Chapter 9 - Up and Away

Featuring ...

<Main Engineering>

 
The ship’s drop from the quantum slipstream, presumably near System N32, was blessedly uneventful. Her team had run countless simulations, and entered no fewer than six physical, and thirty-two coded, improvements, all to make the reversion seamless, yet they had no way to know, with any certainty, that their efforts would be successful… Until now.
 
“Winning!” Ensign David Wilks exclaimed. He’d put a lot of time and effort into the code revisions, and was understandably proud of the result.
 
Having learned that there was little point in becoming annoyed by ENS Wilks’ exuberance, LTJG Davies-Muir ignored his outburst as such, and merely gave a satisfied half-smile. After all, it was good to see the fruits of their labors.
 
For her part, Ensign P’Lor found the needless breaks in the relative serenity of her watch floor to be irritating, which required much of her Vulcan self-control to quash. “Need I remind you, Mister Wilks, of the formality expected on the Engineering Watch Floor?”
 
Ugh. The logical wet blanket was enough to quash even him, at least for a little bit. Instead of answering, he merely shrugged, as it was better than any retort that he might come up with.
 
“Nae matter,” Steffi injected, for she refused to allow such silliness to become a thing. Instead, she watched the dispatch order to the shuttle bay. “Watch Officer, maintain the plant in maximum reliability mode.”
 
Nonplussed, P’Lor felt a need to inquire. “Absent any threat, and with systems in an optimal alignment, protocol does not require operations in maximum reliability mode.”
 
“True,” Steffi conceded. “But we disnae know what happened here, so m’order stands.” P’Lor was prickly, to be sure, but relatively easy to work around. “I’ll be doon on th’ planet,” she added, just to ensure that the department knew she’d be out of hand for a spell.
 
“Break a leg,” Ensign Wilks offered. He knew he said dumb and silly things, but didn’t much care. One benefit, however, was that it seemed to get under Miss Vulcan’s skin, which was always a worthwhile endeavor!
 
…The dispatch had also come to Flight Control. Ensign Graves was out, like he almost always was, so that ought to have meant that Ensign Taylor Shaw was going to fly the team down. Well, that plan got blown straight to hell when he was told that he’d take the watch on the Bridge. Unhappy about that rather undemocratic and unilateral decision being handed down by the poster child for incompetent leadership, he grumbled, “Yes, my Empress. Whatever you wish, my Empress…” It wasn’t meant to be overheard.
 
Catching the glare and frown from the sycophantic Senior Chief DeFalco, Taylor was reminded how they didn’t really understand the Officer-to-Enlisted relationship around here: a problem that Empress Hanmore’s piss-poor leadership only worsened! “As you were, Chief,” he ordered, effectively silencing the man. The slight to his rank was intentional, and served to diminish DeFalco’s role, mostly as reminder as to the proper order of things.
 
With the final putting-in-place, Shaw made his way from the office. He immediately regretted not taking a moment to clear his facade, however, as he didn’t really want Hanmore’s smoking hot redheaded roomate to see his sour mood, as winning her over to Team Shaw was Pri One in his book! Trying to flip the frown upside-down in a millisecond, he waxed optimistic and happy as best he could. “Lieutenant,” he greeted. “Good to see that they’ll have some good sense on this mission.”
 
“I dinnae ken aboot that,” Stephanie countered. Ensign Shaw was not the most likeable sort, which was only accentuated by his rather ho-hum professional ability. From what she could gather, Jenny and Neil pretty much tried to keep him out of sight as much as possible, while also attempting to develop him into a competent flight officer. The hardest part of that endeavor was that ENS Shaw didn’t, or wouldn’t, recognize that he, in fact, did need to develop in some key areas. “You?”
 
“Well,” he puffed up. “I’m being called upon to drive the ship. Dangerous mission, you know…” It was a silly ploy, trying to impress her, but he felt obligated to try something
 
She so wanted to be catty, yet couldn’t bring herself to do so. “I see,” she replied, as that was vague enough to avoid an overreaction on his part. As far as she was concerned, the away team was doing the dangerous part of the mission, for now. This wasn’t to take anything away from the ship, so much as to counter Shaw’s assertion that his role was somehow special in this case.
 
Saved by the lift, she continued into the shuttlebay, all but tuning out whatever Shaw was going on about. Stephanie’s plan was to start pre-flight on the shuttle, and hopefully have it ready by the time Jenny got down from the Bridge. After all, they had no idea what they were about to encounter, and she wanted to do her part to make sure they hit the proverbial ground at a run.
 
OFF:
 
NPC’s LTJG Stephanie Davies-Muir and Ensigns P’Lor, Wilks and Shaw
USS HIROSHIMA (NCC-70157-B)