Design Team Stories: Design Stage Summary: Tom has an inspiration on how to get home using the slipstream drive. Tom, Harry, B'Elanna and Seven work to design the ship to do it. Disclaimer: Paramount owns the Star Trek Universe. I own my story. I just took the characters out to play. It's for fun, not for profit. Note: This story takes place after the eposode "Hope and Fear." This is the first of five stories featuring Paris, Torres, Kim and Seven as they create a craft that can make the run to the Alpha Quadrant and bring back supplies. This story has high hopes and a crying baby. Before you ask, they are not all finished yet. Design Stage Copyright by Jan Monroe 1998 *The night shift was actually not so bad when your nearest neighbor, well B'Elanna's neighbor, had two six -week-old babies. * Tom thought. He was still living with her, but neither of them had asked permission for the arrangement. B'Elanna was getting more comfortable with their togetherness daily. He still had hopes of asking her to make it a permanent commitment but she was still skittish. He loved Nick and Peter, had actually helped deliver them, but their crying every three hours for a meal was not conducive to Tom's being able to function during the day. He had gone on nights when they were two weeks old and since Lt. Williams took them with her during the day, he and B'Elanna were able getting some sleep. They were also very loud when they were making their demands. Tom's fondest hope was that they would start sleeping thought the night soon as he only had two more weeks on nights. Nick had developed a case of colic that the Doc just couldn't seem to relieve. He was adjusting the formula every three days but Nick was still having painful gas and the rest of the crew was quickly falling out of love with him. Nick had two ideal places to be, on the back of anyone running laps and Tom's shoulder. These were the only two situations that he would be quiet for more than five minutes. Peter was a happy baby that loved to be held, passed around and had never met a stranger that he didn't love on sight Another plus was that B'Elanna was also on nights so they were spending more time together than ever before. They worked together much better then either of them admitted before they became involved. She was in charge of Engineering and he was in command of the ship, at least on delta shift. Setting in the Captain's chair on the bridge was strange . . . in the seat of command but reading medical textbooks. He had been spending too much time in Sickbay lately. During the slow times on the bridge he was willingly reading medical texts. He couldn't concentrate on the text. It was written much like another text book. The writer needed a good editor who would pare down the junk and just leave the facts. Long and boring was how Tom viewed all text books, even books on how to fly. Reading about something was a lot less instructional than actually getting your hands into it. Tom was thinking about a question that Harry had asked during dinner. "Why can't we build a shuttlecraft that travels at slipstream?" He followed it with "It could go to Federation space and get all the stuff that we need to convert Voyager into a slipstream vessel. I know that the reason that we can't convert Voyager is that we don't have the materials that we need to do it." Tom called up the data from the only time that Voyager had used the slipstream drive. It had caused structural damage because the areas that were stressed were different from those in warp. Tom read the data and thought about the warp ten experiment. Harry, B'Elanna, and he had redesigned a shuttle before, how much harder would it be to design one that used the slipstream drive. Tom called up the engineering design simulation program and dumped the data from Voyager into it, the speed, the stress areas, and everything that he remembered about how the ship responded while in slipstream. He used the data to run a simulation on a shuttlecraft. The craft lasted 12 minutes before it turned itself into a pancake. This was not a good sign but he had time to waste trying to find an answer. 0300 was not the most exciting time on the bridge. They were flying in a straight line with nothing and no one anywhere near them, just a large expanse of empty. They hadn't even had to dodge a rock in three days. Tom became ever more involved in the simulations. He systemically strengthened all the structural members of the shuttle. It lasted 18 minutes that time. He moved the supports to twice as close together that Starfleet required. That version lasted 25 minutes. He doubled the structural integrity fields with special spacing. It lasted 102 minutes. He started to reshape the front of the shuttle to make it like Artemis'. It lasted four hours under the stress. Tom started think that they could make it stable. He modified the deflector array to have a main deflector and two smaller booster deflectors. That simulation lasted 600 hours and then stopped when damage occurred. It had only minor surface damage, nothing structural. He dropped half of the new structural supports and got the same results. All the simulations he had run had only taken about an hour. According to the simulation, the shuttle could make the trip to the Alpha Quadrant without ever coming out of slipstream. At slipstream speed from Voyager's current position to earth was only 512 hours. Tom started to think about what the shuttle would be required to provide: Crew spaces, engineering areas, and mostly cargo space. They would need tons of materials to retrofit Voyager with this propulsion system. He tapped his commbadge. "Paris to Torres." "Yea, Tom." "Remember the shuttle idea of Harry's?" Tom asked "Sure, Why?" B'Elanna asked. Sure that Tom was up to something or he wouldn't be asking. "I've been playing with the engineering computer simulations. I have a design that lasted four hours just modifying our shuttles. I was thinking that if we got together some specs we could make the idea work." "Tom are you really that bored?" "YES! So humor me, what will we need the shuttle to do?" "Look at the specs for the largest shuttle we have. Add a cargo space capable of 12 metric tons. The crew, make it a six-member crew to run it, one on navigation and one in engineering at all times. Those should get you started but it doesn't cover everything." B'Elanna reeled off, not thinking that it was the start of a large complicated project. "That will help. Thanks . . . When will you be free for breakfast-dinner-whatever?" "0830. I hope." "Meet me in the mess hall. I should be done about the same time." Tom told her. He closed the channel and went back to playing with the simulations. ~~~ Tom caught Harry just as he was coming on shift. "These are the specs that B'Elanna gave me. These are the simulations that I was playing around with last night. If you get a chance can you look them over and tell me what you think?" "Sure." Harry stated, shocked that Tom had done all this work prompted by an off-the-cuff comment he had made last night. Tom hurried off the bridge to meet B'Elanna for breakfast. The data had to wait until late in the shift. Harry was amazed. There was the answer . . . how to get the shuttle built and how to modify Voyager to get home. He ran the simulation and gave Voyager the same modifications that Tom had made to the shuttle. The results were the same. The boaster arrays, integrity fields and structural supports made Voyager able to make the slipstream trip safely. After going through all the data he handed it to Chakotay. "Tom was working on this during delta shift. I think that you might want to look at it," was all Harry said about it. He too had been disappointed that they had been unable to use the slipstream immediately. High hopes and "eureka I found it" feelings were now surrounded by cautious thoughts of maybe this time it will work. The good news was that they had all the parts that they needed to build a shuttle on board. It would take at least another month to finish designing it and then two months to build it. Harry smiled, he had never thought that boredom was the key to great discoveries, but Tom had proved him wrong. Chakotay's reaction, immediately after reading the data, was to drag the Captain into her ready room for a private conference. They didn't come out until after alpha shift was over. The design that Tom had created worked. The Captain called a senior staff meeting for 0600 the next morning and informed Seven so that she would also attend the meeting. Tom and B'Elanna's shift was quiet but dragged on for both of them. Tom tried to access his design simulations from the night before only to find them labeled "authorized personnel only." He couldn't even see his own work according to the computer. B'Elanna's night in engineering was slow with only minor repairs being made. Her biggest problem was avoiding the Ship Services' automatic floor vacuums. They weren't supposed to be dangerous but B'Elanna keep forgetting that they were running and keep accidentally stepping on them. The staff meeting was a major shock. Tom and B'Elanna were the only ones there that were totally alert. Tom couldn't figure out why the early meeting had been scheduled but was just happy that he didn't have to get out of bed for it. The Captain called the meeting to order with the statement, "Congratulations to Mr. Paris. He has started designing modifications that will allow Voyager to use the slipstream system to get home." Tom eyes widened and he started to blush. How did she get a hold of the designs? They were nowhere near ready to be shown to the Captain. All eyes turned to him as be started to regain his composure. The Captain put the most successful simulation on the screen, "Mr. Paris, please describe the modifications that you made to the basic shuttle design for this simulation." Tom got up and walked over to the simulation. "I added a cargo area that will hold approximately 12 metric tons. It is designed for a crew of six . . . " Tom continued about the parameters of the ship and the modifications. He ended and took a deep breath, waiting for someone to start finding holes in the design. "Why the large crew?" Tuvok asked. "At slipstream speed, someone must be on duty at all times both at the helm and engineering. The ship is going too fast to just let the computer handle problems." Tom answered "Why the huge cargo bay?" Chakotay asked. "B'Elanna specified the size. She believed that we would need that much space for the materials that we need for Voyager. Since this is a custom-designed craft, I modified the designs according to the structural needs and what we need it to do. I know that this a large cargo area but it works in the simulation. I have to run more detailed simulations before I know if the size is going to work on the craft but it looks good from here." Tom responded, hoping that it was the last question. He was totally unprepared for discussing the design. It had been an idea, like the shuttle that he used to design in school. It was just the doodling that every pilot has done at sometime. A mental exercise rather than an actual project to be completed. "Thank you, Mr. Paris," the Captain commented, signaling him to sit. He hoped that his part was over. Another graphic flashed on the screen and the Captain asked Harry to explain the modifications that he had transferred from the shuttle to Voyager. Tom's mouth fell open. His ideas were being taken seriously. Usually he was only taken seriously about flying or medicine. He had often gotten the feeling that he was the intellectual lightweight on the senior staff. B'Elanna could make the engines sing. Harry knew every square inch of his scanners, communications and astrometrics. All he did was fly, he knew that he had saved the ship by his flying but that wasn't something that he did through knowledge. It was just a part of him knew what to do and did it when it was needed. After Harry delivered his part of the presentation, the Captain had the hardest question ever asked at a Voyager staff meeting. "Do we take the risk of building the scuttle? It will take almost every spare part that we have. It is a big gamble. Do we gamble or do we play it safe?" This statement was the met was silence. No one spoke out, almost as if afraid that their dreams of home would cloud their judgement of what was best for the ship. "Tuvok?" the Captain prompted, starting a roll call. "The risk-to-benefit equation is difficult. We can build the shuttle. Even if we use trading runs as testing, it will likely be worth the cost of construction. I will have to study the question further." Tuvok answered. "Chakotay?" "Do it. The risk consists of using most of the spare parts that we have but the benefits include a relatively short supply line back to the Federation." "Torres?" "I don't know. I'll have to see more detailed plans before I can make an informed decision," B'Elanna answered. "Kim?" "We don't risk anything if we make more detailed plans. We're guessing about some of the things that we will need to build it. Refining the plans would give us time to trade for materials and specify exactly what we will need," Harry stated, hoping she at least allowed the planning to go forward. "Paris?" "I'd go for the plans before committing our time and resources to the project," Tom answered. "Seven?" "Plans have no costs or risks," she stated. "I recommend creating plans at this point." The Captain stood and walked to the window. Her younger officers wanted plans to work from. Plans that they would be creating with some help from various experts from other departments. They seemed to see plans as the basis for discussion and later choices. She smiled slightly, suddenly knowing what to do. "Harry and Seven, starting today, you are now on delta shift with Tom and B'Elanna until the plans are completed." She proclaimed. "Chakotay, please rearrange the duty schedule." "Captain," Harry started, "Why the night shift?" "Tom seems to think better on that shift. Maybe by keeping him on nights he will have a few more flashes of inspiration," the Captain half-joked. "Dismissed." Harry and Seven were giving Tom dirty looks; like he was the cause of the night shifts, and did not immediately get up to leave. Tuvok and Chakotay left as Tom started to speak, "How are we going to break up the design?" This comment caught the Captain attention. B'Elanna was the first to answer. "You have to run some simulations. I need to know how large the final ship will be before I can design the propulsion system." Tom paused, "I need better specs to work from. The off-the-cuff specs I got from B'Elanna the other night won't be good enough. I'm not sure exactly what is needed. Do we have separate crew quarters or a dorm-style arrangement for now? A kitchen or just a replicator, is the cargo bay going to be pressurized as an air supply backup or is it just going to be a vacuum in there, does it have to be pressurized for the engines to work right?" Tom paused. "Why don't we gather the design specs today and have a meeting during lunch, say at 0300, tonight?" "Where?" Seven asked. "I don't know, yet. I'm on duty with three ensigns tonight. If one of them is good enough, I can leave the bridge with him, if not, We'll have to put it off until later," Tom answered. The Captain smiled, *oh, how they had grown since they each had first set foot on Voyager. Harry was more confident and willing to say what he thinks now. B'Elanna was more likely to talk to you than hit you. Seven was working in a group without trying to dominate it. Tom was demonstrating his own natural leadership ability using both charisma and knowledge, too bad that over the next few years command was going to lose him to medical. He had the makings of a good ship's captain but an excellent doctor, who would have guessed that he had so many talents. She was almost sorry that he couldn't make the first run to the alpha quadrant. That Mission was for only Starfleet officers in good standing, she was asking command to hand over tons of materials to people in a strange ship who say they are from Voyager in the delta quadrant. She would be surprised if they weren't required to undergo psychological evaluations before being allowed to return with the supplies. ~~~ The four members of the design team gathered their requirements and got some much needed sleep. The ensigns, Tom was working with on the bridge were competent but he didn't trust any of them with command. He had a sudden inspiration, use the Captain's ready room and leave the door open. He could have his short meeting with the team and still be just a yell way from the bridge. He knew that it wasn't the brightest idea that he had ever had but it was a way to get the designs underway. The simple tentative designs that he had played with were too general to even try to work from. They provided them with some of the basics but it was really not enough to start building from. He informed the team of the location. The meeting time arrived with Harry and Tom waiting on the bridge for Seven and B'Elanna. They were both late. Not surprising with B'Elanna but Seven was always on time for everything. They knew why the instant that the door to the turbo lift opened. She was caring Nick. He was not happy that she has stopped running. She took off the baby carrier and handed Nick to Tom. The baby suddenly quieted. Tom frowned slightly, "Seven, you know that babies are not allowed on the bridge." "Yes, but I promised to take him running tonight. You are the one that called the meeting for the bridge," Seven stated, slightly out of breath. "Nick is quiet and that is all the matters." B'Elanna showed up in the middle of this but stayed out of it. She knew that this was not her battle. Tom didn't make Seven return Nromoto his parents. He knew that they need their sleep. The meeting was interesting. They each presented their requirements, and they made several decisions related to tradeoffs -- to get better "a" than you have to let "b" be less. They worked this way for three hours. Nick slept through the whole meeting laying on Tom chest. Tom edited the final spec sheet for the captain's review and approval -- it was going to be her shuttlecraft after all. The craft was tentatively designed to be about twice the size of the largest shuttle on Voyager. The crew was getting Spartan accommodations but the usual trips around the Federation would all be less than four days, not a real hardship. They were getting a large crew quarters with six bunk beds, a small lounge with a kitchen and two smaller offices. It would be hard if the first crews that had to live in there for three weeks at a time. Tom was still playing with simulations when Tuvok came on duty. The simulations suggested that Tom could make it go faster with the same hull stress if he could just find the right hull configuration. He knew that this might be one of the tradeoffs that he would have to make but he wasn't going to giving up yet. The stress points on the shuttle suggested that if he could make the craft to fit the slipstream bubble better then the hull would have much lower stress. The stress was why the first models crushed. He also tempted to pump up the shields but that would mean if shields were off line that the ship couldn't make a fast get away if needed. That was a tradeoff that Tom was not prepared to make. He had been in too many battles, treated too many injuries to take this simple but potentially deadly short cut. He was still engrossed in his simulations when the Captain appeared a half hour after Tuvok. She controlled her urge to laugh. He looked like a kid trying to figure out a really hard math problem, his face a mask of total concentration. She felt like a mom sending her child off to bed. "Tom." He looked up at her. "Your shift ended a half hour ago. Go to bed." "The basic specs are on your desk," he told her while he shutdown his simulation. "I'll review them sometime today." He just nodded and left. The Captain was amazed that the design team had complied the specs in so little time. A team at a Starfleet installation would have worked for six months just to agree on the size of the crew quarters. She was perplexed by the apparent lack of medical facilities. Under medical was a note, to be designed. The simple floor plan had an area the size of her walk in closet as medical. It was too large for a simple medical closet but not big enough for a sickbay. The simple floor plans and the specs were complete and functional. They were still working on the hull design. She didn't know why that was an area that was lagging. She had thought that its basic design was similar to the simulations that Tom had run. She sent a copy to both Tuvok and Chakotay with the request "Review. Meeting at 1400 in my ready room." It was a short meeting that consisted of Tuvok and Chakotay both approving the specs. Chakotay asked the only question, "What are they planing for medical. I saw the space and I am totally confused by it." "I'll admit that they have me perplexed by it but what can I say, it's labeled, 'will design later'," the Captain stated. "I'll ask Tom tomorrow. Should we give the team a go ahead for these specs?" "Yes." Chakotay answered. "Yes." Tuvok affirmed. The Captain savored this rare moment when Chakotay and Tuvok were both in total agreement with her and each other. Tom awoke to find a message for him on B'Elanna's terminal. This was not a surprise. He had Harry automatically rerouted all messages going to his old quarters to B'Elanna's. B'Elanna was long gone with a monthly engineering meeting. "Go ahead with specs. What are you planning for Medical?" Janeway Tom sent his own messages to B'Elanna's work station, Harry's quarters and Seven work station. "Specs approved. Meeting tonight, same time, same place. Agenda: hull shape and deflector arrays." Tom It was a replay of the night before. Seven arriving late and carrying Nick. Tom didn't even comment on it this time. They worked until 0630. The hull design was eluding them. Seven wanted to use the shield. Tom quickly discarded the idea. She was mad because he wouldn't do what she wanted. She did not understand the battle safety issues that worried Tom. The next meeting was set for 0300, same place before they left to go back to their posts. Only Tom was on active duty. B'Elanna, Harry and Seven were working on reports and administration duties. That night was the break through. Harry and Seven were running simulations while B'Elanna worked on the engine plans. Tom was sitting at the Captain desk with Nick, designing the medical area. "We got it!" Harry yelled. "We had to run over a hundred possibilities but we have a shape that works at speed both fully loaded and empty." That had actually been the stumbling block. Other designs had worked either fully loaded or empty but not both. At 0630, Tom handed Nick to Seven as the work secession broke up. Tom and Harry continued to write the report with the hull design specs on the bridge. The team's luck held for two more nights. They were getting a huge amount of work done since they were all so focused on it. The end came when the Captain came to her ready room at 0530. She was running away from her insomnia but she found her office space filled. They were sitting on the floor discussing the size of the propulsion system. "B'Elanna, are you sure that you need that small of a system?" Tom asked, fearing that she was going to undersize the system. "You said that you only need impulse to travel within systems and slipstream. We can hype up the impulse engines to get the ship to break-through speed to transfer to slipstream. The large stuff is mostly warp capacity. Leave out the warp and you gain a lot of space." "Can it get to break-through speed fully loaded using just the impulse engines?" Tom asked. "Simulations say it can," B'Elanna stated, angry that anyone would question her engineering skills. "Not the simulations, what do you think?" Harry asked "It will work. The system should be more reliable than our current warp system," B'Elanna explained. "Why did you do away with warp?" Seven asked. She was confused by this decision. "Simple," Tom answered, "Impulse engines get you around with in solar systems and slipstream gets you to and from systems. Why have a large, energy consuming engine that a cargo vessel shouldn't need. Its job is to take stuff from one place to another, not to do battle, where they would need a larger variety of speeds to preform well." The Captain stood in her doorway. She was amazed not just by the fact that they were in there but that they were discussing the engines and the rational behind the choices they had obviously made. She was even more shocked to notice that Tom chest had developed a small extra arm. She was either hallucinating or Tom was wearing Nick's baby carrier, with Nick in it. That was not such a shock, every crewman who jogged had worn Nick at something, that was one of the few times that he was quiet. She walked over to her desk. They didn't even notice her. "Lt. Paris," called a voice from the bridge. Tom got up and left the meeting. She could hear him giving orders on the bridge with Nick on his chest. The ensign on the sensors had picked up the first edge of a junk field. Tom ordered ops to run a scan to determine the size and materials in the field. He then ordered the helmsman to avoid the field. He stayed on the bridge until they were clear of the field. All the while wearing a sleeping baby. Harry, B'Elanna, and Seven continued to discuss the engines. The location was now under discussion. Should it be in back of the crew quarters or should it be on the other floor, under the command area. They examined the placement alternatives and opted for the other floor option. That would mean that they could eliminate all jefferies tubes. Although most of the connections would be hidden behind access panels, they were accessible without the tubes. This made the construction faster and easier. It was not an ideal place if they were ever in a battle but it had the fewest draw backs. The Captain was reading reports and only half listening to the discussion. "What happened while I was gone?" Tom asked when he came back in. "Engineering is going to be on the other floor, forward," B'Elanna told him. "How much cargo space does that leave?" Tom asked. "Twelve point five metric tons worth. It also allows us to enlarge the crew quarters," Harry told him. "What are you doing about medical?" "I just finished the plans for it." He downloaded the padd that he had been using and displayed it on the wall unit. It was a biobed with several unusual attachments that were not on the standard beds. "What does it do?" Harry asked. "It is a combination of a surgical biobed and stasis unit. If it works as it is designed, then anyone that is in serious condition can be put in stasis until qualified personnel can take care of them. Seven helped out on the integration of circuitry to make both units function together." Tom was happy to show off his new medical accomplishment. "I still have to write a holographic program and test it but I think that will serve as the medical facilities. I know that we can't put medical personnel on the shuttle, this is as close as we can get." "Have you shown it to the Chief Medical Officer?" the Captain asked, embarrassing the junior officers. They hadn't noticed her at her desk, their attention on each other and the project. "No, I just finished it about an hour ago," Tom replied. "We are close to completing the plans." "Do you know how long Voyager was on the drawing board?" "No. I'll bite, how long?" Tom answered. "Three years. You are designing a radically different sntl=yet the four of you will be done in less than two months. If that isn't teamwork than I don't know what is." Tom stood in his spot and blushed. Harry and B'Elanna suddenly rose from the floor, as if they were reminded that they were the babysitters not the babysittees. "I have only one question, when did we commissioned Nick as a bridge officer?" "Oh," Tom smiled and looked down at Nick. "Talk to Seven, she's the one that keeps bringing him to the meetings. I'm just trying to keep him quiet, running the bridge, and working on the design." Janeway just raised an eyebrow, a gesture she picked up from Tuvok. "All in a night's work." he joked. "Are you kicking us out or should we go back to work?" "Back to work. From what I've seen, this is a very interesting meeting. I want you to send a copy of these medical plans to the doctor for review," the Captain ordered, returning to her work. The others went back to work. The medical suite was still under discussion, the power requirements as well as the where the other supplies would be stored and how. The small details were discussed with Tom as the expert. He knew how he would like his Sickbay setup and that was what he was doing on the shuttle. The biobed was actually more advanced than medical equipment used on Voyager. Just before the meeting broke, Tom sent the biobed plans to Doc. The meeting broke up about 0630 when Tom handed over Nick to Seven and returned to the bridge to prepare for change of shift. "I'm off for the next two days. Anyone else on duty?" Tom asked. A chorus of "no" came his way. "Assignments. Seven, I need a preliminary energy analysis, use the plans we got and give us an estimate, remember, having reserves are better than running out. Harry, the sensors, they need to be enhanced so that the pilot has more warning. B'Elanna, conduit placement, we need to know where you want the lines to go for shielding. Then the next meeting is in two days, 0300, same place. Seven, please leave Nick with his mom. The new formula seems to be working and he's sleeping rather than bellowing all night." Harry, Seven, and B'Elanna left. As Tom turned to go, the Captain called, "Tom, what is your assignment?" "Helm control and refine the medical." Tom answered. "I also need to talk to Myers about the computing requirements, Tuvok about weapons, Williams about sanitary facilities, and Stevens about the metallurgy for the outer hull." "I didn't realize that you had so many experts working on the projects." The Captain replied. "What, you thought that just the main team was putting out all the plans?" he joked. "The second meeting, we decided that we didn't know enough about some aspects of the shuttle construction so we identified the areas and chose our experts from people that we knew we could work with. In about a week all we will be doing is integrating the systems. About a week after that and we'll be done with the plans, then two weeks to create a holographic mock-up for testing," Tom explained. "After you create the mock-up, what kind of paces are you going to put it through?" "Docking, maneuvering at impulse, and achieving break-through speed are the priorities, after that, speed, maneuvering at slipstream and durability. B'Elanna's small engines have me slightly worried, I know that she knows her stuff, but it seems like a really small engine for a freighter this size. I have to get back to the bridge. I put Ensign Bayhart minimally in charge. I need to be on the bridge to do shift change." "Go," she told him. The team had achieved great results in a very limited time. All the data and specs were left on the main computer and she reviewed them daily, even with outside help they had managed to get months of work done in just days. "EMH to Janeway," her combadge chirped. "Yes, Doctor." "Please turn to your Emergency Medical Channel." Before Janeway could say anything the Chief Medical Officer started, "Why wasn't the medical equipment schematics from the Starfleet message sent to me earlier?" "There was no medical equipment in the message. I'm afraid that you will have to be more specific," Janeway tried to appease the doctor. "The new biobed," he stated, clearly putout. "Mr. Paris and Seven designed that piece of equipment. I told him to send you the plans to review. If you have any questions, direct them to him." She paused, "Are it really that good?" "It is even more advanced than the beds on the Prometheus. It could save lives until trained doctors can take over. It appears simple to use, even providing step-by-step instruction on how to put a critically hurt crewman into stasis. They appeared to design it for anyone who has had basis first aid. They combined a stasis unit with a surgical biobed, not a new idea but this is the only schematics that I've ever seen that will work," the Doc proclaimed, proud of his assistant and Seven. ~~~ Time flew. They had finished the shuttle plans in three weeks. The hectic pace was horrible. More days than not, Tom and B'Elanna just collapsed into bed. They had no time for a love life and no time for fun, just work. Tom was actually looking forward to the test phase of the project. When he and B'Elanna were doing long duration testing, they would actually have time to talk to each other, and a few other things. Tom knew what exhaustion would do for his sex life--it was killing it, the spirit was very willing but the body just couldn't fulfill all of the promise. Harry and Seven weren't fairing much better. They still spent lots of time together, but very little of it was engaged in graduate level touching exercising. Seven had found the whole program that Lena had editted. They were now working on the lessons that Lena thought that she should learn naturally. Lena had forgotten one of Seven's most glaring characteristic; she had to have a procedure to follow to be comfortable. She was creating her own procedure now but still they were important to her. Harry was happy with the slow pace, expiWJPng each part of touching and sex in detail. It caused several cold showers for both participants but she wasn't ready for the final step and he was trying to go at her pace. The gossip mill had a great time with a evening last week. Like that old song, "Wake Up Little Susy," they fell asleep. Seven had come to Harry's quarters to ask about a specific area of the plans. They then moved onto the lesson called "Spooning" on Harry's bed. The active lesson lasted less than ten minutes as they both relaxed and fell asleep. Harry did have to admit that waking up with Seven in his arms was the best way to start the day. When Seven left his quarters just before dinner, comments were flying. He had been tempted to punch out one guy who had the nerve to ask if Borgs chicks were better than human. The design phase was completed in six weeks, two weeks ahead of schedule. Everyone involved in the effort was looking forward to the much slower pase of the testing phase. End Design Phase.