Checking in

Posted on Sun Dec 22nd, 2019 @ 7:01pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Lieutenant Commander Lukas Carter

Mission: Mission 2 - Fallout
Location: D Deck, Engineering, Water Purification Filter Junction B
Timeline: Day 5, Month 1, Year 0
731 words - 1.5 OF Standard Post Measure

In the four days since the jump, Minna had spent most of her waking moments in or near engineering. Where most of the MACOs were assigned to augment the armory staff in safeguarding what remained of the food and water or keeping the peace, Minna was usually squeezed into some tight access catwalk to seal leaking valves or wedged between tightly packed banks of machinery to install components she couldn't even begin to identify. The end result was that a MACO Sergeant with no engineering background and a degree in music theory rather than engineering had somehow become perhaps the single most in-demand person on the entire ship.

The demand for Minna's time had nothing whatsoever to do with knowledge or ability and everything to do with the fact that she was, simply put, small. At only 5'1" tall and barely 93lbs she was the go-to person for the same reason the industrialists of the 19th century relied heavily on child labor to keep their machines running; which was that she was often the only person who could actually reach whatever it was that needed to be worked on.

Minna was just climbing out of the small junction box she had climbed into an hour earlier. In her hand was a contaminated water purification filter wrapped in the same thin, though shielded bag the new, uncontaminated filter had come out of. As she got out she noticed that rather than Petty Officer Klein who'd requested her assistance, it was none other than the chief engineer and the captain waiting for her.

She didn't care that her uniform was drenched with sweat or that the fabric at her right shoulder was ripped and blood-stained all the way down to her buttocks, but rather just stood up with the awkwardness of stiff and painful joints and waited for either of the two senior officers to tell her why they were there or what they needed her to do next.

Carter looked at Sergeant Chang and blinked several times in disbelief at the state of the MACO. "Were you fighting off a Klingon boarding party, Sergeant?" Lukas asked.

“Very, very small ones” Minna replied as she set the contaminated filter down on the floor and Crewman Klein’s tool belt next to it.

"May I?" Lukas reached for the contaminated filter and picked it up to examine it more closely. The metal frame that surrounded the carbon-nanofiber material was dented severely and marred with plasma scorches that spread across the filtration system. "Not what I was hoping to find," Carter grumbled, studying the equipment. "How bad was the area around the filter, Sergeant?"

“About the same as this filter. It wasn’t easy getting the new one to seal properly. It’s working now.”

"And you did this without supervision? And didn't kill yourself?" Carter shook his head. "Were you an engineer before you were a MACO?"

“No Sir, no training or experience at all. I just won the lottery for being the only person small enough to get close enough to reach without dismantling the system first.”

"Sadly the only one awake at the moment." The Captain finally piped up taking everyone and everything in. She glanced and Carter and nodded her head thinking on the Engineer that was still in Medical after the original jump to where they were. She would live and wake up eventually but she needed time.

Minna thought briefly about the Captain’s words, then turned back to the engineer. “I’ve got three more of these to try and replace.” She glanced to the captain and then back to the engineer "unless there’s something else higher priority you need from me?”

"Not from me. Commander?" The Captain wondered glancing to Carter hoping he had something more to say than her. She had only come along as they were walking and talking.

"Keep an open line of communication with Ensign Naito in engineering. You got lucky with this one, but you may not get so lucky with the next few." Carter looked from the damaged filter to the diminutive soldier.

“Then I’ll get to it” Minna replied as she picked up the tool belt and grabbed another new filter.

Sergeant Minna Chang
MACO


Commander Bethsabee Leroux
Officer In Charge/Chief Communications Officer
NX Atlantis

Lt. Cmdr. Lukas Carter
Chief Engineer
NX Atlantis