The Start of a New Day
Posted on Sun Nov 10th, 2019 @ 8:55pm by Lieutenant Alana Tovan
Mission:
Father Dearest
Location: Shipyard Operations
It was a new day, and with it came new opportunities and new challenges. For Lieutenant Alana Tovan, it was the start of a new chapter of her life, whether she wanted it to be so or not.
The day started off normally enough. Like every morning, the half-human daughter of a former Federation scientist woke up and got ready for her shift. She laid out her uniform and took her shower. With a blow dryer she dried and brushed her long raven hair, adding volume and styling it so it covered her pointed ears. It was the one feature she was self conscious about. The one feature she resented.
Satisfied with her appearance, or at least as satisfied as she was going to be, Alana finished getting dressed, making her uniform looks as presentable as she could make it. While she didn’t care about her personal appearance too much, short of her ears, she always made sure her uniform was presentable. With her heritage tainted, only her professional appearance mattered to Alana. Then it was off to start her day.
Like most days, her shift started with the daily status updates and new assignments. In one corner of the engineering command center sat her work area, along with her subordinates. As the chief shipfitter, she was responsible for overseeing repair operations on the garrison and visiting starships. Any incoming ship seeking repairs would fall under her jurisdiction. In many cases with Starfleet vessels, her section only supported the onboard engineering staff. But often the requests come from passenger ships and freighters.
Alana’s eyes scanned over the PADD as her officers gathered around. She barely looked up before greeting them. “Good morning.” She gave one last quick look before lowering the PADD. “Alright, let’s get started. We have several new requests, plus a few old ones. Wes, how’s that Bolian freighter coming?”
Ensign Haught stepped forward closer to the situation table. “The replicator glitch seems to have been fixed. Drink orders are no longer coming back as chocolate pudding. Although the system is pretty old. The only way to fix it was to completely remove chocolate pudding from the menu. Their captain hasn’t decided if that’s an improvement or not.”
Tovan shook her head. That particular captain had been through before. “He’s never satisfied. I’m sure someone on the station would be willing to sell them some pudding.” She scanned over the report again. “Thira, the USS Resolute is still showing as active. I thought they had everything they needed?”
Lieutenant J.G. Thira sh’Fairia shook her head. “I thought so too, sir. Most of their battle damage had been repaired since their run-in with the Tholians, but they found some ruptured power conduits. Their chief engineer wasn’t too concerned with the effort required, but they did request that they stay on shore power a little longer while they take their power grid offline.”
Alana half nodded. “Get with Lieutenant Tyson and make sure that they have the power reserves, but I don’t suspect that will be a problem.”
Thira nodded in response, her antennae dipping in acknowledgement.
Tovan went through the rest of the status updates, and began reviewing the new requests. Most of them were easy enough, and she assigned them to her officers based on their work load and expertise. The last two caught her attention. The first was on a Rigellian freighter that was having problems with their cargo transporter, resulting in costly time losses by having to move cargo manually. The other was on a Tellarite ship that had suffered a coolant leak. The leak had been contained, but it had leaked into the matter/antimatter reaction chamber. “Erik, how do you feel about transporters?” Alana asked another of her officers.
Ensign Flanigan shrugged. “I like them just fine, though I like the better when they’re working properly,” he answered with a smirk.
Alana’s eyes drifted upwards to meet his. She wasn’t as amused as he seemed to be. “Good. I’m giving you the Rigellian ship. The pattern buffer seems to be sticking on their cargo transporter. I’ll take this coolant leak on the Tellarite ship. The transporter not working can be a hassle, but at least it won’t explode.” Tovan looked around at her staff. “Any questions?” The gathering of engineers shook their heads. “Alright then. Let’s get to work.” With that, her staff departed, leaving Alana to start the next part of her day. A routine day that would soon become anything but.
Lieutenant Alana Tovan
Section Chief, Shipfitting
Starbase 332
