Neccessary Work

Posted on Sun 23rd Apr, 2017 @ 9:54pm by Lieutenant Commander Andrew Eberstark & Ensign Joshua Schwartz

1,021 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night
Location: Deck 14

Coming off the turbolift, Andrew rubbed his eyes. The past 48 hours have been a bit of a whirlwind, even by his standards. With what was going on around him, it was easy for Andrew to feel a little left behind and out of the loop with every situation, something that he was definitely not accustomed to feeling. Realizing, he was losing his focus walking around the deck, he stopped and took a deep breath.

Just have to take it one step at a time, he thought to himself as he approached his destination. Looking down at he PADD, seeing the long list of items, and then back up to the door leading to targeting scanner maintenance, he sighed, "And right now, it's getting these secondary targeting scanners back online."

As, Andrew entered, he heard some piece of equipment fall along with quick groan of frustration. Looking in that direction, Andrew saw the figure quickly turn around.

Stammering, the man straightened his uniform and snapped to attention, "Sir! I didn't think you'd be down here! Ensign Joshua Schwartz, Tactical officer, sir."

Andrew gave a small smile towards the Ensign and extended a hand, "At ease, Ensign. Calm down. Lieutenant Eberstark. Pleasure to finally meet you in person, Ensign. I see your file was accurate in regards to your work ethic. As for my presence here, seeing as we are a bit short-staffed, I figured we could use every hand we could get."

Taking his new department head's hand, Josh gathered himself, "Nice to meet you too, sir. I didn't realize you came aboard or I would have tried to stop by."

Shaking his head, "Don't worry about it, Ensign. I'll have a full staff meeting shortly. I apologize it hasn't happened sooner, but as I'm sure you've heard by now, some other issues took higher precedent."

Josh nodded in response, "Of course, sir. Hopefully this all settles down soon. I'm not one for all this drama honestly."

Andrew gave a chuckle, "Agreed, Ensign. You and I both."

Glancing behind the Ensign at the open panel, "It seems we both are here for the same reason. How are you coming with the secondary targeting scanners?"

Turning, Josh walked back to his work, "Well, I thought it would be fairly straightforward, but for some reason I can't quite seem to channel the right power to get these things online. Almost blew out the system the first time. Think I narrowed it down to this power flow conduit, thought," and pointed to the open panel, "Just got finished running a diagnostic on it. Seems unsteady."

Taking out his tricorder, Andrew nodded agreement, "I tend to agree, Ensign. Good work. That shaves some time off for me just trying to find the problem."

Bending down, "Looks like this just needs to be replaced. Good thing you didn't try anything else, or it may have very well exploded in your face."

Looking frustrated, the Ensign leaned against the wall and cursed himself. It was something so obvious that he missed by rushing to get the job down before his superior came calling. Now it just made him look like a fool.

"Sir, I'm sorry. That should have been the first thing I checked."

Standing up, Andrew turned to look at the defeated Ensign, "No harm, Ensign. I gathered you were a bit eager to fix it you overlooked it. In the future, just take a deep breath and make sure you don't skip Step 1. Don't worry about it. I would be appreciative if you hand me that hyperspanner, however."

Grabbing it from the kit, Josh quickly handed it over, "Of course, sir. I could also take care of it, sir. "

Andrew turned his head again from his work, "I have no doubt you can, Ensign. This wasn't meant as an insult. It's actually more selfish on my part. Doing this work takes my mind of things and that's exactly the kind of distraction I need right now," he continued as he went back to his work, "Don't worry. You didn't make a bad first impression."

He heard a sigh from behind him, causing Andrew to smile, "There we go. That should do it. Bypassing it is only a temporary fix though. Try it now."

The Ensign walked over to the controls and inputted the startup sequence, bringing the conduit to life with the power flow, "Everything's looking good, sir. Scanners well within reasonable parameters. No overloads or anything of note to report. There's a slight drop in power due to the bypass, but that's to be expected."

Andrew nodded at the report, and opened his tricorder at the panel, "Nothing out of the ordinary on my end either. Just what we expected after bypassing the flow. It should stabilize after a few moments, but we'll still need to replace this section"

Standing up and closing his tricorder, "Ensign, would you mind making the necessary change out and report to me when you're finished?"

Josh nodded and packed up his toolkit, "Yes, sir. I'll take care of it."

"Thank you, Ensign. Now, I think I'll go to my office and set things up. Still haven't been there and I'm almost afraid of what shape its in. "

As they exited, Andrew shook the Ensign's hand once more, "Thanks for the help, Ensign. Good work. And don't worry. We'll have that staff meeting sooner rather than later. Keep me posted if you see anything else around the Starbase."

Josh gave a nod, "Of course, sir. And thank you. Good to finally meet you, sir."

As they went their separate ways, Andrew was overall pleased with the encounter. As far as he was concerned, based on the amount of people he had at his disposal, being overeager was something Andrew was happy to deal with.

Entering the turbolift, Andrew gave another sigh as he headed to his new office. Looking back down on the PADD to see one item checked off the still long list of action items, he rubbed his eyes. All he craved at the moment, was a tall cup of black coffee and a moment's peace.

 

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