Meeting the Chief
Posted on Fri Jul 17th, 2015 @ 12:49pm by Captain Julius Whitlam & Lieutenant Kaylee Williams
Mission:
Prelude to War
Location: Main Engineering, Deck 15
Timeline: After "Not Quite Done"
Although he was a pilot and had a thorough understanding of how a starship worked and what did what, Captain Julius Whitlam never did feel comfortable in Main Engineering. In his previous commands, he had always been content to let the chief engineer rule their little fiefdom however they liked, as long as the engines worked and things were working when he needed to use them.
He hadn't met the new chief engineer yet, so after catching up with the doctor he decided to duck down to Deck 15 to see if the Chief Engineer was in. The great doors to the main chamber whirred open and he strode in, expecting to find gold-collared engineers and technicians running hither and thither with to do lists a mile long, struggling to meet their revised launch deadline. Instead, he was confronted with an unusual sea of calm. It was like he had stumbled into the eye of the storm that was battering every other section of the ship.
A young Bolian technician wandered past checking readings on her PADD and giving the skipper a polite nod and smile. He furrowed his brow and looked around. There were only a handful of staff in the engine room at that time and there was no sense of urgency in anything they were doing. At the far end of the chamber stood the woman he assumed was the chief engineer, based on the fact that she was the only blonde, human female in the place. He narrowed his eyes and strode across the deck towards her.
"I want a level 3 diagnostic done on the warp core and all EPS conduits across the ship." The blonde woman ordered.
"Ma'am, we just did that less than two days ago." the ensign replied.
"Dont care, this ship will be fully operational and if I order a level three diagnostic again, you carry it out. More you do the more you learn the ship youll take care of if anything happens to me. Each of you will be familiar with this entire ship from stem to stern, just incase we need to diagnose a problem within minutes, if we dont, this ship may very well explode because we didnt know what we were doing and I rather not have that happen, now go." the blonde woman said as she gave a half smile and left her station, headed for the lift to take her to level 16, to do some additional work there.
Whitlam placed himself in the path of the chief engineer, by now he was certain who she was. "Lieutenant Williams," he said, his voice stern but not harsh. "What's going on here?"
"Nothing sir." She said working at the station. "Just whipping the engineers into shape, Wanted them to learn the ship there taking care of and my old drill sergeant always said 'When you become a leader, you teach those below you your job and they teach those below them.', that pretty much means that by the time your done teaching those under you, everyone should know the job, in this case mine. This way, they know the ship, they know every inch and every conduit of the ship, this way we can diagnose problems faster. Otherwise, everythings going well. But if your worried about the diagnostic, dont. I wanted him to run another one just to teach him that he cant do it just once and double checking the work will often prove useful in the end. After all, first scan may not find a problem but the second often will." She said smiling as she gazed at the Captain momentarily before looking at her station and switching her gaze again as she made notes into the padd she carried.
The captain raised a single eyebrow at the stream of words that flowed from the chief engineer's mouth until it ended and he held a reassuring hand up. "Fair enough, but where are your engineers?" he asked and gestured around the largely empty chamber. "I was expecting a hive of activity."
"Oh, them, yeah........Remember I said I wanted my staff to know every inch of the ship?, there off to do that. I will give them a quiz later to see if they actually did as they were ordered or went off and had fun instead. But I also noticed the phaser emitters were slightly out of alignment so I sent a team to fix that. Should be done soon." she said giving a half reassuring smile as she continued to work and multitask at the same time.
Whitlam nodded and regarded Williams; she certainly had a lot of energy and seemed comfortable with multitasking if she was okay to not give her commanding officer her undivided attention. He didn't mind that, however. He found that engineers often were a special breed and he liked to let them do their own thing, as long as their thing was keeping his ship working. Her proactive approach with the phaser emitters impressed him as well, particularly given where they were now going.
"I take it you've heard about our change in orders?" he asked while looking up at the glowing warp core and crossing his arms. "Will your department be ready?"
"Oh your talking about the ship being diverted from support to the possible negotiations that might lead into a full blown hostility with the Dominion?, who hasnt heard that. There are so many rumors going around the Engineering department about that. Some of the staff actually wants to fight them, and I tell them 'dont get your hopes up, you dont want to be on the wrong end of a weapon' but they are so young and excited." she said smiling. "But dont worry, sir, I will have them ready, I am no stranger to fighting if you read my file, I was a Combat Engineer who ended up being medical officer, engineer, soldier, pilot, and I have been known to practice the old fashioned art of 'Sapping', but my best skill is unlawful entry of computer systems, best fun is to knock out shields and take there own gear away from them. Once you gain access to an enemies systems, their ships, bases, or whatever is all yours to do what you will. Ah for the glory days again." she said smiling disarmingly.
The captain nodded slowly as a slight furrow creased his brow; she certainly could talk. He had read her service record and knew about her experience, so it wasn't a surprise to him. Given where they were going, she might well prove a useful part of the team. Right now though, he only cared about making sure his ship was ready to fight. If they were going to war, he had no intention of being unprepared for it.
"Very good, Lieutenant," he said, a glimmer of a smile threatening at the edge of his mouth. "I'm counting on you. We won't last five minutes against the Dominion if you and your team aren't doing their jobs. I know you won't let me down."
"Sir." she began taking on a bit more of a serious tone compared to her usual smiling self. "Have you ever been in a fight before with an unknown enemy?, I have and one thing I learned is that no matter how ready you may think you are, your not ready at all. I expect we will get our asses handed to us more then anything at first but trust me, we arent ready, we can slow our destruction, we can skirmish and run, but in the end, we can only prepare the best we can and in the end, expect the unexpected in everything we do because no matter how much you think your ready for a fight, your really not. Most of these people will never return home and they know it, part of the reason we signed on was for the danger but you will loose people, mourn there passing, you may even cry in private over there loss but in the end, we can only stem the tide of darkness for awhile before it overwhelms us. I know this better then most, so incase you havent been in a fight with an unknown enemy, you need to be prepared for these mixed emotions you will receive when this happens and if you need someone to talk too who has been there, been in the fire of combat, you come down here and talk to me. War changes a person, sometimes for the best, sometimes for the worse but in the end its what you do with your grief that will determine the man you will become. Just something to think about." she said still keeping with her serious tone.
Whitlam nodded slowly and decided it was best to not go too deeply into his own service history. Instead, he permitted a smile to cross his face and said, "Thank you. I'll keep that in mind." Then, with one final glance around main engineering, he turned to leave and said, "As you were, Lieutenant."
Captain Julius Whitlam
Commanding Officer
Lieutenant Kaylee Williams
Chief Engineer
USS Manoora
