Finding An Engineer In The Most Unlikely Of Places
Posted on Wed Apr 3rd, 2024 @ 2:34pm by Captain Marc Kidd & Lieutenant Andromeda Nash
Edited on on Tue Apr 9th, 2024 @ 11:25pm
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
The Sins of History
Location: Captain's Ready Room - Deck 3 - USS Artemis
Timeline: MD007 1100 hrs
"Captain, we've located Lieutenant Nash," the on-duty Tactical officer said. "On Freecloud of all places."
Marc had been studying the reports from the Away Team on Freecloud when he heard the Tactical Officer's report and it brought his attention to the present. The strange thought that he had was that he had not been informed that they were to pick up a Chief Engineer. "Alright signal them that we await their arrival. Ask that they report to my Ready Room." With those orders Marc turned over control of the Bridge to the XO and made his way to the Ready Room. At the moment he had to see if he missed a message and what this officer's file looked like.
Meanwhile, on the planet's surface, a not entirely pleased Lieutenant Nash received the message from the Artemis to report on board. "Are you sure about this Artemis," she asked as she accepted a second cup of tea from the Professor. The tea had been her gift to him which meant that he served it to her whenever she visited rather than keep it for himself as she had intended. "I haven't any received orders as yet and I'm supposed to be on leave."
"Verified," the Tactical officer responded. "Sorry about this Lieutenant but the Captain is awaiting your arrival and asks that you report to him in his Ready Room."
"Acknowledged, Artemis," Nash responded. "Nash out." With the connection closed, she sighed. "Time to get back to work it seems."
"So soon, Sparrow," the Professor asked. His hand trembled slightly as he reached for his own teacup; he had always been 'old' at least in her mind but now, there was a frailty to him that she hadn't noticed before.
"I'm afraid so," she said softly. She finished off her tea and rose in a fluid motion that highlighted the difference in their ages. Ordinarily she would go but she hesitated. Debated. Theirs had never been a physically demonstrative relationship but times had changed. She circled the table and wrapped her arms around his lean frame. She kissed him gently on the cheek. "If I haven't said this before, thank you. For everything."
He patted her arm gently, clearly nonplussed by her actions, and said only, "I'll look forward to our next chess game. You're starting to be a bit of a challenge for me, you know."
Grinning now, she released him. "One of these days, Professor, one of these days." She had brought nothing with her, certainly no uniform, and so, would have to report in her civilian clothes. "Great," she muttered. "New posting and no uniform. This is going to go over well."
She tidied up and headed to the reception area which was small and shabby, but still, the largest spot in the rabbit warren of a hotel in which she had grown up. She tapped her combadge. "Artemis, one to beam up."
The shimmer took her and moments later, she stood on the transporter platform. She caught the transporter technician's eye and shrugged. "I was on leave, okay? Ready Room?"
She ignored the technician's knowing grin but accepted the directions. She followed them exactly as any good engineer could and a short while later, stood in front of the his Ready Room door. Assuming it was a him. Shabby and unprepared. Could this go any worse? She looked down at her outfit again and sighed. What made her all but invisible on Freecloud had quite the opposite effect on the bridge of her new ship. "Divine help me," she muttered as she pressed the chime.
Marc had just finished his once over of the Lieutenant's file. He saw the transfer orders signed by Admiral Ford. He sighed heavily. "Well it is like Declan to assign someone without consulting me..." The beginning of Marc's tirade was cut short as the door chime rang. "Come on in." He called as he tossed the PADD on his desk. When the doors opened Marc was not ready for what he saw. Engineers usually were grease monkeys who seemed to constantly sweat. Yet here was a beautiful woman. "Lieutenant Nash I presume. Come on in and have a seat. I am sure you have a number of questions."
"Yes and yes again," she said as she came forward and took the proffered seat. "And apologies for my appearance. I thought I was on a two-week leave so I went home to Freecloud." She ran a hand through her dark hair, her nose scrunched up slightly. "How did I get transferred and how did you know to come to Freecloud?"
Marc poured himself some coffee from a side table and motioned to see if Andromeda wanted any. He sipped the coffee and savored the sip before he began to speak. "As to your first question it seems that you were assigned by our director Rear Admiral Declan Ford. The Admiral has a fair amount of sway around the fleet. As to Freecloud we are here on mission. We tracked our perp here so the team is down on the planet looking. In truth we had no idea that you were here. Your assignment is as much a surprise to me as it is to you. However, allow me to welcome you aboard."
"Thank you, Sir," she said as accepted the captain's offer and poured herself a cup of coffee. She took an appreciative sip and sighed. "I hope my stuff made it here from the old ship." She returned to her seat and took another sip. "Oh, that is good." She rested the cup on her thigh and considered the actual words he had said. "Freecloud is a good place to hide if you know the right places. Not surprised your ... perp? ... came here."
"It is my own special blend of coffee from Earth and Racktijino. Makes for a good blend I think." Marc began and took an appreciative sip himself. "I believe your belongings are being transferred as we speak and should arrive here within a day. You must forgive me I should have brought you up to speed before using jargon. Perp is short for perpetrator. The Artemis is the first ship in a small program the Starfleet Criminal Investigation Service or SCIS. Our job is to chase down the worst criminals in the Federation and bring them to justice." He smiled and regarded her. Marc wondered if she would be up to the task. They would be away from Federation resupply for a long time on some missions, and he would come to rely on his engineer to keep his ship together.
She took a sip of coffee as she considered her response. The habits of Freecloud had resurfaced during her short stay and she will them away. Starfleet preferred honest, straightforward communication and that decidedly not the Freecloud way. "Looks like the Admiral knew what he was doing then, Sir. Aside from my Academy training, I have a degree in Applied Mathematics and training as a Forensic Engineer. Even more importantly," she added with a slight smile, "I grew up on Freecloud. Breaking into systems, getting past security. That's how I survived my teen years." She shrugged slightly. "I think that's why I continued on with the additional training. Sharpen my skillset because, well, you never know."
Marc realized that Ford never missed a beat. That was precisely why Nash was assigned here. "I have to say a resume like that is perfect for what we have to do. However, the question that remains is how are you when working without Starbase backup. A lot of our work will keep us away from resupply and the like. It would be up to you and your team to keep us in tip top shape."
Nash canted her head from one side to the other as she considered. "I guess it depends on the situation, Sir. There are manufacturing facilities on board for items that we can't easily replicate but even then, it depends on just how much damage there is to repair." She took a sip of coffee and considered. "No, no easy answer to that. I'm a capable engineer and with a half-decent staff, I can keep the ship running ... just, you know, try to keep us out of situations where we end up with half the ship blown away and we should be good."
Marc smiled, "I will certainly try my best to keep the hull intact. The only major change on how things operate here versus how they operate on other ships is the power grid. As you know on most ships the most important system is life support. Here it is the same however, life support is tied for the most important. The other system is the prison deck's power grid. You cannot take power from life support or the prison without command override. Taking power from the prison deck opens the cells, and then we have some major problems."
"Brig is always on a separate system," Nash said. She had a wealth of information at her fingertips though she always double-checked the numbers because some mistakes just could not be made. "Same with Sickbay though Sickbay has a much bigger draw, power wise, than the force fields and life support in the Brig do. And, considering its what keeps us all alive, I wouldn't touch those systems without command approval." She cocked her head slightly as she looked at the captain or maybe looked through would be better. Her mind was more on the problem than anything else. "Course, might be possible to reduce the draw by doubling up in the cells, for example … but if its getting that desperate, we probably have bigger problems, don't we?"
"I would say so. Our prison houses long term criminals who most likely will not see anything past our ship until they die. But we can save that kind of talk for another day." Marc smiled softly. "For now welcome aboard the Artemis. You should go settle in and then we can have all the time we need to talk shop."
"Thank you, Sir," she said as she stood. Recognizing the cue to leave was something one learned early on in Starfleet. As she walked out of the captain's Ready Room, her smiled dropped away completely and she forced herself not to shudder at the thought of living aboard a prison ship.
A Joint Post By
Captain Marc Kidd
Commanding Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Andromeda Nash
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
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