Design for Conspiracy

2

"Something isn't right here."

Decker slid out from under the engineering panel, raising an eyebrow. Without the grin, it might almost have been a Vulcan expression. "Minimal power ship wide, life support barely adequate to keep the air fresh, pieces scattered across every available surface, and the new warp core three weeks late. I'm sorry, Mr. Scott, but is anything right here?"

"Och, none of that, Captain." Scotty glanced back down at the pad he held. "This isn't muh first refit. The chaos an' mess won't start to get visibly orderly for six months yet." He tapped the pad. "No, sir. It's the design itself."

The grin disappeared. "I'll admit there are a lot of new and somewhat untested systems, but the design committee was very thorough. You can read all of the reports and analyses if you have the inclination."

Not that Scotty hadn't read absolutely every bit of documentation several times over at this point. "Ah, I think you've given it a good whack with the spanner, sir. A design committee."

"I don't think I understand, Mr. Scott."

"Scotty, Captain, if ye can."

"I've tried."

"Aye, sir, an' sooner or later you'll succeed, I hope, but the point o' the matter is a committee is good at gettin' things done by compromisin' so that everyone gets some of what they want without anyone goin' away empty handed. And that's how this new design looks to be. A long series of trade-offs so that everyone can get their favourite toys on board and still come in under budget." He shook his head. "Take the phasers."

"Channeled through the engines. The increase in power and focus range is—"

"Verra impressive, sir, but there isn't a back up to either older style arrays or a separate channel through the impulse drive. If I have to take the mains offline, the ship loses three quarters of her offensive capability."

"Yes, but—"

"And you know I'll have to take the mains offline at some point, because no standard shakedown cruise is going to rattle all the kinks out of a brand new engine design." He raised his own eyebrow and squinted the opposite eye. "Ye do ken that, don't ye?"

"I do, Mr. Scott, but—"

"The navigation deflector array is a beautiful piece of work, but the power couplings connecting it into the main feeds have a safety margin of only four-point-six percent. One little bump could compromise the whole system."

Decker frowned. "That is a little concerning, but—"

Scott shook his head. "And the internal sensor array is supposed to provide blanket coverage across the whole ship so that a microbe couldn't slip through, but someone obviously had their design time cut for other things because there are human-sized gaps on every deck and the entire shuttle bay is supposed to be covered by two packages."

"I'm sure the intent was to—"

"The water reclamation facility is compact, state of the art, and entirely adequate for a crew of four hundred an' fifty, but if we ever have to pack the corridors for an evacuation of some poor, unfortunate station or colony, heavens forbid, the life support backups will steal—"

Both of Decker's hands came up. "All right, Scotty, I give up. There should have been a strong, central leadership, a guiding hand on a design team. Everything should not have been done by committee. But this design is what we've been given, and if we can make things work, the new Enterprise will be the pride of the fleet, even more than the old one. What do you want me to do?"

Smiling, Scotty offered a hand to his new Captain, helping him up off the deck. "Well now, I might have a few ideas on that score, but we may have to enlist the aid of an Admiral or two."

Decker's eyebrow went back up. "Kirk and Nogura?"

"Aye, the very pair. One for each of us."

With a sigh, Decker shook his head. "Never come between an engineer and his ship, even if you're the designer. I can get the appointment to sit in his office, but I'll need a shopping list and help with the basic strategy."

"Aye sir, that I can certainly give you."