Engineer on the Bridge

Posted on Sat Dec 31st, 2016 @ 1:25pm by Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn & Captain Daniel Westphalen & Lieutenant Azusa Nakano

758 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Rebuilding

The bridge of the Aurora was empty. With the ship still sitting in its drydock, there wasn't many of the crew aboard. However the viewscreen currently showed several readings and graphics about the ships primary systems.

Someone however was currently sitting over at the small Engineering console, tapping away.
"Come on, don't give me that!" she said to herself as her fingers ran over the console. She let out a sigh as she pulled herself out of the chair, crossed the bridge and trotted over to the Operations console.
"Gee, why did they leave it all in such a mess!" she said outloud.

"Your predecessor was fond of solutions that solved the immediate problem, but not the cause," the confident baritone of the captain came from the area of the door to the Ready Room. "I take it you're our new chief?"

Daniel stood leaning on the arch just inside the bridge from the Ready Room, looking over the readouts on the viewscreen as they scrolled by.

"Yes sir" Azusa said as she rose to her feet. "Lieutenant Azusa Nakano" she greeted with a slight bow. "I've been here for a few days, just tidying up really" she explained.

"Captain Daniel Westphalen," he said with a smile. "I've been doing something similar, though mostly in the labs."

He stepped closer to the console she had been sitting at. "How's the Aurora doing?"

"Well..." Azusa said with a sigh. "The refit is done. However getting all the new things to work with some of the older things... Its like trying to get the Klingons to stay sober at a bar before a battle..." she explained with a nervous smile.

"How does that strike you?" He asked, his voice curious, an eyebrow raised. "A worthy challenge, a frustrating slog, somewhere in between?"

"To be fair. Its kind of annoying. I get one thing working, then something else has a problem. Its like the ship has gremlins" Azusa explained. She looked over at the viewscreen. "It seems to mainly be secondary systems however, primary systems are all working fine"

"Not gremlins, exactly, but with the upgrade to the primary systems you have to do a little finessing to get some of the older systems to play nice," a woman in Command red said from the back of the bridge. She'd stepped off the turbolift in the middle of the conversation. "Amber Quinn," she said to the young Engineer. "I got here earlier today."

"Not to mention the former Chief of Science aboard making several requests to streamline systems access to maximize lab, sensor, and survey team efforts," Daniel said with a hint of amusement. "They were quite the taskmaster."

"Well, she does have her priorities," Amber teased. "You'll thank her for it the next time you need that type of coordination." She grinned at both Daniel and the new Engineer. "I hear she has a new list of requests pending approval."

"I would expect no less," Daniel replied instantly.

Amber grinned at Daniel's comment. "Is there anything we can do to help you, Lieutenant?"

Daniel nodded. "Ultimately, your work makes all the rest possible. I'm sure you're aware that even with your engineering crew, we're all going to be rolling up our sleeves here and there. Commander Quinn's a solid hand with a spanner, and I've had plenty of experience calibrating the sensor arrays aboard."

"Well, most of the Engineering staff hasn't reported in yet" Azusa explained with a weak smile. "But its mainly the secondary systems giving me trouble. I've given up on the sensor arrays until a science officer came aboard, but if you could help that would be useful" she explained.

"We were both one of those at one point," Daniel smiled toward Amber. "Dealers' choice on who you'd like to assist."

"Whoever" Azusa replied. "If you can find out why they won't calibrate, that would be great"

"I'll take this one," Amber said, smiling at the other two. "That'll leave the Captain free to deal with the rest of the ship. Besides, it'll give me a chance to get back into the swing of things."

"Excellent," Daniel nodded. "Then I'll leave you two to it. If you need anything further, I'll be in my ready room." With the situation seemingly resolved, Daniel stepped away from the conversation and moved for the doors to his ready room.

Amber nodded. "Show me where you want to begin," she said, smiling at Azusa.


____
OFF

Lieutenant Azusa Nakano
Chief Engineer

Captain Daniel Westphalen
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn
Executive Officer

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