A Joint Effort

Posted on Fri Nov 19th, 2010 @ 5:51am by Commander Fala Awen & Vice Admiral Iluvar & Lieutenant JG Malia Jacy

Mission: Episode 1.3 - "The Time of Trial"
Location: Main Engineering, USS Pandora
Timeline: Mission Day 4, 0900

OFF: This is a backpost

ON: [[USS Pandora, Engineering, Day 4, 0900]]

The ship was quite a bit quieter, Khloe (NPC) had noted. Not that she was surprised; it was likely that a fair amount of the crew would be going to the starbase to hear Iluvar's testimony - or at least, the rumors implied that that was what was happening. While the Betazoid was curious as to what was going on, there were other matters to attend to and she knew she could find out how things went later on.

So, here she was, walking into Engineering with Malia. The two women seemed to have gotten into something of a rhythm as far as working together. Khloe was certainly glad about that; even though she was just Acting Chief having someone like Malia around helped.

"Good morning, ladies," Jake said, looking up from the master systems display on what was affectionately referred to as the 'pool table', "something I can help you with?" He looked from one woman to the other, observing that both of them were wearing the gold hue of a services division. He didn't recognize either of them from the personnel he knew within the engineering department, which meant that they were either with operations, security, or not from the Pandora.

"Good morning," Mali shined brightly, a bounce in her step that had it been just a bit less subdued could have been mistaken for a skip. "Help us? Oh, I'm sure. Is there anything that an engineering staff can't help with aboard a ship?" Her normal good mood was elevated even more this morning. While she was unhappy with why the ship was at the base, it'd been a good chance for her to be a bit more social then she'd been able to be after she first came aboard.

Jake fought the urge to roll his eyes at the woman's statement. On the one hand, it could have been taken as a flattering comment about how resourceful engineers tended to be. Unfortunately, it could also be reference to the fact that engineers were usually the ones putting things back together after everyone else broke them. That was one of the hardships he'd faced aboard the Frontier every time the executive officer had decided to start another engineering experiment...then leave him and his team to clean it up. In this case, Jake decided that the woman was referring to the former.

"Thank you," he replied with a smile, "I know we tend to make things look easy, but you'd be surprised sometimes."

"Oh, I'm surprised often," she chuckled and nodded in the way of an official greeting. Her eyes moved to the acting Ops Chief, wondering if Khloe was quiet because she was smitten or if she wasn't one of those 'small talk pleasantries' kind of people.

Khloe smiled, "Many things look easy until someone tries doing them." Having not met the man before her, she decided it might be a good idea to introduce herself, "I'm Lieutenant JG Khloe Dovil, sir, Acting Chief Operations Officer, and this is Lieutenant JG Malia Jacy, Assistant Chief Operations Officer. We were hoping to meet up with the Acting Chief Engineer; I heard we got a new one recently, but haven't had a chance to come to Engineering until now."

"Well, you've come to the right place," Jake replied with a smile, "Lieutenant Jacob Warrington, interim Chief Engineer, at your service. Actually, now that I think about it, it's a good thing you two stopped by."

Jake tapped a few commands into the surface of the "pool table" before comparing the results to a PADD he'd picked up. "I've been going over several of the Pandora's systems, trying to familiarize myself with some of the differences between the Luna-class and the Intrepid-class," he said, "Imagine my surprise when I learned that the holographic imaging system hasn't undergone an examination since the last refit. Based on what I'm seeing, it's seen a lot of use since Rear Admiral Iluvar assumed command. If you two wouldn't mind giving me a hand, I'd like to give it a once over to ensure that everything is still working properly."

After a brief glance over at Malia, Khloe nodded, "Of course, Lieutenant, we'd be happy to. Where would you like to start?" While she hadn't worked extensively with the holographic imaging system, she was familiar with it and had done some diagnostic work on it before. Since Jake had brought it up, Khloe felt it best to let him take the lead.

"It looks like the primary users have been just two holographic programs," Jake explained as he continued to review the readout, "so there shouldn't be too much wear and tear on the system. A simple diagnostic should suffice, wouldn't you agree?"

"Peter (NPC) and the Doctor (NPC); they're the two main programs that have been running. I would think a diagnostic would be good. It may be all we need, or it should be able to tell us what else needs looked into," Khloe confirmed. The Betazoid paused to see if Malia had anything to add.

Mali inclined her head to the acting chief - Khloe had been holding the ship together with the help of engineering long before Malia's toes touched the deck. She held out hope that something exciting would pop out of the relatively simple run. She figured they could all use a little adrenaline rush as of late. Plus, given the amount of time since the last exam, it was actually quite possible.

Jake nodded slowly in agreement. It was a task that wouldn't take them very long and it would give him an opportunity to get to know other members of the crew, particularly ones that he would be working closely with during his time aboard the Pandora. "Let's start with a level four diagnostic of the entire system, see where that gets us," he suggested.

Smiling, Khloe nodded, "Good idea." She turned and glanced around, spotting a console, "Shall we run it from there?"

"Sure," Jake replied, tapping a command sequence into the surface of the pool table. He pulled up the schematics for the Pandora's holo-imaging systems and began to skim them over briefly.

Malia adjusted her stance in order to watch the man. It never failed to amaze her how, regardless of the given department, officers often seemed so fluid and yet so controlled as they went through their motions. It was like a dance, she decided, and one that was rather awing to watch.

"Alright, I've isolated the holographic imaging system in sickbay," Jake said, thinking back to his recent encounter with the Pandora's assistant chief medical officer, "I don't think the doctor would be too pleased if we ran a sweep without informing him. Otherwise, it looks like the rest of the system is clear and not in use."

Khloe nodded, "Well, perhaps we could start the sweep on the rest of the system and while we're doing that we can inform the EMH that we'll be doing so."

"Sounds like a reasonable plan," Jake replied, "Who get's to make the wake-up call?" In fact, he had no qualms about being the one to call and inform the doctor about their sweep of the holographic imaging systems. It seemed to be both professional and common courtesy that he, as the team leader for this project, be the one to give the EMH the heads up.

"If you'd like to inform him, I can start setting up some of the specialized parameters," Khloe offered. She didn't sense any real hesitation from Jake regarding contacting the doctor and she had run a similar diagnostic a couple times before, so she knew of a few items that weren't always checked during a routine diagnostic that might be helpful.

"Very well," Jake said with a smile as he tapped his commbadge, "Warrington to Sickbay..."

"Sickbay here," the voice of Doctor Haelen (NPC) replied over the ship's intercom system, "Is there a problem, lieutenant?"

"No...no problem," Jake replied, "I just wanted to let you know that we will be conducting a diagnostic on the ship's holographic imaging systems. We've isolated the sickbay system from the rest of the ship so that we can conduct the diagnostics separately. Just wanted to give you a heads up."

There was a pause as the doctor no doubt considered the young engineer's words for a moment. "Thank you, lieutenant," he replied after a moment, "your consideration is appreciated. Sickbay out."

Khloe glanced over at Jake as the communication channel closed, then back over at Malia. Nodding to her, the Betazoid started scrolling through the diagnostic parameters, finding the ones she wanted and selecting them. Once it was set up, she tapped at the display, then looked over at the others, "And now we wait."

OFF: JP brought to you by:

Lieutenant JG Khloe Dovil (NPC)
Acting Chief Operations Officer
USS Pandora
Played by: Cmdr Fala

and

Lieutenant Jacob Warrington (PNPC)
Interim Chief Engineer
USS Pandora
Played by: Capt Iluvar

and

Lieutenant JG Malia Jacy
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Pandora