A FEW MOMENTS LATER…

“I hear you on the complicated part. The new systems they’re using these days are way more powerful and efficient then even 10 years ago, but with the Frontier Day thing, they’re all alot more labour intensive on the upkeep.”

As the two walked out along the spit the noticed folks stopping behind them and setting up their chairs or laying out their towel all staying relatively close to the point of the headlands where the spit had emerged from. The two became engrossed in a conversation that only another engineer could even comprehend.

Tesa asnwered a question about the Trentons intermix chamber, “Oh yes, the newer trino-dyne matrix nodes are so much better than anything on any ship built before 2395. Allows us the near instantaneous acceleratiom and stable high speeds that Nebulas and Galaxies and Akiras just could never achieve. It’s strange to have a staff of over 100 to look after, and not even be the chief engineer.” She laughed.

Mara laughed. “The acceleration is impressive. Convincing the power grid itself that propulsion and tactical can’t both have everything at once is less impressive.”

She gestured animatedly as they walked. “I’d still take the newer matrix nodes over the older relay architecture. Fewer delays, fewer unexplained fluctuations—and considerably less swearing during diagnostics.”

The two stopped and looked back and realized they were already well over a kilometre out onto the spit. Tesa looked back and was able to barelyidentify  her and Mee IHs little villa along the beach at the tip of the headlands in the distance.

“Wow, we’re further than I thought.” Tesa said as her and Mara had obviously gotten too focused on their chat about engines and hadn’t noticed how far they had walked along the spit.

Tesa set up her chair and opened her little cooler.

“You want one?” The Trentons tinkerer offered Mara one of the cans of Sluggo soda. It was a new flavour that had recently been released on the market, “Lime Cherry” flavour.

“Definitely.” Mara accepted the can and studied the label. “Lime-cherry sounds either brilliant or medically inadvisable.”

She opened it and sat down on her towel beside Kyra’s chair.

“Only one way to find out.”

“Too a fun day in the sun.” Tesa toasted her new friend as they dived inte the topic of coolant systems on their two very new vessels.

“Oh, yeah you can trim down the number of secondary intakes, but just make sure your main distribution junction cam take the added pressure. Almost got a face full of hot deuterium because of that on the April.

Mara took another sip of the soda, considering Kyra’s point about the Trenton’s coolant system.

“We had something similar on the Carico, although calling it a system might be generous. Half the flow regulators were older than I was, and the backup pump only worked if you hit the housing in exactly the right place.”

She smiled fondly despite herself.

“Not exactly Starfleet-approved engineering, but it taught me that a technical manual is sometimes more of a suggestion than a rule.”

“Tech manuals give us the conservative soecs, its us to us field engineers to make it all work in practice though.” Tesa grinned, take things apart and testing everything five ways from sunday was certainly her bailiwick.

A few hours late the two had been enjoying the sun and each others company so much that they didn’t realize that the tide had start to come in again. Within 2 minutes the water started swallowing the part of the spit they were on.

“Has it been 4 hours already?” Tesa asked, knowing the tide came in and out more quickly there.

Just then a large wave came and soaked the spit right up Tesa’s feet, ‘Uh, time for us to go go I think Mara.”

Mara sprang to her feet, her gaze following the water already cutting across their route back.

“I think ‘go’ may have become ‘wade’ while we weren’t looking.”

She gathered her towel and sandals, abandoning the half-finished soda.

Tesa, having taken in the scene and their predicament into consideration, abandoned the cooler and chair, and began moving back up towards the headlands.

400 metres to the west Mee IHs family and the two Orca’s, Ensign Tim and the bodyguard Luke, just happened to be swimming back from their sight seeing tour.

Timmesin and Mee IHs younger sister Jemilyana, who had been canoodling and flirting all afternoon were swimming out infront of the group when one of the native sea creatures scythed through the water infront of them heading for the quickly disappearing sand spit.

“Hmmm, he seems in a hurry.” Tim mused as he swam next to the female pygmy Beluga.

“Wait Tim, isn’t that my brothers girlfriend over there?” Jemilyana squeaked as she saw what direction the native creature was heading.

“Huh what?” Tim said as he looked to where Jemi motioned instead of at her ample haunches which he had been oggling all afternoon.

Tim, who was hard coded to defend his family and friends, within fractions of second saw his crewmate wading inbetween several quickly disappearing sand bars. and instinctually raced off after the sea beast, hoping to intercept it before it devoured his fellow officers.

As Nana Jini swam up behind her granddaughter and saw what was going she squealed at her head of security, “Luke, hurry go help him!”

‘Right away mum!” Luke ‘the Nuke’ darted off after Tim and the indigenous creature. He was several years older and almost 50% larger than Tim and would make up the distance quickly. He surfaced to take a large breath through his blowhole and proceeded to plan a textbook aquatic ambush.

The creature, known to the locals as a ‘Spear Tipped Gordwark’ was rushing in for his late afternoon snack of aquatic rodents near the shore when he had spotted the two ladies walking waist deep in between parts of the vanishing spit. Outwardly the creature looked like a large scaled, half shark, half dragon with a long pointed mouth and wide agile flippers that somewhat resembled underwater wings.

Just before the two women were about to start swimming back to the next section of spit that hadn’t disappeared in the distance, Tesa grabbed Mara’s arm, “Wait what’s that?”

The Colludian creature swam to the surface and rushed towards them.

Mara stared at the shape accelerating towards them.

“Kyra, please tell me that’s one of your cetacean friends.”

TBC