Part 2: Miracle Worker 101

Posted on 20 May 2017 @ 8:04am by Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones & Ambassador Soral Varro
Edited on on 24 May 2017 @ 5:28pm

2,285 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Earth - San Francisco, Starfleet Academy
Timeline: MD 02, 1500 hours

ON:

Varro stood at the academy glad that the course was casual enough. He changed out of the messy uniform into a pair of jeans and a button down shirt. He'd washed up a bit and greased his hair.

He stood now in front of the meeting room at the Academy doing some mingling. He headed over to the refreshment table to get a drink of water. They had said the class would start soon. He wasn't fond of the instructor but what he didn't know what that the original instructor was delayed. A new one, one he'd met earlier, would take his place.

While on the other hand, Grayson had changed into a uniform. He was covering for one of his friends who wasn't feeling well, this particular friend's 'not feeling well' was usually code for being hungover. Thankfully he was scheduled to speak at this class tomorrow anyway and offered to cover. He was going to give a very casual, laid back talk with a question and answer session at the end.

As Grayson strode into the room, PADD in hand, he called out. "Thanks for coming everyone, please take a seat. I'm not the instructor planned for this course today, I'm stepping in for Commander Ryan who is out with some version of the Andorian Flu. I'm Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Grayson Jones. Former Chief Engineer to a Nova Class starship and soon to be on way to the Advanced Starship Design Bureau. Welcome to this impromptu class I like to call Miracle Worker 101 or more affectionately, 'How to Pull your Head Out Your Ass in a Crisis'

Varro had just been drinking when Grayson walked in. At his announcement Varro swallowed the water wrong and began to cough. He quickly recovered suddenly reddening at the attention. He sat in the back and kept his head down. Twice in one day and both times he looked like a clown in front of people. What was this young Trill hybrid doing to him. He had some weird 'embarrass thy self' powers that caused Varro to, in fact, embarrass himself.

For the next half hour, Grayson spoke rather eloquently and passionately about his work. He gave those sitting plenty of material to work with, some common fixes people overlook, advice on how to carry such repairs out, some of his more genius off the cuff fixes and knowing when to admit there wasn't much more to be done and how to eject things from a ship. He stopped to take a drink and then opened the floor up to questions before finishing up.

Varro had been busy taking notes as Grayson spoke. He had to admit that he wasn't board and this man kept the lecture interesting. He had questions but for some reason couldn't bring himself to ask.

A young Ensign stood up, "Ensign James Elder, sir, I have a question. When you've launched a probe and the telemetry readings cut off I have heard there is a way to long distance jerry-rig the secondary boosters, which are usually never used, to fix the telemetry sensors and processors. Is that true?"

"Only if you have a science officer who is smart enough to coordinate with engineering. Such things are possible with a subspace shunt to interface with. I normally would recommend having one installed if you know the probe is going beyond range or in areas of electrical or signal interference. The shunt signal is on a different frequency. Have the shunt programmed to do a variety of on the spot corrections and I see few cases in which something like that would work."

That was a step too much for Varro. Shunts and frequencies He felt a headache coming on. He stood up to ask his question and smacked his knee, in a rather undignified manner, on the side of the desk flap which he had forgotten to lower. He winced. "Soral Varro. If your shuttle craft's stabilizers are offline is there a way to use lesser systems to create a bypass to jump start them?"

"First thing I would consider is a 'hot restart', the engineering equivalent of turning it back off and on again in a hurry. It will clear most problems, things like that usually are a command error and are quickly fixed. You get control back pretty quickly. If that doesn't work, I'd recommend handing thruster control over to the autopilot and having the pilot themselves work to slow the ship as quickly and safely as possible in the most secure place possible to do a cold restart. Shutting the system down completely, purging it of all power and starting it again from fresh."

Varro made notes.

The rest of the class was filled with questions and comments and he got some good notes out of it. Varro closed not his PADD and headed out when the class ended. There was to be a small reception after. Varro's own New Romulus talk was not for a few hours so he decided to go ahead and get a snack.

"Didn't expect to see you, Ambassador," Grayson said as he noticed someone else at the snack table. He hadn't eaten all day and was planning drinks with friends later, food right now was the best idea. "I hope you enjoyed, I'm not much of a speaker but more a hands on teacher kind of guy."

Varro looked over at the young man with the teal eyes. His own green eyes turned ice blue as they did when emotions simmered under the surface. "It was good done...I mean very well done Mr. Jones." He said using the last name trying to create a bit of distance. "I've been to engineering seminars and the usual parade of overweight partially sober engineers tend to ....that is I didn't mean you were overweight or drunk. You're quite fit and very good lo....at speaking." He coughed a bit. What was it with this man. Varro turned away. "I should perhaps go."

"Don't," Grayson smiled, "thank you for the compliment." He noticed the change of eyes and was intrigued, yet stayed silent for now. "Stay, mingle, get to know people. It is what I plan to do for a while. As for the sober part. I will have to leave before long, meeting friends at a bar later." The young Trill gave his usual precursor to flirting and a wry, half smile that showed off the dimples he had. "How is the Captain though? Any word on the shuttle and how repairs are going?"

Varro smiled back. The young man was certainly handsome. His smile was genuine and warn and Varro noted it pulled a genuine smile from him. He wasn't easy on those but in addition to looking like a ninny when he was around Grayson he smiled more. "She was quiet grateful. I'm sure she'll be seeing you soon. She would like to meet you." He too would be at a bar tonight. On the anniversary of Marcus' death he always had a drink, a tradition since that first year. He tried to recall Marcus's face now but for some reason the sadness and panic stayed away. He refilled his glass with water and chanced a glance at Grayson. "It is good to be out amongst those one trusts. Are you celebrating something?"

"Freedom from an ex," Grayson openly admitted and he raised the glass in his hand in a mock toast. "It has also been a while since I have been home, I was out in an assignment for a while and have a bit of free time between postings, or rather, what Starfleet has planned for me next. I'm between here and a project with the Advanced Starship Design Bureau. My friends organised it to catch up, to meet in the bar we all used to meet in while at the Academy. It is a little away from campus, but certainly a lot of fun and a place to really let your hair down."

"Sounds..."

Before Varro could finish the shrill voice of Apple interrupted. "There he is!" She shoved Varro aside, "You must be Grayson Jones." He held out a hand.

"Captain. I assume it was your shuttle I managed to limp back home?" Grayson asked as he accepted and shook the Captain's hand.

She smiled. "Yes it was you saved Granny Smith after this dolt broke her."

Varro's eyes shifted sapphire, the interruption of Apple was somewhat an unpleasant surprise. He wondered why that was. "I did not brake the rotting apple."

"Hush." She turned to Grayson now. "I'm Captain Apple MacIntosh and you my friend were hard to track down." She pointed at Varro. "All this ninny said was, 'It was fixed by a teal eyed... Ouch! Varro you stepped on my foot."

"Sorry." He said, clearly not.

Looking a little confused, Grayson decided to gloss over the interaction between the clearly close friends. "Just doing my duty Captain. I hope the engineering teams have been treating the ship well and keeping you appraised of the situation."

"They have young man and I will make sure you are rewarded handsomely." She looked at Varro for the first time her Betazoid senses tingling. She linked her arm in Grayson's "So tell me about yourself young man." She enjoyed the spike of frustration from Varro.

"No reward needed Captain, please," Grayson blushed. "There isn't much to tell. I'm just back on Earth after a stint as a Chief Engineer. I am between here and a project I am working on with the ASDB. So I am back and forward a bit. I have hardly been home since leaving the Academy, so getting time to catch up with friends has been appreciated."

She smiled. "Well I'm sure we can find something as a reward." She walked with him over to a bunch of seats expecting Varro to be behind them. When she turned he was gone. "Figures he'd leave." She shook her head and studied Grayson as if he were a subject. Her head swivelled back to where Varro once stood and then back to Grayson. "Well he left in a hurry. Tell me about your encounter with Varro, you obviously didn't get his usual Varro treatment otherwise you wouldn't be talking to him now."

Grayson smiled uneasily, quite perplexed about what was going on, "He was fixing the ship when I arrived, perhaps a little too confident of his abilities if that isn't out of turn to say so Captain. He was able to assist me in getting the ship back. Then before I knew it, he was at the class, asking a question similar to what had happened to the shuttle. We were striking up a good conversation afterwards. Now he has appeared to have had other engagements to attend to."

Apple smiled, "Oh honey that ain't it. He's running scared." She patted his hand. "Anyway you probably ain't interested in that. Now did I hear you say that you were going to a bar to celebrate freedom from an ex?" She laughed at his facial expression. "Oh Honey I'm like a bad apple," she winked, "I wind up in the most interesting places and hear the most interesting things. This ex, this woman must have really done a number on you."

"He was a Betazoid, untrained in his mental abilities. We grew close and lets just say I ended up with headaches so bad I was practically put into a coma. I broke it off and transferred out as quickly as I could. I miss the ship, but, with all the extra pressure that went with it...and on a nova class as well. It wasn't best suited," the Trill admitted whuke trying to banish the painful memories and the memories of pain out of his head. "Tonight is about starting fresh, doing things right and not getting involved with things or people that cause all that again."

Apple smiled, "Well that's wonderful honey.." Then the words hit her. "He was Betazoid?" Her grin became Cheshire. "Have you picked a good place to celebrate?"

"Yeah," Grayson grinned remembering one of his favourite places, "there was a bar my friends and I always went to at the Academy. A few of us even worked there in some capacity at some points. The Lounge, down in the Castro district. It can get a little wild and, free spirited, shall we say. It is one of the few remaining bars round that cater exclusively to those of us who still love old Earth pop music, fruity drinks, shirtless dancing and handsome barmen." He laughed, realising the place sounded like a pick up bar.

Apple laughed, an evil plan forming in her mind. "The Lounge. Sounds like a good place. What time will you be there hun?"

"I'm not too sure in all honesty. My friends have it all planned. They have one of the VIP booths booked. Thinking of joining us Captain?"

She smiled, "Oh I have some conferences but you never know there might be some familiar faces there." She smiled and then turned to Grayson. "Well when you're done enjoying your weekend come and see me bright and early Monday morning. I would love to continue our conversation. You did save my shuttle from Varro and I owe you lunch."

"I look forward to it Captain," Grayson smiled. Earth was beginning to feel like home again. He couldn't wait to go home, get changed and begin the festivities for the night.

Apple headed off to find Varro, her plan must be set in motion.

OFF:

--

Lt (JG) Grayson Jones
Engineer
Earth

&

Ambassador Soral Varro
Chief Diplomatic Officer
Earth

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