Whilst her captain and the doctor were enjoying their drink together; Lieutenant Stuart had set other plans in motion.  The sort of plans that either gets you a gold star or a slap on the wrist; depending on the final outcome.  Right now she was at the controls of a rather large four wheeled forklift. It was a vehicle she was very familiar with; and the very machine she’d learned to drive as a young girl.

Her father had arrived with his Clyde Class medium freighter the ‘Spirit of the Loch’ early that morning; caring a consignment of engineering equipment.  And once he’d used the ships ‘Yarrow’ heavy forklift loader to empty his cargo, she’d asked if she could ‘borrow’ it.  Donald Stuart had never been the sort of man that could turn his daughter down; especially when she flashed those emerald green eyes of hers and gave him her best ‘Oh please daddy’ look.  It was the same look that had got her a kitten at the age of six.  A tabby by the name of ‘Major Tom’.  That cat was now 14 and still roaming the ship like it owned the place.

Lyanna’s dad had given her a big hug the moment she’d walked into view and mom Luna had followed soon after with a kiss on both cheeks. They’d not seen their daughter in the flesh since her birthday in November, but she’d managed to make contact with them via video link at least once a month since then.  To have them there though, so soon after recent events really lifted her spirits and gave her the determination to get the job in hand done.

Lyanna had already used the Yarrow to drag out the damaged support beam from the Jaxartes; once it’s Chief Engineer and a nearly a dozen other crew members had positioned a number of frames to support the weight of everything normally held up by the beam itself.  Now she was using the heavy forklift to ease the brand-new beam into place. Stuart watched for the directional signals from Lyambo who was holding a pair of bright orange bats like someone on the bow of an aircraft carrier directing in the fighters after another mission.  Using the radio or com-badges would have been pointless the old Yarrow’s engines made way too much noise for anything like that to be feasible.

The job was slow but anything was quicker than the eleven days they’d originally been told to wait.  Though telling the crew of the Jax; ‘if you can do it any quicker, go ahead’ was probably something someone was going to regret saying out loud.  They just hoped their captain would appreciate the gesture.

Dinari turned the two paddles around, showing the black side; an indication to stop moving and shut down the engine.  Lyanna put on the brakes and flipped the three large switches across the top right hand side of the control panel, before turning the ignition key anti-clockwise.  The great beast of an engine roar, coughed and groaned, before settling on a steady whine that slowly died down to silence.  Once satisfied it had shut down; she placed her thumb on a small blue button, pressing it down hard.  This then allowed her to pull out the key.

Stuart placed the key in the top pocket of the navy blue coveralls she was wearing.  Her brothers’ spare pair, though she’d had to roll up the legs and sleeves.  But she certainly wasn’t mucking up any of her own clothes.  She opened the cab door; a simple hinged thing that swung back and up slightly. “How’s that then chief?” She asked Lyambo.

“Perfect.” He beamed. “I owe your father a bottle of something very special.  Plus I can get my hands on a replacement air filtration system if he wants it?”

“Oh he’ll love you for that.” Lyanna replied happily. “Place smells like something died in one of the holds a month ago.” She was sure nothing had died, her dad wasn’t one for carrying livestock not since the stampede of 2393 that is.  But something had definitely left a strong lingering smell that the old filtration system was not clearing out.

The two crew members set about unwrapping and unfastening the chains that held the beam to the Yarrow.  They were almost finished when Albert Torf; Lyambo’s Betazoid engineering assistant and Chief Petty Office Thomas Lose whose main role on the ‘Jax’ was seeing that the automated torpedo loading mechanism worked correctly and didn’t jam during combat. On a good day he wouldn’t have to do much, but none of the other crew envied the fact he was locked away amongst highly explosive warheads in a section of the ship often targeted by enemy vessels.  At 32 Thomas was now the oldest member of the crew and the only one to have served on another ship before this assignment.

“Ready to start welding and bolting when you are, boss.” Torf announced in his usual polite manner.

“Well I’ll leave you boys to play whilst I take this thing back.” The young Orion tapped the huge balloon tire with its thick treads next to her.  Lyanna then climbed her way back into the cab.  As the three others made their way inside the corvette, she started up the powerful engine on the heavy forklift and looking over her shoulder reversed it around the edge of the hanger.  Once lined up with the exit ramp she waited for crewman Lightwood to open the doors; before gunning the engine and thundering it up the ramp and out.

The space station they were docked into was a commercial one dealing in 90% freight the rest short range passenger shuttles, but after the battle and unloading the people they’d rescued; anywhere had been a safe haven to rest the war weary Raven.  The Presidium Class station where they were currently staying was more secured, but its hangers where only just big enough to squeeze in a Raven; which would have made it impossible to undertake the work they’d started. When someone had commented these little ships can take a lot of punishment they really meant it.

Beyond the hanger doors a massive warehouse complex; seven stores high and the width of three football fields. Around the perimeter of this warehouse and another just like it above was other hangers, just like the one the Jaxartes now sat her rear most section docked inside; the rest outside the space station.  Stuart checked she had a green light to proceeding down one of the many aisles as she headed back to hanger 11 were her father and the ‘Spirit of the Loch’ waited.

**********

Lieutenant Stuart had only been gone a few minutes and already Lyambo and his team of workers were hard at it.  Sparks flew and the very air seemed to hiss and crackle as with torch in one hand he welded one cross beam to the new support beam.  Crewman Tyson was below and to his right welding an identical looking beam to the other side.  His dad was a ship builder back on Earth and as a teenager Tyson had done an apprenticeship with him in the Belfast shipyard where he worked; just in case he wasn’t accepted into Starfleet.  So the young man knew what he was doing.

“Hey George.” Dinari turned to the other man. “If you’re this good at welding and stuff how come you didn’t go into engineering with your old man?”

“The yard only builds one or two vessels in a year and maintenance work is a hit and miss affair.” The other man replied pausing to examine his handy work.

“So why not building star ships instead?” The Chief asked honestly

“I can’t stand heights.” Was the reply

There was a moment of silence whilst Lyambo tried to figure that one out in his mind. ‘How can a guy that hates heights go into space?’  He scratched the back of his neck, feeling there was something that should be said; but in the end gave up and set about getting on with the job in hand.

Further along the new beam Ensign C’Rren and Chief Petty Officer Lose were assisting each other with bolting a diagonal cross-member into place.  The young Caitian had nominated himself for this job; feeling that fire and fur didn’t really mix, especially in the confined space the other two were working in.  Besides that, with the power tool they had, each of the bolts was taking seconds to tighten up.  Once that was done, they’d need to fix the wall panels and decking plate back in position.  They were currently stacked up along with other section of plating in what remained of the holo-suit.  That would be the last section of the ship that would get fixed as it wasn’t as essential as other parts.

Whilst this was going on Ensigns Torf and Tholakath had set about relaying some of the many cables and ducking that had been damaged or in some spots completely severed.  They couldn’t lay them anywhere the welding still needed to be done, but there were plenty of other sections to be going on with.  At the moment everyone was working under temporary lighting but given another half hour that situation would hopefully improve.  Throughout other sections of the corvette another half dozen crew members worked away at their allotted tasks, all in the hope of bringing their ship back to life.