Cram a meeting in over food, or under the helms console.

Posted on 10 Feb 2021 @ 1:35pm by Lieutenant Lex D'Gracefull

Mission: Shakedown cruise
Location: crew mess
Timeline: lunch time.

Ltjg Lex'EL D'Gracefull, the current Chief Engineer, was currently perusing the list of new officers and crew that had arrived from Starfleet HQ and he noticed that the new XO was already here. He had to decide whether to be one of the first or last to look him/her up, and welcome him/her to the ship, the politics among ships officers and the race to get the best evaluations was one of the downsides to the game you had to play in Starfleet. But it was better to been seen as an early bird than a slacker, or even worse, not wanting to introduce yourself to the boss was a classic career killer in terms of a non-motivated officer making captain. It's not like he could use critical maintenance to avoid the Executive Officer. Was it him or her, he thought he had better look it up before he put his size 15 foot in his mouth. Ltjg Lex'EL then pulled up the bio on Commander Dane Aijaa. After quickly skimming the information he saw female trill and a long list of commands. Deciding that having a working lunch was not a bad thing to suggest to your new boss, Ltjg Lex'EL sent a memo to Commander Aijaa from the Chief Engineering Officer, saying that he would like to talk about damage control, the status of Ship Alterations and equipment upgrades, crew management, and the general overall health of the equipment on the ship. He had a list of over 500 items that would be worked on by the time they left the Starbase, and work crews were installing ship alterations all over the place. The New XO would be responsible for stores, spare parts, and inventory, so a heads up of the incoming changes may get him on the new XO's good side.

Dane had gotten the Chief Engineer's memo and told him to meet her on the ship's bridge the ship was going through a whole refit and it would be handy to have an update on the progress his team and the Utopia Shipyards team.

Ltjg Lex'EL was up to his elbows in the shipyard repair team item inspection list and then he would have to start the Pre-Deployment Material Condition Assessment Inspection soon, that’s something that you could not put off until the day before you deploy. He shrugged when he read the memo, grabbed his toolbag and headed to the bridge. Exiting the Turbo-lift, He noticed that the bridge was not as tore up as it was last week, so at least they had most of the deck plating back in-place.

There were several officers working on the bridge. However, the only one wearing red, Dane was of average height who was under the helm console so she stuck out like a sore thumb under it as she worked on the repairs herself. All one could see was her legs sticking out.


Ltjg Lex'EL approached the helm console, pulled out his oversized engineering tri-corder, and started scanning the console to see what maintenance was in-progress. He realized that this was not one of his workers when he realized the worker's legs were female, not a shipyard worker, and didn’t match anyone on his staff. At first, he was a little taken back, when he realized this, but then he was a bit confused, and not quite sure who was under there. After scanning the bridge for the XO and not finding her, He quickly realized that it was probably the XO under the console.
Ltjg Lex'EL decided to risk a bit of embarrassment and said “Commander Aijaa, I presume?”

"You presume correctly Crewmen," Then she slid herself out from under the console noticing it was an officer and not an enlisted soul "Sorry Lieutenant," Dane said looking at the rank of the guy's collar "What can I do?" She asked pulling her sleeves down.

Ltjg Lex'EL said, “Good afternoon ma’am, I didn’t realize you were an engineer, but glad you don’t mind getting your hands dirty!” Putting his tricorder back into his toolbag and removing his oversized Engineering P.a.d.d., he pulled up the ship alteration on the helm console. After looking at it for a second, he told the XO “If you want to finish, I’ll help then we can sit down and go over the availability growth list of items I am trying to get the shipyard to do while were here the yards."

Dane stood up from lying down on the floor, "It's already been repaired it was refitted but refused to display controls," Dane said walking over towards the Captain's seat and sitting down in it then she turned her full body to face the command station that was between the Captain's seat and her seat "Take a seat we'll do it." Dane said tapping at the console, "Commander Dane Aijaa First Officer joint trill and never had been an engineer."

Ltjg Lex'EL pulled up the helm station diagnostics, pulled out his engineering tricorder again, and started running diagnostics. Looking over at the XO, he said "So how familiar are you, at dissembling things? or trying to put them back together?"

"My first host Doctor Oscar his wife was an engineer she often tried to tell my first host how to do stuff but he rarely listed," Dane said still tapping away on the command console.

“So how many arguments did that start?” asked Ltjg Lex'EL pulling off the cover to the station, and scanning the feeds, connections, and computer components with his engineering tricorder. Looking over the results, he pulled off the transparent aluminum cover piece to get at the display underneath it. "I think the display unit is DOA, I get a signal before it, but nothing from the display unit itself!"

"He didn't count but too much that caused a divorce but after 80 years he re-married before passing away a year later," Dane said then she stopped to look over at the Starfleet office, "Hold I told you my name and you didn't tell me yours... State your name rank and position," She commanded her newest assignment and she wasn't going to let a spy pull the wool over her eyes just yet.

Ltjg Lex'EL blurted out ”YOUR first married life was 80 years ago, wow ummm.” Realizing he just remarked on how old a woman was...wait or was it man, or was it both? This was unusual. Not quite sure on how to respond, he replied to her second question “ UMM, Ltjg Lex'ELD’Graceful, Engineering Officer, currently slotted as Chief Engineer, until we get a replacement. MA’AM.” Ltjg Lex'EL was sure he had just committed career suicide, death by foot in mouth disease, what a way to go. Then before he could think better, he asked “ Umm, how do you prefer to be addressed? Is the Trill the inside or outside part, and do both have a name or just the host? Do you always see eye to eye, so to speak, are there arguments?” He realized he was asking non-stop questions, so he decided he had better stop before he became an ensign.

"Sorry just thought you were a spy," Dane said checking the roster by using the command station, "He married a Female after she divorced him he married a Male 80 years later and outlived his children." Dane looked over to the command station that displayed the roster and saw who Lex'EL said he was


"A spy? " said Ltjg Lex'EL , "Why spy on the bridge? This place is boring? What actually happens here that you would see on a singing detergent show ermm... I forget what they call them. " Seeing that half of the display panel was not working to specs, he sent a memo to Engineering to replicate and deliver a new panel display ASAP. He said, "The panel is inop, I am having a new one replicated and delivered, it should be here in a couple of minutes." While they were waiting the silence grew, and being more than a bit uncomfortable, he said, "I am going to gown down and speed things up, I don't like waiting!" Not hearing a no, he decided that leaving was a good thing. Leaving his tool bag next to the station, he left for the bridge turbo-lift exit, It opened as he arrived, discharging a passenger. Ltjg Lex'EL took advantage of that and escaped into the relative safety of the turbo-lift. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ltjg Lex'EL said " Main Engineering please!" and soon the turbo-lift discharged him right outside Main Engineering. Hurring into Main Engineering, he headed straight over to the replicator and the Engineering crewman who was just finishing up replicating the replacement for the inop console display panel. Ltjg Lex'EL thanked the crewman, giving him the old one for reclamation, and hurriedly walked as fast as he could over to the turbo-lift and pushed the call button. upon arriving, Ltjg Lex'EL dashed inside and said "Bridge please!" and waited as the lift started moving slowly. Time seemed to crawl until the doors opened and he hurriedly walked over to the still tore apart helm console and started hooking the connectors and data lines that gave the Helm console the connections it needed to work. Ltjg Lex'EL looked around and not seeing Commander Aijaa, asked the Officer of the Deck, or the person holding the position of the Captian when the Captian was not sitting in his or her chair controlling the ship. He said, "Where is Commander Aijaa?, she was here a couple of minutes ago?” The commander who had the CONN, turned to Ltjg Lex'EL, and asked with a little confusion," Who?" Ltjg Lex'EL replied "The XO!" the Commander currently in charge of the ship said, "Just WHO are you talking about, I don't know him!" Ltjg Lex'EL replied, "She was here just a few minutes working on the Helm Console with me!" The commander said looking slightly concerned " I think you need some sleep lieutenant, you have not been working on anything with anyone, since you came up here and started tearing my Helm console apart, with-out permission, I might say, but since it has been giving the watchstander issues, I didn't say anything. You did have a strange conversation with yourself...Is it fixed yet?" Ltjg Lex'EL replied with more than a bit of confusion "Just about!" Saying that he hurriedly put the last of the connections back in place inserted the transparent aluminum cover plate over the sensor net that detected the human or other life form interactions with the console in place, and sealed everything up, making it look pretty. After running a quick level 1 diagnostic to see if he could find any issues, finding none, Ltjg Lex'EL turned to the Bridge officer he had been having this strange conversation with and said "Your Helm Console is back up, cal, if you have any more issues!" Grabbing his tool bag Ltjg Lex'EL raced for the safety of the turbo-lift. Pushing the call button, he waited impatiently for it to arrive and the door to open. As soon as the door open Ltjg Lex'EL raced in, bouncing off of the door edge to get in.  He yelled, " Main Engineering please!" and once the doors closed and the lift asked the computer" Computer, where is Commander Aijaa?" the computer replied [Commander Aijaa is not aboard the USS Mark Miller] Stunned Ltjg Lex'EL stood there in shock, then as the doors asked the computer, " Was there ever a Commander Aijaa onboard?" The computer replied [There has never been a Commander Aijaa onboard the USS Mark Miller] Ltjg Lex'EL just stood there stunned and after 2 minutes, the turbo-lift doors closed and the lift started moving to its next call. standing in the back of the lift, Ltjg Lex'EL, did not even notice when an ensign entered and said "Bridge please!" as the doors started to close, Ltjg Lex'EL, raced out and clipped his tool back on the now closing doors, causing the tool back to fly out of his hand in an arc and dump half of its contents all over the passageway. Ltjg Lex'EL said "excuse me, it has been a strange day!" to the bewildered ensign inside the now closing turbo-lift. Ltjg Lex'EL picked up his errant tools, walked into Main Engineering, put his tools in his locker, and turned to the Cheif Petty Officer on watch and the Engineering Officer of the Watch. "Chief, it's been a long day, and I have going to take a short nap, wake me in 5 hours!" The EOOW looked back at Ltjg Lex'EL and said "yes sir!" Ltjg Lex'EL turned left engineering and headed to his stateroom, for a reset of his mental condition, followed by breakfast. Arriving in his stateroom, which currently had one sleeping occupied bed and the other two were empty, Ltjg Lex'EL, shed his thick Engineering coveralls, pulling all of the items out of his many pockets, setting the oversized Engineering P.a.d.d. on his nightstand dresser, he then put his coveralls in the laundry receptacle, and flopped on his bed, waiting hopefully for the bliss of unconsciousness. When it did not come immediately, Ltjg Lex'EL, grabbed his pad and did a research query, First on Commander Aijaa, but since he was not a Department Head, his clearance was not high enough to get the computer to tell him the current location of Commander Aijaa, so he then searched on what was required to report a temporal anomaly. The protocol was three commanders or department heads and above with the senior officer of the ship, or squadron commander, and preferably with any Batazed crewmembers, as a witness, to get any details that might miss being reported by the subject of the interview. Ltjg Lex'EL thought that it would be way to uncomfortable an interview, so instead, he would send a message to his brother, who was always talking about temporal anomalies. "Computer", Ltjg Lex'EL said " Send a priority 13 message to, Lieutenant JG Hex'EL D'Gracefull on the USS Thunderchild. Encrypt for classified level 5 report, Start of classified Message: Hex'EL, had a strange thing just happen today, met and displaced the XO of the ship, a one Commander Aijaa, life form classification Trill, I was talking to her while I was working on the Helm console, she had started diagnostics on it, went to engineering for a part, when I returned to the bridge, she was missing and no one remembers her, I was told I had held a strange conversation with my self, the computer says she was never on board. I feel like I am going nutzz. Is this one of those temporal puddle waves you always talk about and is this serious? Signed Ltjg Lex'EL D'Graceful. End message. Encrypt and Transmit"

Ltjg Lex'EL laid there hoping sleep would take him fast, and that tomorrow would be better. At least someone else knew about the missing commander, not that he could do anything about it. He would have to go to medical later, for a check-up.

=/\= USS Mark Miller =/\=

Ltjg Lex'EL D'Gracefull
Engineering Officer

& 

A figment of his imiganiation?

 








 


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