Gravity

Posted on Sat Apr 15th, 2017 @ 12:42pm by Lieutenant Alana Tovan & Lieutenant Commander Robert Takota

Mission: Shadows and Whispers
Location: USS Carthage

Alana wiped the sweat from her brown with the back of her uniform sleeve, refusing to drop her tools. In one hand was a scanner, and the other a plasma spanner. For the past hour and a half a particularly stealthy short circuit in the grav plating of turbolift car three had been eluding her. The gravity variance was three percent out of spec, and it had been bothering her for weeks. Now in the wee hours of the evening, she found herself curled up on the floor of the turbolift, desperately trying to find the problem circuit. And it was killing her that she was losing.

Robert was taking a nightly tour of the ship before turning in when she saw a human female engineer running maintenance on a turbo lift. As he approached her he noticed she was Romulan, his blood boiled and that Klingon angry started to build, but he stopped himself as he was a Starfleet officer and needed to present himself that way. "Lieutenant" he said with an attitude, "when will your repairs be complete on the lift."

Tovan didn't like getting attitude, especially when it was for an inconvenience so minor as an out of service turbolift. She sighed and pulled her head out of panel. "They'll be complete when they're done," she started to say. It was the sight of who she was saying it to that made her quickly change her tune. It was a Lieutenant Commander, presumably the new executive officer of the ship. But she hadn't expected him to be a Klingon. Another one? she mused. I really need to start looking at those announcements more carefully. Alana laid down her tool and rose to her feet. "Sorry, sir. I figured it was another crewman asking me about my repairs. Technically the turbolift is still function. You're just going to feel a little heavy while you ride it. It shouldn't take me long at all to repair the problem. The issue is finding the problem."

Robert looked down at the Lieutenant, "There are other repairs to be done on the ship, so I suggest you finish up here Lieutenant." Robert new repairs were ahead of schedule, but he wanted the Lieutenant to feel inferior to him. Seeing her uniform was sweaty and dirty from work, he made a scornful remake that he normally wouldn't say, "Lieutenant, fix your uniform your an officer and your uniform should be perfect at all times". As he walked away, he turned "Next time watch your surroundings Lieutenant".

Alana started to turn back to her work, dismayed over the exchange. But ever prideful, she turned back around. "With all due respect, sir, my repairs are so far ahead of schedule that I have time to work on these minor ones." Her hands trembled as she spoke up, and she held her hands together to keep them from shaking. "And respecting the uniform means respecting my ship. If I didn't get a little dirty making sure the Carthage was the best damn ship in Starfleet, then I don't deserve to wear the uniform." She braced herself for the formal reprimand, or worse, that she was sure was coming. But she didn't back down.

As Robert looked down at the Lieutenant, his human side kicked in and thought maybe this time he had went to far with his hatred of Romulans, he thought to himself there will be other times to show his superiority. Robert gives a snicker (half smile) to the Lieutenant, and in a deep Klingon voice "Very well Lieutenant, get back to work," as he walked away "Oh, Lieutenant if you ever talk to me like that again, your next assignment will be on a garbage freighter". " Is that clear Lieutenant"?

"Yes, sir," Alana replied with as much authority as she could muster. As soon as Takota had turned away and was out of earshot, she let out a sigh of relief. She was certain that she was just about to be killed, or worse, discharged. After a moment of contemplating on what she had just done, she lowered herself back to the floor of the turbolift to finish the job. And made a mental note to make sure her uniforms were up to code.

Lt. Commander Robert Takota
Executive Officer
USS Carthage

Lieutenant Alana Tovan
Chief Engineer
USS Carthage