it is, it didn’t bother her. Why?

Ford: Maybe she's scarier than whatever's board.

Janeway: That's a frightening possibility. Temporal Investigation says that there is a still viable timeline where she overthrows the federation and rules the quadrant.

Ford: I... didn't know that.

Janeway: You do now, and that doesn't leave this room.

Ford: Yes ma'am.

Janeway: So, either nothing happened onboard...

Ford: Unlikely

Janeway: or something happened, and she’s not telling.

Ford: And you can't ask because it'll confirm that you deliberately gave her a cursed ship

Janeway: True.  But you can.

9) Ford: What?

Janeway: You and her friends can ask her, find out and report back.

Ford: You want us to question her

Janeway: Yes

Ford: Why?

Janeway: I could say it's an order. But I don't have to.

And why is that?

Janeway: Because you want to know just as badly as I do. Don't you?

Ford: I hate the fact that you have a point.

Janeway: I just want to know if she is what they scientifically refer to as a "weirdness magnet" or...

Ford: Or?

Janeway: She really is some evil mastermind plotting to seize control.

Ford: I somehow doubt that.

10) Sito: Let me get this straight. They gave her the most cursed ship Starfleet ever built. Anyone who goes onboard, never wants to go back. But she goes onboard, comes back and acts like nothing happened

Ford: Yes

Sito: And they want you to question her.

Ford: Technically us. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to know happened out there.

Sito: You and the entire system.

Ford: Maybe I can avoid running into her. So, I won't feel conflicted.

Sito: You're not that lucky.

Ford: How so?

Sito: Look.

11) Heath: Damn heels keep getting caught in the sidewalk. If I had the chance I'd fire those judges out of the torpedo tubes into the sun.

12) Ford: Problem?

Heath: Should have known you'd be here. This only happens when you're around.

Sito: What?

Ford: Long story.

Heath: So, are going to be helpful or just watch?

Sito: Well, that depends.

Heath: On...

Sito: What happened out there?

Heath: Out where?

Ford: When you went to inspect your ship.

Heath: Why does everyone think something happened?

Sito: Because everyone else who's ever boarded her refuses to do so again.

Heath: Crawling through the Jefferies tubes was a pain.

13) Ford: That's not what I meant

Heath: I'll tell you what I told them. Nothing out of the ordinary or usual happened.

Sito: Usual for you or for a normal ship?

Heath: What's that supposed to mean?

Ford: Usual on the Los Lobos means something very different than it does for the rest of the fleet.

Heath: Fine. You want to know what happened.

Ford: Yes.

Heath: Alright, she didn’t tell what type of ship it was, just the berth number so we went out to see her. When we got there, we saw that they didn't paint the registration number on correctly.  We thought if they half-assed that, what else did they half-ass? So, we went onboard. We crawled through hundreds of meters of Jefferies tubes to find out that they were dumping their unwanted trash onboard and wouldn't even come to clean it up. I don't know what they're afraid of, but the only thing scary onboard was Siobhan when they thought it would be funny to scare her in the dark. Ask Tru about the death grip she can get on your boobs when upset.

Sito: That’s it?

Heath: That’s it.

14) Ford: I believe you.

Sito: You do?

Heath: Thank the prophets, finally common sense prevails.

Ford: You can't fake that kind of anger.  But make no mistake, there is something onboard that ship.

Sito: But why didn't it bother her?

Ford: I'm thinking that if she was like this the entire time, then whatever is onboard is probably afraid of her

Sito: Its afraid of her?

Heath: You know I'm right here

Sito: So, we have to report to the Admiral that thing that frightened the entire ship yard is afraid of her?

Ford: Looks like it

Heath: Is that a compliment or insult?

Ford: Look at it this way, when word of this gets out. the yardmaster will be too afraid to say no to you.

Heath: I suppose

15) Ford: Come on. We have to find a way to write this into something that sounds official without sounding crazy.

Sito: I look forward to reading it.

Heath: HEY!

16) Ford: Yes?

Heath: Did you forget something?

Ford: I'm don't think so

Sito: Me neither

Heath: Prophets above, I swear come within arm’s reach I'll…

Ford: Thanks for the warning

Sito: We'll keep our distance and send someone to help

Heath: You...

17) Heath: *sigh* Bluff successful. So glad my friends aren’t Betaziods, but I didn’t lie. Everything I said was true. Just didn’t mention Suzy, they’d have to report her. And can’t risk them getting in trouble for not reporting her. So for now she remains safe but now I’m going to have a reputation for being the scariest thing in the fleet. Oh well.. Take the bad with the good. Now off to see the Admiral for part two. That’s if I can get my heel free. Maybe I’ll walk into her office barefoot to get my point across.