Star Trek: Starbase 777 - shuttle-workshop

In spite of trying to hide it Austin was visibly excited to start his first duty shift on proper starfleet shuttles. He had spent all his time on the way here familiarizing himself with every minute piece of the station compliment of shuttles. He always felt at home around a shuttle whether it involved flying them or repairing them. The moment he walked into the room he placed a hand on the first shuttle he saw to truly take take in the moment. The feeling of the cold metal gave a little tingle to his fingers, in spite of all of his other ambitions he was first and foremost a bit of a shuttle nerd.

It soon became clear that Austin wasn't the only shuttle nerd in the room. They weren't in the closest shuttle to the door, but their toobox and some removed parts could be seen on the floor nearby, indicating a rather involved maintenance procedure was being done on one of the others. As a former member of an isolated research colony, Lokka's engineering experience extended well beyond shuttlecraft alone. Such multi-disciplinary knowledge was important when working on shuttles though- they were effectively miniaturized versions of complete starships, and had many of the same systems. The Vulcan themself wasn't anywhere to be seen, though a pretty decent assumption could be made given the tools and parts strewn about. Strewn about in a most organized and logical manner, of course.

After a moment of hesitation he took a few steps away from the shuttle and began looking around the room, everything here was shockingly clean in his unprofessional opinion with exception to a couple of tools sitting next to a shuttle. He decided he’d take a look at it, in his day he’d done enough walk arounds to spot most surface level problems quite quick and was hopeful having memorized the parts he’d be able to diagnose issues and fix them in a timely manner inside and out. He was careful not to touch any of the tools, clearly great care had gone into organizing them and he in the others place wouldn’t want anyone moving about his tools.

Perhaps, in addition to their questionable sense of organization, the feet of another engineer were on display. Someone was laying face-down across the floor of the shuttle on the inside, and it became clear the parts that had been removed were those that granted access to the shuttle's warp core, located in just about the worst spot one could be if maintenance needed to be done. Right under the smaller aft compartment where a particularly tall Vulcan would have a hard time sitting comfortably and accessing the thing. So instead, they're laying out across the interior. However, that doesn't last long as Austin's presence is noticed rather quickly, as careful as he's trying to be to not disturb the area. They sit upright, sliding out from the compartment to address the newcomer. Lokka's hair is a mess, as they'd been crawling in that shuttle for hours by now. "Greetings? I did not request assistance."

Austin was the kind of guy who got excited pretty easily even if he tried to conduct himself in a cool manner often. He took a second to let the moment settle down and to adjust his demeanor before addressing the Vulcan who had just crawled out of the shuttles underbelly. “oh, I’m quite sure that you didn’t. I am scheduled to clock in right about now.” He made a show of visible checking the old aviation watch that he wore on his wrist. He had it custom made out of scrap metal from a shuttle. “It would however be logical for me to help you if you are working on the warp core of this bad boy.” He tried to keep a more Vulcan like tone though he struggled to keep it when he referred to the shuttle as a bad boy.

They eyed up the odd watch, easily distracted by the antique Earth tech. "Fascinating. I did not believe a timepiece of a 20th century design could be accurate on a starbase." Then, Lokka moved to stand fully from the inside of the shuttle, leaving the gaping hole in the floor visible. It really took removing a lot of components to get to the cores in these things. They even had the core itself open and a probe connected to the miniature dilithium crystal inside- they're performing a realignment. Austin's comment was enough to get a raised eyebrow out of the other engineer. "Logical? I find your metaphor for the shuttle's condition to be highly emotionally motivated, however I would agree your assistance would increase my efficiency."

He took a second to look at his watch again and study it like he had done about a million times before. It was a gift from his father before he left earth in search of pilot work. It unfortunately only really had any sort of meaningful function on Earth though it did allow him to know what time it was back home in Oregon. He externally ended up laughing to himself. “It’s only true functions are for fashion and for making sure I don’t wake up my dad when I call. I know it’s not particularly logical like my metaphor but it serves its purpose well none the less.” He noticed the Vulcan was fascinated by it and the salesman in him (even if he never wanted to sell it) he began to describe it in the best terms he could.. “The watch itself is made from the metal of a scraped shuttle so it’s got that history behind it too. Most of the parts that went into it are repurposed from leftover parts.”

"I prefer to craft shuttlecraft from scrapped shuttlecraft." They replied plainly, appearing somehow more unamused by Austin's laughing than they already appear. Making a move to position themself back inside the shuttle to complete the alignment, they beckon Austin to join them. Not like there'd be enough room for him to fit in comfortably and have access to the core as well, but he should be able to watch over their shoulder. The next step, place the alignment lasers for the probe to detect. Ona full-size warp core, this could be done with the existing matter and antimatter streams along with a built-in alignment servo, but the compact core of the shuttle lacked such features.

He chuckled at the Vulcans words. He knew Vulcans rarely joked but he found the humor in it. “I would suppose it’s most apt to recycle shuttle parts into other shuttles but eventually as old models get phased out many parts sadly go to waste.” He lamented the idea of wasted shuttle parts. When he was working on Ferenginar he would often purchase some scrap shuttle parts to repurpose himself. He climbed down besides the Vulcan, for a moment he was forced to struggle to get a good view over their shoulder but he settled into a pretty solid spot.

"There was no obsolescence on Valencrao Beta. We had limited access to new supplies and everything would either be preserved or replicated. I left the colony on a type-F shuttle from the 23rd century." *Now, they finally initiated the alignment procedure. Much like the automated systems in larger cores, the probe adjusted the angle of the dilithium crystal until the two beams converged inside, as a matter-antimatter stream would. The system continued to adjust the position of the crystal while Lokka scanned it with their tricorder, measuring the resulting polarized beams. *

He cozied up ever so slightly closer to get a better view of the repairs, he was visibly excited about the repairs being done. Just gazing inside an in service shuttle was a huge excitement to him. “Ah, I understand. I was lucky enough to have a father who worked designing and building shuttles. He had access to a lot of old parts and then I started working on Ferenginar.” He thought back on it and decided to try another joke. “I suppose they didn’t have the lobes to recognize the value in inherent in those old parts.”

They raised an eyebrow at that joke. "I believe lobe count is irrelevant to the appraisal of shuttlecraft components. Both of our brains have two lobes and I believe you agree with me that functional components have a worth that cannot be represented accurately by currency." They pass the tricorder up to Austin, allowing him to see the alignment procedure's final stages. Tiny adjustments, thousands of a degree each to position the dilithium in the simulated matter-antimatter streams.

He laughed to himself again. “It’s a ferengi expression actually, their culture is highly unique. They believe that the size and strength of one’s earlobes directly relate to one’s ability to do business or atleast that’s how the old metaphors went.” It set in a little bit how the culture of Ferenginar had molded him a little bit towards their conversation. “I used to pilot cargo out there before I transferred to the Technical acad…” He cut himself off right there. He noticed he could make ever so slight of a change to the alignment to give a little bit smoother of a transition into flight. He doubted most people could actually feel the difference but he as a pilot got a little peeved over such minor differences in flight controls. He hoped whoever had to fly the shuttle next would appreciate such a difference. “That should do it with the alignment of the streams. Quite good work though I suppose you already know that.”

They would have to take the shuttle out later for a full-power test, so it would likely be Lokka who notices the changes! "Fascinating. The Ferengi brain has a different structure from yours or mine, and I would believe those differences would inspire such expressions to be used towards other species. However, it would be difficult to comment about my ears as they are often not visible due to my preferred hairstyle." A smoother transition would likely result in a slower response to controls, however there are a few who would likely approve of the smoother flight. For Lokka, it didn't matter a whole lot. While Vulcan ships were often filled with creature comforts to accommodate spaces for meditation and generally simulating the intense environment, control-wise they tended to respond extremely precisely to user input- often requiring great care not to over-accelerate. "It is early to make such an assessment. We have not energized the core yet." They begin the process of extracting their test equipment from the shuttle. First the two beam emitters, logically labeled M1 and A3, then the probe.

Austin hadn’t been thinking necessarily when he made the adjustment. He was a creature of habit and often before he came to working for starfleet he was making updates to the shuttle he flew to cater towards himself. “It is certainly an adjustment to understand the Ferengi but I came to enjoy my time there and even picked up a few extra skills.” He smiled and stated. “It’s our differences that make us stronger together or atleast that’s what I believe.” That line came from an old political speech he used to practice in the mirror when learning to get better at talking. He dreamed of going into politics one day and thought that was a good point to run off of. “You ever notice the labels on them beam emitters are miss matched? Are they recycled or something?”

They made a trip outside to bring back the first round of parts and the tools to reinstall them: the core's outer shell and the conduits connecting the injectors to the fuel system. "The labels indicate which injector series the emitters are designed to interface with. For the type-8, the M1 and A3 stream simulators are required, along with a standard EPS probe and tricorder." It isn't long before they have the warp core connected at the most basic level, to the point where it'd operate.

He nodded and pulled himself out from under the shuttle. He internally scolded himself for forgetting that, he just knew how the parts were meant to look from his study time. There was more work for him to do if he wanted to work perfectly by the book. “That would make absolute sense, apologies for my ignorance.” He positioned himself leaning against the shuttle near her. “I suppose I have more work ahead of me to adjust the maintaining these shuttles.”

"You do not need to apologize, only improve." Next round of parts went in. Much of the conduits and sensing equipment was reinstalled now, and the warp core is assembled to the point where it should function normally. The shuttle has been on shore power via a thick cable during the procedure, to keep the computers online for diagnostics. "It is now time to energize the warp core to verify its functionality and to determine the effectiveness of the alignment before the final stages of reassembly."

“Understood, apologies for my apologies.” He joked slightly but apologies were something a little bit hard wired into his system. He often couldn’t help but apologize for things. He then lifted himself off from his position leaning against the shuttle. “What do you need me to do to assist?”

For once, something Austin said finally elicited an emotional response from the Vulcan. A sigh, and a roll of their eyes. "I believe anything I could say to further comment on your excessive use of apology would only elicit more apologetic responses, thus having the opposite of the intended effect." The only parts they haven't installed yet were the covers that go on both the inside and outside of the shuttle, covering the core completely. For now, they'd leave it open, just so they can witness the startup. "The final stage in this process is to verify the operation of the warp core. Use the engineering panel to energize the core and disconnect the external power."

He spit out another sheepish “Sorry.” And then excitedly ran over it the panel to get the warp core started up. He felt bad for his continuous apologizing and it wasnt the first impression he wanted to make with the officer. At least he could do some good work to make up for it. He tapped a couple of buttons and in a matter of seconds he had the warp core starting up.

They sighed again, realizing there was no winning against a human in an argument like this. They take the readings from the exposed core as it energizes and bathes the immediate surroundings of the shuttle and its interior in a cool blue light, indicating optimal functionality.

He excitedly looked over from where he was in an attempt to glimpse the readings. He had good eyesight but obviously not quite that good. “Everything good over there?”

They raised their voice a bit to overcome the growing hum of the core, not taking their eyes off the tricorder for a second. "All system parameters within expected values. Disconnect the power cable from the charging station and verify power stability."

He quickly ran over to make sure he could disconnect the power cable. He hesitated for just a moment not entirely sure of what to do before just going ahead with it.. “Disconnected the power cable!” He repeated back

The occasional sip from a yellow tumbler of coffee usually marked the beginning of a new shift for Maya, still somewhat tired and groggy from her work during her previous shift, but the pick me up usually helped lighten her spirits as she began the day. Normally, shuttle maintenance wouldn't be seen as one of the most 'exciting' of tasks around, especially with the sorts of vessels that 777 welcomes to her drydock, however there was always something about them that she was quite fond of. When she finally entered the workshop, Maya took in a deep breath as she took in the view of the small compliment of shuttles with a soft smile. The engineer downed her last sip of coffee before she placed the tumbler to be recycled on the replicator and pulled out her PADD. Maya walked around the workshop whilst she scrolled through her tasks, her free hand mindlessly running through the length of a shuttle's fuselage. (edited)

The ops officer had been busy at work in the shuttle workshop, having been tasked with yet more inventory, it was something of a guilty pleasure of theirs, sorting through all the parts, cataloguing and counting all the different codes and part numbers... It was strangely therapeutic. As the Lieutenant entered and started their shift, Alaya looked over at the newcomer before slowly making their way over to the Engineer. "Uh...Hey there, sorry to bother you. I'm Alaya, was just in from Ops to do the monthly inventory, I'll try stay out of your way as much as possible. Just uh... Let me know if you're needing any particular parts out of the section I'm working in." They said, with a gentle smile.

At around this point, Maya would have already finished up reading up the service logs for one of the shuttles. Aside from its usual maintenance routine, there were a couple of complaints raised about it that she wanted to look into. As she began her initial inspections on the shuttle, the engineer looked over and noticed the ops officer approaching her. "Oh hey! Thanks for the heads up! Don't worry about getting in the way, the help and company's always welcome." She warmly said as she turned to them with a soft smile, setting down her tools to offer Alaya a handshake. "I'm Maya, from Engineering, and today's maintenance day for some of the shuttles! Thought I should let you know, 'cause I might pop around you a lot for spare parts while your doing inventory, and I don't want to annoy you too much." She chuckled, knowing that from some personal experience. "Likewise, if you need any help with inventory or anything, don't be afraid to ask. Okie dokie?"

The ops officer smiled and returned the handshake as Maya extended it out. "It's nice to meet you. I could use somebody to chat to when I'm working. Inventory can be a bit tedious at times and it's always good to be in sync with whoever is working around you at the time. The last guy who was on before you wasn't exactly the most talkative of people... Felt like we were tripping over one another." They said with a gentle smile, as they slipped away to continue the section they were working on. "So, have you been on the station for long, Maya?"

"Ooohh yeah I know what that's like." Maya said with a smile as she begun to inspect the shuttles main nacelle engines. "I had a shift to repair EPS relays in the Jefferies tubes the other day with another engineer who wasn't that talkative either. We couldn't go a few minutes without stepping on one another and pushing each others buttons, both literally and figuratively. Not the worst few hours I ever had, but I had fun arguing over proper tool use though; they opened up a bit more after that." the engineer added with a light chuckle as she scanned its inner components with a tricorder, suspecting a minor leak of some kind. "I think it's been around 10 months or so since I've been transferred here from my last post... How about you, Alaya?"

"Well, I've been here for uh, maybe two years? I've kinda just been in the background for a while. Just basic little ops jobs here and there, so not many people even acknowledge my existence... But I've been promoted recently! So I've got a lot of fun new responsibilities." They said with a chuckle, as they continued to finish the last of their current section. "I used to run my own little team when I was on my last posting, but I've been mostly on my own here, this Starbase is so much different that my previous one, it used to be very engineering based. We were in charge of building the new ships before the start of the last few wars... And then repairing all the damaged ships that came in during said wars... It was, yeah. Very hectic, to say the least! But this place is so nice... Maybe a tiny bit big for my liking, but it's good!"

"Oooh you're a new Lieutenant! Congrats!" Maya said with a smile as she continued her work, though that went away a little bit when she discovered a few minor fractures around the plasma injectors after reading through her tricorder. "Building and repairing starships during the wars? That must've been hell, I'm sorry to hear that... to tell you the truth, my second post in Starfleet was in a California-class support vessel during one of the wars at that time." The engineer said as she picked up her tools and investigated to check for the damages in the other nacelle. "It needed extensive repairs around the clock after every transport mission... hectic times for anyone in Starfleet with a yellow uniform honestly. Though in the end, I'm glad we're here, the station's great!" After a little bit, she had found similar fractures in the other nacelle as well which worried her. "Hey Alaya, could you kindly check if we have spare plasma injectors in inventory? I might need your help replacing them."

"Thanks! And yeah... It was a bit hellish sometimes, But in typical Starfleet fashion we all banded together and all pulled through in the end. It was good to get constant work sometimes, I feel I really developed a whole lot of engineering skills, Ops is typically pretty paperwork and admin heavy, but at least during the war there was enough actual work to go around." Alaya finished up the last of her little section, before looking over at Maya. "Mhm, On hand we have 6 type-8 sized and 7 runabout sized. Which one you needing?"

"With the work you're doing, you might become the next Miles O'Brien." Maya said with a chuckle as she finished up checking up on both of the shuttle's warp nacelles and opening them up for the new parts, glad she caught the damages before it could be used. "I need 4 of the type-8 sized ones, and I might need an of EPS conduit or two as well. I'm planning to do a systems check in the shuttle to see if anything else needs attention, if you want to help out of course." (edited)

"Well, I wouldn't say that. Miles O'Brien far outclasses little old me. But I would love to be recognised as even half the person he was." They said with a gentle chuckle, before they loaded up the requested parts onto a trolley (being sure to mark them off the inventory as well) Alaya made their way over to Maya with a smile, delighted to be asked to assist with some actual engineering. "I'd be delighted to! I've never gotten to work on a real shuttle before, I'd be delighted to see it firsthand."

"Try to give yourself some credit. They don't call OPS officers the 'Backbone of Starfleet' for nothing." Maya said with a smile as Alaya arrived with the cart of spare parts, very much surprised to hear that this would be their first time working on a shuttle. "I guess this is your lucky day then! Warp-capable shuttles are basically miniature starships, so you'll get the hang of them fairly quickly." The engineer said excitedly as she opened up the shuttle's main doors and took a step aside. "After you." she added with a chuckle with a gesture to allow Alaya to enter the shuttle first. Maya entered the shuttle after them with tricorder on hand as she approached the shuttles controls. "We'll just need to activate the shuttles systems for the diagnostic to run, which might take a while..." The engineer briefly explained as she ran the diagnostic, and demonstrated the more engineering side of it. However, power inside the shuttle as its systems ran was significantly weaker compared to normal as lights flickered and certain systems refused to respond. "That's... bad? uhh... Let's check the EPS mains if that answers anything, and the warp chamber as well to be safe." (edited)

"Well hey, I won't say no to some shameless praise of the operations department..." She said with a chuckle as she hopped onto the shuttle behind Maya, and wow, it was very fancy inside. "Oh wow yeah, you're not kidding, it's just a little starship. This this is very cool in here! I could totally just live in one of these, have free reign to explore the galaxy myself... Although, presumably at a much slower speed." They watched and took mental notes of everything Maya was doing as the two walked around the shuttle, doing their diagnostics. "Huh, well yeah. You don't want a power outage when you're out for your afternoon shuttle ride..." She said with a gentle chuckle. "Where's the EPS mains located on one of these?"

"Mhm! These shuttles can max out to like, Warp 3 for around over a day! So a trip from here to Bajor, which is around 120 lightyears away, would take almost 3 years. A very nice trip." Maya happily explained, glad that things seemed much better in the inside than outside. "Well when you do start exploring, I think Captain Alaya does have a nice ring to it. Don't you think?" The engineer chuckled as she gathered her equipment. "Anyways. The access panel for the EPS mains should be in the aft section. Hopefully there wouldn't be too much damage other than a couple of fused plasma relays, 'cause anything major would take a while to work on." Maya answered them with a light smile as she pointed over to the location of the panel and led the way. "Just curious though... In your old posting, what sort of starships did you work on? If you could remember any."

"I'll have to set out as soon as possible. If it's gonna take me three years to get to Bajor." They said with a hearty chuckle, before following Maya towards the aft section of the shuttle. "Although, I wouldn't want to stay there. I'm not exactly a big fan of planets. But I would probably love being a captain... of my own private shuttle, not a ship with hundreds of people." "As for ships? The one my team was assigned to build just before the war broke out was the USS Rapture, she was a beautiful ship. She's a presidio class, they're quite fancy. Funnily enough my sister and brother in law were assigned as senior staff on that ship when it finally got launched." Alaya knelt down and pulled one of the panels off the side of the shuttle wall, pulling out her engineering tricorder as they did so. "So, what am I looking for, this all seems not too bad? Other than maybe the funky smell..." They said, looking over to Maya with a lil grimace on their face. "Something is definitely burned out there."

"Wait! You worked on the Rapture?! She was my last posting before I was transferred to the station! " Maya said in absolute surprise with a bright grin on her lip and a laugh, she hadn't heard that name in quite some time. "I was only there for a few months before she was reassigned to do deep space exploration, but I can tell you she was a damn fine ship! You and your team did a great job." The engineer added with a smile before she also knelt down and pulled out her tricorder when Alaya brought up the funky smell with a look of concern on her face. "Aside from burst or fused plasma relays, there should be a couple of flow regulators in there as well. They should ideally be the first ones to go when something goes wrong in some cases..." Maya explained, pulling out a handheld laser tool and using it to point out certain components. Sure enough, there were a lot more things that were burnt than she initially expected. All of them surrounded the flow regulators to which one had burst in a small explosion, whilst the other looked like it had just melted. "Welp... that explains it... a plasma overload. Replacing the burnt stuff here should be no problem, but something must've gone off in the warp chamber to cause this and the fractured plasma injectors in the nacelles." The engineer said with a sigh before looking back over to Alaya. "She ain't space-worthy, Cap'n."

Alaya looked over at Maya as she mentioned she has been stationed on the Rapture previously. "Woah, you were actually on the Rapture? You'll know my family then! Well, my brother-in-law at least! He was the first officer, Commander Tivop Cronos. He uh, isn't doing so good nowadays though, not since the incident. But him and my sister are actually stationed aboard 777 now! They're going to be staying here for the foreseeable future. So that's fun!" They said with a gentle smile as they picked up their tricorder and started to scan out all the damaged parts numbers from the open panel. As Maya spoke they turned to her with a sigh, looked over at her with a put-on frown. "As for this heap o'junk... Now what!? How are we gonna escape on our three year voyage to Bajor now? We'll have to repair her quick sharp! We've got a schedule to keep!" They said with a gentle chuckle as they stood up again. "I'll go grab the parts from inventory, give me a second."

"Awe that's sweet! Give them my regards, I hope the Commander gets well soon." Maya said as she watched Alaya scan the damaged part numbers while she thought about how exactly to approach making repairs. She had only personally met Riov tr’Torre’vnau during her time on the Rapture, so it would be nice to know how her former XO and the rest of the crew are doing these days. Occurrences like these are not that surprising in any maintenance run, but there was usually some mixed sense of disappointment and pity that the engineer felt whenever she found these types of damages in the shuttlecraft, most especially to this extent. She did feel a bit better about it as Alaya spoke, chuckling a little bit before she stood up straight in attention and looked back at them with a grin. "Aye, Sir! I'll get started with fixing her up right away!" She said with a hearty chuckle and renewed determination as she jumped back to repairs. It had only been a few moments after they had left, however, for a little thought to pop in the engineer's head based from what Alaya said which made her chuckle before she muttered to herself. "...our voyage to Bajor..."

As they stepped back onto the shuttle again, she briefly overheard Maya muttering to herself as they entered, Alaya stepped up behind her with a chuckle. "Of course it'sour voyage. What kind of captain doesn't take their chief engineer with them on their maiden voyage?" They said with a little chuckle, and they sat their kit bag of parts down. "Yeah that's right, you've been promoted to my chief engineer." They said with a little chuckle, as she sat down cross legged next to the damaged panel. "Now cmon chief, show me what you got." The bajoran added, as they pulled the first part out of the bag on the floor and held it up towards Maya with a grin.

Maya gave herself a little bit of time to process what Alaya had said and burst out a hearty laugh. "H-hold! Hold on! I-I'm sorry... That took me off guard for a moment there." She said as she calmed herself down and took a deep breath to better collect herself before faced them with a grin. "It would be my honor to be your chief engineer... A ship's only as good as the engineer that takes care of her!" The human chuckled lightly as she glanced down and reached over to the part before looking back to the Bajoran. "Thank you, Captain... Let's get her up and running!" With the new part on hand, the Engineer twirled one of her tools from her tool belt between her fingers and began her work. Normally, doing repairs like this would take a good chunk of a shift, but Alaya's company make the job easier, it made it all more fun as she showed her 'Captain' a brief crash course of the shuttles systems as they repaired them and moved from one console and subsystem to the next. "Just curious... what would you name her when we finish, Captain? A ship needs to be christened with a name after all."

Alaya gave a gentle chuckle as they watched Maya break out into laughter, at least the two were enjoying themselves. It wasn't very often that they got to have a laugh with others, their anxiety usually prevented them from making friends so easily or talking to others... But Maya seemed to have made Alaya feel very comfortable, it was usually easier if other people did most of the talking or intiated the conversations. As she sat there watching Maya going over the shuttle's repair, she had a little think to herself as for a name. "Hmm, I've never been particularly good at naming things. I always spend far too long thinking about it... How about Kejal? That's the Bajoran word for 'Freedom!' Seem's approriate for the shuttle we're using to theoretically go exploring the Galaxy with."

Maya was glad to see Alaya become more comfortable and enjoy themself, its always nice to have good company, aside from making it easier for her to focus and enjoy working, it was also nice getting to know others. As for the name of their little shuttle, Maya gave it some thought before she looked back at them. "I love it. Fits both her and her captain perfectly." She said with a gentle smile as she continued the repairs that needed to be done to the Kejal's EPS mains. "I could see it now... Space! The final frontier! These are the adventures of the Shuttlecraft Kejal. Her 3-year mission: To explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before. " She added with her best, probably accurately overexaggerated, Captain Kirk impression. "That's a holonovel series in the making right there." She chuckled as she began to recalibrate the flow regulators and fail-safes in the mains. "I think we're almost there... just need to check a couple more things- mind holding this in place real quick?" The engineer kindly asked as she handed them one of the replacement EPS relays and showed them where to hold it within the panel before she pulled out the old one, which appeared to have blown in the inside and fractured.

The Bajoran gave the woman beside them a smile as she spoke, before breaking out into laughing, it was very rare that Alaya actually found pleasant company whilst on duty, and it was extremely rare for them to have a genuine social interaction, but for some reason they felt really comfortable around Maya. "Stop, I'm genuinely going to pass out if I laugh any harder. You're hilarious, Maya..." They smiled and knelt down once more to hold the desired part in place for Maya. Giving the woman next to them a grin as the two worked on the shuttle together. "You got it, chief. We can get her fixed up quickly and then we can get out of here." With a gentle sigh as they broke their little fun personas, they looked over at Maya. "This has been fun, thanks for taking a little time out of your day to show me a bit about shuttle mechanics."

"Oh, its no trouble at all! Really I should be thanking you for sticking around. This kind of work can get a tad tedious at times, y'know? I'm glad you had fun." Maya said with a smile and a light chuckle as she finished installing the replacement EPS relay into place before she placed the panel back. It was rare for her to have this much fun on maintenance duty since there was usually a point before someone found her a bit annoying. "And that's done.. only replacing the damaged nacelle plasma injectors from earlier left and we're good for a systems test." The engineer said with a soft smile as she stood up and stretched for a little bit before she turned over to Alaya and offered them a hand to get up. "It's just two on each side that need to be replaced. Luckily, this is much easier with two people." Maya said with a light smile as the two got up before she led the way out of the shuttle and into one of the nacelles to prep for the injector replacement. "By the way, you have any plans later after your shift?"

"Well tedious work is usually made easier by pleasant company! There's nothing worse than a slow shift to really drag the day out..." They said as they finished up the last of the work before turning to Maya as they offered the hand out. "Y'know... I'm never usually a very sociable person, but I feel surprisingly calm and relaxed around you." They said with a gentle chuckle as they accepted the hand up, moving with Maya to leave the shuttle and follow her towards the nacelle. Alaya watched carefully as Maya showed them how to get into the nacelle, taking in all the information presented to them so they could know a little better if they ever needed to help with shuttle repair in future. "Let's get this baby fixed up so we can wrap this whole repair up. She'll be as good as new very soon." They smiled as they watched Maya begin to prep for the injector replacement, looking over as she asked the question. "Uh... Probably not. Is this your way of sneakily offering a plan of your own?" They said with a grin, turning to look over at Maya.

"I do have that kind of effect on people." Maya joked with a chuckle as she gathered her tools. "Well either that, or they would say that I was annoying.... or weird, It could go either way to be honest. But I'm happy to hear you say that... It honestly means a lot." She added with a light smile as they made way to one of the warp nacelles. Whilst deep into the the nacelle assembly getting the two plasma injectors disconnected, Maya glanced over to them to Alaya. " hmm... mmmayyybeee~" She answered with a soft chuckle while she continued to focus on her work before she paused for a brief moment. "Depends if you're up for it though?" She added as she turned to face her with a grin, with a few bits of an idea in mind. That is before some metallic clanking can be heard as whatever kept the damaged injectors in there was detached and she began to pull it out before the weight of the injector itself when she first lifted it suddenly made the engineer lunge forward and nearly slam face first into the side of the Kejal as struggled to lift it out it out. "WHOP! She's out and she heavy! She very heavy! Help!" (edited)

The Bajoran smiled as Maya spoke, before chirping in. "Not at all! You're delightful to work with, I've really enjoyed today. And I'd easily be up for a little meet up after work, what sort of things did you have in min-" As the injector fell, they immediately jumped forward to grab hold of Maya, hands moving in around her to help with the weight of the part as it fell. "Oh prophets, okay! Right gently drop it down, I've got this end!" As the two slowly lifted the part down onto the ground to save Maya dropping the entire injector onto her toes. "Phew, that was close!"

Maya quickly nodded as Alaya got the other end of the injector and they safely moved the broken thing back down to the ground, letting out a sigh of relief. "Yeah... that was a close one, nice job! It would've broken more of the nacelle if I straight up dropped it, then we would be in some trouble!" Maya said with a light chuckle as she stretched and looked at the nearly repaired shuttle. "Let's get the other ones together to be safe." The engineer said after giving herself a little bit of a breather before they resumed back to work. Maya would guide Alaya through the process as they uninstalled each of the damaged injectors, though it would take her a good bit before Alaya's previous question popped back into her mind. "Ah! Right! Yeah! After work stuff, almost forgot! I was thinking we could get lunch after this? Heard a bunch of new food joints had opened up recently, and I've been meaning to try them out." *She suggested with a warm smile as they continued their work, quite hungy. It was always fun to try new places with a friend. *"I have also been planning some mods for the shuttles in the holodeck for funsies, you want in?"

The ops officer gave Maya a gentle smile as they finished up the last of the shuttle. "Well, if you help me finish up this last shelf of inventory, I'll be glad to join you for lunch! I seem to have gotten a bit distracted in shuttle maintenance it seems, so you can make it up by helping me finish up my work." They said with a gentle chuckle, as they turned and headed back towards the shelving once more. "But I certainly have made up quite the appetite with all this maintenance!"

"Alright, that's fair. I pulled you in to this, so it's the least I could do to return the favor after all." The engineer said with a chuckle and a thumbs up. It shouldn't be that hard to help finish up their work, plus that would mean more time ~~initiating the ancient introvert adoption ritual of the extroverts!!~~ to hang out with Alaya, so that's a great plus! "So we're agreement then? After work, we're setting course to food!" Maya playfully said with a laugh as she stood tall and bravely pointed towards the turbolift, their only way to the commercial ring. And so the two continued their work on getting the Shuttlecraft Kejal back into working order and space-worthiness. When that was about done, Maya invited Alaya back inside the shuttle to help her in the control panel to do some final systems checks and calibrations before they could formally do a little test start to see if their efforts, which she gave the OPS officer the great honors of finally initiating the shuttle systems and getting the engines online, with some help of course if they needed it. * *When the warp nacelles engines spurred and roared to life and the shuttle began to hover a little bit as part of the standard tests, Maya was more then overjoyed to see the poor shuttle working again. Normally her brain would be very much hyper focused on this exciting event; however, it was Alaya that pulled her attention away when she glanced over to see their reaction all this. Maya simply smiled and chuckled to herself before she turned to them and declared. "The Kejal is ready for voyage, Captain." (edited)