Meeting of engine...eers

Posted on Sat Jan 16th, 2021 @ 4:50pm by Lieutenant Mica Rue & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Rozia

Mission: New Beginnings
Location: Engineering

No welcoming duties at the moment, which meant that Evelyn was down in engineering checking on some of the reports of tests and diagnostics for the massive ship. True to her form, since it wasn't the morning, she wasn't in her office, instead standing at the center console where she could see everything in the cavernous room while she perused the reports. Because of that, she saw the main engineering doors slide open out of the corner of her eye and glanced over to see a blue-uniformed officer walk in. She finished the sentence she was reading before officially looking over to acknowledge the invader. "Good afternoon." The Trill said with a smile, taking a step towards the non-engineer, "Is there something I can help you with, Lieutenant?" She noticed the rank pips.

Mica glanced up sharp at the voice. "My apologies, ma'am," she put her hands behind her back, "I didn't mean to intrude. I just wanted to see engineering before it got too busy."

Evelyn chuckled as she literally waved away the apology, "No worries, no worries." She shook her head, "You would be surprised with how many people just pop down here on a given day, even before Astraea had a name. She is, after all, the newest and best ship in the Fleet if I dare say so myself. Evelyn Rozia, Chief Fixer-Upper." She extended her hand to the other woman. The spots reminded her of a Trill, but something was slightly off about them.

The Lt smiled. The chief had a warmth about her, and her trill heritage gave Mica a sense of home. Ironic since she had been trying to flee home for years. "Lt Mica Rue, ma'am, medical engineer."

"Evelyn, or Eve." Evelyn corrected, eyes brightening at the mention of the engineer word added to the job description, "I'm only formal on formal occasions and when I really have to be. But a medical engineer? I'm guessing that means that work with cybernetics and other medical replacements? Definitely, definitely intriguing..." She mused.

Mica nodded. "Yes ma'am....Evelyn...I was a routine engineer and once the...well, life took a different direction." She ducked her head. She hardly thought her short lived blip as chief needed mentioning. Gods, she'd barely broken in her office before she had left. "I'm newly back on board and requested a re-designation to starfleet."

"Well, Mica, new ship, too." Evelyn pointed out, "And there's no harm in changing directions in life as long as it's leading you to where you want to go. And it's engineers like you that help people who don't regenerate well keep functional in society, so definitely go you!" She grinned widely, "No doubt you'll be a wonderful addition to our medical department?" It was more a question.

“I certainly hope so, though medical engineers placed on starships is still relatively new so I am not sure exactly where my place is yet within the departments. I feel much better knowing a trill is guiding the engine however.” She grinned, fully aware of how speciesist the comment could come across.

"I think in the case of this girl, they were specifically looking for a Trill." Evelyn shrugged with a smirk, "After all, the heart of her has a QSD in it and the turd I'm carrying around helped put the whole project together to get it functional. I've got Archie's memories, so the Fleet wanted me to get this pretty girl ready to go, which she's as ready as she can be." A curious look, "But I think you may get some time in both departments, mostly medical is my guess. But don't think I won't utilize you if I think you're a round peg in a round hole! Since the whole ship is set up with the bio-neural gel packs rather than isolinear arrays, you might be better at troubleshooting some of those problems."

Mica nodded. "True." A joined trill...Mica hadn't had a chance to be around many of those... shrugging, she glanced around engineering, longing to stroke the edges of the fancy new core and give it a name. Instead, she threaded her fingers together behind her back. "Well, I suppose I should let you get back to whatever you were doing. I should probably figure out where my station is and get accustomed."

Evelyn's eyes opened wide, "Are you sure? I mean, you just got here and while I've been giving tours to some of the brass and other people with security clearances higher than mine, you're actually going to be here on the ship! You're not curious to see the beating heart of the ship?" A sly smile, "We've got a warp core, true, but a quantum slipstream drive too. You really don't see one of those every day, especially since it can take us from Earth to Alpha Centauri in about oh... Forty-five seconds or so."

The Lt stepped past the chief further into engineering. "Well, there is that. I wouldn't mind meeting...err...observing the drives, if that is alright with you."

The warp core with it's matter/antimatter reaction chamber was the first one visible, but it didn't pulse with power the way it normally would, due to the ship being in a static orbit and not needing the excess of power that the reaction would cause. But a warp core was a warp core and they passed it on the way to the slipstream drive.

It was a half-dome set into an array of panels that contained a core with its own containment for a matter/antimatter reaction attenuated by an array of blue crystal rather than the pink of dilithium. "Benamite crystals," Evelyn pointed out, "Far more rare and extremely difficult to synthesize than dilithium, but far more precise as well. There are currently two people on board that are qualified to perform any maintenance on this and is one of the closest guarded secrets in the Federation." She walked around the dome, trailing a hand on it, caressing it.

Mica went closer to the slipstream drive, reaching out to stroke the edge of one of the panels. She glanced around her, fairly confident that she was out of earshot. "You're a good lad, I can tell. Now I need you to stay that way and not give Evelyn too much trouble, you hear me?" She patted the panel twice. "Good boy."

Evelyn stiffened as the other woman touched the panel, opening her mouth to object vehemently and order her out of her engineering room, but shut it again. She heard a murmur from Mica, but couldn't make out anything except her name once and still bit back her words, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, "When I say delicate, that's actually a relative understatement." She said in as upbeat a voice as possible, "There's still a lot about the QSD that we don't have pinned down yet, so we'll be out on the sharp end of the development aspect on this as well."

Mica nodded, backing away. "I doubt he'll give you much trouble, not for a while anyway." She saw the other woman open her mouth, possibly to object, before Mica pushed on. "And a standard core as well I saw. Well, as standard as an upgraded core can be." She stared up at the massive coils, realizing for the first time how big the ship was only in relation to the size of it's power and energy controls. Her lips quirked. :Never judge someone by the size of their power couplets, Lt: "It's a lot quieter than the Astraea's was." she grew solemn at the reference of the first ship of its name. "It hums differently, almost stationery, like that of a starbase."

"The core gets more lively once we go to warp or do more than just station-keeping in orbit." Evelyn let herself get distracted away from someone touching her baby, "And you're right, upgraded. We produce about half again the usable power of a Sovereign, so we can keep the margarita machines running even while we're in a firefight, keep us nice and refreshed. And there's even the new-ship smell going on for the moment."

"It does," The Lt nodded. "Smells like promise, too. And looks like..." her eyes seemed to unfocus for a moment before she grinned. "Georges. Feels like a Georges." Despite the feeling that she was overstepping, Mica brushed her fingertips across the nearest core panel, resisting the urge to rub a palm over the entire side of the core protectant platelet.

Aaaaaaaand that was the limit. Evelyn still had a smile plastered on as a little ball of panic coalesced in her stomach and she reached out and grabbed the hand touching HER warp core and tucked it into her arm as she turned the other Trill(?) towards the door and guiding her towards it, "But if you think down here's a treat, have you been to the lounge? We've actually got someone who's been able to do it true justice; he arrived a bit more than a week ago and has done absolute wonders with it!"

Mica felt the awkwardness. She was far too familiar with the panic of a fellow crewmember after they had experienced her old, too-familiar-with-the-ship self. She bit the inside of her cheek. She could afford to carry the reputation of being a complete nutter any longer. But instead of apologizing, she let it go. "I haven't been to the lounge yet. Perhaps a drink should be in order? I'm interested to see this space that gives the chief of engineering such excitement."

"His name is Lon Nren, and he's actually been on other ships that aren't quite as large as Astraea here." Evelyn whistled a four note tune as they walked to the door and the lights dimmed briefly before coming back up to the normal level again, "I've honestly always thought that having a place to just sit back, relax and socialize is a really good thing to have. And while I didn't approve everything on his list, I had a really good chief tell me that he's got a good selection on hand, not replicated. We really should start sampling what he has, shouldn't we?"

"Of course," the Lt laughed. It felt good to laugh, and she had a suspicion her and Evelyn were going to become good friends.