Meeting the Engineer

Posted on Tue Jan 18th, 2022 @ 10:00pm by Captain Dirk Taggart & Lieutenant JG Elliot Light

Captain Taggart entered the engineering department, he enjoyed walking through the ship and seeing the different parts that made up the whole of this magnificent vessel. He had been impressed with Lieutenant Light's performance several days previous when he worked with Lieutenant Levesque to try to find a way to assist crew members they hadn't even met yet. He decided proper introductions were in order and long over due. "Lieutenant Light please?" he asked a young Ensign as she jumped to attention. With a nod of thanks he walked in the direction she had pointed.

Elliot Light didn't notice the Captain's arrival. He was too caught up with some little project he had on a table, something with old-fashioned, green circuit boards hastily fastened together with a few resistors. The man hummed to himself a bit as he worked, back turned towards the entrance of this little cubby of engineering.

"Excuse me, Lieutenant is this a bad time?" the Captain asked as he approached the engineer. "I was hoping to speak with you for a few minutes."

"Oh?" Elliot looked up, setting down the piece of circuitboard he had been working on. "Not a bad time at all," he smiled, standing up in attention, although he did so slowly and casually. He hadn't really met the Captain, except for their rather stressful time on the bridge. "What's up?"

"I wanted to make sure you were settling in alright down here. Things were a bit tense when you arrived and I wanted to thank you for stepping up and assisting Lieutenant Lévesque on the bridge. I can see though," the captain motioned towards the circuit board that was just set down, "that it appears you have begun to settle in."

Elliot followed the Captain's motion and grinned when it brought back down to the circuit boards. "Frankly," the human shrugged, carefully setting down an old school soldering iron so as not to burn himself. "I can settle in about anywhere." He leaned over to flip a switch, turning the iron off now that his hands were devoid of both circuit board and iron. "And up on the bridge? That was just my job. Though I am pleased to work with people like Lévesque. Having nice coworkers sure makes everything easier."

Captain Taggart laughed slightly, "After being assigned to multiple posts you learn quickly to settle in just about anywhere. Solid coworkers definitely make it easier. I'm sure you've noticed already but our engines have some damage and the industrial replicator is also broken. We are rendezvousing with the USS Astraea to obtain some parts they have made for us. It may be a week or two since we can't warp above 6 or 7 but we will have Penny running at top speeds again in no time."

"Ah. Yes." The Penny, huh? Was that what they called this ship? "There are a couple people looking at the engines right now. As for the industrial replicator; I found this old part in storage. Very old." He chuckled. "I was going to fix it up, see if it could help. Probably won't work, but oh well. Worth a try." Besides, working with old tech like this was fun.

"Yeah, she is the Pennsylvania, but I call her Penny for short, she's been a good lady to us so far. The previous Chief engineer bartered for some of those old parts, but most were incompatible. You are more than welcome to try though," the Captain said optimistically.

"I'll try," Elliot smiled. He was not perhaps so optimistic that it would work, but he was optimistic that it would be fun to try. Either way; he was still getting used to how the ship functioned. As it was, he was trying to stay out of the way of the other engineers a bit while they got her up and running again, instead working on specialized, isolated problems like this one. "Everything holding up on the bridge all right?"

"Everything is fine at the bridge, but I've got another meeting to attend, I will check in again with you soon Lieutenant Light," Taggart replied before exiting the engineering office.

#TheEnd