Engineering Lab
DS13
“Are you trying to get me into trouble?” Walker sighed as she walked, bleary eyed, into the lab led by Loxton.
“I am on an assignment, I can’t talk about it but I need your help and it’s got to be done tonight. The next four hours, actually.” Loxton said as he turned on the replicator. “And no, this won’t get you into trouble.”
Walker yawned.
“It’s 0400 hours! Why didn’t you come to me last night?”
“Because I only just thought about it!”
Walker focused on the replicator. “Okay, okay. What do you need done?”
“Well,” Loxton leaned on the workspace. “I know we can’t replicate latinum, but we can replicate the gold bricks they use that have the latinum in, right?”
Walker nodded slowly. “Uh huh? Is this why you woke me up? To replicate fake latinum bricks?”
“To replicate a substance that can be mistaken for latinum on an initial scan”
Walker looked at him. “Wow, you’re really in debt, aren’t you?”
Loxton sighed. “No. This is not about whatever you may have heard!”
Walker blinked as she started to work. “Okay. There’s nothing that is like latinum, so you want me to find a compound that can look and scan as real latinum?”
Loxton nodded enthusiastically. “That would be brilliant! How long will it take?”
Walker grinned at him. “Oh, no time at all Lieutenant! In fact, I do this all the time!”
Loxton, who had failed to grasp Walker’s overwhelming sarcasm, looked surprised. “Oh! Really?”
Walker exhaled and facepalmed hard. “No, Nick. Not really. Where do you think we are? The Enterprise? Do you think I’m Geordi La Forge and can magic up a solution to all the ships problems? This, what you’re asking, is going to take days, possibly weeks, maybe even months and that’s with a full engineering and science department working on the problem! Who do we have?”
Loxton shrugged. “You, me and an engineering lab?”
Walker clutched her chest. “Oh! How romantic!”
Loxton chuckled. “Oh, gone off Mister Tev already, have we?”
Walker gave Loxton a dirty look before switching on the scanner. “How long have we got before you have to go?”
Loxton looked at the chrono. “Five hours.”
“Then let’s go…”
They worked for three hours scanning and fusing together different substances and elements, each time they thought they had come close, it failed the initial scan.
“Right,” Walker sighed, “Polycarbonite and Ganvornium. Lets see if Polyvornium is our lucky winner.”
After a few moments, Loxton scanned the substance.
“It’s coming up as latinum on the initial scan! It’s fooled sensors! I’m trying a more intensive scan… Okay! It’s reading as latinum! Walker! You’ve done it!”
Walker sighed. “Congratulations, we’ve both manufactured counterfeit latinum. We’re criminals. Can I go to bed now?”
Loxton, still elated at the success, turned and planted a kiss on Walker’s cheek. “Thank you, Michelle. You don’t know how much this helps!”
Walker blinked. “Uhm. Uh. You’re welcome. I…uh…am going to leave you here with this.”
Loxton waved her off, grinning. “Go, Ensign. Sleep. You’ve earned it. I’ll clean up here. You are wonderful, do you know that? Thank you so much!”
Walker walked out of the lab in a daze, about ready to drop from exhaustion.
“What a weird dream this turned out to be.” Walker muttered as she trudged toward a turbolift.