Department meeting

Posted on Wed Dec 23rd, 2020 @ 11:02pm by Senior Chief Petty Officer Jonathan Stoun & Ensign L'johk Adams

1,863 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 2 - Echoes Of An Empire
Location: Main Engineering - Deck 7
Timeline: 0930

The Chief looked at the crumpets, sweets, and assorted breakfast foods that he had laid on a tray table for the morning meeting, a few carafes of coffee, and orange juice sitting waiting for the first pour. Engines needed fuel, Engineers needed fuel, it was something that he learned early on in his career, while he had worked with several of the engineering team, he hadn't gotten them together. With only a dozen or so members of the team, he was going to need to rely on all of them to hold the ship together.

Jon grabbed a strudel and poured himself a cup of coffee, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.

"Morning folks!" L'johk announced as he entered, his customary beaming grin in place. "Oh, am I early?"
He cast an eye around the room noticing he was the first to arrive.

"Nah, not early, some of the gamma shift people are probably not off yet, and alpha shift is just starting to come on board." the Chief took a sip of his coffee. "This is going to be pretty informal meet and greet, figure with such a small team, it will be easier this way.

He moved towards the spread and found himself some fruit load before turning round and noticing another person entering the room. "I gotta ask, I saw the Captain and the Doc having a moment the other day... Something going on there that we ain't supposed to know about?"

Jon leaned against the railing, "In my experience ensign, it is best to not meddle in the affairs of Captains, for you are crunchy, and best served with ketchup." He smiled as one as a few of the gamma shift crew walked in. "Hey Mankowski, Lordin, nice to see ya, grab some grub, we are going to get started here in a minute or two.

Minka wandered in having turned her hair pink this week. She briefly felt very small compared to the others. She grabbed a coffee but ignored the pastries. She had eaten porridge before coming go the meeting.

”Morning sirs, ” she said bobbing herself down in one of the chairs. Her eyes fell on the spread. Full on sugar. Safe to say their new chief had a sweet tooth then.

"Don't you go calling me sir girl!" the burly hybrid beamed at the new arrival. "I don't think we've met yet. L'johk Adam's, stand in Ops Chief for the time being, just until the Cap can find a permanent one!"

"Morning." He closed his eyes and looked at the woman. "Sato I think I recall right? Eat up, we'll get started in a moment with some quick introductions and then we'll let everyone get on with their days."

”Yes, ” she said still ignoring the food. ”I don't answer to ”girl”, ” she looked at the half Klingon.

Jon looked towards Adams, "Correct, Ensign."

"Of course. Wasn't meant to offend there" he held his hands up in a 'I surrender' pose, still maintaining his smile.

Minka didn't smile back. A half Klingon surrendering. Who'd figure.

Stoun watched as a few more engineers walked into the bay, a few dug into the sweets on the tables, others grabbed coffee and milled about. Jon walked around mingling with his crew, chatting, bsing, smiling. Most of them outranked him, but there was a few deckplates that reported up to him as well.

Amalia wandered in , stretching a bit. She had just come in from her work project. She was on Gamma Shift.

"Morning Chief." Amalia stated. She grabbed something from the table and got a cup of coffee, then walked over to grab a chair almost in a corner, covering up a yawn. She wanted to watch the other crew, and besides she wanted to see Chief in action. She was excited to be in the same area as him. Chief was legendary, and maybe she had a just a tad bit of hero worship too. She just had to keep it on the downlow though.

"Alright everyone. While I think I may have gotten around to talk to everyone at one point or another, but let me formally introduce myself, I am Senior Chief Petty Officer Jon Stoun, Chief Engineer of our little ship here, I want to first start off by thanking you all for the work that you all have put in over the course of the last week to get this bird flying again, without you, we wouldn't be going anywhere."

”So?” the smaller female leaned in a bit. ”Is there any word on where we are going now we are flying again?”

"Well, the ship just needs final certification before we set out, Captain and I are probably going to do the external certification shortly." The engineer downed the rest of his coffee. "I'll need a team to certify the landing struts, they were talking about possibly taking the ship down to the next planet. If I have any volunteers before I just assign it."

"I have some time Chief" Adams interjected. "I saw to the communications array yesterday so I can give the landing struts the once over for you!"

"Thanks Adams, grab someone else to go with you." Jon grabbed a PADD off of the table and checked a few things off of it.

"Let me also tell you that as you know, Engineering is a bit different, when you are knee deep in engine coolant and sparks flying, your crew and ship are the first priorities, if you can fix it, fix it, if you can rig it, do it. We'll figure the paperwork out afterwards, I am open door, if there is anything that is bothering you, come talk to me." The chief grabbed the pitcher of coffee and poured himself another cup. "This isn't a Sovereign, the fourteen of us is it, if we cant' fix it, it aint getting fixed."

”Then let's make sure we get it fixed then, ” Minka declared simply. ”Get creative when we have too. I bet you have some stories Chief.”

"There was one time during the war that I used some spare uniforms and a cooking pot to seal a bulkhead that had a thirty centimeter hole blown in it by a dominion microtorpedo. We had to kick out the torpedo and stick the cooking pot in it." Jon laughed at the memory. "I drew the short straw on that one."

L'johk had gone quiet, his face neutral, unreadable. He had clasped his hands behind his back so no one could see them shaking. It wouldn't do for the only Klingon in the room to be showing his own post traumatic difficulties. The mention of torpedo's, hull breeches... the memory of Chief Fren flashed to mind, calling to him from the jefferies tube to seal it before the hull breech she was trying to close tore open... the memory of seeing her form compressed through a hole no larger than a coffee cup as the breech evacuated the atmosphere with brutal force... He shook it off, this wasn't the time or the place.

He reached for a glass of water realizing he was the only one in the room to have lived through the brutal attack. He took a sip of the ice cold water, place the glass back down, crossed his arms across his broad chest and placed a forced slight smile on his face in hopes he had not been spotted.

"What else, Umm... Beta shift lead, will be Mankowski, Gamma Shift will be Ruhl, Sato, you will be Alpha shift lead. Beyond that, keep things working and I'm a happy man. What questions do you all have."

Minka's face passed the brief hint of a smile. She had got Alpha shift lead. Maybe this chief wasn't you bog standard stuffy old chief. Shame she was potentially stuck with Adams though.

"Are you amenable in our spare time for us to have a go at some personal projects?" Minka asked. "My previous chief encouraged us. You know trying to think of ways to make things more efficient. Designing new component's ...." she didn't add jerry rigging a still in a secret Jefferies tube to produce your own alberian whiskey. "Assuming we have any spare time of course."

"As long as it doesn't interfere with the operational readiness of the ship, what you do in your time is on you." Jon grinned at Minka and turned towards the rest of the crew. "What else team, I'm here for you."

"My off time would probably be sleeping for the moment." Amalia joked.

A big burly barrel chested man strode through the door and grabbed a cup of coffee and scanned the room. He spotted who he was looking for and walked over and extended his hand. " You must be Ensign L'Johk Adams, I'm Ensign Edward Teach, Newly assigned to the Copernicus and to assist you in OPS." Said the man in a gruff gravely voice.

Minka raised an eyebrow. The newcomer looked to young to sound that rough, she mused. As they talked she was already mentally deciding on her own personal project.

"What other projects will you be having us work on next chief?" Amalia spoke up. Then she stood up to get some more coffee, "You know, there are some faces I don't recognize, maybe we can go around and introduce ourselves? I'll start, I'm PO 1st class Amalia Darcy. Nice to meet you officially."

"Minka Sato, Ensign and ..." she looked at the klingon hybrid with the smallest hint of amusement. "Girl apparently."

" Ensign Edward Teach, OPS." said the big man as he refilled his coffee cup and gave a nod to those in the room.

"Senior Chief Petty Officer Jon Stoun" Chief raised his mug and took a drink. It was nice to have some more down to earth people on his crew.

"And that is Ensign L'Johk Adams" Amalia decided to answer for Adams. That was another one she had a great respect for.

"Alright, any further questions team? We are due out of port tomorrow, let's get the last bits and bobs wrapped up and on our way huh?" Jon smiled at the assembled crew

"I am looking forward to that happening." Amalia replied, with an excited grin.

Jon looked around at the crew. "Alright get to work everyone, Gamma shift, good work last night, Alpha shift if you got time to lean, you got time to clean. And.. please take some of these grub with you. If it is left here I'll end up eating it all."

Amalia nodded, and went to the table to grab some other goodies before she went to get some shuteye.

"Bit too much sugar for me Chief," Minka said at the table. "Catch you later."

L'johk was caught in his own thoughts at this point and had not heard the meeting called to a close. It wasn't until he saw most of the others had left or started to leave that he lurched forward in his own bid to escape.

" See ya in OPS." As he continued to drink his coffee. " This should be an interesting voyage." Teach said softly.

 

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