Fish out of water

Posted on 26 Jun 2021 @ 3:26am by Captain Patrick Jackson
Edited on on 28 Jun 2021 @ 8:17am

4,682 words; about a 23 minute read

Mission: S03 Ep 03 Trouble in the Sticks UXSys 659842 (Incidentals) Phase 2
Location: Engineering
Timeline: Prior to leaving system 1500

[ON]


Patrick stepped off the turbolift into a beehive of activity. Yellow uniforms with an occasional blue hurried from one place to another. Beeps of control panels being used, general chatter what sounded to be a other language that his translator couldn't figure out came to his ears, all while being soothed by the steady hum of the warp core in use.

The marine was keenly aware he was the only green suit here and felt green the appropriate color. When it came to technology and complex things, he was very green. He made his way deeper into the heart of engineering. While being taller than most here, and filling his uniform out with many an hour in the Gym, he normally looked like a guy you would hate to run into in a dark alley, except here. Now he thought he looked like a small child lost in a big store looking for a friendly face. Still, he wished he could understand even a fraction of what all happened down here.

Tapping a few controls at the warp core, making the final adjustments to the subspace harmonics, Nicci gave it a smile as the display showed her the subspace field finally synchronizing and harmonizing. The key was the Schuman resonances, strangely enough. Teela's off-handed remark turned out to be just what she needed, oddly enough.

She turned around and saw a green-shirt in there, a rare occurrence, so she strode over to see what was going on. Nicci was relatively tall for a woman, at 5'9", and to her frustration at times, curvier than most. She couldn't hide it, despite her attempts, and she often had wardrobe issues at just the wrong time. At this moment, her jacket and tunic were undone, leaving her showing a bit more cleavage than she would normally on duty, but she had just come out of the Jeffries' Tubes and she was still cooling off a bit. Her blonde hair was in bangs, with two strands framing her face, and a long braid down her back, with minimal make-up, despite not really needing any.

"Good day, Marine," she said with a professional nod. "I'm Lt. JG Nicole Taggert. I'm the Assistant Chief Engineer in these parts. How can I help you?"

Patrick looked to who was addressing him and hesitated. It was only a fraction of a moment, but he knew what it was and pretty obvious why. He scolded himself for hesitating again. It was the second time this month he hesitated. First in combat then in front of her. He would have to straighten that out later, right now he was not making the Marines look good.

"Hello again Lieutenant. It's Patrick Jackson. We were on the Away Team together that rescued the girl on the clear planet." He paused a moment. "Have you heard how she's doing?"

"Ah, yes," she said, placing the face. She had eidetic memory now, so she remembered every moment as if it were happening in the moment - a blessing and a curse - so she remembered the interaction on the planet in a quick replay in her head. "Calm before the storm. That place was eerie. Reminded me a bit of my old home town in Georgia, just fewer people."

"Jessie's doing better, she's processing everything quite well," Nicci said, answering his question. "I feel bad for her, though, losing her parents the way she did. Horrible."

The big man nodded. "Kid like that will have a long road to normal. I know Marines who would have a hard time with all she's been through. She soldiered through though and is a survivor. Her parents would be proud I'm sure."

"Luckily we found her aunt and uncle, and when we get back to starbase, she'll be put on a civilian transport back to Earth," Nicci continued.

"If there is an option to bump her to first just let me know and I'll foot the bill. She lost everything so the least that could happen is she get a few creature comforts on the way back." He said and shook his head at the tragedy. He glanced around and seeing nobody in war shot he looked back at her. "How are you holding up by the way?"

"I'm doing well, for the most part. A few panic attacks and a little sleeplessness and zombie nightmares thinking I'm getting eaten up, but it's getting better. Downside to panic is I get flooded with pheromones and have to take personal time to calm down so I can focus on work," Nicci replied. She sighed at how much a slave to her own body she was at times. "Sorry. I'll chip in for her too. She's such a nice girl, she deserves a normal life, as much as possible after all this. How about you? You doing okay?"

"That is all normal. It was a mess that we had to deal with. I have dreams like that too. They mess with your head but do get better with time. If not, check with the counselor." He paused. "Wait, pheromones? Did I miss something?" He said. "I'm sorry, that's probably a personal question. Don't mean to offend."

"Sorry, I don't really tell most crew about it, otherwise they'd treat me like I've got the plague or something, and I'd feel like a leper," Nicci said with a sigh. "So keep it between us."

"Marine's honor." He answered.

"Well, I got kidnapped and genetically altered into this," Nicci said, gesturing to her generously curvy body. "Part of the package is pheromone control. I can consciously control pheromones, specifically arousal pheromones," she began, lowering her voice to keep the info between them. "If someone's aroused enough, their inhibitions are lowered, and they'll do anything for you, and give you any information you ask for, all for a taste of what this body can do. The Orions made me an infiltration agent, but they didn't get to wiping and programming my mind before I got rescued. I'm on pheromone suppressors so I don't cause a ruckus amongst the crew, and it honestly helps me with the more intense...well, urges. Sorry, TMI, I know. I don't really tell people that because they kind of start looking at me as a, well, 'easy conquest' as it were. Totally ignoring that I'm a damn good engineer and have a brain, and more than just T & A."

Patrick nodded. "Damn right Lieutenant. You doing get to be an ACE for nothing. I couldn't do a fraction of what you do. I wish I could, but my brain is wired different. I'm sorry to hear everything that happened, but as someone new to the ship and not knowing your story, you already showed me you are more than just genetic altering."

"For everything you've gone through, to be this functional and normal, that's pretty impressive. Not many could go through genetic altering and be even a little normal after, let alone become the ACE and beam down to a zombie planet and come back and have any brain left to do engineering work. As a Marine, that says alot. Don't let nobody tell you otherwise." He said honestly.

"Thanks, LT," Nicci smiled, her pink lips turning red as she did. "That means a lot. You guys get into more than I do. I'm really just an engineer, not some action hero like you guys."

Patrick returned the smile. "I'm glad you think we are action hero's. Now if you want to learn some combat training, just look me up. I'll be your D.I. and we can get you I to combat engineering before you know it. How did you manage mentally to get through all of that though?"

"I guess being grounded in me and my family helped a lot," she replied. "Just being able to sit down and relax, programming assembly code for an Atari 2600 or assembling some LEGO can take your mind off things, you know?"

The marine nodded. "I can relate with the LEGO comment as long as we are talking simple structures or stepping on one barefoot. I'm glad you had family to help get you through." He said looking around. "We need someone good to keep this old ship running and it sure sounds like you're the best qualified for it. You got the fortitude, drive, and have been through hell more than once and stayed strong through it. You'll be CEO one day, mark my words."

"I appreciate your confidence in my abilities, LT," Nicci said with a smile. "I do my best to keep this rig running. As long as being CEO lets me keep doing my work, I'm open to it, but I think Dodd's probably going to be running engineering for a good while longer, right?"

"Probably. They don't generally like to swap out CEO's and ACE's nearly as fast as the rest of us grunts. You're smart. You took a career where you're not considered expendable." He said and shrugged. "I don't regret it though. Beats what my alternate was by light-years. Say, could I grab another one of these?" He asked holding up his wrist with the bracelet. "These Nanite....things are pretty slick. I found out I've got an XO coming in and would like her kitted out as well if I can."

"Feel free to take a pair," Nicci replied, grabbing the one she had worn and handing it to him. "They're adaptable to any body type, so take mine too. Reminds me too much of the zombie planet and nearly getting eaten alive."

"Thanks." He said taking the pair.

"But I wouldn't call you expendable," she continued with a genuine look on her face. "Every life is sacred. It only happens once. You make it safe for me to keep the ship running on all thrusters."

He looked her in the eye. "Thank you. It means a lot to hear that. I never heard that much growing up and is what you are trained to know in the Marines." He turned a moment and then back. "Do you think there is anything you could teach me here? Maybe for emergency repairs or something? I'm not the sharpest tool in the box, but I try hard. When there is nobody to try and kill, I'm limited in help to the ship. Most of my Rifles have cross training in something. I only got one type of training if you know what I mean."

Nicci laughed a cute laugh before smiling, "I know what you mean. Now, sometimes you just hit the console and it works," Nicci said, giving one flickering display she was working on a 1/10 strength smack with the bottom of her fist. If she hit it full strength, her hand would've busted through the display, but she wasn't trying to show off. "But other times you've got to be delicate, read the situation..."

Patrick smiled. "Oh I can hit things. Smack it till it works. Check. Finesse I can do some of too. I am a sniper so I try to be good at reading...although this is pretty different."

"Check the power connections first. Still connected? Hanging by a thread? Lots of stuff can be fixed by checking the power cables," Nicci explained, kneeling down, her large endowments squeezing onto her thighs she she leaned forward, pointing to a cable half-in, half-out. Jackson knelt with her to see where she was pointing. "Intermittent data losses, fields fluctuating, all that stuff can be as simple as a loose connection."

"That's one I think you can fix," she said with a smile.

As the Marine followed her down to the ground, his eyes continued down. Immediately he heard his old drill Sergeant yelling in his ear. oO Eyes up soldier! The pretty lady is trying to teach you something and you don't have enough brain power to spare with split attention! Oo His eyes snapped to where she was pointed with wide eyes. He took in a sharp breath as if to yell "Sir, yes sir!" When he caught himself. oO Thanks Sarge. Oo

He reached forward and pushed the data cable in and made sure it was snug but being careful to try not and press to much. She mentioned delicate earlier so figured he should be careful. He felt it seat in and smiled. "Hit things and check wire connections. I think I can handle that." He said laughing. It wasn't much, but he felt good seeing something working better because he fixed it verses destroy it.

"Good to know," Nicci chuckled a bit. Her sense of smell was more sensitive than a normal human, thanks to her Orion genetic engineering, and she smelled his pheromones spiking. She knew he was probably checking her out, but decided not calling him out was best so as not to embarrass the man.

"So, check this out, right over here," she pointed over to a lit up conduit going between two cubes, then branching out into three conduits to the left. "Neutron redirection systems. But sometimes we get into trouble and we have to 'reverse the polarity of the neutron flow' by pressing that velvet red-looking button." She said the phrase with a slight English accent, different from her standard Georgia rural accent (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDaCMhKPGys).

"Ok, hit, check wires, reverse the neutron polarity with the red button." He nodded, eyes glued to the button. He always thought you were not supposed to touch any red button. At least in old animations and movies that was the case.

A red light started blinking inside the exposed area under the console at the master situation display where they were talking, and a small alarm started angrily sounding at the duo (https://youtu.be/5qzEQwOcPtg?t=11 - just that one sound).

His eyes darted to her, back to the blinking light then back to her with a bit of concern showing on his face. "Um, is that supposed to happen? It doesn't sound like that's supposed to happen."

Nicci smiled as she saw his worry and laughed a little, and pressed the button again. "Sorry, I couldn't resist, new engineer joke," she said recovering from the little prank. "Chief Engineer Amelia Scott got me with that on the way to the Academy."

Patrick chuckled a little and slowly started to relax. He didn't realize that he tensed up during that warning alert, but he could appreciate a joke though.

"Don't worry, you can't reverse the polarity of the neutron flow," Nicci said with a warm smile. "Neutrons are neutral, they don't have polarity. It's just technobabble to make people sound smart. Remember that one, sometimes technobabble is just babble, and sometimes if it doesn't make sense, it *is* non-sense."

He smiled at her. "Well, now I know a little babble. If one of the enlisted mouths off I'll send them to reverse the neutron polarity of...something. I'll figure that part out later." He said and looked over at a box. "What is that thing?"

"That thing? It's just a power junction to the phaser range in the security complex's holo grid," she explained with a small wave of her hand. "It's supposed to be offline for maintenance, and the alarm was there to make sure no one turned it back on while the grid was being worked on earlier today and tomorrow."

"Ok, so that's a power junction box that was off for maintenance and we turned it on, so because it knew it was supposed to be off it went nuts?" He asked trying to track all the steps they took and what the actual steps he could use were. He put a mental question mark next to the 'press red button task.

"Exactly," Nicci nodded, causing some of her blonde hair to fall forward due to her loose ponytail. "Just a security measure so no one gets electrocuted with all the potentially live exposed connections in there. We have enough trouble with plasma transfer conduits during battle, we try to make the ship a little safer for all us mere mortals."

"Thanks. I hope I'm not taking you away from anything important. Teaching a Marine basic engineering is probably pretty low on your duty list as the Tomcat ACE." Looking at her and back to the relay running his hand along a cable.

"Not at all," she replied, shaking her head side-to-side a little. "It's kind of like learning CPR at the academy. Anyone can take a little extra training to help out in a crisis. Cross training is important, just like hobbies."

"Thank you for the cross training. What else can I do?" He asked.

"Now this here," she said, pointing to an actual circular red button on the front of a rectangular gray box, with four ODN conduits going in one side and out the other, "don't touch it. It's the history eraser button. I might need you to guard it." (OOC: https://vimeo.com/126720159)

He focused on that button and was about to say something then paused a moment. Was she messing with him again? He glanced over at her.

She saw him freeze a moment and catch on quickly at which point she smiled, "Sorry, I couldn't help it. I got Teela with it first day I met her when she transferred onto the ship. She totally fell for it and was standing in front of the MSD for a good ten minutes before Chief Dodd had me tell her it was just the decoupler for the ODN conduits. I was laughing so hard but I couldn't help it; she was asking about tachyons and gravitons and quantum fields all the systems going into making such a thing, I just told her it was classified to stop her from going on about it."

He smirked. "I'm glad I caught on. What do they decouple?"

"Just those four cables coming in from the right," she pointed close to Jackson, then arched over to the left, "to the left. The box in the middle is a physical disconnection point for the Master Situation Display here," she pointed up to the large console above them.

"Ok, so it severs the connection there. Just curious, does everything have these wires and wouldn't it be easier to have everything connected remotely?"

"Every console in the ship has a wire coming into it," Nicci explained. "We try not to have too much wireless radiation, as too many species can be easily affected by too much electromagnetic field radiation - messes with their senses, telepathy, reproduction systems, kind of like all the radiation humans put up with all their wireless everything in the early 21st century before they found out it messed their brains up and cooked their bits. Besides, a wired connection can't be hacked by enemies outside the ship as easily as wireless connections, so it's much more secure. With this," she pointed back to the box, and pressed it. The two halves of the coupling disconnected, leaving the two sides unplugged, revealing the inside of the rectangle, looking like some jagged isolinear chips running along both sides had fallen out of their connecting ports, "you disconnect this display from the main computer. Under every console, there's a hard line you can cut. That way, if you have information stored locally, you can protect it from an outsider."

She pointed up to the master situation display, which now had a message over a darkened interface, drawing focus to the message: Link to Main Computer Core severed. Please reconnect this console to continue data sharing, or dismiss to continue working locally.

"So you can sever connections in engineering. This is for tactical safety?"

"You got it. You can sever connections to the brig so an outside ship can't free prisoners. You can sever connections to local phaser control so if someone takes over the bridge, they can't fire weapons on a friendly ship or lower shields to try to beam in reinforcements," she continued his thought. "You got it."

Patrick gave her a warm smile. "Ok, so anything you don't want intruders to play with, you isolate from the main computer by disconnecting these wires here." He repeated and ran his hand over the decoupled and then the wire. Partly showing her for confirmation, the other part to work muscle memory.

"You got it," Nicci smiled. "The 24th century has lots of fancy gizmos, but never forget sometimes the simplest solution is still the best solution."

"Curiosity seems to have me today. How long have you been doing this?" He asked looking back at her and motioning a hand all over engineering. "Engineering in general that is. You seem to know all of this so well you could do it blindfolded. I mean I can field strip a rile, clean it and reassemble the weapon blindfolded, but that is a single piece of equipment, with simple components that was drilled into my skull over and over. This all is much more complex with many more pieces and it seems like it comes as natural to you as breathing."

"Lots of things become natural if you have enough practice," Nicci said, then realized it could be mistaken for innuendo, and started again, "like fixing a tractor. I had to take that old combustion engine apart a dozen times to get it working, but dad wouldn't get rid of it for a fancy power-cell tractor. Said if the sun had another CME like in the 19th century, the tractor would still run and we could still grow food. All this?" she gestured over to the warp core, the coolant tanks flanking either side, then to the MSD and the computer core behind the wall, "Just a more advanced version of a tractor engine once you understand how it all fits together. Just gotta make sure it stays oiled, the fuses don't blow, and our giant carburetor mixes the highly volatile matter/antimatter so we don't waste fuel or crack the dilithium. I fixed engines since I was a toddler with my dad, and all that time playing with Transformers and LEGO helped me understand how stuff fit together too. My dad had an odd fascination with 20th century pop culture for some reason, and it just stuck, I guess. Plus, well, I guess the Orions did do something good for me..."

He smirked a little. "The Orions did something good?"

"Well, aside from the whole genetic rewrite and totally new body," she gestured to herself, "they improved my memory so it's eidetic, and made my neurons bigger with longer and thicker dendrites. My thalamus lets more thoughts through, so I'm usually thinking through several problems at once...and..." she paused so she didn't overwhelm him with info and just summarized what the doctors told her after her rescue, "the short version is, the Orions took the advantages of a male brain - visuospatial skills, and the female brain - language skills, facial recognition, and put them together in one brain. I can visualize the solutions to things while talking to the Chief, and working out a recipe for a dinner I want to try all at once. My brain's always in turbo mode, I guess. Ever since coming back, all the engineering stuff became even easier. And since it's so active and my energy levels are so high, I don't sleep as much, so I read lots of engineering manuals to relax, and sometimes late at night, I tinker around in engineering, seeing what works and what doesn't. Luckily, a lot of systems have a 'sandbox mode' to prevent most accidental damage."

She paused for a second, looking at Jackson's reaction, adding, "Sorry, not trying to overwhelm you. I don't really talk about that to people because they'll think I think I'm better than them or that I'm a freak or something. I'm just a person trying to be a good engineer, and at least in this case, the Orions did me a favor."

He moved his hand, brushing off any doubts that he thought she was better than him. "No problem. We are all better than someone in some areas, but there are people better than me in other areas. You are a far better engineer, even before the Orion upgrade. I'll probably be a better soldier. We're all just trying to make the best with what we have. It sounds like you have a pretty good set of parents that helped ground you and got you started on a successful path, and I think they accomplished that."

" Thanks, I appreciate it, Jackson," Nicci replied." That means a lot. Weird stuff happens when you serve, not all of it good. It's been that way for centuries. One of my ancestors lost his left arm at the elbow at Gettysburg, then had to walk home to his farm. It's how you recover from it that matters. "

He stood up and looked at her. "Just so you know, if you need to talk about anything, feel free to look me up. I don't know much, but I've seen a lot of combat. That mission was rough even by my standards. I know a counselor helps, but sometimes you need someone who's been through it. If you ever need to, just let me know. I will make time."

Nicci stood too, pulling her tanktop shirt down. oO Finally someone who can just be a friend and not ask me out. Oo

" That means a lot, " she nodded." Maybe I'll take you up on that D. I. training sometime. Nothing wrong with sweating up a storm with a good workout, fieldstripping a rifle..." she realized her words could again be misinterpreted, "... staying fit's important in the fleet. You never know when we need to outrun another zombie horde! " She chuckled a bit.

He smirked. "You'd be surprised how much running you end up doing in combat. I can show you field stripping of a rifle, but I think you would have it down after two or three tries. I can get a good holodeck sim for us. Run the gym circuit and do some strength training and then move into a 'fun run'" he said using his fingers for air quotes in the run.

"Maybe we can up the gravity a little, increase the heat, make it a bit more challenging too," she mused.

A grin opened on his face a little. "Oh I'm game, but are you just trying to challenge yourself, or are you suckering me in making it like you are this little thing when in reality you got super soldiered and could bench press a tank and just trying to see how much I can take before I tap out?" He chuckled.

"Little ol' me? I'd never do such a thing! I'm a fragile and delicate flower!" she said innocently, putting a hand on her chest like women did in old 20th century movies. She got a disbelieving look, and reverted back to normal, saying, "Oh, fine. I can confirm I can't bench press a tank. But, hey, gotta challenge myself somehow, right? Let's check out some time when we start the journey back to base. This mission's been rough on my workout schedule anyhow."

He laughed. "One thing about being a Marine, there is always time for a workout." He said and looked to an arm. "Sometimes too much time." He said and looked back. "Anyway, you just say the word and I'll make sure we get a good workout in and find out where that challenge point is for you. Deal?"

"Sounds like a good time, LT," Nicci said with a smile and a nod. "Let's coordinate schedules this week. I need a good endurance run after this mission."

Patrick nodded and started to turn. "Holodeck 3, 0700. My schedule is open, just let me know the day and be ready for a workout."

[OFF]

1st Lieutenant Patrick Jackson
Marine Commanding Officer

Lieutenant, JG Nicole Taggert
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer

 

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