Getting Operational

Posted on 16 May 2014 @ 7:00pm by Cadet Sophomore Grade Alenis Taban & Lieutenant Min Zhao & Senior Chief Petty Officer Keval zh'Erinov
Edited on on 17 May 2014 @ 1:23pm

1,918 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge
Timeline: MD02 - 1545 hours

[ON]

Taban had been writing hurriedly on his PADD throughout the tour from Keval - so much so that with his head glued to it he'd managed to bump into three doorways, two bulkheads, and three other Galileo crewmembers - most of whom had seemed perturbed on even more levels than just the sight of a hulking part-Cardassian cadet and being bumped into by the aforementioned. On each occasion he'd apologised as profusely as possible - and in the final case had helped the young crewman to her feet again - but he was already developing a horrible sense that, on such a small ship with, compared to what he was used to, so many people in such close proximity, such occurrences were unfortunately going to become the norm no matter how much care he tried to take.

As they entered the turbolift for the final time and the doors swung shut behind them for their short trip to the bridge, Alenis turned to the Chief, whom he had rapidly come to view as an excellent mentor - indeed his instructor had even recommended trying to talk to senior enlisted personnel with this in mind - and with the beginnings of a smile creeping onto his face he spoke "Thank you, so so very much, Chief. It's not a big ship... but I think you've just saved me weeks of getting myself completely lost."

"Not a problem Cadet. I enjoyed it and it kept my mind off of my 'man problems'. Anytime I can help you out, just let me know."

As the lift doors opened out onto a corridor Taban looked confused for a second. "Sorry, Chief... weren't we going to the bridge?" He racked his brain for a second trying to work it out. Every Starfleet ship he'd ever set foot on had the turbolift directly onto the bridge... it seemed out of place for Federation design somehow in his mind.

"Almost there," he replied

The Cadet followed the Andorian out of the turbolift as they took an immediate right, and then the first door on the right, which read, 'Bridge.' Taban hurriedly made a note on his PADD. "Ah... now I see. Thanks for that, Chief..." He muttered as he made the note and stepped onto the bridge, just to the left of the door - almost succeeding in falling straight down the step next to the door and crushing the officer sat at the primary science station. Fortunately he was able to grab the support beam to right himself before taking out yet another crewmate. Taking a second to acclimatise himself he spotted a Lieutenant in gold-trim uniform on the far side of the bridge - the mirror station to the Science one next to which he stood - and whispering to Keval double checked "That's the Ops station - and Lieutenant Zhao, right, Chief?"

"Yes, that's right," Keval confirmed for him.

Taking a few steps forward across the raised platform of the bridge, skirting around the Auxiliary/Tactical console, the Cadet made a beeline for the Operations console. "Lieutenant Zhao?" he asked in a hushed voice, so as not to disturb the other bridge crew, "I'm Cadet Alenis. Here are my orders." With that he presented his PADD to the woman, placing it on the top edge of the console. "I'm sorry I didn't check in immediately - the Chief was just giving me a brief tour."

Min looked up from her console where she running the last of her checks of the duty shift. She nodded at Chief Graysan as she accepted the Cadet's padd and glanced over it. The young cardassian was almost a foot taller then her, and quite an imposing figure. "That's okay Cadet. You'll be working with the two of us during your training cruise so it's good you two have met."

"Thank you, Si...Ma'... Lieutenant. I'm already looking forward to it. The Chief has been extremely helpful and I've learned so much already." He recovered from the initial hesitation on title to finish the reply with an eager edge to his tone.

Min glanced up at Keval. "If you're okay with shift change a bit early Chief I could take over from here."

"Sure ma'am and its not that early. I'll leave him in your capable hands."

While the two more senior personnel spoke Taban leaned over to get a better look at the console. A strange feeling stirred in his gut at the prospect that he might be manning the console soon. Compared to the systems on the Jian'Karra, which were a total mismatch of cobbled-together and cannibalised parts patched up and bypassed so often as to in some cases literally be held together only by tape, the Galileo's relatively virgin systems were an amazingly welcome change of pace. Solomon had always spoken of the envy he felt for Starfleet engineers: with as many spare parts as they needed, regular refits, and seemingly endless resources. As he regularly had joked to the Cadet: it was the soft option.

Finally, Taban turned his attention back to the Chief and Lieutenant as they handed over between one another.

"Well if you don't mind, I do have a shift to cover Lieutenant."

Then he turned to Taban,"Good luck Cadet and I am sure I'll see you around the ship. It's been a pleasure."

"Thanks so much, Chief. I look forward to it." replied Alenis, almost bowing as he said it. He turned to the Lieutenant in order to take his next lead from her.

Keval nodded at the Cardassian as he turned to walk away.

Min by this point had switched places with Keval and was now standing watching the bridge operations. She turned to Taban. "Well. Seeing as how the Chief has given you the tour, we should probably head down to my office and get your paperwork & quarters sorted out. Sound like a plan?"

Turning to the, now-standing, Lieutenant Zhao Alenis couldn't help but notice that she was pregnant - extremely pregnant. His eyes immediately anchoring themselves to the floor to avoid staring, Taban nodded and replied "Aye, Lieutenant." He stood aside to allow the woman to pass in front of him and lead towards the turbolift. Not really wanting to start up conversation while on the bridge he waited until they were in the turbolift before finally asking "How long to go? If you don't mind me asking, Lieutenant."

Min looked at Taban quizzically for a second before his question sunk in. She wasn't used to the question being phrased exactly that way. "I'm due in approx two months cadet. Give or take a few weeks because the child's father is Bajoran."

"Congratulations." He replied. Despite his highly unconventional upbringing, Alenis had deep-seated views about the importance of family which were common among Bajorans. He remained silent for the remainder of the turbolift journey and, when the doors opened again, allowed his superior to pass through first and followed her down the corridor.

The operations office was a short walk from the turbolift and soon Min was keying in her codes to unlock her office. She entered and motioned for Taban to take a seat.

"Something I can get you Cadet?" Min asked as she keyed in a drink into the replicator.

The Cadet thought for a moment, but soon replied "I'm fine, thank you, Lieutenant." He sat silently for a moment before adding "Thank you for agreeing to take me on for field study. Captain Maraf really seemed to think it would help me."

Min took her cup and sat down behind her desk. "I agree with the Captain regarding field training. It's one thing to do this on paper or even in a simulator. Nothing beats the real thing tho for putting the theory into practice." Min picked up a padd with Taban's academic record, glanced at it then put it back down.

"So tell me a bit about yourself cadet."

Taban noticably tensed up. After a few moments of awkwardly apparent thinking he replied. "Grew up in an orphanage from 4 'til 15, but found I liked tech - got myself aboard the Jian'Karra at 15 on the crew - stayed there learning the ropes until I joined the Academy. Feeling like Operations may be the way forward for me - like Chief Keval said: I like tinkering."

Min nodded. It was pretty apparent the young man was uncomfortable discussing his childhood, not surprising to her given he was of both Bajoran and Cardassian heritage. Life on either world would have been rough given the animosity between the two peoples.

"What specific areas of Operations have you found interesting so far?"

Alenis smiled. "Well... I suppose life on the Jian'Karra has shown me what life is like when you just have an engineer: if it ain't broke it won't get fixed until it properly breaks and the spare parts are never available when you need them. Guess that's what first interested me in the 'management' side of engineering and the need for regular maintenance of specialist systems. I've really enjoyed work with the power management side of things."

"She was a freighter I take it?"

"Xepolite." He replied with a nod. "Don't think Berant was the original owner either, if you catch my drift. Solomon, the mechanic, always said that if I could keep that bucket of bolts running then a starship would be as easy as a ready on a cool summer evening when the wind wafts the cool breeze thrugh the coconut trees." He finished the sentence imitating Solomon's rich Trinidadian accent. Seeing the woman look at him as if he'd gone slightly mad he coughed quickly and added "Sorry, in-joke."

Min nodded. "You'll find things are a bit more up to date and organized then the civilian freighters." Min picked up a padd and handed it to Taban. "Those are your quarters assignments. Galileo runs on a coed bunking system and you'll be *she caught herself before saying 'sleeping with'* sharing quarters with Cadet Freshman Saalm."

Taban looked down at the PADD and memorised the identifier for the quarters. "Oh," he remarked "I didn't know there were any other Cadets aboard. Thank you for that, Lieutenant." He paused for a moment before also asking, in a lower more mumbling tone, "What would you like me to do duty-assignments-wise? I'm really looking forward to learning and getting stuck in."

"At first I'm going to have you shadow some of our operations people for the first little while till you get a feel for how we do things. Probably then we'll get you doing watch standing, which is one of the more important aspects of what we do."

The hybrid nodded, with a smile. "I'm looking forward to it. I'm also more than happy to double-shift either in Operations or in related departments for more experience, Lieutenant. I want to make the very most of this opportunity. I'll even degauss the transporter room manually if it would be useful."

"One step at a time cadet. I know you're eager but take it slowly, learn each part thoroughly."

"Aye, Lieutenant. Thank you for the advice." He replied with a salute before, sensing the meeting was at an end, heading for the door.

END:

A JP BY

CPO Keval Grayson
Operators
NPC Jared Nichols
USS Galileo

Lt Min Zhao
Chief of Operations
USS Galileo

Cadet (SO) Alenis Taban
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

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