The Broken Lift

Posted on Sun Aug 15th, 2010 @ 10:09am by Lieutenant Commander Delon Tovan & Chief Petty Officer Shalie Montgomery

1,224 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Peace, or Something Like It
Location: USS Calypso - Engineering
Timeline: Current

[USS Calypso - Engineering]

The doors to the lift hissed open and Tovan stepped off the lift. He headed down the corridor towards the engineering section. He made a point of heading down there the first thing in the morning. He had to talk to Shalie about the lift that had malfunctioned previously. He was going to discuss it with the previous Chief but she had left and now he had to work with Shalie. He was looking forward to the work relationship between them. It might be a little hard to put aside the attraction that they felt towards each other but he was sure that they could manage that much.

The doors opened and Tovan stepped inside. He looked around for Shalie. She wasn't hard to miss due to her skin color of course. He noticed her leaning over a console so he headed over in her direction. "Good morning."

Shalie had begun her second shift as Chief and it has been a bit of a rocky start. She had already had two heated discussions with an Ensign and a Lieutenant who were not too happy about working for an Enlisted Officer. She had handled it pretty well, but was still a bit agitated. When she heard the familiar voice she turned to see the Chief of Operations standing behind her. "Good morning Lieutenant...what can I do for you?" She couldn't help but smile slightly.

Tovan nodded to her with a gentle smile that showed only for a few seconds before disappearing. "Well, I was actually wondering if you had a moment to discuss the malfunction that we had with the lift but if you are busy I can come back another time."

"Nope" Shalie said as she turned back towards the console she was working on and replaced the the tool in her hand on the desk. "I am not busy...we can talk in my office if you would like." With that motioned towards her door before making her way though the sliding doors.

"That would be more suitable for our discussion." Tovan responded. He followed Shalie closely to her office. He had noticed that she seemed just a bit irritated. He had a feeling that certain members of the team were going to be highly hesitant to taking orders from her. She was an enlisted to them, and not an officer. It would be hard at first, but he knew she was capable of overcoming it. At least he hoped she was.

Shalie moved around her desk taking a seat in her chair. As she did she motioned for Delon to take one of the ones opposite from her. She let out a sigh before smiling at him once again. "OK so...where would you like to start?"

Tovan took a seat in one of the chairs located in front of her desk and leaned back in it looking at her. "Well, I would say that we should put together a team that investigates the incident. This could very well be the very first joint job between our two departments. So, I would say maybe a team of two. One from the Operations and another from Engineering. What do you think?"

Shalie forced a smile at the idea of ordering her teams around, but nodded just the same. "I think that would be a good starting place." She grabbed a padd from her desk and looked though the personnel information it contained. "Well I have a team set for routine maintenance on Deck 42...they can start with the retrieval of the lift pod...if that works for you...I don't want to be stepping on Ops toes or anything."

"I am not sure that complete retrieval of the lift pod is necessary, we could shut it down for maintenance taking it out of the rotation of working lift pods. This gives us a chance to take a look at what went wrong with it." Tovan suggested as he looked to her from across the desk. He titled his head to the side for a moment. "If you don't feel completely comfortable with the arrangement we had discussed previously I can pull my people back. This would leave you and your teams in complete charge of all the repairs."

"Oh no..." Shalie said with an adamant shake of her head. "I am fine with the arrangement that we made...it is merely one more reason for me and my department to butt heads." She finished with a laugh. "They may not respect my judgment yet, but they will." She set the padd on the desk before looking directly over at Delon. "I still think it would be best to retrieve the lift, I have a feeling a little more is wrong with it then a simple malfunction..it is just a gut feeling." She added to justify her statement. "But either way we should get started soon enough."

Tovan nodded gently. He fully understood what she was saying. He was expecting this to happen when he had heard that she was going to take over. It couldn't be avoided but she will just have to earn her peoples trust and respect one at a time and in the end they will appreciate her a lot more. "Well, if that's what you feel is the best option than we will retrieve it. Ensign Owen will report to engineering to go down with the team to retrieve the lift."

"I will be sure to let the team know to be expecting him." Shalie said with a smile. Some part of her was looking forward to the fight that was going to be brewing with her department. "Was there anything else we should discuss while you are here?" She meant nothing more by the comment then what she said but she added a little wink for the hell of it.

"Her, actually...Ensign Owen is a female." Tovan stated while looking at Shalie. He found it slightly amusing that she thought that Allison was a girl, but he didn't really give her a first name so he could understand. Tovan shook his head. "There is nothing that I can think of at the moment."

"Eh.." Shalie started with a shrug. "I had a fifty fifty chance of being right on that one." She said with a smile. "Well in that case I should get back to work...I am sure a busy officer like you has plenty to do other then hang out in Engineering."

"It's completely alright. I am still learning all of the crew myself. It will take some time. Plus, now that you are running this place you will have to know all their names. And trust me; there are a lot of them." Tovan said with a smile on his face. "Well, there are a couple of meetings that I have to get to before leaving on the away mission." Tovan said as he got up. "I will send Ensign Owen down here as soon as she checks in."

"I will keep and eye out for her." Shalie said as she rose from her chair, moving around her desk to walk the Chief of Ops out.

=/= End of Transmission =/=

Lieutenant Delon Tovan
Chief of Operations
USS Calypso

Chief Petty Officer Shalie Montgomery
Engineering Officer
USS Calypso

 

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