StarBase Engineers know nothing about Propulsion systems

Posted on 13 Apr 2019 @ 4:27am by Lieutenant JG Lilura Karakalakss & Captain Jonathan Reynolds

Mission: Shakedown
Location: USS Andromeda - Main Engineering
Timeline: MD1, March 1st, 2395
1370 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

A light growl came out from under the main power intermix chamber control console. The USS Andromeda's Chief Engineering Officer was partway inside those controls and working on the resonance balance sensor controls. The StarBase personnel had set them to default, but that only got them to 92% efficient. They didn't understand the need to get to 97% plus, and Lilura liked taking equipment to efficiency 100 + % status. Still, she gave allowances, but that did not stop her annoyance at the situation

At the entrance to Engineering, several engineering crew were studying the activities of their new CEO, while nearby StarBase engineering crew were having fun at her expense. Both groups were surprised by the sudden appearance of the captain, Commander Jonathan Reynolds. Ensign Traybalt called out, "Attention on Deck."

"At ease crew men," Jon said. He didn't need all that pomp every time he had to step into engineering.

Ensign Traybalt replied, "Yes sir. Our Chief Engineering Officer has arrived and is working currently with the Warp Core." He paused a moment, then said, "Uh, sir, she isn't your typical race.. ummm, we're not sure what to make of her yet."

Jon cocked an eyebrow not sure what to make of that. Of course he had not seen their personal file yet either. "Well she's your chief Ensign so find a way you can all comfortably keep this boat floating."

Ensign Traybalt replied, "Don't worry, sir, we will.... " He went back over the others with them smiling as they looked among each other with whispers of, "Not that way" "We like her.. just.. " "Shh, he'll find out."

At the console, legs, and a tail? were sticking out. The feet were in a partial shoe, the toes and heel fully exposed, with the toes showing very large claws upon them. The tail suddenly whip-snapped moved to grab a bio neural alignment tool and bring it underneath the console. A melodious voice was heard, saying, "And, there we go, 100% at plus 2% alignment, until we get into warp for further adjustments." She scooted out from under the console to see a standard galactic humanoid near her, dressed in ships garb, and sporting Commander pips.

Before Jon, on the floor, was a 6' 6" 'Lady Dragon' in a starfleet uniform, albeit with fur, and ears, no wings. She smiled up to him with a very expressive muzzle, her ears cupping to face him as she said in a melodious, albeit tenor voice, "Hello there, I'm Lieutenant jg Lilura Siana Karakalakss, Chief Engineering officer, at your service. You're a commander, and as this is a Galaxy class, you're maybe Second officer or XO?"

"Close Lieutenant," Jon grinned despite himself. He now understood the ensigns comment. "I'm the ships commanding officer. Thought I would come meet you in person. Sorry I haven't had a chance to see your personal file. What race are you?" he asked curiously. He wondered if they would need to make some adjustments in engineering and … perhaps the observation lounge to ensure she could work comfortably. Although having seen what he had just seen she didn't seem to be struggling with that tail quite the opposite.

A gurgle sounded deep with Lilura's chest as she stood up. Now her stature was readily evident. She was four inches taller than Jon, except her expressive volume of hair and her ears made her seem seven to eight inches taller. She smiled at him and replied, "I am a Soliodaran, from Soliodara in the L'Tandrey Protectorate." She nodded her head in appreciation and followed up with, "Nice, you're tall for a Terran... wait.. not quite Terran, your auric signature doesn't match up to typical, so you have another race involved.. Umm... brain pattern shows telepathic, and you're not Sumerian, so, you're half Betazoid, maybe?"

"That's a hell of a party trick," Jon chuckled, "I thought the pupils usually gave it away."

Lilura melodically chuckled. She replied, "I have sensory organs comprised of electrical sense ampullae under the yellow striping of my body. I can 'see' the electrochemical aura your nervous system gives off, including structures within your brain." She gestures to the console, "Believe you me, it comes in very handy in being a Chief Engineer, as you can imagine." She patted the console, even as her tail moved to put shift, pick up, and put the cover panel back in place. As it held the panel there, the cordless screwdriver moved of its own accord to attach it into place. Her ears flicked as she said, "Being of a psionic race helps to recognize psi brain signatures. I am telekinetic, but don't have telepathy, unlike my family."

"Well glad to hear there's some brain structures in there," Jon nodded thinking on his ex wife for a second before adding, "some would disagree with you. It's the other way round for me. I have the telepathy with most races but as I'm a hybrid my gifts mainly empathic."

"So what have we got going down in engineering Lieutenant?" He asked cheerfully. The floating screwdriver was certainly odd to watch. It would likely take people awhile to get used to seeing stuff like that he mused.

Lilura mused, "Empathic Telepath, that makes it rather nice in diplomatic situations, I bet." She motioned to the engineering spaces with her head as she replied, "Just you're usual install techniques of starbase personnel versus starship. The starbase techs, while they mean well, keep putting everything in under default deployment, and even with the ship's name and signature information, that doesn't mean much. Each system has its own unique identifier with system routing protocol so it knows what it is supposed to be specifically doing, and helps keep one system going down from affecting another. So, I am having our team follow along to put in the association codes, then run the diagnostics to make sure the modules are talking and operating correctly. Diagnostics.. well, eat up time, and the crew is anxious for some shore leave, so I have them working a six hour shift with an order to set up 12 hour plus diags before they leave.. that way results are there when they return and they can keep going on the little stuff." She raised an eyebrow, "Is that, okay with you, Sir? Do you need to change it up?"

"No," Jon said happily. "That all sounds pretty good. Make sure you get some shore leave too yes. In fact we have a big diplomatic event coming up in a few days. I want all senior officers in attendance," he told her. "Dress uniform."

Once again, a gurgle sounded within her chest. She replied in her rather pleasant, modulated, contralto voice, (Hers is a rare range of C3 to F6, versus the standard low female voice of E3 to E5) "Of course, Sir, I will definitely get in some shore leave. I love finding out about other cultures. And about the event, I think I can pull off a dress uniform with curvy style, Sir."

Jon wasn't really sure where she was going with the curvy style so decided as with most females who seemed to want to talk clothes with him to just nod and said, "Excellent. I will see you there."

She gurgled again, "I look forward to maybe bumping into you out and about Sir." She now intoned, "'May your hunts go well and bring in plenty for family.'"

Again he wasn't sure on the "Hunts" reference. Perhaps it was part of her species philosophy or just the language barrier he reasoned. He would make sure to read up on her species culture himself to avoid further future confusion. "Thank you," he decided was probably the safest response. "And to you too Lieutenant."

Lilura merrily went over to the grouping of ship engineering crew. "Okay, boyos, the console is ready for your tweaks." She turned to Ensign Traybalt and asked, "Okay, next link up the feed, lead the way, let's get on it. I want to get out of here by bar rush time, I love seeing the various outfits and body types moving too and fro."

OFF:

Lieutenant j.g. Lilura Siana Karakalakss
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Andromeda

Commander Jonathan Reynolds
Commanding officer
USS Andromeda