Reporting Sensor Repairs

Posted on 25 Aug 2012 @ 12:26pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Captain Jonathan Holliday

1,617 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD9 1440

If she was at home, it wouldn't be how she would have spent her birthday. Last year coming home after a day at the academy she was greeted by a small feast, plates everywhere of everything she liked best. Sugared limes that glittered, egg fried rice with cooked rabbit, wild mushroom volovants, a thick vegetable soup, crusty granary bread. Despite what she had been told, she hadn't eaten yet. For the last two hours she kept telling her self in a few minutes, when this is done. The reward was after this report, she'd sit down and eat, something. Before leaving she had fixed her hair back into its knot, checked her uniform that had somehow still remained spotless, smoothing out a crease or two was all it needed.

Despite her primness she looked exhausted, her skin had a bluish hue, eyes bloodshot and with dark bags under them. Her heart pumped also with a slight tiredness, stressed. With a deep breath she walked out onto the bridge, taking note of those who where there. Without stopping she kept walking to the ready room, feeling rather tense. Pad in hand she pressed the chime, waiting for a reply.

The XO meanwhile, had slowly been getting used to the time he was spending in this office. Although only a short while ago it had been the safe retreat of his captain, for now, John had taken over, at least for the sake of efficiency, and various PADDs, report readouts and components lay around the still-battle-damaged Ready Room - it had simply been a low priority repair, by the XO's orders.
As the door chimed, John moved to sit on the small sofa in the corner of the office nearest the windows, looking out at the nebula gases as they swirled and coalesced around them, before making his reply.

"Enter."

Kiri did so, walking to the middle of the room before standing to attention. Seeing the mess around her she wanted to clean it up, to move the debris and pick up the pads. Looking to the now Captain she gave a weak smile, "Sir I have the report on the repairs to the sensor array, bar a few non-critical backups we are fully functional again." Somehow she had found herself leading half her department in the repairs the day before. With the labs without power they had little else to do. Because of that she was ahead of schedule. Barel had left a lot of things up to her over the last few days, including assignments, "I have assigned staff to operations and engineering to help with minor repairs until power to the labs can be restored," It felt strange to her to see an officer relaxing on a sofa, "I also have a revised inventory for the science department on our current stocks, some fragile materials have been lost." Reports done she held on tight to the pad, wanting to yawn.

For a moment, Jonn didn't even look up from the PADD in his hand, he had spent so long writing reports and dealing with damaged systems that the small data device had almost become part of his body, in fact he was pretty certain that he would be able to operate the device in his sleep with very little difficulty.
Sighing for a moment, he dropped the PADD he was working on to the sofa where it landed with a soft thud, before looking up and reaching out his hand for Cho to deposit her report.

"You'll have to excuse the mess...housekeeping is a low priority right now for me....thank you Ensign, your diligence in these repairs is noted."

With a slight start she handed over the pad, looking around the room again, "If you don't mind sir?" She motioned towards the closest pad that was on the floor. The urge was growing and she had a few minutes to spare.

Having not been overly focused on keeping the office perfectly tidy, John hadn't really taken much time to keeping things in order, in fact, he had been almost oblivious to the whole state of affairs, focused entirely on the task and not the means to achieve it.

"What? Oh...yes...very well....I suppose this place could do with a few minutes worth of input....the Captain will have me thrown in the Brig if she gets back to see it like this."

Kiri nodded and started to collect the pads, shaking off the dust she stacked them on the desk, trying not to look at the titles as she worked. Righting odds and ends, she noticed that something had shattered. Whatever it was it might be important so she started to collect the fragments. Considering what he said she asked, "How do you know she is coming back?"

That was the same question that the temporary captain had asked himself so many times over the last few days that it was almost impossible to quantify. When would he step up and prove himself a loyal XO? When would he save his captain before it was too late?

"Because Ensign" John began, taking a moment to think through his response "I owe it to her to bring her home....at any cost. We're Starfleet officers, and we don't leave one of our own behind."

It was the at any cost bit that Kiri was concerned about, she didn't want to leave the captain behind. At the risk of this ship, the crew, a possible breakthrough in space travel, war with the Klingons, the cost for one or two people that might already be dead? It was too high. He had used her rank, he was the captain and he must have considered all this. It wasn't her place to offer what to do unless asked. She placed the fragments on the desk and though it was reluctant she answered, "Yes sir."

"Ensign it doesn't take a counsellor to see you have more to say....please....speak freely. I'm still the XO no matter what chair I'm sat in. My duty is to the crew as much as it is to Starfleet."

Kiri liked to think that people couldn't see what she was thinking, that her secrets and feelings were safe. Her confidence in that was shaken, if what she felt was wrong though, shouldn't she know? Switching to looking extremely nervous she answered his order, "With project Sienna onboard and the current state of the ship, any battle would be very dangerous," She drew a long reluctant breath, "Sir, we don't even know if the captain is alive, or where she is. Our first responsibility should be to the civilians on-board and delivering the project. We could lose everything. A fleet could be here in a few days, they will be better equipped for a rescue." If she was captured, she'd rather die alone than have other people die trying to safe her, at least she thought so. In this situation, people were going to die.

"That may be....but in a few days that Bird of Prey out there will have long restored her warp drive and be halfway back to the Klingon homeworld...I for one don't fancy the odds of any fleet making it's way through the entirety of Klingon space...besides....if I know the Klingons...they'll be too busy interrogating the Captain to think about killing her just yet..."

The thought of his CO bound and wounded in that way brought a sense of nausea to John's stomach. He had always been trained to stand up and protect his superors, to take any punishment that might have been coming their way for the good of the ship, and this time he had failed. Holliday had seen his fair share of combat, he had broken enough bones and spilt enough blood to understand warfare, but Saalm on the other hand, he feared was too much of a diplomat to withstand prolonged interrogation.

"We have the element of surprise...the Klingon's only know we're somewhere in this nebula...they have no idea where....and I'm willing to bet that with our larger crew, we've repaired more of our battle damage than they have....no...this is the best chance we're going to get to rescue the Captain and get the hell out of here in one piece."

Kiri couldn't disagree on those facts that it was their best chance, but it didn't answer her point. The risks still stood, it was still too much, even if they were fully functional, there was an entire fleet outside the nebula somewhere. They should be using that element of surprise to run away, to try and slip past the Klingons. It was clear to that nothing she said would make any difference though. He was in charge, he was more experienced, she was cautious to a fault. Swallowing she answered yet again, "Yes sir."

"Don't worry....we'll be fine. This is a good ship with a good crew....now...since you've made my ready room so much tidier...is there anything else you need from me? At least now our sensors are operational we can plan our rescue mission..."

For a moment John seemed happy to let the meeting end the way it was, but, he knew that he would need his Bridge crew at their best, and right now was one of those times.

"And Ensign - take a few hours off...you've logged a pretty extensive work time with Engineering I see....get some rest before coming back on duty. That's an order."

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ENS Kiri Cho
Science Officer/Sensor Specialist
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

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