MTB
By JPMwycombe
Chapter 2: ‘ I have got to get me one of these!!!'
It took less than 48 hours for the fifteen person team of engineers and designers to get the newly arrived systems installed into the hull of the MTB, a feat to go up with the repair of the Yorktown before Midway or convincing Hollywood actors that going into Musical career was a bad idea.
The ‘betty' was now after many months of wrangling, fighting and wishing for anything to help them get the Boat off the ground had finally come full circle and for the first time the MTB- the prototype escort of the Earth Defence Fleet was completely set for her trial runs. The entire group of engineers and designers that had been involved since the beginning had taken a day's leave in order to see the first launch of the vessel that had so lovingly worked on for so long.
Slowly the Massive Bay doors of the Dry Dock broke open, the Midday glare of the Nevada Sun shone through the gap made by the retracting doors, the light seemed to single out the new vessel waiting patiently in it's construction cradle. To many of them they had never seen anything more beautiful in their lives; the Ideals and the dreams of the many people clustered around her- were evident in her design and function.
She was ready to go.
“Lt O'Reilly?” Xander called to his XO.
“Sir?”
“Lets see what she can do...”
With that O'Reilly just saluted and ran off, pulling together a command crew for the ship they set around getting the MTB into fully flight operational status, again with the ship's deign based on back engineered systems- the ship's consumables supplies was greater than that of and normal spacecraft.
However less than an hour later she was ready, the bay doors were easily retracted enough for the MTB to comfortably take off and into the air, the crew was set, the systems ready and the consumables topped up all that was needed was the word.
“Commander Harris, the Captain's chair is yours.”
“Mine?” Xander was a little surprised that they had chosen him to take command, without exception every one of the crew were veterans of the USAF or RAF, he was just a Desk Jockey attached to a unwanted joke of the forces.
O'Reilly just stepped back and took the seat at the Weapon's systems substation, The rest of the crew sat in their seats looking at him. More than a little overwhelmed he sat down and adjusted the restraints on his seat, everyone else was also settling into their respective seats.
“Well that's something Star Trek could have done with- Seatbelts.” The joke was a little weak but those who knew the series and its multiple incarnations understood his reference.
“As is Murphy's Law sir, the Inertial Dampers will be the first thing to fail right when you need it.” The Sensor operator said.
Looking around he saw the crew set at their stations waiting for his command for the ship's maiden voyage. His Ship… His Crew… and they were ready to go. For months he had been awaiting this day and now for the first time it was ready to go.
“By the systems, all division heads give me a check.”
“Nav/helm Check.”
“Sensors Check.”
“Weapons 1 Check.”
“Weapons 2 Check.”
“Engineering 1 Check.”
“Engineering 2 Check.
“Communications and Coding Check.”
“Environmental Check”
“And Command Check.” Responded Xander “All systems are go. Mr Anderson when you are ready Take us up.”
“Course Captain.”
Captain… he liked the sound of that.
“Thataway.”
“Aye Sir, Thataway.”
*This is what I get working with a bunch of star trek geeks* Though O'Reilly as they slowly lifted from the cradle. The Small escort rose up quickly and softly, the rest of the facility's crew and guards were waiting up top to see the MTB rise from the underground dock. The sight was as awe inspiring for them as it had been for the construction crews of the Prometheus and Dauntless, the cheering and hollering almost out did the noise of the MTB's anti gravity generators. Turning the Vessel so as to see out of the ship's forward view ports the crew of the MTB visible to the rest of the people outside got a simultaneous Salute from every Man and woman down there.
With a flash of running lights as a counter salute they MTB rose up and powered it's way clear of the atmosphere and into earth orbit, the ship while small was faster than anything bar the Lancer class Starfighters under construction by the RSS navy or the F 302- although it still gave the second more than a run for its money
The Boat achieved orbit merely a minute after leaving the Earth's surface, turning from Atmospheric engines to Space based engines was more than a little troublesome when one of the control crystals plugged into the Helm system blew as the switch was flipped. Luckily The Engineer's mate- An Irishman named Murphy of all things managed to hotwire a cross connection to allow the weapons controls to fire the primary Burn for the engines.
Apart from that one problem the ship was in perfect working order, the cheers from the crew were deafening. They had done it, with barely six months work and a little help from a boss who liked them- the first escort vessel in The Space fleet was operational.
But then when an unknown ship appears in orbit around your home planet- not everything goes as planned.
“Incoming…” A voice screamed as a Gauss rifle round slammed into the ship's shields, an electronic bypass put into the systems by one of the more Star trek orientated fans had allowed the shields to automatically activate when an unknown ship came within a certain range.
The ship lurched and shuddered with the impact, the shields barely holding the blast away from the vessel's thin hull. A massive shape filled the View ports as the ship's tumble was stopped, the ship was familiar- it should be it was one of theirs. A few pulse rounds were fired by the ships forward weapons.
“Helm, go evasive.” The MTB banked away from the incoming fore and dodged the follow up rounds, the other ship followed them firing again. However the MTB was much more Agile than the ship following- most of the shots went wide however and the fester acceleration and top speed of the escort vessel allowed them to get out of range quickly. The MTB came about and faced the other ship head on enough to see it's name and Registry
HMS Indomitable
RSS 002
“For Christ's sake its one of ours.” Shouted the Sensor operator
“Open a comm channel to the other ship.”
“Channel Open.”
The Main Monitor screens at the front of the Ship came alive with the face of a bearded middle aged man with a regal bearing.”
“This is the HMS Indomitable to unidentified ship….”
“Dammit Bradley you almost killed us.”
The eyes of the man on the screen widened and his jaw dropped, he hadn't expected the face on the other side to be a man he knew, especially not the young man he had sponsored into the Royal Space Service's ranks.
“Alexander what the hell are you doing on that ship.”
“Bob this is the newest ship in the Combined fleet, she the prototype of an escort for the larger ships. The ‘Betty Class' Motor Torpedo boat.”
The man on the screen sat back in his own command chair and signalled the weapons stations to drop down to condition Green, now they knew the other ship was an allied craft.
“I'm sorry Commander, but we had no knowledge of any test flight today.”
“No my apologies Captain, I shouldn't have snapped like that. The test run was set for today and has been for a few days now. It's possible that the notification was misfiled or not sent through in time.”
The Captain understood, even when it came to the new fleet of spacecraft to protect earth the damned red tape could still get in the way, what's more he had never even heard of the project for the MTB- he was not a happy man and an upset Captain of a warship was not a good thing.
“Do you need any help with repairs Alexander?”
“Negative Sir we're on a test run out to Coalmine and back, maybe a stop off at Thundersdawn in the process.”
“Understood Alexander, Congratulations on your first command.” The older man winked and the screen blacked out.
The Indomitable flashed its running lights in another salute to it's smaller brethren and sped out back into it's patrol routine, a very unhappy officer on board making multiple threats to lower level officers at RSS and SGC commands about lack of knowledge or information about the new ship in the fleet.
While another crewman on board sent her own transmission to another source.
The Crew of the MTB sat back and let the adrenaline run down from their bodies, being attacked by another ship albeit as an accident was still a frightening experience. The ship's systems and hull had help up very well considering her pounding, even more so was the fact they had been able to out run and outmanoeuvre a ship of the line had been quite an achievement. However going up against the more agile fighters and bombers of the Goa'uld would be different- hopefully if and when their ship's weapons were completed they would have the speed to outrun whatever they couldn't destroy and destroy anything they couldn't outrun.
The Ship's systems were in fine shape- therefore none of the crew could see any problems with the anticipated run to Coalmine and back. The shutdown of the engines allowed the engineers to rebuild the engine controls from other parts of the ship's systems that would not be needed such as the weapons systems.
The ship got underway soon afterwards and headed toward Coalmine Mining Station and Thundersdawn Fleet Yards, as none of them had yet had any rotation to any of the off planet facilities it was quite a coup for them. The trip itself took very little time with their ship's superior speed and all too soon the large cross shape of the Thundersdawn Fleet Complex came into view. The Complex itself bore the as yet uncovered scars of the recent attacks by the Goa'uld Fleet, debris was still scattered around in small groups- obviously placed into non-destructive orbits by some of the smaller cargo ships that were stationed there.
“This Is MTB01 to Thundersdawn Control. Do you read us?”
“MTB01 this is Thundersdawn Control, we've just received an interesting report from the Indomitable. To be honest we had no notice of your construction at all either, can you confirm your Identity and ship's ID codes.”
“Roger Control, MTB01 Codename ‘Betty. Id codes 7245-747480-573-405. Lt Commander Alexander Harris Commanding Serial number RSS-Uniform Uniform-4246-Gamma.”
“Processing your codes please hold in current position.
“Roger Control Holding Position.”
Not long after the main lights of the complex lit up a small airlock on the side of the station's side.
“MTB01 This Is Control, Identity confirmed, however we would appreciate your coming aboard so we can have a good look at your ship, we understand you may have some damage.”
“This is MTB01, roger control- we have some problems a repair would be useful thank you.”
“Copy that MTB01. Docking port is now open Welcome to Thundersdawn Fleet Command.”
The MTB moved slowly up to the small airlock on the outer edge of the station, it took a few attempts due to the crew's lack of knowledge or experience with space based docking facilities. However after a few minutes the ship was docked and the docking system locked in, the small tunnel between the locks pressurised and both doors opened up to allow them egress into Thundersdawn.
“Commander Harris I'm Commander Islington, Head of Gamma Shift.”
“Nice to meet you Ma'am. Permission to come aboard.”
“Permission granted to both you and your crew. If you would follow me Commander I have a few questions for you.”
Xander Followed the Young Commander out of the docking facility and into the space station proper, he was marginally impressed with the scope of the station, he had been on board a Prometheus class and had been responsible for the upkeep of the former dry dock but he had never see anything like the space station he was aboard.
Here and there were plasti-glass windows to allow him to see the rest of the stations, the drydocks were covered but he could see through the gaps where damage had been taken by the hull. The repair teams skittered back and forth in their suits and craft repairing and upgrading anything that had been damaged, the ragged remains of one of the docks was still there, like a rent in a tapestry- disturbed and vile. He turned away from the damaged section knowing the loss in personnel that destruction had cost.
The other Commander saw his discomfort and smiled a sad smile; she knew how he was feeling. It was more than likely he knew some of them people lost over the last week. The RSS was not big enough yet for there to be many people that didn't know each other, she herself had know the command crew of the Dauntless and several of the crew chiefs in the lost Dry dock- the loss was palpable in the air of the station.
It would be a long time before they managed to recover from the losses of the ships and crews, both militarily and personally. She looked at him and gestured to the next room along.
The Two of them sat down on the sofa bolted down to the floor, as was the norm for space-based equipment even that with artificial gravity, all furniture was bolted down or had Velcro to hold it in place. The two of them started to talk.
It became apparent that nobody in the fleet had been told of the MTB's maiden voyage outside of the planetary orbit of the Earth, obviously nobody had believed that a hastily cobbled together shuttle sized vessel would ever get off the ground and so nothing was sent out in the fleet dispatches in order to let them know.
“Steinburg” Was the only thing that Xander could say.
“What?”
“Commodore Francis Steinburg, head of the Fleet resources division of the SGC, he's one of those ‘Battleship Officers' he was the one responsible for the MTB project almost being cancelled, sided with the bloody politicians. He believes that the Dauntless and Prometheus classes are more than enough to hold back the damned snakes.”
“And so he decideD that the MTB wouldn't get anywhere and didn't inform anyone about the launch of the vessel.”
“That's about the size of it. Damn Bob's not gong to be happy about this, he almost killed us because of the lack of information. I really don't want to be in the Commodore's shoes tomorrow.”
“Bob? You know Captain Bradley?”
“The Indomitable engaged us in earth orbit, we took a Gauss shell and a couple of Pulse cannon shots before we could get out of the way, Last I heard he was screaming at RSS Ground command for not letting him know about the MTB and almost letting him kill naval personnel.”
The rest of the debriefing went along these lines, the MTB's capabilities and power projection were startling to the commander and her design corps, a request was made for the completed designs of the MTB from the assembly bay on earth. Xander promised them as soon as they could get them up to TD.
With the briefing over with Xander returned to the MTB while the Commander returned to the operation centre, his return was disturbed to an argument between his engineer and one of the station's technicians.
“Crewman what's this ruckus?”
The Engineer turned to his commander- the man was more than a little annoyed at the interruption. However his demeanour changed as he noticed who it was that had disturbed the argument.
“Commander, this ‘Technician' is attempting to bypass several of the shield relays and incorporate a energy transfer system into the matrix.”
“That sounds good doesn't it. It'll allow more power to be dumped into the shields in combat.”
“It might do Sir but the boat's systems are still in shakedown, she's not yet complete and he's already trying to tinker with the systems.”
“Crewman.” He addressed the TD Tech, “Please remove the equipment you have installed, Petty officer Halloway is the chief engineer and he knows these systems- if he doesn't want it in yet it doesn't go in. Its also against procedure to attempt it without going through him or me.”
“But sir it's a new systems change for all Earth based Warships.”
“The ship is not yet finished Crewman so take it out NOW!” Xander ordered sharply.
The Crewman attempted to swallow in a suddenly dry mouth, but he removed the equipment he had spliced into the system and left quickly. The crew of the MTB shouting and hollering at the departing backside of the Crewman.
“Ok everyone that's enough, ships systems update please.”
“The Engine controls have been repaired sir, the Weapons control is back in business, the system programming has been upgraded and they've fixed the squeak on the Seat-tilt control.”
“Damn I'm surrounded by comedians.”
The Engineer Just smiled back and left for the engine room.
“Ok Prepare to get underway, close the airlock, depressurise and disengage docking clamps.”
“Depressurised Sir Clamps detached.”
The MTB pulled away from the docking port of the station and moved into a concentric orbit of the station allowing an Airhead to take its place. Pulling away the radio crackled with a farewell from the Docking station, the MTB was now on its way to the final leg of its Maiden Voyage.