Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineering Officer) in Engineering Group - Alpha Station
Snip

At the meet up point El found Fiona there already. Not surprising. The roster for Gamma shift showed a new name that El didn’t know. Another Ensign. Sasha Gagarin. Probably coming on tomorrow, but then that only left them five. And it had to be with Fiona. El flashed a smile at the ginger Chief Petty Officer. Fiona was all business and all regulations. Rick Walters was arriving, hauling his kit crate and another pack over his shoulder. That only left Dorian and Galen. How they got along El did not know; both Dorian and Galen took things rather informally. Idly she chewed a nail and tried not to feel judged by the ‘fighting Irishwoman’. She was pretty enough but had a temper. And right now she didn’t seem so happy.

“We’re not going to make it, Ensign.” Fiona said to El. Blunt. “The ship has too many systems for us to essentially decommission it in a shift.” El wasn’t sure if the tone held accusation that was meant for her or for Lt Green. “You know he will report us if we don’t get it done. Dereliction or something.”

El watched as Galen and Dorian came around the corner hauling their goods, the latter with his guitar across his back. Fiona was about to say more but El cut in. “We’ll do what we can.” Then, louder so all could hear her, El said, “We’ll go to 05:00 and I’ll dismiss you to the Sojourner. I’ll finish up. If Green has an issue then it’s all on me. And you’ll get a chance for a little sleep before we muster at 09:00.”

Fiona was about to protest but then figured it made sense but she still didn’t like it. “If we do it right,” she continued, her tone implying that was the only way of doing it, “it would take all of us engineers at least two shifts to do it, log it, check it and file it.”

Dorian said, “Fiona, wouldn’t some of the systems be shut down already by the station crew? I know the ship is older and nearing end of life and needing refit and more. Wouldn’t that save us time?”

“Every third system could be shut down but we still need to confirm it,” she said, her look to him. It was unsure what she thought of the crewman. On the one hand he found much of engineering effortless in knowledge but on the other hand his attitude was that of just ‘sailing’ through.

“Fiona’s right,” El said. “We can’t say we did something and if we missed a system we’re on the hook. I know we’re tired. Fiona, you take Galen and work at the impulse and power distribution systems. Rick, you and Dorian work through life support, secondary systems and navigation. Send me what you have done as you complete a system unit and I’ll log and file it. I’ll take navigation, computer network systems, warp and sensors. If you need a break, take one and make it short. Your cut off is 05:00 to have all you’ve done completed by then.”

With a nod they moved off to start. El shifted to an Engineering station and began working through the checklist for the warp systems and power relays. Normally they themselves would take three hours and it was soon past midnight. The Petty Officers had more time in than her and would do good. Dorian was bright if he kept his mind on the work. Galen drove Fiona nuts with his not being engaged, which was why he didn’t pair him with the fiery woman. But for now El needed to be on task. It was a race, and a sad one. El had not been on the ship for that long. It seemed like a shakedown for them all, though some had been there longer like Bekele and Tyler, the more senior non-comms. The chief had mustered out to another ship and another was coming. El was feeling a part of the ship and now she was leaving it for another. Was it better? New? More chance for her to spread her wings? Yes, but still an old home was hard to say farewell to, even if it was just an ancient tugboat, or the Bonnie. She had heard there was a whole other class of ship in the works which would bear that name, one even better than the one she was transferring to. Perhaps in time she would be on that ‘Bonnie’.

But for now … a race to shut this old ship down.

El, Eng

El looked at the corner of the small display that showed the time. It was 06:10. She felt as though she was in a tomb. As more and more systems had been shut down and power increasingly transferred to the umbilicals at the station the ship became bit by bit more silent. It could be her imagination, but El would swear that with each subsystem shut down that the ship that had carried her first into space and outside of her system was dying. And she was helping it along in a kind of technological euthanasia. She felt strange inside. Hollow.
An hour before she had sent the others off to get some rest and she was working quickly to do as much as she could. At this point it would be noon before she was done, at the earliest. Her eyes darted from the checklist to the switches and dials and display commands, initiating a half dozen at a time. She could do better, she knew, but because of the time change and being up a full day anyway in China, El was pushing 36 hours awake. She was young, and adrenaline and annoyance was keeping her going, as was a determination to finish.
“Need a little help?” came a voice from the entry to engineering. In all the quiet El should have heard their approach but she’d missed it and jumped, startled. Wheeling about she focused her eyes in the dimness.
“Bekele? Rosa?” she said. That was one odd pairing.
“We thought you might like a hand. Us old guys don’t sleep as much as we used to,” Bekele said.
“And ticked off women don’t either,” Rosa added. Now that El saw her the fiery Spaniard did look unhappy. “I’m not about to give Green anything to be smug about.”
“That is Lt Green, crewman,” Bekele, a Senior Chief Petty Officer, said in a soft rebuke. “We respect the commission even if we don’t like the person. Lt Green is hard to like when he is on duty but I believe he means well. It isn’t very fair to command something done in a night which would take a full day. Put it down to a test of patience.”
“Lt Green means well when it will look good for Lt Green,” Rosa said, undaunted, glancing at Bekele. “But, El, despite our differences in opinion and attitude, we want to help you finish up.” Bekele nodded, the dim lights reflecting off his bald head.
El had a wash of emotion pass through her. Yes, a sense of pride too that had her wanting to, perhaps, in self-pity, to work through this herself. But that drained away behind an unbeckoned yawn. “Thank you,” she said quietly, then smiled. “But you two will be off in time to make it back for the 9am muster finished or not. That is my .. ensignly order, if that means anything at 6am.”
“That is fair, Ensign,” Bekele said. “Put us to work. We’re burning moonlight here, and I’m Spanish, and we like the moon,” Rosa added.
El took a moment to chew a nail. “Okay, I’ve not yet tackled the Science Lab or Sickbay on C deck. If you both can do that inside a couple of hours that will go a long way.”
Bekele nodded. “We’re on it, Ensign.” “Yeah, we’ll kick some sickbay culo,” Rosa said.
“Is that one of the words you are supposed to teach me?” El asked. Rosa only gave a wink before turning to head out with Bekele. El took a moment to close her eyes and do a breathing exercise. Then, as she opened her eyes, she went back to it.
El, Eng

Bonaventure.
08:40 hrs. El closed out the final checklist and protocols. Bekele and Rosa’s help ensured that she would not be horribly late. The last switches wherein she brought the power for the Bonaventure’s lighting to emergency power settings and defaulted the ship systems to ‘need only’ were loud. Was it her imagination that it sounded hollow? Echoing? It wasn’t that any equipment was removed to make the ship any less full. It reminded her of leaving the Academy dorm and how hollow her voice sounded there, but then she was leaving for a new adventure here on the Bonaventure. It was exciting and she only had a moment of pause leaving her dorm. Was it that she thought she would have been there longer and made an essential career out of it? Her eyes scanned the power readouts. EP settings right down the middle. She flicked the very last switch. All about her the lighting dimmed. While it was her imagination, she felt a chill.
El was excited coming to this ship, old as the Bonaventure was. The Sojourner was a new class and brand new, right out of the wrapping. And El knew nothing about it. Yet. Had Lt Green known and passed that information exclusively to his favorites to read up on it? El moved from engineering to get to the docking gantry to collect her bag. She left the tablet she had used for the decommissioning at a small table that had been set up to log people in and out of the ship and signed herself out. “Farewell old friend,” she said to the empty ship. Hefting her sea bag, El departed and entered the corridors of Alpha Station. Now she needed to find her way to Beta Station where the Sojourner was.
By 08:55 hrs El had worked her way to the cramped shuttle bay. Alpha Station was added to more so than planned and the shuttle bay was an add on. As such, by this time it was dated, cramped and nothing happened quickly. Being morning there was a queue of shuttles waiting to land and others waiting to depart and others offloading materials.
She found the officer of the day and three crewmen pointing to a display board of arrivals and departures and scheduled times for each and how there were already a half dozen flagged in red for being late. “Any of those going to Beta? To the Sojourner?” she asked when there was a break.
The OD, a short, mainly bald man whose remaining hair was clinging to the sides of his head in two thin strips looked at El and her bag. “You’ve not filed a flight request I take it, ah, Ensign?” The pause, and a slight shake of her head, was his answer. “Not one for protocol, are you?”
El stiffened. “I’m the last of a shift decommissioning the Bonaventure, Lt. The order was given last night and, um, I guess they took the shuttle back.” She suddenly felt left behind.
“I’m sorry, Ensign. Nothing until closer to 11:00. We’re backlogged here. If you like you can wait in the officer’s lounge and we can notify you when it is ready.” He checked his tablet. “The .. Roget. Carrying foodstuffs. It’s just unloading some now but will be heading out. Should be room.”
“Lt,” came the voice of one of the crewmen. “An SPO by the name of Seifu shuttled across not long ago for one of the Luna’s. He reserved a one-man worker bee for a Serinde. Would that be you?” El’s face shot over, hope partially restored. “Yes,” she said. Bekele. He came through for her. Not like Green did anything like that.
“You’re in luck, then,” the OD said, checking the tablet. “It’s berthed port side. But we need it back.” El shifted her bag. It was feeling heavier. “I’ll arrange for it to get sent back right away.” In the back of her mind El knew that the ‘meeting’ was just starting over on the Sojourner.

Sojourner
09:00 hrs. Lt jg Green entered the Lounge on G Deck and scanned the faces of the Engineers there. He did a quick count. Serinde wasn’t there and there were new faces. He would put a report in on her later. The hum of conversation had ceased at his entry as they stood and came to attention. “At ease,” he said, his baritone voice not quite that of a drill sergeant, but at that moment it was close. “I hope you all managed to get some rest. It will be a busy day for us. For those who are new, I’m Lt Green. Now, about today. Alpha and Beta shifts will be doing double shifts and Gamma, you will be on standby. I hear we will be setting out today. Because of that we will need all stations attended.”
“We will also be meeting our Chief Engineer sometime today,” he continued.
“Who is it, Lt Green?” The voice was that of Emerson Fawkes, Petty Officer.
“I don’t know yet,” Green said. “The Chief must be a late addition as he or she is not yet on the roster. In the meantime all of us have to get up to speed on the operation of this ship. That means we tour it. Some of us have some knowledge on the Luna and did a quick orientation last night so we will lead the tours. We will split up by shifts. Warrant Officer Tyler Jackson will take Alpha Shift. I’ll take Beta. Chief Petty Officer Fiona will take Gamma shift. You there .. Ensign ..” He pointed to a gangly looking Ensign who was new to him.
“Gagarin, Lt, Sasha Gagarin.” His accent was distinctly Russian, and he shot up to attention like an eager puppy.
“Gagarin. I like the name. You will be the Gamma shift lead but Fiona will drive the tour. Be a sponge today Ensign.” Sasha grinned.

Alpha Station
09:15 hrs. She and her sea bag vied for room in the cramped worker bee that was made for a person and their lunchbox. Wrestling the straps around her and snapping them in place she fired up the unit. It was small and smelled like someone previously had enjoyed limburger cheese, or their old socks were still hiding somewhere beneath her. There was a charm bracelet like thing dangling from an overhead switch near the viewscreen. To one side was a small photo advertisement of a scantily clad dancer. The edges were curling but she could still see a name under it. Honey. El made a face. Next to the door of the Worker Bee was stencilled its designation. Worker had been painted over with a scrawled ‘Honey’. The connection was not lost to El. She fired it up. It rumbled and shook distressingly. A warning light for a port thruster beeped. El silenced it and initiated a quick thruster diagnostic while she familiarized herself with the controls. Was she an able pilot? The only real space time she had with anything was in flight testing shuttles they had repaired at the Academy. The air circulator hissed overhead. The rumbling did not settle. Still, she was thankful for Bekele helping her. It took forever for the diagnostic to return a result. Port thrusters were online but was overdue for servicing. It should get here to Beta.
[o] Worker Bee C08538 ready to detach. Destination Beta station. [c]
[o] Worker Bee C08538. Stand by. You have traffic in your area. Will advise when it is clear. [c] Another delay. El took a deep breath then, in a fit of frustration elbowed her sea bag that was pushing her to one side. A sleek shuttle with an escort of two Atmo-Ace Fighters passed by followed by a small swarm of Worker Bees. At last there was a reply. [o] You are cleared to detach. [c]
El activated the thrusters. Both her hands were in the control gloves which allowed her to guide the small craft and work its various ‘worker’ functions. She was on her way. Once she cleared the station, she tried to connect to the Sojourner but was locked out. She tried to access the plans for it. It flashed back as ‘classified’ and that the was not authorized. El blew a strand of hair away from her face. Evidently, she was not recognized yet as she had not been on board and registered by the computer. Slowly she plodded toward Beta Station and sent in an early request for docking in advance.
El, Eng