Can I Help You?

Posted on Sun Dec 17th, 2023 @ 2:17pm by Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Lieutenant Sturgis O'Connell

Mission: Character Development
Location: Engineering
Timeline: After "New Responsibilities"
1360 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Finn noticed the intel officer wandering around asking questions and wondered what on earth she was up to. She already didn't trust her after the lie she'd told on the shuttle about being a passenger. Now she was intruding in Finn's territory.

Finn's eyes narrowed suspiciously on Nayisa as she approached. "Can I help you?" She asked.

The silver-haired woman gave Finn a smile, of course recognizing her not only from the shuttle to Earth, but also from all the buzz travelling the ship about her return. "Hi, Commander!" Nayisa cheerfully said, giving the engineer she was talking to a thankful nod before coming to a stop in front of her. She was completely willing to pretend the lie she told on the shuttle didn't happen; besides, they were currently working, and work demands professionalism, right? "I was hoping to get a few relays repaired, among some other requests, for the intelligence department. Who in your department would you recommend for the job?" Realizing that her words made it sound like she was going to bypass the Commander's approval, Nayisa held out a PADD, "provided the tasks meet your approval, of course."

"These will have to wait until the major ship repairs are completed. After that, Lieutenant O'Connell is probably the right man for the job." Finn paused before looking back up at Nayisa. "You know you can submit these requests through your PADD right? All the requests get prioritized and entered in the queue. No need to ask around engineering in person."

The response was a shrug. "I know about your queue, Commander. I wanted to make sure they were sensible before wasting your time with them. But I can just as easily go ahead and send them if you like."

"Suit yourself. You're always welcome down here just figured I'd make sure you knew. You'll forgive me if I seem a bit suspicious. The last time I had Intel making requests of my team they weren't very reasonable ones," Finn replied, remembering those early days where P'rel made it a point to get in her way. "And that intel officer never lied about who they were." She added.

Nayisa held up a finger in a 'hold on a minute' fashion. "The only thing I lied about was not being on the manifest, Commander," she pointed out. "Everything else I said was truthful, including who I said I was."

"Including the part where you said you were a nobody that just happened to get picked up as we passed Europa?" Finn challenged.

"Eh, a half-truth," the intelligence officer confessed. Nayisa gave a shrug and a smile, "my leave got approved when we passed Europa, which technically made me a passenger. Besides, would we have actually had the same conversation if you knew I was a crewmate?"

"Why wouldn't we? We only talked about rock climbing," Finn shrugged. "Working in intel must've really made you paranoid if you think some random engineer on a shuttle would change their entire line of conversation with you based on a ship assignment or occupation," she chuckled lightly.

A deflection? The brief, and vague, answer, followed by the shifting of the conversation back onto Nayisa, certainly made it seem like it was. Besides, knowledge of her occupation usually did result in a change of conversation, which was why when she really wanted something from someone, she wouldn't usually be in uniform to get it. "You did just say you're suspicious of Intel," she pointed out, her smile widening. Nayisa then stuck out her hand, "we can start over if you like. Nayisa Wrea: truthfully an intelligence officer, definitely on the Athena's manifest, and absolutely still a rock climbing fanatic."

"Finnley Keating, engineering, also on the manifest and decent at rock climbing, much better at surfing," Finn held out her hand for the reintroduction. "I don't suppose you have any sort of engineering background do you?"

"I mean, I know my way around the inside of a console," Nayisa joked, briefly shaking the woman's hand. "But my background is operations."

"Ahhh, ops isn't so bad, but it's a little less useful to me at this moment. I can introduce you to O'Connell if you'd like so you can coordinate with him on your requests once we get through our queue," Finn offered.

Nayisa shrugged, the action intended more as 'sure, whatever' rather than one of disinterest. "Oh yeah, I didn't get a chance to meet him. If he's around, I wouldn't mind a quick hello."

They walked just across the room to where a man was diligently working on some sort of complicated repair. "O'Connell, can we interrupt you for a second?" Finn asked.

"No problem, Commander. One minute," he tweaked a few more settings to get the repair job in a stable spot before looking at the two women before him. Finn he obviously knew, but since he'd never met the other, he proceeded to introduce himself. "Lieutenant O'Connell, nice to meet you," he extended a hand.

Grasping the hand in a firm shake, Nayisa took a moment to inspect O'Connell. He definitely gave off an air of authority, and the firmness of his handshake suggested that he was strong. The dude probably worked out, a lot. "Lieutenant Wrea," the silver-haired woman responded, the rank foreign on her tongue. Ugh, she hated how that sounded. "I was told you would be the one to coordinate with for some work in the intelligence suite."

"Sure," Sturgis smiled. "I can help with that, as long as we have the personnel and the time. I assume none of this is urgent?" He asked.

Nayisa gave a shake of her head. While they were urgent to her, they would augment her duties instead of impede them. "They're not 'save the ship from blowing up' level of urgent," she responded with a chuckle. "They would make life a little easier for us in Intel, that's all."

"Understood. Then they'll be dealt with as soon as we can spare some time, but likely not within the week. Now, if you don't mind, I need to put my attention back to this repair. Nice to meet you," Sturgis wasted no time excusing himself back our of the conversation.

Pleasant, Nayisa thought sarcastically, watching him get back to it. It would be nice for some of this to happen within the week, but she knew better than to try and push a department head and her assistant chief to get things done just because Nayisa saw them as time-sensitive. "Sure, I'll just..." Despite knowing that he probably wouldn’t care to see it, she pointed with two fingers away from him before taking a couple of steps back toward Finn. "He's quite the talker," she said, cracking a smile at her own joke.

Finn chuckled lightly in return as they started walking back towards the entrance to engineering. "Yea, not one for socializing but I'm finding that I appreciate that in an assistant chief." Stopping, Finn looked at Nayisa. "We will get your requests completed as soon as we can, I promise. Don't let P'rel make you think differently," she laughed. "I'll send you a message when you get close to the top of the queue so you know when to expect some of my people crawling around. I'm sure you'll have intel you'll want to secure or whatever."

Nayisa smile shifted slightly, becoming more reserved to the trained eye. She would absolutely secure the sensitive stuff first. Since she didn't have an office to do her liaising in, stuff was out in the open for anyone to see, which she hated. "Sounds good. If you need any help with the engineering tasks, I'm happy to assist." The intelligence officer looked around the room briefly before adding, "you mind if I take a stroll? I'm realizing that I haven't really been in engineering long enough to check it out. I'll stay out of the way."

"Sure, just don't mess with the systems," Finn shrugged, making a mental note to review the systems diagnostics later and ensure that nothing was touched. "Have fun."