Posted by Ensign Caelian Weir (Engineering Officer) in Pre Sim - Meeting and greeting

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Mazhari Allendor (Engineering Officer) in Pre Sim - Meeting and greeting

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Mazhari Allendor (Engineering Officer) in Pre Sim - Meeting and greeting
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
[snip]

“Well, first off, you don’t have to call me ma’am. It’s just Mazi. Or, perhaps, hey you if you prefer.” She smiled lightly and leaned back in her seat. “I’m glad you have a crew mate to pass time with. It’s important out here. And not working too hard is another thing. Don’t let engineering swallow you up.” She took another sip of her drink and sighed. She actually envied him his unlikely companion. “I don’t go for many holo novels, myself. I prefer a nice swim in the ocean. I’ve got the call of the birds without their distractive hovering, and a nice temp set in the water to be cold but not too cold. Warm but not too warm. If that makes sense.” She laughed lightly and scratched her head as the antennae shifted in her mirth.

“I would love to see some of the sims you run, sometime. I mean, if you ever want a second opinion or fresh eyes, I mean. I don’t mean I want to intrude if you are doing it for quiet time.” She wasn’t one to butt in on folks privacy. She knew she didn’t want anyone infringing on hers. But getting to know him more was kinda the point so she had to put the offer out there anyway.

Mazi
Eng

“I can barely stand to watch myself get knocked on my backside,” Caelian chuckled, knuckled his chin. “I’m not sure my pride can take someone else seeing it happen.”

He coughed away his embarrassment, tried to put on an encouraging smile. In the back of his mind he could hear Malcolm chiding him for hiding behind his work, about needing to reach out and connect with the crew. Mazhari was obviously trying to help him do that, much to her credit. Caelian had always understood the workings of things more than people. In its own way, engineering had been the safe and obvious career choice—personal reasons notwithstanding. A warp core could only react a given number of ways with a given number of variables; people were different, wildly unpredictable even in similar circumstances.

Perhaps, he admitted, he simply hadn’t discovered the right variables. Starfleet had always been about challenging the unknown, pushing the boundaries of mankind’s understanding of the universe. New technologies and new cultures pushed those frontier challenges daily, and yet—at least in Caelian’s experience—humans were fundamentally no more different than they were before they had discovered warp flight. The journey was about finding meaning and purpose within as much as the discovery without. That purpose had been one of the driving reasons that kept Caelian in Starfleet, always the need to understand the why of it all.

Could Mazhari, a fellow engineer, understand?

Caelian sighed inwardly, scooting forward in his chair. “The basic principle of my training simulation, however, is that all things are causal. In basic hand-to-hand training, we were taught how to defend ourselves, but we were never given to understand the why of its workings. After almost failing spectacularly, I had a bit of insight from watching some classmates tussle…”

Over the next hour, the young engineer went into detail about the workings of his simulation: a training regiment based on the understanding of combat based on an engineering perspective. Reaction, angles, force, and the interplay of the variables between them. It had been Caelian’s pet projects to understand the given strengths and weaknesses of a given so-called “style” in order to improve upon it, perhaps even unify it with others to create an all-around defense.

“While it might never pan out in the end,”he chuckled by way of conclusion, “it certainly does give one a thought-provoking workout.”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—

Mazi listened intently, interjecting questions here and there to understand the program. When he was done, she smiled and nodded. “I can see how that would be thought-provoking, indeed.” They had long ago finished their food and she was absently rolling her glass between the fingers on her right hand back and forth on the table as she gave it more thought.

“When I was taught fighting and defense skills, I had some of the same questions. Why block this way? Why counter that? Have you noticed that many cultures and races, displaced by time and space and variants in all other manners, have very similar reactions to certain reactions? I mean, if a hand comes at you this way,” she made a fist and pushed outwards towards Caelian’s face. “There are only so many ways to counter. You block from the right or left to knock it down. And you come from those two given directions either from above or below.” She gave small demonstrations of the motions as she spoke.

“But I wonder often about other ways. Ways that mix those lines and katas, and whatever, up. Instead of creating fighting and combat skills that go in those directions for those of near equal mass, look to the realities of fighting. Small against large, fast against slow, and defense to defense and offense to offense. It will certainly mix things up and create combinations that would be unlike you already had.” The idea of finding the whys behind the hows was intriguing to her. She hadn’t thought about it as in depth as he had, but she had often wondered the same things. Perhaps being a half breed had been the reason for her intrigue.

Mazi
Engineer

Caelian nodded at the conjecture, ordered another tea when someone came around to ask after them. After rambling on for so long, his throat was a bit parched. He was silently thankful when the Andorian woman picked up where he’d left off and gave him a break. He nodded along with her thoughts, answered her questions as best he could, and made mental notes to address issues she’d raised that he hadn’t thought of. All in all, it was a productive conversation.

“It’s amazing how much tradition can be broken down into base elements by science,” he noted. “Any society’s so-called style is determined by resources, necessities, terrains, and challenges. Most bipedal species have the same challenges to overcome as we do, so its just a matter of applying the proper modifications to unify them. While I don’t think there will ever be a universal combative form, the more we understand the mechanics of it the less training we’ll need.”

Caelian chuckled and leaned back in his chair. “After all, a cephalopod will always beat a biped in a wrestling match.”

Taking his refreshed drink when it was offered, he took a sip and regarded Mazhari. “What does my fellow engineer do to unwind, apart from talking shop at dinner?”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—

Mazi blushed slightly. “Sorry, guess I never really leave work. Or rather, never really have anyone to talk to.” She scratched at the base of her antenna once more, but it wasn’t for as long this time. Almost like it wasn’t annoying her as much for the moment. “I don’t really have anything special I do. I mean, I like swimming in the ocean. But that’s about it. And I write a bit. But nothing worthy of an audience, or anything.” She shrugged and glanced down into her cup a moment. “Mostly just work, then sleep. Nothing too exciting I fear.”

The half Andorian didn’t want to admit she didn’t have any friends to hang out with. Nor that working out, despite being something she did as religiously as showing up for her shift, was anything worth crowing about. Suddenly she felt small, silly and insignificant.

Mazi
Engineer