A Departmental Matter, Part 1

Posted on Tue 21st Jul, 2020 @ 3:20am by Lieutenant Commander Alora Baro

1,322 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Operations Department
Timeline: MD 13, 0845 (a Friday)

Alora arrived early, lucky for her a previous appointment canceled. As Chief of Operations of a large station like this, a lot of her time was organizing others or doing paperwork, but she worked hard to keep a solid chunk of her schedule actually for repairs. It was her first love and kept her from turning her desk into a shuttlecraft as she often thought about doing. She entered the small two person craft and took the pilot's seat. While waiting for her partner, she began the basic systems and equipment checks.

Hurrying down the corridor, Quinn turned into the shuttle bay and hurried toward the worker shuttle, muttering under her breath. "Of course, my boss is already here. Naturally, I couldn't be early. Way to look like a lazy worthless PO with no hope of promotion!"

As she approached, she pasted on a smile, and hauled her kit on board, dropping it and fastening it down. Then she settled into the seat beside her boss, and said cheerfully, "Sorry I'm late, and I didn't even bring you a morning coffee."

Alora smiled looking up from the checklist, "You're not late. I'm early. I had a chance to make good my escape from my office and I took it." She said reassuringly, "I've gone through the checklist, so if you want to check the EVA and repair gear before we head out, that would be helpful." She always liked to check things multiple times. One did not want to be in space and have equipment failure because it wasn't double checked. 'Never assume its good unless you have checked it' was a common refrain.

"Sure thing," Jin-Kyung said, leaping back out of her seat, and kneeling in front of the EVA locker first. "I've done a few EVAs, but always tethered. I hope that's okay," she said, matching the list on the inside of the locker with what she found as contents. "EVA equipment is all here." Shutting the door and turning the lock knob, she opened the one above it, more like a drawer of tools.

Again, Quinn checked the posted list with what was behind the door, and again all items were there. "All present and accounted for on tools, Ma'am," she said, resuming her seat.

Alora paused then realized she hadn't been clear. "Excellent to hear, now I've something unusual to ask. When time permits, I like to check all my own equipment. It's not a common part of routine, but one accident as a cadet has made me cautious." She said gently, "Let's take a minute and double check the suits, then we'll get going. Any questions?" she asked standing up after securing the craft for her to leave the station.

"Oh, um, no ma'am. I'm happy to be more careful, really. Some people think you're wasting time to double check, and I have been in trouble for taking that extra time in a few places. I also kind of like to know that I've checked things myself. Reduced risk means better results is more than a motto, right?" Quinn smiled and got up with her boss to go back and do the job right before they left the station.

"Double checking is never a waste of time." Alora assured, "If the situation does not permit, that's one thing, but I always encourage double checking if there's time to plan for it. Your life relies on this equipment, and this equipment relies on us to keep it in top shape." She continued trying to give advice but not overly lecture. They did the recheck and, as expected, nothing odd was found. Returning to their pilot seats, Alora prepared to take them out after getting clearance. "We're all set, you want to do the honors or shall I?" she asked. Sometimes junior personnel didn't get all the practice they wanted, so she liked to try to mentor them along when circumstances permitted.

"I would like to, but I don't have a lot of experience with the 15. I don't think I'd actually smash us into anything, but I'd hate to scrape the paint," Quinn said ruefully. She tried to recall the last time she'd flown anything close to a starbase, and it had been a tiny worker bee. Fortunately, she hadn't scratched the new Galaxy class where she'd been checking installations. This was definitely a larger vessel, small shuttlecraft size.

Alora nodded, "Fair enough, only reason I got a license is I had time and strong desire to get to know a certain instructor better," she said, humor in her voice and a smile as she recalled the memory. "Taking off, we have clearance." She carefully went through the process. Almost forgetting the PO was there as she focused on something that was not as natural to her as engineering. She could do it but required attention.

Quinn watched every move her boss made, hoping to learn something about piloting the shuttle. Maybe when they weren't so close to things, she could have a chance to see how it handled, without the danger of running into anything.

Finally, they were out into space where she could relax. It would require less here in the open space, fortunately the area had light traffic and that dropped to nothing as she made her way to the the part of the station they were heading to repair. "I sometimes forget how beautiful it all is." Alora commented taking in space and the station.

Jin-Kiyung shrugged, "It isn't that often that I get outside to see anything," she said. "I like to go to the observation decks, but there hasn't even been time for that lately. We've been swamped, but you already know that. You work longer hours than most of us." She took a minute to look out at the space that surrounded them. It was beautiful, but it could also be frightening. Being close to the starbase gave her a sense of anchor, however.

"Do you already have the problem figured out?" Quinn asked, as she admired the hard glitter of the stars in the distance. There was something that would pass for a moon at half phase, if she were on a planet. "Is that Nāmaka? I heard some of the scientists are out exploring it."

"Not yet we'll need to swing around to see the damaged area," Alora replied to the first question then glanced at the planet as she carefully brought them around, "Yes it is." She confirmed the planet. "I had heard about that - be interesting to see what information they bring back...." Then ever practical, "I hope nothing happens to our equipment...and the scientists, too, of course." She glanced over a small grin before returning her attention to the controls.

"I hadn't even considered something could. I guess I really am a junior engineer," Quinn said. "I seem to presume we can always fix everything, though I know that isn't true. Today, I expect we'll be successful, because ... well, you seem to have a lot of experience and I'm hoping to learn at least one new thing from you. I appreciate your giving me the chance to come help with this." Probably the ChOp didn't expect this to be much of a problem, and thought it would be a good opportunity for her to get a little more experience. She really was grateful for that.

Alora glanced over and smiled encouragingly at the petty officer, "I think us and doctors have the hardest times admitting when we can't fix something. I guess that's one of the more important lessons. Knowing when to walk away." Then she paused and shrugged, "Or run if whatever it is, is somewhat volatile." She continued to work the controls bringing them near an area that looked like a small panel had blown outward. She locked the craft into a hover position. "Ready?"

To be continued ....

 

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