The Man Behind the Curtain

Posted on 14 Mar 2010 @ 1:50am by

608 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: M3: Shore Leave
Location: USS Freedom, Main Engineering
Timeline: Backpost

Having just come from the meeting with Captain Da'nal, Nigel wasn't quite sure what he felt, or what he'd expected. The turbolift ride down to engineering was shorter than he'd grown accustomed to considering the enormity of Stabase 47. It wasn't unpleasant either. Stepping out into the corridor after the lift stopped at his destination, Nigel followed the diagram displayed on the bulkhead panel. Another part of starbase living he had grown accustomed to since his arrival on the base. Without them, he would likely be forever lost in a maze of similar looking corridirs. He chuckled to himself at the thought as he stepped through into the engineer's domain.

The first thing he noticed was the darkened warp core, still running but powered down significantly. The next thing he noticed was the pair of officers, rather tall, darkhaired man flanked by a petite and attractive young woman. He knew both from their files and if their expressions were any indicator, they were having some troubles with something or other engineering related. They seemed to keep pouring over the same data, the man tracing the data as it scrolled down the screen. Approaching them, he cleared his throat so as not to surprise them before, "Hello Lieutenants Flaherty and Blaire, I assume?" When they both nodded, Nigel continued, "I'm Ensign Nigel Roseman, Chief Strategic Operations Officer on Starbase 47. I've been appointed as liaison between the starbase and the Freedom. Is there anything I could help you with, any additional personnel I could assigne to help?"

Scarlett looked Flaherty, she was assigned to the Starbase just as Roseman...she really didn't have any authority here.

"Hmm, you base folks 'ave an annoyin' tendency towards being just a wee bit too hospitable, did ye know that?" His tone was friendly, imparting the idea of underlying laughter at how pleasantly surprised he was with this particular starbase. Most bases considered a starship's presence to be a burden, yet this group welcomed them, something Mac had neither expected nor could complain about.

'What do you give the Engineer who already has a full toolbox?'

That was a good question indeed.

"Well, I dinnae think the outer structural repairs are goin' as fast as they could be." Mac commented slowly, "D'ya 'appen to have aney spare worker bees lyin' around?"

Nigel tapped away at afew controls on his PaDD. Confirming what he already suspected, Nigel answered, "The USS Avenger recently docked with us. She's a small ship, Defiant class, so she only has three bees assigned her, but I could direct them your way. Avenger has no external damage, so they won't be needing them anyway."

"Well, that sounds handy, I'd appreciate it." Mac was glad to have someone level headed helping them out. It wasn't often that he found someone aboard a station that was worth dealing with, and here he had two of them that were more than a pleasure to have around. Needless to say, he was grateful.

"We should have this done in no time." Scarlett was being over optimistic but in the engineering department it never hurt.

Mac was beginning to feel a bit optimistic, glancing at the warp core he spoke, "Good thing," Finishing the sentence with sarcasm and a smile, "I'd hate ta hafta be 'ere aney more than I have ta."

Nigel nodded. He understood what the engineer meant. "Well then" Nigel responded in his clipped British accent. "I'll let you to it. If you require anything more, feel free to let me know." With that Nigel left the engineer to his world.

 

RSS Feed