After Mission One Before Mission Two

[T-Prime]

[KendleRJ]

Soooo close... Nav closed her eyes for a moment, and put on her best game face.

"Lieutenant," she responded and smiled with some relief. Shop talk. Something she could actually discuss without feeling like she was sticking out and awkward. Her smile was genuine and she let out the breath she'd been holding. "Let me grab a drink and we can start outlining a plan, will that work?"

Tags

(might there be a JP in the offing?)

[T-Prime]

TK made an uninterested gesture.

"Do what you got to do." He remarked, "I'll grab a table."

TK sauntered off to an unoccupied table in the corner.

(There might be. There's going to be a lot of techno-gibberish involved.)

[KendleRJ]

Nav headed off to the bar, grabbed a small 6 pack of beer for expediency's sake and produced a PADD from an undisclosed location upon her person. No one need know where she, an Engineer, might keep such an item, but suffice it to say, she was always prepared. Turning around she noticed where the Lieutenant had settled and she headed there without a single self-conscious moment. This would probably be one of the last times she would ever get the opportunity to do something remotely mechanical. Even the planning part would be a nice change of pace than what Whitney had her doing. Or would have her doing.

Nav put the beer on one seat and put the PADD on the table. "Ok," she said, and gave TK a lop-sided grin. "Although I'm quite devastated by the prospect of talking shop, I'm sure I'll get over it." Her voice never rose, and her face belied the truth in her words. "So... combat readiness of Frankie." She laid out her PADD on the table and smiled even wider. "Where would you like to start?"

Tags

[T-Prime]

[KendleRJ]

"We can do this another time. I certainly wouldn't want to impede your social life." He replied with the tiniest hint of deadpan sarcasm.

Nav gave TK the same bland expression. "Nor I, you, Lieutenant."

"I'd like to start at the power junctions and work up to the emitters. Every wire, every circuit, every relay, every junction. I'm not having those damn phasers burn out on me again after a single god-damned shot. 'Best of the best of Starfleet's Engineering Corp' my ass. I've seen high school science projects more reliable."

Her head went down and she pulled up a full blueprint of the systems in question and began to hone into the various minute details. Power junctions were highlighted in blue, fuse junctions were orange; the wiring in long green laserlike lines, criss crossing in angles; relays were purple, and so on; her eyes taking in the rainbow faster than any person's mind should work. "All right, I'm going to suggest quadrant overhauls on a minute scale. If we interrupt the system all at once, we'll be left out here without defense or offense." She glanced up for a moment and then took a look at the layout once more.

"It'll take a while, but I think it would be best..." Sighing she closed her eyes. "We can coordinate the plans here, and I'll put it past the Chief before we start." There. She could learn... despite her knowledge that it would simply slow down the process even more... but anything would be better than to get additional crap from Whitney.

"Can't really speak to the best of the best... but I do know that Frankie is a unique ship in the fleet. And no one has every answer, but we hope to..." Maybe if they managed the full and complete overhaul, Frankie could be ready for anything, and outperform its own specs. That would take some patience and a whole lot of ingenuity. "So, anything else you wish to request while we're working on these systems?" She tipped her head sideways. "Might as well coordinate all of Tactical's requirements simultaneously, and work it into the job queue..."

Tags

[Sjet]

In the end, Keth's downfall did not come via Jaegerbombs.

A biochemist had once visualised the Huanni metabolism as a hot skillet, with alcohol represented by water being splashed on it: a lot of steam, but not a lot of aftermath. The Huanni simply burned the chemical out of their blood at a rate that made them impressive drinkers, but not wild party animals that wandered around campus chanting 'Toga, toga, toga!'. But, to borrow the same mental frame work as the hot skillet, there was one chemical compound that acted like gasoline being thrown on a naked flame for the Huanni.

And that compound, was sugar. Or, in this case, a Jelly Baby.

Keth had had just three of the chewy, sweet little items when he began to feel...funny. It was around this time that he wondered why humans ate candied versions of their off spring, that Keth noticed everyone had slowed down. Like, ALL the way down. He could see that liquids were still sloshing to and fro in glasses but in slow mo, and hair was bobbing up and down in waves like it was under water. That seemed odd. Keth turned to Ensign McGuffin and saw that he to was moving very slowly, with his face contorting from a relieved visage at leaving to...panic? Humans had such stone like faces it was hard to tell what they were thinking.

He turned to look back at the captain to see if she was okay in this slow downed dance they were all doing. As he did that Ensign McGuffin began to grow very heavy in Keth's hand, as he was still carrying him around as a gesture of thanks. His feet rose up, and that panicked look on his face morphed into a slow motion scream of pure terror. Keth's grip intensified and he watched, fascinated as McGuffin's red shirt came apart at the seams and the young man just...flew away in a graceful arc. He didn't fly very fast, and yet people didn't get out of the way as the now shirtless Ensign crashed into them.

Keth opened his mouth and said.

****

There was a shriek from across the party as a shirtless and clearly terrified McGuffin was thrown bodily into the air, and a loud shriek of sound buzzed through the air.

"IThinkSomethingsWrongWithTheGravityPlatingAsEveryoneSeemsToBeMovingReeallyReallyReallyReallySlowlyLikeSuperSlowlyBecauseIThinkWeMightBeNearABlackHoleOrSomethingTheirhairIsAllFloatyAndGassyAndWeeThisIsFun!" Keth giggled, eras twitching madly as he moved with a worrying degree of speed from one buffet table to the other, offering drinks that were thrown into faces and sending a squadron of cocktail sausages into a far wall with a wet sounding patter of exploding meat like paste.

Sugar, for Huanni, is natural nitro.

[T-Prime]

[KendleRJ]

"I'd like practical oversight of the repair teams. I won't get in the way, but I'd like to see first hand what your people will be doing."

Nav considered the request and added into the details for the formal application to Engineering. "I've added it, Lieutenant," she said, "But the final say isn't mine." She took a swig of her beer as she listened, mostly to keep her mouth shut.

"One shot, Lieutenant." TK emphasized, "One god-damned shot burned out my entire offensive grid. You can't tell me that a significant amount of incompetence or negligence isn't involved in that. Then that ass-hat Admiral sends us into a combat mission before I can even run a basic shake-down. I'm tempted to believe the whole thing was deliberate."

In fact TK had been mulling over the events continuously since waking up in sickbay, and he wasn't the least bit pleased by his conclusions.

Negligence was quite the word to be using with reference to Starfleet. It sounded like TK was implying that there was something other than a few relays that were behind the sudden failure. And incompetence... well, she almost felt personally offended by an accusation. She had always taken such pride in her own work, and couldn't imagine anyone who wouldn't. But to imply that the Admiral was involved in an imagined conspiracy...

"I can't speak to that," Nav said carefully. "I filled out a thorough repair report, if you're concerned." But it seemed more than likely that the Lieutenant might pursue his own line of questioning, and still harbour his impressions given his animosity to authority.

TK began counting off on his fingers.

"Phasers, torpedoes, shields, tactical and targeting sensors. Preferably in that order."

Nav took copious notes, recommendations, potential schedules for repair, maintenance, and meticulous detail for each system. "I think that might do it, Lieutenant," she said, taking another drink. Her mind was clear, especially since she was fully engaged with what she loved. "If you'd like to look it over... then you can submit it to Engineering directly." That way it would bypass her completely, and make Whitney thoroughly thrilled.

She kept the smile on her face, her eyes only slightly losing the sparkle of enthusiasm as she handed him the PADD. "You can give that back to me once you're done, Lieutenant," she said. "Have a great rest of a party." Her smile lost its lustre as she scanned back around the room. "Thanks... I mean, glad to be of service."

Tags

[T-Prime]