Snip

At the meet up point El found Fiona there already. Not surprising. The roster for Gamma shift showed a new name that El didn’t know. Another Ensign. Sasha Gagarin. Probably coming on tomorrow, but then that only left them five. And it had to be with Fiona. El flashed a smile at the ginger Chief Petty Officer. Fiona was all business and all regulations. Rick Walters was arriving, hauling his kit crate and another pack over his shoulder. That only left Dorian and Galen. How they got along El did not know; both Dorian and Galen took things rather informally. Idly she chewed a nail and tried not to feel judged by the ‘fighting Irishwoman’. She was pretty enough but had a temper. And right now she didn’t seem so happy.

“We’re not going to make it, Ensign.” Fiona said to El. Blunt. “The ship has too many systems for us to essentially decommission it in a shift.” El wasn’t sure if the tone held accusation that was meant for her or for Lt Green. “You know he will report us if we don’t get it done. Dereliction or something.”

El watched as Galen and Dorian came around the corner hauling their goods, the latter with his guitar across his back. Fiona was about to say more but El cut in. “We’ll do what we can.” Then, louder so all could hear her, El said, “We’ll go to 05:00 and I’ll dismiss you to the Sojourner. I’ll finish up. If Green has an issue then it’s all on me. And you’ll get a chance for a little sleep before we muster at 09:00.”

Fiona was about to protest but then figured it made sense but she still didn’t like it. “If we do it right,” she continued, her tone implying that was the only way of doing it, “it would take all of us engineers at least two shifts to do it, log it, check it and file it.”

Dorian said, “Fiona, wouldn’t some of the systems be shut down already by the station crew? I know the ship is older and nearing end of life and needing refit and more. Wouldn’t that save us time?”

“Every third system could be shut down but we still need to confirm it,” she said, her look to him. It was unsure what she thought of the crewman. On the one hand he found much of engineering effortless in knowledge but on the other hand his attitude was that of just ‘sailing’ through.

“Fiona’s right,” El said. “We can’t say we did something and if we missed a system we’re on the hook. I know we’re tired. Fiona, you take Galen and work at the impulse and power distribution systems. Rick, you and Dorian work through life support, secondary systems and navigation. Send me what you have done as you complete a system unit and I’ll log and file it. I’ll take navigation, computer network systems, warp and sensors. If you need a break, take one and make it short. Your cut off is 05:00 to have all you’ve done completed by then.”

With a nod they moved off to start. El shifted to an Engineering station and began working through the checklist for the warp systems and power relays. Normally they themselves would take three hours and it was soon past midnight. The Petty Officers had more time in than her and would do good. Dorian was bright if he kept his mind on the work. Galen drove Fiona nuts with his not being engaged, which was why he didn’t pair him with the fiery woman. But for now El needed to be on task. It was a race, and a sad one. El had not been on the ship for that long. It seemed like a shakedown for them all, though some had been there longer like Bekele and Tyler, the more senior non-comms. The chief had mustered out to another ship and another was coming. El was feeling a part of the ship and now she was leaving it for another. Was it better? New? More chance for her to spread her wings? Yes, but still an old home was hard to say farewell to, even if it was just an ancient tugboat, or the Bonnie. She had heard there was a whole other class of ship in the works which would bear that name, one even better than the one she was transferring to. Perhaps in time she would be on that ‘Bonnie’.

But for now … a race to shut this old ship down.

El, Eng

El looked at the corner of the small display that showed the time. It was 06:10. She felt as though she was in a tomb. As more and more systems had been shut down and power increasingly transferred to the umbilicals at the station the ship became bit by bit more silent. It could be her imagination, but El would swear that with each subsystem shut down that the ship that had carried her first into space and outside of her system was dying. And she was helping it along in a kind of technological euthanasia. She felt strange inside. Hollow.
An hour before she had sent the others off to get some rest and she was working quickly to do as much as she could. At this point it would be noon before she was done, at the earliest. Her eyes darted from the checklist to the switches and dials and display commands, initiating a half dozen at a time. She could do better, she knew, but because of the time change and being up a full day anyway in China, El was pushing 36 hours awake. She was young, and adrenaline and annoyance was keeping her going, as was a determination to finish.
“Need a little help?” came a voice from the entry to engineering. In all the quiet El should have heard their approach but she’d missed it and jumped, startled. Wheeling about she focused her eyes in the dimness.
“Bekele? Rosa?” she said. That was one odd pairing.
“We thought you might like a hand. Us old guys don’t sleep as much as we used to,” Bekele said.
“And ticked off women don’t either,” Rosa added. Now that El saw her the fiery Spaniard did look unhappy. “I’m not about to give Green anything to be smug about.”
“That is Lt Green, crewman,” Bekele, a Senior Chief Petty Officer, said in a soft rebuke. “We respect the commission even if we don’t like the person. Lt Green is hard to like when he is on duty but I believe he means well. It isn’t very fair to command something done in a night which would take a full day. Put it down to a test of patience.”
“Lt Green means well when it will look good for Lt Green,” Rosa said, undaunted, glancing at Bekele. “But, El, despite our differences in opinion and attitude, we want to help you finish up.” Bekele nodded, the dim lights reflecting off his bald head.
El had a wash of emotion pass through her. Yes, a sense of pride too that had her wanting to, perhaps, in self-pity, to work through this herself. But that drained away behind an unbeckoned yawn. “Thank you,” she said quietly, then smiled. “But you two will be off in time to make it back for the 9am muster finished or not. That is my .. ensignly order, if that means anything at 6am.”
“That is fair, Ensign,” Bekele said. “Put us to work. We’re burning moonlight here, and I’m Spanish, and we like the moon,” Rosa added.
El took a moment to chew a nail. “Okay, I’ve not yet tackled the Science Lab or Sickbay on C deck. If you both can do that inside a couple of hours that will go a long way.”
Bekele nodded. “We’re on it, Ensign.” “Yeah, we’ll kick some sickbay culo,” Rosa said.
“Is that one of the words you are supposed to teach me?” El asked. Rosa only gave a wink before turning to head out with Bekele. El took a moment to close her eyes and do a breathing exercise. Then, as she opened her eyes, she went back to it.
El, Eng