A Quest In Engineering

Posted on Thu Aug 19th, 2021 @ 5:38am by Celeste McLaren & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Rozia

Mission: Pathstone to History
Location: Main Engineering

It was nice and slow and above all, quiet in engineering. Since they really weren't going much of anywhere, Evelyn had dismissed most of the crew to an impromptu half day off, aside from the normal watch and 'crisis response teams' for those critical issues such as a sticky door, a malfunctioning replicator or even the horror of all horrors: A hatch off it's hinges. So she found herself mostly by herself, standing and looking at a full hologram of the Astraea, just... Looking at it.

Celeste had managed to get herself into an access junction without the person babysitting her realizing it. After several turns and crawling down lower than where she'd started Celeste found herself exiting an open hatchway. Celeste immediately noticed the large, glowing, blue thing and her eyes went wide.

That access hatch was within Evelyn's field of view and she quirked an eyebrow as a smile came across her face. She missed Bonnie, her old CO's daughter who was eight, no, nine now, but this little girl couldn't be even half that. She took a couple small steps towards her so as to not startle her, then crouched down, forearms on her knees, "Why hello there!" She said softly, but loud enough to be heard, "I'm Evie, who are you?"

Celeste had been trying to get closer to the warp core when she was interrupted, "Oh," She cooed lightly and jumped back a little bit. She then grinned when the woman was friendly towards her and even waved frantically. "Hello," She babbled.

Evelyn glanced over at the warp core and the unerring path that the little girl had been taking towards it, "That's a really big shiny over there, but it can be dangerous down here.." She frowned slightly at that little statement, "Would you like a closer look?" She raised her eyebrows slightly and brought the smile back to her face, reaching out with one hand, but not extending her arm all the way.

It took Celeste less than a few seconds to ecstatically nod, "Yes." She answered. She then raised her hands because she knew the drill. Her mother wouldn't have allowed her to get close to anything that her mother had tagged with the word dangerous. Even though the three-year-old girl had no idea what that word even meant.

It was with a huge grin that Evelyn scooped the small girl up in her arms and propped her up on one hip. It just felt natural to her after the last couple years, and she’d missed it during the last six-odd months. She reached out with the hand not propping up Celeste and tapped a corner button twice, effectively summoning her senior chief as she walked with Celeste over to the relatively quiescent warp core. Sure, it really wasn’t dangerous, unless someone left the console unlocked, but one didn’t take chances when the ship was at stake.

Evelyn reached out and placed a hand on the outer shielding of the cylinder, bringing Celeste into reach as well, “This is what makes the ship go zoom!” She exclaimed, then using her hand to swoosh through the air to symbolize the Astraea in motion.

As Celeste was led around the engine room her eyes grew steadily bigger and bigger. "Wow..." She said under her breath, "How fast?" She asked.

"Reeeeally fast.” Evelyn let her own eyes grow wide, “Two thousand times faster than light goes.” She knew that this young, she might not understand completely what was being said, but with young children, sounding excited and awed helped THEM feel excited as well, “It is the heart of the ship.” She touched a hand to where her own heart was.

Celeste didn't quite understand, but her eyes got really wide at the thought of going a really big number. She scratched the back of her head and giggled, "And what does this do?" She asked as she went towards the consoles that helped regulate the life support system.

"That helps make the air!" Evelyn tried to sound excited about it, though in truth, the life support system was one of just the most finicky pieces of the ship and the most boring. For what it did, it required a lot of manpower. In the meantime, a red-headed woman had come into the room and noticed the engineer and the child with a smile before heading to one of the consoles and beginning a search. "It's really important."

"Oh," Celeste said with a nod, "What station does my Mommy work at?" She asked while looking around the corners.

Evelyn looked over at the other woman, who'd shaken her head and mouthed an identity, "I'm afraid your mommy doesn't work down here, sweetheart, she works up in the Science area." She crouched down after making up the distance between herself and the toddler, though it had only been a couple feet, "Did you want me to take you up there to her?"

"Oh yeah," Celeste thought about the question for a moment. "Yes please." She said.

"Then let's get you back up to her." Evelyn smiled at the young girl, opening her arms again in an invitation to ride up to her mother in Evie's arms, "Maybe you can count my spots on the way?" It was an attempt to entice her.

"Okay," Celeste lifted her arms and allowed herself to be picked up. Her legs were rather tired from walking anyway. A grin crossed her features as she was carried off and out of engineering.