Open Lines

Posted on Mon Apr 5th, 2021 @ 6:19pm by Lieutenant JG FalenvralLi Zh’kyhrihr & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: By Artemis' Bow
Location: USS Athena - Engineering
Timeline: MD-01
2218 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Li wound her way through the ship, not taking the most direct route, making note of some things she hadn't seen on the ship's schematic, making mental connections for some places she'd wanted to lay eyes on. When she got to the Chief Engineer's office, she tugged her uniform straight and hit the chime.

Finn furrowed an eyebrow as the chime rang, curious as to who was dropping by. It was a bit early for Paton to be dropping by with a report and half of the time he didn't even bother to ring the chime. "Come in," Finn responded.

After stepping through the doorway, Li stopped and blinked a few times at the officer she saw. Not that she'd expected the exact same crotchety, wizened department chief she'd known from the station, but he left enough of an impression that the dissonance was palpable. It threw her back to an earlier time when she'd worked with a budding, attractive engineer her own age. "Ma'am," she said, clearing her throat. "I'm Lt. Li, just transferred into Flight Control from SB621. I'll be at the helm during alpha shift and Commander Sh- Thy'lissa suggested I stop by to introduce myself. Just to sort of put a face to the name or the voice in case anything comes up. I'm new here, but I've been a pilot long enough to know that a good relationship between Flight and Engineering is important."

"A good professional relationship," she said then panicked because, of course, what else could the Engineer have thought she meant? "Get to know each other. Who... each other is? Are?" She swallowed hard and decided to shut up.

Finnley stood up from her chair with a smile. "Nice to meet you Lt.Li." The flight officer was smaller than most Andorians she knew and seemed slightly nervous or apprehensive. Then again, most people were slightly on edge when they met someone for the first time. Either way, it was nice that she had chosen to come and introduce herself.

"Thanks for coming down. Most people don't think to introduce themselves to the grease monkeys in engineering." Finn chuckled as she walked to the replicator and ordered a fresh coffee. "Can I get you anything?" She asked as her mug of liquid energy emerged on the padd.

"Some of my best friends have been grease monkeys," she grinned. "But no, thank you, ma'am. I just came from the mess hall. I'm good." She studied the Engineer getting her coffee. Surely the woman wasn't much older than she. Li's path hadn't been fully direct, but still it was impressive to have a position like this. "Have you been Chief Engineer here long?"

"No, pretty new to the gig actually," Finnley replied as she walked over to her desk and leaned against the front ledge of it. "I was the assistant chief until recently. Unfortunately, we lost the previous chief on our last mission." A hint of sorrow could be found in her response as she recalled the events. Although excited to fulfill the CEO position, it was never how she intended on becoming a chief. Finnley took another sip of the comforting coffee and pushed the thoughts from her mind.

"Anyways," she smiled as she looked up, "have you had a chance to walk around engineering yet? I'd be happy to give you a quick tour if you'd like."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up something painful." Li bowed her head, antennae slowly drifting from side to side. "A tour of Engineering sounds wonderful. I haven't spent much time around the powerplant on a big ship like this. I mean, I did the basic coursework at the Academy, but I haven't really been posted to a ship before. Is it much different fundamentally from a warp-capable shuttle or runabout? Beyond scale and the sort of team it takes, of course." She stood to the side, making clear the way to the door.

Finnley motioned towards the door before answering Li's question. "Fundamentally? No." She said as they walked towards the center of engineering. "Other than the quantum slipstream drive, which is an entire beast on its own. It's like you said really, just a larger scale and more personnel. Other than that it's a simple as a shuttle. What about piloting? Same fundamentals or are there other considerations you have to take into account other than size?" She asked, genuinely curious.

Li stepped through the doorway, nodding. "Well, in open space, on a short trip, if all goes well, a shuttle is pretty simple really. That's stacking conditions, but it's sort of the intended use case for a shuttle if you ignore landing. And even a big ship like this, the computer can make a lot of decisions for you, but a decent pilot should be able to make better decisions, understanding context and variables the computer doesn't have access to. Still, the controls are specifically designed to be similar. It's in tight spaces and when things go wrong that the differences really make themselves known."

'Sounds a lot like engineering," Finn smiled. "Well, here's the warp core," she waved her hand towards the towering object that now stood in front of them, flowing with beautiful swirls of plasma. "We tweaked her power algorithms so she's running even more efficiently since we reinstalled her. There's another just like it in the saucer engineering section and the same in tertiary engineering." Finnley exuded a sense of satisfaction as she mentioned the refined algorithms. Having the most efficiently run engineering department was a point of pride for her.

"Right," Li said, nodding. "So does that mean you have three full engineering crews to maintain three separate full-sized warp cores? Or do you find some way to cycle through with about the same staff as a ship that doesn't have to be three ships in one?" She looked around - to her untrained eye main engineering didn't look much different than on any other ship, but then she'd never worked in such a place, just passed through. "Either way, it sounds like you must have a lot of managing to do. Does it get in the way of actual, you know, engineering?"

"No, we don't have three full crews. Just enough to manage the various systems and maintain the appropriate protocols. And yes, it does get in the way of actual engineering. Sometimes I feel like all I do is read reports," Finnley chuckled before continuing to walk. "So why Starfleet?" She asked. They had only just met, but somehow they seemed to click and Finn found herself wanting to know more about her new crewmate.

"Oh, I'm afraid I don't have a very impressive answer to that. I've met so many people for whom Starfleet was their great ambition growing up; either following in their family's footsteps or making a great leap for themselves. When I was growing up, I dreamed mostly of racing skidders across the quadrant with my girlfriend by my side." She cleared her throat. "But life takes you places you don't plan for. I wound up flying together with an engineer on one of the amateur ship racing circuits. She was older. Retired from Starfleet. We had a lot of time to talk between races and I guess it sounded like something... more? Something more worth flying for than a trophy or to see your name on some leaderboard." She grinned at the happy parts of those memories and said, risked a little teasing, "What about you? Did you always picture yourself juggling maintenance schedules and filing certification reports?"

"You used to race?! That's exciting." Finnley's eyes lit up. Racing always seemed to be an adventurous activity and being a thrill-seeker herself, it was something that was on her list of things to try. "As for me, I've never pictured myself as anything other than an engineer. I'm the seventh Finnley Quinn Keating in my family and we are, or were, all Starfleet engineers." She said with a grin. Her family history and upbringing were important to her and although she sometimes felt overly pressured to be the most model Starfleet engineer, it was a mantle that she felt honored to carry.

Li nodded. "Wow, the seventh, huh? One of my dads did have a little freighter, so I'm not the first pilot in my family, but everyone else stayed on the ground and no one was talking about joining Starfleet. That's quite a legacy to live up to but you seem to be doing well. Chief Engineer already and all."

The two continued to walk around as Finnley presented the various main systems. The QSD, plasma injectors, warp field generators, all of the interesting items anyways. Nearing the end of the tour Finnley directed them back towards her office. "Do you still race now? When you're on shore leave?" Finnley inquired, her interest still piqued in the activity and secretly hoping she might one day convince Li to take her along for a ride.

The rest of the tour was entertaining, as much from Finnley's obvious passion for her department as from anything particularly new about an Engineering department. Some things were different from what Li had studied in her basic engineering courses at the academy or from the analogous systems on a bigger shuttle, but it all pretty much tracked with what she might have expected.

She tilted her head, antennae swaying at the question about racing. "Oh, I would. Pretty much all of those little boats are privately owned and access is tightly controlled though. I mean, they're so custom they're basically all one-offs and the only people who have seen the cockpit are the pilot and engineer. There's... maybe... maybe one person who would let me take a joyride in hers if her current pilot wouldn't kill her for it." She grinned, trying to imagine how she would have reacted to the suggestion of letting anyone else fly her ship when she'd been racing. "No. I have quite a few holos though. Mostly of courses I thought I might race again and wanted to practice. I mean, they always shift the course a bit, but organizers have their favorite little tricks you can anticipate."

Though lost for a moment in memories of her last, short career, Li rethought the question. "Or rather, I don't race in space. I go skiing. Find a motorbike course. Or... actually, you're human. Are you familiar with the Earth sport called skeleton? It's about the closest thing I've found to the Andorian skidders I grew up racing. We had motorized blades for tighter turns and to make up lost acceleration and, well, our courses were a lot longer and more natural and... more full contact head-to-head races rather than competing for times. That's a thrill when I can make it out to a course though."

"I can't say I've heard of that sport actually. It sounds like fun though." Finnley said, a hint of fascination in her voice. The sport truly sounded compelling, as did most of the activities Li had mentioned. She paused and crossed her arms, thinking for a moment before continuing. Finnley tended to be more introverted, but Li had captured her attention and she couldn't deny wanting to spend more time with the flight officer.

"You know, I have holodeck time reserved for tomorrow. Would you be interested in joining me? Maybe you can show me one of the many thrilling activities that you're into," Finn asked. For the first time since she had been on the Athena, she felt as though she had found someone that truly shared similar hobbies and interests.

"That sounds like a lot of fun," Li said, allowing her imagination to picture Finnley in the protective - but mostly skintight - suits racers wore in either skeleton or skidding. She narrowed her eyes though, remembering how her first time - or first few dozen times - on a real skidder course had gone. "I'll have to look at the options on the program I have. We can probably automate it a little so you don't... well, not to show a lack of confidence, but being a beginner skidder usually involves a lot more sudden stops than really fun skidding through the tunnels. The holodeck safeties would probably keep you from breaking any bones but if you're looking for thrills, it'll probably be better that way."

She reached up and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "One of the good things about my parents being so opposed to what I was doing was that they didn't want to see many reminders of it. Some Andorians have this thing of prizing scars as mementos... but my nose would be a mangled mess for as many times as I broke it.

"Wow. You'll have to share some of your stories sometime. For now, I have to get back to it. It was great meeting you, thanks for coming down and introducing yourself." Finn said with a genuine smile. "I'll see you tomorrow at 1800 on the holodeck?"

"Sure, I'm glad I stopped by. It's a - it should be fun!" She scampered off, grinning a little too broadly, quite pleased with how her tour aboard this new ship was beginning.