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Pre sim-Reporting to Chief Engineer

Posted Jan. 18, 2019, 7:39 p.m. by Ensign Michael "Mike" Thompson (Engineer) (Katy Darrah)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Mark Pierce (Chief Engineer) in Pre sim-Reporting to Chief Engineer

Posted by Ensign Michael “Mike” Thompson (Engineer) in Pre sim-Reporting to Chief Engineer

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Mark Pierce (Chief Engineer) in Pre sim-Reporting to Chief Engineer
Posted by… suppressed (21) by the Post Ghost! 👻
I’ve have a very long day. And its not even noon Mike thought, dragging himself to Main Engineering. As soon as he entered the space, he felt rejuvenated, being right where it all mattered. This was where he was meant to be, Engineering was his focus, and he loved it, he began with building them, but also loved helping to fix them if they got damaged, that’s why he was here.

After a few moments taking it all in, and admiring it, he pulled himself out of his thoughts and headed directly to a man he noticed as the man he remembered as the Chief Engineer. “Lieutenant Pierce?”

Michael “Mike” Thompson

“Yes?” Mark asked, turning to see who was speaking to him. An Ensign he didn’t recognise. He was in the gold uniform of an engineer though. “Ah. Ensign Thompson. I got your transfer orders the other day. Come with me, we’ll talk in my office.” He walked towards an open door.

Inside the tiny cube that passed for the CE’s office, Mark walked over to a replicator. “Coffee, black.” A beverage appeared in front of him. He claimed his and then turned to the new crew member. “Anything from the replicator before we get started?”

-Lt(j.g.) Mark Pierce, CE

“Same thing would be nice.” Mike replied, walking into the office behind Mark. He realized the office was little more than a large storage closet, and briefly wondered if Starfleet forgot to put it in and actually re-purposed a closet.

Michael “Mike” Thompson

Mark placed the coffees on either side of his desk and sat down. “Have a seat. As you can tell, we’re a small ship with a small engineering compartment. Make no mistake however, we are an essential service. The doctors get all the press, but it’s our job to keep this place running in perfect order. If you’re not familiar with McCoy class specs, I suggest you change that. Small compartment, small team. Know your craft inside and out. You’ll probably be working closest with myself and Lt Easter. If you need help, find one of us. I know that’s a lot of information. If you have any questions, now’s the time.”

-Lt(j.g.) Mark Pierce, CE

Mike took a seat and silently took in all the information. “I’m familiar with the specs. At least enough to fix it if it breaks.” He took a sip of his coffee, thinking, “Where do you want me to start?” He was eager to get going, ready to prove himself.

Michael “Mike” Thompson

Mark smiled. “There’s a problem with holodeck 1 Doctor Marshall is sending down a complaint an hour about. Just hope you never have to deal with him. We’ll go see about that in a few minutes. I have a couple questions first. You joined Starfleet a little later than most. Any prior experience I should know about?”

“Also, you did well at the Academy, you seem eager. Do you have a specialty? Anything you want to do?”

-Lt(j.g.) Mark Pierce, CE

“My father, two of my brothers, and one of my sisters are all shipbuilders. I worked with them for a few years, but it got stale. I did learn how to easily diagnose a problem, even without traditional equipment.” Mike said, nodding. “As for my specialty, nothing in particular, though I am quite fond of more physical repairs, stuff like what I used to do.”

Michael “Mike” Thompson

Mark nodded. “I like it. Ready for anything. And on the fly. Speaking of on the fly, you said you wanted to get to work?” He tossed Mike a tricorder. “Follow me.” He stood up and exited his office, heading for the turbolift.

Lt(j.g.) Mark Pierce, CE

Mike deftly caught the tricorder and followed Mark to the turbolift, easily keeping up. “This Doctor Marshall, he doesn’t sound like a patient man.”

Michael “Mike” Thompson

“He’s a surgeon. So, naturally, he’s a jackass.” He stepped into the turbolift with his colleague. “Deck 6. The team and I have had encounters with him before. Though I’m sure he’d be hard pressed to remember any of our names. We’re just grease monkeys.”

As the turbolift came to a halt and the doors opened, they saw a doctor leaned up against the wall in the distance, directly in front of the holodeck.

-Lt(j.g.) Mark Pierce, CE

Drake turned his head, a grim expression on his face. He stalked over to the engineers. “I booked 4 hours of simulation time. I have lost 2 of those hours to your inability to drag yourselves up here. It’s a simple problem. Had I the tools, I would’ve fixed it myself. Get to it.” He pointed to the holodeck doors.

-Dr Drake Marshall

Mike couldn’t resist, “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know that teal was Engineering. Might I ask where you got your experience and why you aren’t using it for Engineering rather than Medical?”

Michael “Mike” Thompson

“I wouldn’t stoop so low. Besides, as a surgeon, I actually help people when they need it.” Drake stalked over to the holodeck. “It’s loading the wrong program. Fix. Now.”

-Dr Drake Marshall

Michael chuckled, “I’m the one that actually helps you do that job of helping people. One of these days a system’s gonna fail and you’re gonna find out that the only one who knows how to fix it doesn’t want to. Keep treating engineers like we are nothing, and you aren’t gonna like what happens. And trust me, do what you will about on the record complaints. Unlike a lot of people, I actually have a pretty good job as a shipbuilder I can fall back on.”

“Yes. I come from a family of shipbuilders. So yes, there are several systems on this ship, in many places, including sickbay, that may end up damaged, that only 4 people in the fleet can fix, and three of those are commander rank or higher. I don’t care if you try to ruin my career, I don’t really need it.” Michael said, pulling out his tricorder. “And honestly, if I wasn’t with my department chief, I’d refuse to help you until you apologized and reissued your request politely.”

Drake rolled his eyes. “I would be scared if I hadn’t performed surgery in a mineshaft right after a collapse. I lost a patient because your department couldn’t build an evac elevator fast enough. You couldn’t transport out. The minerals they were mining messed with locking onto a signal.”

“A piece of advice Ensign. If you’re going to try and intimidate someone, make sure they’re not an emergency specialist surgeon.” He turned and started to walk towards the holodeck. “Oh. And you don’t want to stop me from working. Someday, when you blow yourself up, you’re going to need a good surgeon.”

-Dr Drake Marshall

“I know one. She’s polite to people.” Mike said, looking at Drake, getting ready to say and do something that could potentially end his career. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you expect us to be able to build things immediately. I’m not a Q, I don’t recall any of us being that way. We can’t build things instantly! Next time you want something fixed, don’t tell the person fixing it that they or their department is responsible for deaths because they can’t work miracles!”

Mike turned and started to walk off back the way they came.

Michael “Mike” Thompson

“Thompson! Turn and report immediately!” Mark’s former Marine came out.

“Doctor Marshall’s behaviour may be completely unbecoming of a Starfleet officer, but that does not give you permission to not perform your duties to the fullest of your abilities. I don’t know what freedoms your family allowed you as a shipbuilder, but here you answer to officers. I’m not going to file a disciplinary report, because he is a pompous ass who egged you on. Be aware in the future of your responsibility to the maintenance of this ship. He is not the only one who uses that holodeck. Understood?”

“Doctor Marshall. I understand that surgeons are a vital service. But when you request engineering help, you would do your best not to alienate the Chief.”

-Lt(j.g.) Mark Pierce, CE

Mike’s jaw clenched as he took the verbal dressing down, “yes sir, understood.” He said simply, silently glad this wasn’t going to go on his record.”

Michael “Mike” Thompson

“It’s projecting the wrong program. I’m supposed to be a spinal surgery, instead I’m getting a beach on Risa.” Drake said, disengaging from both of them.

-Dr Drake Marshall

“We’ll test it out and have it fixed in plenty of time for your next simulation.” Mark nodded towards the door and stepped inside. “Load program Pierce 1.” The computer chimed confirmation. A battle simulation appeared. “End program.” The holodeck emptied. Mark turned to his new officer. “That’s not my program. So it’s not just a glitch with the surgery, it’s consistently loading the wrong program. My guess is that it’s some part of the interface between the main computer and the holodeck that’s miscommunicating. Some isolinear chips out of place. You’ve probably built a few holodecks. Thoughts?”

-Lt(j.g.) Mark Pierce, CE

“Isolinear chips don’t get out of place by themselves.” Mike said, nodding, “though it’s a possibility that they were initially misplaced and just now started to fail.” Mike tapped his tricorder on his chin, muttering briefly. “It’s puzzling, holodecks aren’t built to load the wrong programs, we’re supposed to make sure they can withstand lots of use. Hypothetical question, could the memory be full?”

Michael “Mike” Thompson

“That’d take a hell of a lot of data. I don’t think a crew this size could generate that much. We do have a rebellious teenager. So my money’s still on the chips. Either incompetence at a starbase or a prank from the Captain’s little brother. Who knows a very twitchy surgeon books a lot of time here. What would it take to just straight confuse the computer so it can’t identify programs?”

-Lt(j.g.) Mark Pierce, CE

“Chips. It’s definitely the chips.” Mike muttered, “I wish unqualified people would not touch those.”

Michael “Mike” Thompson

Mark found a panel and removed it from the wall, revealing a set of isolinear chips. Just to look at them, there was no rhyme or reason to the way they were assembled. “I think… we’ve found the problem.”

-Lt(j.g.) Mark Pierce, CE

Mike nodded. “That’ll do it.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose, “does anything else have chips here? Because I don’t want to pull these out to fix them if I’m going to break the rest of the ship.” He chuckled, “that is the opposite of what I want to happen.”

Michael “Mike” Thompson


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