Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's Off to Work I Go.

Posted on 07/09/2020 @ 4:05am by Ensign Romal Seshel

Mission: S2E1: The Skunil Incident
Location: Engineering Room USS Crazy Horse
Timeline: Day 1 at 0000

"Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they will do wonderful things with them."
-Steve Jobs-

ON:

When one does not sleep, or not sleep well the 0 in 0900 can stand for 0 my Gods, it's early. Such is the case for Xander Cash. Today was the day. He was to assume his new position aboard the USS Crazy Horse. This was to be his time. Chief Engineer, ( albeit acting,) on a Starship. This was not his first command per say. But, it would be his first command were he actually had to follow the rules. And, the first time he would be in charge of an engine room of a ship that he was not tearing down. Needless to say, He wanted to make a good impression. He was kinda nervous. It was one of those days were you could put on all the antiperspirant in the world, and STILL wind up with armpits wet enough to put out a brush fire.

Xander was lucky though. He had his old crew by his side. His "peeps" as it were. They gave his the strength to do the job. They gave his the courage to face the work load. But more importantly, they gave him the body's to blame it on when things screw up. Okay, maybe not the last thing. But it has crossed his mind in the past. Hey, a tiger does not change his stripes. At least not over night.

Xander arrived at Main Engineering on Deck 11. All his old crew were standing at the door. waiting for him. They all smiled when Cash walked up.

"What's this?" Cash asked.

"Well, you are kind of responsible for all of us still being together. We all wanted to see your face when you first saw the place." Said Kar'eem

"Thanks Ears" Cash said.

"Man, I sure hope they got a replicator. I needs a Black Hole." Said Delmar

"I hear ya Pops. It's a Ractijino for me." Cash said looking like Klingon coffee would solve most of his current dilemmas.

"Yeah, just a coffee for me. With a shot of....." Fast Eddy never finished that sentence.

"A shot of WHAT Mr. Felson?" Asked Cash

"Why espresso, of course. Maybe a double shot. Why Cash, what were YOU thinking?" Fast Eddy asked Cash.

Then they all started to giggle. "I like that fish brine that Cardassians drink in the morning." Pig Boy said. The giggling stopped. And they all got a slight look of nausea. All but Pig Boy.

"No accounting for taste, I guess." Said Cash. "What about maybe a hot chocolate for you Latka?"

Latka's face lit us as he smiled. "Tanku veddymuch." He said.

"Well people, here it is. Lets do this. Don't want to be late on our first day." Cash said as they entered. Cash was the last of the 6 to go in. He stopped at the door and carefully looked around. "So, this is an Engineering Room." He whispered to himself.

Just down the hall, the voices of several engineers were heard, busy at what sounded like typical maintenance. Much of the chatter was indistinct and vague, until a few were getting closer.

"Loren, has the accelerator generator been replaced yet?" Romal asked one of the engineers under him.

"Not yet, Sir, but we checked the driver coil assembly like you asked us too and it needs replacing as well." Loren replied, as the two continued down the hallway, closer to the turbo-lift.

Romal nodded, then replied, "Well, do them both. The Captain may need this ship sooner than we think."

"Aye, Sir. If we finish early, can we get some more time at the starbase?" Loren asked.

"Sure, if you finish it early. . ." Romal was about to reply, then noticed a group of engineers he had never seen before. Walking over to one of them that he noticed had a Lieutenant insignia, he introduced himself.

"Hello Sir, I'm Ensign Romal Seshel and you must be Lieutenant Cash, our new chief. Welcome aboard the USS Crazy Horse!"

"Yes, Hello." Said Cash. "You must be my 2nd Banana. Call me Xander" He said

"Before you even ask, yes, I've heard the rumors and I know that you and your crewmates were in the brig." Romal admitted, trying to hold back a smile, "There have been some pretty wild stories about that, but it doesn't matter. You're the chief and we follow your orders."

"Well. don't believe everything that you hear Romal." Said Cash. "But, I will confirm all rumors on that one. Yes, It's true." Cash said slightly embarrassed. "But, what can you do? So, what's on today's agenda?"

"Okay, Xander, here's what I have; Loren, Rick, and Tran are replacing an accelerator generator and the driver coil assembly. Sylvia is fine tuning some food replicators on decks 2 and 4. Fram is adjusting the primary energizing coils on the port-side transporter, deck 4. . .and I was just on my way to observe Fram's work. Those are the current jobs, and here's a list of what remains." and Romal seemed a little stressed as he handed the Lieutenant a PADD with what was left to do. "We might even finish today with all this help. By the way, I read the briefing on the new engineers. If you could call them together, we could pass out jobs for them. Its only a suggestion, though, you're still top banana."

"Tell you what, I'll hand this padd to Ensign Delmar here." He says handing over the padd. "He will assign the jobs that are left to the new crew. "And you and I will go see Fram. What do you say?" He asks. "By the way, I'll want an Engineering meeting of all Sr people. I want to see how they are doing and go from there. would you make sure that is done please?" He asked.

"I say, let's check on Fram." Romal replied, then walked to a turbo-lift. "Computer, deck 4, please." and the lift begin to move.

"Fram Scriver is good with transporters, but she's just starting out and I have to be sure its done right." Romal said, as the lift continued.

"Well, we can always assign her a mentor. Do you have someone who can mentor her?" Asked Xander

"Fram usually calls on Sylvia Plairont if she needs help with anything. Sylvia and Fram work well together. - but to answer your question, I mentor all five engineers. I value their experience and of course, they value mine." Romal explained, using a little personal philosophy.

"As for the meeting, does 5:00 at the aft lounge on deck 13 work? That should give them a chance to finish their work schedule." Romal suggested, as the lift came to a stop and the door slid open.

"Sounds perfect. I'll also need your last efficiency reports on these people. I want to get to know them better. I'll use that as a guide." He said smiling.

Taking the port-side corridor, they arrived at the transporter room and walked in. They found a young engineer on the floor, beneath a control panel to the transporter, a small toolbox laid out next to her. When her head was partially visible, she was quite attractive with short dark red hair was tied up in a bun.

"Can you take five, Fram?" Romal asked, not wanting to rush her, - "or do you need a little more time?"

"Just a minute more and I'll have it, Romal." Fram replied, then after a few grunts with the wrench, "Done, just needs testing to be sure." she then slid herself out of the panel and stood up, brushing lint off her uniform.

Romal smiled and patted her on the shoulder, "Good job, Fram and I'll test it in just a minute, but first, I want you to meet our new chief, Lieutenant Xander Cash."

"Chief?" Fram asked, a little surprised.

"Nice to meet you." Xander said. "Oh, call me Xander. No need to stand on rank or formality with us. We just fix the bloody thing. Doesn't matter if it's Ensign or Admiral." He said joking.

"All right, Sir. . .I mean, Xander. Shall I start the test?" Fram asked.

"So, you think you have it Fram?" Xander asked.

Romal looked around the room, "Let's try transporting something organic."

"I brought this rubber plant along." Fram replied, placing it on the transporter platform.

"All right, let's give this transporter a try!" Romal said, as he tapped some keys, then pushed the lever down. The potted plant faded away into nothingness, then reappeared on the other side of the room. Working the controls again, Romal caused the plant to reappear on the platform.

"Excellent work, Fram." Romal said, sounding pleased.

"Thanks, Romal! That was easy!" Fram said, as she picked up her tools.

"What do you think, Xander?" Romal asked, seeming a little proud of the engineer.

"Well, listening to the tone of the hum I'd say that the pattern buffer may be cycling just slightly high. But That's another problem all together. Good job." Xander said.

Before leaving the room, Fram turned to Romal, "Can I help Sylvia with the food replicators, next? Sylvia said she's got about six more to fine tune and I could help her speed things up."

Romal agreed, with conditions, "If it speeds things up, sure, go right ahead. Just keep the visiting down to a minimum, though. I want to see it done, because there's a 5:00 meeting today at the aft lounge on deck 13."

"You got it, Romal!" Fram called back, almost running down the corridor for the turbo-lift.

"Where to next, Xander? Want to meet Sylvia Plairont? She's either on deck 2 or 4. - or we could go see Loren, Rick, and Tran in Main Engineering." Romal suggested, willing to show the Lieutenant around.

"Please, lead the way." Cash said to his capable 2nd. "At the meeting, I'd like you to provide me with a list of jr engineers like Fram. And a list of Sr engineers who might be able to be their mentors. I'd like to see a mentor program starting." Cash said.

"That should be easy, Xander. I'll have the list ready for you at the meeting." Romal promised, as they left the transporter room.

Taking the turbo-lift to deck 13, Romal led the chief to where the other engineers were working; Rick Breylon, Loren Scatz and Tran Ortair were busy removing an accelerator generator from one of the impulse engines. The AG was cylindrical in shape, about 3.1 meters long and 5.8 meters in diameter and it took all three of the engineers, using antigrav clamps to free it from its housing.

"Okay, just a little more, Tran, we almost got it! THERE!!!" Rick called out, keeping a close eye to keep it from banging into a few struts. Loren had been ready with a large antigrav cart to take it away, when they noticed Romal and Xander come in. Not stopping to talk, they moved the large AG to where they wanted it and slowly lowered it into the cart, before deactivating the antigrav clamps.

"Whew! That's one large chunk of impulse!" Loren remarked, then started to take his gloves off.

"Yea, and we still have the replacement AG in the storage bin." Tran reminded them, breathing hard.

Romal then walked over to the engineers, "You can take a break, now. I've got some good news. Meet our new chief; Lieutenant Xander Cash."

"Hi guys, nice to meet you." Xander said to the crew.

"You'll find several new faces working with you in the days to come." Romal informed them, but left it to Xander to further explain.

"Yeah, new people. New outlook. Same old job." Xander said smiling

Romal smiled and turned away for a moment, asking the Lieutenant, "Do you want to check on Sylvia Plairont? She's probably been told all about you, thanks to Fram."

"Well, must not let the rumor mill buzz to hard." Xander said as he gestured to let Romal take point. "I will say, you know everyone. I'm glad I have someone like you to help me get started." Xander told Romal.

"Well, its like this, Xander." Romal smiled, then showed a small glimpse into his personal philosophy. "It helps to know them and for them to know you."

"This is true." Said Xander. "But you must remember, you are their superior. Not their buddy or mentor." It actually should be a supervisor looking in on them. You should be looking in on the supervisors. But, we will work on that." He said.

Taking the nearest turbo-lift to deck 4 and down a corridor, they looked around without seeing either Fram or Sylvia. "Computer, where is crewman Sylvia Plairont?" and they heard the familiar chirp of the computer.

=/\= Sylvia Plairont is on deck 4, room 42. =/\=

"That's only a few doors down." and Romal led the way, stopping at the door, which was already half open with a tool box wedged in the middle. Inside, the found a comely engineer with a long blond pony tail dangling down the back of her uniform. Though her head was under the food replicator control panel, she heard the two walk in and assumed it was the occupants of the room.

"Just give me a bit more time adjusting this thing, say like maybe 15 minutes. You know these things are really touchy and if I don't get it right the first time, you could end up having a roast tasting like an over grown jelly bean!" she said to Romal and Xander.

"Actually, that sounds kind of good, Sylvia." Romal replied, grinning.

"I's say a few more adjustments. You will get there." He said.

Hearing his voice, Sylvia pulled herself out from the replicator panel and looked up, her Bajoran face was just as pleasant to look at as the rest of her. "Oh Romal, I thought it was someone else. Fram's helping me now and, barring any problems, we should have all the replicators done in about an hour."

Romal just smiled, "That's good to hear, Sylvia, but actually, I thought you might like to meet our new chief, Lieutenant Xander Cash."

"Hi" Xander said.

"Yea, Fram told me already, but hey, you are nice." and sylvia smiled, seeming to look him over.

Xander just smiled

"Well Sylvia, you'll be seeing several new engineers at about 5:00 today at the aft lounge on deck 13. Its a meeting, so no excuses!" Romal cautioned her.

"No worries, Romal, I'll be there!" Sylvia said with a smile directed at Xander.

"Interesting." Xander said. "We should get back to Main Engineering."

"Carry on, Sylvia." Romal said, before they stepped out of the room.

Back in the turbo-lift, Romal seemed to know which deck to ask for, "Computer, deck 11, please!"

"The cargo bays happen to be in Main Engineering and one of the jobs was fixing their locking mechanisms. Ever since the children used the right computer codes to break in, I think it was security that tried to fix them by using bio-lock implementation, but they only succeeded in making them adult-proof. . . so, its engineering that has to fix them." and Romal shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "One of your engineers should be working on them now. Did you want to go there, Xander?" Just then, the lift's pneumatic doors whooshed open to deck 11.

"Well, more than one of our Engineers I would say. Tell me more about children hacking our codes." Xander asked with intense interest.

"Only one child did it, my little Mizi and she loves helping her old dad make his rounds. Also, she didn't actually hack the codes. . .I mean Mizi is only seven years old and very computer savvy, especially with technical stuff, but still. . . Okay, here's what happened; Mizi loves engineering, which I think is great, of course." Romal explained, before taking a deep breath. "One night, Mizi was with me and that little girl watched me open a cargo bay door. She remembered every single number I punched into the locking mechanism. A week later, her and her little friends turned cargo bay 3 into their own private night club, calling it the Red Raven and partied all night long."

" Ok, you take a 7 year old on rounds with you?" Asked Xander " You do realize that is highly unusual." He stated. "Especially when that child should be in school. We do have teachers aboard the Crazy Horse"

Romal knew he had to straighten out a host of misconceptions about the incident. He actually hated to go through with it, but ignoring it would be a mistake. "At the time, there were no schools, no teachers for Mizi to go to and there was little supervision for children. In fact, she didn't even know there were other children on the ship until an actual teacher, Miss Emma, showed up later on. Do you have even the slightest idea what a 7 year old feels like, trapped in small quarters, alone with little to do? I didn't think so! My little Mizi tagged along for a few easy repairs, while the ship was safely docked at a starbase and you wonder why I let her?"

"Well, It's not the past that concerns me. To be honest, it's the future." Said Xander.

"Anyway, to answer your question, it happened just a few days ago, right before you first came aboard the Crazy Horse. The parents went to a nightclub called Quevrik’s at starbase 375 enjoying some down time. I guess our children were just having fun, by copying the grownups. Our poor Captain got caught in the middle, late at night, when the returning parents didn't know what had happened to their children, including me! They panicked and contacted him right away. The Captain was none too happy, I'm afraid. We now understand why the children did it, but our Captain is not quite so understanding." Romal said, shaking his head just thinking about it.

"I understand where the Captain is coming from." Said Xander

"It seems, that's all you understand." Romal flatly replied, trying to remain calm. Usually, he was a very serine individual, but when it came to his adopted daughter, he protected her at any cost. "So, now that you've heard the sordid tale of little Mizi, do you still want to continue this tour?"

"If you are talking about the facts, then that's all I really need to understand. The engine room can be a dangerous place. I'm not sure I feel it's appropriate for children." Said Xander. "If you like, we can both go to the Captain together and ask him his thought on the matter. I'm willing to abide by what he thinks if you are." Xander said offering his solution on the matter.

It was then that Romal realized, all the warmth Xander had at first displayed, just evaporated. A shame really, because Romal actually liked the guy. Still, better to call him out on this, better for Mizi, too, he thought, "Is this a threat, sir? - because if it is, you're a little behind the times. The Captain called a meeting several days ago about the Red Raven incident and he knows all the facts. Of course, if someone, who was not even there at the time, wishes to rehash the whole incident with him, - well, go right ahead. . .but do it yourself - If this tour of ours is over, may I be dismissed, sir?"

"Dismissed" Xander said looking confused, not wishing to upset his new second. When he was alone, Xander stood there surprised. Well, one thing was for sure. It was a HELL of a first day.

As Romal walked down the corridor, leading to a turbo-lift, he pondered what had just happened. After being threatened by taking the incident to the Captain, he wasn't sure about Xander anymore. All he could do was hope Mizi was wise enough to stay away from him, including the new engineers. He would have to have a little talk with her.

OFF:

Lt jg Xander Cash
(Acting) Chief Engineering Officer
USS Crazy Horse

and

Ensign Romal Seshel
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Crazy Horse