Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineering Officer) in Deck C: CAO Quarters

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Alexander Stewart (Chief Armory Officer) in Deck C: CAO Quarters
Alex pulled out the last of his uniforms and clothes from his carryall and stowed them in the built in bureau. He zipped up the carryall and put it in the closet then slid the door shut. For a moment he stared at himself in the mirror in the door and studied his lined face. His grey shot red hair wasn’t really red anymore but his shoulders were still broad and strong.

He turned as he straightened his uniform jacket and surveyed his small, cramped quarters. More than likely he wouldn’t be in here much other than to sleep as he would have a lot of work to do in the Armory.

Had he made the right decision to come out of retirement and take this assignment? He could be back in Aberdeen, looking across rolling green hills and here he was, looking at plain grey metal walls.

But he was in space! He had dreamed since he was a little boy about serving shipboard in space. It was why he had joined Earth Starfleet.

He shook his head to dispel his momentary despondent musings and headed out the door.

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

And very nearly ran into a trim Asian Ensign of medium height who was just turning to the door. Dexterously twisting at the last moment she narrowly avoided a collision, a quickly spoken word in Chinese following. Surprise momentarily flashed in her eyes followed by worry and she glanced past him into his quarters. Then, noticing his rank she dipped her head. “Commander, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had come aboard yet.”

Stewart started violently, not expecting anyone right outside his quarters’ door. Good thing he still had the reflexes of a younger man he thought, or he would have bowled the smaller woman over. He paused before speaking as he took a good look at her.

Taking a quick step back Alexander could see that she had a satchel over one shoulder and carried what looked to be a sort of fixture or pipe in one hand. Her eyes scanned him, widening just a touch as she noted his grey streaked hair. “I’m El. Elemirre Serinde. Engineer. I, uh, had a ticket to replace a faulty valve on the sink. Your sink.” It was late in the discovery that when they were attacked by the freighters that the pipe and resultant valve jammed. Once the water had been turned on there was no turning it off. It had been manually adjusted - engineering lingo for whacked back into place - until it found its way onto the repair ticket list. A valve fix on the sink of an empty cabin was not precisely top of the priority list, nor was it quite her job. That would be something that Will or Darlene would be assigned. Not rocket science a seaman could easily do this. Part of her balked at this; she had retooled the part. Couldn’t another install it? Still, it was in her purview of what she was taught to pursue wholesome tasks and to so so with humility and grace. Was this not as noble a task as fashioning the item? Sometimes El did struggle with that .. but what of this?

El was frowning inside. She had received notice that the quarters were empty and would not be occupied until much closer to their departure date. And El was about to walk in on him, or rather the room, not knowing anyone was there. Was the commander early? He looked .. old, like one of her instructors at the Academy, or like many of the masters at the monastery. In a ship of the relatively young, he stood out even more than his broadness. Chiding herself for not checking to see whether anyone had been onboarded she then realized there was no reason to. But knocking on a cabin that had been vacant for months was rather a foolish prospect as well. But it could have been worse. She could have caused a collision. Even still it would be enough for Lt Green to find some fault with her.
- El, Eng Ens

Stewart nodded once at her words. Made sense, she was definitely an engineer by the look of her.
“ Aye, Ensign looks like Ah’ve surprised ye. Ah hadn’t noticed the sink but by all means feel free to see to it. Oh, Ah am Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart, yer new CAO.” He offered his hand to shake while his Scottish brogue rolled out of his deep bass voice that sounded like it was coming from deep within his barrel chest.

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO