fic: No Such Thing as a Slow Day
title: No such thing as a slow day
gift for: slwatson
gift from: waxbean
genre: TOS, gen, Scotty-centric, Ensemble.
rating: G
word count: ~1000
warnings: Excessive use of bureaucratic forms?
Scotty sat down at his station, a cup of steaming hot tea, next to stack of PADDs, already waiting for him. He cautiously sipped his tea, pausing to appreciate the barest hint of honey. That'd be Ensign Delvan, then. He didn't know where the pretty little engineer got the precious stuff, but he was thankful that she always shared.
He shuffled through the PADDs until he found the one with the crew's current maintenance requests. A quiet routine day on the Enterprise was usually a busy one for his staff. In relatively short order, he'd doled out the usual requests from mess hall (refrigeration again), living quarters (only 24 faulty doors this week), and sanitation (he didn't really want to think through the implications), to a team of capable ensigns. The ones from the Bridge, and probably Medical, he'd have to deal with himself. It wasn't that he doubted a single member of his crew, but with Bridge requests and anything from Dr. McCoy, it was all in the translation.
He opened the files, organized them by date and time, and started with the earliest received request. Of course, it was from the Captain, dated today, about fifteen minutes into the alpha shift.
Form 674-Maintenance
Name: James T. Kirk, Captain
Code: K-1874700
Code: APPROVED
Request: Mr. Scott, Mr. Chekov's chair is squeaky again. You know how I feel about sub-par furniture on the Bridge. Come yourself and bring your tools. Don't send anyone else.
Scotty chuckled. He pulled out his playing cards from behind a small case of his own personal tools. After he finished with the requests, he'd head up to the Bridge to "take a look" at Mr Chekov's chair.
The next three messages were time-stamped within five minutes of each other. They were all from Medical. The doctor must have forgotten his code again, he thought to himself.
Form 674-Maintenance
Name: Leonard McCoy, Chief Medical Officer
Code: M-1770909
Code: Error, invalid code
Request:
Form 674-Maintenance
Name: Leonard McCoy, Chief Medical Officer
Code: M-1770999
Code: Error, invalid code
Request:
Form 674-Maintenance
Name: Christine Chapel, Nurse
Code: C-1770657
Code: Approved
Request: McCoy here. Listen, Scotty, that damn scanner is jammed again - and not in the same place. This time it's the piece that plugs into the power source. No, I don't know what it's called. It's stuck. And it smells funny. Send someone immediately, would you? Never know when I'll need that machine. Could you just come yourself?
Addendum: I need a new code. Something easy this time.
Scotty sighed. Lieutenant Leslie, one his best engineers, was currently on rotation in Sickbay. He didn't particularly like to share his engineers in the first place. But the least the doctor could do was use Leslie for more than just updating vaccine records. He'd stop by Sickbay on the way to the Bridge.
The next message was the one he had been most looking forward to reading.
Form 385-Prototype
Name: Nyota Uhura, Lieutenant
Code: U-2862901
Code: Approved
Request: It was great to talk with you last night, Scotty. Per our discussion, here is my formal request for a prototype initialization. My current earpiece has a frequency reception range of 3.4 meters. I think this range could easily be doubled or tripled by replacing the innermost search coil with a modified alloy. As you said, though, the new coil would probably cause some significant static. But I've been thinking, why not add an additional oscillator? Theoretically, two oscillators should transfer power at an exponentially faster rate that should have a latent function of canceling out the static caused by a flickering power source. Can't wait to hear what you think!
Scotty put down his tea, even though it had finally reached the perfect temperature. He made a few notes right there on Uhura's form. He could all but feel the itch to take something apart for the sole purpose of putting it back together better. There were members of his crew who were much better suited to exploring communications technologies but, if he was honest with himself, he really didn't want to miss out on a chance to work on a prototype. Plus, it was for Lieutenant Uhura. That was reason enough to hoard the project for a while.
Form 873-Hypothetical
Name: Spock, Lieutenant Commander
Code: S-7799220
Code: Approved
Request: I found your last set of calculations regarding the proposed efficiency rating of mid-level backup generators in a hypothetical scenario of radiation-induced power loss to be most intriguing. I have revised my calculations by a factor of .2, thus contracting the standard error by two marks. Though this is a promising improvement, I find that I can only approximate the influence of a radiation leak in the relevant sectors (1-4, 6, 9-15, 27). In your opinion, would the backup generators in those sectors sustain efficient power conversion under such approximated conditions?
Scotty whistled to himself. Must be a very slow day on the Bridge. Usually, Spock's Hypotheticals (the 47th in this sequence) arrived when just about everyone else on the alpha shift was sleeping. Before he could give Spock's ruminations much thought, though, he saw an incoming message from the Bridge.
Form 674 Maintenance
Name: Pavel Chekov, Ensign
Code: C-3422981
Code: Approved
Request: Mr. Scott, the Captain has asked me to remind you that my chair is currently unacceptably squeaky. Personally, I have noticed no such problem. However, I defer to the Captain's sensitive ears. The Captain has asked that I strike the part about his ears from the record. Furthermore, Captain Kirk would like to know when we can expect you. Thank you. Chekov out.
Scotty drained the last of his tea. He grabbed his tools, and his cards, and headed towards Sickbay. If he was lucky, he'd get Leslie to help him fix whatever the doctor was upset about and then be on his way to the Bridge before the end of the first half of alpha shift.
gift for: slwatson
gift from: waxbean
genre: TOS, gen, Scotty-centric, Ensemble.
rating: G
word count: ~1000
warnings: Excessive use of bureaucratic forms?
Scotty sat down at his station, a cup of steaming hot tea, next to stack of PADDs, already waiting for him. He cautiously sipped his tea, pausing to appreciate the barest hint of honey. That'd be Ensign Delvan, then. He didn't know where the pretty little engineer got the precious stuff, but he was thankful that she always shared.
He shuffled through the PADDs until he found the one with the crew's current maintenance requests. A quiet routine day on the Enterprise was usually a busy one for his staff. In relatively short order, he'd doled out the usual requests from mess hall (refrigeration again), living quarters (only 24 faulty doors this week), and sanitation (he didn't really want to think through the implications), to a team of capable ensigns. The ones from the Bridge, and probably Medical, he'd have to deal with himself. It wasn't that he doubted a single member of his crew, but with Bridge requests and anything from Dr. McCoy, it was all in the translation.
He opened the files, organized them by date and time, and started with the earliest received request. Of course, it was from the Captain, dated today, about fifteen minutes into the alpha shift.
Form 674-Maintenance
Name: James T. Kirk, Captain
Code: K-1874700
Code: APPROVED
Request: Mr. Scott, Mr. Chekov's chair is squeaky again. You know how I feel about sub-par furniture on the Bridge. Come yourself and bring your tools. Don't send anyone else.
Scotty chuckled. He pulled out his playing cards from behind a small case of his own personal tools. After he finished with the requests, he'd head up to the Bridge to "take a look" at Mr Chekov's chair.
The next three messages were time-stamped within five minutes of each other. They were all from Medical. The doctor must have forgotten his code again, he thought to himself.
Form 674-Maintenance
Name: Leonard McCoy, Chief Medical Officer
Code: M-1770909
Code: Error, invalid code
Request:
Form 674-Maintenance
Name: Leonard McCoy, Chief Medical Officer
Code: M-1770999
Code: Error, invalid code
Request:
Form 674-Maintenance
Name: Christine Chapel, Nurse
Code: C-1770657
Code: Approved
Request: McCoy here. Listen, Scotty, that damn scanner is jammed again - and not in the same place. This time it's the piece that plugs into the power source. No, I don't know what it's called. It's stuck. And it smells funny. Send someone immediately, would you? Never know when I'll need that machine. Could you just come yourself?
Addendum: I need a new code. Something easy this time.
Scotty sighed. Lieutenant Leslie, one his best engineers, was currently on rotation in Sickbay. He didn't particularly like to share his engineers in the first place. But the least the doctor could do was use Leslie for more than just updating vaccine records. He'd stop by Sickbay on the way to the Bridge.
The next message was the one he had been most looking forward to reading.
Form 385-Prototype
Name: Nyota Uhura, Lieutenant
Code: U-2862901
Code: Approved
Request: It was great to talk with you last night, Scotty. Per our discussion, here is my formal request for a prototype initialization. My current earpiece has a frequency reception range of 3.4 meters. I think this range could easily be doubled or tripled by replacing the innermost search coil with a modified alloy. As you said, though, the new coil would probably cause some significant static. But I've been thinking, why not add an additional oscillator? Theoretically, two oscillators should transfer power at an exponentially faster rate that should have a latent function of canceling out the static caused by a flickering power source. Can't wait to hear what you think!
Scotty put down his tea, even though it had finally reached the perfect temperature. He made a few notes right there on Uhura's form. He could all but feel the itch to take something apart for the sole purpose of putting it back together better. There were members of his crew who were much better suited to exploring communications technologies but, if he was honest with himself, he really didn't want to miss out on a chance to work on a prototype. Plus, it was for Lieutenant Uhura. That was reason enough to hoard the project for a while.
Form 873-Hypothetical
Name: Spock, Lieutenant Commander
Code: S-7799220
Code: Approved
Request: I found your last set of calculations regarding the proposed efficiency rating of mid-level backup generators in a hypothetical scenario of radiation-induced power loss to be most intriguing. I have revised my calculations by a factor of .2, thus contracting the standard error by two marks. Though this is a promising improvement, I find that I can only approximate the influence of a radiation leak in the relevant sectors (1-4, 6, 9-15, 27). In your opinion, would the backup generators in those sectors sustain efficient power conversion under such approximated conditions?
Scotty whistled to himself. Must be a very slow day on the Bridge. Usually, Spock's Hypotheticals (the 47th in this sequence) arrived when just about everyone else on the alpha shift was sleeping. Before he could give Spock's ruminations much thought, though, he saw an incoming message from the Bridge.
Form 674 Maintenance
Name: Pavel Chekov, Ensign
Code: C-3422981
Code: Approved
Request: Mr. Scott, the Captain has asked me to remind you that my chair is currently unacceptably squeaky. Personally, I have noticed no such problem. However, I defer to the Captain's sensitive ears. The Captain has asked that I strike the part about his ears from the record. Furthermore, Captain Kirk would like to know when we can expect you. Thank you. Chekov out.
Scotty drained the last of his tea. He grabbed his tools, and his cards, and headed towards Sickbay. If he was lucky, he'd get Leslie to help him fix whatever the doctor was upset about and then be on his way to the Bridge before the end of the first half of alpha shift.