Overworked

Posted on 30 May 2014 @ 12:27am by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal & Lieutenant Commander Anastasia Lyons

1,568 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: M12: For Duty or Honor
Timeline: MD 3

Tyce had just gotten back to his quarters, the impromptu back to back duty shifts having taken its toll on him, 36 hours straight. El-Aurians felt pain and discomfort in a haze usually, totally separate from their sense of self. Tonight he was in full sync with his body and ready to sleep, it was downright miserable to be awake. The doors parted and his quarters were a dark welcoming cave he could retreat into and spend six blissful hours of sleep before his next duty shift. A staggering series of mentally absent chores got him ready for bed and his eyes closed in utter bliss.

=/\= Ensign So'ka to Lt. Backo....=/\= So'ka to Backo....?

Tyce was certain he was dreaming, and ignored the chirps. Xoli So'ka had to know he was off shift, she had tried to relieve him hours ago but he was determined to finish his daily tasks.

Another chirp brought him out of his deep sleep, his blood pressure spiking as he was all at once confused, angry and very very sleepy. Risking a look over at the chronometer... it had only been forty minutes. He had only gotten home forty minutes ago, and his frustration hit a fever pitch as he hit his commbadge on the sidetable.

=/\= Backo here.

So'ka was whispering at this point, a slight panic in her voice.

=/\= You left the diagnostics pending on the warp core telemetry tests, if it's not done by end of Gamma Shift you'll be reported!

Tyce was stunned, his task list had started at three pages that day and grown to five pages a handful of hours later. He had finished it all but left the results unentered on a diagnostic? Tyce was furious, that diagnostic took seven hours to run and for having been woken in such a way. He had an hour and ten odd minutes left in the duty shift, and he could get the results entered by then if he hurried, nothing to get in trouble for.

He was dressed and out the door, his service in the Corps of Engineers and combat zones allowing him to operate on no sleep and move quickly. He made his way into Engineering in a near rage, but his peoples aloof nature allowed him to sit slightly outside of the moment, and keep his cool. He had been serving only three days so far and had spent ninety five percent of it working. He stabbed the console command and prompted the diagnostic results. For the next hour and twenty minutes he entered them in, it was faster than he had ever done before the frustration and ire driving him to sterling performance. It was still too late, the diagnostic was submitted ten minutes after Gamma ended. Backo didn't care, just wanted to go back to sleep, his Alpha shift started in four hours.

The computer announced a variance, and that maintenance was required. Not even able to be angry at this point, the world swirling around him, Tyce checked the duty log. There only four techs on, all posted to stations. It would have to be him... of course it would. He resigned himself to his fate and walked to the replicator to order a coffee, and grabbed his toolkit still leaning against the console where he had left it hours ago. He had a good hour or two of work ahead of him, he may still make it home in time for a brief sleep....

(Backo finishes the maintenance two hours later and is halfway into typing an after action report when he passes out on the console.)

Malone entered engineering at the start of the shift, and received the work log report from the previous officer of the watch. This was actually a PADD that he'd finished writing on, and handed to the CEO as he walked in, holding a mug of coffee.

"Anything noteworthy?" He asked the outgoing Lieutenant.

"Minor variance in the warp core. Lieutenant Backo was going to work on it. The variance has been reduced, but he didn't file a completion report. I was going to go look for him." The Bolian Lieutenant reported.

"No, don't bother." Malone said. "I'll go have a look myself. Chances are, the young lieutenant simply forgot to press 'send'." With that discussion done, the Bolian left engineering, and Malone headed over to the lift to take him to the upper engineering gantry, where the warp variance console was located. When he got up there, he noticed a figure slumped over the console, and he dashed over and produced a tri-corder, thinking that the man was injured.

It became very apparent that he wasn't injured, but was in fact - asleep. This brought a frown to the chief engineer, because his engineering staff should not be on duty if they were that fatigued. He moved over to the replicator, produced a glass of cold water, and walked back over to the sleeping lieutenant. A moment later, he carefully poured the contents of the glass onto the young man's face.

Tyce had been awoken abruptly in war, and by unruly nephews, he was no stranger to sudden wake-ups. He was however extremely disappointed in himself as he connected the dots. Through bleary eyes he saw a man, and the pips confirmed it was in fact the Chief. Tyce mentally thanked the Universe for his life and resigned himself to the situation. With a graceful breath and gentle wipe over his face Tyce looked up at the chief.

"May I say sir, that this was Raktajino. I fell asleep drinking Raktajino. Please tell me you understand how dire that is." He pointed to his mug, the steaming sludge could polish engine parts and made even Vulcans hyperactive, surely that would highlight how tired he was, he hoped. And he pressed the stud to complete the line entry and tapped two other commands to submit log for approval. "Just had to wait for that last upload sir I am sorry, it was a hard ten minutes... It just happen-.... it won't happen again."

Kerry frowned at the young man. "The point here, Lieutenant, is that you shouldn't have been to the point of exhaustion where Raktajino doesn't work." He said, folding his arms across his chest as he looked down. "I have a duty of care to all the personnel under my command, and this oversight is clearly a failure on both mine and your direct supervisor's part. You shouldn't even have been on duty with this level of fatigue."

Tyce was about to say something about his direct superior, a statement about how his duty log was filled with redirects from the CEO admin folder, how Lawson had seemingly taken her lame duck period as a mini-vacation, how the understaffed department had essentially been running on the razors edge of his sanity for a week. Instead he found himself mentally releasing the burden of stress to the Universe and simply starting with, "There was nobody else to do it sir, I'm sorry-"

Kerry raised a hand to silence the younger engineer. "I'm relieving you of duty for the next forty-eight hours. Go to sickbay, get checked out, and then rest. We're not at alert, so you don't need to push yourself. You're an officer for peats sake, Lieutenant, you should be setting a positive example to the men and women under your charge."

Tyce wanted to argue the point that his work ethic was clearly solid but the drool smear on the console stopped him cold. "I'll do better to delegate when staff are available, I do get carried away with my work, I'll also be more careful... sorry sir.

Malone nodded. "Dedication is appreciated, Tyce, but not to the point of self-destruction. Carry on." With that, he made his way back down off the higher tier of engineering.

Tyce needed to speak his mind, and as Kerry walked away Tyce called out, "Chief!? Our first meeting aside, I want you to be assured I am a capable officer, I have a few ideas, and this posting is a dream come true, so I'd like it if we could work together on a few projects if you are interested?.. Later on of course after a good nights sleep." Tyce smiled a little trying to lighten the mood.

"We'll see, Lieutenant." Kerry said, turning around on the small elevator to face him. "For now, rest. Work after."

Tyce watched the CEO leave, in shock and dismay about their meeting. Shrugging and deciding things had in fact turned out okay Tyce released his burdens and decided for once to follow his orders to the letter. He had just made it out of engineering when he saw the Tertiary EPS Manifolds were working harder then they should be, the strain made a slight whine he knew they should be making. He made a note for the duty log and continued on when the Padd chirped at him, no senior officers had confirmed the report, wherever they were, it was now technically his responsibility. He stood in the hallway thinking, and decided it would be a quick fix, he could hit up sickbay afterwards and then Engineering could see how things ran without him. Tyce walked back into Engineering...




Lt. Commander Kerry Malone
Chief Engineer
USS Achilles

Tyce Backo
Asst to the Chief... Asst Chief... Chief Asst? Trained monkey?

 

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