How Many Engineers Does it Take to Fix a Console?

Posted on Wed Feb 1st, 2023 @ 6:00pm by Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea & Ensign Kateyo Fenn & Ensign Charlotte (Charlie) Washington

Mission: Character Development
Location: Intel Offices
Timeline: BACKPOST :: Before Mission Start
3230 words - 6.5 OF Standard Post Measure

"Hey! I'm Charlie," the ops officer introduced herself to the only person that seemed to be occupying the Intel suite. "I was scrolling through the repair log and noticed you had an issue or two down here so I thought I'd come check it out and see if I could help."

Nayisa looked up from the console she was messing with to see a young woman addressing her. There was no reason for security to be checking repair logs, so she concluded this person was likely from ops. "Yeah, one sec," she replied, turning her attention back to the console to do some quick typing.

After a couple seconds, Nayisa finished what she was doing before turning her attention fully to Charlie with a big smile. "Hi, yes, there have been some workstation issues that we've been having trouble fixing. I'm Nayisa, by the way." With a little wave of her hand, Nayisa led the woman to one of the problem workstations. It had been working fine until the Athena entered this region of space, then it started acting like it was receiving too many requests.

"Sounds like every other system on this ship," Charlie chuckled. "We've had a whole stream of issues since we entered this space." She followed the woman into the workstation and did a quick overview of the system. The ops officer moved her lips in thought and rubbed her forehead. "I think I'm going to need a coffee before I start tearing this apart," she sighed. "Can I get you something?"

The silver haired woman shook her head. "Nah, I've had my fill today. That replicator is the one you want to use." Nayisa pointed to a nearby wall, which had many monitors and screens, as well as a couple little insets that resembled the dispenser for a replicator. The one her finger was pointing at was the far left one, which was further away than the others.

While this Charlie went off to get herself coffee, Nayisa got to work locking down intelligence-specific files. Depending on what the ops gal did, certain resets could break some of the internal systems. It was a monotonous task that was never automated, to her surprise and disappointment. The way these stations handled things was a little different to how other stations around the ship handled them, since not all of the information they handled was for everyone to see.

Teyo entered the room, a look of pure wonderment on his face. He had never been down to the intelligence suite and was beyond curious about what he may discover down here. As the doors closed behind him he looked around the room. Really it was like all the other rooms on the ship, console lined walls, workstations, and monitors; nothing special. The only real difference was that the room was much darker than the others on the ship, he wondered if that was due to a particular reason or if they were trying to keep up the mystique.

"You broke something again?" He said casually to the grey-haired woman by a broken console.

Looking up at the new voice, Nayisa was torn between surprise and letting the phrase "trigger the fire suppressants because this guy is smokin'" occupy her brain as she processed what the recent arrival said. Another yellow shirt... another ops person? Surely one was enough. "What do you mean, again?" She poked, matching his casual tone.

"Again," Teyo repeated as he looked into her dark eyes. "You had a fault a few days ago, fixed by Paxton," he said as he consulted his PADD. "Isn't intelligence a prerequisite for the intelligence department?" He asked with a grin.

Nayisa couldn't help but smile at that. Good to know that the ship wasn't 100% serious. "Isn't the ability to fix something the first time a prerequisite for engineers?" She teased back. There were faint signs of wear and tear on his uniform that hinted to her that this newcomer wasn't an ops guy. In her experience, ops kept their things too clean. "This is a different issue, but still not my fault. I just turned on the station."

"You call a subpar engineer then things are gonna break again," Teyo retorted back. "I'm the elite, when I fix it, it stays fixed. In fact..." he trailed off as a dark-haired woman in a gold uniform came back over to them, carrying a hot drink. Teyo hadn't met her but he had seen her around, she was one of Xavier's henchpeople, married to the nerdy guy. "What are you doing here?"

"Clearly, I'm drinking a coffee. What I'm about to do, is fix that fault," Charlie winked at Teyo before taking a sip of the black coffee in her hand. "What are you doing here? Besides boasting about your own abilities," she smirked, having heard him before she rounded the corner. She had considered waiting to see just what other compliments he might throw at himself, but decided it best to not let things get too carried away. Besides, this was her job after all.

"You were going to fix this?" Teyo asked in disbelief. "Shouldn't you be checking a sensor panel somewhere?" He added, a direct jab at the ops department, which everyone knew was inferior to the engineering department.

"Shouldn't you be off trying to get into the pants of anything that moves? Your reputation proceeds you, you know. It's Ensign Fenn, right?" Charlie smiled, making an assumption as to who he was. Then again, based on the ship-wide rumors of the engineer that was constantly boasting of his own abilities, it seemed she had to have been right. "Maybe we're both in the wrong place, but I don't really want to go off checking sensor panels, and although I'm sure you'd rather be off courting any number of the ship's personnel...maybe we should just work together on this one. What do you say? One good-looking ops officer and a handsome engineer? We could fix this in no time," Charlie appealed to his narcissistic side with a soft smile, hoping all of the assumptions she had made weren't off base.

Nayisa watched the two with some amusement. It was... weirdly comforting to see the friendly rivalry between ops and engineering alive on yet another ship. "Between two brains and a brawn, we have the tools to figure it out," she chimed in with a wink. The silver-haired woman gave the console next to her a pat, "this one won't turn on, and the two over there," she pointed to a nearby wall, "keep crashing. I've looked around a bit under the hood but I'm rusty in my Console Maintenance 101."

"You can't class yourself as one of the brains if you can't even repair a console," Teyo said, a hint of mirth in his voice but not enough for the women to know whether he was being serious or not. "And sidenote, I'm brains and brawn," he added with a not-so-subtle wink. Turning to Charlie he rolled his eyes at her obvious, but also correct, plead to his vanity. "Calling me handsome means nothing while you have that brand on your finger," he pointed to her wedding ring, "unless you're ready to upgrade from dorky puzzle nerd to... well all of this?" He gestured with his hand waving it from his head to his torso.

Nayisa raised her eyebrows, her expression amused but full of doubt at his words. "Well, if you claim to have brains and brawn, put 'em to work, Muscle Man, otherwise I'll have to kick you out." She grinned at him as she crossed her arms, "no loitering in the hall of spooks."

"By all of this you mean good looks that only last one night and a boat load of trouble?" Charlie chuckled. "I'll stick to my dorky puzzle nerd, but thanks for the offer. I'm flattered. Now you can either help me fix this, or move along. As much as I love a good flirt, I don't have all day," the ops officer gave a sly smirk and turned to face the troublesome console without waiting for a response.

"Well you were correct when you said boat load..." Teyo began to say when the console he was leaning against started to bleep, loudly. He turned to face it and pressed a few buttons, "is this correct? The thing were here for is highly classified?" He asked as he tried to open the incoming file.

Nayisa heard "highly classified" and practically leaped toward the console. "Nope, nope, not that," she quickly said, nudging his hand to try and send the file elsewhere, literally any other console but this one. This console was being finnicky and opening files without asking for clearance, which was a huge problem. "I mean, the console is the problem, not the file. Don't worry about the file, it doesn't exist."

"You spooks are all so touchy," he said to Nayisa as he rolled his eyes. "What's the point of having all of this knowledge if you're unwilling to share?"

With the file gone, Nayisa looked up at the engineer and gave him a cutesy smile. It was somewhat flirtatious but obviously contained some secrecy. She had no intention of telling him anything, and she kept that intent easy to read in her expression. "Simple: it doesn't concern you. But don't worry, I'll let you know if it ever does." Realizing she was well within the engineer's personal space, she took a step away as she turned her attention back to the console. "The issue ticket was for consoles malfunctioning, so that's what you get to see today."

"I think I have to side with the engineer here. You're no fun," Charlie chuckled. "I suppose you're not wrong though. I think I found the malfunction. A shorted wire on the power return relay. Can you shunt off the power to section Delta 946? Then I can repair the short and we'll be back in business."

Teyo rolled his eyes, clearly she wasn't going to play ball and he was annoyed about that. He moved over to the console and activated the ship's EPS power grid. "Power shunted," he replied in a bored tone. "Any monkey could do this job," he grumbled to himself but loud enough to hear.

Man, peer pressure was brutal. Nayisa remembered being told about how her peers would pressure her into doing drugs, but nobody prepared her for the peer pressure of wanting to fit in. Of course, she couldn't cave and reveal secrets, that would go against half of her job title, and she couldn't get demoted any lower than an Ensign. A thought then occurred to her, and the silver haired woman grabbed a nearby PaDD and began typing on it, her thought process tuning out the engineer's remark. "Let's hope that's the fix for all of the consoles. An easy repair job means more buffer time, right?"

"More buffer time?" Charlie said, unsure of what Nayisa was after. An easy repair job just meant an easy fix and then they were on their way to the next issue, but she quickly waived the question from her mind and finished the repair. "Ok grease monkey," she chuckled at Teyo. "You can re-enable the power pathway, I think we should be golden now."

Nayisa jokingly rolled her eyes as she continued to type on the PaDD. "First rule of any repair job: say it will take longer to fix than it will actually take. You look cool for finishing early, or when you're done you can take a minute to chill, it's a win-win. Have you been going through life without looking cool or taking a break?? Damn, girl, we need to get those priorities straightened out."

"Are you encouraging us to ditch?" Teyo asked as a grin crept along his face. "For the record, if there is a record? Hell you guys only operate in records. So, for the record, I'm officially against this, I take my job very seriously and I would never slack off." There was a short silence as he looked at the two women in turn. "Seriously, though what did you have in mind?" He asked as his grin turned into a full smile.

Charlie narrowed her eyes, intrigued but not convinced yet that she wanted to ditch work. "I'm listening..." She added to Teyo's request for information.

"What? No, no, not ditch," Nayisa clarified, lifting her attention to the two crewmates. "It's just allowing yourself the option to take a breather before going to the next task. I would never condone playing hooky, not unless it's for good reason." A console on the other side of the room beeped, which made the silver-haired woman turn her head. "I gotta get that. You two stay here and finish up, please and thanks." She gave a polite smile before she quickly walked to the console that beeped.

Charlie shrugged. "Maybe you and I should just ditch while she's looking at another console," she joked. The ops officer happened to turn her head back to the screen just as a mysterious file opened up. "Did you press something?" She asked Teyo.

"Me?" Teyo asked in mock sincerity. "I just want to check that the console is working that's all," he added with a wink.

The console beeped again, bypassing the security protocols that usually asked for security clearance. It proceeded to open the file and begin scrolling through various metrics and what looked like analytical data, which seemed to be the bulk of the data. After a moment, the console then asked if the user wanted to continue.

"I don't think we're supposed to be seeing this," Charlie whispered to Teyo.

"You can't tell me you're not a bit curious," Teyo said as he skimmed the list of files. "This looks interesting," he muttered, opening a request for some spare surveillance equipment for a research station that had been sieged by pirates.

The console then showed the details of the request:

Official Request from Starfleet Intelligence
To Be Read Only By:
P'Rel, Lieutenant, USS Athena
---

Ampere Station is a research facility that specializes in cutting-edge physics experiments and is currently working on a top secret weapon that uses gravitational waves to disrupt the resonant frequencies of antimatter. It was recently taken over by a group of pirates known as the Red Frost, who are known to contribute valuable items to the black market. There is no action to reclaim the station at this time as the ground situation is still unknown. The Chief of Intelligence aboard the USS Thunderbird will oversee infiltration operations and has requested additional surveillance equipment. Current records show that the USS Athena is expected to be within proximity of the USS Thunderbird on stardate 47634.44. If approved, the USS Athena is to rendezvous with the USS Thunderbird to transfer equipment.

---

End of transmission.



"Oh, I'm definitely curious," Charlie replied, almost physically unable to tear her eyes from the screen. "I think those pirates need a new naming committee. Red Frost? Seems like a lame pirate name," she chuckled.

"Agreed," Teyo said. "Sounds like one of your husband's nerdy holonovels."

With the two sufficiently distracted, Nayisa quietly slipped away from the other console and found her way back to the console Charlie and Fenn were ogling over. "Are you two always this nosey?" She tsked, her dark eyes glancing between the two of them with some amusement. Despite her amusement, she knew now how closely she had to watch the two. Their self control really sucked, especially the engineer's. "I tell you the console's broken and in the five seconds I'm gone, you two go exploring."

"It's not really our fault that it popped up, we didn't open it on purpose you know," Charlie retorted, but maintained a smile. "Seems like you guys need better security protocols for your documents when consoles are on the fritz."

"I mean it was pretty much begging to be opened," Teyo said agreeing with Charlie. "You just can't pass up these opportunities, that's the whole reason you got into intel, right?"

Nayisa rolled her eyes. "Hardly. I got roped into intel because of my skill, not because of a desire to know everything. I bet you two would push a big red button if it had 'DO NOT PUSH' printed on it in big letters." With a tap of the console, she "dismissed" the file, in that it was dismissed to the trash. No need to keep around fake reports. "Besides, if it said for someone's eyes only, that means only one person can read it. You don't want any spooks comin' after ya." With her last sentence, she held up her hands and wiggled her fingers, the same kind of movement intended to warn children of the tickle monster.

Teyo laughed the kind that showed all of his teeth. "I'm sure we can handle ourselves, right?" He asked looking at his Ops counterpart.

"Right, most definitely," Charlie nodded with a chuckle before looking to Nayisa. "Maybe you could even teach us a thing or two about avoiding spooks? We should all get together for drinks sometime, maybe some holodeck sims. I get the feeling that the three of us could get in plenty of trouble together." The smirk on her face told everyone in the room that she was more than game for some fun and mischief.

It was Nayisa's turn to laugh. "The irony of wanting to know how to avoid spooks by inviting one for drinks... I'm game, though." She looked at their work and nodded approvingly. "Let me just run a quick test, but otherwise your efforts here are much appreciated. Oh, I can give you one quick piece of advice for keeping spooks away... don't be nosey, otherwise you get pranked."

"I'm afraid life would be entirely too boring if we weren't nosey. Do you have any idea how much junk my husband would have successfully stored away in secret compartments had I not been nosey and discovered them?" Charlie laughed.

"Pranked?" Teyo asked, clearly disappointed. "You mean you faked this report. Damn, I'm going to have to up my game on our next hangout."

Nayisa smiled her 'reveal nothing' smile and scratched the back of her head. "Glad one of you figured it out, even if it took a hint."

"Wait, what?" Charlie looked confused. "You mean there isn't a group of pirates named Red Frost? Damn, I really wanted to write them some new name suggestions. Oh well. Its been fun anyway, see you guys around."

Another laugh came from the silver-haired woman. As one to put elements of truth into her actions, there was a group called Red Frost, but they were nowhere near as obnoxious as her fake report made it out to be. They were like toddlers stumbling over their feet compared to some of the real bad guys. "If you're inclined, you can share your ideas over those drinks. I'm holding you to that invitation." A positive beep came from the console, indicating that everything was working. "Looks like things are back to normal now. Feel free to stop by again sometime!"