Engineering - Day 40 - OPEN

[transwarp_beam]

In the quieter times when no single task was particularly urgent, it was nice to take a moment to enjoy the sounds of everything running smoothly; the blessed absence of shouted arguments and wailing sirens. They were still a little short-handed - another ten engineers would be perfect, but at a pinch he'd happily settle for four - but everything

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[miss_gaila]

Gaila sometimes didn't pick up on human behavioral patterns right away, so it had taken her a while to realize, but now she was absolutely sure: Scotty was avoiding her, and probably had been since the spores incident. Unfortunately, she had no idea why. She couldn't remember much about the incident, but knew that Scotty had ended up in sickbay with serious injuries. Surely she hadn't... no, she wouldn't have hurt him, right? Damnit, I wish I could remember.

Scotty had been scheduling them on non-overlapping shifts, but she knew that he was getting off shift as she was getting on, and although she had no idea what to make of their sudden estrangement, she wanted to find out. She considered Scotty a friend, and the man was a genius. Whatever was going on, she wanted it to stop.

She had an excuse to talk to Scotty anyway. When she came on shift, she found him in the ready room. “Chief,” she said formally, "I've completed the report you requested on warp efficiency for speeds over warp 6.”

[transwarp_beam]

Shit. He didn't jump at the sound of her voice behind him, but it was a close thing. With a slightly forced casual air he finished pouring the coffee and turned around, leaning back against the table. None of it was her fault, he reminded himself; pull yourself together. 'Man up and deal with it', as the lads at the GU would have said. Easier said than done, though, especially in such clear flashback territory.

Conversation. Focus. "Already?" he said, taking a sip of his coffee, "Wasn't expectin' it back this fast. Cheers. Have any problems?"

[miss_gaila]

He seemed a little startled by the sound of her voice, but that could be explained by the fact that he probably hadn't heard her come in. However, even after the initial moment of surprise passed, he still looked very uncomfortable. She frowned. How did I not notice this before? Although I suppose I haven't seen him much lately.

She smiled ever so slightly at the comment; she was proud of her efficiency. "Only a very minor one. I discovered a minimal power drain that consistently occurs during the speed increase from warp 5 to 5.5. The source of the drain is, I believe, a minor problem with the way we've calibrated the matter/anti-matter reaction. I've outlined how I believe the drain can be eliminated."

[transwarp_beam]

"I'll have a look at it," he said, nodding. If they could get that power drain sorted, it might fix the knock-on distribution problems they'd been having. It was a relief having a solid, fixable problem to concentrate on.

[miss_gaila]

She handed him the PADD. "It shouldn't be too hard to correct the problem," she said. He looked a little more comfortable now that they were talking about engineering. "Re-calibrating the reactor to use slightly less power should actually eliminate the drain; the dilithium crystals just can't process all of the output at that speed." Unfortunately, there wasn't much else to say about it. She wasn't sure what else to say. She was sort of awful at human small talk, but directly bringing up the problem didn't seem like the right approach either.

[transwarp_beam]

He took the padd and looked over it intently. "All seems pretty solid," he said, half to himself, nodding as he read though it. "Nicely done." See, I can be professional. No problem. "Sorted. Anythin' else I should know about?"

[miss_gaila]

"Thank you," she said, pleased by the compliment. "No, I think that's all." She paused, unsure how to proceed. Just what the hell happened? "I haven't seen you in a while," she decided on. "How's it going?" It had always struck her as a particularly odd question, but humans seemed to find it normal.

[transwarp_beam]

"Uh...no' bad," he said after a moment, trying valiantly not to look like a deer in headlights. After all, it was theoretically possible it had been a perfectly casual, innocent question. "Just busy, y'know how it is. An' yourself?"

[miss_gaila]

He looked a little caught off guard by her question, reconfirming her suspicions that something weird was going on. Why are all humans so confusing? she thought, resisting the urge to actually shake her head. "Of course," she said in response to his comment about being busy. She considered his question for a moment, and then said honestly, "It's been a weird week, but it's nice to be back on full and active duty."

[transwarp_beam]

"Oh aye, it's good t'have you back." And he really did mean that, his own personal discomfort aside. Of course it had been tough being short-handed, especially given how disproportionately much he'd come to rely on Gaila in the relatively short time they'd been working together, but he'd also been concerned specifically about her, more so than any of the other engineers who'd spent time in medbay. "Been missin' you down here."

[miss_gaila]

Gaila actually grinned in response to this comment. He still seemed uncomfortable, but she believed him when he said she was missed. "Thank you. It's nice to be back, and I'm not very good at sitting around and doing nothing." She liked to feel that she was getting something done, and she loved working in engineering, loved focusing on mechanical problems. It was one of things that'd been constant throughout her life, something that made sense, even if nothing else did. "Besides, someone needs to make sure the ship doesn't fall apart when you're not on duty."

[transwarp_beam]

He made a face. "Was workin' two shifts a day for a couple'a weeks there. Christ it's good t'have another reliable pair'a hands around."

[miss_gaila]

"Sounds stressful," she said. "A lot of the ensigns really don't know what they're doing yet, but they'll get there. I'm sorry I couldn't be here, but..." She shrugged. "I guess I was pretty sick... Although I don't remember much of anything that happened in the last few weeks." She carefully watched his face for a reaction to this comment.

[transwarp_beam]

"Refuse t'believe I was ever that useless..." he muttered, shaking his head. Of course that wasn't entirely fair. They'd learn in time. But being saddled with a department consisting almost entirely of people with no experience in the field was more than a little trying.

He stilled a little, his expression going carefully neutral. "Aye, I'd been wonderin'," he said, not particularly trying to pretend the question was casual when it so clearly wasn't; "How much y'remembered'a that first mission."

[miss_gaila]

She laughed. "I'm sure you weren't," she said. It was hard to imagine Scotty making the sort of rudimentary mistakes a lot of their ensigns did, although she could see him experimenting with disastrous results. She'd heard about the fiasco with Admiral Archer's beagle.

It was a small comfort that he didn't try to pretend nothing was wrong. She almost didn't want to admit that she didn't remember, because then he really could try to brush it off, but the truth was the only thing that made sense. Which is usually the case. "Nothing, Scotty," she said, looking at him seriously. "I don't remember anything. Things were normal, and then I felt a little ill, and then... nothing."

[transwarp_beam]

"Oh thank christ for that," he breathed, trying not to visibly sag in relief. He paused. "Uh...sorry. It's no' exactly-" Another pause. "Well, I know what I mean."