At one of the working orbital drydocks, there were several vessels held within the radiation shielding that were undergoing repairs. Up front was an intrepid class, with a nova class in the rear behind it, and a saber class in between them but off to the side. While it is uncommon to have multiple small vessels in a drydock design for larger vessels, like a sovereign class, it was necessary. Especially for Commander Walker’s team. After the incident on Frontier Day, it had been chaotic here at the yards, and with a motivational speech to his team, they stepped up. Unfortunately, this meant long hours, short breaks, and working under six hours of sleep. Although that was Walker’s daily routine, if he saw anyone slip up, depending on how long the shift had been out, he’d send them all in to get some sleep and request the next shift to take over.

With the shield down, the visor of his helmet was illuminated by the flashes of his plasma torch as he made the final touches to the warp coil. The port warp nacelle of the intrepid class had many of its panels removed in several sections to replace the completely useless warp coils. Those that were still intact, he left alone. The whole point was to salvage as much as they could, save what they could, replace what needed to be replaced, and get the ship out so they could free up space for another. As soon as he was finished with those final touches, he deactivated his plasma torch and placed it in his tool case. Then with his thruster pack, he backed off a few meters before he activated his comm link.

“Walker to control,” Walker spoke. “I finished repairs on the port nacelle. Are you still linked to the ship’s command functions?”

“We are, Commander.”

“If you would please, gradually bring power online and run a full diagnostic on the warp engines. Let me know what you get back.” Walker requested.

“Affirmative. We will contact you in ten minutes with the results.”

“Understood. Walker out.” He then fired the thrusters from his pack to adjust his z-level to get a better look at the saber class. He had assigned bravo team to conduct the repairs on that one and he was rather curious as to why they were not finished. He and alpha team’s task was to replace several series of scorched hull panels, replace some wires, chips, and blown-out console displays and holo-emitters. As well as the warp coils, which was what he had been focused on all day, with the assistance of Ensign Ryozo, whom he had entrusted a workbee to carefully replace the fried coils with new ones.

“Chief,” Walker began as he looked back at the intrepid. “How are the repairs going inside?” He had also requested Chief Petty Officer Amanda Cooper back on his team, who had been with him for most of his career as an excellent technician. He figured as long as he stacked his team with people he knew, and trusted, with a list of skills over the years, he would have no issues constructing starships for the Fourth Fleet. That was until they had been busy fixing ships more than constructing them.

“We finished with the bridge and main engineering in regards to consoles and holo-emitters. We’re running diagnostics on the main power junctions. We want to make sure we send this ship off with a clean bill of health, right?” Cooper asked.

“That would be appropriate. The last thing I need is for this ship to return with a headache caused by something we missed. And then that headache will be sent to my superiors and it’ll come back down onto me.” Walker smirked.

“Oh no. We wouldn’t want you to get a headache! How about you? How has your space walk been?” Cooper asked.

“Good. In case you haven’t noticed it on the screens over there, I had requested control to run a full diagnostic on the warp engines.” Walker informed.

“Oh good! So we’re almost done with this one?” She asked.

“As long as the results come back in the green, we’ll be done with it and can have the tugs pull her out.” Then he can send the repair order back up the chain, and then they can inform the crew that they can return to their ship from shore leave. He used the thruster pack to rotate himself a little bit so he could look at the nova class in the rear. “Delta team. How are your repairs going?”

“Yeah about that…”

Walker let out a heavy sigh. “What?”

“You know that starboard nacelle that’s completely blown out?”

“Yup. Can any of it be saved?” Walker asked.

“No. We’ve begun detaching the nacelle, but we are going to need a new one from the starbase.”

Walker shook his head in his helmet. “Let control know so that they can put in the requisition order.” He then adjusted himself so he could look at the saber. “Bravo team. Why are you not done yet?” The saber only needed a dozen hull panels replaced, a new computer core, and a couple of viewports replaced. And bravo team started before everyone else did, since the saber was in dock before the other two. At least by a couple of hours.

“We are having problems getting the computer core installed.”

“What sort of problems?” Walker asked.

“Well, more like one problem. We can’t get the connectors lined up.”

Walker frowned. “Did you identify and cross-reference the order requisition before accepting the part from the cargobee?”

“Of course! It is exactly the correct computer core for a saber class scoutship.”

“Did you rotate it?” Walker asked.

“Yes and doesn’t seem to matter, they won’t line up.”

Walker let out a heavy sigh. “Is it upside down?” There was a sudden pause, likely the team inspecting the core, looking for markings that would indicate which end is supposed to be facing to be installed correctly. Would think that would not matter but in some cases, when attempting to install an entire assembly all at once, it becomes rather important.

“We’ll have it resolved here in a few, sir!”

“That’s not an answer to my question,” Walker said with frustration in his voice. He then checked the display on his arm and looked at the time. “Looks like twelve hours is long enough for you guys. Drop everything you are doing and go get some sleep. I’ll request delta shift to take your place.”

“But sir, it was just a-”

“That’s an order!” Walker heard his tone get sharp with a hint of frustration in it. He took a moment to cool himself before he spoke once more. “We cannot afford mistakes right now. Luckily we’re not handling anything volatile. Yet. So go get some sleep and when everyone has rested up, and clear-headed, you’ll be clear for duty.”

“Yes, sir.” 

Walker then directed his attention up toward the top section of the drydock where control would be located. “Control. What’s the word?”

“So far in the green, Commander. The data says that she is ready to fly again.”

Walker let out a small sigh of relief. “Affirmative. Once you get the okay from the rest of my team, send the report to command that the ship is ready. Walker out.”

“You know. You need your sleep too. You’re not as young as you used to be.” Cooper’s voice came through his helmet.

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead, Chief. We got work to be done.” Walker checked the time once again and realized he had been awake and working for fifteen hours with a couple of breaks in between to refill oxygen, restroom, and snack on something. He has had a few protein bars now and then but other than that, he was starving. “Guess I will take a break. You’ll check in with control when you’re finished, right?”

“Wasn’t born yesterday,” she said with a chuckle.

“Ha-ha. I’ll be back out here once they pull this girl out and bring in another.” Walker told her before he redirected his comms back to control. “Walker to control. Ready for transport.”

“Standby.”

He floated there in space as he waited to see the glow of lights surround him, the strange yet beautiful blue world surrounded him for only a brief moment until he saw himself on the transporter pad of a transporter room. Once he felt himself free from the confinement of the transport beam, he reached up to release and pull the helmet off so he could get a big breath of recycled air. He then witnessed a couple of smirks and snorts from the two junior officers at the transporter controls. “What?” But as he stepped down from the pad, he saw his reflection in the glass that separated the transporter controls from the rest of the room. His hair was wet, drenched in sweat no doubt, and completely all over the place. “Ah. Guess I need a shower.” He said this as he walked out of the room and headed straight for the EV storage room to peel himself out of the suit, only to place everything into a sanitization unit to clean the pieces, including the undersuit. With just a shirt and pants, he came out of the room while stomping his feet into his boots and slapped his commbadge in place on his shirt over the left of his chest.

In an hour, he had taken a sonic shower, ate a full-course meal, and was now on his way to his office to review reports. Most importantly, to find out just how much they have caught up on the repair orders. So as he sat down in his chair, with a large mug full of hot coffee, he pressed the activator on his desk to bring up the holographic monitor. As it resumed where he left off, he gave it a second to update the data he had left up. Only to place the mug down with a disappointing groan, to which he rubbed his eyes and then his face before he leaned back into his chair and stared at the list. The saber was supposed to be done an hour ago. With the mistake bravo team made, it was now delayed. Even with the intrepid almost finished, ahead of schedule, the saber put his team back a few hours, and not only that. The list of repair orders grew with a couple more ships. Two of them being large vessels, a sovereign class and an excelsior-II class.

Walker slapped the activator to minimize the holodisplay, just to push himself up onto his feet, and grabbed the mug of coffee before he made his way to the replicator. He placed the mug in it and recycled it before he requested a small cup with two shots of espresso. Once it replaced the mug with the small cup, he carefully picked it up and brought it to his lips so as not to spill and downed it. He then placed the cup back in the replicator to recycle and left his office. “Remember when I used to be young?” He asked himself.

Time to get back to work.