To Boldly Go, part 1
Posted on Thu Dec 12th, 2024 @ 4:23pm by Cadet Junior Grade Lien & Lieutenant Fahri
Edited on on Thu Dec 12th, 2024 @ 4:28pm
Mission:
Take My Hand
Tags: lien
769 words - 1.5 OF Standard Post Measure
The cadet had top grades in his engineering courses. He’d aced the final for statistical mechanics. So, of course, his assignment to the fleet internship program had brought with it the opportunity to demonstrate just what he was capable of.
“Here,” the engineering officer said, pressing a padd into the cadet’s hands as he ordered, “Take this to power distribution.”
That’s right. What had Lien been doing since reporting aboard the Vesta? Being the go-fer and messenger for Engineering.
It had started with delivering a new calibration calculus to work being performed in the deflector control room. That, in turn, had led to supplying updated corrections to the sensor analyst suite. From there, he’d been dispatched to provide a supply requisition to the engineering lab, which was presently sending him to power distribution.
It wouldn’t be so bad if every hallway didn’t look exactly the same, and the cadet lost in a sea of legs and waists as he tried to navigate the flow of people like a salmon struggling to swim upstream. Thankfully, the traffic thinned out as he dropped below Deck 20.
The ensign in the power distribution center had bags under his eyes and what seemed like a permanent five o’clock shadow. Dismissively, he took the padd from the cadet without so much as a word or even a glance.
When he realized that the cadet was still standing there, the ensign finally barked, “What?”
The boy tried to mask how taken aback he was by the entire dismissive attitude. Tried and failed. “Uh... don’t you have anything for me?” the cadet stammered, very uncertain of just what he was supposed to do now.
“No. Now get out of here,” the ensign snapped.
The boy’s legs propelled him out of the distribution junction as fast as they would carry him. Without any direction, he made his way back up to Deck 13 and main engineering.
“Anjohl, Pazzis,” he heard Lieutenant Fahri call out. The boy’s blue eyes picked out the two roommates from among where the Kelpian had gathered the duty section. “The secondary matter reclamation system is off-line again.”
“What?” the Bajoran ensign fired back. “We just fixed that!”
Lowering the padd that she was holding, the Kelpian calmly returned the Bajoran’s smoldering glare as she offered, “Perhaps this time you will do so properly.”
“Hey, our work was fine,” the hot-headed Bajoran engineer snapped back. “That particle analyzer is jank.”
“Failure analysis of that system indicates greater than ninety-percent uptime,” the lieutenant noted in the same even tone.
“Yeah, no,” the Denobulan engineer interjected. “I have to agree with Anjohl on this. Whoever did that model fudged the numbers.”
The Kelpian just blinked. “You’re suggesting that the Corps of Engineers would pass bad technology to the fleet?”
“Uh, yeah,” the Bajoran woman snapped derisively.
Fahri blinked a second time. Then, trying to recover, simply stated, “Well, your opinion is noted.” As the Kelpian turned her head, she caught a glimpse of an afro sticking up toward the back. “Please take Cadet Lien with you. And... try to actually repair it this time.”
As the crowd dispersed, the assignments having been handed out, the Bajoran woman put her hands up as she belted out, “Boo!”
“If its a bad analyzer, can’t we just swap it for a new one?” the cadet asked, glancing between the two ensigns.
“We’d have to yank out the whole reclamator,” the Denobulan answered with a shake of his head. “While the ship was in dock, they were doing some refits. One of them was to yank out the reclamator and replace it with an upgrade.”
The way that Pazzis had uttered the word upgrade gave every indication it was anything but.
“Ever since the Inquiry-class came out, Starfleet’s been pushing these ‘upgrades’ that are total crap. Because the Inquiry is total crap,” Anjohl snapped derisively. “But, of course, that’s our fault because Starfleet’s equipment can’t possibly be suspect.”
The young cadet just blinked as he tried to process exactly how far in over his head that he was. “By the way,” the boy uttered, changing the subject slightly as he posed, “Why is it called matter reclamation exactly..."
“It’s a shit job,” Anjohl spat.
“Ha,” Lien uttered weakly. That was a joke, right? “A shit job, like..."
Pazzis pressed a pair of HAZMAT overalls into the boy’s arms.
“You’re gonna need this.”
