Briefly Briefing Boisterous Builders

Posted on 21 Mar 2014 @ 11:06am by Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Petty Officer 3rd Class Sakkhet & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Riley Cameron & Petty Officer 2nd Class Eva Kovalev & Ensign K'os Beaumont & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Vasily Sokolov Ph.D.

3,504 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 7, Main Engineering
Timeline: MD -07 - 0930 Hrs

[ON]

Undoubtably, Asahi had turned into nothing but a pile of nerves since the Galileo had left the shipyards. He had absolutely no idea what he was doing; the lack of a full department head hadn't gone unnoticed by the man. Asahi had no doubt that Lilou Zaren was somewhere on the ship, but the lack of her presence in Engineering didn't settle her assistant chief's unease.

At least he had an interesting mission to think about. Ghosts of all things. There were reservations amongst the senior staff about the metaphysical/paranormal world, but having a reservation didn't invalidate the science behind spirits of the dead needing to be put to rest. Everything could be explained scientifically, even ghosts. He may not have been a scientist himself, but he couldn't help but think about the validity of these spirits. It was almost... chilling.

So, naturally, as the shiny, new door slid open a millisecond faster than he expected it to, he nearly jumped out of his skin. He shot a glare toward the offending object, before continuing on through the doorway and into the area.

As expected, he could see the pair in Alpha shift going about their duties. He smiled and nodded in silent greeting, before taking a spot near the eerily-glowing warp core. Maybe he would be able to settle himself before everyone arrived.

K'os looked up from his workstation. This early into his shift his expression was still quite passive; an effect of his daily meditation practice. He usually became more expressive and impulsive near the end of his shift. He took up his PADD and moved closer to Lieutenant Kita. "Good morning, sir." His voice was as calm as the thrumming of the warp core.

Asahi jumped, nearly running into the large warp core tube as K'os neared. Yeah, the nerves were really getting to him. It had reduced the man down to informalities and uncharacteristic jitters. "Morning, K'os. Everything in order today?"

"Yes, sir. Nothing out of the ordinary to report." K'os' eyes flicked to the door when other engineer entered.

Riley was one of the last engineers to arrive, gingerly making his way into the engine room and taking his place amongst the gathered ranks of Galileo's engineering staff. He had just spent the last two hours recoupling the ODN relays that the ground crew from Earth had conveniently forgotten to do, which had left part of the lower decks without their full computer access. An engineer's work was never done.

Eva made her way back into Main Engineering. Having spent most of Gamma shift buried in the RCS thrusters working out a few kinks during their departure, Eva thought she has the problem pinned down.

Alpha shift was doing the part's replacement so she'd ducked out to grab a bite to eat before showering the crashing. Mid way through her meal the computer had beeped to remind her about the meeting. Taming her hair wth a ponytail, she hated them but it was quick & dirty, she'd reported back to Main Engineering for the meeting.

When Sakkhet had heard about the meeting he hurried quickly to main engineering, he hated to miss things and this wasn't to be one. Being on a small ship it didn't take long to get from A to B and he soon found himself walking into Main Engineering and finding the small group that had already started to Gather "Morning" He nodded.

Vasily was the last to arrive by design. He liked to be prompt when it was important, but he thought few meetings were important. Most of them involved people running their mouths and trying to show how smart they were, which didn't mean jack shit when the ship was falling apart, Klingons pirates were boarding or rogue Romulans were firing across your bow. That stuff was the important stuff, not who could out talk who at some stupid staff meeting.

The gruff Russian took a sip of coffee, which was laced with something definitely not regulation, and grunted a greeting to the gathered group.

Asahi's pacing ended as he saw the last of his engineers enter the room. "Thanks for coming everyone, I hope your mornings have treated you well."

He paused, clearly hesitant. "As you're all abundantly aware by now, Lilou Peers has been relatively absent for the past few days. I don't feel I have to say this, as you're all extremely perceptive and it's... well, it's chain of command, but just in case... I'm going to be acting as Chief until Lieutenant Peers returns to active duty." It didn't quite matter whether the name went recognized or not. Asahi wanted to make it clear that he was still, for all intents and purposes, still the assistant.

"But, that's not why I called you all here." Asahi paused, more for dramatic effect than anything else. "The mission specs we've received are... well, quite interesting. We're headed to Lyshan III, to a joint mining colony, to help out with what appears to be ah..." Oh, what were the words Lirha used... "Metaphysical manifestations. We're going to be conducting investigations of just about every nature, which the science team is going to be on top of-for the most part." He nodded, before checking his PADD to make sure he didn't leave anything out. "What our job, as of this point, is, is to familiarize ourselves with the specs of the mine and the mining equipment and locate any potential issues, so that when we're actually down there, we can determine whether the issues we've theorized are or are not what could potentially be the cause of these gho-... metaphysical manifestations." He really really wanted to just call them ghosts.

"We don't exactly have a metaphysical expert on the ship, so if we can determine whether the issue is on the engineering side or not. It's a uridium mining facility, so if anyone has any ideas what that's like, that'd be amazing. I'll compile the information and bring it up with the Yeoman and Chief of Boat later, when we go over more detailed blueprints." And he was forgetting something again...

Snapping his fingers, he smiled bright, as if the completely glossed over fact was not nearly as heavy as it was. "Oh yes, the mining colony is a joint-venture between the both humans and Cardassians."

Willis stood in the back, taking notes on his PADD, just so he doesn't miss any detail.

Cameron muttered under his breath at the mention of the spoonheads. His family had lost friends during the war, and the border wars before that, Riley would be damned if he had ever saw himself helping the Cardassians in the near future.

"Och, so we get to deal with the bloody Cardies? Who next? The Breen?!"

Vasily eyed the man over the rim of his coffee mug while he took a long draw on the liquid. He'd fought hard during the war and then afterward combating piracy along the Cardassian's collapsed border. He'd seen a lot of bad Cardassians, and a lot of good Cardassians. Some wanted to gut you, some just wanted to introduce you to yamok sauce. In his experience, many humans were the same way.

"Breen don't use uridium in ship construction like Cardassians, so probably not, Racist Warrant Officer Whoever," Vasily said, staring hard at Cameron before finally turning to Asahi. "I don't know shit about mining facilities, but mining equipment is sometimes like weapons. Weapons I know. So, I can assist with this, perhaps."

"Awww less of your pish wee man. The Cardassians always have a plan within a plan within a plan. Everybody knows that."

Cameron took an almost instant dislike to the fellow Warrant Officer. Riley was nothing if not decisive in his opinions, and the Cardassians definitely fell into his bad books, firmly planted on page number one.

"Oh, I did not know," Vasily said, feigning ignorance. As always he was happy to find someone to argue with. "I did not realize chief intelligence officer comes to engineering meetings to give mission debriefing, thank you so much for being here with us. Maybe you are also chief diplomatic officer, hmm? We send you to negotiate first just in case plan within plan is shoot Federation racists."

Asahi's eyes immediately snapped toward the pair of now-confrontational warrant officers. While he may not have had many prejudices against the Cardassians of his own, despite the loss of his own grandfather, he at least understood they would bubble up. He was surprised Vasily wasn't on top of the 'kill all the Cardassians' train, but... relieved that he wasn't. Even if it did mean he was oh so bluntly annoyed at Riley's racism.

Perhaps he should have slipped the 'Cardassian' bit in there just a bit... more subtly. Lesson for next time. "Regardless of any potential issues we may have, the Cardassians in question have been working with the Federation in this mining colony since the close of the War. That, and they requested assistance." If he diffused the situation quick enough, maybe he wouldn't have to resort to threats of 'talks,' 'demerits,' or throwing people into the brig. Asahi's leadership skills really did need work.

"I don't plan on sending anyone down there who is uncomfortable with the idea of being in close proximity to the mine or anyone in it, Cardassian or Human. Regardless of anything they may or may not have planned, the focus is to make sure their drills are drilling what they're supposed to be drilling without issues, and that's it." He let out a long sigh. "I would appreciate everyone refraining from keeping their political opinions out of this, except to let me know after the meeting, if you have issues with the mine or anyone in it."

He leveled an unusually stern and serious glare in the direction of both the warrant officers. "I do hope I'm making myself abundantly clear."

"What if we have issue with engineering or people in it?" Vasily asked, raising his hand. He waved his hand at Asahi, staving off any response. "My humor, so sorry. Yes, I think you are clear."

"Aye Mr Kita. Perfectly clear." Cameron replied, aware that his growing resentment of Vasily would have to wait until another time to be settled.

Now that that was settled. "Petty Officer Morris is working right now to obtain full blueprints to the mining equipment in question, looking for potential leaks, breaks, or mishaps that could occur with wear and tear. It's expected the equipment could potentially be not as up-to-date as it could be, which in itself could be it's own issue. Once I have the specs in my hands, I'll be sending copies to all of you to take your own look and to familiarize yourselves with it."

He paused, only briefly. "I'll send a team down to investigate once we've arrived, with another team up here to make sure the ground team has any potential resources they may need, so we need everyone on board with this in some manner... any questions?"

"I am curious to see these manifestation I would like to request a position on the away team" Sakkhet asked. He was extremely curious and he had read books about Ghosts that Humans had imagined, his cool and his disbelief of beings that have died and come back as ghosts would help his mind from straying of mission.

K'os' mouth had hung open during the words exchanged between the two Warrant officers. After meeting, Rayne, and now seeing the interaction between Sokolov and Cameron it was firmly decided in his mind to never go for a warrant in Starfleet. Clearly doing so made you mentally ill. He was happy staying enlisted for as long as he could. Sakkhet's words brought him out of his thoughts.

"Sir, what exactly do you mean by metaphysical manifestations? What do the miners claim?" K'os truly had no idea what could be meant by that.

"I believe the term you may be looking for is... Ghosts" Sakkhet explained quickly.

K'os turned to the Vulcan and gave him a warm smile, "Yes, but what do the miner's claim they see? Manifestations or ghosts are terran words that have a specific connotation." He faced Asahi again, "Are they seeing dead relatives? Are they just apparitions? What precisely are they seeing that causes them to go on strike? If it's an energy based phenomenon that they're claiming to witness it helps eliminate possible causes. If they all claim to see different things, then maybe it's something else." Ever the energy specialist, K'os was approaching this problem using the troubleshooting skills he would apply to a malfunctioning console.

"That I'm not sure of." Asahi shrugged lightly. "We don't have a whole lot of details on the metaphysical manifestations themselves. What I was given was that they were there, not what they were." Even if Asahi truly did want to know what they were himself, for very similar reasons. "I believe the Science Department has full uhm... 'rights' on what those reports may be, if you'd like me to get a hold of them? I don't suppose we'll figure much out, but it's always somewhere to check."

"I think we'd figure a lot out, sir." His smile faded and was replaced by a dimpled grin. "The very words 'metaphysical' and 'manifestation' refers to abstract things. Saying 'ghost' without the facts hampers our rational objective approach to troubleshooting. We have to identify the malfunctions in the system. In this case the mining operation. I would think, sir, having all relevant facts and data is the only way to remedying the causes."

Vasily cut his eyes to look at K'os. "Oh, look, someone has idea instead of propaganda. Petty Officer Baby Face is right. Ghost... No such thing as ghost. There are no boogeymen in mine; it's probably some gas leak. Or maybe spoonheads are making up crazy stories and injecting humans with psychotropic drugs, hm?" He gave a meaningful look to Cameron and then started, looking at Asahi as if he only just remembered the earlier warning. "So sorry, lieutenant. My apologies. I can begin looking at mining equipment as soon as possible, just work in corner and keep mouth closed."

Eva frowned. "There is scientific evidence that meta-physical manifestations are quite real. Phasing of matter, interspatial rifts, you name it. All considered real now but a hundred years ago the sensors couldn't see them. Reality is merely what your mind makes of it's inputs. Your eyeballs say it's there, your sensors don't. Reality for you is which of those two you believe."

Vasily gave Kovalev an appraising look before puffing a little air out through his mouth, trying to be discrete but unable to completely hold back his opinion. Something was either real or not real, present or not present. Ghosts were things villagers made up to frighten children; interspatial rifts were another thing altogether. The discussion sounded dangerously close to veering off into philosophical territory on the meaning of 'reality,' which he hoped Kita would kill before it even got off the ground.

Despite Asahi's desire to wish to speak further with Eva about the topic of the metaphysical and the distinctive possibility that it did indeed exist, he had much more pressing matters. He pointedly ignored the continued insults; if they decided to bubble up once more, Asahi would have words after the meeting, but again, not during. "... Regardless of what we choose to believe and not to believe," He shot a semi-apologetic look in Eva's direction, as if attempting to express the desire to continue the discussion at another time. "The... Ghosts, metaphysical manifestations, specters, or whatever we choose to call them... are not what we as engineers are being sent to investigate. I... actually believe that's all for the Science Department to play with."

He paused, as if trying to go over it in his head. "Until we find an interspatial rift within a drill, our focus will remain solely on the equipment itself... though... I will make sure to get a hold of the CSO and see if I can get the reports, see if there's something that can be made of it on our end." He definitely felt weird being in charge of such an oddly disjointed group. Everyone had their merits, and most of the crew had been around since even before Asahi had arrived, but it seemed odd.

But he would have to find time to bring it up with someone who had more leadership skills than he did later. As for now... "If no one else had anything to bring up, I'll let you all get back to work while I scrounge up that data. I'll leave most of the analyzing of the... 'ghostly'... information to you, Petty Officer Beaumont, since it was your idea. Up to you if you want to grab someone to help out. I'll let you all know in a few days who's going to end up on the team down on the mining colony itself."

K'os scrunched up his face as if the very idea of talking about philosophical ideas hurt his brain. It was the first time his expression wavered from a smile or calm state. The point was not to prove the existence of ghosts. The entire mission focus was very clear; get the miner's back to work and begin processing Uridium again. They had the problem and the goal, it was just a matter of eliminating potential causes in order of likelihood. He disagreed completely with Asahi that Engineering's focus should simply be to analyse the equipment. He felt very strongly that they should be working closely with the Science team researching the problem. Until they had potential hypothesis and theories as to what might reproduce what the miner's claim they were moving about the problem blindly. They could analyse the equipment all they wanted but if they didn't know what to look for it was just a waste of resources. He decided he would bring his concerns to Asahi in private to see what his take on it was. He nodded in the affirmative at the task he was assigned and offered a quick, "Yes, sir."

"Great. If something else comes up, you all know how to get a hold of me." Asahi beamed. "Dismissed!"

Vasily hesitated for a moment, not sure if he should be the first to leave to assert his independence or the last to leave just to be belligerent. He felt he had better things to do than stand around in engineering like a bunch of grazing cattle, so he whisked past his colleagues and paused briefly next to Asahi to speak in a hushed tone.

"Good job, kid. Maybe next time stun loud mouth with phaser, but otherwise not bad," Vasily said. He winked and took a few steps away before turning back, brow furrowed in concern as if the lack of clarity about something was bothering him. "I meant racist loud mouth, not me. I'm just opinionated, hm?"

Despite his own shift being at a later time, Asahi had already determined he was going to stick around. He couldn't get to know the other engineers if he was resting, or whatever it was people did off of their shifts. However, he was already nose deep in determining where said schematics had run off to and when he could get a hold of anyone in the Science Department when Vasily's praise wafted to his ear.

Blinking, he looked over at the Russian, brow raised. He had a different opinion on who should have piped down, but the pips and position nearly demanded he be tactful about this. "Hopefully there won't be a need for something so severe."

Cameron decided he had better things to do than mill around waiting for people to disband. If they were going anywhere near the Cardassians, he wanted to make sure the ship was ready, and straight away had formulated a maintenance schedule to cover the vessel's weapons aray and shield systems. Even if nobody else was interested, he would make sure she was ready to fight.

K'os still had Alpha shift, so as others filed out of Engineering, the young half-Vulcan returned to his workstation to continue working on his assigned tasks. His concentration was split and as the moments passed he found himself reading about Lyshan III.

[OFF]


WO Riley Cameron
Engineer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Holliday]

WO Vasily Sokolov, Ph.D.
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Mott]

PO3 K'os Beaumont
Matter/Energy Systems Specialist
USS Galileo

LT Asahi Kita
Asst. Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO3 Sakkhet
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO2 Eva Kovalev
Propulsion Specialist
USS Galileo

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