Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineering Officer) in Engineering - El Finally is Aboard
El lumbered through the corridors of the new station. They were wider, cleaner, though still had a mottled maintenance tunnel look to them. The air was fresher. That was good because El was sure that whatever stunk in the Honey Bee was still clinging to her. She followed the guides and at last came to the docking hatch to the Sojourner. She was now quite late. Her previous attempts at linking to the ship had resulted in her comms being locked out. At least she could still talk to flight control for docking through the Bee’s comms. Coming up to the docking port, El was stopped at the hatch by station security and asked for her credentials. She fished them out and presented them.

“I confirm that your name is on the roster, Ensign, but you are flagged by the computer for security violations. I’ll have to call my super to clear you.” El’s fist balled and she let out a breath, imagining her sea bag slamming into the man followed by her running into the ship and claiming sanctuary. She was tired and getting impatient.
“Look, I’m late com..”, she began, but was cut off.
“Your problem, Ensign. Mine is protocols. And you need to follow them, or your leader will be fishing you out of the brig.”
El sighed and shifted the bag to the deck. She couldn’t wait to get to her quarters. Was Liz still her bunk mate? She supposed she’d find out soon enough. Where was this ‘super’ coming from? Alaska? It felt like forever, but at last a Petty Officer came along. She looked as annoyed as El felt. The PO was reading something. “You were trying to access classified documents. Once is an error. Eight times is … not.” Her eyes flickered to El, accusing.
“I thought I might be able to get a little familiar with the ship before boarding. You know, engineer, supposed to know how to make big machine run.”
“Classified documents cannot be accessed by unregistered – which means unauthorized - personnel. That’s standard.” El frowned. Vaguely she recalled that from the Military Academy, though she simply had not run into that before. Bonaventure files had been sent to her ahead of time. Swallowing the statement that she was thinking of, she apologized. The PO frowned and held her gaze. “I have every right to hold you here until your superior comes to collect you. But as it is, with all respect, Ensign, you are ripe and I would rather you not hang about here any longer than you need to.” El flushed as the PO tapped on her tablet. “I’ll let you go. This has been sent to your super with a recommendation for a review course on basic security. Happy reading.”

El entered a new world – a shiny brand new out of the package ship. B Deck. She needed to find the lift going down. On the way she passed a bulkhead which had Transporter Room stencilled on it. Curious she poked her head in. It looked benign. A raised platform. A console in front of it. Didn’t look scary. Then she noticed it – a sign above the raised platform. It was evidently something someone put there as a joke. She hoped. It read:

ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE

El let out a soft giggle then figured that she had best get gone else Lt Green would think she put it up there and pin the blame on her for it. Eventually she found her cabin while trying to avoid the gaze of the few others she passed and trying not to think about how late she was. Dropping her sea bag without even looking about the small room or even noticing that it was a single rather than a bunk, she then navigated to the lounge where the meeting was supposed to be held. On the way, however, more joy was to be found. She found her comms had been unlocked and there were several messages from Lt Green, basically saying she was late, that she was going on report, that there was no excuse for forgetting protocols, that she was really late, and, lastly, that questions will be asked about her not responding to messages. Angrily she shoved it into a pocket of her coveralls that were, by now, dusty, rumpled and, as the Petty Officer so kindly observed, ripe. At last she stormed into the lounge. It was empty but for two people sitting at a table near a window who turned to stare at this horror charging in like a banshee. Did she really look that bad? “I hate this ship,” she said under her breath.

El, Eng

A sixth sense warned her that doom was approaching. A moment later it arrived. “Serinde.” The baritone voice confirmed it. She turned and looked up. In another world and another time the Lt would be a fine ghost haunting derelict wooden trawlers. “I think that we can pass on any statements to the effect that you are late. A Petty Officer at the station messaged me that you had come aboard. El sighed. Bad news travels faster than warp. He gestured to a table. “Sit.”

El moved and carefully sat down. She likened the feeling to being a child and called into the principal’s office. It was an experience she had not known. Until now. Green took the chair opposite. It creaked under his weight. She stared at the tabletop. It was so clean. Shiny. Nothing in her life had been that clean. For what seemed a long time nothing was said. “You look horrible.” The tone surprised her, and she jerked her head up to look at him. “You want a coffee? Something to eat? When was the last time you ate?”

She had to think. It was with her sister Meiling. “Yesterday.” So much had happened. The visit with Meiling. Her night vigil then shuttle ride up to the station, then the work on the Bonaventure, then the turtle race here. She had gone with little before; El had truly lost track of the time.

Green blew out a breath. Was that in annoyance or surprise? In a moment he was up leaving El to rub her finger at an imaginary spot on the table. “Here,” he said. “Not much out yet and we’re set to launch in about 3 hours.” He set down a plate with a berry Danish and carton of juice. Her stomach growled at the sight of it. She covered it with a softly spoken thank you. Was it that this was all that was available or had Green remembered she was a vegetarian? “First. Good work on completing the shutdown on the Bonnie. It looks good on you and on us. Our new Chief is Lt Kelleher.” She shook her head imperceptibly before drinking some juice. It was apple. It was good. She greedily took another drink. “I don’t know him either,” he continued. “But he comes from R&D and has close knowledge about the tech in the Sojourner. You’ll learn a lot from him. There’s a few new faces in our crew. Fresh faced Ensign named Gagarin. He says he is related to the first Russian astronaut way back.”

He paused. “You missed the tour and the introduction of the new Chief.” The two crew passed them on the way out. El blushed as she overheard one whispering ‘What is that smell?’ “Look, you finished the task and that is good. As an officer you need to work your people right and gauge the scale of the task. Fiona reported that you let them go early to rest for the meeting. A nice sentiment but this isn’t the Girl Guides. It’s the Navy. Challenge your people. Let them rise to the task. Fiona thought that there was a chance that it could have been done in time. Maybe. Maybe not but you need to give them that chance. You need to give yourself that chance. I’ve watched you, Ensign. You’ve never run away from work. You have a mind that runs circles around most of the others here when it comes to math and warp theory. But you have to think like an officer. You understand?”

El picked a piece from the Danish. Perhaps she had misjudged, thinking more on them not getting into trouble than on the task. Bad thinking El. “I think so, Lt.”

“Good. Now I have to put you on report. You missed the meeting. You missed the orientation. You broke security protocols. You were off communications link while planetside. The Chief might speak into those. We are launching inside of 3 hours. It is all hands on deck until after the launch.”

El listened to the shopping list of her infractions. She was guilty of them all and had frankly expected being put on report. She tried to do well but it all went wrong. But she had reasons for leaving her Comms and being off grid but was not going to share them. Not to Green. She had a moment of fright that she was going to be grounded. Left behind. ‘Oh, where has your training gone, girl?!’ She thought to herself. She should be better than that. But was she? Green was speaking again.

“Until you are cleared on the new engines, I can’t let you near them. You need to learn the ropes. And you have to do that remedial security course. That is out of my control. So, I’m recommending some things to the Chief. Unless he says otherwise for the time being you will be in the machine shop. All the material is there but it’s mostly crated and not organized. That’s for you to do. If you need help with lifting, get it. As well, unless otherwise stipulated, you’re on Service Sup for a month. That will give you lots of opportunity to get around the ship. Everything’s new so there shouldn’t be much to fix or many call outs. The Chief wants everyone to their stations by 10:30 hrs. That’s minutes from now. Eat. Pull yourself together and report to the machine shop by 11:15 hrs. Questions?”

El was relieved. She was still on board. Safe. She shook her head. Her ponytail must have had a blow out as she felt stray strands of hair brushing her face and ears. She must look a fright. She totally smelled like one. “Finish your Danish. Lunch starts to be served in a half hour. Make sure you eat.” He emphasized that. “And tidy yourself up and report to the machine shop.” She nodded even as Green was standing. As she carefully dissected the Danish, El reviewed the encounter. Service Sup. Machine Shop. It could have been worse. Green sounded … reasonable. All but for the engines part. That was punishment. El, girl, you are working yourself up again. She stopped, closed her eyes, and began a simple breathing exercise. She was what, 6, when she had first learned how to do this? Gradually she felt the tension drain, but in its wake came the exhaustion. She was pushing 40 hours now of being awake. Only a few more to go, El, she told herself. She had let herself get rattled. Almost all of her leave had been taken up with trying to find Meiling. And then barely making it to the muster. If it had been a day later the ship would have launched without her on it. Karma. She swore softly in Cantonese. She still hated the ship, but maybe, maybe not as much as earlier.

El, Eng, slowly catching up ..