This Hertz!

Posted on Sat Dec 5th, 2020 @ 11:14pm by Lieutenant Anna S. Thesia M.D.

Mission: Healing of Minds
Location: Sickbay - CMO's Office

Anna patched through a call to Starbase 27 in orbit of Andoria, which was a quick and easy call to make since it wasn't very far away from Vulcan at all.

The call was answered by a woman in an engineering jumpsuit, Oma Back-Hertz, a design engineer working at the local shipyard. "Anna! Good to see you!"

"Hey, I'm glad I'm not catching you at a bad time. I finally settled in on my new ship so I thought I'd poke you and see what you're up to." Anna grinned.

"Me? I'm still working on the new Hedgehog class. The first three are going to launch in a few weeks. The Hedgehog, the Echidna and the Porcupine. It's exciting." Oma immediately trailed off into details. "We're receiving the type VI and VII phaser banks quickly enough now that they're piling up in our cargo holds. If we up production capacity now, we can churn out those new freighters at a rate of five or six per month."

Anna had no idea how impressive that was as far as freighters went, but she thought the general design concept behind the new Hedgehog class was sound. With many ships that had been reactivated for the Dominion war now being decommissioned instead of having their battle damage repaired, their intact (if outdated) phaser banks could now be mounted on freighters, and giving each freighter a few dozen of them would make them more than capable of seeing off a pirate raid, especially travelling as a convoy.

"We're mounting four type VIII banks on each of those freighters as well", Oma continued. "They're coming off the Excelsior class ships, with them undergoing refit to match the standard of the Lakota subtype these days, and all going to type IX banks instead." It was a significant improvement in firepower for the venerable Excelsior class, despite its inability to mount the type X emitters found on the Galaxy family of ships, or the type XIIs now seen on the latest Sovereign and Prometheus classes.

"If that means there'll be fewer civilian casualties, and that our outlying colonies will be supplied more reliably, then I'm all for it", Anna said.

"That's the idea. It just won't do bolting cargo contained to Miranda hulls. They're too old, too battered now", Oma said. "Richard's working on turning one of those Mirandas into a museum ship, restoring her to how she looked before the war."

"Your husband's working on an old ship, and you're making a new one. Are you cannibalising his project for parts now?" Anna teased.

"No, but Fanny is." Their older daughter Stefanie, who was very obviously on the road to becoming an engineer herself, was always tinkering with one weird, strange project or another. The last thing Anna had seen her make was a model Galaxy class that shot peanuts for photon torpedoes and squirted whisky for phasers.

"Do I want to know what she's building now?" Anna asked.

"Oh, it's mostly harmless", Oma laughed. "It's for Estelle, but don't tell her, it'll be a surprise for when she turns sixteen in a few months." This was the age of maturity on Andoria, and therefore a significant birthday.

There was some noise in the background, and then Anna heard a door open. "Speaking of Estelle, has she finally decided what career she wants to pursue?"

"I'll be a quack just like you!" the teenager called from the back of the room, approaching the camera and waving. "Hi Anna!"

Anna laughed. "Don't you think with a name like yours, calling yourself a quack as well will turn people away from your practice?"

"No", Estelle stuck out her tongue. "I'm applying for Starfleet Academy. Captive audience, and all that. Besides, I just love surgery, and I'll shamelessly steal all your bad jokes and puns too."

"By all means, you do that", Anna grinned. "Just remember, always offer your patients some tea."

"No, tea is for after work. Everyone needs to stay sharp, that's why I'll use coffee." She reached out of the view of the camera and then held a mug into the focus. "I've already designed one of these." The mug had a Starfleet medical logo, as well as a prescription for strong coffee printed on the side. "What do you think?"

"You might be giving some of your patients ulcers", Anna laughed. "Half of them probably drink too much coffee already."

"T... too much.. c..coffee?!" Estelle blurted out, looking horrified. She shook her head rapidly. "No no no, no such thing, you're just trying to scare me. I'm not listening! Lalalalala!"

"Estelle, don't be silly", her mother laughed. But the blonde teen was undeterred, dancing about the room singing.

Anna laughed. "I need to be careful what I say around her."

"Hm? What?" Oma asked.

Anna repeated herself, louder this time.

"Estelle!" Oma called. "Go to bed. You need to be awake in the morning, there's a big test, remember?"

Estelle stopped and nodded. "I know. I'm prepared, don't worry. I know all they want me to know."

"Still, you need to be well-rested, go to bed", her mother insisted.

"Mum, I haven't talked to Anna in months!" Estelle complained.

"You weren't talking to her just now", Oma argued back. "Go to bed."

"Fine", Estelle said. "You can make me go to bed. But you can't make me sleep."

"Maybe not. But Anna here can, she knows anaesthesia. It's in her name, after all."

Estelle laughed. "Yes, she probably can. Good night Anna!" And with that, the girl walked out of the room.

"I hope Starfleet Academy knows what they'll be dealing with by the time she gets there", Anna smirked.

"Can't be any worse than you were", Oma shot back.

"True. But I wasn't at the Academy. I only got me one of those uniforms because that's what they gave surgeons in the war", Anna replied. "It's a good deal. I don't think I'd have made it in otherwise. But Estelle, she's smart. She's got what it takes to make it."

Oma smiled. "I know. I just wish she'd become a proper engineer."

Anna shook her head in amusement. "Maybe she'll date one. They'll be able to fix each other's problems." Anna grinned. "Maybe I should see how interesting some members of this ship's engineering staff are. I seem to remember my track record with engineers is pretty good." She winked.

"Certainly was before the war", Oma smiled. "You can't come over to Andoria for a few days, perhaps?"

"I'm afraid not, as much as I'd like that", Anna said. "But whenever I have a chance, I'll give you a call."

"I'd love that", Oma said.

"Until then, I'm sure you'll..." Anna started but was interrupted by a nurse walking into her office.

"Doctor, there's a patient here who's come back from Vulcan with severe heat exhaustion", the nurse said.

Anna nodded to the nurse. "Oma, I've got to run. Take care!" She blew a kiss at the screen and closed the connection.