New Toys

Posted on Fri Feb 12th, 2010 @ 12:36am by

1,184 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: FORGING AHEAD
Location: USS Endeavor > Engineering

An older man was walking towards the redhead in the engine room. She seemed like the one in charge; she had that air of authority about her that the chief also had. He had seen that the repairs were coming along nicely without their help, but his orders were to offer any assistance that was needed. His team was standing just outside so she didn't feel cornered.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" He gave a friendly smile. "I'm Master Chief Anders. I'm here to offer you any help you may need to get your ship back together." He looked around the engine room. "It looks as if you may be almost finished though." He was still smiling pleasantly.

Kat looked around, wiping a grease stain off of her cheek and holding out a hand with a grin. ''Hi, Kat Merrin. I'd love the help. The ship was in perfect condition untill warrant officer Katie Albittron was farmiliarising herself with the new systems and accidentally overloaded a backup plasma conduit. Nothing serious but I'd appreciate the help seeing as she's now in sickbay with minor burns.'' She led him in the direction of the plasma leak.

''Everyone else is still off on leave.'' She started to pull on protective clothing to keep the plasma off her skin and nodded to another suit for him to take.
''Master Chief Anders, huh? That means your in charge of the whole station, right?''

Matt took her hand but shook his head. "No ma'am, that would be LCdr Jameson," he said smiling. "I'm just a master chief. But let's take a look at what you have." Anders finished putting on the suit, picked up his tool kit and crawled inside. He smiled. It was like a different world in here; the sloping walls and the nooks and crannies made it seem like an alien landscape. He loved it. He made room for the lieutenant and opened the kit. "It looks like the plasma regulators were blown."

He used the duotronic probe to stop the flow of plasma before fixing the regulators. "What exactly was she trying to familiarize herself with?" Anders asked.

Kat was scanning the insides of the tube around the overloaded area to make sure there was no more internal damages or weak spots. To be honest it was nice to let someone else handle the work after all the reapirs she'd been doing for the past few weeks.

She shrugged. ''The controls on this vessel are so much more upgraded and sensitive than the old Endeavour. She was... sleepwalking and gods only know what she did, but apparently her thirst for knowledge was ever there in her sleep.'' The chief shook her head, running a scan on the plasma itself, just in case.

Matt smiled. "I know the feeling." It was hot in here and he was sweating but didn't dare take off his suit to wipe his brow. "The plasma conduits are fried for about three feet in any direction. We're going to have to replace all of it."

Anders started crawling out of the space. "So how long you been in Starfleet, ma'am?"

''Nearly ten months.'' Kat waited til he was out of the tube before crawling out herself and going off to find a local major repair kit, clipping the scanner back to her belt and ordering her staff to clean the plasma up while she prepped for repairs.

''Well, I've been in Starfleet for about 4 years, I've been on the Endeavour 10 months.'' She ammended with a grin.
''How about you? Master cheif of a Starbase, dont you ever just want to go back to earth?''

Anders shook his head, smiling. "No, if I go home, it would be to Tyco City on Luna. And I just back from leave from there, although I do miss my brothers." He took some plasma conduits and went back to the tunnel. "Ready for some fun?" he asked with a smile.


Kat grinned. ''Damn straight.'' She crawled back up into the tube, clipping the kit to her belt and got to work stripping the old burned plating from the inside of the tube, converting the flow of plasma temporarily to a spare parrallell tube built for that purpose so they could work in peace.
''Its good this happened in port and not at warp 6 on a shakedwon cruise, at least.''
''What made you want to work on a starbase? Dont you want to travel on a starship or have you dont your sightseeing of the galexy?''

Anders began replacing the conduits, wondering what the woman had been doing. "Did she take a phaser to these?" he muttered to himself. "I like working with a lot of different classes of ships. Every week it's a new ship to work on, not just the same one. I get to play, so to speak." He smiled a little in his helmet. "It's sort of like having a new toy every week."

Kat laughed. ''I know what you mean.'' She agreed, cleaning the plasma off the conduits that didnt have to be replaced before disconnecting the fried conduits and replacing them with the new plating.
''Engineering work is my life, but its nice to change ships every once in a while- the engineering deck really is like an aladins cave. I spent a good hour rummaging around happily when we first saw the ship.''
She crawled out of the hatch and took the ruined conduits and tunnell plating and ferried them off to a recycling hatch, humming to herself as she did so. It was nice to have someone else around who wasnt a member of her staff for once.
''So hows it goin up there? Need any more replacments or are we okay?''

Matt replaced the last of the conduits and started coming out. "They look fine now. Fire it up and let's see." He got out of the tube and waited while she fired up the warp drive. If the plasma conduits were working properly now...everything should be cream cheese.

The warp drive hummed back to life perfectly, the replaced conduits ticking over flawlessly. Kat checked the readings on the console, grinned and held her hand rather childishly up for a high-five.
''Back to full functions.Thanks a lot.''

Matt returned the high-five and smiled again. "You're welcome. Anything else I can help you with, ma'am?" He seemed quite a pleasant man.

Kat smiled. ''Thanks, but I think that's it. Not a lot of work to be done on new ships I'm afraid. Though I promise I'll call you again if my warrant officer sleepwalks again.'' She added with a laugh.

Anders grinned. "I'll be here as long as you're in dock. Just ask." He departed the ship and headed to the Orion, which needed much more work. It would be a long week, but as Matt had said, he wouldn't trade it for the quadrant.

OFF:

Lt Kat T. Merrin
Chief Engineer
USS Endeavor

MCPO Matt Anders
Engineer
SB Typhon
Played by: Austin

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