Bad Time To Be An Engineer

Posted on Sun Jan 14th, 2018 @ 4:36pm by

593 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Unknown Life, Unknown Dangers
Location: USS Dreadnought Main Engineering

James stood in Engineering looking at the lifeless shell of the Warp Core, the sweep had destroyed any trace of the organism that plagued the ship before, killing everything organic that wasn't shielded or otherwise. While for some it was a relief, others wouldn't set foot on the ship again and requested a transfer. James couldn't exactly blame them, some lost friends, even family and that was enough to leave a mark on anyone's lives no matter how young or old they were. Most of the ships systems were linked to the Starbase for observational diagnostics, which in other words meant operational oversight to those actually doing the work.

James had tried to get some time to himself and see Kelly, James knew they were not an item but he'd at least liked to have seen her, maybe spend some time over a meal or something assuming she was even still interested.

"Sir, the latest results from the test." James turned to see a tech with his hand out holding a PADD out to him.

"Thanks." James replied looking them over and was quick to find a problem in the results. "Hang on a minute." A quick recheck. "Where are the power ratio results from the third core?"

"It's not installed yet, the chamber is still being put together."

"Then these results are useless. Without the third cores input you are only configuring for two outputs when the ship has three. Have the computer simulate input based on previous records and run the test again, we need to make sure that the new junctions and relays are aligned properly." James replied handing the PADD back.

"Sorry, this is the first tri core ship I've worked on."

"It's ok, not many of them out there. Just add the simulation into the calculations and then run the test again." James finished up and headed to his office. No surprise that it had been taken over by the station techs and diagnostics teams with consoles, equipment and other gear set up all over the place. The office didn't look like an office anymore, more like a technician's haven for the overworked.

In a way that was a good thing and a bad, it made James feel useless, unneeded on a starship he was supposed to be Chief Engineer on. The backlash from the nacelle incident was heavy but mostly directed at the Captain, it was a good plan though and probably saved the ship though James wasn't one to split hairs on who did the saving just as long as it worked. The next shuttle was leaving in about 10 minutes, this gave him time for a non rushed casual walk to the airlock which would then ferry him to the station.

*** Starbase ***

When James arrived at his temporary quarters he showered and changed. He was not surprised that his console chirped away telling him he had messages awaiting his attention. He left them that way, they could wait a little longer. Once he was ready to go he left for the Promenade where he went about picking up a few personal effects that had to be replaced because of all the damage to the ship, glass wear mostly and while sure he could have replicated it, actual shopping got him off the ship and mingling with the masses.

He tapped his badge and dictated a message to the computer to send to Kelly.

Kelly it's James, I was wondering if you were free, I've got some time on my hands if you are interested?

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