Engineer Reporting for Duty

Posted on Sun Apr 9th, 2023 @ 4:50pm by Captain Alistar McKeon & Lieutenant Sultana Wolff

1,004 words; about a 5 minute read

Alistar yawned and checked the time. Getting a brand new star ship ready for deployment took much more prep time and paperwork than he could remember, granted his only reference was the previous Endeavour and that ship had been ready for weeks when he had been given command. This Endeavour was not only fresh out of the dry dock slip but a totally different type of ship. Clearly, he hadn't been completely prepared when he had accepted command. Deep space exploration ships were usually reserved for captains with several years of command experience, but Alistar had only a single two year tour of duty as a captain and that had ended in the destruction of his command. He had somehow been grandfathered into command of the new Endeavour, although it had caused a ripple at Starfleet Command.

That thought made Alistar smile. He had never liked that internal politics of Starfleet. It was something he had seen as a disgrace to the service and it was also something that had counted against him from time to time. Which was why he was grateful for Admiral Weber's support. He could only hope that he had a good enough team to back him up because the Endeavour was heading into a hot spot for her first mission.

Standing, he headed over to the replicator and ordered a cup of coffee. He was thinking of heading to the main lounge for some dinner when the door chime rang out. Grumbling, he turned towards the door and called "Enter".

Sultana entered the ready room and stopped just inside the door before bracing to attention. She had stopped by her quarters long enough to check on her belongings before heading to officially report in. "Lieutenant Sultana Wolff reporting for duty, captain," she said.

Alistar had to think for a moment before he remembered that Wolff had been assigned to Endeavour to help engineering out. "Yes, I believe you're our expert on the new engineering systems Endeavour has," he said. Waving to the replicator, he continued. "Drink?"

"No, Sir," Sultana replied with a curious expression. She had been warned that McKeon was eccentric and different for a captain. Clearly, that hadn't been at all overstated. She was used to dealing with hard lined by the book commanding officers, and clearly this wasn't one of them.

"Then sit down, lieutenant," Alistar said as he took a drink of his coffee and returned to his seat. "So what type of systems are you an expert on? Personnel hasn't transferred your file yet, so I haven't had a chance to take a look."

"As far as engineering and operations systems are concerned, I'm considered to be a top trained engineer on all ship board systems related to star ship operations" Sultana said.

"All star ship systems?" Alistar asked as he nodded. Sovereign class exploration ships were expected to deal with any problems they encountered, and it would be in general a good idea to have a senior engineering officer who could operate and manage the critical systems. "Well, you'll be working with Jera Ros, so it might be a good idea to warn you about her," he said after a moment.

"I've already met Lieutenant Ros," Sultana said. "She's an interesting person. Clearly, she's someone who is completely serious about her work."

"Oh hell," Alistar groaned. He could only imagine how that encounter had gone, and from Wolff's statement, it most likely hadn't gone well. "Do I really want to ask how this meeting came about and how it went?" he asked.

"I stopped by engineering to check on the status of the department and to meet the senior engineering staff. Lieutenant Ros and I had an... encounter. I must point out that she handled herself rather well considering her reputation and the fact that I deliberately attempted to provoke a certain reaction from her. Her response was unexpected and one that I would have supported, even though she was less than diplomatic about her manner," Sultana said.

Alistar found that he was staring at the engineering officer with disbelief as she finished speaking and he finally blinked and shook his head. Judging from Wolff's explanation and both her and Jera Ros's reputations, the encounter clearly had been interesting. He finally also realized that they would be working together on a routine basis and engineering was bound to be an interesting department.

"Ok," he finally said. "I'm going to trust that the two of you can get along and work together without trying to murder each other. So I'm going to ask that you don't try to provoke her or any other officer unless you need to. I try not to micromanage my crew unless I'm given reason to. So don't give me a reason to."

"That sounds fair enough," Sultana said with a nod. "I have to ask, I noticed that even on standby and not the primary duty shift, engineering had a full staff plus a full security detail."

"That's a personal measure I order on ships I command," Alistar said as he leaned back in his seat. "Bridge and engineering are fully staffed at all times, regardless of ship status and alert condition. That includes security measures."

"I see," Sultana said with a nod. "Very well, Captain. I'd like to begin my inspection of all shipboard systems immediately, as I understand that we're due to depart soon."

"Check in with ops first, I think Lieutenant Varon might be ahead of you in that regard," Alistar said. "Other than that, you're due to begin your first shift tomorrow morning."

"Very well," Sultana said as she stood. "I'll begin right away, as a personal choice."

"That's your call," Alistar said as he nodded. "Dismissed." As the engineering officer headed out of his ready room, Alistar finished his coffee and groaned as the doors closed behind her. This was definitely beginning to turn out to be an interesting crew, and his only hope at this point was that they would survive each other.

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