Sleeping Beauty
Posted on Mon Oct 30th, 2023 @ 3:52am by Commander Ichika Misono & Lieutenant Ami Rori & Lieutenant Terrence "Terry" Johnston
Edited on on Mon Oct 30th, 2023 @ 3:57am
1,788 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Operation Tokyo Return
Location: USS Myogi- Main Engineering, Deck 14
Timeline: Between "All Curled Up" and "Trouble Afoot"
With their guests scheduled to beam aboard in just a few hours' time, Ichika figured she'd do her Commanding Officer a favor and stop by Engineering, see how repairs were coming along. After all, Maho was now in her second trimester, and it would no doubt be detrimental for her to be scurrying about the ship in her current condition trying to get everything done before they were due to launch.
"Hello?" she called out as disembarked from the Turbolift. "Would anyone down here happen to know where I could find Commander Pratt?"
Terry was standing in an out of the way corner speaking to a friend of his over a PADD when Ichika stepped off the turbolift.
"Sorry, gotta go." He said, ending the call and setting the PADD down and stepping into the Commander's view.
"Hate to break it to you, Commander, but Commander Pratt skipped town." He explained. "He was one of the guys who took the promotions Captain Takahashi was offering and ran."
Ichika blinked in surprise. "He left?"
"Afraid so." Terry said.
"Has Captain Takahashi been informed of this development?"
"She was informed shortly after Pratt received his extra half-pip." Terry explained.
"That was two weeks ago," Ichika remarked. "Why wasn't I informed of this?"
"You were busy training with the rest of the senior staff in the holodeck." Terry responded. "We knew that Captain Takahashi knew, and left it at that."
Ichika pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Alright, then; since it would appear that speaking with Commander Pratt is out of the question, who here is the next senior-most officer in this department?"
"Well, there was that Cardassian/Bajoran that was briefly assigned, but she left as quickly as she came." Terry muttered. "I was all prepared to step up into the role as acting Chief Engineer, but then at the last minute, Starfleet came through for us:"
Terry then proceeded to point towards the Chief Engineer's office, which contained a Lieutenant currently asleep in a beanbag chair.
Ichika glanced over at the sleeping Lieutenant, and then back at Terry.
"You're kidding me," she sighed. "You mean to tell me they made her the Chief Engineer?"
A very gentle snore emanated from the woman curled up on comfortable bit of ‘furniture’ and one hand seemed to unfurl and close again as if reaching for something and grabbing it. She was wearing a shorter-than-regulation skirt but had draped herself with a fleecy hoodie that her other hand clutched tightly around herself. Peaceful in appearance.
"I wish I wasn't..." Terry sighed.
Ichika grumbled something to herself before turning and making her way over to where the Lieutenant was seated.
"Er... Excuse me?" she began, gently nudging the Lieutenant's shoulder in an effort to wake her. "Can I speak with you for a second, Lieutenant?"
“Mmmmmmm” The quiet complaint came from the slight woman even as her eyes blinked several times and she peered up the the Commander with what appeared to be furry ears on her head. She stretched where she was and kept blinking the sleep out the hazel orbs as a hand came up to rub them, “Sure, what can I do for you?” She slowly pulled the hoodie on the proper way as she sat fully up, nearly tipping out of the chair before she caught her balance.
"Easy does it, Lieutenant," Ichika cautioned as she slowly helped the Lieutenant for feet. "I was hoping to speak with Commander Pratt and assess where we stand so far as repairs are concerned, but since it would appear he's long-gone, I'm told that you're the one I'd have to speak to on that specific matter?"
"That would be me, I got on board... Yesterday?" Ami looked at one of the consoles from far away and shrugged, "I'm Lieutenant Ami Saito, Chief of..." She cocked her head to the side as if someone was whispering in her ear, exposing the rather faded spots on the side of her head and neck, "Sorry, Ami Rori." She said to Ichika, then lowered her voice, "Look, I know, I'm still getting used to all this and you guys aren't always helping..." Her eyes came back up to the Inuto and she smiled, "Lieutenant Ami Rori, Chief of Engineering aboard the Myogi now, and um... Definitely the one to talk to."
"Not the most efficient way you could've answered that question, but alright," Ichika sighed. "So you said you've only been here a day? Have you had time to run a diagnostic on all the major systems?"
Ami gave Ichika a quizzical look from just about the same height as her, especially with the ears on top of the Inuto's head, evaluating whether she was asking out of curiosity or sarcasm. After a moment of contemplation, she shrugged and nodded, "Only a Level 4, I just wanted to get a general feel of the status of the ship systems, I can delve deeper into the subsystems later once I have a chance to get to know the girl a bit better. Need to make sure that what I'm seeing isn't just her personality showing off. I also pulled some maintenance on the shuttles yesterday while the diagnostic was running." She shuffled over to her desk and tapped a few keys just to confirm some information, "Myogi is at about eighty-three percent effectiveness, but given what she's been through? Not too bad. The majors are in pretty good shape, some of the subsystems need an overhaul pretty bad."
"Which subsystems specifically?" Ichika asked. "Not that we're going to have the time for it, necessarily, but once this assignment's behind us, I can speak with Captain Takahashi on the possibility of running some firmware updates."
"Life support is at only thirty-six percent redundancy right now, she still has some structural issues on decks five and fourteen and the secondary computer core is showing signs of memory degradation. Tertiary core is still fine and we can switch them, even if that will only improve systems reliability by eighteen percent." Once again her head cocked to the side slightly and her eyes glazed over, "Twenty-two percent, up to twenty-eight if we strip out certain programs. No, I won't blindly do it, I want to look at it first." She shook her head slightly and looked back to Ichika, "I can probably resolve most of the life support problems pretty quick and the others are rather straightforward with the right support and we're still essentially fully capable."
Ichika took a moment to consider her options. "Okay; so, how long are we looking as far as repairs to the life support systems are concerned? We're on a limited time-frame here, and I don't think that Commodore Honda or Captain Takahashi will be allowing for delays."
“Delays?” Ami’s face quirked slightly in confusion, “I never said nothing about delays. I mean, anything.” Her head slipped to the side for a moment, before coming back up as if she were drifting off with her eyes wide open, “Oh! Noooooo, no, no, no! Life Support is operating at ninety-three percent right now, it’s the secondary system that provides support when that system is damaged or down that needs the work done. As I’m sure you know, there is no significant degradation in quality of life until the primary system is down to 68 percent. Even still, I will guarantee that Primary El-Ess will be at one hundred percent within six hours and within twenty-four, we will have at least fifty percent of the redundant systems back up and humming along nicely. I’ve got a requisition in place for replacement parts to bring the backups up to full snuff, but if we have to leave without them, I can replicate just about anything needed if we have to. It just would take longer to do. I’d prefer to not go into combat for at least 96 hours if that turns out to be the case, but we will be combat capable with acceptable reserve life support within those 24 hours.”
"Well, I can't say it's ideal, but given the strict deadline, I don't think we have a whole lot of alternatives." Ichika sighed. "Make it so, Lieutenant; I'll advise Captain Takahashi to keep us out of trouble for the next day or so."
"Show me someone who says they can do it faster without a full team from the Starbase and I'll show you someone who's head is bigger than their panties can handle." Ami had no shortage of confidence in herself, "All of those numbers are worst-case scenarios, more likely it'll be faster by up to twenty percent. It'll be done as fast as anyone can do it."
"I trust you to get done what you say you can get done," Ichika replied as she turned to leave.
"Oh, and Lieutenant?"
Ami had slumped back into one of the chairs before Ichika had stopped, "Yes, Commander?"
"I'll have you know that Captain Takahashi expects each and every one of her crew members to be rested up before they report for duty," Ichika warned. "I understand you may be new here, so I'll let it slide just this once, but I suggest you don't make a habit out of it, for future reference."
"I got ten hours of sleep last night." Ami pointed out, "I'm afraid it's a medical condition that I'm taking medications for. You see, my body doesn't like Rori, wants to throw her out, but the problem is it'd kill me if it did. Uses too much energy and the meds don't help in that regard." She sounded apologetic, but she truly was apologetic about her situation, "Not much I can do about it."
Ichika blinked in surprise.
"Well... I guess my only recommendation is that you schedule monthly appointments with Doctor Delling to ensure that your condition doesn't effect your ability to work," she advised. "Otherwise, that'll be all, Lieutenant; carry on as you were."
And then, when she remembered what Ami had been doing prior to discovering her:
"And, uh... not sleeping, please?"
Ami had the good grace to blush a light pink with the comment, standing up again from the chair she'd just sat down in and gave a big stretch, "Right, I'll do my best not to."
Posting By (In Order Of Appearance):
Commander Ichika Misono
Executive Officer, USS Myogi (NCC-65918)
Lieutenant Terrence Johnston
Engineer, USS Myogi (NCC-65918)
Lieutenant Ami Rori
Chief Engineer, USS Myogi (NCC-65918)
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