Chief Engineer’s arrival

Posted on Wed Dec 8th, 2021 @ 7:11pm by Lieutenant Commander Dorian Sheppard
Edited on on Thu Dec 9th, 2021 @ 4:53pm

703 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Into The Void
Location: Shuttlebay 2
Timeline: Stardate 59933

Personal log, Stardate 59933, Chief Engineer

The shuttle from Spacedock to the Lionheart was uneventful. Ensign Tora’s handling of the Hofstadter’s navigational controls was smooth and steady, all things considered. I had considered offering to optimize the starboard stabilization gyro, which was obviously asynchronous to the other five, but Tora seemed happy with it as it was so who was I to complain.

Shuttlebay 2 wasn’t as busy as I’d anticipated, so I was able to do unload my cases and find Lieutenant Saveis without any issues…

“Permission to come aboard, sir?”

Lieutenant JG Saveis tapped a blinking icon on his PADD and greeted me without looking up. “Permission granted, sir,” he stated, tapping his communicator. “Ensign LaBrea.”

“Here sir,” came the device reply.

“Lieutenant Commander Sheppard is aboard and ready for escort to his quarters,” the Vulcan stated, touching the PADD again before finally making eye contact. “Commander,” he nodded his acknowledgment. “If you’ll follow me,” he said, turning toward the ship’s door as a mature human female approached. “Ah, Ensign LaBrea, Lieutenant Commander Dorian Sheppard. Commander, Ensign Katrina LaBrea,” Saveis introduced.

“Nice to meet you, sir,” LaBrea said, taking the handle of the anti-grav luggage cart and heading for the door as I shifted the weight of my backpack on my shoulder.

Saveis, again scrolling through things on his PADD, stated, “I’ve taken the liberty of arranging a roll call and tour of the Engineering deck at oh-three-hundred hours. Lieutenant Nguyen is assigned. Welcome aboard, Commander.” And with that, the Vulcan was off to his next check in.

Ensign LaBrea led me from the shuttle bay into the main corridor of level 17 and into a turbo lift. “I read your paper on Applied Negative Ion Gravitational Matricies,” she said, attempting to make conversation.

“And what were your thoughts?” I asked politely, letting the weight of the backpack slip off my shoulder to the floor.

She paused for the briefest moment before replying excitedly, “You could increase the relative exchange rate by modifying your flight mass substrate.”

I was impressed, and a little taken aback. I couldn’t decide if she made a lucky guess or wanted my title as Chief Engineer. “And how would that affect the spectrometric analysis?” I asked, probing a little.

“A density decrease of point four oh dynamic yields a nineteen percent benefit to phase precipitation,” she said confidently.

I cocked my head. “You’ve already run the simulation?”

“No,” she admitted. “But the math checks out. I’ve programmed Holodeck 2 with the algorithms but I wanted to wait for you so we can check the outcomes together.”

My anxiety, previously off the scale, was starting to subside. Taking a new position aboard any vessel was going to be traumatic to me. Learning personality interactions and putting faces with names was never my strong suit. I preferred to tinker with machines, which have logical parts and connections. But Counselor M’behk with whom I’d been in therapy aboard the Yellowstone had tried to explain personalities as a logic puzzle for me to understand. Just as machine efficiency and structure could be learned, understood, and thought of as a puzzle to be solved, interpersonal interaction is very similar. You start by listing your ‘givens’- the known elements. Then, one by one, you solve for your unknowns. In this scenario, our givens are; LaBrea is an Ensign. She is highly intelligent. She is proactive. She is outgoing. The unknowns are; What is her objective? Is she responsible? Reliable? Trustworthy? What are her expectations? Of her duties, her role, and her commanding officer?

The turbo lift stopped and its doors opened to the general quarters deck for Officers. LaBrea stepped ahead, with the cart in tow. “You’re just up here on the left,” she said over her shoulder as I hefted my backpack back onto mine.

/-swish-/

The door opened and LaBrea slid the cart inside. Offering me a handshake, she said, “Nice to meet you in person, Lieutenant Commander Sheppard. I look forward to working with you.”

As she started back toward the turbo lift, she turned back and added, “Don’t forget. Oh-three-hundred hours.” Then she disappeared around the curve.

 

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