Shouting Optional

Posted on 30 Nov 2023 @ 11:58am by Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald Andrews & Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor

886 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 18 - 1500

[ON]

Having finished what he'd been working on earlier Donald pulled the rest of himself out of the access panel and had a stretch; working on his back for nearly an hour wasn't ideal. Everyone else had gone back to work on other jobs when he had gotten close to finishing so he was left alone to clean all his tools away.

As he walked to and fro putting his tools back into their storage cases he spotted a Vulcan woman in engineering yellow and sporting a single golden pip. "You must be the new officer everyone was talking too." He called out.

The voice belonged to the Petty Officer who had been in the maintenance hatch. She had in essence been introduced to his booted feet.

"Petty Officer Andrews." Sera responded by way of greetings. "Yes I am. It is agreeable to meet you properly. May I ask what you were repairing?"

"Just changing out some odn clusters, relatively low priority but it needed doing, some of the consoles down here are acting up." Donald replied. "The ship has been through a lot in the last 6 and a half months and we've not had as much time as we needed to fix everything completely, had to prioritise."

Sera scrolled down the rather extensive list of 'minor' repairs still outstanding in the queue until she reached repair ticket that Andrews had just completed. It seemed a rather one to select given the list; but Sera understood enough of engineers' minds that one did not question the method...just the results. Andrews had completed a rather robust amount of repairs on this duty shift. It was acceptable.

"I will not question your prioritization capabilities, Petty Officer. It appears that you have completed a number of minor tickets today. Do you have preferred tasks? I am about to assign myself tickets and am willing to tackle some of the less desirable ones."

A Vulcan would not have asked that of another Vulcan...but she was quite the minority here so now that she was in Paris...no wait, Rome...it would behoove her to 'do as the Romans do.'

"Like most of us I'm capable of any of the jobs here but more specifically anything structural is my thing. I worked on this ship at the Avondale production facility." Donald said, he paused for a moment and let out a small chuckle. "I can even point out sections that I welded myself if you wanted."

"I will take that into consideration, Petty Officer. Your hands-on knowledge regarding Galileo's structure is quite fortuitous."

"Especially when we picked up a big hull breach on our last mission, I was not there when it happened but I was the one who fixed it." Donald paused before adding. "That was a nice walk out on the hull."

"I have only done so in training simulations. That you were able to repair a hull breach in vacuum shows a number of skills and competencies that are most advantageous to this engineering department. It is most fortuitous that you were assigned to this vessel."

Sera was not prone to offering praise for nothing. She was impressed at his skill for it was not something she would consider herself competent in.

Slowly but surely she was learning her subordinates specializations...it was one thing to read a personnel file, but another to learn about someone personally. Although Vulcan, Sera understood the need to build camaraderie amongst the department - as it improve efficiency. She was...optimistic that she could contribute to this.

"Are there any other engineering skills you would like to become proficient in?"

"Structual is my main thing and I'm good with all three engine systems." Donald replied, they were all important things. "But I'll poke my nose into anything and everything."

"Understood. Then you would consider yourself a generalist...So you would be prepared to perform any engineering duty with proficiency?" This was quickly turning into an interview of sorts. It was not quite how Sera wanted the exchange to go - but she was learning valuable information. It was far more personable than reading personnel files.

Donald nodded, it was a fair but general assessment of an engineer. "We all have our specialities but none of us would have gotten a starship assignment if we weren't proficient in the every day things too."

"Very well." Sera responded. She had hoped for...more in way of personal intelligence, however his statement endorsed a well-rounded competence.

"This shall prove helpful when making shift assignments." Sera added in a vague manner. He did not endorse and specific likes or areas of work that he found more agreeable than others. That meant she would slot him into any open repairs as they came in.

Donald gave a small smile. "If you need any help settling in, give me a shout."

Sera raised a brow. "Perhaps...I will simply speak to you in a conversant decibel level, instead."

"I had best get back to work, there is still lots to do before this system test." Donald said turning away from Sera and trying not to chuckle at her response.

[OFF]

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Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor
Deputy Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A

Po2 Donald Andrews
Engineer
USS Galileo-A
[Pnpc Mimi]

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