Taking the Lead
Posted on Sun Oct 27th, 2024 @ 3:22pm by Lieutenant Commander Elen Diari & Ensign Connor Turner
Edited on on Sun Oct 27th, 2024 @ 9:18pm
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 16 - Silent Cries
Location: Main Engineering - Deck 11- USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD001 1400 hrs
Right, Connor. Last chance to back out. Despite the thought, Connor found his feet moving more and more into the bowels of Engineering to find Elen. Marjani thinks you can do this. Milly wants to work with you. Why are you nervous? Despite himself, his palms were sweating, as he sought out Elen.
Elen, as usual, was at the main table in engineering. "Connor, Oh good, I was going to call you. This came in the post, thought you'd be interested." She gestured down to a pine box. "It's a flight computer from an old Betaziod starjammer, I'm renovating the case, thought you'd like a look at the Gubbins inside."
Connor's eyes widened. You know who else would love this? Marjani! This might be a little modern for her taste, but still! "You're just renovating the case? You haven't tested the computer at all? See if it still works?"
"Honey, I'm a woodworker. It's a 600 year old computer, so not going to switch it on before doing a diagnostic with an expert. That's where you come in," El replied seeing his excitement. "Probably dry capacitors and needs a new voltaic pile before powering up, well according to the notes anyway," she continued waving a sheet of plastic.
The young engineer blinked twice and he paused like a deer in the headlights. Did she just call him "Honey?" We're not dating or anything. Did I miss another social cue? Oh, God! She's not hitting on me, is she?! His face started to become more pale by the nanosecond until she started talking about capacitors. Then his voice shifted to panic, as his computer-oriented mind took hold. "Wait! Wait! Wait! This 600 year old flight computer has notes? Who created those? Where did you get this from? If this had not been cared for in the last 600 years appropriate, it could have all kinds of damage from dust and corrosion and even if not from the those things from all the cleaning! God only knows what someone could have done to that poor thing! Has this been in any kind of sterile field at all since you got it? Do you have any idea how many infinite ways this computer could have been mishandled over that time? It is a wonder that it has not burned the box. And what do you mean you're a woodworker? You're an engineer! The Chief Engineer!"
"Connor, calm.... calm...." Elen reassured. "It's from the Ceil Museum on Betazed, my hometown. The curator wanted a new display box for it. She's an old high school friend, so Tal knows I do woodworking as a hobby, and asked me to do it as a favor, Thought, you'd like to see old 'ziod technology. Tal sent me these notes about it, explaining where it's from, and what's been done, to give me an idea on design, like where to put windows to see the insides."
She motioned to him to sit down. "Relax. It's been cared for and has a good home to go back to. Just hasn't had to be switched on in anger since it went to Ceil, before I was born." She shook her head. "I was thinking making some LEDs blink might make a better show."
Hearing that this was a museum piece did make Connor relax and he sat down. That meant it had been cared for properly, most likely. At least he would hope that would be the case. Museums were trained for that sort of thing, no? "Blinking LEDs may make the intricacies of the computer harder to focus on. If you want to change the lighting, I might suggest rotating lighting that could focus on an area of the flight computer while an audio explained what that portion was and how it functioned."
Connor then realized that his opinion was not asked for, causing him to blush and look at his feet. "Just an idea..." he told Elen apologetically.
"Quite a good one; don't apologise. I like it. I know just the person to record the audio too. Any other thoughts?" she asked, genuinely impressed.
"Um," Connor thought out loud, "this may be a bit much, but we could create a replica that people could utilize to get the experience of utilizing it. However, I don't know if the museum would have the space to create a simulator.... I know that my girlfriend would really love that sort of thing. She loves antique flying things." Connor blushed furiously at the thought of Marjani.
He tried to press down the increasing pinkness to his skin and said, "Speaking of Marjani, I talked to her about your offer, for me to lead Gamma, and well, I want to take the position. Before I came to talk to you, I talked to Milly, too. She said she would be on my team. I told her that you did not object. So, um, right.... Start gamma lead when?"
Elen sighed with a smile "OK, OK. Back home, this sits in a corner of the local museum, as the navigator came from Ceil. The big regional museum in Cataria City has the replica of the starjammer it came from for people to interact with holoavatars and everything. It's really quite cool, worth a visit if you're ever on 'Zed, maybe take Marjani?"
"As for Gamma, thought you might. You start when the new shift cycle starts next week. Two days on, one off. Still finalising your team. It's looking like you, Milly, Andy Andresen, Turek and Vicky. Turek stays in transporter room two, just pop in and check up on him now and again, he's nearly 270, so knows what he's doing. Vicky does the bridge station, her sister's on Conn, so again just go up, see if she needs anything. Easy group," she explained.
"I told you about Marjani?" Connor asked surprised. "I mean, I told you that I had a girlfriend, but I don't remember telling you her name." He squinted as he tried to remember mentioning her name. After a moment, he gave up and shrugged. "But yes, that does sound like a great date. I will have to remember to do that. As to um, Gamma, I'm glad that you thought I might. I did not know what I would do. I never really expected it."
"You just mentioned her just then- you just said 'my girlfriend loves this sort of thing' and 'speaking of Marjani' in the next sentence.'" Elen shook her head, confused. "Anyway, Cataria's a great place to go if and when you're on Betazed for conferences or whatnot."
She continued "If you had said no, you'd probably been working for Milly on Beta shift. I have it all planned out, just had to plug people's names in the slots. Hopefully, over time the pair of you will do the training and experience to be shift leads, if not heading up your own departments."
Connor's eyes went wide. Milly leading Beta shift? Him working for her? But he graduated before her. And why did he get Gamma when she would have gotten Beta? That thought was disturbing. Was Elen trying to break him in more gently? "I'll keep that in mind regarding Cataria. Marjani probably would like it." He hesitated and said, "Um, I told Milly that I would help her out with an odd problem on Deck 5...."
"I want to make this quite clear, Connor," Elen turned sternly. "Now, I don't mind that, but your priority is to do the jobs assigned to you and your team. Milly's project is a low value job, so if anything else comes in, I want you working on that first, all right? Also, don't spend all your time with her. You do have other members of your team, I want your good habits rubbing off on Andy for instance, if he hadn't lived on Ketris 3, think he'd had been at the Academy."
Connor blinked several times trying to fully comprehend what Elen was telling him. Was Elen implying that his interest in Milly was more than professional? That made no sense. She knew that Connor and Marjani were dating. "I understand," he answered like a puppy who was just told it could no longer play fetch for the day. "I'm in charge. I have a team. I have to lead by example."
"Yeah. It's not you. I'm a bit annoyed with some teams just now, there's stuff on the roster getting ignored, and they're doing stuff with their friends, rather than a team as a whole. Don't want the 'Dream Team' going the same way," she answered.
"I'm sorry that the other teams are not doing as well," Connor replied honestly. "Perhaps, if I may suggest...." Connor debated saying more and realized that he had already stuck his foot in it. "You could, um, well, uh, always break up the teams.... Um, shake them up?"
Elen rolled her eyes "Think about what you just said, and why you have a new job. I'm in the middle of it just now."
"Ah!" Connor responded simply and slightly annoyed with his failure to see the obvious. "Well, you can count on me. Thank you for the opportunity, Ch...er, Elen."
"It's no problem, just remember Cochrane's final words to the Warp 2 ship. 'Don't Screw Up,' and you'll be fine." She smiled back, "Now let's open this up. I call dibs on any bottlecaps." She lifted the computer up out of the box.
Connor held his breath as Elen lifted in out but thought to himself, Don't screw up, indeed. Such confidence I wish I had. "Careful," Connor told Elen with a desperate whisper.
Elen lifted it up, clearing the box, and immediately put the computer down on a piece of cloth, unfolding the circuit boards like a menu. The wiring was a mess, and broken components were everywhere, with bits of rubbish, with what looked like a dozen bottlecaps, all over it. "So, what do you think?, I'm just going to clear out the broken bits, make a new box and Tal can get her experts on it working again."
"I think that is quite repairable," Connor answered without much hesitation. "I wonder how much of the original wiring is salvageable, though. I may have to replicate some if the originals will not carry sufficient energy."
El was surprised. "Ok... I'll tell you what, you've got one month to get it fixed. Any resources you need, put them on a Padd and I'll sign them off. You'll make lieutenant with initiative like that."
"Like what?" Connor asked thoroughly confused.
"Taking on a project, unasked, and having a plan of action. Well done you." She smiled "Let's get on it," taking the box over to her office.
Dutifully, Connor followed. He wondered what Elen saw in him but he was not going to argue. After all, Marjani seemed to see it too.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Commander Elen Diari
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Connor Turner
Computer Systems Specialist, USS Pioneer
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