Of Repairs, Circuses, and Jell-o

Posted on 07 Dec 2013 @ 4:19pm by Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Ensign Im'er Mor'an

1,878 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1
Timeline: MD 003 - 0530 Hours

ON:

Asahi had a surprisingly large amount of optimism for his current vessel assignment. Despite the attack by the Borg, the tiny engineer was positive they'd make it out of this. For one, the Borg didn't seem the least bit concerned with assimilating them. Well, that was what he had assumed. If there was any sort of odd assimilation going on, the Borg were being surprisingly uncharacteristic about it all. They flew giant cubes in the sky and went around assimilating races into their hives. It didn't exactly scream 'subtle.'

Unfortunately, the Borg were not exactly the most friendly sort either, meaning that the attack that had taken place hours before wrecked the ship in manners which required more than a few hammers to the hull to fix.

It also meant teamwork, which meant socializing with members of his new crew. This may have been a rather serious matter, but that didn't mean he couldn't have at least tried to get to know everyone.

"So, uh..." He paused, taking a brief look at her pip. "Ensign Mor'an was it? Wanna start straight from the Bridge and work our way around?"

"Ensign Im'er," Mor'an corrected the lieutenant gently, "Im'er is my family name. Mor'an is my given name. But everyone makes that mistake." She smiled. "That idea sounds good. Shall we?" She gestured in the direction of the Bridge.

Asahi paused. "Ah hah, sorry 'bout that." He nodded, grinned, before making his way to the Bridge. On the way, he whipped out his PADD, giving the specs a good once over again. "I haven't had a lot of time to sit with the ship's specs, but this will give me some hands-on. Hopefully the Bridge wasn't too scrambled up in the attack."

Mor'am nodded, silent as they entered the Bridge. As she stepped foot on the Bridge, she was reminded of the events that had happened here not long before. With a sigh, she took stock of the area, not surprised at the immense damage that they were met with.

Damage after a Borg attack was unsurprising to the engineer. He was probably a bit insensitive about the whole thing, but he was still very new to the vessel. He didn't have any time to make any bonds with anyone just yet. It also made focusing much easier.

"You're awfully quiet." Asahi made his way over to a damaged console, examining the external damage. "Looks like most of the problems might end up being pretty external. Hopefully nothing ended up too fried.

Mor'an could never understand why other people felt the need to be always talking. She wasn't being awfully quiet -- she was just being herself.

"I do not speak much," Mor'an said, walking to one of the damaged consoles. "Shall I run diagnostics on the consoles? I do believe you are correct in your assumption of mostly external damage, but we must be sure."

"You know, I should have seen that coming." She hadn't said all that much on the way down, but Asahi didn't want to assume. "I just wanna get to know the other members of the crew a little more, yanno? New ship and all..." The engineer paused, already in his bright blue toolbox, fishing around for the right spanner, when he paused at the question. "Ah, you definitely should."

With a nod, Mor'an seated herself at one of the consoles and began running diagnostics. "I do not mind speaking," she said by way of explanation, "It is just that, on my planet, we have a way of communication that does not require vocalization so I am used to silence." She paused, momentarily distracted by the console in front of her. "What would you like to know?"

".. Oh." Asahi pursed his lips out. He hadn't thought about it like that. Too many different ways of communicating. As he pulled out a spanner to unscrew the panel for a deeper look, he gave the other a sheepish smile. "Well... how about we start with where you're from, if you don't mind talking about it. So I don't make a blunder like that again."

"I never mind someone seeking the acquisition of knowledge, " Mor'an said, turning to look at Asahi, "I am from a planet called Arun R'lantha. It is a pelagic planet, so it is mostly covered in water. More so than your planet." She turned back to the console as it beeped, letting her know the it was finished running the diagnostic.

Asahi's brow furrowed as he thought on the name of the planet. It had sounded familiar, but of course planetary knowledge was swimming in between bits about deuterium and graviton. He had paid just enough attention in his interplanetary knowledge type classes to know the difference between a Vulcan and an Aenar. He left the 'ambassadoring' to the more knowledgeable types.

But it did also mean he was going to have a problem with fellow crewmates, especially those who weren't Trill (which there seemed to be quite a few of). "So there's a lot of aquatic life over there? I bet the swimming's great." He was a little thankful when he heard the chime of completion. "So how's it look? Are we pretty good on the internal-end?"

"Yes," Mor'an replied, "There is only minimal damage. It should be easy enough to correct." She stood and moved to the next console. "There is abundant aquatic life on Arun R'lantha," she went on, "The majority of our diet is fish. We also learn how to swim before we learn how to walk." She paused before changing the subject. "You are from Earth, correct? Where exactly on Earth are you from?"

"Good." That's what Asahi liked to hear. As much as he liked fixing things and making sure the ship was intact, he wasn't keen on having the bridge in a state of internal disarray. Next to the warp core, Asahi saw the bridge as a fairly important location.

As they spoke, his hands were quick at work making the necessary external repairs. Replacing broken wires and manually hammering out any dents made to the console. Then he paused as the conversation flipped onto him. "... Ah... California, actually. Close to the Academy." He shrugged. "My parents are... traveling entertainers, though. I ended up spending a lot of my upbringing between them and my grandparents in San Fran." A grin appeared on his lips as he glanced over at the other. "Not a whole lot of fish in my diet, but there was plenty of swimming... tons of learning too."

"Traveling entertainers?" Mor'an repeated, "So they are part of a..." she searched for the word, "A circus?" She understood the concept of a circus as being a group of people who traveled around, putting on shows to entertain, but there was nothing like that on her planet so it was foreign to her. "I apologize for my lack of knowledge," she said, almost sheepishly, "I am still not accustomed to your language and culture."

Asahi nodded. "Semi-famous circus on Earth. At least, as famous as circuses can get." Rarely had his attempts at striking up conversation about himself led to the circus. Usually, he found himself talking about his grandfather, or some random adventure he had taken when he was younger. He had his familial pride, but it never came up before now.

And he had just let it spill from his mouth. "It's alright. The Vulcan ambassador that used to frequent the circus when I was young always found it incredibly 'insightful' into Earth culture. I know the concept's... pretty weird? It's odd to humans too. My parents have... very limited success."

"I would like to see a circus some day," Mor'an said as she turned to look at Asahi, "I had never heard of such a thing before I came to Earth. We have nothing equivalent to a circus on Arun R'lantha." She turned back to the console. "Why are you not part of your family's circus?"

"Maybe if we end up on Earth at some point, I'll see where my family's playing and I can take you to a show. Purely for learning experience, of course." His grin faded at the next question. "Ah... my grandparents and my parents have never really seen eye-to-eye... So I ended up going the route to Starfleet."

"I understand that," Mor'an said with a nod, "To an extent, at least. I am the first of my people to join Starfleet. Going out and exploring new races and cultures was not something that my people did until I left. You see --" she stopped mid-sentence as the console in front of her began to beep. "Something is wrong with this one," she said, turning her full attention to the console.

"... Hm?" Asahi nearly fell over as he pulled his arm out of the console he was working on, springing up and moving over to examine the console, as if it were going to help. "... What's up with it?-... and I think it's great you joined Starfleet. Something like that takes a lot of courage."

Mor'an shrugged delicately. "I am not sure," she said, "But there seems to be something wrong with some of the wires. How do they say it on Earth? They are...fried?" She wrinkled her nose in thought. "I do not understand that reference since I always thought 'fried' meant covered in dough and boiled in a pot of oil." She shrugged again, always in awe of the ability of humans to have the strangest idioms.

"Is it? Fried?" Asahi paused, trailing off for a few moments. He bit back a laugh, and shook his head. "So... what you're trying to say is that they're out of commission? We'd just have to replace those wires right?" Spanner already out of his back pocket, he set to work prying open the console. "Shouldn't be too difficult. Figure out which ones were ... fried?"

"They should be easy to fix," Mor'an said, "They are right near the outer plating. I think the wires were too close to that charred bit of metal" she pointed to the spot on the plate that Asahi was removing "and got damaged."

Asahi already had a panel off as the other gave her assessment. "... Well, I'd definitely have to agree with you there. Shouldn't be too difficult to fix though. We're lucky, we somehow managed to get some easier surface damage to fix up." He was quick to pull out the damaged wires, examining them so that he could choose the right replacement. "... Actually, I think we could get through this without too much issue. What do you think?"

"I agree," Mor'an said with a nod, "We were lucky in that respect." She moved on to the next console, hoping she found no more fried wires.

"Extremely. Oooh, maybe if we hurry, we can see if the chef knows about Jello."

Mor'an nodded in a agreement, though she had no idea what "Jello" was. She figured it was one of those strange Earth foods. Putting the thought aside, she set her mind to her work.

OFF

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Lt. Jr Grade Asahi Kita
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Im'er Mor'an
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

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