Tough Love

Posted on Sat Aug 15, 2015 @ 8:19am by Lieutenant Commander Steven Wyman & Lieutenant JG Rhe'la Daughter of the Forty-ninth House
Edited on on Sat Aug 15, 2015 @ 2:42pm

832 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Fallout
Location: Somewhere in the bowels of the station
Timeline: MD04: Approximately 30 hours after "Hitting the Ground Running"

ON:

"Almost... got it... OK - lock it down! Lock it down!"

Ever since coming aboard, Rhe'la had been up to her armpits in some repair or another. She'd only seen her quarters just long enough to dump off her bag and make sure that the boxes carrying her belongings from the Cavalry had been beamed in.

So, about five minutes out of the last thirty hours.

To say that Wyman had downplayed the damage to the station was an understatement. It was a wonder it was still functioning after all it had gone though. And having mythical demigods fighting a war on the promenade certainly didn't help matters. Thankfully Rhe'la had arrived AFTER that, or she probably would have resigned her commission and walked to the nearest transport ship saying, "Nope. NOPE. Noooooope nope nope."

But, she hadn't. Instead she had arrived to a starbase full of scared, tired people in desperate need of a break. When her transport arrived, she was quite possibly the only rested and showered individual on board. As such, she felt it her duty to get into the nitty gritty and get her gloved hands dirty.

Emerging from a smoke filled jefferies tube, she pulled the mask off of her snout and took a breath of semi-fresh air. "OK, lets finish getting this EPS conduit replaced, then we'll move on to the next catastrophe. Which is..." The reptilian picked up a PADD and scrolled to the top of the repair list. "The starboard inertial dampening field emitters. All of them? On the entire starboard side of the station?"

The petty officer standing next to her nodded grimly.

"How has half the station's compliment not been smashed into a fine paste by now?"

"A combination of dumb luck and a couple civilian ships extending their fields around the occupied portions of that side of the station. Not a great fix, but it's working in the short term." Steve explained as he walked up sipping a cup of coffee. He looked very much like that coffee was the only thing keeping him from falling over on the deck. "Two questions for you, Ensign. One - have you eaten or slept since you got here?"

Placing the PADD into her tool kit and snapping it shut, she looked up at the outgoing chief engineer. "A ration pack about twelve hours ago, and I think I passed out from exhaustion for a few minutes while working on that EPS junction. Otherwise, no."

Wyman scowled. He knew that Rhe'la knew better than that, though he couldn't fault her. But still, the station was stabilized to the point that everyone should have at least gotten a couple of hours of sleep in the last day and a half. "If I have to order you off duty, I will. Which bring me to question two - have you reported to the Captain yet?"

"I have not. Probably because I've spent the last thirty hours stabilizing the station. Which brings ME to a question - what's the status of the deflector?" Without the main deflector, the station was relying on its shields to keep meteoroids and other small stellar objects from blasting holes in the hull. Getting the deflector rebuilt and online would free up a large amount of power that could be better used elsewhere.

Steve just shook his head before taking another sip from his mug. "Lebowski is still trying to figure out where the all the pieces go. That's what you get for ordering a deflector from an IKEA catalog, I suppose."

"I know you're messing with me, but I'm going to check on their progress anyway." Rhe'la was already moving past Steve and down the corridor before she finished the statement. As such, Steve had to quickly spin and jog to catch up to her.

"Lebowski is a weird guy, but he's a good engineer. He knows what he's doing, despite outward appearances. So let him do his job, and stop micromanaging the entire engineering section. You need to report to the Captain." Seeing her start to protest, he instantly cut her off. "Ah! No! No excuses. She's already in a foul mood after all that happened, and having her new chief engineer avoid her for almost a day and a half isn't going to help matters any. No 'buts' - get up to Ops NOW. And bring a status report so she'll at least see WHY you've been cloistered down here in the bowels of the station all this time."

Rhe'la slammed on the breaks and stared up at her mentor. Wyman was always so easy going, and having him go completely tough love on her was jarring. "Y... yes, sir."

As she turned down a side corridor to head for a turbolift, Steve called out behind her, "Lighten up, Ensign. It's only going to get better!"
OFF

Ens. Rhe'la, Daughter of the Forty-ninth House
Incoming Chief Engineer
Deep Space 5

Lt. Cmdr. Steve Wyman
Chief Engineer emeritus
Deep Space 5

 

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