The Power Transfer Debacle

Posted on Mon Mar 29th, 2010 @ 11:26am by Captain Alexander Gunning

Mission: Commissioned
Location: Main Engineering - USS Jackal
Timeline: MD 00, 0500

[ON]

They were set to launch in three hours. They had three hours to get everything ready and Alex was a million miles away from confident. He placed his hands on his side and sighed deeply as he stared down at the gaping hole where the secondary power relay was supposed to be as Petty Officer Aldinzor (NPC) stood silently by his side waiting for his wrath.

Alex turned slowly on his heel and stared at the far taller man before shaking his head. "Where is it, Aldinzor? I don't need to tell you that we launch in three hours and the lack of a secondary power relay on a shakedown where we have to traverse a massive expanse of space doesn't really fill me with a lot of confidence."

"I don't know where it is, sir." The enlisted man replied. He was telling the truth. When he had gone to bed the night before, it had been there.

Alex sucked the air in through his teeth. He did not expect Starfleet to assign him a new engineer in time for their departure, despite the fact that he had submitted a twelve officer shortlist of acceptable candidates. He had very little faith in Aldinzor.

"You're the acting chief engineer, Aldinzor. You probably will be for the forseeable future and here we are, just relaxing with absolutely no knowledge of where one of the main junction boxes for back-up power on this bloody ship has gone. What do you think that says to me?"

"It should tell you that a real engineer decided she didn't want our atoms scattered half way across the quadrant." Lt. Allein stepped towards them, her boots sounding loudly against the deck plating. She wasn't looking at Commander Gunning, her eyes narrowed on the 'chief'. "Mr. Aldinzor failed to discover a rather . . . glaring flaw in the relay's power distribution system. I have to wonder if he was trying to kill us all, or if it was just plain stupidity."

Gunning's heart both leapt and sank, seemingly at the same time. He had a real engineer. A proper engineering officer who wasn't an incompetent buffoon but it just had to be her didn't it? Of all the people he had submitted to command for reassignment, they had to pick Allein Mara. He stayed quiet as the woman scolded Aldinzor.

"I... I'm sorry, ma'am. I saw no issue with the distribution system. There... there were more pressing things to get on with. We've been shortstaffed." The young Dorran said by way of an explanation.

"More pressing things?" Her eyebrow slid upwards. "More pressing than ensuring that we get out of spacedock in one piece?" She crossed her arms and paused just long enough to make the man shift beneath her gaze. "I want a full report from you on the status of the ship's systems and an inventory of all the repairs that you personally have made by 1200 which should be more time than you need. If you have plans for the evening cancel them, you'll be going over every system you've okay-ed to make sure that your incompetence won't get us all killed."

She stopped and in the semi-stunned silence glanced at Alex. Seeing him here was . . . unusual and she wasn't sure how to react but would let him take the lead there. There was no denying that he looked good and the part of her that acknowledged her own emotions felt both guilty and anxious about this. The rest of her managed to ignore it.

"Nice to see you're still as focussed as ever, Mara." He said quietly. "You're dismissed, Aldinzor."

She offered a tight smile. "Nice to see you're as," she paused, mind desperately seeking an appropriate adjective. "Tall as ever." Smooth.

"It's the boots." He replied. "How long have you been aboard? You realise it's bad form not to report to your C-O on arrival, right?"

"I thought I just did?" She responded with a bit of a smile.

"I suppose you did." He chuckled in reply. "Do you reckon we'll be good to launch by oh-eight-hundred?"

"I've been working all night to clean up after these people, so I don't think that will be a problem," she responded and only just managed to bite back a comment about the ship that involved the words 'stuck here' and 'half-constructed wreck'.

"Yeah, well as long as it's actually safe to launch. The last thing I want is to be five minutes out of drydock and have the impulse engines blow up. I really dislike it here. There's not a lot to do."

"You should become an engineer, there's always lots for us to do." She managed another smile, slightly surprised with herself; That was three in one day and it wasn't even 0600. "And I've been over most of the critical systems already and they check out for the most part."

"As long as we can get to Galactic South in one piece then I'm happy, Mara." He said, slipping back into an old habit he thought he was out of. He thought he had better pull himself back from the brink of embarrassment. "Right, Chief. Carry on. Have a report on my desk by oh-seven-fifty. In fact, scrub that. Just let me know whether or not we'll explode when we engage the warp core."

She laughed and the feeling in her throat was strange, the sound whispy and illusive. "Will do, sir."

[OFF]

Commander Alex Gunning
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Allein Mara
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Jackal