Meeting Ops

Posted on Tue Apr 9th, 2019 @ 12:10am by Grace Winters PhD & Lieutenant Kev Walker

856 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Acts of Contrition
Location: Operations

ON

While the ship was under repairs and she was settling in, Grace decided to meet the senior staff and introduce herself.

She walked in to an area where Operations was working and paused to look around at everyone busily working. Then she went in search of the Chief.

Kev was pulled up halfway under a replicator trying to run a trace on the power lines. Everything seemed to be fine but the bloody thing wouldnt work and he was tired of figuring out why. There was power, the replicator system was working but the replicator itself would NOT replicate food. Some orange and blue goo had come out instead and was oozing it slimy way down the front of the device and onto Kev as he worked. It was not putting him in a good mood. It was times like this that he missed engineering. At least then he could pass it on to someone else and go find something he knew the problem to and fix it.

"Hey chief we got some civy walking around looking," the specialist who was helping him said.

"Better not be another reporter or a freaking complaint," Kev said as he bumbled out from under the replicator.

"Not a reporter, although that begs the question as to why a reporter would be looking for you," Grace said. "I'm Grace Winters. I'm the new diplomat."

"Well the last time we got into a firefight we had reporters sneaking onto the ship, asking questions and bugging us until security rounded them all up and got rid of them. Personally i like the idea of them being spaced. Kev Walker the new chief ops." Kev said as he nodded. "Diplomat? We have a diplomat?"

"We do now," Grace said, smiling. "At least that's what my transfer orders say. And if reporters show up again, I'm just the person to deal with them."

"Good because I hate reporters," Kev said. "Noisy nosy buggers who like to interrupt everything. I thought about sending them down to engineering if they show up, but that's a bad idea since we want to avoid Jag. So now that I know you're here I'll send them to you."

"I'll take them, but waste reclamation is always an option," she said, chuckling at his aversion to reporters. Although, having worked with her share of them, she couldn't blame him.

"I wouldn't go near that compartment right now," Kev said with a horrorfied look on his face "The whole system is been acting buggy and I cant promise that the system wont go critical. Besides, I prefer sending people to the escape pods then ejecting them off the ship. Worked wonders for pesky intruders on my last ship."

"I'll have to remember that," Grace said. "I can think of a number of times I would have loved to remove someone from the area."

"Well, if there's one thing everyone on this ship has learned its been how to get rid of pesky intruders in very creative ways," Kev said as he slung replicator goo off his hand. "Escape pods are my favorite."

"I can see that this ship won't be boring," she said. "Anything else I need to know?"

"Be careful when feeding the chief engineer? She can get grumpy and snaps a lot, but she's ok. Just don't agree to volunteer for work duties in engineering. You'll end up doing something like cleaning the manifolds with a toothbrush. Oh yeah. Don't use the replicators on deck 7. or deck 8. In fact, just use the one in the lounge. It's working. Mostly," Kev said.

"I've met the Chief Engineer. I don't think she'd want me volunteering, even to clean. I probably couldn't work to her standards." She smiled to show she didn't mind at all. "And thanks for the warning about the replicators. Are the ones in the quarters working?" She could keep to her office, her quarters, and the lounge. At least for now.

"I don't think anyone could do a good enough job in engineering for that woman," Kev said as he wiped the goo off his hand and grabbed a hammer and a scanner. "But don't take it personally. She's like that with everyone. As for the replicators in the quarters. It depends on where your quarters are at. I'll try to get them all fixed by the end of the week. If the repair teams will stop using the wrong parts it'll go quicker."

"It looks like you still have a lot on your plate. I'll keep what you said about the Chief Engineer in mind, and I'll be careful with the replicators for the next few days," she said, smiling. "I should let you get back to your work. I do appreciate your time."

"Anytime ma'am," Kev said as he gave a somewhat evil grin and raised the hammer. "I'll get the replicators working soon, or we'll get replacements. Either way, they'll be working by the end of the week." With that he crawled back into the access opening.

Grace couldn't help chuckling as she walked out.

____
OFF

Lt Kev Walker
COps

Grace Winters
Diplomat & Counselor

 

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