Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Dael Stadi (Chief Engineer) in CO’s Office - Cadet Washburne Reporting for Duty
<snip!>

The Betazoid could feel the wave of surface thoughts that came off of the man sitting in front of him. Typical for a new cadet on a training ship, though he did approve of the glances to the burnt husk of a plasma coupling. He recognized the look all too well as a fellow engineer and it cause a small smile to form on his features.

“That’s good to hear, I’ll have to make sure a decent tour of the ship is given to you once you report to your first duty shift. And I’ll have the ship’s schematics sent to your quarters so you can access them from there. I’m sure you’ve already taken a peak at what the Challenger is made of, but now you should have full clearance for everything aboard.” Dael said as he tapped a few keys on a console on the desk to do just that, before looking down at his PADD.

“So, Cadet Washburne, you’ve obviously done well in your Academy classes, otherwise you wouldn’t be here on a training ship. But tell me, what led you to the Academy and working so hard in this field?”

-Lt. jg Dael Stadi, Chief Engineer

Connor nodded at the Betazoid, visible glee plastered on his face at the mention of the ship’s schematics and his newly granted clearance. At that moment, the responsibility became real, he may still have been a cadet, but he had a duty to the other people aboard. Their success, and perhaps even their health, partially relied upon him. He believed he was ready for this responsibility, but that would not deter or slow his efforts toward improving.

When the Chief Engineer asked him about his motivations, he was taken aback. He had expected that question from the counselor, but had not considered that other personnel would ask, especially not on the first day. The cadet paused and answered with the half-truth he had been accustomed to giving in these situations. “I joined the academy because I admire the work the Federation does, and I think I can make a difference.” While not technically a lie, the statement certainly did omit several truths. “As for why I work so hard, the answer is simple. All it takes is one failure to cost lives. My focus at any given time is to the preservation of life, in my eyes, no amount of effort is gratuitous in this endeavor. I spend hours figuring out the wrong answers to problems so I better understand the right ones. I fail when I can afford to so I can succeed when I have to.” There were no half-truths in that statement.

“I understand that it may sound unorthodox Sir, but I promise you my first and last priority is the Challenger’s maintenance and upkeep.” As Connor paused to wait for a reaction he realized he had not stopped to breathe at all while speaking and attempting to catch his breath without alerting the Lieutenant to his breathlessness.

|Cadet Connor Washburne|

OOC: Here’s a quick lesson of something we do here on STF. If you look at the top of this post you’ll see I wrote “<snip>” and deleted some of the older posts. We call this, easy enough, “snipping”. That way a thread doesn’t get too long over time and people have to scroll super far down to see the most recent post. A good rule of thumb is to leave at least two to three posts for context or more if needed for important information. Once you start doing and seeing it more often you’ll get the hang of it! Also apologies for such a late reply, had surgery recently and thought I’d have more of a chance to post but didn’t.

IC:
Dael soaked in the cadet’s obvious enthusiasm as he watched him speak. Good, we can always use someone like that. Working the job will temper that a little bit, but hopefully not too much he thought as the Washburne finished up his response.

“Finding out wrong answers to problems is definitely a key factor in troubleshooting, and I’m always a big fan of learning from mistakes. Just as you said, this is a critical job here on the Challenger, the success or failure of a crew and it’s mission is heavily reliant on our department. There’s not a single aspect of this ship that can be done without Engineering involved, and honestly it can be a thankless position sometimes. An Engineering crew that’s invisible is a successful crew, if you understand my meaning.” Dael said, folding his hands together on his desk. He sensed some hesitation in the cadet’s answers but chocked them up to first day jitters. Dael was an engineer after all, not a sociologist.

“I was curious looking over your Academy record that you focused in Transporter theory, a favorite and concentration of mine as well, but also Xenolinguistics, an interesting choice for a Engineering tract. If you don’t mind my asking what pulled some of your interest there rather than a more… let’s say practical, for your field, extracurricular?”

-Lt. jg Dael Stadi, CE

OOC: Thanks! That’s good to know for the future!

IC:
Connor nodded as the Lieutenant spoke. He understood what he meant about the thanklessness of the job, luckily he had no illusions about the glamourous nature of Engineering. If an Engineer is truly doing their job well, the only ones who would know were other Engineers. The cadet thought to himself.

As the Beta-zoid posed the question about his extracurriculars, Connor couldn’t help but chuckle slightly. This was a question he had become accustomed to hearing. Very few cadets took Xeno-Linguistics if it was not required for their desired path. “During my career with Starfleet I intend to use spare time in order to research and analyze systems in hopes of developing new systems for vessels. Though I’m still in the very early steps of the research process I believe there may be a way to increase a transporters power efficiency, which in addition to possibly extending the range of a transporter, would require it to draw less power, which would allow more power to be directed to other functions of the ship. I took the transporter theory in order to further explore my own theory.” The human chuckled at his play on words.

“As for the Xeno-Linguistics, I seek out and read different papers and publications that I may be able to use in my own research, not all of which are fully translated yet. Admittedly I also believe that knowledge of Xeno-Linguistics may present unique opportunities for growth.” The cadet realized he had begun gesturing with his hands, a habit that he had most quit, but occasionally re-emerged when he became passionate. He dropped his hands to his sides. “I apologize if I sound over-zealous Sir.”

|Cadet Connor Washburne|