Engineers Meet

Posted on 17 Jan 2013 @ 7:16pm by Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Petty Officer 1st Class James Watt
Edited on on 17 Jan 2013 @ 8:19pm

957 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - CEO Office
Timeline: MD -01: 0950 hours

[ON]

James walked down the corridors of the Galileo, looking over the bulkheads for signs of damage, even though he knew all of it had been repaired. Habit. He was good at that sort of thing. Leaving the bulheads to their own devices,he wandered into engineering and chimed at the CEO's door.

Lilou looked up. Since their departure, she'd squirreled herself away in Quinn's office, sprawling on the floor with five PADDs, trying to get a better gauge on all the systems that might have been overlooked. Assumed to be in fine fettle. Nuts, bolts, various connection points. She was running through damage algorithms on the larger board, trying to figure out if any of the damage from the previous mission might have been further aggravated by poor construction methods to begin with. She hadn't yet changed from her dress uniform, but she'd kicked her boots off which sprawled, similar to her, a few feet away.

The chime was like a blast of phaser fire to her system; she jerked bodily, sweat standing out, the muscles in her neck and shoulders tightening painfully. Shaking hands flattened on the floor then lifted to push her hair from her eyes and knelt, pushing her fear into a deep, hidden corner. "Ah.... Yeah?" she called distractedly, then "Come on in."

"Chief?" James said, stepping inside and offering her a warm smile. "I thought it was high time I report to you in person. Petty Officer James Watt."

"Okay," Lilou blinked up at him owlishly. There was still screaming in the back of her head and the forefront of her mind was layered in transparent ship schematics and equations. Watt... "Oh, you checked the starboard struts. Right. And- right." Why was he here? What did he want? "Did you... want to sit down, or...?"

"Sure," he said, moving to take a seat, studying her curiously. She seemed very tired. "Everything all right, chief? You seem a little out of sorts."

"Ha, there's a statement for the books," she smiled for his benefit and flexed her hands, crossing them behind her back as she stood. "Just trying to make sure we don't all implode in the void. Usual day to day sort of thing." She was supposed to do something, wasn't she? He was new to the department. To her department. New-ish. Right. "Welcome to the ship. I'm late on that, sorry, but you might have noticed we've been a little busy around here. How are you settling in?" There, that sounded leader-ish, didn't it?

She had a lot on her mind, that much was obvious, but she seemed more stressed than he would expect. He would consider that more later. "It is quite all right, chief," he said, "and I'm settling in just fine. I thought you might want me to officially report for duty though, now that things have quieted down... they have quieted down, haven't they?"

"Oh, sure. For now. Until we find out that the bolts are all about to crumble, or the wires the Corps gave us to reformat the ODN during the repairs are actually going to start short-circuiting in a week-" She caught herself grumbling aloud and shook her head, "I like to keep an eye to future problems, not just wait for them to crop up. Not that it does all that much good. She's going to have tantrums as she likes." She squinted at him, "Watt," she reminded herself of his name. "You were on the..." she trailed off, wracking her brain for the name of his ship, "Sojourner... Yes?"

"Ah, the Sojourner," he replied with a slight smile. "Yes, I was. Didn't quite work out though, so here I am sitting at your desk."

It's not my desk, she thought tiredly. "Well," she said with a small nod, "I'm glad to have you. There's not many of us and despite the last mission, this is still a new ship with all kinds of quirks. How did you come to transfer over?"

"My captain died," he admitted, "things weren't the same without her. I just wanted something new, a new ship. You know what that's like, chief? Should I call you that or you prefer something else?"

"Chief is fine," she said, even though it made her want to look over her shoulder for Quinn. She looked at him seriously for a long beat, then bowed her head, "I'm sorry for your loss. I don't know what it's like, but it sounds like a version of hell. Do you want something from the replicator? The coffee is terrible out of this one, but everything else is just mediocre."

He waved his hand. "It's all right, chief," he assured her in a pleasant tone. Whether he was referring to the offer of a drink or her consolation for his loss, he did not say. "Not to sound too vulcan and businesslike, but is there anything I should know before we start in earnest?"

"The ship's full of the walking wounded; it was designed by angels and then built by idiots. Is there anything else you need to know?"

Watt chuckled softly. "Heh, well then, perhaps I should leave you to your work." He started to get up, intending to leave, for he felt that she was stressed and now was not the best time for idle conversation. "With a ship like that, you and I have our work cut out for us, respectively."

"Indeed we do," she agreed. She nodded to him, "Watt."

"Chief." He nodded politely and slipped out the open door quietly.

[OFF]

ENS Lilou Peers
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 James "Striker" Watt
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
played by Psylus Anon

RSS Feed