Lights Out

Posted on Thu Feb 9th, 2012 @ 9:48am by Captain James Conway & Commander Zackary Johnson Jr & Lieutenant Chalcey Zhamianova

Mission: A Ship Reborn
Location: Engineering - USS Relentless
Timeline: M0, D2, 0745

Finally, Conway managed his way to Main Engineering. The biggest challenge had been finding a torch from the Relentless' emergency kit on the bridge. He walked in to hear the engineering staff already hard at work with the power distribution problem:

"Ma'am, Lieutenant Damien King, reporting for duty as your Assistant."

He heard the footsteps. He was trained well, and his father trained him to hear things, and to listen carefully. He knew that the sound of footsteps behind him, meant only one thing. He swiftly turned toward the entrance to the Engineering room and stood firmly at attention. "Sir, Lieutenant Damien King, reporting for duty!" He was thinking a mile a minute... what caused the power outage, why was the emergency system failing to turn on all of the terminals as it was supposed to, and... he was hoping his uniform was pressed neatly enough to please the Captain who now stood before him.

"If any of you are not being engineers or being CAPABLE OF BEING UNDERSTANDING ME, be leaving immediately!" Zhamianova's voice rose above the chaos causing a momentary pause in the room.
Her eyes adjusted to the darkness as she surveyed the scene unfolding around her. Who was this person reporting? She had no word of a crew joining her and suddenly she found herself surrounded by people she was supposed to be in charge of.

Chalcey looked King over with her typical intense expression. she had no time for this, hopefully he could multi task and keep his mouth shut. Otherwise, his life was going to become very miserable very quickly.

Catching the captain out of the corner of her eye, she gave a concise explanation, "Captain, eider ve are being having people dat are having no clue how to vork, or ve are being uncovering problems dat Vere left here by de last engineer. Dere vas an explosion. Ve are being needing immediate action, and who is dis idiot here?" She kept moving as she spoke, putting out the fire that suddenly sprang up.

"That idiot, Lieutenant, is your Assistant Chief. I explained this before," Conway said, indirectly scanning the immediate area with his torch looking for the source of the voice. "You have a staff at your disposal. They are all extremely qualified; I picked them myself. I advise you to utilize them."

Damien slightly smiled to himself, but quickly caught himself. His boss... this, Lieutenant Zhamianova seemed to be a very volatile person, and he was going to have to get used to that. It wouldn't be long before the ship was in order, and they were on a very long voyage, living in close quarters, for the entire time. It was fine, though. Damien was used to the varying personalities of Starfleet officers, having served with and under dozens of different officers, of varying backgrounds and races.

Lt. King finished his salute, and looked at the Captain and his department head. "If I may... I think I heard a flutter in the warp drive just before the power went out. I can run a diagnostic and see if that was part of the problem... if the warp drive has an internal issue, it's best to find it now, anyway... and such an issue would explain total power loss throughout the ship." Damien looked at his superiors. "It should only take about fifty minutes to have a status report on the warp drive.

Damien had heard the flutter, despite being distracted by his daydreaming... it was a skill of his: observation, even though he wasn't sure how he did it sometimes. Damien looked around the room. "Lieutenant Zhamianova, may I assign a few of the Engineering staff to myself, and we can begin focusing on the warp drive. If I can, I'm sure it'll go faster." He looked at her, waiting for some sort of rude or smart comment... something he expected, and hoped for.

"It vas indeed de varp drive. No sooner am i saying it is being in need of securing and den BOOM! Dere vas de explosion and de lights being out. How very astute of you. You may be having a golden star. If you are to be vorking under me den your observation skills are being in need of meeting a grindstone like a blade.

"Your eyes are being open, da,Tovarisch? You are being seeing de same explosion I am as you Vere being hearing de 'flutter' of de varp drive? Good. Your diagnoatics vill being de same as I have been running before. It vas not secure and someone vas being attempting to run power before ve Vere ready. Speciba. Gadder your crew. Vat i am being needing YOU to do is being qvick and clean up de aftermath before ve run any testing.

"If you are to being up for dat task I may being letting you trace de rest of de shortcutting ve have being finding. Tank de deities SOMEONE in dis mass of engineering is being understanding of my yelling in RUSSIAN!" Chalcey glanced over at a bright young ensign that was currently swearing at the warp drive in her mother tongue.

"If Ve are being clear, Ve vill discuss troubleshooting after ve have secured power and are being able to valk vithout being falling over eachother. Roll your sleeves up and being jumping in." Chalcey's eye was twitching as she clenched her teeth, hoping the captain, or at least the commander would back her up.

Conway gave a quick nod towards Lt. King. He almost pitied him to be working with this particular Chief Engineer, not that any of them were easy to work with. But he recruited her from leave for a reason. "Lt," he turned to his Chief Engineer, "how long until I have power back?"

"If Ve get dis mess being under control, give me von hour. Dat is vith time being a padding. If oll is being vell, and de explosion is vay i am being tinking, it should being taking only 45 minutes to being repaired. I assure you, if dis staff is as competent as you are being saying, Ve vill have it done before de hour. You are having my vord, Captain." Chalcey shot a hard look toward King. She ran a tight ship, so to speak, and expected every member to follow orders as well as use their brains.

They were running on borrowed time and Chalcey was not about to have her engine tampered with by just anyone. She knew what needed to be done and this was why the captain had chosen her. She intended to surpass his expectations. No matter what it took.

The Captains usual response was to cut his engineer's time estimates significantly to motivate their staff to work harder. However, It seemed Lt. Zhamianova had already covered that step for him. He gave a deliberate nod before walking towards the warp core where several technicians were already hard at work repairing the damage. He thought it best to leave the engineers to their work.

He looked around for his first officer, "What do you think, Commander?"

Johnson wasn't far from the Captain, he to had been overlooking the work already in progress.

"It doesn't look good sir, seems we have little choice but to delay our launch until things here can be sorted out. If it becomes necessary I'll even crawl down a Jeffery's tube to speed things along."

"If you feel brave enough, I would do just that, Commander. Time is in fact against us..."