Engineering Redeye
Posted on Wed Dec 4, 2019 @ 1:51am by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres
1,671 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Nibiru
Location: USS Victory - Engineering
It was quiet, which surprised her a little as the Captain entered main engineering. The only sounds were a few soft voices speaking from ..somewhere ..and the gentle thrum of a warp core in standby mode. Eyes sweeping the area, the Captain walked further into Engineering in search of her Chief Engineer. Her boots made no sound at all as she walked, a trick she’d learned a long time ago. Moving silently, acutely aware of her surroundings.
She hated it.
It wasn’t hard to find Torres, his voice was easy to discern, easy to follow.
All she could see was half of him, his lower half as he worked on..whatever.
She stopped, waiting silently for him to notice she was there.
Miguel was changing a faulty flow sensor when he got this strange feeling that he was being watched. He slid from under the table and looked to see who was there when he saw the Captain. For a split second he wondered why she could be there. But only for a second. "Captain, what can I do for you?" he asked her as he finished rolling out from below the console and then standing up in front of her.
She didn’t waste time, “Got things set up yet..”. She asked, wanting to find out if the legendary still was up and running yet.
"I'd say we have. As soon as you give the word, my engines should have no problem giving you want you need." he told her, playing coy.
Rhea really wasn’t in the mood for coy. Miguel was one of her closest, longest friendships. Between finding herself dragged back into the captains chair, the possible genesis problem, and a pain in the ass General skulking around.. and after going home the loss of John was a renewed empty ache that rose up from deep die in her heart. She wanted a damn drink. Miguel knew full well what she was asking him and was just being his usual obtuse self about it. She was about to answer when an Ensign entered the space, boots echoing on the floor as he stomped his way along. She turned to glare at the young officer who, realizing he was the target of a scathing glower from the Captain turned on his heel and exited stage right at warp speed.
“That’s good to know. That I can get anything I need from Engineering.. anything at all huh.” She answered.
"Anything... within my awesome capabilities to provide."he answered playfully.
She sighed, “Are you doing this deliberately or just.. because you’re that bored with a new ship that doesn’t have a list of repairs to keep you busy..”
"Maybe both." he answered. "Now in all seriousness what can I do for you?" he asked her.
“My desk drawer is noticeably lacking an essential item.” She told him, he knew full well she kept a small bottle of his special brew in the drawer of her desk, she had done so for years.
"Well it is a new desk." he said as he walked over to one of the many situation monitors in engineering. "Are you sure you didn't leave it in the old desk?"
“Are you sure you want to continue pushing my buttons..” came her response.
"Not my fault that is so easy. Besides I have a few months of catch up to do." he said with a smile. Which was his own way of saying welcome back. "Where you in the mood for anything in particular?" he asked her as he started walking to another room.
“Not my choice to be dragged back out here.” she retorted. “Doesn’t matter. Just needs to be strong.”
"Alright follow me." he told her as he continued heading for the adjacent storage room. Once there he keyed a sequence into the key pad and the door opened. There were several bottles. He picked one up and handed it to her. "This was one of the last bottles that were made on the old Victory." Then he went over to another shelf and grabbed a smaller glass bottle. "This is something I made on the way here after I had assembled a new still. I wanted to get back to my ancestral roots so while I was on Earth I started practicing making rum. This is from an old family recipe for bumbo."
Accepting the bottle from him, she opened the cap and sniffed at the liquid inside. Contemplating the scent a moment, she said “Citrus.. is that nutmeg or cinnamon?”
"No citrus, that was something that started to be added during the 21 Century." he told her. Though he didn't answer whether it was nutmeg, cinnamon, or both that he was using in this recipe.
“Mmmmm.” She grunted.
"With any luck one of those should put you in a better mood." he told her.
“My mood was fine, until events conspired to make it otherwise..” she answered.
"So you came to your friendly bartender?"
she shrugged, “Desk drawer was empty as I said.”
"So... any idea of when we'll be heading out?" he asked.
“Roughly two days. Sooner if we get the last of the supplies aboard.”
"That's good I'm still missing a few things that the Starbase swears up and down that it'll be here by the time we launch, but nothing yet." he told her.
“Send me a list documenting what you have requested and not received. I’ll make sure it’s here.” She told him.
"Aye Captain." he replied.
“Sooner the better.” she told him. “Is there anything else I should know? Any quirks or potential issues with the ships design?”
"Nothing in particular, just standard issues when dealing with a new type of ship. There will be an adjustment period, for the crew even after we launch. I figure it'll take us another 12 weeks once we're in space to find all the bugs. Then of course we can start having fun making improvements." he told her. "The biggest issue so far was that there wasn't a place for my still, so had to use this storage unit, and had to get creative with the design." he added as he pointed to the conduits that ran up and down one of the walls making it look as if it were part of the ship itself.
”What ever works..” Kennit answered.
"Now how are you doing?" he asked her.
She paused, smiled a little and answered “Closer to the ground.”
"Good, as your bartender I was worried." he told her.
“Bartender? Moonshiner maybe..” she retorted.
"Potato... potato." he answered. "I figure if this engineering thing doesn't workout It'll give me something to fall back on."
“There is that at least.” she agreed.
"Either that or I'll just take a shot at the Captain's chair. I know that job isn't that hard, just to much paperwork for my liking." he joked.
“If I thought they’d let me go home I’d say the job is yours..” Kennit told him.
"For the amount of overtime they'd expect, no thank you." he answered her. "Seriously though if you ever need to talk you know where to find me."
“Starship Captains don’t need to talk. It’s in a rule book somewhere I’m sure. Right next to the one about follow orders, never question the Admiralty and whatever you do, don’t drink alcoholic anything.” Kennit answered.
"Oh then you definitely don't want those... especially the rum." he told her.
“In all the years you’ve known me, since when have I ever cared what the rule book has to say?” the Captain said in a humorous tone. She gave him a pat on the arm, paused and the squeezed his bicep. “Damn.. are you aware your arm is going to rip through your shirt shortly?”
"Oh lovely, guess I'll have to pay another visit to the quartermaster." he replied with a smile as he flexed his bicep. "Guess I need to stop hitting the high gravity gym as much." he added.
She shook her head at that, “All that effort and I can still bench press more than you..”
"If I had Borg nanoprobes running through my veins I'm sure I'd be stronger than I already am." he said. "Though not sure I'd want to be stronger. Being 5 times stronger and faster can already be an issue." he stated.
“Says the guy who continues to work out in the high grav gym..” the Captain retorted.
"Well I need to keep myself in shape some how." he defended.
“If you say so..” was the Captains answer.
"Not buying it huh?" he asked her.
“Been around you too long..” she replied. “I know better.”
"Yeah guess I've been hitting the gym extra hard to avoid missing Sam." he admitted.
“I saw she’d been transferred. You could have requested she stay..” Kennit pointed out.
"Na...." he said. "I was the one that recommended her for the job." he revealed.
“Did you..” she echoed. “Okay..”
"Someone had to look out for her career." he said as he walked over to one of the bottles and cleaned off some dust. "Anyway the gym has been a way to spend the extra time doing something creative instead of doing double shifts in engineering and annoying my staff." he told her.
“Ahhhh..so spreading the annoying around a bit. That works too.” she said with a smile.
"I might as well share all of this..." he said as he gestured to himself. "with everyone."
“And on that note..it’s time for me to get to back to work.” Kennit replied with a chuckle. “Thank you for this..” she added as she held up the bottle for a moment. “I will let you get back to..whatever it was you were doing.”
"Just some cleanup, then off to my quarters for the night." he told her.
Over her shoulder she called back, “The thrilling life of a Starfleet officer.”
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