Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Engineering - Ensign Gil Reporting For Duty

Posted by Ensign Gil (Engineer) in Engineering - Ensign Gil Reporting For Duty

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Engineering - Ensign Gil Reporting For Duty
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Gil felt somewhat stiff in the Starfleet uniform as he stood in the turbolift. Ever since he joined Starfleet Academy the uniforms were a little too constricting for his liking. Having grown up wearing pilfered and hand-made clothes he had been able to adjust them to fit him perfectly, and while there was something to say for these replicated uniforms… despite the tailor’s insistence that they fit him to a T, it felt too tight. Like he couldn’t run around comfortably in it. It was something Gil had learned to tolerate, after all, he was finally on a starship again. That was all he cared about.

That and reporting to engineering for his first assignment. Having been briefed about the ship’s role in the “Anomaly Recovery Unit” Gil had jumped at the chance to join given the potential to expand his understanding of Starfleet technology, of which he was intrigued to see how they went about containing these anomalies. It was a far cry from using force fields to capture rhino-boars on the planet he’d been dumped on when he was a slave, but he was confident that there was some overlap.

At least he hoped that was the case.

Finding his way to Containment he sought out his CO and saluted. “Ensign Gil. I’m ah… I’m an engineer. The new engineer. Reporting for duty.”

OOC: Sorry again for the delay, Tom, and great first post!

IC: The Leviathan’s captain turned to greet the speaker and presented the newcomer with a somewhat surprising sight. His usually clean(ish) tunic was currently coated from shoulder to waist in a fluorescent green sludge, his long silver-kissed hair and beard equally doused in the unidentified substance. As he opened his mouth to speak, a large globule of the goo dripped from his beard and landed on the toe-cap of his left boot, where it made a slight hiss before sliding off and onto the floor.

“Ah, my apologies. You have arrived at a…” Cobb shrugged at the fight for appropriate wording, “…rather interesting time. I have just participated in my first physical collection of fluid samples and…well, it appears as if the anomaly in question did not take kindly to my intrusion into its personal space.”

Stripping off the tunic to reveal a physique far more muscular than might be expected for one of his age, Zachariah wiped his hands and face with the clean underside, before dropping the entire garment to the floor, from where it was quickly retrieved by a novel researcher and stuffed into a container marked “biohazard”.

“Come,” the captain attempted to lead Gil out of the containment area with a guiding hand on the man’s shoulder. “Let us walk to my ready room where I can clean up a little before checking you in. What did you say your name was again? Ensign Gil?”

As the pair reached the reinforced doorway that separated containment from the rest of the ship, the captain lifted his hand from Gil’s shoulder and inhaled slightly when he saw the glowing handprint left behind. At their back, Security officer Washburne, who had accompanied Gil onto the containment deck, erupted in amused laughter, before clearing her throat and quickly adding, “Let me get the door, Captain. It will be less for us to clean up later.”

Once out into the main corridor, Cobb steered the engineer towards the nearest turbolift, asking as he did so, “So what brings you to the Leviathan, Mr Gil? Do you have a particular interest in anomalies?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Gil’s eyes widened at the sight of the captain and the numerous substances oozing from him. He took it in stride, however and simply nodded as Cobb led them to his ready room. At his question Gil nodded. “Yes, just Gil. I never had a last name. It’s a pleasure to be aboard, captain.” Then he heard the captain hiss and turned in time to see the security officer laughing, and was quick to put two and two together.

He made a mental note to head down to decontamination after talking with the captain.

Gil shrugged at the captain’s second question. “Not really. I’m more interested in the mechanical aspects that deal with containing them. Ever since I was a kid I had a talent for machines. It came with surviving on a world full of junk. To be perfectly honest, it was either engineering or xenolinguistics. I’m very adept at learning new languages quickly. Again, something I picked up in my youth. I didn’t have a fancy universal translator to help me understand the numerous tongues of the galaxy.” He shrugged. “I originally applied to the USS Endeavor as a translator, but they went with a betazoid instead.” He shrugged again. “I didn’t even hear about the Leviathan until a friend recommended me the posting.”

• Ensign Gil

“A friend, eh?” the captain replied, wondering what manner of friend made recommendations for highly classified vessels on highly dangerous missions. “Someone on my crew?”

As the pair continued to traverse the corridors of the Leviathan, Gil would notice several officers staring in horror at the state of their captain, before darting as quickly as was possible out of the debris path. But eventually the pair reached the ready room and Zachariah was quick to usher the engineer inside.

“Please, have a seat and I will be with you in a few moments.”

Cobb disappeared into a side room, leaving Gil all alone in the main ready room. The layout and furniture were typical for ships of the line - a single desk and terminal, a larger conference table with six chairs, a couch running the full length of the left wall, above which rose the observation window. And on the right wall, the only item that marked these surroundings as belonging to Zachariah Cobb - a tall and well-stocked antique drinks cabinet.

Appearing anew a few moments later, it was a cleaner and more composed captain who now moved to this cabinet and filled a pair of tumblers with whiskey. Handing one to the engineer, Cobb sipped at his own as he settled into his chair, his eyes catching the glowing green handprint on the ensign’s shoulder and producing a sharp moan of alarm.
“Ah. I…I can arrange for my yeoman to bring a fresh tunic,” he offered, before adding with increasing composure, “although in truth you learn not to value your uniform so highly on a ship such as this one.”

Reclining back in his seat, Zachariah studied the young man as he sipped at his own whiskey. “I was an engineer myself before I became a captain,” he remarked. “So I can appreciate an interest in machines and their workings. And an interest in containment procedures will be well met. It is a key responsibility for the engineering team that they provide suitable containment units to prevent any kind of breach.”

“So,” he continued, his expression growing more serious, “have you ever seen an anomaly before now, lad? Or have they, until today, existed only in campfire stories?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

“I say friend, but really I was more approached by a Starfleet agent who found my expertise in engineering to be of interest.” Gil shrugged as he followed the Captain into his ready room. He took a seat and waited for the captain who eventually returned, much to Gil’s relief, in a new uniform. And at Cobb’s noting of the glowing stain on his uniform Gil simply shrugged. “I’ve had worse.” And indeed he had, growing up on a junk planet you got used to stained clothes. However the glowing was what perturbed him so he was happy to accept Cobb’s offer for a new tunic. However when Gil sniffed the glass of whiskey Cobb had given to him he wrinkled his nose and opted to just cradle the glass in his hand and hope Cobb wouldn’t notice he wasn’t going to drink from it.

Gil shrugged at the captain’s question. “I never really knew about anomalies. Never heard of them until I was offered the position here. However I’ve been reading up on containment procedures and have already begun to think of ways that I could help improve them. I can link you a file of my findings whenever you want me to.” Then he frowned. “My question is… what do we plan to do with these anomalies? I mean in the long term?”
- Ensign Gil