James rolled his shoulders as he strolled down the corridor. He couldn’t put off meeting the new boss for any longer. It was time to face the music and check-in. He just hoped that they didn’t have a problem with his military record, as it was… checkered at times. Hell, some of the things he was doing now would have IA on his ass faster than you could say “The Borg”. James knew he just had to play things close and to his chest, and that started with being a good little ensign that checked in.

The engineer absentmindedly stepped to the side as a knot of crewmembers passed him, old habits helping the barrel-chested man to get out of the way. He wasn’t looking forward to messing around with the maintenance corridors. Those were not made in mind with someone who enjoyed eating food and lifting heavy weights. Hell, there was still a friction burn on his gut from getting stuck in the Antares shipyards and that was over a decade ago.

Grumbling about narrow spaces and architects with no sense of body proportions James stopped in front of the turbolift. He glanced over and spotted a female Petty Officer, but noted that she looked less than pleased with life. Shutting his trap the squat man sidled into the lift when it finally arrived and punched in for the twenty-second floor. There was a small pause before the door closed and the lift started to sink through the Dresden.

He took this chance to calm and center himself. James knew he had a tendency to ramble and shoot his mouth off, which was absolutely not what a new ensign should be doing. So as the lift continued its descent he carefully tucked away everything into a well-used box in his mind and then shut and locked it. Hopefully this time it stayed shut.

When the lift chimed as it reached his destination James was ready. Projecting an easy confidence he made his way to the Chief Engineer’s office, nodding to the crewmembers in the area. The engineer paused as he reached the door. Here went nothing. He knocked on the door and the settled back into attention. Just needed to not frag things up.