El approached the Chief’s office, having come from her machine shop where she had been tinkering with possibilities relating to the bridge tactical station. She didn’t have anything definite but in her passive frustration she felt like she could do a fair run of two tin cans and a wire between them to adequately manage the transfer of information. She couldn’t help but smile as she came near the small square room that doubled as the Chief’s office not to mention occasional equipment ‘to be fixed’ storage when they were between Chief’s. Her smile came from seeing Lt Green in there and how his bulk made the room so much smaller and how he had to shift about in it like he was a too large doll for the dollhouse. The only thing that would have made the picture funnier was if the ceiling was too low for him to stand.

She came to the door and knocked. “Lt Marshell? Do you have a minute?” She was curious what the Chief would make of the room. It likely wasn’t even set for the Chief Engineer but was an afterthought. She was sure when she had first come aboard that she had noticed bracketing that had been removed that may have been for locker space. She surmised that some ranking engineer in the design team had urged them to take them out because the Chief Engineer would need somewhere to administer things from.

Her mind went back to the ‘improvising’ that she had spent the better part of the day on since the away mission and the attack by the creature. Enter the cargo ships, a new chief engineer and this made for a busy day and they had worked extra hours on this as well. A messed up tactical station was not something that one just left for the next day on a ship in unexplored space a month away from Earth. It rankled her senses that they didn’t have spares for something like that or even the ‘box’ of chips to put a board together to replace such a sensitive and critical component. But as she had learned, one must work with what one had and do the best with it and not pine on what wasn’t. It was easy to do things in the classroom or, back as a child in her instruction, in the sheltered places. It was when one was sent out from there that the true challenges came and which showed one’s character and dedication to one’s values. Who knew that they would be so inexact? Knowledge was easy, she was told and agreed for learning came easy for her. But wisdom was harder. It was taking what one knew and mixing it with the values that one held and trying to steer a course through whatever dilemma one had in life. Like being trapped on a ship with a Warden? she thought to herself. What did one do with that? And her sister’s notes that had eluded her all these weeks to understand them. What did an old role playing game have to do with her nearly two centuries later? But first things first. The console.
- El, Eng