Dancing Near the Fire

Posted on 07 Mar 2015 @ 3:49am by Lieutenant Asahi Kita

931 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Atlas - Deck 16 - Main Engineering
Timeline: MD -03 - 0203 Hrs

ON

During the wee hours of the morning, the Atlas' Main Engineering room seemed absolutely empty, save for two quiet cadets, who stuck to one corner of the room, diligently monitoring readings. The moment Asahi walked into the ghost town in front of him, he could feel the sneaking suspicion that a two-cadet Gamma Shift was not supposed to be the case.

His eyes narrowed, searching about for other signs of life, hoping they would come popping out of jeffries tubes before he had to take a look through the 'Dread PADD Roster List.' Anger and discipline weren't his strong-points, but the recent assignment had made the engineer testy.

Asahi leveled stern eyes upon the two yellow-shirted crewmen. "Cadets." The moment the word left his lips, albeit in a manner that he would have otherwise deemed harsh, the pair shot up and whirled around to face him, standing at perfect attention. "... At ease, you're not in trouble."

"Sir!" Asahi cringed at the crackle in the nearest cadet's voice, raising a hand up to silence her. Undeterred, she continued. "The Chief says we should maintain respect for all senior commissioned officers, Sir!"

"And I'd like for you to show me that respect by exercising a little relaxation Cadet. Please."

The pair of cadets hesitated, managing to steal a confused glance at each other, before slacking their shoulders, as if relieved by the gesture. The taller cadet, clearly a little more bold, sheepishly smiled and ran a hand through his curly locks. "With all due respect, Sir, we're not used to a senior officer coming in in the middle of the night unless they want something fixed."

Asahi's brow quirked, and he could feel both cadets tense from the other end of the room. "Do they leave you all alone to man Main Engineering for the whole of the Gamma Shift, Cadets?"

"S-sir, well I-.... er..."

"You see, Sir, there would be more people here, but..."

'Sir, they kind of..."

"It's not that the new Command Staff aren't great people-"

"We think they are!"

"We hear the new XO's an engineer-"

"But you see-"

The babble from both cadets immediately stopped the moment Asahi rose a hand. "So there are supposed to be more engineers on duty right now."

Looking everywhere but at Asahi, the smaller cadet shook her head, trying not to let nearly as much panic leech through her defeated expression. "... Yessir, there are, Sir."

Asahi let out a deep and heavy sigh, clearly disappointed with the news. He pulled up his PADD, searching for the dreaded duty roster he didn't want to look through. "If this were my Main Engineering, I wouldn't let anyone out until we fixed that rattling in the warp core."

"Sir..." More eager to lend an explanation, the curly-haired cadet stepped forward. "Sir, if I may... Chief Petty Officer Iendo mentioned that the warp core was due for a recalibration with the energy-matter programs before we left the Starbase."

Eyes snapping up from the PADD, Asahi glared the cadet down. "And that hasn't been done yet?"

"N-no sir..."

"Do either of you know how to do that?" The pair hesitated, before slowly shaking their heads in odd tandem. "... So, just so the three of us are clear... a vital recalibration process that should have been done hasn't been done, even when someone mentioned it, and no one is currently around to do said recalibration process... correct?" After another silent nod, Asahi sighed gaze returning to his PADD of 'Doom'. "Thank you. That's all I need to know."

There was a long, sweeping silence that followed, as Asahi picked names out to contact in the dead of night. Soon, the bolder cadet spoke up. "S-sir... not to mean any disrespect, but who are you?"

Without looking up from his PADD, Asahi snorted. "Lieutenant Kita." After a pause, he eyed the pair of cadets. "What are your names, cadets?"

The smaller of the pair was first to speak. "I'm Nagda, Sir. Cadet Freshman Grade, and this is Cadet Junior Grade Harry. We were just transferred in a few months ago, Sir."

Asahi returned to his PADD. "Thank you, Nagda."

"Are we in trouble?" Harry's voice cracked as he asked, regretting the thought as soon as it came out.

"No, no you're not." Sighing a deep and heavy sigh, the engineer smiled weakly. "It's not your fault the Engineering Department isn't manned the way it should be." He resisted the urge to order the pair around, as if it were his own Engineering Department. As sure as he was about the need to fix the solution, Asahi was not sure of his authority in a situation like this. The last thing either cadet needed was to be thrown under a bus because he wanted something done.

"The re-calibration should have occurred on the spacedock. It's not something we can fix now without risking the whole system running amok, and I'd like to avoid that. Just keep an eye on it, and anything else you can think of. As you were, Cadets... and if you catch heat for talking to the XO, let me know."

As he turned to leave Main Engineering, Asahi couldn't help but grin at Nagda's words.

"Ohmigod, he's the XO? He's so young!"

OFF

Lieutenant Asahi Kita
USS Galileo/USS Atlas
Chief Engineering Officer / Executive Officer

Cadet FG Nagda
USS Atlas
Engineering Officer
[NPC Kita]

Cadet JG Harry
USS Atlas
Engineering Officer
[NPC Kita]

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