Back At The Watch House
Posted on Sun Nov 22nd, 2015 @ 8:16pm by Commander Rylie Cattmor & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Commander Morai Keen & Lieutenant Rebecca "Ka" Drezner
Edited on on Mon Nov 23rd, 2015 @ 11:07am
1,127 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission: A Civil Act
ON:
T'mpest's promises of not taking any unnecessary chances did little to quell the fears Cattmor had about this away mission, an away mission the captain felt she was best equipped to lead. While it was true she had their chief of security with her, as well as one of his most trusted people, she still felt uneasy as she kept her gaze on their orbital profile on the main viewer. With Lieutenant Commander Keen standing in the centre of the bridge, Rylie helplessly picked up his meandering thoughts, the instinctual feeling that he felt ready to take on the Ranger with the absence of the commanding or executive officer's; in fact he expected it to happen given the various exchanges, and had reported as such to his family and in his logs. That led to a feeling of abstract surprise of why he was not in command of the ship right now.
Cattmor still felt conflicted though. The away team had been gone for about an hour already, and on one hand she felt compelled that she should be with them, but she also had her orders; to stay on board. This was the captain's show--she had the experience, but then she didn't have all the personnel either...
"You have the bridge, commander," Rylie said standing, straightening her uniform, "I'll be in main engineering." she finished, a minute plan forming in her mind.
"Thank you Commander." Morai said as he moved to stand by the Command Chair, not sure if he really liked how it would feel, the weight of it already on his mind. "If anything is up I will let you know."
The last hour had felt uneasy Blake summarized as they waited for messages from the away party and gathered information from the sensor logs. With the Captain down on the surface with Rylie behaving like a trapped animal tension was mounting with each passing moment. Therefore when she announced her departure he wasn't entirely surprised, something needed to give and this could be the very thing. Dylan glanced over to Morai wandering what was going on inside his head, save to the over powering desire to sleep he suspected with the new arrival keeping both parents occupied.
// Tranporter Room
With the conversation between Cattmor and the Chief Engineer turning to the magnetic interlock frequency and the problems they were having stabilising it after the last velocity change coming into orbit, Rylie took it upon herself to keep everyone where they were. While the Ranger was not in any immediate danger, as executive officer, it was her responsibility that if the captain ordered anything, said anything would be working at peak efficiency. What that basically meant was that no-one could leave engineering, and were under orders not to from Cattmor until the issue had been resolved. She felt confident that Keen and Blake could handle anything ship-wide, and that left her free to add her engineering talents and opinions to the away team; something she had wanted from the beginning, to say nothing about her responsibilities as X-O.
She entered the transporter room with the standard equipment, before reporting "Commander Cattmor to the bridge; I'm heading down to the surface to add an engineering viewpoint since the usual people are tied up up here. The ship's yours Morai; take care of her."
=^= Bridge here, we will be keeping our eyes peeled while you are away." Keen said.
"Set co-ordinates for the last known position of the away team; Energise." And at that, she was gone from the Ranger.
[Bridge]
Keen sat in the Command Chair, it was easy to sit in it but the feel of it was a little strange, not in a couple of years had he sat in it like this. A short stint as acting Executive Officer on another ship had introduced him to the chair, but even then it was not the most comfortable chair in the command.
"Okay , we are on sentry duty." Keen said aloud. "Keep the sensors focused and hope it is a quiet day?"
"We can only hope so," Blake smiled from his station.
***
Meanwhile, in Main Engineering, Lieutenant Rebecca "Ka" Drezner continued her daily tasks. She found herself crouched under an engineering station, working on rerouting the power flow to avoid feedback to that particular station. If there was anything that Ka hated most, it would have to be panels exploding in her face as she tried to perform her vital functions aboard the ship.
"Lieutenant?!" Questioned a crewman in a rather intense tone as he approached the Chief's position.
Ka shot up, hitting her had on the underside of the panel. "SHIT!" She exclaimed to herself as her face contorted into a grimace. Ka scooted out from under the panel and began rubbing her head as she scowled at the crewman. "Was that really necessary?!"
The crewman looked confused and anxious. "I'm sorry Sir, I just..."
"You just weren't thinking that you don't yell out to a woman who's elbow deep in an engineering station with her head only a few short inches away from being bonked and bonked hard against the bulkhead." Ka interjected, not waiting for the crewman to finish his sentence. The engineer reached out and grabbed hold of the edge of the panel and pulled herself up to standing position, hopping only once to settle herself. She stuffed her right hand quickly into her right pocket and pulled out a cloth and began wiping her hands.
Silently, the crewman looked at Ka, afraid to speak.
Ka, finished wiping her hands and having stuck the cloth back in her pocket, held onto the station with her right hand, crouched down and picked up her tools, and softly closed the case. She turned to find the crewman still standing there and almost jumped. Startled yet again by this crewman, she yelled. "Well WHAT?!"
It was all this poor crewman could do not to soil himself as he began to stammer. "I'm... I... I... I'm... I'm sorry Sir. I just... I thought..."
"TODAY CREWMAN." Ka said very sternly as she clutched her chest slightly. "Hell, you about gave me a heart attack. Twice. This better be damned well important..."
"Well Sir... I thought.... I thought you would be on the surface with the away team." Stammered the crewman, shaking slightly.
A look of confusion washed over Ka's face. 'Away team?' she thought. 'I know nothing of any away team...' With that, she took the took kit and shoved it into the crewman's chest. "Put that away, I've got to see a man about a goat." With that, she quickly marched out of Main Engineering and towards the bridge.
To be continued...
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