The Starship: Part 1
“The time is now seven hundred forty hours.”
…
“The time is now seven hundred fifty hours.”
…
“The time is now eight hundred hours.”
…
“Woodward to Ensign Murphy, your shift began five minutes ago…”
Jumping out of bed and nearly tripping over my boots, I tapped the comm panel on my nightstand. “Sorry sir, I overslept…I’m on my way.”
“Report to me when you arrive in Engineering. Woodward out.”
I quickly pulled on my uniform, affixed my communicator badge, and stepped into my boots. There clearly wasn’t time for an appropriate breakfast, or even my usual morning sonic shower, so I replicated something I could eat on my run up to Engineering. “Toast, buttered, lightly browned.”
The replicator hummed to life and a swirl of floating, twinkling lights converged to form the only sustenance I had time for. I grabbed the piece of toast and ran out of my quarters and into the hallway.
Running through hallways during non-emergencies was against safety regulations, so I walked at a quickened pace to the nearest turbo lift. My quarters were located on Deck 7, the lowest deck on the ship that had crew living areas, so I just had a short ride up to Engineering on Deck 4. I stopped at the turbolift doors and waited for the lift to arrive.
My silent wait was interrupted by a chirp from the comm system, “Thomas to Murphy.”
“Joe, I’m on my way,” I responded with a mouth full of toast. “How pissed is the commander?”
“When is he not pissed, buddy? That’s not why I’m calling though…how did it go with Lieutenant T’Naal last night? I’m guessing pretty good since you’re late again.”
The turbolift doors slid open signalling its arrival and I stepped inside. “Engineering,” I said firmly, directing the turbolift to my destination. “Not exactly,” I responded to Joe’s inquiry, “I took her to the Vangori Beach Reefs on Holodeck Two. I had my snorkel on and everything before she broke the news that she couldn’t swim. Who doesn’t know how to swim?”
“That’s Vulcans for you. Maybe you should have done something fun, like catch up on some paperwork or clean out the intake manifolds,” Joe said, laughing into the comm.
“Funny,” I replied. “So we had dinner in the lounge, had a few synthales and called it a night.”
“I know I’ve said this to you many times buddy, but there’s plenty of fish in the sea. We’ll be at DS9 by the end of the week…once you set eyes on a few of those Bajoran girls, you’ll totally forget about T’Naal.”
“Right,” I said in a hopeless tone. “I’ve got to see Woodward before I start my shift. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
“Ok, good luck with the commander. Thomas out.”
The doors to the turbolift opened directly into Engineering, and I walked towards the warp core where Chief Engineer Woodward was studying the Reaction Monitoring Console. It was no coincidence that Joe was working at a station next to the turbolift doors, and he aimed a nod and a smirk in my direction when I noticed him. There were few secrets on a ship of just under a hundred people and I knew whatever I discussed with Lieutenant Commander Woodward would be common knowledge before I started my first work assignment.
“Sir, you wanted to see me?” I said from behind the Chief Engineer.
He stopped what he was doing, but did not turn around. He looked up at the warp core and replied, “You do good work, Ensign. The realignment you performed last week increased reaction efficiency by almost two percent. I had the pleasure of informing the captain that we were running at the highest efficiency we’ve recorded since the Voltaire launched two years ago.”
Chief Woodward then turned around from the console to face me, “But your work commitment is unacceptable. This is the fifth time this month you’ve been late to your duty shift.”
He paused for a moment and then continued, “While on duty you work on projects that you haven’t been assigned, you’ve been caught taking naps in the jefferies tubes, and you’re unreliable when we need you to cover extra shifts.”
He looked down and the ground, shook his head, and then looked up into my eyes, “You scored top of your class on the theoretical propulsion design exam at the academy…that’s why I wanted you on this mission to the Gamma Quadrant. I don’t know what the problem is Ensign Murphy, but I had better see vast improvement in your reliability or I’ll put in the transfer paperwork before we hit the wormhole. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir,” I quickly responded.
“Good,” he said in an optimistic tone. “I’ve assigned you and Ensign Thomas to work on a special project for the Captain. He’ll fill you in on the details. Dismissed.”
…
Ten minutes later, Joe and I were crawling around in a jeffries tube, searching for the Secondary Deflector Control Relay.
Joe paused for a moment and looked over his shoulder, “You’re not going to fall asleep on me are you?”
“So you heard everything, did you?” I wasn’t surprised Joe had overhead the conversation. Joe was the gossip king of the Voltaire.
“Did you really score that high on the propulsion theory exam? My grades weren’t even high enough to qualify me to even take it. Most of those guys end up in Planitia.”
Joe was referring to the Mars orbital ship yards named Utopia Planitia, where all Starfleet ships are built and where starship design flourished. After the war with the Dominion, so many ships were lost that Starfleet increased starship production ten fold. Planitia was an engine designers dream.
“Yeah, I had a Fleet Admiral herself come and offer me a position at the shipyards.”
“Then why the hell are you on this bucket?”
I had many regrets in my life, but refusing a career behind a desk was never one of them. “Being stuck in a room with a bunch of scientists always sounded like a nightmare. Besides, if I had, I never would have had the absolute pleasure of meeting an outstanding officer such as yourself,” I said, dripping with sarcasm.
“That’s true. What would you do without me,” Joe replied with a smile. “This is it…Secondary Deflector Control Relay.”
“Here’s the modulator,” I said, handing the small, metallic object to Joe. “Why does the Captain want us to re-modulate the deflector backups?”
“That’s on a need to know basis, Ensign,” Joe said, imitating the Captain, “and neither of us need to know.”
“T’Naal said she heard rumors that we are to rendezvous with a Romulan ship when we get to Deep Space Nine. Maybe shore leave isn’t the reason we’re scheduled to be there for a week,” I speculated.
Joe slammed his head into the top of the jefferies tube, apparently shocked at my last comment, “What do you mean ‘no shore leave’?! I plan on getting both my drink and gambling on at Quark’s as soon as the ship docks. I’ve been looking forward to this for a month. Of all the…”
“Calm down,” I interrupted, “it’s just a rumor.”
“Yeah, and I know how Vulcans are at volunteering information…I guarantee T’Naal knows more about this.” Joe tapped his comm badge, “Ensign Thomas to Lieutenant T’Naal.”
“T’Naal here.”
“How would you like the pleasure of my company this evening? The crew lounge at eighteen hundred?”
“As appealing as that sounds Ensign,” the disdain in her voice was clear, even for a Vulcan, “I, unfortunately, have other plans.”
“What could be more important than having dinner with the best engineer on the ship?” Joe boasted.
“I’m sure I have a report to finish or a manifold to clean. Perhaps some other time Ensign. T’Naal out.”
We both looked at each other with shocked expressions. Had she overheard Joe’s comment this morning? Considering the love-hate relationship between Joe and T’Naal, it wouldn’t have surprised me if her comment was a complete coincidence. Although Joe was determined to find out more about the stop at DS9, we continued to work on the deflector re-modulation.
Just as we finished up and replaced the panel cover, the comm system chirped once again, “Woodward to Murphy.”
“Murphy and Thomas here, sir,” I responded.
“I’m reading the new modulation on the deflector backup. I can make the same adjustment to the primary system from here. Nice work.”
“Thank you, sir,” I replied in a confused tone. It was unusual for the commander to keep such a close eye on our progress.
Woodward continued,” I need you two back in Engineering on the double for a department meeting.”
“Understood. On our way, sir.”
To be continued…
