You're the Chief Engineer why?

Posted on Tue Nov 4th, 2014 @ 4:22pm by Lieutenant S'kott Schmidt The Third & Commodore Samantha York

1,314 words; about a 7 minute read

ON

S'kott frowned as he eyed his eyes adjusted to the lighting of the Galaxy class starship. He was assaulted by the scent of properly working air recyclers, and the scent of... something. He couldn't place it.

He winced, still remembering the rather nasty parting words he had had with his last Commanding Officer.

25 feet, S'kott. Now get the hell off my Starbase. I've had enough of you. The words still rebounded through his head, as he departed the transporter room, and headed for the turbolift.

"Operations." He noted, completely forgetting that this was not a Starbase. It took him a full 9 doors to realize his mistake. He returned to the turbolift.

"Bridge." He amended, thankful that the turbolift wasn't capable of making fun of him.

Upon reaching Deck 1, he casually wandered through the bridge, and paused at the Captain's Ready room door.

Please don't be hot. Please don't be hot. He thought to himself, as he pressed the chime, knowing full well that there weren't many planets that chose Samantha as a masculine name.

In her Ready Room, Sam was startled from reading the daily reports from Starfleet by a strong, repetitive thought outside her door. It made her chuckle. She took a moment to compose herself. "Come in," she called.

Damn it. He thought to himself, as he gave his new commanding officer a quick once over. "Please tell me you are married." S'kott said, before engaging brain, and preventing mouth.

Sam burst out laughing at that. "Yes, I am and you're not my type anyway," Sam assured him. "However, I suggest you not go around making comments like that as not everyone on this ship is as willing to overlook them."

She gave him an assessing once-over. "I wondered how someone could be in Starfleet for over 50 years and only be a Lieutenant. Now I know." She waved a hand to the chair opposite her desk. "Have a seat and tell me why you came to the Calypso."

"Lost my previous post in the divorce, ma'am." S'kott said, feeling notably relieved at her wording. "I'm serious. My ex-commanding-officer-slash-wife really didn't want me staying on station, and you had a position available. I'm sure command had their logical reasons behind it." The sarcasm in the word logical did not particularly require a telepath to understand.

"I'm sure your former commanding officer had good reasons for requesting your transfer," Sam said, pulling up the transfer orders on her console. "I believe her exact words were, As far away from me as you can get him."

"That probably has to do with the pending assault charges on the Chief Medical officer of Starbase 17, after he claimed to be to tired to deal with Lilly being ill." S'kott said, shifting uncomfortably. "Captain Williams is not fond of violence."

"Could you expound on that comment?" Sam asked. "Why assault charges and why did you feel it necessary to take Lilly to sickbay?"

"Lillian is my daughter. The ex thirteen was concerned that she was having trouble breathing. The chief medical officer was nearly off shift, and told one of his nurses to take care of it. I grabbed his shoulder without my gloves on," he said holding up his gloved hands, "and he didn't appreciate the unintentional invasion in to his thoughts, and had charges pressed. They haven't made it far in JAG proceedings, namely because Captain Williams has counter charges being pressed over dereliction of duty on his part, after it was revealed Lillian was suffering severe pneumonia, and nearly died. I honestly expect the charges to be dropped, but Captain Williams wanted me far away, because she has problems with telepaths that she doesn't trust anymore. Divorce is a great reason to stop trusting someone." He paused. "Not that I expect you to trust me. I'm a relic, and my record definitely merits it." He added, with a shrug.

"I would say mistrust is a great reason for divorce," Sam countered before asking, "How is your daughter now?" She wasn't sure if she trusted him, either. Not yet, anyway. He didn't have the same feel about him that Storm had, the feeling that he was holding something back. This one seemed far too willing to lay his cards on the table. Time would tell if he was good enough to use that to mask his true intentions.

"Recovering. Not that I'll get the visitation rights to see her in the next 18 years." He said, nodding. "Another child lost to time." He said, looking down at his gloves.

Sam had no children of her own, but couldn't imagine what it would be like to not be able to see your child. "How old is she now?"

"She'll be two soon. I haven't been allowed to see her since she was about a year and a quarter." He said, shaking his head. "But that's not the big thing. The big thing is now. And this ship. I do have one very important question, because I noticed it in the turbo-lift control system, on the way here."

"What is your question?" Sam asked.

"These blue bags of goop. That seem to be wired in to the ship." He said, cautiously. "What are they?"

"Bio-neural gel packs?" Sam asked, her tone rising ever so slightly. "All starships built in the past 15 years use them. Are you telling me you have no experience with them at all? Do you read the Engineering journals?"

"None at all." He admitted. "I've read the journals, sure. I've just never seen them. I've read about them, ma'am, but I'm clueless as to their purpose."

Someone at Starfleet was definitely out to get her. First Storm with the dubious transfer and now a Chief Engineer who knew nothing about anything made in her lifetime. "I have to be honest," she said. "I really don't see how you can be in charge of maintaining a ship that you know nothing about. Why weren't you sent to a ship you were familiar with?"

"That's exactly it ma'am. I'm in charge of maintaining it. That doesn't mean I have to do it. I'm more than happy to delegate, and deal with the paperwork in a timely and orderly manner. As to the question you ask, the answer is obvious. I'm not familiar with any ship. I've been maintaining a starbase for 50 years." S'Kott noted.

He had a point, even though she wasn't sure she liked it. "All right, Lieutenant. Do you have any questions?"

"Oh, I've got lots of questions, ma'am, but I'm fairly certain you don't have the time to answer anywhere close to a third of them, and you probably don't have the technical knowledge to answer about half." He said, shrugging. "I'll figure it out. The library computer has the answers, somewhere, I'm sure. For the technical stuff, anyway."

"No, I really don't have the time to answer Engineering questions. I'll make sure all the technical manuals are sent to your personal computer," Sam said. "So you can review them."

"That's mighty nice of you, ma'am, because I'm not entirely 100% sure how to access the main library computer." He admitted, with a rueful smile.

Not at all surprised at that, Sam nodded. "Do you know where your quarters are?"

He nodded. "That's fairly easy. It's map coordinates. I can follow those." He said, with a chuckle.

"Good," Sam said, glad that she wouldn't have to worry about him getting lost. "Then if there's nothing else, you are dismissed. Good luck, Lieutenant."

"Ma'am." He said nodding, as he got up, to leave the room. "This should be interesting." He said, with a half smile, leaving the ready room.

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Commodore Samantha York
Commanding Officer

&

Lieutenant S'Kott Schmidt(III)
Chief Engineering Officer

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