Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineering Officer) in Main Sim - CE Office

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Odina Marshell (Chief Engineer) in Main Sim - CE Office

Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineering Officer) in Main Sim - CE Office
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Sounded rather like normal engineering work to her, El thought. Granted with such a wonderful warp drive on the Sojo, well, what more could a girl ask for? Well, besides a useful design. Valid spare parts for critical systems. Air filtration systems that didn’t, when starting up, smell like a dentist’s office. Small things like that. The sign above the transporter room door that someone had put up saying ‘Abandon hope all you who enter here ’ was starting to seem more applicable. Still, she was away from earth. Safe. Or not. Time would tell. But as Uncle Mar would say, ‘Trust no one’. Yet as Master Ko had often said before that, ‘It is only through trusting that we can form a harmonious society.’ El had often battled with both viewpoints; the one had to make way for the other at different points and with different people.

“What is the Journeyman?” El asked. Was it another Starfleet ship she wondered? Starfleet was still a fairly loose organization. In her classes she had learned that Earth was trying to pull things together and loose it from the general Earth organizations that preceded it but was principally something half civilian and half government and pretty much all exploration. It itself had been a child trying to give birth for some 15 years now but who knew when it would be chartered and complete? Were the cargo ships part of the Earth Cargo Service, she wondered, that which was more notable prior to Starfleet gaining greater ground with its technological developments in faster Cochranes. Oh if Zeffie could see what he started!! “A plant that responded to music. Glowed? How?”
- El, Eng

“A Star Fleet ship with some Andorian civillian officers as well as having Andorian Honor Guard in stead of Macos trying to see how a mixed crew will work together was the main mission description. The plant is really neat. I will show you the pictures later when we have down time.” The Journeyman was older than the Sojourner in every sense of the word but in decent enough condition for what they were trying to do which was finding out what was out there like they all were.

Ltjg Marshell
Chief Engineering officer

“I’ve only ever met a Vulcan,” El admitted. It had not been a very positive meeting, being at the orbital station on Earth. She had seen them occasionally at a distance but never in person. They made her uncomfortable. Would all aliens cause her to feel that way? It was culture shock to travel to England for schooling. And that was among other humans! But seemingly since she left her home much was straightforward compared to home. Well, once she left the monastery; life there was very straightforward. Perhaps it was only chaotic when she was among her family. Which brought out a lot of other thoughts that she pushed down for now. “I’ve never met an Andorian.” She had read things but information was slim about this species. “What are they like?” And, the next question that came to her was, “Did it work? Working together that is?”
- El, Eng

“So far so good, they’ve not had too many duels over honor. I think they’re interesting people. They have a very strong sense of honor and most have decent sense of humor as well once you get used to their rather blunt way of speaking but once they consider you a friend they are not as harsh.” she paused and gave a light shrug, “At least from my point of view. Thomas was working with them more closely than I was, There was only one Andorian and one Aenar on the engineering teams, but he seems to be enjoying having a mixed team of humans and Andorians. I can’t wait to read his next letter truth told.”

Ltjg Marshell
Chief Engineering officer

El felt her pulse kick up a tad at the mention of duels. She had always enjoyed sparring growing up, perhaps too much as Master Ko had often chastised her for and to which she applied considerable focus to tamp down her spirit of competitiveness. That all of her opponents were male didn’t hurt her ego either as she slowly got better at various techniques. “Duels? Really?” She leaned in, interested. That did sound so romantic too. “Over what? What happened?” She was less interested in the sense of making friends with them. Really, she did not expect to ever meet an Andorian. “What is an Aenar?” Then .. “What did they think of our technology?” By that she implied engines but the question could be broader. El knew she was peppering Odina with questions and that could be more being a pest but she was curious and that was a bit of a failing. She recalled something from the Military Academy; their xeno class was essentially one class of noting different species that had been known - principally once class introducing the Vulcans - she still recalled odds and ends being thrown at the large screen by classmates to the chagrin of Professor Potts, though she didn’t do a lot to discourage that display. There was lesser reaction to images of the Andorians and Tellarites but what was given for information was little more than a overview with more opinion than fact. The most that she caught from that was that neither of them particularly liked one another but tiptoed about space with a mutual mix of respect and loathing, though El knew that the Vulcans would say that that was an emotion and so they did not possess it. But El knew better there. She could see it in their eyes in the few glimpses she had. Vulcans barely tolerated humanity and loathe seethed underneath. That the Lt served with an actual group of aliens must have been quite a feat.
- El, Eng

“Duels were usually over misunderstandings or boasting or just an honest test of each others skills. I am just glad the Doctors were on hand because those Andorian ushaan-tor or chaka made some nasty slices on folks.”Odina shook her head softly and added, “Andor has the Andorians and the Aenar, as the sentient Space faring inhabitants. Andorians are more vividly blue and don’t have vision difficulties or telepathy. The Aenar are blind but are telepathic and their hearing is more sensitive, I don’t know how it compares to a Vulcan’s or ours, a very subdued blue hue to their skin and their hair seems to be silvery white at least from the ones I was fortunate to meet on the Journeyman.” she said lightly.

Ltjg Marshell
Chief Engineering officer

El pursed her lips. While the idea of a duel was dreamy and often was part of her personal vice - romance novels - her upbringing grated at that. Had they no basic truths or follow to minimize suffering and to simply speak in ways that did not goad one another? Sure, she had witnessed much of that in her time on Manticore. That had been an utter culture shock when she had moved there. Everything had been a test of her teaching, some of which she had failed. The rule of consequences were plain in her family; another lesson. “Was that allowed?” she asked with some incredulity. “To fight to the point of such injury with weapons?” El didn’t know what those weapons were that Odina described but they did sound nasty. She did wonder what lay at the heart of the Chief as well, speaking so lightly at such ferocity.

“It’s a point of honor for the Andorians, marking their opponent or being marked in turn by a worthy opponent. They did try to keep it low injury but the tests of skills well they were rather determined on both sides to see who would win in all out. They got a rather lengthy lecture from the command staff afterwords.” Odina said lightly, she also told her brother he was lucky their mother wasn’t on the ship to see the duels he’d participated in. She had jokingly threatened to tell their mother but she would let her brother admit it himself.

But the mention of blind and telepathic and comparing with Vulcans perked up her ears. That was one thing that she was not at all happy with in this revealing of species outside of Earth. She had a fear of telepaths; they were only something fabled among humanity through the centuries but that it was real made her skin crawl. “They sound like faeries,” she said, but added, “I don’t think I like the idea of telepaths.” Someone poking about in one’s head was not something she relished. Especially with Vulcans. Were they listening to her thoughts in passing in her seeing them in her youth and then later at the Earth Beta station.
- El, Eng

“The Aenar I worked with always asked permission before they did any telepathy with anyone. It tickled my head honestly, they said I had a lot of musical thoughts that was pleasant for them to hear.” she shrugged softly, “I took it as a compliment. He said he would send me a letter but I have yet to receive it so either he was being nice to say it or he’s been extremely busy.” She did hope that Akeival would write though she was actually working on a letter for him herself but hadn’t finished it yet.

Ltjg Marshell
Chief Engineering officer