Slade Trask

Private Storyline

Background:
Every ship needs an engineer, especially the old ones. The Miishakaal is no exception.

Slade Trask was born in 1086 on Lamguumaash (Lishun 1934). As long as he can remember, he's always been a gearhead. As soon as he was old enough, he enlisted in the Imperial Scout Service and dove right into the Technical Academy. He spent the majority of his career repairing drives and power plants, though he did do a little flying and firing. But he was always happiest when he was down in Engineering squeezing every last kilowatt out of the power plant, fine tuning the maneuver drive to get maximum efficiency, and holding the jump drive together with nothing more than lanthanum wire and duct tape.

His expert skill at repairing drives became a curse. Once the war got into full swing, he got assigned to work in repair yards. Ruined hulks would be towed in his job was to lead his team into salvaging something from the dreck. All too often it was hopeless. After 4 years of being asked to turn slag into gold, he'd had enough and resigned. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the challenge, it was just depressing. These perfectly good drives were being sacrificed to the gods of war by children pretending to be men.

Slade went to find work in the private sector. It was while he was waiting to be interviewed that he met Shiraamer. She was arguing with the Appointment Clerk. Slade couldn't help but overhear them.

Shiraamer: "What do you mean the Lanthanum Induction Coils won't be in for another four days? I've got to leave tonight if I'm going to get my cargo delivered on time."

Clerk: "I'm sorry Miss but the engineer tells me that they're completely shot and they need to be replaced."

Shiraamer: "But I just had them replaced last year and it cost me a fortune."

Clerk: "Well these things are prone to failure Miss."

It was obvious to Slade that the lady was being railroaded, so he interrupted them, "Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear your problem. Did anyone try to depolarize the LICs? If the field generator isn't running optimally, it can leave a residual positive charge on the LICs. Over a year that can cause quite a buildup on a ship that jumps alot."

Shiraamer smiled and turned to the clerk.

He nervously looked through the engineer's paperwork, "Uhhhhh I don't see anything here. Let me see if he's available."

Slade: "If you don't mind, I can take a look."

Shiraamer beamed at Slade, "Be my guest. Right this way."

Slade had the jump drive up and humming in 37 minutes. 30 minutes of that was depolarizing the Lanthanum Induction Coils, or LICs as engineers are want to call them.

That was four years ago. Slade has been the ship's Chief Engineer ever since.