The Warm Fuzzies

Posted on 12 Feb 2015 @ 5:13am by Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones

1,200 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 7, Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 07 :: 1234 Hrs

ON

Having spent the better part of the morning patrolling the ship, searching from top to bottom, PADD in hand and four month old dog following behind him, Asahi was in quite the state. Once he heard the decontamination team had claimed the ship safe, the engineer dropped everything he was doing and had made his way down to scrutinize every last detail, and he was not pleased with what he found.

He paced about Main Engineering, eying the still-growing list of diagnostics that had returned with errors, adding themselves to the list of repairs that both Engineering and Operations would have eventually had to do before the ship left the docking bay once more. Hojo sat at the doorway, a tiny guard dog for the oddly-dressed engineer, who's comm. badge blended in against the strangely-colored tourist shirt. Sighing, Asahi tapped his badge.

"Grayson, are you there?" The engineer had hoped to not have to bring in his newly promoted Assistant Chief during shore leave, but the list was more than one person could handle. He wouldn't dare call Min down, not with her new child to tend to. "I was hoping to get a head start on some of these repairs, if you've got the time."

"I'm here. Where else would I be Chief?" Grayson called out, brining himself out from a command console at the back of the room, his face slightly covered in streaks of a dark lubricant from a part he was working on, his clothes covered with the same. During off duty repairs Grayson liked to wear his own clothes, in this case, some old baggy gym pants and a tussled and torn t-shirt that revealed more of his physique than on duty regulations would allow. "I think I have already started on some of the list."

"Oh..." Asahi stared at the younger engineer with an almost dumbfounded look, as if truly not expecting to be seeing anyone else in the department. ".... Enjoying shore leave, I guess." Shrugging, he flopped himself over the console, gesturing for Grayson to continue his work. "Well good. The diagnostics tests are coming back red, which probably means half the ship's torn apart under the bulkheads." Snorting, Asahi took a gander at his PADD. "Whatever the tribbles hadn't gnawed through, the decon team managed to screw up. I should have checked before we got to dock, but then we'd just have to fix everything twice... I haven't seen the ship this bad since the Borg hit it."

"Hmmm, Tribbles or Borg? I think you can reason more with the Borg than tribble fuzz," replied the assistant chief as he smiled. "I'm really not planning on going anywhere during the break here. I did request some temporary quarters though, so I could get a little space to myself right now that isn't in a hidden zero-g spot on the ship. I was hoping to stay about and get a few things fixed myself. As good as starbase engineers are...there is a certain finesse to a starship." Grayson pulled himself up to lean on the console beside Asahi.

"If by reason you mean try not to be assimilated by, then yeah, I think so. At least the Borg's single-minded directive makes sense." Asahi chuckled, giving the younger man a wink. "Starbase engineers think big and broad. I could never work on a Starbase myself, so I give them props for that... but you're right. It shouldn't take that long to fix the gnawed bits, so long as we have copious amounts of wire..." After a pause, Asahi leaned over and gave the man a curious look. "I've probably asked this, but have you ever encountered a Borg before?"

"A random encounter with a rouge sphere once. It was all but abandoned and was just limping along. We went in for some investigation and it wasn't long until things went wrong. We lost some good people then." Grayson continued as he leaned in a little closer, finally starting to feel a little fatigued after the past few hours work. "Have you?"

That vaguely sounded familiar; Asahi probably did ask previously. Resolving to blame his scatterbrain on the tribbles, he nodded grimly. "That was my first mission on the Galileo. I'm still not sure what happened, but quite a few of the crew came out of that with some... harrowing tales... That cube was... interesting, to say the least."

"Not a usual encounter then I take it?"

Asahi shrugged, plopping himself into the chair nearby. "Some of the crew had been assimilated to various degrees, or worse... There was a full staff of engineers when I first joined the Galileo, but I think the Borg scared the Chief away... and we had found the Assistant Chief in the cube, unassimiated... but..." He shook his head. "I didn't know her before appearing on the Gal, but I was told she definitely wasn't the same after that, which is a shame. She was one of the best they had." Chuckling, Asahi glanced over. "For our missions, we get into some deep messes around here."

"I'm starting to see that," Grayson gave a short sigh. "Maybe some fun and laughter is up next on the horizon, or at least I hope so."

Without skipping a beat, the tiny engineer grinned. "We should throw a party in Main Engineering if it gets to be too serious."

"Turning the warp core into some rainbow colour disco ball! I'm sure we can arrange that somehow." Grayson joked...while seriously considering how to carry it out.

Asahi wiggled in his spot. "If we can get it to do that without it overloading, I think we'd win some sort of award-after getting ourselves half-court martialed, of course."

"Never thought that far ahead," Grayson half-smiled.

Shrugging, Asahi pulled himself out of the console's innards. "I probably wouldn't if I hadn't seen the paperwork involved in court martialing someone. I stumbled upon that during one of my cleaning sprees. I don't think I have the authority to do so, but I'll be damned if the sight of it doesn't make me shake in my uniform." He shuddered at the thought. "But if that were to ever happen to me, it'd better be because I went out with a bang."

"Is there any other way to go? A flash, bang and a good dose of glitter and gold?" Grayson questioned, teasingly.

Asahi snorted. "Maybe with a dash of booze to make the ride back home smoother."

"More than a dash, a bottle," Grayson laughed.

"To some of the engineers, a bottle is a dash, sometimes during their shift." Rolling his eyes, the chief wiggled out of the console, springing to his feet. "Well, I think this one's a vacuuming away from being fully repaired and tribble-free. Maybe I'll get on a vacuuming module and we can let that worry about the fuzz..."

"For the last time I hope!" Grayson half smiled, wishing to never...ever see a tribble again as long as he lived.

OFF

Lieutenant Asahi Kita
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo


Lieutenant (JG) Grayson Jones
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

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