Just keeping it warm
Posted on 25 Mar 2018 @ 2:43am by Lieutenant Heather Fischer-Montoya & Admiral Ayana Varon
1,490 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
M-14 New Beginings
Location: USS Phoenix
Timeline: 1545
[Observation Lounge]
As the meeting broke Heather made her way to her boss, giving Rico a 'good job' pat on the back as she slipped by. "Better late than never huh? Did you get a chance to get to Ops before coming to the briefing?"
Ayana shook her head. "No. I was told there was a meeting as I came on board. I haven't had a chance to do more than hurry here." She gave Heather a wry smile. "Not the best way to introduce myself."
"Not to worry I'll make sure he doesn't hold it against you...not that he would. There have been a lot of transport delays. For some reason all carrying people assigned here. So...do you want the tour or a breather after a mad dash to the ship?"
"There's always time for a breather, so how about a tour? Ayana asked. "How are you surviving being married to the boss?"
Heather smiled. "Already did your homework I see. To be honest it's really too soon to tell. I get the occasional glance now and then but that could be anything. Given time I'm sure the rumor mill will hit warp 10...as it usually does. Where do you wanna start?"
"This is my first posting as a Department Head, so I did my homework." Ayana grinned. "Where do I want to start? At the beginning; or, barring that, wherever you want. I'm sure I'll do enough laps around the ship that I'll get to it all eventually."
"Well congratulations!! Though that seems to be par for the course around here...first assignments and all. Ops is pretty well squared away although short personnel in a few areas. One warning, we have an Ensign Theodora Montaine...fresh out of the Academy and quoting regulations at the drop of a hat.
"Other than her reeducation, systems passed diagnostics and everyone that has reported aboard has been assigned to quarters. All we should have to deal with are the inevitable roommate complaints and any bugs that show during testing tomorrow.”
"Good. There's always gonna be one who thinks regs are everything. At least there's only one." She smiled at Heather. "Where is the Ensign stationed?"
Without hesitating Heather replied jokingly, "Down in the plasma relay room."
Ayana laughed. "Well, that's a good place to follow the regs. So, what can you tell me about the Phoenix?"
"Well the ship yard did have to tow the ship into the docking bay because the yard wasn't able to wire the power systems right. Luckily Lt. Kent was able to fix everything. I helped with some of that but he figured out the what and the where. Other than that...the Phoenix is your typical Prometheus class power house. However we do get the fun of breaking her in. Everything is brand new from the space frame to the carpet. As a matter of fact I even left the plastic in the wall displays in your office; figured you might want to peel it yourself."
Ayana's grin broadened. "Thanks. I have to admit, I'm excited about breaking in a new ship--even though I know we'll have our share of growing pains."
"New ship, new faces...at least there's no having to unlearn old habits. Everyone sorta gets a fresh start. Hopefully Ric...the Captain can get everyone on the same page without any major issues."
Ayana waved a hand in the air. "It's okay if you slip up with me. I won't hold it against you." She grinned. "Besides, it doesn’t matter around here. You're just one of us. So, have you found any unique traits yet? I believe each ship has her own personality."
Shaking her head as she leaned against the wall, "Nothing 'unique' yet. The ship won't even be on internal power until later tonight. But if I know Rico...he is going to push the little beauty to her limits tomorrow."
"Good. Better to find out what she's got now than when we're in deep space. What has been set up in Ops so far?"
She grinned, "Well those that have reported aboard have been assigned quarters and duty rosters are drafted pending your approval. Final diagnostics have all be received from the Station's yard personnel for all systems and have been filed. Tomorrow will tell if those results hold while under the ships own power. All that remains is to take care of any stragglers...yourself included."
Ayana nodded. "Sounds like you have everything well-in-hand. Thank you. I'd like to see the department, and then I should get myself some quarters."
"Well let's head on down and give you some time to unpack as well." Pushing off the bulkhead Heather felt herself get a tad dizzy.
"Are you okay?" Ayana asked, noticing the other officer sway a little.
Heather smiled, "Just moved to fast. Come on; let's go see the shop and get you some new digs."
TAG?
[Operations]
Heather led the way into the operations center. The room was lined with stations manned and monitoring the various ships systems. The ODN, EPS grid, Holographic power, and Warp power distribution all being monitored as was life support, weapons, shields, sensors, and even ships stores. In the center was a three dimensional holographic display of the ship. To their left an office for the ships Chief Operations Officer even though most of her time would be on the bridge.
"Nice huh..."
"Wow," Ayana said. "This is...impressive."She slowly walked around the room, looking at everything. She stopped in front of the display. "Does the computer identify problems automatically, or do we have to input them?" She turned to Heather. "I've worked with both."
"This system is state of the art. We had a similar set up on the Achilles, it is supposed to display any issue automatically, but if need be we can upload data from tricorders or load faults manually in the event of systems failures."
"Nice." Ayana said, pulling up the visual controls. "This is going to make our job so much better." She grinned at Heather. "I could spend a day just playing with this."
Heather bit her lip sheepishly as she giggled. "I did that very thing first time I saw this set up. I even sabotaged my own replicator's power relay to test it."
Ayana raised an eyebrow and grinned. "How did that go?"
"Brilliantly. Before I even left my quarters I got a call from Ops. I had to call off a repair team and let them know I was just testing the system. Up until then I had only heard preliminaries on that type of automated systems monitoring."
"Wow. That is awesome." Ayana couldn't help laughing. "That gives me several ideas for testing the system. If we fake a real problem, will they think it's a test and ignore it?"
Heather covered her mouth and laughed. "Well it's your show..." looking out at the people manning the stations, "...do you wanna involve Ms. regulations or not?"
Ayana thought for a moment. "She needs to experience a failure that isn't covered in the regs. Ideas?"
Grinning mischievously. "You know, I think I'm going to like this assignment. Let's see...something NOT covered be the regs...hmmm. Well individual systems have redundancies so those and the typical outages or breakdowns are covered. It would have to be something catastrophic but would that be too mean or do we justify it as 'training'?"
Ayana thought on that for a moment. "I would rather know how my team responds to a catastrophe in training then when someone's life is on the line. So, go ahead and make it big."
Ayana grinned. "They may be expecting something from me, but I doubt they'll expect it from you."
Heather playfully bit at her thumbnail. "Hmmm...what to do. I will see if there are any drill being scheduled and will incorporate some kind of 'disaster' for these youngsters."
"Great! So, now that I've had a look at the office, care to go to the lounge for a snack? You can give me a tour along the way."
"Sounds great to me; though you might want to actually check in with the boss first. You wouldn’t want to report in with synthohol on your breath” she said humorously. “How about I show you those quarters, I can get your things transported aboard while you officially check in, then we can meet in the lounge.”
Ayana frowned. "You're right. Since I unofficially met him in the briefing, it totally slipped my mind." She shook her head and chuckled. "I should probably change into a clean uniform, too. Show me my quarters and I'll meet you in the lounge at the end of Alpha Shift."
Chuckling, "Come on. Let me show you your new digs so you can freshen up."
Lieutenant Ayana Varon
Chief Operations Officer
USS Phoenix
Lieutenant Heather Fischer-Montoya
Operations Officer
USS Phoenix
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