Movin' on Up
Posted on 07 May 2015 @ 7:33pm by Ensign K'os Beaumont & Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm
2,996 words; about a 15 minute read
Mission:
Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 7, Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 01 - 1350 hrs
[ON]
"Lower...no a little more. Keep going...there!" K'os hung seemingly precariously down the side of the warp core by a harness. It was a job he could have delegated to someone else, but when Grayson had told him he'd like the warp core casing polished prior to the tour with the Klingons, he had jumped at the chance to do something that sounded so fun. It was starting to get a lot less fun, when he realized how hard it actually was. The Crewman operating the system above him was quite jerky with the movements, and the harness was now beginning to dig into his legs and hugging his crotch quite uncomfortably.
"Okay, I'm good here." K'os said waving off the Crewman. It was the last section to clean and he was hoping to finish it quickly. He had a study date with Grayson right away so K'os could practice for his Academy exams. After two years of hard work on his off duty time, and recently with the help of Kohl, he had finally received word that he was eligible to take the officer exams. He was just finishing the last spots when he spotted the Acting Chief below him.
K'os wasn't paying attention and he overextended his reach. His balance was shifted and he dipped a bit to the right, losing grip on the cloth he was holding. He instinctively reached out for it with both hands in a mad scramble. His body-weight shifted on the line and he dipped so far forward that he completely turned himself upside down. The hard hat he was wearing hit the side of the casing and he rolled along twisting his left leg up in the line. His attempts to use his ab muscles (which normally would have been no problem) were useless as the hook on the harness had twisted too. With each attempt to right himself, it caused him to swing more from side to side, bumping and twisting along the casing.
"For Pete's sake!" He yelled out in frustration, before he started to laugh uncontrollably. "Jones!" K'os shouted.
Grayson gave a rather audible laugh, a little more than what he ever would have intended. His hands instinctively came to cover his mouth. "Okay, I know we were going to be cleaning, but that whole, clean the core and shine it up...was a joke. If you have a toothbrush in your hand, you really have taken my sense of humour far too literally." Obviously he had ordered some kind of clean, he just wanted to rub a little salt in the wound as he went to get a holo-imager.
"Jones!" K'os said between laughing fits, "Where are you going? Get me down. What do you mean it was a jo-- is that a holo-imager? Nooo, don't you dare!" K'os laughed again but crossed his arms in mock annoyance as he slowly swung from side to side.
"Just a little something for a memory...or some kind of ritual humiliation in the future," the Chief smiled as he took a few images...from several angles. "The camera loves you! Work it!," Grayson was beside himself laughing, but stopped before it got a little out of hand. "You better get yourself down and meet me in my office. There are a few things I need to go over with you, that is, if your wall crawling, web slinging days are over...Spiderman." Grayson was a great lover of old Earth comics and things called Disney movies, he had started to slip a few references now and again.
K'os couldn't keep the frown on his face as he attempted to hide his grin. He was relieved when the crewman above finally decided to lower K'os to the ground.
K'os walked into Grayson's office, holding the hardhat under his arm casually. He hadn't bothered to take the harness off yet, and it was starting to chafe. "Do you leave everyone hanging like that?" He chuckled and began unbuckling the harness. He turned around and pointed at buckles along the back, "Help me with these at least, Mr. Jones?"
"If I have to," Grayson smirked. Not that he could admit it, he found K'os rather cute standing there like that. Now that he was a Chief, atleast acting for now, he had to put aside such feelings. 'Chalk up another negative to ranking up' he thought. "And no, I don't leave everyone like that, just the under performing Engineers I happen to like," his jokes continued with his usual boyish charm and grim, making clear the under performing words got a wink and sparkle from his left eye. Bit by bit he began to undo the harness, tugging on it suggestively did cross Grayson's mind, but he thought he had put K'os through enough for the one day.
When Grayson had finished, K'os slipped out of the harness and put it and the hardhat aside before facing the Chief again. "The admiral has agreed to administer and grade my exam in a little while. I hope you have some helpful last minute advice for me." His face lit up, "Or maybe I should go over some review with you?"
"Why not do both! You have been studying long and hard for this, you are ready," Grayson began. "I'll start with my hints and tips then we can run over some things if you are still unsure.
One. In every situation that can be presented, go for the simple obvious first. Scenario questions and challenges start out that way, they will want you to demonstrate you know the basics of engineering that can be applied to any ship.
Two. Check twice, press once. Before submitting anything or turning anything on, check it twice. Those extra few seconds could mean extra marks. The best will in the world we can't get everything right the whole time, exam conditions make things that little bit worse.
Three. Have faith in your abilities. You can do this. You are a damn fine Engineer. If you weren't, I would have let you know long ago and head you off the ship." Grayson gave a raise of his eyebrows as he let his usual joking smirk spread across his lips.
K'os mimicked the smirk briefly before his cheeks turned a bit red at the compliment. He looked at his feet modestly, "I'm just a systems specialist and technician addicted to learning. This..." K'os looked back up at Grayson, "This exam is going to be life changing for me. It opens doors I thought I had shut for good. I appreciate your support, lieutenant, thank you." He folded his hands behind his back and started to pace in thought, changing the subject before it could get more person he said, "Do you think there will be any trick questions?"
"There is always one designed to push you, see how you can think on your feet," Grayson replied with a scowl, remembering his own tests and trials over his Academy years. "Just have faith in yourself, and think. I can't say more than that."
Just then, K'os had stopped pacing for a moment to look at Grayson carefully. "Were you ever nervous during the final exam, or anxious even?" K'os had something more pressing to ask, but was a little hesitant to get to the point.
Moving to sit on his desk, a sign of opening up, Grayson began to recall his own experiences, "Ofcourse! There would be something wrong if you never. It would show you didn't care. A little bit of nerves keeps us on our toes. I remember one of my ex boyfriends having to calm me down before an end of year Warp Field Mechanics exam. I panicked so much I forgot the warp field speed table. He had to bring me round from a blind panic." Grayson gave a soft smirk as he remembered loves gone by.
K'os resumed pacing, it didn't seem as though that answer put him at anymore ease. He stopped and opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind and resumed pacing. He wasn't trying to be obtuse he just wasn't comfortable getting so personal. He finally stopped pacing again and said. "If you were me and you had the ability to choose between feeling extremely nervous and anxious, but remembering everything in your textbook or feeling completely calm and relaxed but only remembering things by instinct, would you consider that cheating? That I had that choice?"
Pondering how to structure his answer for a moment, Grayson finally began, "This is going to be a little long winded and a bit of a rant, so, bear with me. Being calm and relaxed I would not consider cheating, but, like you asked, if it was me, I'd be worried I wasn't nervous and anxious. This job, this ship," Grayson patted his desk affectionately,"and her crew mean a lot to me. I'm going to be anxious I do my best and my results would reflect that and any future position I had. As for nerves? I need them. Nerves keep the best engineers on their toes, I'm not saying I'm the best, but I like to think I am good at what I do. When it comes down to it and you are in and out of ship systems every day, you start to think less and less that a ship comes out of a textbook or tech manuals, they start to act more like living machines with a personality and tricks all to their own. I've been lucky enough to work under some fantastic engineers that taught me that. Now and again, these things are going to surprise you, things in the book are not going to make sense in the real world. These tests are designed to challenge you in that respect. Take your learning, apply it to the real world then throw you the odd 'curve ball' to see how you respond.
'What I'm really trying to say is, keep a little bit of those nerves, they keep you sharp, focused and ready for anything that comes your way. It is a natural emotion to feel, suppressed, in control or not. However it expresses itself within you, use it."
K'os had stopped pacing to study Grayson's face as he spoke. He nodded slowly and stepped a bit closer to the man. "I can do that." K'os agreed. "And I can hit curve balls, Mr. Jones. If you're using baseball analogies, a high and outside fastball is my one big weakness." He grinned, which became a smile quickly after. "Want to practice some fastball before the Admiral arrives?"
"Your going to regret saying that," Grayson replied with a smug look on his face, his spots almost began to heat up with anticipation as he thought of the most challenging scenarios he could. "The warp core is failing, breach is less than 60 seconds away, ejection protocols are off line. Response?"
K'os and Grayson had been hard at work reviewing some last minute topics here and there. It was quite apparent that K'os knew the material very well. But as Grayson had pointed out earlier the trickier questions were always the ones that required instinct or applying knowledge to abstract and real world scenarios.
"...oh yes, I see what you did there." K'os agreed, hunched over the display screen. K'os pointed to something on the display, "So you just extrapolated it from that data there, run that number through the system and it'll regulate from there." K'os nodded enthusiastically to show he understood now.
"It's just a trick you pick up with experience, so technically your now more advanced than the tests," 'All going well,' thought Grayson.
With a loud swish of the main engineering doors, Lirha stepped into Galileo's familiar engine room right on time for her requested presence. It was a bit of an unorthodox request compared to the familiar duties she was used to performing, but it strangely felt honorable to be requested to administer and grade a young petty officer's officer exam.
The Orion wandered further into the room and looked around, then quickly spotted both the chief engineer and the person she assumed would be taking his graduation exam. "Hello, lieutenant. Petty officer," she greeted both of them with her green hands clasped professionally behind her back.
"Admiral," Grayson gave a curt not as he stood up away from the desk to stand at attention.
"I understand someone is working on their Academy exams?" she asked in a light voice, looking towards the engineer's mate.
K'os beamed a dimpled grin towards the Admiral. He'd been smiling most of the day now and his cheeks were starting to get sore from it. "Yes, Admiral." He said, bringing his heels together when he said it. He was feeling calm and content enough that when he came to attention it was more friendly than crisp. "Thank you for taking the time to come down, Admiral, you must be really busy with the wargames looming."
"Not a problem, Mister K'os. I am always happy to help a future-officer complete their studies," she replied with a bright smile before briefly reminiscing. "I remember my own Academy training days in San Francisco, and in hindsight, I would have much preferred to have done it while deployed. Experience is the greatest asset to a Starfleet officer, not necessarily the academics." There was a reason why a Starfleet ensign straight out the Academy was considered the most dangerous person aboard a starship, and the Vulcan hybrid's on-the-job experience was a most valuable tool.
"I am ready to begin when you are," she said, motioning towards the private CEO's office in the engineering bay. "It should take no more than four hours for you to complete the exam."
"Best of luck K'os, not that you need it," The Chief called before taking his signal to leave. "Admiral," he gave a curt yet professional nod as he went to continue his tasks for the day, not that he would be able to keep his mind fully on them as he worried about the exam taking place in his office.
"Thank you, Lieutenant." K'os said as he watched Grayson leave. His body was vibrating at the realization that everything he'd worked for was actually coming to it's culmination. He'd thought this dream was behind him, and now here it was staring him straight on. He gently guided his thoughts away to clear his mind, and in one deep breath released his nervousness. He smiled, at the Admiral. "I'm ready, Admiral." He said.
"Very well." Lirha produced the PADD with the enlisted officer's final exam questions already queued up, and offered it to the young man while waiting for him to enter the engineering office for some privacy. "I will be waiting here in vicinity while you complete it. It is 200 questions in the format of multiple choice with the majority being short answer and two final essay questions. And you may inquire if you do not fully understand a question," she offered. "You have two hours to complete it. Good luck, Mister K'os."
K'os took a deep breath and let it out slowly, forming a dimpled grin at the end of it. "Thank you, Admiral." With that he turned and headed into the office.
[A Few Hours Later]
It wasn't that the questions were particularly hard for K'os, but they were certainly challenging. For the engineering and operations specific questions he drew on his 3 years experience as an Impulse Systems Specialist on the Mississippi and his 2 years experience as an Matter/Energy System Specialist. If had solely consisted of these questions, K'os would have been done ages ago. To become a starfleet officer, one had to be somewhat of a generalist so as to be moved from department to department. For the majority of the exam, K'os used a balanced mix of using his gut instinct like Grayson had instructed him or using emotions to access his detailed memory, allowing various feelings to whirl around his head. By the end of it, he was glad that he'd chosen to major in engineering and minor in operations. While science was one of his favourite things to study, he was more at ease with working in fields that required working with his hands. After reviewing some earlier questions, K'os finished up and left the office to look for Admiral Saalm.
Coming from the replicator with a steaming mug of hot chocolate in her hand, Lirha moseyed across the small engineering bay and quickly sighted the young Vulcan hybrid who appeared to be finished with his test. "Mister K'os, have you completed your exam?" she inquired as she strolled up to him.
K'os looked down at his PADD as if it's contents held something very special to him. He nodded and stepped closer to the Admiral. He hesitated for a brief moment before finally looking up and smiling at her with a dimpled grin. He extended his arm and handed the PADD to her. "I've completed it."
Reaching out with her green hand, Lirha took the offered tablet from him and clipped it to her belt. "Well...I suppose now you play the waiting game," she teased with a coy grin. "I will return to my office and grade your answers. Expect to hear from me within the next hour. And...congratulations, ensign," she added with a wink. When she had first taken the exam from him, she'd noticed the automatic scoring subroutine displayed at the top of the screen, and realized that even without having graded his essay questions yet, he would pass the exam.
[OFF]
--
RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Atlas
Ensign K'os Beaumont
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Galileo
Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo
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