Posted by Ensign Kaia (Engineering Officer) in Side Sim - Engineering - Welcoming the new CE

Posted by Lieutenant Kara Iliana (Chief Engineer) in Side Sim - Engineering - Welcoming the new CE

Posted by Ensign Kaia (Engineering Officer) in Side Sim - Engineering - Welcoming the new CE
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Kaia tapped her toes nervously against the wood of her stool, glancing over at some of the other Engineers. NE’s Johnson, T’raath, Grant, and Nohl stood at their workstations, making sure everything was ship-shape. Kaia had stepped up as much as she could with Wynter’s absence, being the most mature of the group (other than T’raath, who was Vulcan) despite chronologically being the youngest. The joys of a short lifespan. It was also true that despite being away from the ship for the past two years, Kaia had been part of the Manhattan’s crew for a full 3 years before that and knew the ship best. The others had essentially voted to let Kaia be “in charge”, as much as an Ensign could be. Wynter’s regular second-in-charge could have taken over, but he was supervising the second shift and no one wanted to force him to supervise both shifts. There were far more members of the department than the five of them, of course, but they were the ones who stood at the workstations in Engineering and monitored what was going on so that they could assign maintenance and repair duties to the rest of the team.

Now, finally in Kaia’s view, there was a new face in charge. A new Chief Engineer. Kaia knew practically nothing about their new boss, other than the fact that she would be joining them in Engineering today. Phew.

–

When Lt. Kara entered engineering, she would see a slightly bedraggled team of 5 engineers standing at workstations - well, four standing at workstations, one perched on a tall stool at a workstation - monitoring the ship’s status and doing their best to direct the rest of the engineering team to fix issues. The team consisted of two humans, a trill, a vulcan, and the one on the stool, who at first glance appeared to be a cat wearing clothing.

“We appear to be running low on supplies to repair the ablative decompilers. This is the third request from Workteam Gimel for more resources in that area,” one NE, the vulcan, spoke up.

The cat turned towards the NE and nodded, letting out a frustrated sound that was almost like a meow, then turned to her workstation and began looking through menus. “I’m doing my best, T’raath, but the folks in Ops don’t treat my requests as high priority as they would the Chief Engineer.” The voice was soft and feminine, but also had a strong accent, like there was a purr constantly under each word.

“Team A says they’re done with checking the relays in section 4-H. The problem isn’t coming from that section. They’re moving to 4-I,” one of the humans spoke up. “And Team H is asking for a new assignment - sounds like its to the protest of some of the group.”

The cat laughed. “Thanks Grant. Uh… you know what to do about Team A, and let H know they can take a ten minute break, but after that they can…” the cat turned and studied her station. “Looks like there’s a replicator on the fritz in the Mess Hall. Yonge is on that team, he’s good with replicators.”

“Thanks, Kaia,” the human, identified now as Grant, replied with a grin.

• Kaia and the engineers
  OOC: thought I’d give you a fun scene to enter
• Riley

Iliana paused outside the door to main engineering to collect her thoughts. She wasn’t really sure what to expect, she just hopes the team would accept her and gel together quickly. Having a quick chuckle to herself she put on her best poker face and strode through the door with purpose.

She made it to within 2 meters of the group huddled round their workstations before breaking into a chuckle and shaking her head. “Jeez, I had a whole spiel rehearsed about excellence and no slacking but that’s not me at all,” she laughed as she took a seat next to Kaia. “Lt Kara, CE,” she said warmly, extending her hand. “What’s on the books today then?” She asked as she had a quick glance at the duty roster.

Lt Kara, CE

Kaia turned to look at the woman and gave her a small but toothy grin. Her right arm (the one with the artificial hand) extended to accept the handshake before she turned back to her station. “Man, am I glad you’re here. I don’t have to be in charge anymore!”

That comment elicited a round of small chuckles from the others before they returned to their work. They also gave Lt. Kara brief salutes and “Ma’am”s.

Iliana waved away their salutes. “Oh, don’t stand on ceremony, I’m not bothered with all that arm flapping, at least not since a colleague of mine on the Challenger saluted with a Hyperspanner in his hand and knocked himself out.” She added with a chuckle.

“We’re mostly dealing with general maintenance right now,” Kaia explained, opening up a few menus. “Ops hasn’t been fulfilling all of our supply requests which has been a pain, but hopefully they’ll pay more attention to your credentials. Also there’s a connection issue somewhere on level 4, we’ve got a team checking the relays to see which one is the problem child. There’s a couple other things but I think that’s the major stuff we’re working on. Uh, I’m Ensign Kaia, and these are Nohl,” she gestured to an androgynous Trill, “T’raath,” the vulcan, male, “Grant,” a human, female, “and Johnson,” the last of the group, another human, male. As they were pointed out, the group gave Lt. Kara little waves and smiles.

Iliana greeted each one in turn and smiled politely, hoping she would be better than usual at remembering names.

“Well let’s sort that right now,” she said with a determined look as she tapped her comm badge.

=^= Lt Kara to Operations Officer Jobsworth, I appear to have some outstanding supply requisitions here and I would like to know when they are going to be fulfilled. =^=

From the grumbling and clattering on the other end of the line it was fairly obviously Jobsworth had just woken up from a nap. =^=…uh, I’m not showing any outstanding requests from science…=^= he mumbled as they heard Padds being shuffled in the background.

Iliana sighed and rolled her eyes. =^= Well Mr Jobsworth, I’m the Chief Engineer so I’m not really that bothered about the science requisitions. I appear to be missing 5 standard engineering kits, 2 hydrospanners, a case of isolinear chips, an optronic coupler and a plasma torch. Could you kindly tell me when they are going to be delivered? =^= she asked a little firmer with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

=^=…uh…end of the week? =^= Jobsworth offered. Iliana tutted and sighed again. =^= Far too late, tomorrow will suffice. =^= she added curtly. =^= Although if that’s going to be a problem I’ll be happy to ask Commander Mal’athar to assign someone else to this task. =^= Iliana suggested curtly.

Jobsworth let out an almost inaudible squeak at the thought of getting into trouble with the XO. =^= Tomorrow, of course Lt, =^= he added and quickly cut the comm line.

Iliana nodded and smiled at Kaia with a wink. “Anyone else you need me to shout at?” She asked with a chuckle.

“These lugheads were already assigned to basically the same thing they’re doing now before our previous CE left, I showed up the day after he left and they all decided I was perfect for the role of administrator. I, uh, have the most experience with the Manhattan since I was an engineer here for three years before I took some time off for, uh, mental health reasons.”

Ens. Kaia and the Engineers

Kara smiled sympathetically and gently put a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you for stepping up Ensign, I hope it hasn’t caused you too much additional stress?” She asked gently, given Kaia’s comment about mental health.

Lt Kara (CE)

Kaia barely suppressed a chuckle at the conversation between Kara and Jobsworth, relieved that he was actually listening to her instead of the constant excuses and delays she’d been getting. She didn’t hold back the pleased purr at the turn of events. It was nice to see someone put that lazy Operations Officer in his place.

Kaia shrugged in response to the question. “It was nice to have something concrete to focus on with my return. A little more stress than I was prepared for, but we managed. Mostly.” She glanced at the other engineers with a small smile. “I had a little support group, at least. I’m glad I got a little walk in your shoes, since I’ll likely never become a Chief Engineer myself.”

Ens. Kaia, Engineer

Iliana raised a questioning eyebrow. “What makes you say that Ensign?” She asked curiously. “As far as I can see you’ve done an excellent job at keeping the department running, don’t put yourself down,” she added gently with a hand on her petite shoulder.

Although Iliana had spent the early years of her life in a concentration camp, she had been adopted by a wonderfully kind and compassionate human family shortly after her parents death. Although she had been a little wild in her youth, their influence had slowly worn down her natural gruffness and people were often surprised at her gentle nature. Unless they crossed her of course, then they would feel the full fierceness of a Bajoran refugee.

Lt Kara (CE)