Comrades in Yellow

Posted on Wed Aug 8, 2018 @ 12:03am by Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Lieutenant Cheyanne Harrison

Mission: Falling Star
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: MD33 [BACKPOST]

With the gravity wave generators at full tilt in Romulan space, Tom found himself increasingly strapped for resources. Getting the ship prepared for hundreds of refugees didn't help either, and while he was trying to keep everything afloat on his own, Tom realized almost all too late that he just couldn't do it.

For that reason, he entered Engineering, seeking the new Chief Engineer, in order to complete the triage centers in time for the ship's arrival.

Cheyanne had her hair tied back to keep it out of her face, she was down below a console trying to keep it from overloading. She was so into her work she didn't even hear the doors open or anyone else walk in.

Once she finished what she was doing so got up then turned around to see a man standing there she about jumped. "Ack," she said as he startled her. "Sorry didn't know you where there Master Chief," Cheyanne said as she looked at him.

Tom hadn't realized that he was standing near someone, and he must have assumed that she was under a console or something when he entered the massive room. "That's all right, Lieutenant," he said, taking note of her fire-red hair. "I'm looking for the new Chief Engineer. Can you help?"

She chuckled for a second, "Yes I believe I can, she was around here somewhere just a moment ago." She said as she couldn't help but smile a little, "She has fire-red hair and bluish eyes." She said looking at the Chief with a smile.

Tom had started looking around when it was implied that the Chief was elsewhere, only to pause and slowly look back at Cheyanne once he realized that not only was she having a moment at his expense, but also a sense of flirtation as well. Don't tell Maddy... he chided himself. "I see," he said at last. Extending a hand, he said, "Master Chief Tom Barnes, Chief of Operations."

She could sense the embarrassment on Barnes, "Sorry I couldn't help that sir, I have always wanted to do that just once." She said as she looked at him. "Lieutenant Cheyanne Harrison, the new Chief Engineering Officer." Cheyanne said looking at him, "How can I help you?" Cheyanne asked looking at the Master Chief.

"I hope you're familiar with the mission," Tom began. "We're needing to convert a few areas of the ship into triage centers for medical, and I'm stretched a bit thin. I'm looking to see if you and your department can help out."

"I have read up on whats going on, I am sure we can help you out Chief," She said with a smile, "what is needed?" She asked looking at him.

Tom looked down at the padd he held to verify its contents before handing to the Chief Engineer. "I've got most of the items replicated... beds, support materials, emergency forcefield generators, you name it. What I need help with is installation. I don't have enough crew to spare to get the job done in time."

She looked at the padd in front of her, "I'll have a team on that right away," Cheyanne said as she knew that she had a rather large engineering team especially for this large of a ship. She couldn't do it herself as she had a few small problems she had to deal with down here.

"Excellent," Tom replied, smiling. "In the meantime, how are you settling into the new role. Anything I can answer or get for you?"

"I seem to be doing alright, though this is a much more complicated ship then what I was used to, I been studying up with the Triumphant schematic's and learning a little from the other Engineer's here." She said looking at him, "I am not sure if I have any questions at the moment." She said as she felt confident that she won't blow the ship up.

Tom nodded. "I know we have the tri-core nearly running at full tilt," he stated, nodding to the triple core system behind them. "But we're probably going to have this running beyond maximum to power whatever the medical staff requires, and keep our gravity wave generators going so that cloaked ships won't surprise us."

She nodded, "I am making that a top priority, so far things are still running smooth." Cheyanne said as she looked at him. "We're having a few issues with smaller programs but it's nothing that will interfere with those." She added as she had just fixed one issue before he walked in.

"Anything I can help with?" Tom asked. He had entered Engineering and dropped off quite the project. It would only be fair to reciprocate and help with what he could, so long as time allowed.

She was almost surprised she never had someone offer help especially by someone who wasn't in her department. "Sure, I would like that," Cheyanne said with a smile. "Right now with the power being redirected to help support the tri-core as well as the gravity wave little systems have had outs that I been trying to deal with." She explained, "right now it seems when I fix one area another area goes down." She added, "but, like I said it's nothing major." Cheyanne said as she finished what she was saying.

"Outs?" Tom asked, looking over to view the readouts for himself. "Are you talking, like, outages?"

She looked at him for a moment to think of a way to explain it, she wasn't that great at explaining things she was just used to seeing what was wrong coming up with a solution and fixing it. "Not outages as you think Chief, systems are not affected that way. Just small insignificant systems having fluctuations and not running correctly." She tried to explain again hoping that he would understand.

"Hmm," Tom remarked, studying the readouts. "Thankfully, they're not mission critical. Have you performed a full reset? Or at least a level four diagnostic?"

"Yes, and the diagnostic was coming up with an error in completion so been trying to do it manually so far no success." Cheyanne stated, "the reset didn't help much either." She added looking at him.

The Master Chief fought the urge to sigh. Nothing was ever simple, especially in Starfleet. "Are there any of these systems that need to be adjusted now?" he asked. "Or is it something we can address when the ship is out of Romulan space?"

"They're not critical so they can wait, I was just trying to get a head start on them since everything else seems to be running smoothly," Cheyanne stated looking at him.

"I wonder if the gravity wave generators had something to do with it," Tom said, pointing at a few things on the readouts, namely the point where the fluctuations started. "I'll see if I can run some experiments, but with what we're up against, I don't want to cause too much of a distraction on Romulan sensors. Since we are dealing with non-essentials, we'll just have to keep an eye on it."

She looked at the readings, "I agree with you it seems that way. I also agree that we shouldn't draw too much attention so I'll keep an eye on them." Cheyanne added looking at him.

"Sounds like a plan then," the Master Chief confirmed. "Anything else I can help you with? If not, I can get out of your hair and let you get back to tinkering."

"No not at the moment, but if you see something I don't up in Operations please feel free to contact me and just let me know." Cheyanne said with a smile. "Again, thanks for your help," she replied.

"Anytime, Lieutenant." With that, Tom nodded his head and excited Engineering.