PL - Main Engineering (Aboard The Aldrin Part 2)
Posted on Tue Mar 28th, 2023 @ 12:49am by Ensign Kato Reon
660 words; about a 3 minute read
PL - Main Engineering (Aboard The Aldrin Part 2)
By Ensign Kato Reon
It was gamma shift. Reon was notified at his indoctrination that he would be working the third shift, as many brand new ensigns do straight out of the academy. It was 2500 hours. He walked in and saw a few people standing around towards the back, behind the warp core. At the center, there was a Tellarite wearing a lieutenant's uniform. They seemed to be flocking around him so he guessed that that man was the duty officer for that shift.
"You Reon?" said the Tellarite.
He tried the best he could to hide the fact that he was trying to look at each of the other officers' collars to see who had the rank there, so he looked back to him and nodded, "Yes, sir. Eh, Kato. I'm Ensign Kato, sir."
"What?" the Tellarite replied as if he did not know whether he was being responded to with sarcasm or not.
"Uh," Reon cleared his throat first, not allowing the others to know he was conscious of them all staring at him at that point, then proceeded, "In Bajoran culture, our first names are last, and our last names are first, sir... So my name is Kato Reon, but my last name is actually Reon, sir."
There was a pause and a silence that only allowed the consistent whoo-ing of the warp core's pulsating to fill the air, then the Tellarite grunted through his big nostrils and smiled, "Right. I forgot about that. I apologize, Ensign Kato. I'm Lieutenant Kev. The gamma shift duty officer. Please join the others."
Reon gave a light smile, then nodded, "Thank you, sir..." then he moved forward to join the rest of the group who were still looking at him as he walked toward them.
"Alright. Here are your assignments. Voh and Norris, you two are assigned to the deflector array. Please make sure it's calibrated properly. Lake, you're with me. We'll check the induction manifolds in the lateral part of the array. We need to increase efficiency by at least two percent before we leave the sector. Kato? You and Ramin work the weapons systems. Notably the targeting emitters which may need realignment and the shield generator. I'm sure with the two of you having a specialty in weapons systems, you can figure out how to increase shield efficiency as well. Any questions?"
Reon looked to his right and saw a female Trill with blonde hair and blue eyes who met eyes with him at the same time, then nodded.
"Very good. Let's go." said the Tellarite.
He walked over towards the Trill and smiled lightly, "Hi."
"Hi," she replied, also somewhat as shy as he was being, "So... He said your name was Reon?"
"Yes, that's right."
"I'm Taria Ramin. Shall we get to work?"
"Sure."
"Let me ask you first... What kind of firepower would you rather have in a fight? A Sovereign-Class Ship, a Refit Galaxy, or a Prometheus-Class starship?"
He had to think for a moment as that question was very random and out of nowhere. With a furrowing of his eyebrows and a tilt of his head, he gave out a confused sound for a moment, "Uh... Prometheus?"
"Really? Why?"
"Uhm... Well, they do have multi-vector assault mode which can help a ship move on three different fronts in a battle, and four nacelles to help it get around quick, and-"
"Yea but this ship can take a Prometheus-Class or Sovereign-Class ship easily if needed. We've got seventeen type-sixteen phaser arrays throughout the ship, deployable hull armor, and ablative hull construction. Okay, it may not be easy against multi-vector assault mode, but I don't think you're giving the Aldrin enough credit. Anyway, let's go...." she shook her head then proceeded towards a jeffries tube.
He couldn't help but be speechless after her tirade. He blinked a few times, then headed out after her.
TBC
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