I think it's broken

Posted on 11 Aug 2016 @ 3:54pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Ensign Mimi

1,725 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1, Lirha's Quarters
Timeline: MD 35 - 2241 hrs

[ON]

Lirha had spent the last half-hour situated in front of the environmental controls in her quarters while tinkering with the small LCARS console...to no avail. Something was wrong with the system, but despite her attempts to diagnose any malfunctioning computer relays leading into her living space, she couldn't figure out why the ambient temperature still remained above 80 degrees.

Frustrated, sweaty and hungry, she tapped the commbadge attached to her left breast and summoned help. "Saalm to Ops, I have an environmental malfunction in my quarters," she said with annoyance prevalent in light voice.

Mimi was holding the fort in ops when the message came over the comm system. "Understood Admiral, I will come and take a look." She replied with a hint of nervousness, she'd been on the ship nearly 3 weeks now and had never met the Co directly before. Grabbing a toolkit and slinging over her shoulder she headed for a turbolift up to deck 1.

A few minutes later she arrived and after taking a deep breath she tappd the chime.

"Enter!" replied the Orion who was herself very near the door's entrance. She wasn't sure who was outside but hoped that it was the woman from Ops to come and correct the malfunctions in her cozy living space.

Stepping into the sizeable for a Nova class and lavisly decorated Captains quarters Mimi saw the beautiful and pregnant Orion that ran her new home. "Good evening Admiral." She said standing at attention.

"Hello, Ensig..." Lirha's voice trailed off when she took in the sight of the exotic woman who stood in front of her. She was tall; taller than the Orion, but covered in dark fur across the top of her ears and head, and also possessing a dark tail which the rear admiral could see dangling between her legs.

Her first instinct thought to compare her to a Caitian, but there were remarkable differences that subtly told her the two were not related. "Ensign...?" she continued after an awkward pause, still wondering who and what the feminine creature in front of her was.

"Ensign Mimi Ma'am." Mimi replied. She picked up the slight hesitation in Lirha's voice as they'd never met before she entered her quarters.

"Ensign Mimi," Lirha repeated with a nod and a small, polite smile. "Well, thank you for coming on short notice. I think there is a malfunction in my quarters' environmental system," she began to explain to the young gold-collared woman. "I cannot get the temperature in here below 80 degrees no matter what I try. Is there something wrong with the EPS relays?" she wondered out-loud.

"It is definitley nice and warm in here." Mimi said, she had noticed the heat as soon as she entered the room. To her it felt comfortable but she could see that Lirha looked rather flustered and was perspiring slightly.

Nodding in agreement, the Orion wiped the top of her brow which was slick from sweat and contained several stray locks of her dark black hair that were stuck to it. "Yes. Too warm, and no matter what I have tried -- resetting the thermometer cycle and re-initializing the EPS relays -- it will not set to the desired temperature," she declared with a huff.

"Ok let me take a look." Mimi turned and headed to the rooms environmental control panel, she attached a diagnostic module to the panel then ran a diagnostic before unfastening it from the wall. "Looks like the control panel itself is broken, voice control and manual."

Lirha blinked at the revelation that the malfunction was with the LCARS terminal itself. She'd assumed it was a much more intricate problem -- possibly set of problems -- and had overlooked one of the more obvious problems. "Oh.."

"Should be easy fix Ma'am." Mimi replied as she disconnected the panel totally. "Just needs replacing."

"Soon, I hope?" asked Lirha. "I am not entertaining the idea of having to sleep in one of our guest quarters this evening." In fact, just thinking about being displaced from her homely chambers even for a few hours was a bit unnerving.

Mimi nodded "Should take just a few minutes as soon as I get the part." She tapped her combadge. =^= Ensign Mimi to Ops, can someone get a type 3 enviromental control panel from storage and bring it to the Admirals quarters, please.=^=

=^=Understood Ensign.=^= Came the response.

With that done she turned and continued checking the environmental system for any more faults.

While Lirha waited for the part to arrive, some of her prior curiosities resurfaced while she looked over the young feline woman. "I have never seen one of your species before," she said matter-of-factly. "Where are you from?"

Mimi stopped, she had been expecting this question from the moment she saw the curiosity in Lirha's expression. "I'm not surprised you've never seen my species before Ma'am, I am the only one of my kind around." Her usually standing proud tail slowly dipped to the floor as she retold her tale again. "Several years ago a colony my species the Nekomi made was... wiped out by the Klingons, a starfleet ship came nearby a few hours later and found me alive, just me, everyone else was gone. Even the bodies."

The Orion tilted her head with a slight curious frown evident in her expression. "Oh? Which colony?" she inquired, wondering if she'd ever heard of the incident in one of the sector log archives.

"We called it Kemi, it was past the far side of klingon space." Mimi answered "There were only a hundred or so Nekomi there, all my friends and family."

"And what did the Klingons want with your people? Why did they destroy your colony?" Perhaps there was more to the story than Lirha was hearing. In her personal experience with the Klingon Empire, they usually preferred to subjugate native species on nearby worlds as opposed to outright destroying them. That said, she was well aware that Klingons sometimes even destroyed their own colonies if it was in the best interests of the Emperor.

"There was a discussion between the Klingon leader and the colonies chosen speaker Hikay about resources and....." Mimi paused searching for the right english word. "...Service? Hikay refused and the Klingon leader struck him in the back with a Bat'leth. Then they started shooting at everyone and fire came down from the sky."

The story the ensign had just told her was sadly all-too-familiar to Lirha. The Empire had little in the way of tolerance for insubordination and was traditionally quite effective in making their authority known...by any means necessary. "I am...sorry for your loss," she said in a soft voice. "How was it that you were able to escape? What of the rest of your people? Surely there are others of your kind on different colonies?"

"I got seperated from my family when one of the buildings collapsed, I was trapped in the wreckage. The klingons never found me, but after night fell the woman who became my foster mother found me." Mimi tried not to start crying. It may have been eight years ago but she still remembered it like it was mere days.

"Are you the last of your species, or are there others? Somewhere else in the quadrant?" Lirha proceeded to ask. She reached out and put a green hand on the the woman's shoulder in a gesture of consolation.

Mimi shrugged slightly "My homeworld is out there somewhere. My mother told me we went on a long journey to reach Kemi while she was pregnant with me and my sister." She hoped the part she needed would arrive soon or she really would start crying. "I have a starting point but with no direction, time or speed. the chances of me finding home are almost impossible."

Lirha thought for a short moment how best to handle the current dilemma. She didn't want for one of her junior officers to feel upset, and she knew Galileo was a starship designed for discovering and revealing the unknown. She stepped closer to the operations officer and whispered in her ear. "After we return from our assignment here on Celes III...would you like to work with our astrometrics team to help you locate them?" It was the least Lirha could offer, she felt.

"Really? that would be amazing." Mimi said with a smile, the offer had really raised her mood. "Thank you Ma'am."

"Of course, ensign," Saalm replied with a tiny smile. "Hopefully whatever you discover will be of worth to both you and the Federation. If there are others of your kind out there, I am sure they will be grateful to meet you and hear your stories."

The door chime sounded and Lirha quickly reached over to tap the door's release mechanism. With a soft swish, another gold-collared Operations officer entered her chambers with the desired repair parts.

"Admiral." He snapped to attention as he greeted Lirha. "Your part Ensign."

"Thanks." Mimi took the part and the officer turned and left. "Shouldn't take long now Ma'am." With a swish of her tail she turned back to the enviromental system and connected the new panel.

"Computer, set room temperature to 72 degrees Fahrenheit," she instructed once the new panel had been installed. It would probably take a few minutes for the change to occur, but she was not currently blessed with the gift of patience. "Is it working?" she asked Mimi.

"It's coming down slowly yes." Mimi remarked watching the temperature indicator on the panel steadily drop down to 72F.

A sigh of relief escaped the rear admiral's lips. Ever so slowly, she could feel the cool air conditioning on the back of her neck which gave her a comforting feeling. "Well...thank you, Miss Mimi. I am grateful for your help. I must attend to some private matters but I hope to see you soon."

"You're welcome." Mimi said and ran one last check on the panel before she turned to leave. She'd hoped since she'd answered all sorts of questions from Lirha that she'd be able to ask a couple too, but not today it seemed. As the door opened she turned back "Goodnight Admiral.

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

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