Maia strolls through Engineering

Posted on 08 Feb 2017 @ 10:00pm by Captain Maia Sterling & Lieutenant Commander Remington Dodd

2,065 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: S02 Episode 2: Once More Unto the Breach (Main Story)
Location: USS Tomcat/Main Engineering
Timeline: Before we reach Starbase Omega

Maia made her way down to engineering to meet the new crews and to get to know the new chief engineer. She strolled directly to the warp core on deck 15. The tomcat was currently traveling at warp six so the warp core was brilliantly lit pumping both matter and anti-matter to the reaction chamber to feed plasma directly to the warp nacelles.

"Excuse me, where is Mr. Dodd?" Commander Sterling inquired.

"Commander!" called out Ensign Taggert, surprised at the first officer coming down to engineering. She chided herself a little at her appearance. Her hair was down, she had some dirt and smudges on her face, and her tunic was unzipped and untucked. She had been crawling through a Jeffries' Tube trying to fix a few subprocessors, and was surprised as she turned around from wiping her brow. She even jumped a little.

"You must be Ensign Taggert, it's nice to meet you. How are you settling in?" Maia inquired with a smile offering her hand.

"Thank you ma'am, I appreciate it," she said, shaking the first officer's hand. "I'm getting used to things here in engineering myself. Ensign Tjaansz has been a good help in fixing up the computer since we've been underway."

"Good very good. Have you seen Mr. Dodd"? Maia asked.

"Ma'am, the Lieutenant is right behind the corner to the left," Taggert answered, her face a little flush. She was developing a bad little habit of not having her full uniform on in front of senior officers. The tank-top undershirt was not designed for people with her body characteristics, putting it nicely. It was a bit strained with her physique.

"Thank you, carry on Ensign," Maia said appreciatively.

Lieutenant Dodd was working with a new engineering technician who was seemingly confused from the emotions that Dodd was sensing. It doesn't take a telepath to sense the confusion, but since he was talking to himself, it was obvious.

"Could I help you?" Dodd asked of the young technician.

"I am new here and I am not sure I'm in the right place. I am looking for the secondary life support conduits and keep coming back to the secondary plasma relay station," stated Nelson, a young human male who was just posted to the Tomcat as his very first official posting.

"No worries. One could get lost here if not used to the layout," Dodd replied. "So where were you stationed before?"

"I was given a temporary assignment to the Titan Shuttle Yards on the colony on Titan. I was repairing the power conduits on the shuttles as they needed it since they are part of an older fleet of shuttles." Nelson answered. "But being so close to Saturn was amazing."

"Well, just remember that all the secondary station controls are opposite the main station controls." So if primary is on the port side, then secondary is starboard. With the exception of Life Support, it is up on the upper ring on the same side as the primary." Dodd instructed as he guided Nelson to the ladder to go to upper engineering. "So just up the ladder and to the left and you will see the panel. Now I will excuse myself as I see that Ensign Taggert is chatting with a visitor that I feel I need to talk with."

Dodd then left Nelson to his task and started to head across to the warp core to see who the visitor was. As he got closer, he realized it was Commander Sterling. He did not recognize from behind yet.

"Commander Sterling, Welcome to engineering. To what do I owe this honor?" Dodd proclaimed to Taggert and Sterling as they were talking.

"Ah Mr. Dodd, I am working on crew evaluations and I wanted to come down here and see how everything was going and see how you ran Engineering. Do you have time to give me a run through of your operation?" the First officer asked.

"I can give you a run through of the operations here in engineering. Would you like to come to my office or would you care to wander around as I do some spot checks?" Dodd replied.

"Actually I would love the nickel tour if it isn't too much trouble," Maia asked.

"May Ensign Taggert join us? I do want my assistant chief to be aware of as much of what I do and be able to fill in as needed for me if I am off-ship or such," Dodd asked of the commander.

"Certainly!" Maia responded.

Maia turned. "Ensign Taggert can you join us please?" Maia requested.

"Certainly, Commander, Lieutenant," replied the young-looking ensign with a smile. She hastily put on and zipped her tunic and grabbed her uniform jacket as she put her hair back into a ponytail. "After you," she said, letting Lt. Dodd lead the way.

"Alright, let's get started," Dodd replied. "I have been working with the crew that was on board when I arrived back at the starbase. I had them doing all the prep work for this mission. I have a very dedicated crew. The new crew members who all came aboard at starbase, are blending in and there is a lot of cohesiveness to the crew. They all seem to be doing what is good for the ship and crew and not just themselves. I really like that. Heck even Taggert, just jumped right in to help when she came aboard."

"True our last mission was very hazardous, such is the life of Starfleet Marines. Most of our engineers are new. We have been understaffed for almost 6 months. We were finally re-enforced," Maia confided.

"So now we come to the anti-matter containment pods. I had six crew members bring these all up to current specifications before we started on this mission. There were some minor flaws in the schematics that were acceptable at the time Tomcat was built but they have since been phased out," Dodd stated as he pointed to three crew members standing by the containment pods.

"Please keep me advised of any upgrades, also do you have a replacement schedule, Mr. Dodd?"

oO I am boring her with all my facts. However, I am sensing that I could pitch my idea for a four shift rotation to her before I go to the captain. Oo Dodd thought to himself.

"Yes, Ma'am. I will see that you are notified properly of any and all upgrades at the time they are done. I am going to be working on the replacement schedule once I have a chance to examine engineering once more before we get to our assignment. I am going to arrange to get the replacements of our matter and anti-matter after this mission is complete and we return to the Starbase 39. I then plan to have it replaced after every mission or every six months if possible," Dodd replied. "Commander, I am hoping to get engineering set to a four shift rotation. My reasoning is that while a three shift rotation works, I want the staff to be able to give their best in emergency situations. I have researched that even the two hours difference in a shift can make a staff member more responsive if they are needing to work over their shift," Dodd continued as he pointed to a technician on the other side of the room. "Say that Southern was on her final fifteen minutes of her shift and we had an attack from a Gorn ship. She would be more prone to have a delay in her response time due to the fact that she was already thinking about getting off duty and such. I know Southern is a great asset to the ship but if she had to stay at her post for another hour, she would still not be as responsive. But if she only worked a six-hour shift and it was her last fifteen minutes of duty and the attack happened she would still have the energy to put in at least four more hours of work to help fix the situation. Due to this, even if she was already thinking about the rest of her day, the physiological process being that she still has energy reserves because her morale is high because she would have more free time when not on duty and she would be able to jump back mentally to her work without a significant delay in response. Plus as I said the morale factor alone would be worth it for my staff. They could pursue more research and maybe even be more willing to try new things outside their comfort zones."

"Excellent, A four shift rotation will work as long as you have the personnel. If you need anything to facilitate engineering please see me, I have an open door policy especially for the senior officers," Maia added.

"I appreciate your nod to my idea. Taggert and I will work that out in more detail once we have a chance. We are still making sure the ship has all the kinks worked out from repairs and upgrades done at Starbase 39. I do hope you are getting the information you are looking for," Dodd asked as he turned to open a panel to examine the EPS conduit. "I will gladly field any concerns you have."

"Yes Thank you, Mr. Dodd. How are you adapting to this assignment?" Maia asked.

"I feel I am doing well. I will admit it helps being a telepath as I can sense the random thoughts of my staff and adjust myself before I address them to make them more comfortable. I sometimes don't even realize I am doing it. I think that comes from being assigned to Betazed and keeping my mind open all the time then," Dodd stated as he continued to examine the EPS conduit with the occasional glance toward the commander.

"It must take a great amount of discipline to filter out all those errant thoughts. Must seem crowded for you". Maia opined.

"I would like to request that if it is possible to attain an Impulse Drive Engineer. There was not one assigned to the staff when I took over. However, I have coverage for that position and can work with the staff and keep everything covered even if we get on a four shift rotation," Dodd requested in confidence.

"I will do what I can Mr. Dodd". Maia replied.

oO Damn Oo Taggart thought as her mind analyzed the details of the open panel before them. One of the isolinear chips was on the fritz. She heard a slight buzz and the light was a little off. Most people wouldn't notice it, but her eyes were a bit sharper than most, as were her ears. She reached over and pulled out the chip, and took a scanner from her toolbelt.

"Sorry ma'am, sir," she said, as both looked to her, wondering what she was doing. "The chip turned out to be faulty. Tjaansz and I are still catching little straggling minor defects, trying to get the ship in tip-top shape. Luckily I think we've identified most of them." The young ensign scanned the chip and found some minor cracks in the chip itself, which could lead to data corruption and faulty reconstruction of the holographically-stored data on the device. She put the scanner back in her jacket pocket and looked back at the Chief.

oO Taggert has a great eye for the detail. The fact that she was thinking about the isolinear chip really got my mind focused on that all the while I was still engaged with the Commander. Oo Dodd thought as he had picked up on Taggerts thoughts when she saw the chip falter.

Behind them, the trio saw a swishing purple tail with a point on it, telling them were the other ensign was working on circuits in one of the wall panels of engineering.

"No worries, Ensign. I am glad you and Ensign Tjaansz are on top of that." Dodd replied. "I know our ship will be the best Starfleet has with you on board. I will let you get on with your tasks. We will talk soon."

"Well Mr. Dodd Thank you for the tour. I'll see what I can do about getting you a proper engineer for the impulse drive." Maia said.

With that Maia left for the bridge.

 

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