Engineering Escapades

Posted on Mon Feb 8th, 2010 @ 9:11am by Vice Admiral Iluvar & Lieutenant Samuel Bishop

Mission: Episode 1.1 - "Now Boarding"
Location: Main Engineering, USS Pandora
Timeline: MD03, 0920

ON: [[Main Engineering, USS Pandora, MD03, 0920]]

As was Iluvar's custom, he had taken to wandering the corridors of his new command in order to better get to know both ship and crew. The transfer ceremony earlier that morning had made the assignment official and Iluvar knew it would take a little while for those who had served aboard the Tethys to get used to being aboard the Pandora. He hoped that by making himself visible to the crew as he had aboard the Tethys, he might help to ease the transition with a sense of familiarity. Every so often, he would pause to greet passing crewmembers to ask them how they were doing. To him, knowing his crew was the most important aspect of command.

Iluvar continued down the corridor until he reached the large double doors that led to main engineering. He hadn't had a chance to visit the Pandora's engineering department and, as they often said, there was no time like the present. The doors hissed open at his approach and he was immediately aware of how much larger the room was in comparison to main engineering on the Tethys.

"I'm telling you it needs a cradle underneath it!" Bishop called to a partially obscured engineer high above who was maneuvering large piece of equipment into place via anti-gravs. He turned turned to see Iluvar approaching. "Admiral, what can I do for you?

"You wanna come up here and do this yourself?" came an annoyed voice from above.

Bishop turned suddenly when he heard a loud clank. "Dammit Bob tell 'em to slow down!"

"I'm doin' it, I'm doin' it! Stop bein' a mother hen!" came the voice.

"Bah!" the Engineer muttered and turned back to the Admiral. "Sorry boss, sometimes I feel like I'm workin' in a daycare," he said with a smirk.

Iluvar quirked an eyebrow. "Indeed," he replied, recalling that Lieutenant Brown had been recently transferred to another assignment, "You must be Lieutenant Bishop, our new chief engineer. I take it you find the Pandora to your liking?" He could see that, despite the tone of the man's voice and the apparent frustration, the engineer wasn't as rough as he looked.

Bishop nodded. "She's a bit 'over-designed and under-engineered' for my liking, but we'll whip her in to shape soon enough. This might be a daycare, but it's the best trained daycare in the fleet," he said with a chuckle.

"Good to hear," Iluvar said with a smile, watching the personnel moving about. He caught sight of Ensign Bymir at a workstation nearby and nodded once in the young man's direction. "I can see that you've got things pretty well in hand down here," he continued to Bishop, "if you ever need anything, do not hesitate to let me know."

The Engineer nodded and smiled. "Count on it boss," he said. Suddenly, something seemed to catch his eye. "Excuse me," he said softly. "McCabe! Where are the readings on those plasma injectors I asked for? You think they're gonna inspect themselves?"

The young man be bellowed at tried to hide his smile as he passed between the Admiral and Bishop. "Right away Chief! Admiral," he said with a nod, hurrying to complete the work asked of him.

"Well, I'll leave you to your work then, lieutenant," Iluvar said, "welcome aboard." He nodded once toward the engineer before turning back toward the large double doors that led out into the corridor. Lieutenant Bishop, he had decided, would prove to be a most interesting member of his senior staff. Within moments, he had passed through the doors and disappeared.

Svon (NPC) looked up from his workstation just in time to see the admiral depart. He wondered if the new chief engineer was used to the commanding officer making casual rounds. It had been something that had surprised Svon at first, until he'd realized that it was the admiral's way of keeping in touch with the ship and the crew. Despite that, the presence of a flag officer on the deck always seemed to push the stress levels up a notch or two. "Excuse me, lieutenant," Svon said, stepping around the workstation and approaching Bishop with a PADD in hand, "here are those efficiency reports you asked for."

Bishop turned at the voice and took the PADD. "Thank you... Svon, right?" He scanned the PADD before sighing softly. "We're still reading a signal degredation of 3 percent in the tertiary sensor array. Nothing serious, but I don't like things I can measure or explain," he said, almost to himself. Suddenly he looked to the Engineer. "Any thoughts Mr. Svon?"

"Bymir, sir, Ensign Bymir," Svon clarified, glancing back at the PADD, "Like you said, it's not all that serious, but being that this is a science vessel, I'd wager that sensors are quite important to her mission. Perhaps, if we rechecked the resistance along the feed for any signs of interference, we might find the source of our problem."

Bishop grunted for a moment in embarrassment of his gaff with the young man's name. What ever happened to 'Smith'? he grumbled silently. The young man had a good point, and, on reflection, the beginnings of a good idea. "The last thing I want is to hand the Admiral a report that has a 'but' in it, so I want this entire ship running at 100%. She may have been designed by a barrel of monkeys with a protractor and a crayon, but I think we can make her spaceworthy." He paused in thought. "Good idea. Take Jensen and Barrowitz and start at the primary sensor linkages on deck 12. I have a feeling the problem may lie there." Bishop shook his head, muttering to himself. "Damn bloody over-designed ship. This is what happens when Engineers are left out of the design process."

"Aye sir," Svon replied, motioning to the two individuals he had been instructed to recruit. Together, the three engineers moved over to the workstation Svon had been at so that he could lay out the objective for them.

Bishop watched him go, making a mental note to look over his personnel record. Normally someone who jumps into a job full-on, Bishop had reported for duty and started in, not taking the time to get to know his crew. Social situations had always eluded the Engineer, in fact they made him distinctly nervous. The only person on the crew he knew really well was Rodney McCabe, his old friend and Engineer's Mate. McCabe had already gone out of his way to act as a 'liaison' with the crew, explaining the Chief's many 'quirks'. He had already heard some grumbles about his tendency to yell at people, even when in a good mood. Bishop wasn't terribly concerned, figuring that they'd get used to him eventually.

"Uhh sir?" came the voice of a young Ensign across the deck, his expression mirroring the fear in his voice.

"Green? What is it?" Bishop said, walking over. When he reached the console, the Engineer froze for a split second. The display showed a marked degradation of antimatter containment. "What the hell?" he muttered, refreshing the display. No matter how many times he refreshed it, the display showed that antimatter containment was down by 23%. And it was dropping.

The young Ensign spoke up, obviously trying to swallow his fear. "Sir we need to eject the core! impulse engines are online!" He started to move to the console, anticipating Bishop's order, but was surprised when the senior Engineer took him by the arm.

"Not so fast Mister. Even if we could get away in time, we're docked at a Starbase remember? The station would be at as much risk as we would be." He looked back at the console and glared at it suspiciously.

The young man stared at the Engineer with a mixture of embarrassment and horror that the Chief wasn't following procedure. "Sir! There are procedures to be followed! If that containment fails..."

"...then we'll go up in the biggest bang since the beginning of the universe, yeah I know. The key word here, is 'IF'." He looked at the young man pointedly. "I want you to do a eyes-on inspection of the antimatter containment fields," he said finally.

Ensign Aristotle Green had seen some unusual things in his short time in Starfleet, but this was beyond his comprehension. Did this man want to kill them all? In his shock and confusion, he forgot his place. "An inspection? That's insane!"

Bishop raised an eyebrow. "No. It's an order." When the man didn't move, he turned his head to call across the deck. "McCabe! Take Ensign Green here and do an eyes-on inspection of the antimatter containment fields. I need it yesterday Rodney."

"On it Boss!" the young redhead said, knowing that when Bish used his first name, it was serious. He took the Ensign in tow, who stared at Bishop as if he was about to grow a second head.

Ignoring the Ensign, the Chief returned to the console, going over the memorized specs in his mind, carefully retracing the affected systems, trying to discern two things: 1. Why were they losing containment? 2. Why was he convinced it was a false alarm? Many of the crew, unaware of the emergency, went about about thier work. It was that thought that made everything click in Bish's mind. McCabe's voice sounded over the comm at precisely the same moment. =/="McCabe to Bishop. Visual inspection complete. We're showing--"=/=

"--100% containment integrity," the Chief finished with a smile.

=/="Yeah, exactly,"=/= McCabe said hesitantly. =/="How did you know?"=/=

"Think about it kid. When did you find out about the containment problem?"

There was a pause on the comm. =/="Well, when you told... ohh. No alarm."=/=

"Exactly," the Chief confirmed. "If the containment had really been in that much trouble, you'd be able to hear the alert klaxons clear into the Beta Quadrant. Is Green still with you?"

=/="That's affirmative Boss."=/=

Bishop nodded. "Have him report to my office when you're done there, Bishop out." Looking about, he saw a number of Engineers who had stopped to watch the Chief. "Don't you people have something to do?" he barked, watching the staff hide their smiles and return to their work.

OFF

A JP by

Ensign Aristotle Green (NPC)
Engineer
USS Pandora
Played by: Lt. Bishop

Crewman Rodney McCabe (NPC)
Engineer's Mate
USS Pandora
Played by: Lt. Bishop

Lieutenant Samuel Bishop
Chief Engineer
USS Pandora


Ensign Svon Bymir (NPC)
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Pandora
Played by: RAdm Iluvar

and

Rear Admiral Iluvar
Commanding Officer
USS Pandora