Old Family, New Home

Posted on 05 Jan 2023 @ 5:29am by Ensign Amanda Turell & Chief Petty Officer Afthinam Naime

1,782 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: USS Galileo-A Ensign Turell's Quarters
Timeline: MD 09, Early Afternoon

[ON]

Trial had been a wonderful ship, it had been a home for Naime. But more than just a home that ship had been a family. In the weeks following the battle Naime had done her best to look after Hel and the other survivors, she'd felt it was her duty as an extension of her role as a CPO. But now the survivors had been dispersed through all the ships in the task group, the family was no longer whole, but in Naime's mind that didn't mean she wasn't going to stop looking out for it.

Naime hadn't spoken to Amanda since they had left Regula I. With all the problems in engineering she simply hadn't had the time and she felt some considerable guilt over that fact. Ensign Turell had had a tough time on Trial even before Latari and after the battle things hadn't exactly gotten any better. The old crew needed to stick together with nobody getting left behind and so Naime had found herself standing outside Amanda's quarters. It was now the time the two of the had arranged and so with an uncharacteristic amount of anxiety she tapped the doorbell and following the chime said "It's Naime."

"Hey, it's unlocked." Came Amanda's voice from the other side of the door.

The chief tapped again to open the door. As she walked in she unslung the satchel that had been resting on her uniformed shoulder and ruffled her auburn hair a little, it was a little anxious tic she had. "Good to see you Amanda." Naime's eyes couldn't help but glance over to Turell's shoulder "How have you been keeping?"

"I'm alright, though the big boss is doing her best to make me not alright" Amanda replied, she pottered around her quarters as she talked, her roomie was not as tidy a person as she was.

"I hear she's that kind of person." Naime hadn't had much of a chance to talk to the captain yet. From what she'd heard Engineering had got off lightly compared to the other departments when it came to inspection and the captain seemed to be generally disinterested in listening to Naime's warnings too. "Daily PT right? Makes me glad I'm not one of you lot." She set herself down in one of the room's chairs "See that's the thing about officers, maybe you get these nice chairs but in exchange you have to put up with all the captain's nonsense."

Throwing a couple more things into her bedroom Amanda sat down on her a sofa. "I'm used to daily Pt, but she wants everyone doing what she wants to do. I'm..... still not at 100% but she's pushing like everyone should be 125%."

Naime nodded, there had been stories going round the ship all week about just how intense the captain was "She's pushing the ship that much too. Us lot in engineering are all a bit worried about it." The chief paused for a moment and scratched her head again "You settling into the new crew alright?" her tone of voice turned very earnest "Me, Hel and the other Trial survivors, we're always here if you need to talk about it."

Amanda smiled, "I know you are but I'm good, I'll be better once I'm back to full me, and when the boss lets me back on proper duty."

"Is that Lieutenant Rice?" Naime questioned, determined to do at least one productive thing for her friend "She's not keeping you on proper duty? I could have a word with her."

"It's not quite like that, it's more like 'adapted duties' she pretty much wants to..." Amanda paused trying to remember her conversation with Aria. "Asess each situation before she considers sending me in, so I don't get hurt more."

Naime nodded, its the same thing she would have done if one of the crew under her command were injured but she could clearly understand any frustration Amanda might have. Its sometime hard to be told to pace yourself "That's reasonable, but don't let her keep you too far from the fun." Naime joked "So what's duty been like here so far? I hope security hasn't been up to too much this last week." She leaned a bit back into the chair, and took a more conversational tone.

"Mostly boring routine stuff," Amanda replied. "after we 'failed' our inspection the Captain had us clean and maintain every phaser on the ship."

"See to me that sounds less 'boring routine stuff' and more in the realm of insane. How many phasers even are there on this ship?" Naime chuckled at the thought but she couldn't shake the feeling that the captain that they had shipped out with was perhaps not really command material.

Amanda chuckled. "A lot more than you think, I didn't mind though. It can be therapeutic, clean weapon clean mind, that sorta thing."

"Yeah, no I get that." The chief's tone took on a bit of a wistful air "Back on Trial when I needed to get my head sorted from anything I'd go down to one of the transporter bays. Pull off all the panels and do a whole hog diagnostic of the system. It was just like..." she waved her hand searching for a word "Routine, you know? You know all the motions and just going through them clears your head." She let out a big sigh, in her mind's eye she could picture it clear as day "Its gone now, of course. I'm going to miss our ship."

"I wasn't on there as long as you but I reckon I'll miss her too. She may have been quite long in the tooth but she was a solid ship." Amanda said, though she knew the Miranda class ship had long been obselete and shouldn't have been considered for this assignment but people well above her pay grade decided otherwise.

"She was old but she had fight in her yet." Her and me both the chief joked to herself. Galileo was a young ship in more ways that one. "You manage to get anything important off?" Naime glanced around the room, the spartan appearance of the quarters seemed to answer her question for her though "Lost all my personal belongings in the battle, its just stuff but its sore to be living in rooms this empty."

Amanda shook her head. "My quarters took a direct hit so I just had Just the clothes on my back and my phaser rifle.... which my boss won't let me keep in here."

The ensign's beloved phaser rile had a reputation back on Trial, or rather the ensign had a reputation of being protective of it. A little feeling of relief came over Naime hearing it made it off, each object they'd managed to save was a victory in the face of their home's destruction. "I'm glad you managed to get something off. It was a custom job wasn't it?"

"Very custom." Amanda said. "Every part perfectly fitted, more firepower for less energy consumption, accurate enough to shoot the ears off a Ferengi over a kilometer away."

"Well I doubt we're going to find any Ferengi to shoot while we're out here. We're a long way from anything so friendly." An uncharacteristic bitterness entered her voice as she continued "Maybe if we're lucky we'll find some Tholians for you to point it at, get them back for what they did to us."

"Now that would be nice." Amanda remarked. "but I'll settle for whatever is at this station we're heading towards, search and rescue, secret station no one knows about. bound to be something there that needs shooting."

"I just hope there isn't too much shooting back at us." or you specifically. Naime held back the thought. "Honestly, I'm hoping this one's easy. That they've just pulled us off shore leave to help out some scientist who left the kettle on and we'll be back home to Regula I in no time."

Amanda chuckled slightly. "I hope so too, but if it's just a busted comms relay or a scientist stubbed their toe so hard they need surgery I'm going to be really mad."

"So long as you don't get mad enough to shoot them. We're not here to be causing more problems." Naime had relaxed from her earlier state of worry, it was pretty clear now that for all the problems Amanda seemed to be doing alright with things and getting back to it well "Its good to hear, you know, sounds like you're doing well all things considered."

"All things considered... I'd rather be on one of the other ships, with a Co that isn't only temporary and who isn't forcing crew she's not likely to see again beyond their limits..... But this is where they put me." Amanda said sighing.

"Yeah, I tried to get a placement on Kali but noo they said, Galileo needs engineers they said." Naime laughed, a tint of bitterness colouring the sound "I mean they were right, we really need engineers. I'm surprised the ship hasn't fallen apart yet. But yeah, the CO might suck but you've always got us to complain to if you need a friendly ear."

"We'll have to see how things go after this search and rescue emergency is over, might be some complaining being done if things don't change." Amanda sighed again. "I'm glad you survived Afthinam, and that you're here."

"Please!" the chief laughed "Only my Dad calls me that, its just Naime." She gave a warm smile, things were going to be alright. "Look, I've got a lot of work to do. We've got problems in our anti-matter flow network to get sorted alongside a heap of other nonsense that engineering needs to deal with, so I won't keep you any longer. You keep in touch though, alright?"

"It's a very small ship Naime, we're sure to bump into each other somewhere on here." Amanda said as she stood up to show her to the door.

"You know what I mean, just like don't get distant." She gave Amanda a firm pat on the back as she headed for the door "We're Trial people and Trial people stick together. But yeah, I'll see you around." The chief gave a familiar wave over her shoulder and headed out into the corridors of their new home.

[OFF]

Chief Petty Officer Naime
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Ullswater]

Ensign Amanda Turell
Sec/tac Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

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