Better Late then Never?

Posted on 04 Feb 2014 @ 10:08pm by Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Captain Jonathan Holliday

1,536 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 05 - Solstice
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1 - Ready Room
Timeline: MD 01 - 1023 Hrs

ON

Asahi had made it his mission to run around and officially, finally, report in before he ran off on full shore leave. He was technically attached to the Galileo for the bar installation, but he wasn't going to use that, or any subsequent 'fun' as an excuse to let it slip by any longer. He had people he had to meet, especially if he was going to continue being part of the Galileo's crew. It just wasn't polite to not report in, protocol aside. It was like a mechanic just fixing a car without telling their owner what they were doing. It just didn't seem right.

However, after their run-ins during their previous mission, it had been difficult for Asahi to sit down with the understandably gruff XO. He had been kept busy in the depths of engineering, getting to know his new peers, but now that everything was settling down, he would have his chance to do the one thing he had endeavored to do since he had been pried out of that escape pod.

Pausing at the entrance of the ready room, he smoothed out his uniform and took a deep breath. 'First impressions mean everything, Kita.' Brushing his nerves aside, he pressed the button for the chime. He wasn't making the same mistake he made with Lihra either.

Kita didn't have to wait long as the doors opened in front of him, instead of welcoming him in however, John shot through the doors and onto the Bridge, heading straight for the Ops console, muttering and swearing under his breath as he furiously typed in commands.

"Yes lieutenant, what can I do for you? Make it quick I'm up to my eyeballs here."

Asahi's eyes widened at the sight. There was nothing worse than a busy command type in the middle of something stressful. He quickly stepped into the ready room, visibly tense. "Ah, I just... wanted to officially report in sir. If... it's not too forward of me to ask, is there something I can help you with?"

John was still to look up from the Ops panel, as he keyed in another set of codes and then swapped to a different section of the console and continued his study.

"What? Oh yes - do me a favour will you? Take a look at the Engineering MSD and see what the antimatter regulators are doing. Apparently the core isn't completely offline and the maintenance crew replacing the warp coils aren't pleased. Of course it means I get the crap from the Dockmaster."

"Yessir." Asahi was quick to leave the ready room and get to the bridge. With a quick press of a few buttons on the MSD, he had the display up and a quick diagnostics check running. "... Hm..." He squinted at the display, before noticing the tiny blinking alert message. "Oh." As quickly as he had been to figure the issue out, Asahi had the issue fixed, and was just as quick to return to the ready room, shy smile on his lips. "Looks like whoever had had their hands in the regulators forgot to link them up properly to the matrix. They powered up just fine with everything else after the Le'kt fixed us up, but turning them off had another subroutine connected to it." He shook his head. "I can take another look after the maintenance crew's done, make sure everything else down there's in working order."

John grunted in agreement as the Lieutenant diagnosed the problem. He was impressed at the speed and efficiency of the officer stood behind him and was grateful for his input with the problem.

"I would..appreciate that Lieutenant. If you could make sure that it is done as soon as possible?"

"Not a problem sir. Hopefully I'll have that done by the end of the day, maintenance crew permitting. Shouldn't happen again while they're in there, I've got everything in that area shut down now." Asahi nodded, offering a half-smile. At least it was something he could fix. Stars forbid it was something unfixable, especially after all the Galileo had been through. "But ah... I don't mean to rush things, but... ah..."

"Spit it out Mr Kita." John replied as he signed off from the console and stepped down, looking across at the chair that he would no doubt be spending plenty of hours in once they launch back into space.

Asahi nearly jumped in surprise, but he wasn't going to ignore a near-order. "Sir, I just wanted to make sure I had everything squared away for an officially official reporting in to the Galileo for duties, Sir." Blabbering excuses about Borg Cubes and Le'kt run-ins was only going to make matters... more confusing, at the very least.

"Calm down Lieutenant. You sound like a first year Cadet being pulled up in front of the Admiralty. Take a seat."

John moved down to the big chair, settling into position before offering Mr Kita the XO's chair with a wave of his hand. Had the ship been on duty then such a thing would never have happened, but with the ship all but offline, the Captain couldn't see the harm, and he was sure that Commander Blake wouldn't mind just this once if someone was in her chair.

"Then you can...officially official report into the Galileo."

"Yessir." Asahi sure felt like a first year cadet being pulled up in front of the Admiralty. There were horror stories that went around the Galileo about Holliday that may have caused the slight spookage, but the engineer said nothing of it, as he sat himself down in the offered seat. "Thank you sir."

"Well then Mr Kita. Welcome aboard. I trust your transfer went smoothly?"

John replied with a smirk, glad to see the man finally settling into a chair and relaxing, albeit only slightly. The captain knew that he had a reputation amongst the ranks for being a hard-ass, but it had served him well in the past and would most likely continue to do so.

The engineer chuckled. "As well as I could have, given the circumstances. Popping up by escape pod wasn't exactly optimal, but I'm definitely not complaining, considering." He rubbed the back of his neck, shifting back and forth in the chair. "The paperwork's all settled though."

"Excellent. If there's one thing I've noted since taking command, it's that there is even more paperwork sitting in this chair than the workload I had sitting in that one."

John chuckled to himself as he noted the engineer's rather unorthodox way of arriving aboard the Galileo. It had been the same way for several of Galileo's latest recruits, although the Captain had wished that it hadn't taken the loss of another starship for his vessel to replenish it's numbers.

"You'll find engineering here is a rather...well appointed environment compared to other vessels. Everything is small on Galileo, even the crawlspaces seem a little tighter than usual."

"Paperwork's always easier to settle than it is to get through the run-around, I've found, sir." Asahi offered a nervous smile. He may not have let his guard down around the new Captain just yet, but he was definitely warming up to the man. "It's a good thing I don't need a whole lot of space to work in then. I'm hoping the Galileo is a good fit. Most of the Nova classes I've seen usually end up with their engineers running around and fixing issues their scientists started... So I'm a little grateful the Galileo's systems seem to be all in check at this point."

"Miss Zaren runs a tight engine room, as did our CoB, Mr Quinn during his tenure as Chief Engineer. It is a situation I hope to see maintained whilst you are on board. You keep the lights on, and I'll keep the academics in line, agreed?"

John knew that the Galileo's scientists had made their own share of troubles for the engineering teams during Galileo's last few missions. Nevertheless he had always found the guys with the hyperspanners to be extremely capable at keeping the systems running smoothly.

Asahi nodded, almost about as eagerly as a bobblehead. "Will do, Sir." He had absolutely no problem keeping the ship 'afloat,' so to speak. There didn't seem to be any crazy pilot-types running about either, so he had all his bases covered, so it seemed. As long as he didn't upset any higher-ups, he should have been just fine.

"Well in that case Lieutenant don't let me keep you. There's a warp core that needs an introduction. Dismissed."

John replied, picking himself up from the Captain's chair and beginning to take a few steps towards his Ready Room to return to the work he had left there.

"Sir, yessir." Asahi hopped up, now assured that Holliday wasn't going to throw him in the brig for breathing. So many rumors, so little time. "Hopefully there won't be anymore mishaps causing trouble."


OFF



CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LT Asahi Kita
Asst. Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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