Post 22

Posted on Thu Feb 12th, 2015 @ 8:58pm by Captain Christina Curtis & Lieutenant Luís Anziano

Mission: Begin with a Bang
Location: E-Deck, Discovery NX-04, Drydock, Earth Orbit
Timeline: May 13th, 2155 - 0700 hours

Christina strode down the corridors of E Deck zig-zagging through the corridors on her way from her quarters towards engineering. Last night was the first night she had spent actually aboard the ship rather than in her apartment in Los Angeles but she had thankfully avoided the problem she usually ran into when she slept on a new mattress and hadn't overslept. After quickly getting a shower and into a fresh uniform, she sent a message to her father to ask him to make sure everything in her apartment was squared away, and anything he thought she might need was put in a crate for transport to the ship. She was still tying her hair into a ponytail as she walked the length of corridor, manoeuvring out of the way of technicians passing her in the opposite direction as she held her hands behind her head to accomplish the task.

Her quarters were right to the front of the ship, and only a hull polarisation generator away from the navigational deflector, engineering was just aft of the very core of the ship; there was no single direct corridor to her destination and so her walk required winding through a few corridor junctions. It was at the second of these that the overhead lighting flickered and failed, with the emergency floor-level lighting remaining stubbornly unlit. "Ooh, don't you start playing up on me now," she said, speaking to her ship as she felt her way along the wall for a removable access panel so that she could try to tell in the dark if there was anything she could do from here. Less than two seconds later though, the overhead lighting returned, and after a brief pause, she continued on her way. "That's better," she muttered under her breath.

Five turns later, and she was approaching the hatch to engineering.

Over the time she had known him, Christina had come to regard him as a bit of a perfectionist, highly motivated in his work. Since she had given orders for the ship to be ready to launch by tomorrow, she had a pretty good feeling that one place her engineer would come to early in the morning would be engineering to check on 'his' engine - that was, if he had even gone to sleep at all last night.

"Luís," she called out, as she entered engineering and didn't immediately see him, before correcting herself given their formal setting. "Lieutenant Anziano? Crewman, have you seen the Lieutenant?" Of course, almost everyone in Starfleet knew even vaguely of Lieutenant Anziano from the PR projects Starfleet used him for, but Anziano and Curtis had spent some time together since they had both recently been assigned to Earth or Earth orbit, and had bumped into each other at a few semi-official gatherings since then. Curtis hadn't need to petition Starfleet much to let her have him as her chief engineer, considering the level of attention the man gave to his work when he was able to get away from the publicity shoots.

The crewman stood at parade rest, "Captain, he's under the warp core."

"Err.. thank you crewman," she responded, a little perplexed at the crewman's formal posture. Perhaps he was one of the Starfleet enlistees who came from naval families and had been brought up with the sensibilities of the military. Starfleet was never intended to be such an organisation, even though they did receive combat training and carry weapons for self defence.

Just as the crewman had said, Anziano was under the warp core. On his back, spanner in his mouth, up to his elbows in an open panel--the very epitome of a grease monkey. As the captain came close enough, he spoke loudly past the obstruction in his mouth to say, "Welcome aboard, Captain."

"Thanks," Curtis replied, not quite sure how appropriate the sentiment was. She had been aboard the ship many times during its construction, though she supposed that last night was her first night staying aboard. She supposed that the occasion did warrant her finally joining the few who called the ship home. "How are things going down there?"

"One moment," he said, gagging. After another second he closed the panel and took the spanner from his mouth. Once on his feet he dusted his hands before extending one to the captain.

"Good to see you again, Lieutenant," Christina said, taking the hand and giving it a firm shake. "How is our engine shaping up? I hope she's going to perform as we need her to when we launch."

"Always a pleasure. And we're not ready. We need three weeks. The whole thing could go up like a roman candle if we're not careful," he slowed down to punctuate his dire warning with a smile. "But I know we'll manage, somehow."

"We need to launch tomorrow," Curtis said, her voice dropping a few decibels to keep their conversation from carrying too far around the engine room. "I know it's cutting our schedule short - to say the least - but the mission Admiral Gardner has for us is time critical, and we're the only ship in range with the speed needed."

Anziano did not want to appear soft on his request for more time, or unbending to the necessities facing them. He gave a very slight, diplomatically impassive nod of the head. After a moment he cleared his throat and looked at his boots, only to look up at Christina with a sly smile, "I understand it's a mission of some importance."

"Yeah, you can say that again," Christina said, her eyes rolling involuntarily in her head. She had certainly felt as though Gardner was constantly breathing down her neck since he had given the assignment, and she knew that the rest of the crew would be feeling the same. Even if they weren't aware of the details, they would all know of the vastly advanced timetable, and know that something was going on. "But I'm afraid I can't tell you what it is yet - at least not until after we get underway."

"Well let me get back to work or we'll never get out of dock."

The captain chuckled despite herself. "Point taken. I'll leave you to your work, then. Let me know if there's anything that you need - other than more time."