Lower Decks, Prologue
Posted on Sat 27th Feb, 2021 @ 1:43pm by Lieutenant Commander Kiara Lena & Lieutenant Commander Alora Baro & Lieutenant Commander Dallas Briggs & Crewman Eslin Briga
Edited on on Fri 26th Mar, 2021 @ 11:42am
1,388 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Business Not At All As Usual
Location: Various areas
Timeline: MD:6 1230 hours
Crewman Nathan Winters had arrived on SB109 about 2 years ago as an Engineer's Mate. He thought that because he was in the top 10 percent of his class on Mars at the Starfleet Technical Services Academy that he would have been assigned to Main Engineering as an Engineer, but someone must have not liked him or something. He felt like he was somehow blackballed. Since he had arrived, he had been assigned to the Engineering Support Labs down on Deck 2250.
Lying back on her bunk, hands folded under her head, Emmie Walker, stared at the bottom of the bunk above her. 2500 decks on this starbase, and they still had to share tiny quarters? She was lucky it was just the two of them, and even luckier there was no hot-bunking. She'd heard about that practice when she'd read a history of naval ships. Sharing your bed by shifts with someone else? The thought made her shudder. Someone would be coming in as roommate soon. Her last one had transferred out only a week ago, but more maintenance engineers were expected any day. The good part of that was ... new poker faces to learn as she took her crew mates' credits.
The Engineering Support Lab was a unique beast, Nathan would be tasked to run tests on various Engineering components, some were for the quality control aspect, sometimes he was asked to reverse engineer something. No mater what he had worked on, it involved reports. He was an Engineer at heart and wanted to repair stuff, not study the mineral content of a special metal or know what at pressure a self sealing stem bolt would fail and then have to submit the report on his findings, but that's what he did, day in and day out.
Eslin Briga stepped out of the arrivals tunnel that led from the immense docking bay and found a turbolift headed up-station to Enlisted Check-In. As usual, her duffel bag didn't want to stay on her shoulder and kept slipping off. Eslin grumbled under her breath as she wrestled with it and had to apologize to a few people when she bumped them with it. At last, she made it to Check-In and handed over her isolinear chip.
"Briga, Eslin, Crewman. You are assigned to deck 2350, cabin P123, with Crewman Walker," the Andorian petty officer said as she returned Eslin's chip to her.
Eslin frowned. "Isn't that like, Engineering level? I'm supposed to be in Medical."
"Medical quarters are all full up, dearie. Only quarters I have left in Medical are for a gastroenterologist, CMO's orders. You don't have MD after your name, so it's not you. Take it or leave it."
Eslin shrugged. "I guess I'll take it. Do I report to my duty station today or tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow morning, 0800 sharp, Sickbay 10."
"Who am I supposed to report to? My orders just say, 'Office Manager.'"
The Andorian typed something; apparently she disliked speaking to the computer. She swiveled her screen so Eslin could see the image. "Warrant Officer Drusinien."
"An Efrosian. Cool! All right. Thanks, Ma'am," Eslin said.
"Don't 'Ma'am' me; I work for a living. It's PO th'Rin to you."
"Oh, right! Thanks, Ma--PO th'Rin." Eslin hurried out of the Check-In area before she could say 'Ma'am' again.
Being a Crewman first class in security meant some senior noncoms thought you couldn't wipe your own butt without them and lower enlisted weren't sure if they liked you because you were almost a petty officer but not quite. For Catherine O'Rielly, things could still be a bit difficult. Like parents, it took time for the senior noncoms to see Crewman Firsts as proper adults. She'd been on board about six months straight from the Academy, so that didn't help, but she had kept her nose to the grindstone with her usual single-minded focus. To officers they were almost invisible.
She shared quarters with another senior crewman, but they were often on opposite shifts so it was almost like being alone, which suited her, giving her time to study and relax in reasonable quiet. She'd been looking for more to do than the usual. Though she loved security, it did feel a lot like hurry up and wait. It didn't help she worked the graveyard shift, she loved being up at night but it wreaked havoc with her social life.
Nathan hadn't really made any friends since he had come aboard SB 109. Mostly this was due to his work schedule. They deemed it necessary for him to have to work in the lab at night. For Nathan, this was the worst shift that he could possibly do.
Finally he received a break and the powers that be changed his shift back to day watch, a much more manageable shift for him and a new project for him to work on. Nathan reread the PADD that he held in his hand and still couldn't believe it. Did they realize that their best Engineer's Mate was misused by putting him on the wrong shift?
Crewman CJ Pendleton looked out of the small portal in her tiny cabin aboard the uncomfortable transport that brought her all those light years from the Sol system to SB 109. The trip had been super long, and something that she could not enjoy, since she was cooped up in what might have been used at one time as a prison or brig cell. One thing was sure, she was ready to get off this rust bucket and on to bigger and better things. The Fusion Reactor Specialist was ready to get to work after graduating from the Starfleet Technical Services Academy.
She watched as the star base got bigger and bigger. It finally took up the small portal as the vessel got closer. She gripped her very vintage teddy bear, named Mr. Stitches, that had seen better days. Mr. Stitches had been with her since she was about 6 years old and remained to this day a very important item in her life. "Look Mr. Stitches, we're home." She held the teddy bear up to the portal so he could see out.
The tram ride down station seemed to take forever, Eslin thought. Still, what she could see of the base was amazing. What a humungous shopping mall! And an arboretum, and what looked like residential decks, something park-like, with a waterfall--Whoever heard of a waterfall on a starbase?
The base began to look more and more industrial, the lower down the tram went, until at last it reached Deck 2300. Eslin exited and took a turbolift the final 50 decks down. Salt and Pepper, she thought as she exited the lift. Cabin Pepper-123. She walked a little way and found it in the first ring corridor out from the turbolift block. And here it is!
She knocked, in case Crewman Walker was inside.
Shayla Benet walked into the small lab set apart for updating stellar maps and smiled. Just what she wanted. She'd spent a decade taking care of stellar maps on her family's small surveyor and liked nothing better than maps. She had a basic understanding of science and what the different formations were made of, but that was out of curiosity more than actual study. It was the reason she hadn't bothered with Starfleet Academy and gone straight in as a crewman. She didn't want to do all the other stuff science officers had to do. She just wanted to work with maps. She'd even learned to make old-fashioned planetary maps, again for fun. But this...she turned around, taking it all in. This was paradise. It wasn't the main Astrometrics lab where she'd have to do other work, it was just updating maps. It was cartography, and she could spend hours and hours logging everything into the computer, making sure the maps looked right in 2D and 3D, then she could play with the holographic projector to make sure all the secondary functions worked properly. That kind of programming she loved, and this was a dream come true for a little ol' Petty Officer.
She still had to find her quarters and see who her roommate would be, but she had to check out her work area first. It made her positively giddy.
RSS Feed