Star Trek: Starbase 777 - etd-engineering

The call had come through Vanik's communicator for him to report to the USS Eventide. This would be his first away mission, and serving as a Warp Core Specialist aboard a Starship no less. Stoic on the outside, nervous on the inside, Vanik made his way through the airlock and onto the Eventide, ending up in Engineering and awaiting orders silently.

3

Triple 0 entered the engineering section of the Eventide, their slender lavender fingers intertwined with Triple 1's. Their emerald eyes scanned the room, taking in the familiar sights and sounds of the engineering bay. The soft hum of the ship's systems provided a comforting background noise as they moved further into the space. Through their cybernetic link, Triple 0 sent waves of calming thoughts to Triple 1, their right ear implant pulsing gently with the effort. Their steps were light but purposeful, a mix of excitement and professionalism evident in their demeanor. "Here we are," they sent softly to Triple 1 through their link, "I wonder what new challenges await us today." As they approached a console, Triple 0's free hand reached out, fingers hovering over the controls, ready to begin their shift. Through their link, they shared with Triple 1, 'Whatever tasks we face, we'll handle them together, as always.’

Triple 1 entered the engineering section of the Eventide alongside Triple 0, their hand clasped tightly with their pair's. Their green eyes darted around the room, methodically assessing each console and readout. The usual comforting hum of the ship's systems seemed slightly off-key to their sensitive ears, a subtle reminder of the looming space storm. Their left side implants pulsed rapidly, processing the influx of data and the calming thoughts from Triple 0. Despite the reassurance, a faint tremor ran through their slender frame. "Acknowledged," they responded quietly to Triple 0, their voice steady despite their inner turmoil. "Let's hope our preparations are sufficient." As they approached the console, Triple 1's free hand hovered over the controls, their fingers twitching slightly. Through their link, they shared with Triple 0, 'The variables in this storm are... concerning. We must be vigilant.' The weight of their responsibility pressed heavily on their mind as they prepared to face whatever challenges the storm might bring.

Savva wasn't far behind, although she wasn't as enthusiastic about this - in fact, she was scared near stiff. Savva made her way to the engineering wing, keeping her hands out in front of her, noticing who was around, and ensuring they weren't a threat. Savva yelped slightly when she noticed Vanik inside, not having worked with Vanik directly before. "Ah--!" As she didn't collapse to the floor, but she did at least keep her hands up in front of her. "Friends? You mean me no harm?" Savva asked, just out of the same anxiety she had in the past. The storm and evacuation didn't make anything better, however, she was handling this better than normal.

Kaylee was reporting to engineering to a call for engineers. She wasn't sure if she could be a great help, but hey, can't do engineering without functioning tools and equipment! She found a place to stand and wait for further orders, gently tapping her finger against the back of her hand nervously. She didn't remember her last away mission...much anyways.

1

"Let's fucking do this!" Fuckin finally. Maya get's to be back in working in a starship, but not for just simple maintenance and repairs like she usually does around 777, but actually go on full duty for a thing inside it. Immediately she headed for the warp core controls and stood by to monitor the status of the Eventide's systems and to wait further orders.

With another jump, Savva raised her hands up again in front of her. "Ah--! Friends? Promise?" Savva said again, feeling like she could be a little more assertive with her self safety, but also, able to communicate and reason instead of crawling away in horror. But Kaylee and Maya looked really nice! So it didn't seem like she had too much to worry about!

So, this was going to be his second time on the bridge of a starship. Or third? Still, it was going to feel like the first again. Before going there, though, he went down into engineering, where he was a little surprised (but quite delighted, if the grin that came to his face was anything to go off of) to see so many engineers already here. It was really just timing that he'd come in just in time to hear Maya say 'let's fucking do this', and he laughed, looking over at her before looking at everyone else. And waving. "Heyyy #EngieSquad, what's up? Just wanted to, ah, check in and stuff before I go up to the bridge, anyone need anything? I have uh, I actually have candy on me still, if anyone wants some."

Oh thank goodness, Allan was here! If Allan trusted everyone else in this Engie Squad, then surely they must be safe. "Sir, ready, sir!" Savva stood at attention. "Candy would be wonderful, sir, thank you, sir!"

Kaylee turned to Savva. She seemed...nervous. Scared almost. She hoped that Savva wasnt scared. Maybe just nervous of an away mission? "Of course!" She then turned to Allan, who just entered. "Engie Squad Woo Woo!! I'm alright for now, sir."

Allan laughed as he walked up to Savva, opening his bag and holding it out to her. "Take whatever you want, also, um, you don't have to say sir that many times, as fun as it is, Savva." He smiled over at Kaylee when she said she didn't want candy, and as Savva chose hers, he hummed in thought. "You know, I could prooobably just leave a bunch of candy with you guys..."

Savva finally let her guard down, seeming so scared - she in fact had the same scared eyes as a familiar face-scarred Vulcan girl... "Ensign Savva Serruvi, Electronics Engineer," Savva said to Kaylee, apologetically. "Sorry. I've... Been through a lot." Before Allan graciously handed the bag of candy out to Savva and chose her candy. "Understood, thank you sir, this is very kind of you," Savva replied - the candy she popped into her mouth did begin to calm Savva down slightly. (edited)

Vanik looked over at all of the other Engineers that appeared and nodded as each one entered. He stood very still at his station except for his one hand which was scrolling through reports as his eyes darted back and forth between the screen and his peers. "Greetings Allan." Vanik said quietly, watching as the others took candy and chatted.

Triple 1 got nudged by Triple 0 very lightly, as they sent a thought to them. "Take the candy. It'll take your mind off of the storm. We're connected to the ship's mainframe. We should be fine." Triple 1 moved away from their console and moved to take some candy, eating it almost instantly, calming him down slowly."Thank you sir!"

"Candy?" Maya said as she straight up turned towards Allan and moved towards him with a wide grin. Maya loves sugar as much as she loves warp cores. "What kind of candy?" (edited)

"Of course," Allan started just taking a few handfuls of candy and leaving them on an empty table. "It's no problem, really, honestly, surprised you guys haven't gotten sick of candy considering how much I give you guys on shift. And hey Vanik," he said in response to the Vulcan's greeting, "feel free to just like... take some of this. Maya, you can see with your eyes. It's mostly labeled, too, or at least - the worms are, 'cause M'arra hooked me up with a wholllle lot more flavors of those, even like, different types of actual worm flavors? Crazy, really." He just dumped out about half the bag onto the table, actually. "Ifff there's nothing else you guys need, though - enjoy? Have fun? And as Maya said, 'let's fucking do this!'?"

In a bout of absolute shock, Savva's eyes widened. "We can swear...?" Savva asked. "He just said fu---the f-word! I didn't think we could swear as officers!"

Kaylee quickly stole a piece that she recognised, unwrapped it and shoved it in her mouth. She thought it was kinda childish. So, was trying to do it subtly. Kaylee nodded as she finished it. "Let's do this, yeah." a pause to turn to Savva. "We're all adults here, aren't we?"

Allan couldn't help but laugh at that, at first covering his mouth to not, but then deciding that yeah, that wasn't going to happen, gesturing at Kaylee when she answered. "Yeah, wh- what she said, we - fuck-" he laughed a little again, then shook his head, taking a breath before he spoke again. "If we couldn't say shit like that as officers, I'd be in a lotttt of trouble, that's for sure."

6

With a chuckle, Savva saw just how nice Kaylee was. "Heh, you're nicer than I thought you'd be-- er, I mean, everyone here is nicer than I thought everyone else would be. You're super nice. What's your name? I don't think we've met." Savva's eyes turned right around as she heard what she thought we heard come out of Allan's mouth. "Did you just say we fuck?"

"Yeah. We do. We're engineers. Engineering fucks hard." He shrugged, completely meaning it in the slang way that Alizati always tried and failed to get right.

"have we fucked?" *Maya said to Allan plainly after she took some candy for herself with a soft chuckle, the worms looked very interesting. *

Seeing Kaylee as probably one of the only ones with ✨class,✨ Savva whispered to Kaylee. "Is this what usually happens in the engineering division?"

"Aha, I do try, I'm Kaylee. Lt JG Valkyrie, if you're being formal. You are..?" Kaylee figured it wasn't exactly the time for introductions, but a quick one couldn't hurt! "Uh...we do?"

Vanik simply nodded at the interaction between Savva and Allan. He had recently learned the second (or third?) meaning of the Terran word 'fuck'. Vanik took a piece of candy and popped it in his mouth, savoring the safe-for-Vulcans sweet and listening as the group continued to discuss how great Engineering was.

2

Heh, well, it seemed Savva was in good hands with Kaylee by her side. "Ensign Savva Serruvi, it's nice to meet you, Kaylee -- if you don't mind me calling you that," Savva said.

"That's not- listen, I'm not a linguist or anything, but we have, I guess, but we do. We fuck, and we fuck hard." He looked from Maya to Kaylee. "Yeah! Like... a song is cool? It goes hard. It fucks. It fucks hard. Engineers are cool. We fuck. We fuck hard."

Poor Savva felt like she was waayyyyy too in over her head with this... Savva's eyes nearly bugged out, she was so shocked at how all of this was happening in front of her. She wasn't angry, of course, but she just couldn't process it all. "I feel like I'm being corrupted..." She half-joked.

"Yeah, no, 'corrupted' is sort of more a bad word in this hallowed place than anything else we've said, so..." after all, if anything was 'corrupted' in engineering, that was... bad. He stepped a little towards the door to go back up to the bridge. "I'm gonna assume you're all good now and go back to the bridge, yeah?" And if nobody said anything particularly crazy after that, that's exactly where he went.

"Heheh yeah we fucked." Maya simply chuckled to Allan's response, but still nodding in agreement. "Engineering fucks. We're fucking awesome, and we can fucking do this. The storm is fucked. 'Cause we're fucking it! Holy fucking shit these worms are good!" She added, feeling all motivational as she popped another one of those candy worms in her mouth before she turned to Savva and patted her gently on the shoulder. "Welcome to Engineering Ensign. Jokes aside, don't worry, you got this."

Savva was still absolutely shocked by all of this, but the pat on her shoulder from Maya made her feel -- safe. Like she'd be looked after. She looked up to Maya almost like a frightened child, but less so, as a relieved smile crept across her face. "Heh, thanks Lieutenant. You all are... Really a lot funnier than I expected. I'm... Safe with you all."

"That is correct," Vanik said to Savva quietly. "Our peers have worked tirelessly to be the best officers they can. I fully trust that we can work together as a team to address whatever issues that arise. Come what may, we are," and he made air quotes, "Engie Squad. We do in fact, 'got this.'" His face and voice were both impassive but he was doing his best to be supportive to Savva.

7

6

Savva chuckled, then laughed a bit louder, although it wasn't really any louder than a quiet conversation's worth - but that was the most she'd laughed while on commission for 777. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as she thought. Maybe she was safe here.

It was nice seeing everyone's spirits on the up and up, especially Savva's since she noticed how nervous she was coming in. "Alright Squad!" Maya said with a clap and a grin, very much excited for this mission for every reason possible. Although, from the looks of it, she was probably maybe, quite possibly, technically, the ranking officer while Allan is not here.... Oh god.... "We've got a ship to fly and a storm to thundercunt her through! Let's get fucking going!"

What the...? "Thundercunt?" Savva asked, staying close to Maya and Kaylee, as she felt safest towards them. "What's that? I've never heard of thundercunt before."

5

"I don't know. I haven't heard it either..." Kaylee genuinely had no clue. She didn't really pay attention to slang much. If this was some new meme, she hadn't seen it.

3

"..." And it was on that moment, Maya knew, she had two new friends to constantly send memes to every single day. "It just means what it means. You'll get it soon enough." Maya knew exactly what it means, but explaining it right know would ruin the fun of it. "Anyways. We need to prevent the ship's systems from being thundercunted by the storm, like how the station blacked out from one not too long ago."

Savva tried her best to use the new term she learned intelligently. "So we have to make sure nothing gets... Thundercunted by the storm. Do we also need to make sure we don't get thundercunted? Or is there another meaning for that? It sounds like it could also be a good thing. Thundercunt. Heh, my friend Essen might like using that term."

"You're friends...with Essen?" Kaylee asked, facing Savva again with a look of slight confusion and, barely noticeable excitement. "She's my girlfriend!"

2

As soon as Savva heard Kaylee's voice ring out about Essen, the other end of the mystery was solved for her. "Ohhhh so you're the girlfriend she keeps talking about! Yeah, she won't shut up about you, heh. Nah, just kidding, she speaks incredibly highly of you, Kaylee. She just never mentioned your name, she says for privacy and courtesy reasons, until meet whoever she's talking to. Kaylee... Essen has been extremely kind to me. She knows how to calm me down, she knows how to get me to open up about how I'm feeling. She also gives great shoulder and back rubs, those also help with my severe anxiety. You should be proud to have her as a girlfriend."

1

"Yeah you know, prevent the ship from being completely borked by a level 10 ionic storm. A probably not so good thing" Maya casually explained with a shrug as she checked in on the ships power levels. "Damn, wish I had a girlfriend..." Maya thought about it for a little bit, then simply just shrugged it off.

1

Vanik raised an eyebrow as he continued to quietly listen to his fellow officers' conversation. "I will do my best to prevent the Warp Core from being 'borked.' At this time I will run a diagnostic to make sure we are within efficient operating parameters." He walked around his station to another panel and began running the test.

4

Savva snickered - finally, a term she understood! "Heh, I know what borked means. Bork bork. I gotcha, so thundercunt and bork are similar but not exactly the same. Borkercunt? Cunterbork? I dunno. It's cool though."

"Mhm. Something is Borked after its thundercunted." Maya answered with a smile and a thumbs up. So this is what Anthropology is like? Damn, science is easy as fuck.

2

Finally nodding, Savva did make sense of the term thundercunt. She'd have to use it now. "Heh... Thundercunt..." She giggled, before she too let out a bigger smile than she'd had in a while - for the first time in what felt like an eternity, Savva let her guard down, and just took the moment to laugh with the members of her division. "Hehe... Borked." It was really what she needed... And she looked at Maya with the biggest smile and laugh she had since she stepped foot in the engineering section!

in a flash the Liberated Lieutenant burst into the engineering bay, clearly having rushed to the Eventide as he leaned on a wall to catch his breath. "Did...did someone try and roast marshmallows...on the warp core again?"

Vanik looked up from his console and raised both eyebrows in surprise. "No, Lieutenant. The marshmallows are over there," he said, pointing at some marshmallows that Lieutenant Allen had left for the Engineers to eat interspersed among the other candies. "The Warp Core is not being used as an open flame."

"All hands on yellow alert." Maya said to herself as the alert came on, taking in a deep breath as the Eventide went into warp. "As good as it sounds right now, we can do warp smores after we're done here. Probably when we do a camp trip.... damn I'm hungry." She casually said with a chuckle as she went to her station. "For now, a let's keep systems steady and prepare to push more power into shields, I feel we might get to that point soon enough."

Alizati was here! Somehow he had gone this long without saying anything or even giving a sign he was here. He crossed his arms and looked at Savva and Maya. Although Alizati had only received a handful of Maya's memes, the senior staff did indeed talk to each other -- especially Alizati and Allan, so he knew all of Maya's repertoire of jokes. "I agree. About the shields, not thundercunt or borked," He repeated the strange words and then nodded. "I am currently working on a new EPS regulator that used AI to push or reroute power from different systems. Our actions today will be recorded in the ship's logs and used to train the AI. I am confident our engineering team will perform this mission to the highest standards. Our actions today could help save the lives of many in the future," Alizati explained to his team, no smile, but he was proud of them. "Also... no marshmallows on the warp core. I will need to write you up for unsafe practices if you do."

4

"Affirmative, sir." He gave his superior a quick salute after fully catching his breath. "I only asked because when I was still in the academy I walked in on some of my classmates attempting such a thing, and I did not wish to repeat that ordeal."

"Oh! That's cool!" Maya's interest was very much piqued hearing of Alizati's new project as she continued to check in on ships systems before sneakily shoving the rest of the candy in her hand to her mouth and facing her superior. "I would love to hear more about it! I was working on a new shield grid system back in 777. It's still in the prototyping stage, but it's essentially a mixing concepts of ablative armor and regenerative shielding together." She said with a light smile as she cleaned her hands with some rubbing alcohol she had on her pocket before she patted Kvig gently on the back. "Yeahhh the radiations not fun. We can still do smores in the holodeck when we're done here though.

[COMMS] "Heyyy, #EngieSquad, you think you guys could modify the deflector array down there to direct the storm's electric shit away from our hull? Just a matter of scattering ionized particles more effectively, really, and channel any electrostatic discharge away from critical systems - ASAP, if that's all good. Love ya guys, lemme know when you got that."

Vanik's pointy Vulcan ears twitched curiously when he heard Lt. Allen's voice over the COMMS. He tapped his comm badge and responded as he started tapping away at his Engeineering console. [COMMS] "Yes, Lieutenant...Allan. I will begin that process immediately. Ensign Vanik out."

Vanik continued to monitor the logs, taking extra care to make sure that the deflector array had enough support and power from the relays where the power had been rerouted. He worked quickly and meticulously to channel the electrostatic discharge away from the ship, making some of those lightning strikes that were hitting the ship shoot out into the sky away from the settlement and away from the ship. "It appears we have arrived," he said to the room quietly.

"It appears we have. Keep an eye on the shields, the atmosphere seems extremely hostile," Alizati said as he glanced at the shield readings on his console. He wondered how they could even step outside in this weather, they'd probably need to get special ev suits if they were.

Savva stepped to the side of Vanik in case he needed assistance, but also heard Alizati's order, and kept her glance between the shield readings and the deflector array. Her head kept moving back and forth between the two.