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

Comments

[im_a_donnie]

It had been five days since the incident deemed 'response test' had happened in engineering. Donnie hadn't spoken to the chief face to face since then. He'd come in when the chief had been too busy to see. He'd promised to work on background engineering activities through messages. But he hadn't seen him since having seen him lying on a gurney in a seemingly bad way in sickbay. So it was surprising to see him walking through the room all of a sudden.

His coffee sat getting colder and colder in front of him. A piece of toast was eaten halfway as he reviewed lab reports and a list of all the things that the normal engineering crew didn't really want to do, small things that he could take over while the majority of engineering spent time on the larger things.

He looked at the chief as he bit into his toast again and gave him a small, uncertain nod.

[transwarp_beam]

"Alright?" Scotty said, raising his mug in a lazy half-toast. He took a sip and grimaced. By the end of gamma shift the coffee had always been brewing long enough to turn to sludge. But it did the job.

[im_a_donnie]

He shrugged then nodded at the question. He mimicked Scotty's sip to wash the bread down and shared his grimace.

"C-coffee's cold," he admitted, coughing a little as he swallowed the bread. "I'm just looking over..." he held up the list so the Scotty could see the engineering list. He put the list back down and took a breath.

"I know it was a few days ago...and fake...but are you--I mean--are you good from the--" When Donnie was at a loss for words he let his hand do the talking, swirling it around until the word he needed came to him again, "--training exercise."

[transwarp_beam]

"Ah, y'been workin' on that stuff we were talkin' about?" Scotty asked, wandering over to peer with interest at the padd. He blinked at Donnie; "Wha- nah, m'fine, was nothin'." Admittedly he would have really appreciated being warned beforehand just how much the chemicals they'd used to induce symptoms were going to smart, but that was all in the past now.

[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.