Sleep-repairs

Posted on Sun Apr 5th, 2009 @ 7:56pm by Lieutenant Cress Maven

1,306 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
Location: Skanda's Quarters/Main Engineering

Lieutenant JG Skanda Sheedy had had a long day in engineering and all she wanted to do now was sleep. But ah, cruel fate, her sporadic insomnia would strike tonight. She lay on her bed, bored out of her mind and tired to boot. Her computer was on and the slight light it cast was just enough for her to see her own body on the bed, but no further.

Skanda turned the monitor toward herself and looked at it. Computers had always held a certain fascination for her; the study of the great machines that ran their lives was one reason she'd gone into engineering. She spent a few minutes gazing at the monitor, picturing the way the inside of it looked. She marveled anew at the complexity of the machine, almost like a brain.

But finally she tired of this pursuit and for lack of anything else to do she actually looked what was on the screen and consulted her bedside monitor for the next day's schedule. Looking up at the screen she caught sight of her name across the top. Being tired and thus in a philosophical mood, she slowly considered each part of her name, rank and title in turn.

Lieutenant: Her rank. But not her whole rank. No, she apparently hadn't quite earned the honor of full lieutenant. Not yet.
Junior: Skanda grimaced at that. Junior. Inferior. Surely that was not what the word was intended to convey, but that's what she got out of it.
Grade: One day maybe she would make the grade, she mused, and be promoted to Lieutenant. But that was unlikely to happen at this time of night.

Skanda: The name she had been given at birth, the name, she had found, she shared with a god of the Hindu religion. She really had to read up on that god sometime...

Sheedy: Not her birth surname, but the name she had adopted when she had met Vishnu Sheedy and his adopted sisters and she too had been adopted into their family.

Chief: Chief, like captain. She smiled at that. Captain of her own little piece of a much larger vessel. She wondered what the Commander would think of that.

Engineering: Engines had been her passion from a young age. Naturally, on the world where she had grown up, there had been little in the way of technology that she could tinker with. But look now, she had a whole ship to bother about with!

Officer: Her chest swelled with pride at that. Starfleet, the great exploratory and peacekeeping branch of the mighty Federation. "Th' few, th' prou', th' 'Flee'," she murmured drowsily to herself.

United: The same pride that had filled her in thinking of Starfleet came again at the thought of the great nation to which she belonged. Complete unity of hundreds of worlds, all under one banner. "Where no man need be afrai' o' anothe'."

Star: "Space, th' fin'l fron'ie'," intoned Skanda in a deep, grave voice, quoting from a Starfleet Academy commercial she had recently overheard on FNS. But really, it was a great thing to search the stars for new life and to learn more about the expanse of space in which they all lived.

Ship: A space-going vessel like the Archemides sometimes took on a personality of her own to her crew, especially those well acquainted with the running of the ship. Skanda was Chief Engineer, the person who would know this ship best, and she was immensly enjoying getting to know this ship.

Archimedes: Named for a great scientist from Earth, the Nova class vessel was captained by an intrepid man and crewed by a proud crew eager to serve the Federation through their exploration. Skanda Sheedy was proud to be counted among them.

Tiring of her present philosophical vein, Sheedy moved her eyes down to her actual schedule and skimmed over the words that detailed her list of things to do for the next day. She had not gotten much past the first few lines when the monitor briefly went dark. It flickered back on again almost immediately, but the drop had been there. Skanda sighed wearily. These random malfunctions were really getting out of hand and so far she and her crew had come up with nothing that would explain it. She was not unduly worried about this latest flick, the nightside crew could deal with it for now.

Skanda had just drifted off into sleep when she felt the ship slow a little beneath her. Only an engineer would have felt the slight change, but Sheedy knew as if by instinct that the Arch had slowed in orbit. Ten seconds later, as she knew she would, Skanda was paged by the helmsman.

=/\=Bridge to Chief Engineer. Skanda, the, uh, thrusters just cut out. We can maintain orbit for some time yet, but it would be smashing if you'd get them back online...=/\=

Sheedy rolled out of bed with a groan. She hadn't even fully regained consciousness. "'m on i', Bridge. Sheedy ou'." Without even bothering to change out of her pale green nightgown, the hybrid stalked to the nearest turbolift and ordered, "Engineerin'!" with a bit more force than perhaps was necessary. The inconsiderate lift car, however, kept its measured pace steady and took its own sweet time getting down to main engineering.

When she arrived, the nightside crewmen stared in amazement at the disheveled, barely awake chief as she immediately went across to a control panel and tapped up the thruster controls. Without looking at anyone else she began running diagnostics and rerouting power to get the thrusters back to capacity. The entirety of engineering slid to a halt to watch her work. Skanda finished the job and slapped a comm panel. "Sheedy t' Bridge. Try i' now, Mick."

Up on the bridge, nightside helmsman Mick Hargrave smiled brightly as the thrusters came online and the ship's orbit, which had begun to slowly deteriorate, was brought back into line. He tapped his badge to respond to the engineer's hail.

=/\=Hargrave here. All's well, Skanda. Thanks for the help, I know it's late. I owe you one. Bridge out.=/\=

Muttering something about helmsmen's mothers, the woman stalked out of Engineering, the thigh-cut gown fluttering around her legs. The entire engineering crew stood in silence, then turned to look at the assistant chief engineer. Cress Maven shook her head slowly, unsure what to think. "That," she said quietly, "was one of the most bizarre things I've seen on this ship so far."

"Don't hold your breath," Gambei Martolin muttered from the doorway. "It'll get weirder before it gets better."

[The Next Day]

Engineer Skanda Sheedy was busily working away on the warp core, just tinkering, trying to improve upon perfection. Her yellow eyes narrowed in concentration, her mind bent on her work, she barely heard the ensign come up behind her. "What?" she snapped without turning around. The boyish voice of one of the petty officers floated over her shoulder.

"Nothing, Chief. I just wanted to say... I think you did a good job on the thrusters last night. It was amazing, having such skill you can repair things without even...being..."

He trailed off as Skanda turned to fix him with a glare. "Wha' 're y' talkin' abou'?" Embarrassed, the young man stepped back a pace. "Never mind," he said hurriedly before dashing in the other direction. Skanda, bewildered, sought out her assistant chief. She chucked a thumb over her shoulder at the boy who'd spoken to her. "Wha's he on abou'? Thrus'ers las' nigh'? Did somethin' go wrong?"

Cress just stared at her for a minute. Then she began to laugh. Skanda was still utterly confused and could only stand there shaking her head while her Betazoid assistant rejoiced in the oddities of her chief engineer.

 

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