Korest Raldeeno

[Crisler]

Korest looked out over the auditorium; the faces staring up at him seemed so young, so eager. Was he ever that young?

“So I leave you, graduates of the Engineering from Star Fleet Academy with this last thought.

Those that have studied Tactical skills will defend the Federation and stop our enemies. The Science graduates will seek out new and amazing discoveries, pushing the bounds of knowledge. But at the end of the day it is the Engineer they will turn to.

Tactical officers will rely on Engineers to build the tools they need to defend the Federation and to rebuild that which was destroyed while defending her. Science officers will need Engineers to take those amazing discoveries and put them in use, to make them practical. Without Engineers neither can realize their true potential.

You are the backbone of the Federation. You are the tools, the heart and the soul of Star Fleet.”

His last words echoes as they were lost in the crashing cheer that lifted through the auditorium. As he left the podium he was met by Captain Montgomery Scott, a living legend and the Engineering schools Commandant, Captain Andrew Parkinson.

Commandant Parkinson walked up first and shook Korest’s hand. “Lieutenant Raldeeno I must say when Captain Scott approached me with the idea of you speaking at commencement I was not sure it was a good idea. I mean you’re bypassing the Academy and all. However after a speech like that I am tempted to invite you back next year.”

“Aye Korest, that was a fine send off for these kids, most impressive.” Captain Scott commented with a twinkle in his eye.

“Commandant I appreciate your kind words but I am way too old to be at the academy anymore and this was my one shot here, I am anxious to see the universe. As for you Scotty, I should have known better than to ever agree to anything while drinking with you. “ Korest said with a smile.

Commandant Parkinson nodded and back out of the conversation between the two men.

“Ahh now laddie you taint that old, what are ya, 38 or so?”

“I turn the ripe old age of 50 next month Scotty and you damn well know it. So while you may have a hundred and 50 or so years on me do to your little transporter trick don’t be feeding me that ‘laddie’ crap.”

[Crisler]

The story of this day had begun almost 30 years before. Korest had been a graduate of the Elaysian engineering academy, leading his class. Upon graduation he had begun work on a research project founding a few years earlier. The work had been inspired by Melora Pazlar and her work in Star Fleet. Other Elaysians had wanted to go off world as well but the gravitational differences made this very difficult to say the least.

While exo-skeletons and assist trolleys had helped they did not give the Elaysian’s the freedom of movement they needed to be effective members of Star Fleet. On the USS Titan they had attempted to compensate by making a work area specifically designed for Melora but that had limited her contact with other areas of the ship. They finally experimented with a device known as a holo-presence that allowed her remote interaction with the rest of the crew as needed in other areas of the ship. This however was discontinued as it did not allow for true interaction and was not as effective as was hoped.

With this in mind Korest had begin working on the idea of adapting the system used to create artificial gravity on starships. His idea was to miniaturize the gravity generation units enough to make them portable like on a grav sled but completely out of the way. These would then be used to counteract the gravity as it effected the mass of the individual while at the same time to allow enough interaction with the gravity to make normal movement and functioning possible.
It had taken 18 years but finally Korest developed a method that allowed for finer gravity control, in fact it was almost 300% more finely tuned than exist Star Fleet antigravity solutions. With the hurdle of providing the fine control solved the next 3 years were spent miniaturizing the system to make it man portable. The results where nothing short of amazing.

Korest found a way to weave the circuitry of the unit into the uniform material. In addition he supplemented the unit with a limited form of a structural integrity field to allow some protect foe the less dense skeletal structure of the Elaysians.

It was not until last year that the research had reached its full potential with the development of a very compact power unit. The unit worked partially off of the Elaysians own bio-chemistry which produced a higher than humanoid normal level of bioelectrical energy, something that had never really been explored before. Using this natural energy and tied to a small power module the unit could be powered at full operational mode for up to 48 hours and up to 168 hours in a very limited mode. The limited mode was not comfortable for the Elaysian but would allow very slow basic movement.

The one drawback to this system was that the energy drain from the wearers natural bio-energy caused fatigue over extended use. To combat this the power unit was supplemented with a transmission charging system that could easily be fitting into existing Star Fleet vessels power girds allowing for no energy drain on the wearer or battery.

Korest along with three cadets currently at the Academy where the final stage of development. Over the next 2 years the device would be used by these three in real Star Fleet operations to evaluate the design and if it proved effective would become standard issue for any low grav societies that wished to have students enter the Academy and Star Fleet.

For his work in this development Korest was allowed to forgo Academy training other than a few leadership courses and was given the rank of Lieutenant immediately. It was during that first 6 months in Starfleet that he had met Captain Scott. However he did not meet him at the Academy but rather at a local pub called The Horse and Cow. It was said this pub dated back to the 20th century when it was frequented by old ocean faring sailors on boats called submarines. Today it was the place that engineers went to put back a drink and talk about work with others in the field.

Captain Scott had been so fascinated with what he learned of Korest that he had recruited him into the Corp of Engineers. The time had been near perfect as the Corp had recently been mandated by Starfleet to assemble a number of ships, increasing their ranks 10 fold and assigning them to various fleets to ensure a Corp presence wherever it might be needed.

With this in mind Captain Scott had decided to use Korest’s age and experience as well as his skill to Captain the Imhotep, the Corp vessel being assigned to the 7th Fleet.