Imago, Part III: Against the Dying of the Light

Posted on 16 Jan 2013 @ 11:00pm by Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn

2,295 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 4 Corridors
Timeline: MD -01: 0900 hrs

[ON]

It wasn't difficult to locate Quinn. His personality had a wake to it, leaving those in his path just a little brighter for having basked in his intelligence and kindness for a moment. That, and Willis was an enormously loud-mouthed fellow, spirits bless him. Lilou stopped short of a corner as she heard them coming her way and leaned against the wall to wait for them to round it.

"And then I said, 'what do you mean down to my ankles?'!

Quinn's coffee that was in his mouth, now was spraying out of his nose and across the corridor. Willis suddenly laughed even louder..(if that was even possible.)

Lilou lifted her brows as the spray of coffee landed on the wall opposite her. He was laughing. That was good. He needed to laugh. The Captain's words still worried her. "Try not to choke, Willis. We might yet need you if we need to run the ship on hot air."

Both men, while leaning on one another to support themselves from falling over due to the hardy laughter between the duo. Willis stood straight and chuckled. "Ah, Lieutenant Peers. I was just getting to my station when Master Chief Quinn here stopped to ask me a very...hell...you busted me."

Willis looked to his longtime buddy. "Catch ya around old man. Got work to do."

Quinn, now finished wiping the now cold coffee from his beard slapped Willis on the shoulder. "Get movin Junior, before I tell the Chief Engineer here about you giving a full moon against the plasma injectors."

Willis just laughed some more as he continued down the corridor.

Quinn smiled at Peers. "Heya, Li...I mean, Lieutenant Peers. How's my office?"

"Ensign," she corrected with an abashed smile. "Don't rush me. As far as your office goes, you tell me. It's yours, whenever you want it back, Chief."

Holding both hands up with a broad smile, "Oh-no, no. It's yours. Besides, you've earned it, and it's time for me to sit back and watch my top student take the reigns, while I get to stroll around the ship looking important, all the while only wondering how long I've been senile."

"If you're senile, your endorsement doesn't mean very much." Lilou tilted her head, eyeing him. "How's the new office then? Getting used to yourself in red?"

"It's a work in progress, really." Quinn smiled at the you woman that succeeded him in Engineering with pride. "Funny thing though, my coffee pot works every time in the new office. It only worked about half..or less, in Engineering."

Quinn leaned against the wall. "So, how about you?"

"That's only because you're sitting close to the Operations offices," Lilou remarked. "They envy us for getting to do all the interesting work; everyone knows that. So they get back at us by making supposedly simple things malfunction for us on purpose." It was easier to joke than to answer him. She flashed a quick glib smile and tried to sneak past the question.

"Sad but true. An operations specialist is an engineer that couldn't pass their tests, so they put them in Ops." Quinn remarked, but never taking his eyes off of Peers. "So, are you going to answer my question, Peers, or are you gonna tell me jokes? How are you, really...no bullshit."

"Which question was that?"

Quinn put a hand on Peers shoulder and looked at her and spoke softly so no one would hear. "Lilou, you are family to me. One of the few I have left. What's wrong? You know you can always talk to me about anything.

"With me?" she asked, then sighed self-deprecatingly. "A great many things, Chief. Far too many to put in one list. Mostly, right now I'm just terrified of letting you down, Chief. You and the captain... This promotion is a big - strike that - huge step. I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I don't have years of experience like you. I'm just me. It's moderately terrifying. I'm just trying not to sweat through my uniform. That I now have to wear all the bloody time, no thanks to the two of you."

"Yeah, we did scheme this out pretty good." smiled Quinn briefly. "Look,I never would have stepped aside at given you...okay, more like thrown you the reigns, if I did not feel you were ready." Quinn shook his head at Peers. "There is nothing you could do to disappoint me, and there is no way you can screw this up. You have all the qualifications for a Chief Engineer." Quinn pointed to Peers' head, then left chest. "There, and there, is all you need. Your mind, you know this ship just as well as I do. You also know when to ask for help. That's important. Now for your heart. You have a passion for this. For this ship. You don't have to do anything different than you were already doing, and if you ever need a hand, I'm sure I could find time in my very busy schedule to come all the way down here and give a few words of bullshit...I mean wisdom."

"I have all the qualifications," agreed Lilou, "except for age, wisdom, experience, and rank - and remind me to ask how you managed to slip through without being tagged as a commissioned officer. And I do have to do things different than I was already doing, including a ridiculous number of forms that I have to fill out on every single repair we've commissioned and all the upgrades and who worked on what, and what percentage of the work was done by the Galileo's engineers versus other-" she wrinkled her nose. "It's incredible to me how you found the time to do anything but fill out forms."

"Willis. That's how. The man is crazy about doing engineering reports. How else do you think he knew about every upgrade and repair made before anyone else?" Quinn smiled and chuckled a bit. "You are the Chief Engineer, my dear. Delegate, delegate, delegate. You get the orders from the Captain, then you come back to your office, start a pot of coffee and grab ten PADDs. What's on them is not important. then you call in Willis, give him a cup of the strongest coffee you can make and tell him to upload each PADD according to assignments. then you write the jobs on the board and as they come in, you give them a PADD with the job they are to do. Once that job is done, they mark it complete on their PADD, and Willis and you get the conformation and Willis formulates the reports and all you have to to is review them and sign off."

Lilou blinked. Then she blinked again. Then she pulled her PADD from where it was clipped to her waist. "Hold on. I think I need to write that down..." she murmured as she typed, rapidly. She eyed the notes, then looked back at Quinn. "Why isn't Willis running the department, then?"

Quinn winked at Peers, "Because he gets in just enough trouble to stay an NCO, but does a damn good job at what he does. That's why I brought him with me. He does the computer geek work, it's his primary MOS. Engineering Computer Specialist. He does the computer work for the department, so you can have time to run the department."

Quinn scratched his beard and chuckled. "I am passing on to you the greatest secret of being a successful Chief Engineer in Starfleet. My old Chief Engineer passed it on to him, and so on and so on. Pick an assistant that you can train to understand how you want things assessed. Not do, but assess. Chief Bowman did it with me, and I did it with you. The moment I saw your first job, and how you assessed it being complete and accurate, I knew you were going to be my Assistant Chief. You don't look at how fast the job can done, or what the engineering books say it should be done. You just know how to do it, you get it. You don't need a book, or someone telling you to cut the green wire and use a trilithium bit when you need to make a hole in the secondary hull with out leaving stress fractures. That, and if you are not sure on how to answer someone about a repair, give a big fancy multi-syllable worded answer full of engineering jargon...and always add a few hours to the expected completion time of a repair or project. It allows for unforeseen and unexpected roadblocks, and you look like a miracle worker if you finish up in twenty minutes instead of the two hours you told the captain it would take."

"That's dishonest," Lilou bit her lip. "Though... not a bad idea. Especially not on this ship. She's been... cantankerous since we took her back with Sienna."

Quinn nodded. "No kidding, why do you think I wanted you to have her?" he said, while failing miserably in his attempt to keep a straight face. "What else can the old man help you with?"

Shaking her head, Lilou slipped her hands into her pockets and shrugged. "I honestly don't know, sir." She peered up at him, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

He placed a friendly hand on her shoulder. "Just take good care of her...and keep doing what you know needs to be done to keep her running. Oh, and please give Willis as much grief as possible..and you should ask him about the full moon the other night."

Lilou scrunched her face up, "I'm not entirely sure I want all the details on that, actually."

"It was hideous. C'mon, I'll buy you lunch."

"After a mental image like that?" she asked wryly, but followed along with him. "Have you met the new crew yet?"

"Some," answered Quinn. "I like a new Sec-Tact guy. Chief Warrant Officer, so he must be a good guy. How about you?"

She shook her head, "No. None of- well. I ran into the diplomatic officer. And a science officer. They were interesting." She glanced at Quinn, "Fans of 20th century Terran punk rock."

Quinn shook his head, "More noise. Whatever happened to good music? Punk rock. More like punks rocking."

"I like punk rock," Lilou grumbled. "What would you qualify as 'good'?"

"Terran Jazz and Andorian Blues." Quinn smiled and stopped. "Dammit. Peers, I forgot I had a petty officer coming to my office five minutes ago and he is in need of...counseling, but promise me just one thing."

"If I can."

"Don't ever think you are not good enough. Not just with being the Chief Engineer, but with being yourself. Not many know you as I do and have seen that glow you get when working on the ship. It's time everyone sees Ensign Lilou Peers, Chief Engineer of the USS Galileo like I have. You are the best engineer I..and Willis...have ever had the privilege of working with. Let your passion be free, and to hell with what you think they expect from you. Do, what you know you can. Show them what you can do with the reigns. The Captain maybe the brains, but you, the Chief Engineer is the heart! Now go kick some ass...and throw a few hammers at people when they act like they don't hear you....always worked for me."

"Hammers," Lilou murmured. "Check that, Chief. And when they complain, I can just send them to you." She grinned, then feeling tears well up her through and pushing behind her eyes, she threw her arms around his middle. She was dwarfed by him, but she didn't care.

Quinn returned the hug as he wrapped his arms around Peers. "Quinn brushed a tear away himself. He loved this ship, and loved being Chief Engineer even more, but he finally was able to do what all chief engineers hope to do one day. Pass the torch on to someone that they know will take what they were taught, and then only add to it with their own uniqueness, and only make the ship better. Quinn truly loved Peers and he did Willis, and his own son, Markus...but little girls always hold a special spot in their fathers heart. "You are the daughter I never had. I am proud of you, and I....I love you like you were my own."

She shuddered, pressing her cheek against his chest. It wasn't as though he would be gone, just... not around all the time any more. Why did that make her feel so lost?

Quinn brushed another tear away and cleared his throat. "Now, go throw some hammers at people. Start with the Crewmen First Class, they scare the easiest."

Sniffling, Lilou stepped back, rubbing the tip of her nose. "Sir, yes, sir," she saluted him smartly, but the sniffle that followed rather ruined the effect.

Trying to put up his best scornful face without cracking the smile that was refusing to be ignored, "And don't call me sir, I work for a living...sir."

Lilou hugged him again. "If you get bored of whining crew members, you come and hang out with us. We'll try to ignore the color of your uniform." She hopped up and kissed him quickly on the cheek, adding "Good luck with the petty officer!" before she scurried away in the direction Willis had gone.

[OFF]

Master Chief Petty Officer Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Illustrious

ENS Lilou Peers
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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