Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Tigress (Chief Engineer) in XO’s Office

Posted by Commander Mason Black (Executive Officer) in XO’s Office

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Tigress (Chief Engineer) in XO’s Office
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Tigress spent the entire shuttle ride working on a little project of hers a Robotic cat with an AI personality. She had built the little thing several it was about the size of a fifteen-pound house cat. Despite the mechanical components working properly, she was struggling with the programming. So there she sat in one of the passengers east of the shuttle hunched over working from a data pad on the programming for the cat. Quinn the cat currently lay in a crumpled heap in front of her. He was powered off for now.

“ Alright, let’s try this again. You dont know it yet Quinn but you’re going to help a lot of people,” she said as she sent the new program and powered the cat on. It sat up and looked around its movements were very ruff but it was moving. “ Hi, im Quinn? Who are you?” it asked the voice sounded like that of those super old robot toys. She shook her head some of the throws had to be mechanical issues. “ Im Tigress” She answered the question for the goodness knows how many times this trip.

Suddenly as if without warning the shuttle had docked. “ where are we?” Quinn asked. Tigress blinked a little surprised by the question. She had not expected it. “ umm we’re on the Odin,” she said scooping up her latest project. The cat looked around she left the shuttle heading to her quarters to drop off everything. She set Quinn on the bed and headed off to meet the XO. unaware that the little thing had followed her.

Eventually, she arrived at the door to the XO’s office. Chief of engineering was a huge step in her career and she was not sure she was ready for it. She took a few deep breaths and rang the chime. “Tigress what are you doing” came the slightly annoying voice. The humanoid wight tiger turned suddenly startling a few passing officers. “ What are you doing here,” she said her eyes going wide. What was she going to do the XO would be answering any second. “ did I do sumthing wrong” Quinn asked with a child-like curiosity.

“I left you how what” she stammered in complete confusion.
LT. JG Tigress

It was at that exact moment, that the doors to the XO’s office opened, and through them, only a few feet away was Commander Mason Black, Executive Officer of the massive Starship that was the Odin. Coffee in hand, it seemed he had been moving from the replicator toward his desk when the chime rang, so had turned to answer it.

His grey-green eyes settled in the new Chief Engineer for a moment and recognition settled in them. “Lieutenant Tigress, I presume,” he smiled. Caitians were uncommon enough that one knocking on his door would most likely be the ship’s new Department Head, and of course, she matched the profile pic that he had seen when he read her file. “Welcome to the Odin, we.... what is that?” His abrupt change in words mid sentence was backed up by his eyes dropping to the robot cat thing that stood next to her.

Cmdr Black, XO

Thank goodness for the thick fur that covered her face as she was turning bright red. ” Yes that’s me,” she said. her heart sank when the XO noticed Quinn. ” Im Quinn? Im uhhhh.... what am I?” he asked and looked at Tigress. He had responded before Tigress could answer. She silently wished she could hide under a rock. ” IM so sorry sir Quinn is a personal project of mine, he is an IA cat, there are a lot of bugs to work out and I did not know he followed me from my quarters here. I may have forgotten to turn him off in my rush to check-in” she said.

Mason blinked at the cat-sized robot a moment, then raised his eyes to Tigress. “Well, it looks like he works.” The Commander said, although his face was expressionless.

The cat turned its head sidewise as it lessened the movement was jerky. ” What is turned off,” he asked. the little thing was trying to learn. Tigress stared at the cat embodiment and was confused. ” Im still working on his programming,” she said.
LT. JG Tigress

” And he talks. Wonderful,” turning from the door he took a long, large drink of his coffee and walked back to the desk. His other hand motioned for Tigress and by extension her robot, to follow him in. “Take a seat Lieutenant, I understand you only recently arrived. Can I get you any refreshment?” Pausing a moment, Mason looked at the robot again. “And your ‘bot? Would it like anything? How long have you been working on it for?”

Cmdr Black, XO

Tigress picked Quinn up not wanting to watch it walk. She quickly followed the XO. ” Not think you we are fine,” she said quickly as she took a seat and set the little thing down. ” I’m been working on the plans since the academy this is my first attempt at actually building him. I’m not sure it’s the bugs are the programming or sumthing mechanical yet.” She said.

” What is a bot? Is that what I am?” He asked.

“Does he have some kind of identity crisis there, Lieutenant?” Mason asked, looking at her with a raised eyebrow as he sat in his chair and placed the cup of coffee on the desk. It was an unusual cup, bright pink with rainbows and balloons on it with words that looked hand-painted. Those words read Best Dad In The Galaxy in large, childlike letters. Just around the other side were four stick figures. One tall one, one middle-sized, and one shorter, all humanoid. The fourth looked like it might be a large animal but if it was, it was very, very big. Larger than the smallest humanoid.

” no I was testing the program this is the first time he’s been running for more than 10 minutes. I’m not exactly an expert at this” She said.

” He’s not ready for people to see.” She added trying hard to hide her embarrassment. How could she have gotten herself into this one? ” Perhaps it’s a combination of the programming and mechanics that need working out,” she said after a moment.
Lt Tigress

Mason shrugged lightly and looked at the small robot again. “All projects start somewhere. Probably the vocal processors and the gyro controlling the movement just need to be calibrated. Or tweaked.” He added, looking at the device’s jerky head movements.

” Where you an engineer sir,” She asked she was a little surprised.

“No, my background was Security and Tactical before moving to Command, but I have tinkered with my fair share of animatronic toy animals the last year or so.” He took another drink of coffee before placing it down and picking up a PaDD that was lying on his desk in front of him.
“ I would imagine so judging from your Mug you have a child,” she said.

“Okay Lieutenant Tigress, Welcome to the biggest ship in the Meridian Fleet. She’s a floating city, the Odin. What kind of work have you been doing since your assignment to the Genesis?”

Cmdr Black, XO

” After midnight died I needed a long leave of absence. After that, I went back to school for engineering I need a change of sturdy zoology became too painful. I was not expecting to be placed here as a chef of engineering. Honestly, sir im not sure im ready for this.” She said.
LT Tigress

Now Mason did smile, and looked at her for a moment before speaking. “In my experience, there are three kinds of people. The first, comes on crowing about their abilities and they are confident in what they can do, and they are right, they are damn good at their jobs. The second, comes on quietly, doesn’t make a fuss and maybe isn’t so confident and sure of themselves, but they turn out to be damn good at their jobs. The third type of person, is just a failure no matter what. You wouldn’t have been appointed to this position if you were the third type, Starfleet is pretty good at choosing who should be in charge and taking responsibility, so have some reassurance that you are here because you can do the job, no matter what you might think. What sort of engineering did you specialize in? Warp, Plasma injection, life support, that kind of thing?”

Cmdr Black, XO

His attempt at Reashurince did vary little to actually help. But SHe smiled and nodded. “ I was kind of all over the place but I found Life support the most interesting. The system is so delicate and one thing off can have catastrophic effects on everyone,” she said with a bright smile. Until it finally hit her that the Oden was a floating city. “ Weight this is a floating city. How on earth can One Cheafe engineer manage everything the routine maintenance schedule alone must be a nightmare” she said.

LT.JG Tigress

“It’s a lot of work,” Mason nodded, “which is why your Engineering team is rather large. Luckily many of the Odin’s systems are automated and the regular diagnosis cycle can pick up and prioritize maintenance requirements making how we allocate duties a lot faster and simpler. In short, your team is your best tool, Lieutenant, and the best Engineers are the best at using the tools they have.”

“From here, I recommend popping down to medical and running through your check-in to get medical clearance, then feel free to pop into the Captains ready room and meet the old man. I hear, that he has a fondness for plush toys, Lieutenant Tigress, but nobody has yet found that out.”

Cmdr Black, XO