Emotional Damage and Light Espionage

Posted on Thu Jun 1st, 2023 @ 10:25pm by Ensign Michael Sloan & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Kiyara de Vos
Edited on on Thu Jun 1st, 2023 @ 10:31pm

Mission: Sojurn
Location: Main Engineering, Deck E
Timeline: Day 335
1372 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

The past couple of days had been intense to say the least. The journey itself depended on the engineering crew to come together and fix the warp engine. Michael knew that everyone had put in more hours than he could ever thank them for while keeping up the level of professionalism that Starfleet officers were famous. Their progress had been nothing short of miraculous, though without the Releaians power supply they would still be adrift and dead in the water. As the Engineering meeting was adjourned, the Chief Engineer looked over to Kiyara and asked, "Would you mind hanging back just a bit?"

As the jubilant atmosphere simmered down with the people exiting the circle they'd be standing in Kiya looked over at the Chief. They had felt over the course of the crisis that they had not pulled their weight. Their knowledge of warp cores wasn't as vast and varied as their other mechanical know-how. They'd always reassured themselves with the fact that there were warp field specialists aboard as well and that they could just focus on the relays and conduits going kaboom. But now that the main concern had been the core itself they had felt hopefully inadequate, and clearly the Chief had found out. "Yes. Sir. Of course." They stood at attention and wiped a stray hair from their face.

"I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate the work you and your crew have done," Michael said, as he instinctively rubbed his forehead where the Romulan version of himself had once had forehead ridges. Motioning with his hands to indicate the warp engine, "We've had our hands full down here while your team has gone above and beyond to make repairs around the rest of the ship and I wanted to let you know that your work has not gone unnoticed."

Kiyara wasn't good with compliments, and this was no exception. Their cheeks flushed and felt warm, and an uneasy feeling crept up their lower back. "Thank you sir, just doing our jobs." They meekly replied. There was a moment where they considered just walking away after that but even to them it felt like an awkward moment, so instead they just stood there, trying to prevent themselves from rocking back and forth on their feet.

Remembering years ago when he was first training in whatever lifetime led him here, Michael smirked a bit. It was good to see some actual Human emotion out of someone other than the defeated going through the motions vibe that everyone had been under since the incident with the engines. "I've read the reports, but talking about it would help me visualize it better. How is the damage to the rest of the ship? Are we making good progress?"

"Yes." Kiyara nodded, "Just a lot of blown fuses. Fail safes did what they needed to do but now need replacing." They had been moving all around the ship to make sure everything was back in order, "When the Raelians came and restored power some more fuses blew. Nothing the crew can't handle, but if I have to replace another door chime I might lose it." It was a rare moment for them to share frustrations, especially with a superior.

Not being able to hold it back, Michael chuckled a bit. It was the thought of a whole corridor or doorways chirping like a nest of birds that sort of broke the tension that he had been feeling since the accident. "Oh, I can imagine how awful that sounded. It's a good thing Starfleet turned down the option for custom tones for the chime."

Kiyara's eyes widened at that, wondering if that had really been a design suggestion. It would've completely destroyed them had that been the case. "I can still hear them ringing." They seemed to drift off a moment at that, but then shook themselves back to the current reality. Looking at the Chief Engineer they wondered if they should ask the questions that had been plagueing them for some time now. "It seemed that the aliens were very adept at fixing our stuff... They used tools and techniques I've not seen before, even in prototypes." They hadn't gotten close, and didn't speak to any of the alien crew that had come aboard to help. Finding it better to give them some room to work what for all intents and purposes had seemed like magic.

"They are more advanced than I'm comfortable with," Michael admitted. "We've never seen anything like this before, with the exception of the data core," he noted, nodding in the general direction that housed the device they had picked up from the future ship. Assuming that the change of topic held some deeper meaning than an observation, Sloan asked, "Why do you bring it up? Aside from the fact that they are here."

"Nothing." Kiyara immediately backtracked, "Just. I don't know." They hesitated quite heavily to bring it up. "The bridge crew mentioned their vessel moved at speeds that could cut our trip in half. What if." They pointed in the direction of their warp engine. "Perhaps we can find some way to make it compatible with our tech."

"I like how you think," Michael replied as he thought. "Warp is exponential, even a modest increase in speed could allow everyone to see Earth again," he thought to himself, clearly tempted. Rubbing his forehead where the Romulan brow ridges would have been, Michael warned, "Reverse engineering and copying are fine, but we aren't in a position where it is safe to cause a diplomatic incident."

Kiyara was never one to feel like they were in any position to cause diplomatic incident. "I think we should just try and get a glimpse." A shrug. "What's the harm in scientific enquiry?" There was of course the matter of needing a great many things from these people, and basically the entire planet being in lock-down over some ancient tradition. "Perhaps we can get a tour of one of their vessels?"

"That would be the gold mine, though I'm sure they would have some kind of scanning jammer for just such an occurrence," Michael replied, his interest piquing. "For now, we should probably focus on scanning some of their tools, see if we can get the formulas for some of their materials. Our fabricators could handle certain jobs," he stated before realizing that it was something that probably should not be spoken aloud so freely.

"I'm sure we can prepare a scanner in case we get the opportunity." Kiyara didn't want to lose precious time reprogramming a scanner for the purpose should the opportunity present itself. "Though I'm sure the improved propulsion is not something we could reverse-engineer with simple spectrometry of their screwdrivers."

"You know as well as I do that we're working on exponential speed. We don't need to match them, just boost our own abilities," Michael explained. Knowing that they should probably keep this pretty tight lipped, Michael added, "Let's just keep an open mind and a watchful eye."

"Still. A lot to ask of a screwdriver." Kiyara gave a bit of a salute, "I'll make sure everything is ready and in place for when the opportunity presents itself, sir."

"I appreciate it," Michael nodded. Looking around a bit to make sure no one heard, the Chief Engineer said, "You are dismissed."

Kiya turned on their heels with this new goal in mind. It seemed to be going against the spirit of the Starfleet charter, a thought easily dismissed as the people that wrote those charters weren't over one hundred years removed from home at maximum warp. If this gave them even a small chance to increase their average speed it would mean the difference between dying in unknown deep space and seeing that blue and green orb again that 99% of the crew on the Atlantis called home. It was worth bending some abstract rules over, and if there was one person qualified to do that rule bending it would be Kiyara, if nothing else the Captain and Chief could simply say they acted on their own, just a low ranked janitor trying to prove they were worth something.

Plausible deniability was a wonderful thing.

 

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