Meeting An Engineer... And Scuttlebutt

Posted on Mon Sep 14th, 2020 @ 5:59pm by Ensign Kathryn Bell

Mission: Mission 3 - 100
Location: Atlantis--Messhall
1037 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Finally... Chris was able to step away from the continuous repairs that he had either dealt with himself or lead teams to do repairs to keep the ship afloat. So once he made it to the messhall, he took in the damaged room and sighed as the view reminded him of the additional work his teams had to fix thanks to the Vral attack. So for now, he just grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down with a tablet in hand to look over the updates from his repair teams.

Bell entered the mess to find a weary-looking man in engineer's clothing. Grabbing a salad and sandwich--or its equivalent, anyway, she went over to him. "Mind if I join you? Maybe you want to be alone, but your face says you could use some company before you rest."

He looked up at the young woman and jaw was slightly open before he noticed what he was doing. "Oh yeah, yeah. Come... sit... relax... just watch for falling debris.."

"It'll be nice to deal with synthetic debris, rather than biological." She sat. "Ensign Bell, from Medical... You are, Lieutenant...?"

"Chris Harper, from engineering. Guess we haven't really found time to get to know each other since we left on this mission," he countered as he nodded to himself before looking her over. He had seen her around, but honestly, he wasn't to sure much after that fact. "So what do you think of the Atlantis so far?"

"Well, its very impressive... I've not spent much time in space, but I know we've got a good ship and crew. The question is, will we all be able to survive long enough to reap the benefits of our position in this galaxy? What do you think, Mr. Harper?"

Harper looked up and looked at the woman before pondering that thought for a moment before shrugging it off before returning to his meal. Between bites, he replied. "Well, the ship is one of the fastest in the fleet and most modern technology. Who would have thought we would be deep space exploring. But all in all, she ain't a bad boat to be on. Makes ya wander the advances we will see in the future."

Bell chuckled. "Warp Seven engine, maybe?" She studied him. "How are you adapting to everything? We're, what, better than a century from home?"

"Oh the idea that we are now caretakers on a voyage home makes you seriously question what ifs. Like why would we go this way instead of that a way, or if the vulcans had actually pushed us to explore, would we be in this predicament?" he pondered out loud as he snorted and continued. "Now we have to worry about who we hook up with. I mean, let's be honest. This ship is going to have to me a generational ship to make it home or force a warp engine designed to do one speed to be able to go even faster speeds."

"No kidding..." Bell frowned and scowled. "On that subject, I'm probably going to have to compromise... One of our Chef's lovely assistants is my fiance, and we're trying to figure out the marriage... Bit awkward, being cast adrift and in love with another woman, yeah? That said, got your eye on anyone?" She chuckled and gave him a grin.

This made him ponder for a moment as he hadn't really thought to much about it before he finally shrugging and leaned back in his chair for a moment. "To be honest, I joke about it, but I haven't really given it much thought. I typically keep myself busy with work when on a ship. But hey, if that relationship doesn't work, let me know," Chris grinned and winked. "I am kidding of course."

"I will remember your offer," was Kate's response. "You don't seem a bad sort--I'll think about it when we have to consider children. Not that I'm particularly looking forward to that, honestly."

"Oh, well that won't make things more complicated on the ship," he smirked as he moved his food around a little bit as he pondered the thought of off spring and the idea of a third wheel. He shook his head at that as he took a deep breath before taking another bite. It wasn't perfect but it was the hand of cards they were dealt. "Let's be real, though. The idea of the ship now a generational ship. There is a good chance that we would see a starfleet or an alliance ship out this way with much more advanced technologies in half a century. So we just have to stay alive, till then."

Bell frowned. "I'm not so sure about that. You do realize we're well beyond where Starfleet and the other Coalition vessels have mapped? Not to mention, I expect we'll be running into Romulans pretty soon... Speaking of, any word on..." She broke off.

Chris swallowed his food before looking at her and raised an eye brow before leaning in and slowly responding. "... word on... what?"

"We apparently have some kind of Romulan spy aboard. I thought you might have heard something--you seem like the type to keep an ear on scuttlebutt."

"I'm sorry... What" Harper perked up completely confused. He hadn't really stretched out of engineering to really hear things from other people. Quite honestly, all he seemed to be focused on was the job.

"Yeah--scuttlebutt is that he was surgically altered to look like a human, and was captain or XO or something... Big phase pistol fight and everything..."

As if to preempt her speaking anymore, the comm went off.

"Ensign Bell, please report to sickbay at your earliest convenience," Avira's voice rang over the PA, summoning the young medical officer.

Bell sighed and rose. "Duty calls... It was nice meeting you, Mr. Harper. See you around." She gave him a wink and turned to go.

"Take it easy, I'll look into that romulan visitor," he replied still not completely sure how that had happened, But now he had to look into it, at least that was his thought until he saw the status of his ship. "Unless I never get caught up on all this damage..."

 

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