Proving Grounds... er, Circuits?

Posted on Tue Jan 24th, 2023 @ 3:45pm by Lieutenant Edruj Daughter of Thrawn & Ensign Aarva

Mission: The Goddess
Location: Main Engineering, USS Gladiator
1713 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Aarva's stomach churned as she stepped out of the turbolift and made her way to main engineering. This wasn't a practice warp core or control panels or engineering equipment she'd used at the Academy - this was real, which meant she'd need to be careful. Oh, and she'd need to make a good first impression too, and hopefully not blow anything up on her first day on board.

She felt a few eyes turn to her as she stepped through the doors to main engineering - thankfully they didn't linger too long, turning away as soon as they settled on her. She took a moment to admire the warp core, an actual warp core positively thrumming from all the antimatter reactions going on within in, and ponder just how amazing a piece of technology it was before trying to at least make some effort to talk to someone. She trotted up to the nearest person she saw and asked, "Um. Hello. I'm looking for lieutenant Edruj. Hi. Heh. I'm new on board." Bravo, best first impression to your crewmate ever! Perfect. Aarva tried hard to keep her expression even as she prayed that her colleague wouldn't be too harsh.

Edruj had been monitoring the power transfer to the shield emitters. They had finally gotten to rebooting the tactical systems and thus far everything seemed to be going great. She overheard Ensign Aarva ask Ayala about her. The Klingon had expected the Kelpian and there she was. After asking Bourcier to keep an eye on things she walked over to save Ayala from the excited Ensign. "Ensign Aarva, ask and you shall receive. Here I am. Welcome to the Gladiator."

The first thought that sprang to the young Kelpien's mind was a stunned oh my goodness. She hadn't exactly been given a picture of the chief engineer to refer to when asking for her - and as such had not expected her to be a tall, attractive and confident Klingon woman. You know, the kind that could snap her in two if she so tried. "Um... thank you!" Aarva tried for a nervous smile and a bow. Don't look too much like a wilting beanpole in front of your department head, now. "It's a pleasure to be here. Um-" She glanced quickly around the room. "-where can I be of help? I've heard the ship has a mission on its' hands already..."

"Indeed we do. We are going to have to retrieve some members of the crew who have been taken hostage. We need to make sure we are ready to go underway at any moment..." Edruj's gruff voice trailed off as another Ensign handed her a PADD with repair orders. "NO! We cannot leave without the tactical systems. Shields, weapons, and sensors are the priority. The replicators can wait..." The Ensign nodded and ran off with the PADD. "I am sorry Ensign Aarva it is controlled chaos as we make ready for launch. Right now I think I should help you get settled. Any questions?"

Aarva's heart sank a little bit as she heard the phrase 'the replicators can wait'. Hopefully that didn't mean that there weren't any replicators in the mess hall, just engineering. "Um... no, ma'am." She said, shifting nervously on her hooves, poor nervous thing. "I'm just eager to start work, is all."

"Right then follow me to junction zz-9 we can take Jefferies Tube a-6 to get there. Once there we can reinitialize the isdn chips the run the targeting sensors. I will not have this ship leave dock without the ability to defend itself. If you would rather work then settle in lets get to it." Edruj admired the Kelpian's work ethic. She picked up an engineering kit and made for the entrance to the tubes.

"Can't I do both at once?" Aarva snatched up another engineering kit and trotted after her department head. "I've already settled in to my quarters, though, if that is what you mean."

Edruj laughed heartily. "Indeed you can my dear Aarva indeed you can." Edruj stooped down to all fours and crawled into the jefferies tube. As she crawled she thought it be nice to get to know who she would be working with. "So if I may... Why did you join Starfleet? There are not many Kelpians in the fleet."

"I didn't want to stay on Earth. There's a whole universe out there, and I want to see everything it has to offer!" Aarva crawled in after her on all fours, something which had never felt comfortable for her. It always made her feet hurt by the time she was done, but then again that was probably the same for everyone else, too. "Well, that, and, um..." The young Kelpien bit her lip. "...I like robots and automatons and the like. An old toy of mine inspired me. I don't know if you've ever seen one of those simple robot dogs that can be found in shops?"

"Yes I do remember those. I too spent many an hour disassembling and reassembling those in an effort to learn as much about machinery as I could. You could imagine growing up on Q'Onos one did not have a lot of time to learn about engineering. Why would you not take your love of robots etc.. and help your people?" The more Edruj learned about this Kelpian the more questions the Klingon woman had.

"Oh, um... here's the thing." Aarva bit her lip as she continued to crawl after her department head. "I... I've never been to Kaminar. I've had no contact with my own people apart from my parents." She smiled sheepishly. "I don't know any more about my people than my parents taught me, and it wasn't all that much. I'm not the most... deeply rooted Kelpien out there, considering I've lived on Earth all my life."

Edruj nodded as she turned left at one of the tube junctions. "I can understand that. I grew up on Q'Onos however, I have spent much of my adult life around humans and the rest of the Federation. Despite that I feel a connection to the history of my people, and to my people themselves. Do you ever long to see Kaminar?"

"Weeeeell..." Aarva flushed out of embarrassment. "...sort of? Mother and father always said they'd take me one day but then, well, I went into Starfleet. They said I'd probably visit one day anyway, so they kind of dropped the idea." She followed behind the Klingon closely. "Ma'am, purely out of curiosity... how much further is it?" She hadn't had the time to memorize the ship's jeffries tube system as of yet - but knowing the lieutenant she probably already had for years. Surely she'd know how much further they had to go.

"Well we are just there now. But keep in mind that this vessel is large and sometimes you need to crawl through these tubes for hours." Edruj began as she opened the access panel. "Right lets see what you can do. Get in there and get the targeting sensors online and pinpoint accurate." The Klingon woman was a fan of tossing people right into the fire. "As for me I cannot wait until I can have a chance to get home again. There is nothing like the beauty of Q'Onos."

With shaking hands Aarva flipped open the engineering kit in her hands and retrieved an interphasic coil spanner, holding it to the exposed circuits and wiring in front of her. The tip quivered. Why was it quivering? Why am I being asked to do this? The young Kelpien asked herself. Did her department head perhaps relish something about her newest subordinates trying, and failing at, the impossibly huge tasks she set for them? For all she knew the lieutenant was waiting for her to struggle with the task, conclude that it was simply beyond her ability to complete and give up, and only then would she laugh at their incompetence and thenteach them the right way forward. Was that it? Was this what she was setting herself up for, humiliation?

Something sparked deep within Aarva's chest. No. This was a test. A first impression. A glimpse at her ability to face down and conquer difficult tasks. She could not fail. She would not fail. If she stopped here and quivered her way through this task she would be no better than the quivering waif the CMO thought her to be. She was more than that, and she would prove she was more than that. Engineering was about steps, and she was trained to complete every single one of those steps. One foot forward as a time. Slender fingers tightening their grip on the spanner she made the necessary adjustments and calibrations, exactly as she was taught, one by one, and then she leaned back, praying that she'd completed her task to satisfaction.

And, well, even if she hadn't, she could still go back to her quarters knowing she'd tried her best.

Edruj watched as the Kelpian worked. She noticed that the other woman's hands shook when she worked. The Klingon could tell there was a lack of confidence there. When the work had finished Edruj ran the diagnostic and ran the system through the test procedures. Everything checked out and the sensors ran better than they did before. "Well done! Well done indeed. Now we will move on to the next junction. We have to take care of all the junction boxes."

Aarva allowed herself a sigh of relief and a moment to celebrate the fruits of her labor in silence, but she knew that would not be the end of their tasks in the jeffries tubes today. If the ship was to head out intact they had a lot more work to do - including work that could be several decks up or down. Oh, well. Such was the life of an engineer. "Yes, ma'am." She said, as she wiped her forehead on her sleeve.

As Edruj led the young officer through the tubes she smiled. The Klingon would make sure that the young Ensign would develop a backbone when they were through.