Engineering Get Together
Posted on Sat Jan 12th, 2019 @ 1:59pm by Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles & Ensign Dana Wakefield & Lieutenant Commander Vaebn tr'Hwersuil & Lieutenant Elen Diari & Major Cornelius Tremble
Edited on on Sat Jan 12th, 2019 @ 3:43pm
2,930 words; about a 15 minute read
Mission:
Episode 5 - It Would Be Their Pleasure
Location: Main Engineering - USS Pioneer Deck 11
Timeline: MD005 1300 hrs
Engineering looked strange, almost domestic that morning. A few people were confused with of all things a lace edged tablecloth on the systems display table, and numerous chairs around it. When the silver tea service appeared, a group started to form around the core, wonder what was the chief thinking this time ?
Elen was wheeling over a large display screen, when Dave, one of the environmental specialists was shoved forward to finally ask her.
"Oh, it's nothing, you know the staff meeting this afternoon ? Well got some of the heads of departments coming over, trying to make the place look nice, so they'll back me up when go to the Cappy" She smiled back.
Risse had just completed lunch, when she noticed that some redecorated main engineering. She was surprised that Lieutenant Dairi would allow this. Rissie, shook her head in disbelief and tried to walk over towards her station. She had a lot of work to do. She was going to run a diagnostic on the intake manifolds. She wanted to know how the new manifolds were holding up.
"Hey, Risse. Staff meeting in ten. I'd like you to sit in, so don't wander off, OK" El shouted over.
Rissie heard the shout from Elen or El as she preffered to be called. Why was there a staff meeting right after lunch? She was hoping to get the diagnostic completed. But that would have to wait, she turned to look to El and smiled as she said. "Yes Ma'am, I'll be there." She was curious what El was upto.
The newly minted Command Senior Chief walked into engineering scrolling through a PADD with command texts and schematics of the ship on it. Most of what he was reading Cadets at the Academy were already taught, however, with the enlisted he'd focused on just his career path. Moore had picked up command skills and had his life experience, however, this was going to be a whole new world for him. He was scheduled for the command officer test in the next few days and wanted to be sure his technical and book knowledge matched life and career knowledge. When he heard the voices he looked up from the PADD and smiled, "shmancy," he said as he came to a stop t the table.
Neil caught the Marine guard letting his mind wander as he strode into Engineering. The Marine was so caught up in her own thoughts that Neil was standing right in front of her before she realized it and snapped to attention. Staring into her face, he smiled, "Off on a mental adventure someplace, Re'La."
"Erm, No Sir." the Orlarian started to hedge, then had the piece of mind to look embarrassed and nodded, "Well, yes sir. Sorry sir."
Pull your head out of your behind and pay attention or I'll get a Marine who can and you can go on sick call and let the nice doctors rake through your synapsis again."
The Orlarian swallowed and nodded, "Yes sir. Sorry sir. It won't happen again!"
Leaning close, his nose a millimeter from hers Neil ground out, "It had better not, Marine or I'll punt you from this billet faster than poop through a goose." "If boarders make it to Engineering and blow us up, that would be all on you."
Turning on his heel, Neil half marched away from the Marine, leaving her to pull herself together as he made his way into the section and found a seat. Half murmuring to himself, but catching a few eyes he said "I swear it's like herding chickens some days."
Dana had a coffee in one hand, a padd in the other and a stern face that kept it's composure, but deep down she was excited, this was the first time she had been invited to a meeting and it was going to be good to mingle with other crew and departments, that way she could put faces to names and hopefully start networking, after all as Chief of Operations she did have contact with every part of the ship, especially when it came to power requests and allocation and she was especially fond of rediverting and appropriating power when needed. Then it hit her, this was her actual first time in Engineering.
"Good Afternoon," she announced as she took in her surroundings and a little smile crept onto her face as she stood in awe of the warp core and the hustle and bustle.
"Afternoon, Dana. Finally, we've got you down here. Fantastic. " El shouted back as she mockingly saluted the marine "Lieutenant, thank you for coming down as well. Please, everyone, take a seat and make yourselves comfortable."
Rissie normally liked to be the centre of attention. But there was a lot of commotion and a little bit of yelling, but the kind of yelling. She knew at this moment, to mind her own business, and try to get some work done. Well, she wanted to get some work down, but her boss told everyone to have a seat. Reluctantly Rissie listened and took a seat, giving Elena her undivided attention.
"Afternoon, Lieutenant," Neil nodded, even as he slumped into the chair. During certain situations, his Marines were seconded to Damage Control, thus his presence. Shifting again, Neil tested out the chair, trying to force it into a more comfortable position.
Dana smiled at the gentleman she didn't know, however that wasn't surprising she only knew a few people on the bridge staff, anyone else was new to her, something she hoped would change. "Afternoon, Sir." she paused, she wasn't used to dealing with Marines and unlisted personal, so she really wasn't accustomed on how to address them.
"Looks like we are ready to get this party started." Suggested Rissie, wanting to get this over with. She had a lot of work ahead of her. Typically she would love to party, but they were three days away from reaching Casperia Prime, and she was eager to party there!
El leaned over Rissie's shoulder "Hold your horses, ensign, I know you're like me and can't wait to hit the beach but want to wait for Security and Sciences to get here before starting my little presentation, and hear everyone's ideas on it. I'll give them a couple of more minutes, it'll be worth the wait for you."
Looking up at the assembled group "help yourself to refreshments, and a Padd, they have a copy of what I'm going to talk about."
Rissie looked over to El, her CO, and gave a half smile towards her boss, and a slightly annoyed look on her face. "I suppose we can wait a few more minutes, for the boys on Casperia, to buy me a drink." She said, as her smile grew bigger with anticipation of being pampered too on Casperia.
Dana picked up one of the PADD's, she wasn't fond of waiting, in fact, she was a stickler for things starting on time, she glanced around at the unfamiliar faces, finger tapping on the side the side of the PADD, hopefully it wasn't too obvious that she was impatient.
"You are going to wear out the padd, if you keep doing that Ma'am." Teased Rissie with a big grin on her face. She thought it was cute that Dana, was being a little impatient. Especially since she told Rissie to be patient. The irony she thought, as she waited to hear, how Dana was going to respond.
El glanced the door one more time, then at her clipboard. "Ok, so some of our guests are not here yet, but I'll start before we're in Casperia's orbit. " she addressed the table, switching on the display.
"Well, thank you all for coming, and welcome to engineering those who haven't been here before. I've asked you all here as I've decided to start the planned refit of the Pioneer to the new specs, which is on the PADDs in front of you, and really wanted your input on what you'd like on top of the upgrades- like , in your case Lieutenant, anything that would make things, for want of a better word, easier, for your marines to defend the ship ? " looking at the Cornelius.
HIs mind elsewhere and more than aware that he would have to bolt soon, Neil started slightly when addressed and thought fast. "Forcefields work alright until someone overrides the power flow or power gets lost. I'd like to see some actual bulkhead doors added for physical protection in more areas." He had no idea if it would be possible, but glanced around the table, "Put someone in a physical box and let them use their resources to get out, it's a force multiplier."
El mulled it over for a brief second "yep, and when not in use could be used to strengthen structural integrity, meaning less power needed for the SI field- Smart idea, I'll get on finding suitable alloys and polymers, hmmm maybe a nanocomposite, make it grow out the bulkhead when needed."
Neil felt his eyes cross as El ran through the Engineer-speak and blinked, "Right. My only other comment there is to keep it as low tech and low power as possible. Something dependable if and when everything goes sideways. After that, I'd like to see more damage control drills and such run so that my Marines get more comfortable with whats expected of them."
The transition back to his reality from the other was still wearing hard on Vaebn. His psyche had been stretched to its breaking point, and yet still held fast through all of it. The comfortable familiarity of the Pioneer notwithstanding, he still felt slightly disjointed as he walked the bright corridors. He held two PADDs in one had, and his ever present heavy mug of coffee in the other. He walked briskly with purpose, more because he was running late than the purpose itself.
He entered the room as two of the officers were discussing what sounded like regenerative repair systems, but he wasn't entirely certain as his mind wasn't really in the room yet. "My apologies for being late Lieutenant." he said as he walked past the occupied chairs and sat in an empty one. "I hope I haven't missed anything so far."
Everyone had noticed his tardiness, Rissie wondered what her boss was going to do? Make a scene, or just move on. Rissie assumed that she would just move on. This was her get-together. She smiled, as she watched on to see what happened next. Finally, she thought to herself. Something interesting happened here!
El broke out in a broad smile and walked over to the seated Romulan, and gave him a huge hug "It's Ok, Honey- you're just in time, we're discussing upgrades to the ship." she let go and walked back to the display.
Vaebn stiffened a bit in apprehension to the unexpected embrace, but nodded to her statement of simple dismissal as she stepped away.
"Yes, plain simple bulkhead doors. Why I like Marines, no fluff, straight to the solution- I'll whip up a couple of prototypes and you can test them. " she replied to Neil "If it's Ok with you, we could discuss the Damage control things with Tactical and Medical at a later date, maybe turn it into more of a first responder role, as you guys know how to handle crises calmly."
"Overlapping fields of fire and high explosives," Neil commented wryly. "Sitting down for a dedicated Damage Control meeting will work." He sat back in his chair and mentally Personal displays of affection seemed unprofessional to him, but that was the Fleet for you. He had other things to occupy his mind. He switched the files he was reviewing for Engineering to his mission checklist.
"Regarding upgrades, I would like to install two secondary units into the astrometrics lab to speed the connections and data processing time to the bridge consoles. When we previously tied in the independent sensor modules there was some significant lag to navigation, and I would like to see that eliminated for future endeavours into the Badlands. This may also help increase our long range sensor buffering." Vaebn pushed on of the PADDs towards El. "I've drawn up some schematics for increasing our long range sensor net with increased clarity using Romulan sensor systems as the base. Do you think they might be helpful Lieutenant?"
"Yes, very helpful" She mumbled looking over the specs, she sparked up once she realise what she was looking at "Wait, I've seen this configuration before, Ha'nom class ? Oh, I'd love to get this started as soon as we can- Networks are your sphere Dana, don't want to step on your feet." Passing the padd over.
Larim entered engineering. He knew he as late, by a lot. So he tried to keep a low profile as he walked in quietly. "I apologize" he said. "Console on the bridge was acting a little "wonky" he said, face red as a beet.
El just shook her head, {I'll catch you up, we're talking about what upgrades we'd like on top of the new Intrepid refits, Marines are talking bulkhead doors rather than shields and Vaebn's got a cool sensor configuration and network upgrades} she projected, and opened her hand offering a seat.
"Well, Anyway, Rissie, if it's OK with you, I'd like you to take charge of the Quantum Slipstream install, we're about eighteen months-two years down the waiting list, so you've got plenty of time to get things ready for the plug-in." Elen asked the ensign "If you want to carry on with the manifold diagnostic, go ahead, we can talk later about it."
"Morol, I know you're the propulsion expert, but I want your greater experience on another project, alternative methods- solar sails, hyperspace dirigibles, enhanced impulse drives, things like that, cart blanche." looking at the Trill.
The Petty Officer was sitting off to the side listening to everything and nodded, "aye, sir, I can do that," he replied simply. After the Maquis run in he'd been keeping his head down and just keeping to himself.
"I'd like to see a dedicated holosuite or similar for the Counseling department that we can use for therapeutic purposes as well," Moore spoke up, hoping he wouldn't be overstepping with the Counselor, "that would make evaluations, treatments, et cetera easier and add a bit more privacy to those we'd use it for."
"Sure. holo-therapy helped me, so I'd be glad to do that- if you have a room available, could do it this week, swapping out the EMH emitters in sickbay for new ones, so will have about half a dozen spare I could grid up and just tap into sickbay's network. No problem at all, Chief." Elen smiled back.
Andrew smiled, "appreciated, el-te. I'll give up my office for that and find something with a broom in it to work in," he said with a grateful nod, "one other idea for defense...transport inhibitors for engineering that security, Marines and the Bridge have control of to keep out unwanted visitors.
Neil was only half listening, but he caught the last exchange and something occurred to him. "Transport inhibitors are fine, but maybe they could be 'funneled' to brig cells? Maybe use our sensors to auto transport intruders that slip through?"
"Had a system like that on an old posting of mine, Would have to gut a shuttle for its computer core and transporter buffer to handle the extra processing, but definitely do-able, Dana do you have a computer systems person I could borrow to integrate it ?" El asked.
Vaebn had only been catching parts of the conversation as he poured over the schematics he had sent to the engineer, and also glancing at the temporal sensor data on the other PADD. A revelation came to him, he looked up and addressed the engineer, "Lieutenant, if you don't mind, I need to get back to the astrometrics labs. I believe I have a breakthough on something, and it requires my immediate attention."
Almost immediately, Vaebn stood and excused himself; gathered his things and hastily made his way to the door, muttering to himself the entire way.
Neil excused himself soon after the Pioneer's science officer. With the mission coming up, he still had enough to do that his mind wouldn't let him concentrate on the meeting. The rest of the table continued to converse as he made his farewell and he had a suspicion it would continue on for many hours.
A Joint Post By
Command SeniorChief Petty Officer Andrew Moore
Chief of the Boat/Behavioral Health Specialist, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Elen Diari
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Dana Wakefield
Chief Operations Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Vaebn tr'Hwersuil
Chief Science Officer, USS Pioneer
Second Lieutenant Cornelius Tremble
Marine Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Clarissa Rockwell
Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
Petty Officer 3rd Class Morol Rial
Propulsion Specialist, USS Pioneer
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