Star Trek Corps of Engineers Mission to Bajor
Book One – The Monarch
By T. M. Flavin
Forward to the story as told by Chief Warrant Officer Michael Thomas, Retired
My story is about a time of peace, at a time when peace meant recovering from the last war and preparing for the next conflict.
I never considered myself a warrior, if anyone in this day and age can be called that, I was and still am an engineer.
I had been content in my engineering career to assist in rescue operations, repairs to stranded space craft and even an occasional construction projects at various outposts throughout Federation Space.
Although I had seen the casualties of collisions, system breakdowns and pirate raids, I was not really prepared for the first big conflict that I was involved with.
That was the battle with the Borg at Wolf 359 in the year of 2367.
The battle between the United Federation of Planets and the Borg collective lasted only a few hours.
40 Starfleet starships were gathered near Wolf 359 to intercept a Borg cube ship traveling to Earth.
The Borg, having assimilated Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his knowledge of Starfleet tactics and technology into its collective consciousness, obliterated the Starfleet force, 39 ships were destroyed, with the loss of over 11,000 lives.
Following its victory, the Borg ship continues on its course to Earth, where with skill and luck, the crew of the Enterprise-D rescued Picard and stopped the cube.
Most of the Corps of Engineers in the quadrant was mobilized for rescue, salvage and cleanup.
That kind of mission can change a man.
I know it changed me.
As a result of the personnel losses many of the Corps officers were transferred to Starfleet defense vessels.
Some of the senior enlisted personnel like myself were commissioned as warrants to command the smaller repair tenders.
My ship was a Cle Dan Class VI Repair Tender.
It normally operated with a crew of twenty four experienced engineers.
My ship came directly from training command with twelve engineers and twelve senior students from the Earth Engineer Training center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, North America.
The tender was supposed to have four Type 9-A, or its equivalent, shuttle craft, we had two for safety reasons, because there are no escape pods on this type of tender.
In addition I had two Type M-1 Work pods, and four work bees with manipulator arms, for grappling.
Our job, after an area survey, was to bring major salvageable ship components to a Pearl Class VII Mobile Repair Facility.
Two to four Cle Dans operated out of a Pearl.
Once the major components were gathered to meet a plausible repairable ship; they were tacked together within the Pearl then towed to the nearest star base for rebuilding.
Most of ours went to Earth or Mars facilities.
A little over half were rebuilt; the rest of the parts and components went into fabrication of newer and smaller cruisers, to rebuild the fleet.
Our secondary mission was to recover the dead and smaller debris.
Most of the smaller debris was bundled and pushed, with enough velocity, for it to reach the local star.
The dead and pieces of bodies were collected and sent in storage pods to the Pearl.
From there they were picked up by a Starfleet cruiser that was assigned for security.
The dead were then identified, and placed in burial torpedo shells and given a funeral onboard with full military rights.
The burial torpedoes were then taken to an area outside the debris field and fired into the sun for burial.
Wolf 359 has no planets in orbit.
After eighteen months we had towed, or pushed, five composite ships to the Sol system.
I don’t know what their status was after the rebuild or the names they were re-commissioned to.
Many were probably lost in the subsequent battles with the Klingons, the Romulans and lastly the Dominion, where in that wars’ aftermath my story begins.
Michael Thomas, CWO (Ret)
[FONT=Calibri] [/FONT]
Book One – The Monarch
By T. M. Flavin
Forward to the story as told by Chief Warrant Officer Michael Thomas, Retired
My story is about a time of peace, at a time when peace meant recovering from the last war and preparing for the next conflict.
I never considered myself a warrior, if anyone in this day and age can be called that, I was and still am an engineer.
I had been content in my engineering career to assist in rescue operations, repairs to stranded space craft and even an occasional construction projects at various outposts throughout Federation Space.
Although I had seen the casualties of collisions, system breakdowns and pirate raids, I was not really prepared for the first big conflict that I was involved with.
That was the battle with the Borg at Wolf 359 in the year of 2367.
The battle between the United Federation of Planets and the Borg collective lasted only a few hours.
40 Starfleet starships were gathered near Wolf 359 to intercept a Borg cube ship traveling to Earth.
The Borg, having assimilated Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his knowledge of Starfleet tactics and technology into its collective consciousness, obliterated the Starfleet force, 39 ships were destroyed, with the loss of over 11,000 lives.
Following its victory, the Borg ship continues on its course to Earth, where with skill and luck, the crew of the Enterprise-D rescued Picard and stopped the cube.
Most of the Corps of Engineers in the quadrant was mobilized for rescue, salvage and cleanup.
That kind of mission can change a man.
I know it changed me.
As a result of the personnel losses many of the Corps officers were transferred to Starfleet defense vessels.
Some of the senior enlisted personnel like myself were commissioned as warrants to command the smaller repair tenders.
My ship was a Cle Dan Class VI Repair Tender.
It normally operated with a crew of twenty four experienced engineers.
My ship came directly from training command with twelve engineers and twelve senior students from the Earth Engineer Training center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, North America.
The tender was supposed to have four Type 9-A, or its equivalent, shuttle craft, we had two for safety reasons, because there are no escape pods on this type of tender.
In addition I had two Type M-1 Work pods, and four work bees with manipulator arms, for grappling.
Our job, after an area survey, was to bring major salvageable ship components to a Pearl Class VII Mobile Repair Facility.
Two to four Cle Dans operated out of a Pearl.
Once the major components were gathered to meet a plausible repairable ship; they were tacked together within the Pearl then towed to the nearest star base for rebuilding.
Most of ours went to Earth or Mars facilities.
A little over half were rebuilt; the rest of the parts and components went into fabrication of newer and smaller cruisers, to rebuild the fleet.
Our secondary mission was to recover the dead and smaller debris.
Most of the smaller debris was bundled and pushed, with enough velocity, for it to reach the local star.
The dead and pieces of bodies were collected and sent in storage pods to the Pearl.
From there they were picked up by a Starfleet cruiser that was assigned for security.
The dead were then identified, and placed in burial torpedo shells and given a funeral onboard with full military rights.
The burial torpedoes were then taken to an area outside the debris field and fired into the sun for burial.
Wolf 359 has no planets in orbit.
After eighteen months we had towed, or pushed, five composite ships to the Sol system.
I don’t know what their status was after the rebuild or the names they were re-commissioned to.
Many were probably lost in the subsequent battles with the Klingons, the Romulans and lastly the Dominion, where in that wars’ aftermath my story begins.
Michael Thomas, CWO (Ret)
[FONT=Calibri] [/FONT]
Last edited:
