It was shaping up to be another busy day at Shipyard Central. They had fourteen resupply turn-arounds, an official launch from the shipyard, five ships using the nearby ranges and eight vessels in various states of repair that had to be dealt with plus, the Jemison to deal with. All that had to be done within the next eight to ten hours too.

Traan was arranging for the last minute transit of a bunch of runabouts to the aux craft repair deck when he saw a redshirted ‘jaygee’ walk-in. He was just about to ask if the man was the logistics support he had requested from the medical department the day before, when Horvath got a comms call on his headset and waved the tall Andorian over.

“Call from the Jemison sir, she’s inquiring if she’s received a slot on the range schedule yet again.” The hardworking yellow-shirted Lt JG Horvath said from his Yard Ops console well.

“Ahhhh, what’s she waiting on again? Why does she need the range time?” Traan asked as he towered over the sunken well, standing between it and the massive bay windows that looked out over the yard itself. He rightly couldn’t recall.

“She is… still in pre-commissioning, just over half crewed at this moment with a few dozen more arriving throughout today…” Horvath continued to pull up and read the info on the ships status and disposition from his console.

“She needs final certifications on her impulse, weapons and a high speed warp trial. And she’s scheduled for an official commissioning ceremony next week, sir.” Horvath made the ‘eek’ face, as he realized that either that was an oversight, or a major issue.

Traan’s eyes widened as he recalled some correspondence between his boss, the Director, and the stations senior staff about the commissioning that he had been CC’d on. Considering the fact that both of SBB’s ranges would be busy until at least next Thursday with ships that were on ‘priority’ schedules and thus, would always bump a ship that was still in ‘pre-commissioning’, like the Jemison, to the back of the line; this was not looking good.

“Ohhhh no…ugh.” Traan’s head sank as he realized the ramifications of the situation. The ship wouldn’t be ready for commissioning on time, not a hope. She would need almost two more full days to complete her own tests; and there were always delays on the busy test and flight ranges. And thusly, he and his boss would likely eat an earful from the brass over it.

“Send a copy of the whole packet for the Jemison to my office terminal. Tell them to stand by, they’ll receive additional info by…” Traan looked at the chrono on the wall, “1900h today.”

Horvath nodded, “Roger that boss.”

Traan waved an index finger at Horvath as he walked away, almost as if to say ‘thanks buddy you mighta just saved my butt’. The Deputy Director then hussled back to his office, took a seat, whipped his terminal around and got to work.

Over the next hour he: studied the pertinent regs, organized a CONOP, called the range control and yardmaster at SB 86 (having a pleasant exchange with an old friend of his in the process), filed a report and a delay request for the commissioning ceremony, received confirmation and authorization to enact his CONOP, called the head of Aux Craft Ops on SBB to arrange for the Jemison to be loaded with her basic loadout of runabouts and shuttles, and filed the follow-on orders and confirmations to authorize the transfer of the Jemison to SB 86’s auspices, even though she was still in a ‘pre-commissioned’ state.

As it turned out, the ship’s ‘sponsor’ had been postponed. anyway. The commissioning was to be officially delayed regardless of his request, thankfully for the overworked Andorian. Meanwhile TF86’s response was an emphatic “Yep”, when they were asked if they wanted their new ship sooner rather than later.

SB 86 was more then capable of taking care of the final stages of commissioning of the new Glenn-class vessel. Traan and all his fellow yard jockeys on SBB would appreciate not having to divert around the 750-metre long doorstop everyday anyway.

“Let them call and harass 86’s range control and bug them every day instead of us.” Traan mused in his own mind.

The big, middle-aged Andorian allowed himself a quick moment of reflection in his office. The stark differences in between launches of the Trenton and Jemison from from SBB yard had occurred only about a month and a half apart. On one hand Trenton had been given a top notch crew, additional yard staff to ferry her out to her AO,  and more of the royal treatment while being sent off to a high profile new mission on the far side of the Romulan border, while on the other the Jemison had just been left on the backburner, seemingly consigned to her own form of temporal pergatory waiting for range time. This was a purgatory he was happy to help the ship and crew avoid.

Traan grinned and slapped the table as a little celebration of his own part in helping to rescue the fine vessel from that gristly fate.

The Deputy Director realized he had to get back to dealing with that large load of medications and surplus or outdated medical that was lacking the proper credentials and inspection clearances. Now, whatever happened to that bearded JG he had spotted earlier.