Neighborhood

Posted on 17 Oct 2016 @ 7:15am by Lieutenant JG Natalya Kirilova & Commander Luke Wyatt

1,815 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo, Sector 071 - Deck 7, Main Engineering
Timeline: MD -03 - 1400 hrs

[ON]

Luke played with the baseball he had in his hand throwing it to and fro from one hand to the other, he was nearing the end of his duty shit when the Admiral asked if he could go and check on Main Engineering. Despite having a console and a crewman designated to Engineering on the bridge he knew it was because Lirha could tell he was getting bored. Whilst in transit his job consisted of staring at data charts and monitoring the flow of fleet traffic painting a picture of how the fleet was moving and where it was, it changed constantly of course and the computer done most of his job for him.

Moving through the ship took longer than usual as he walked at a slower pace to waste time, he had stopped by the mess hall and picked up a quick snack before making the rest of the way to engineering, the baseball he found on the floor in one of the turbo lifts. Before long he came in eye shot of the Main Engineering doors and walked in. It was still Alpha shift so it meant that it was pretty busy with crewman running around in their yellow shirts stringing sentences together that his Marine head couldn't comprehend. Standing just in from the doorways threshold it only just struck him then that he couldn't even remember the last time he came down to engineering... if ever, and his lost expression was painted on his face.

No one greeted Luke straight away. It was debatable whether anyone even noticed him the first few seconds he stood there. Most of the engineers either had their eyes glued to their workstations, or they were facing the warp core at the far end of the cabin. Aside from the beeping of various LCARS interfaces and the soft hum of the intermix chamber, it was rather quiet. Almost too quiet to be the heart of the ship. It wasn't always like that, of course, but at that moment calm reigned.

At that moment Natalya appeared from her adjoining office. She'd been approaching one of the other engineers to follow up on a report when she spotted the visitor. "Lieutenant Wyatt," She said pleasantly, recognizing the ship's strat-ops officer "welcome. You've arrived just in time for today's intermix efficiency report." She smiled, as if he'd arrived at the perfect moment for a highly exciting event. It wasn't.

Natalya had met Luke more than a few times in briefings and such, but they'd yet to speak more than a few words to one another specifically. She knew nothing about the man really, except that he was well-regarded, and had been with the crew for some time; longer than she had, certainly. It was a strange thing... serving aboard a much smaller ship than she was used to, she'd expected to know all the crew by now. Yes, she did know most of the names, but not the people. Not yet.

Seeing the chief made Luke smile as he side stepped two crewman who had their heads buried deep into their work as they walked out of the doors. "Thrilling, I love a good report" He joked now closer to the chief, "You're not too busy to give an old man like me a tour. I don't really come down here much, well at all and the bridge can be an awfully boring place to spend an entire duty shift."

For a brief second Natalya looked shocked. A tour? Initially she found it hard to believe that someone who'd been on the ship longer than her still hadn't seen all of it, but then she remembered that members of her department got around a bit more than most. Natalya had been to the science labs to install or calibrate instruments, but many of the scientists hadn't yet been to her domain.

"You come to an old woman like me for a tour?" Natalya said half in jest, as she very much doubted that Wyatt was any older than she was. She turned and took a few steps back into engineering. "Well come on then." She said, apparently agreeing to guide the tour.

"These are our primary control interfaces." She said, gesturing to the four consoles just inside of the cabin, two on each side of the door. "Power Distribution, Computer Systems, Propulsion, and Life Support." The four crewmembers manning the stations ignored them and remained focused on their tasks, but one could swear that their backs stiffened a bit as they realized they might be under close scrutiny by officers on an inspection tour.

Luke nodded along taking in the view, he could understand why some people would call the engineering department as the heart of the ship, it was as if all life came from here. "I'm not sure if it's the same here but I am aware that a Galaxy class can use its engineering room as a bridge of sorts. Is that the same case here?"

"It's possible in theory." Natalya said, looking thoughtful. "It would be highly impractical though. The Galaxy-class had the saucer-separation feature, so naturally the designers wanted some redundant command functions in the stardrive section, where engineering is. We aren't connected to the sensors and weapon systems the same way the bridge is though, and we don't have enough work stations to cover the major systems in addition to our own." She shrugged. It was possible, but trying to fight a starship battle from engineering would put them at a significant tactical disadvantage. She almost shuddered at the thought of a scenario that would require such drastic action. Still, she had to admit it was probably a very good question for someone in his position to ask.

Natalya gestured forward, taking a few steps toward the glowing column of energy in the center of engineering. "This is the intermix chamber, also known as the warp core, the most visible component of the matter/antimatter reactor assembly." There was a small railing to keep people from bumping into it, even though it was perfectly safe to casually touch. Many people were afraid of the warp core, and the violent forces contained within. Natalya had been, ironically enough, when she'd first joined Starfleet.

"Ah" Luke said holding onto the rail with both hands the light glow from the chamber hitting his face "It's quiet a beautiful sight to behold isn't it" he said in awe "Just what is the destructive nature of the warp core" All Luke really knew that if this bad boy went off people generally didn't have a story to tell because they'd be well... Dead.

"Antimatter." Natalya said without hesitation. "Still one of the great mysteries of the universe. It reacts with all forms of normal matter... you and me, water, air, even the smallest subatomic particle. That reaction produces explosive energy which we harness to generate power for the warp drive, as well as many other systems aboard the ship." She paused for a moment to let that sink in.

"We have antimattter fuel, matter fuel in the form of deuterium, also known as heavy water, and dilithium crystals to regulate the reaction. All this energy and plasma," she indicated the swirling blue miasma "is from one mere particle of each reacting one at a time. That destructive nature happens when we lose control, containment fails and all that antimatter reacts at once."

To help explain what she was saying, Natalya moved around the warp core, to a wall console in back, which was used to monitor and operate the warp core.

Luke listened with genuine interest as they moved around the warp core "So just how did they come across this? It all seems a a lot of lucky discoveries or did we have other methods before?" He asked this time now watching the chief in amazement, this was all quite interesting.

Natalya shrugged. "If you asked someone from each member world in the Federation, they'd all probably give a different answer. War, cooperation, luck? Many, including Humans, discovered antimatter through particle physics. After learning how to split the atom, scientists and engineers built reactors and particle colliders to try and fuse atoms together and discovered the building blocks of the universe. What they did with the knowledge after, well..." she trailed off. Most Humans, certainly most from Earth knew about the third world war. It had been a significant setback. "We know Zefram Cochrane built Humanity's first warp drive. Sometimes it just takes one person to pick up the pieces and make them work. Others, like the Romulans, don't use antimatter at all... not for warp travel, anyway."

Finding the conversation and Natayla very interesting he smiled "Have you ever considered anything other than being on a starship. You're very good with your words you'd make an excellent teacher at the academy, you're not bias and you're very passionate about what you say. It's rather beautiful really."

Natalya smiled, trying not to blush at the praise. The thought of moving on to teaching had crossed her mind, but it was so far off in the future. After all the time spent trying to get to be chief engineer, there were no real thoughts of being anything else.

"We live for precision and efficiency." Natalya said, almost sounding proud. "My parents are engineers. We're first-wave colonists. I guess it's in my blood. I wouldn't mind educating others some day, but... I'm not there yet. Still like to do and see some things out here... even if I'm not sure what they are yet."

He smiled "Well I say keep doing what you're doing and if I was your parents I'd be very proud, you're a great engineer and you're not like all them greasy hand ruffled hair type either You're pretty and pretty smart" Luke choked at the last part realising what he had let slip. "Well anyway, I best be going I think I've took enough time of your day, It was a pleasure Lieutenant." He offered his hand for a shake.

Natalya's face went slack for a moment as she tried to read into what Wyatt had said. Was it just chit chat, or was he flirting with her? She had no idea, and he seemed ready to part ways for the moment so she let it go. As a parting joke she did make a show of rubbing her hand against her uniform pants before shaking his hand though... you know, to get the grease off. "Anytime, thanks for stopping by."

"No problem, and thanks again Lieutenant." He said straightening himself up before turning with a wave and leaving her behind him as he made his way back to the bridge.

[OFF]


Lt Cmdr. Luke Wyatt
Chief Strategic Ops Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Natalya Kirilova
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

RSS Feed