Engineering Briefing

Posted on 22 Oct 2018 @ 10:25am by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Azra Ghoc & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Gorvel & Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald Andrews & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Crewman Draia Thero & Petty Officer 3rd Class Lucrete
Edited on on 23 Oct 2018 @ 4:13pm

1,873 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 7, Main Engineering
Timeline: MD -181, 0800

[ON]

Azra wasn't an engineer, not really. She did have some knowledge of the practical aspects of the job, but she wasn't up on theory. Even so, until the Chief Engineer and their Deputy arrived, she had been given the task of overseeing the work of the Engineering department. Luckily for her, everyone seemed to know their job.

She had called a full-staff meeting for all crew in Engineering, whether they were technically on-duty at the time or not. It was important to share the information she had received during the senior staff briefing with everyone in the department. The more they knew, the better they'd be able to do their jobs.

She waited quietly for everyone to arrive.

John rambled in, an overall on as he had been checking out systems in the tubes. All the nice dirty jobs that a third class nut buster got.

Kala was next and as she looked around last to arrive at the briefing "Sorry, little hold up in the corridor" She said apologising as she moved to the group and nodded politely to the others.

Donald was one of the last to arrive. He should have been asleep but the message said every engineer so he'd dragged himself out of bed and hoped that this was something important, getting to sleep again after this was going to take some doing.

Having reserved herself a key location near the primary console, Crewman Draia Thero was in position to raise one questioning eye ridge at Donald's near-late arrival. The Cardassian engineer had not only positioned herself with a clear view, she had secured herself a small stool to sit upon. Comfortable places to sit down were few and far between on Draia's shifts. She made a point of stretching her legs out and gently massaging her thighs as she listened.

Azra activated the holographic display above engineering's primary console and had it show the same rotating orthographic technical schematic of a Nova II-class starship that had been displayed during the senior staff briefing earlier.

"This is our new home. We are currently on our way to the station at Regula One. This is the first Mark 2 Nova Class off the production line so you should anticipate some minor issues. Although this ship was put through her paces, we all know how many issues can slip through the cracks. Any questions so far?"

"Welllll....," John drawled that out a little. "All is fine and well but we are just cruisin' along at not real fast due to the freighter. The same thing back on the Schofield. Not much strain on the systems. Just a wonderin' if might run somethin' up chain of command and get permission to pull ahead and do some simulated battle maneuvers. That is when the Sh..., the stuff hits the fan. I would hate to find out things are problematic when it counts."

"I'll recommend to the captain that we do some stress testing," Azra said, and made a note to do just that. "Any other thoughts or problems that have already come up?"

Kala shook her head "Had a few issues with overloading sonic showers but that's fixed now other than that its just waiting until we get put through our paces, I am confident however that the ship will perform well." She said her mind wondering to Kai and how the two met for the first time repairing his shower.

"I agree, she does need putting through her paces before we go too much further." Donald said.

Her eyes narrowed on the representational tactical map, Draia raised a hand up high, as if she were still in her training days. "What's there to do at Regula One, Chief?" Draia asked, and her expression opened up with eagerness. "What's our purpose?"

"For now, escorting freighters. Given that we're a scientific vessel, with a strong focus on planetary sciences, I believe it is a safe bet that we'll be investigating something to do with planets. Beyond that, the simple truth is, I don't know." Azra looked around at the gathered crew. "Starfleet is keeping the details of our mission close to the vest, and that's part of being fleet, right?"

At that, Draia nodded at Azra's words with a quirk of a resigned smile on her lips. "It sure is, Chief," she chimed in. Galileo had always been a mystery to Draia; literally always. Draia's very first contact with Starfleet had been the original Galileo and her crew had stirred those first confusing sparks of adventure and duty that eventually propelled her to enlist.

It seemed that the questions so far had been exhausted, so Azra continued the briefing. "We have a new warp reactor and fusion drive, and the latest bio-neural gel pack computer infrastructure. While those upgrades are all well and good, the number of engineering personnel aboard has been reduced. That's because Starfleet felt that the design was more efficient, and thus, until the kinks are worked out, it's going to be more pressure on you. Additionally, we are responsible for any major repairs to Galileo's shuttlecraft. They include a Waverider and two Type-six shuttles, a maintenance workbee, and one Type-fifteen-A shuttlepod. It's a lot of work, I know.”

"I think we should be able to keep up with the workload, I know the Captain is interested in cross-training the crew so maybe we could get some guys from the other departments learn a few basic things to leave us with the heavy lifting?" The Trill suggested looking around at the others to see what they thought.

"Not much of the stuff in here could be considered 'basic' chief." Donald replied. "It takes a fair while to train an engineer, even in the basics."

"Suppose we could put out sort of aptitude test to see who has the most. Some of the science types should have some electrical background." John replied.

"Aptitude test is a pretty good idea, some people are naturals or have had previous experiences working with mechanics so maybe we could filter out the rabble" The trill said agreeing with both of the comments.

"Pardon me, Sir," Draia piped in, "Did I hear you refer to people as rabble?"

Azra broke in before things got too far off topic. "Crewman Thero is right, even if some people could be considered rabble, none of them are aboard. Each of you volunteered, and were chosen for this mission. The same goes for all of the crew aboard. As for aptitude tests, I already have a list of personnel seeking Engineering cross-training, as well as those who have talent in related fields and would benefit from learning some engineering processes."

"I don't think we'll need additional hands outside of engineering, barring any emergencies," Azra said, "but I will evaluate that on a moment-by-moment basis. If you feel that you need a hand during your shift, contact me. I will arrange for support. Until there is a need, keep to your duty schedules. Any further questions on the work we need to do?"

Draia pursed her lips and examined the overhead with a sense of intensity as she pondered what else she craved to know. The sense of the unknowable was overwhelming to her on this tour of duty, and she didn't know enough to even know what she didn't know. Draia could only shake her head in the negative.

"Petty Officer Hollenday will be watch lead for Team one, Petty Officer Daniels will be watch lead for Team Two, and Chief Gorvel will be watch lead for Team Three. Because we do not currently have any commissioned engineers aboard, this is a responsibility each of you will have to live up to. If any of you have routine questions during your watch, ask your watch lead. If there is an emergency, or a question that they cannot answer, contact me. Any questions?"

John made a bit of a face. The last thing he needed was to be responsible for anything going on that required engineering. Still Azra was correct, no real officers aboard so that made Engineering pretty low staffed. He raised his hand, "Yes, if I might, any idea if we might get some more people at Regula when we get there? I cannot believe they launched us without even an Ensign on staff."

Azra smiled. "It seems pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?" she asked. Although the question was rhetorical, she could see the agreement on the faces around her. "Apparently Starfleet had one of the designers of the ship slated to take the Deputy slot, but he dropped out and took the officers he'd chosen with him to another assignment. So here we are. I can only assume we'll have Engineering Officers assigned by the time we reach Regula, but that's only an assumption."

"In the meantime," she said, "take advantage of this opportunity. If any of you have interest in becoming officers, this is an exceptional chance to show your leadership skills. Additionally, with the long transit between here and Regula, you have a chance to take on whatever additional training you would like. But we can get to that later. Any other questions?"

"What kind of troubles can we expect?" Draia asked, tilting her head back as her question came to mind. As much as she had sufficient training on the workings of a starship, the young Cardassian hadn't logged nearly enough space hours with the thrumming of warp drive beneath her boots. "The Galileo is factory fresh," Draia said, "but can she really cruise for six months without a breather?"

"No," Azra answered, "Galileo can't go quite that long without resupply. That's one of the reasons we're traveling with this convoy. We'll be restocking periodically. While Operations will be taking care of the logistics and inventory, Engineering may be called on for help. Good question. Any others?"

Kala thought for a moment before raising her hand and saying, "I know the Galileo is fresh out of the factory but that only means we need to be extra vigilant to maintenance. Sometimes this can be the first major stress test for a lot of these systems as some, if not most have only been run on simulations. On top of the 6-month journey ahead of us alone that's pretty taxing on any starship, we can't get complacent just because she's new."

"Exactly," Azra said, "some things will work better than expected, and some will just go belly up. Regardless, keep on our toes. If there aren't any other questions for the moment, let's get to work."

John nodded, "Well at least we get to stop by a starbase if anything too seriously shows up. Might be the last stop with known friendly faces. Well guess if nothin' else best be getting back to work."

[OFF]

--

CWO3 Azra Ghoc
Boatswain
USS Galileo-A

Chief Petty Officer Kala Gorvel
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Wyatt]

PO3 John Hollenday
Engineer's Mate
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

Crewman Draia Thero
Engineer's Mate
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

PO2 Donald Andrews
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

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