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

Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineering Officer) in Deck C: CAO Quarters
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

<Big snip>

“Aye, the British Marine Academy, tisn’t he?” He asked. “Ah believe Ah went through school with him before moving over to the Navy mehself.”

“Portsmouth, yes, sir,” El replied. They did seem about an age, though the Commander here looked a tad more .. craggy as she studied his features. Sure he looked dignified and had a confident bearing but there was something about him that told her that maybe he didn’t quite have his ‘space legs’. But the Navy had different branches still. Earth had a robust naval force. Of course there was that and then there were the more private branches where nations clung to their own identities still while the world slid seemingly inexorably toward a single governing feature.

He seemed nice. She wondered how he would get along with the others. But he looked competent. Some in the past didn’t give El that ‘feel’ of safety. She glanced around him to his cabin. Unless he moved she couldn’t easily sneak past without it getting rather personal. But then she asked, “You must have signed up before Starfleet was formed. Why change?” Some heralded space as the final frontier but many at the academy in Portsmouth were uninterested in that branch and was happy with their feet firmly planted on the ground. And the longer one tended to be where one was, she had noted, the more firmly they were happy to stay there.
- El, Eng

“Aye, aye, Ah did indeed. Retired in Earth’s Navy after commanding ship. The powers that be in Earth’s Starfleet talked me into this assignment.” He shrugged depreciatingly. “Ah was finding retirement a wee bit boring after ship life so here Ah am.” He smiled broadly. Seeing the younger engineer peering past him to his now empty quarters and a twinkle came into his eye. “ Ahh, Ah shouldna keep ye from yer work, Ensign. Meh thanks for yer upcoming repair work.” He said as he stepped aside so she could enter his quarters.

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

El smiled again, dimples more prominent. “You need to talk to Warrant Officer Jackson. He’s been waxing poetic about a cabin in the Florida keys and days fishing when he retires.”

Stewart smiled, “Ah will definitely have to do that, not that Ah had the pleasure of fishing in the Keys but Ah spent a lot of time fishing in the Scottish lochs.”

El winced ever so slightly. “They’re cold,” she said. She did not like cold. She had adopted disciplines to moderate the feeling and endured many a winter in China but that still didn’t compare to the warmth of her first home farther south in the South China Sea and later in Manticore. She turned her head as well to the sound.

As he moved to let her go by they heard a noise from just down the corridor a couple cabins away. A brown cocker spaniel trotted out holding a wrench in his mouth that had a cloth wrapped around it. He spotted El and Alexander and sat, tail wagging. Behind him out of the same cabin emerged a man of average height with dark hair that seemed to have a wave to it that wanted to escape his head, though apart from that he was unremarkable. He carried a bag of tools and sported Petty Officer markings. “Come on Nessa,” he said before noticing the two and he stopped in mid stride. “Ensign, uh Commander,” he said.

Stewart’s eyebrows rose in amusement as he watch the unlikely duo approached them.

“Commander, this is PO Rick Walters, of engineering. And this is Nessa.” Nessa wagged her tail at being recognized; Rick stood straighter. “Nessa came to us by accident. She was a MACO dog whose destination was not us but we - Rick - found her in the cargo bay. The MACO group declined to take her stating that she was tainted and that her training would not be completed so Nessa became engineering mascot. Oh, Rick, Lt Green has a duty list for you. He changed the shuttle pod from pod 2 to pod 1 to do PM on in anticipation of arriving at the system. He wants a level 1 so if it means tear down the engines to get it tip top then do it. We have time. If you need help give me a call.”

Stewart nodded to the Petty Officer in greeting though he said nothing, letting the two finish speaking.

“Sure thing, Ensign. Did I need to report in with the Lt?”
El shook her head. “No, I’ll tell Lt Green.”

As he moved off, he said, “Come on Nessa.” Looking at Alexander, he said, “Commander.”

“A pleasure, Petty Officer.” Stewart responded

El said, “I’ll look at that tap now, Commander. Thank you for your time.”
El, Eng

“Absolutely, have a good day, Ensign. “ Stewart said as he made his way down the corridor

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO

El stepped into the quarters. They had a faint machine oil scent. The prior CAO had a penchant for oiling his knives so El put that smell down to it. It, like the oils she used in her machine shop, had a way of lurking for a long time. But this was faint and it had been cleaned prior to the Commander’s arrival. Moving along the narrow path toward the rear where the sink and shower was she glanced about. Everything looked stowed. The Commander had not yet had much unpacking time apparently and her curiosity tickled her imagination on how he might decorate it. She imagined medieval Scottish tapestries with crossed claymore’s on the wall and a shield with his ancient family emblem on it. Truly, she reasoned that, like many quarters, it would be ‘plain Jane’ as Darlene described some aspects of the ship, but a girl can imagine, can’t she?

The problem was either the joint or the faucet and she proceeded to disassemble both. The former was particularly problematic but with judicious leveraging it came out with a pop. Whatever the initial assembly that had been done they had been very quick on the join, El observed, where the coupling had not been set flush with the other pipe. Combined with a seal that was not well sealed it was no wonder that it leaked and could leak profusely if left unattended longer. She worked at it for up to another half hour before, with a final test, was satisfied that it was not going to leak further - certainly not over the Commander’s tapestries.

Exiting she ensured the cabin door was sealed then made her way back to engineering to let Lt Green know that Rick was working on Pod 1. She hoped he would call. She had been part of some of the mechanical jiggery of those engines. Rick was an ace with how those worked; that was his specialty that had brought him onto this ship and she had learned a great deal from him. It was one thing to know a mechanical blueprint and know where everything was and what it did and another thing to actually get hands on and work with it.
- El, Eng

Later, El came back to Engineering. She had the offending parts in her bag that she was in the process of removing. Holding the coupling she examined it and wondered if she could salvage it for reuse. With a little work she may be able to machine it to being a viable spare part. Qualifier on may. They had used a great deal of binding agent and trying to get that off would be spectacularly challenging. On second thought, doing so may be more trouble than it was worth. It wasn’t like a damaged chip or high tech device that was not easily replaced. This was a pipe. Her sense of not wanting to waste things warred with her on this as she turned it over and over in her hands but it would likely be better to not try it. A rumbling clearing of a throat took her out of this reverie.

“It isn’t going to unmake itself,” came the reply from Lt Green. His large frame cast a shadow from the main engineering into her machine shop. “Did you get there before the commander moved in?”
She shook her head as she turned, her pony tail swishing with the motion. “He had just gotten in.” She set the pipe and coupling down on a workbench.
“Was that your first stop?” he asked.
“No, I prioritized two other fixes first. They were touchier for scheduling around people.”
Green moved to the bench and picked up the coupling. “Shoddy work,” he said, frowning under his shovel like beard. Was that directed to her or the pipe? “A lesson learned in prioritizing work and how not to soak a commander on his first day.” She was about to speak but he continued. “I’ve not seen Ensign Gagarin. Have you? I have a work assignment for him.”
“I ran into him earlier. I told him about your change of Shuttle Pod repairs and said I’d pass it on to you.”
“Was that today or some other time when it was convenient?” His frown deepened. “I appreciate your taking initiative, Ensign, but you need to think about it more. As much as you seem to not believe it, rank does have its privileges, especially once someone finds themselves at the Commander level. You do well to set your work priority based on the need but you always seem to not consider the individual but just the task.” El knew that to be true. But to her the task determined the priority. Sighing she was about to reply when Green said, “Look, most tasks don’t have those considerations, but some do. Carry on. I’ll be making a notation in your record on this; you know this is not your first time with this.” With that he turned and left the machine shop, but then turned and said, “See what you can do to salvage that.”
“Yes, Lt,” El said with an inward frown and a not so inward sigh.
- El and Green .. Eng