More Abrupt Change

Posted on Fri May 28th, 2021 @ 10:49pm by Lieutenant Nir Giorgiou & Captain Björn Kodak & Commander Satoru Takomi

Mission: The Place of Skulls
Location: USS Tsimshian, an Insignia-class Starship: Deck 7, Main Engineering, Main Plasma Flow Control
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 1225

[Starship Tsimshian]
[Plasma Flow Control]
[1215 Hours]

"Come on, kitty.... purr for me..." Jaundice amber light cast over a bridge of freckles, the origins of it a reflection of holography on glossy black goggles. The soft medical warble of a plasma regulator ebbed a hypnotic tide-sound, the tapered oval passed over the throb of the main starboard plasma relay node. Raw, dry heat bore down from the manifold, spritzing an equally freckled forehead with droplets of sweat. He was waiting for that golden tone- optimal alignment, painfully elusive.

"Nir." A woman's voice came from behind.

Nir Giorgiou squinted through his goggles, trying to refocus on the delicacy of the moment. "This is one stubborn coupling," he muttered errantly, "One second, Ma'am." The Assistant Chief could feel the presence shift and he did not need to look back to see whose voice it came from- Commander Nessen Pala was a formidable Bajoran woman who had come out of the now-subsumed Bajoran Militia.

With a squawk, his device errored out. "Hassiktir..." Nir muttered on a harsh note. He drop-cast his hand device into his toolkit with a clatter. The engineer sighed heavily, pulling up his goggles to rest in a nest of wavy rings. "Yelan abo taareesak..." The Bajoran behind him smirked with an audible strike of sound. His face had red lines where his skin had pressed into the goggles with the heat. "How can I help, Commander?" He asked with a twist of his torso. His fingers gestured and dropped the holographic console that hovered before him.

"How long have you been fighting this conduit? Two days?" Nessen asked. "It's time for a break."

"No," Nir viscerally replied, his guts twisting at the idea of giving up when he was so close. "No I can do this. This puta merda conduit isn't beating me. We'll keep it aligned until we put into a starbase for a swap out." He sniffed and swiped a cuff under his nose to catch sweat. "It wasn't built for this router alignment is all. It's meant for a bigger ship." He picked up his tool again. With a flick of fingers, he resumed his holographic interface.

"Actually that's not what I mean, Lieutenant," Nessen said. Nir was about to lower his goggles back over the fading red lines framing his eyes and nose- he froze. He felt a prickle up his spine.

Nessen tapped fingers into the nook of her elbow and proceeded forward. She could feel the heat the plasma manifolds gave off, even through the shielding. "New orders, highest priority." Nir wasn't sure he liked where this was going. He hated being pulled from a project, driven to see it through. He waited for the proverbial bandaid to be torn off. Nessen squatted low and observed his tools, most of them quite foreign to her. "The Captain of the Sojourner needs a Chief Engineer temporarily. His officer went on emergency leave. That's left them with a bunch of Ensigns."

Nir fully peeled his goggles off his head, his waves swaying with their weight and curl. Bandaid, torn off. "The Sojourner... they brought that old heap back into service? I thought it was floating around Struve?"

Nessen shook her head, "No, they built a new one." She rose to emphasize the immediacy of it all; Nir watched her do so with a reluctant look at his tools. "Rhode Island-class."

Nir's brows rose and he issued out a steady stream of breath. Nir rubbed his face, feeling the sheen of sweat across it. "I guess I won't hold out hope for a walk-in closet." Nir rose a knee to his chest and rested his elbow on it. He sniffed. "When?"

"Now. Twenty minutes ago if possible," Nessen pressed. "They're due to warp out in," she checked the chrono, "About forty minutes." That had the prod that Nessen had looked for in her dedicated- if bullish- assistant chief. Nir stood up and popped his back. "Just go, straight to the transporter. We'll keep your things in storage until you get back."

Nir twisted the fullness of his lips, "Yeah alright," he sighed and shook his head at the conduit. Defeat. That gnawed at him. "Take care of Baby." Nir said. Nessen nodded.

"She'll be here when you get back," Nessen said, making a thumb gesture toward the Jeffries Tube. Nir nodded and scooped up his tools with a stoop. Coddling it in his arms, he rearranged them back into their molded housings and clamped it shut. Then the engineer proceeded through the cramped hole of the tube.

---

[Starship Sojourner]
[1225 Hours]
[Transporter Room Two]

The ebbing bath of glowing light spiraled with will o' wisp ball energy, a shadow of a form gradually pixellating into the rich fullness of material life. The man who appeared had a mop of dark hair and olive skin with a spread of splotchy freckles. He wore a one-piece Engineering jumpsuit with the sleeves rolled and fastened at the elbow. And he looked sweaty as he let out a single breath. He looked almost like a blue-collar mechanic, his one-piece slightly more open than usual for the black shirt below. The only thing he carried was an engineer's satchel of tools.

"Where's your C-" he began toward the Transporter chief when the doors swished open. The sound was similar but different than the Tsimshian- higher and more immediate. Nir focused on the forms that came through the door.

Captain Kodak slipped inside first. Bearded, burly, and in his early 40s, the Chameloid's golden-black eyes flicked from the transporter controller to the man who'd clearly just stepped down from the pad. "Ah, you must be our temporary new Chief Engineer. Sorry about the short notice...I'm afraid an emergency leave left us rather short-handed. Kind of in shock anyone was available, to be honest," the man smiled warmly, his voice a bit ragged and low. "Captain Kodak," he said, reaching out to shake hands with Nir. "And this," he then gestured to the human who'd entered behind him, "is Commander Satoru Takomi, our First Officer." The Captain left some breathing room for formalities to be exchanged before pressing on.

The indicated Commander was an older gentleman of obviously Asian descent. Unlike the newcomer, he was groomed with sharp precision, from the press and tuck of his uniform to dark hair on his head, every strand of which was in the perfect place where it rested in sharp defiance of his age. As he was introduced, he delivered a precise bow, hands at his sides, and body bent. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lieutenant." When he rose, he too extended his hand for a more customary greeting, his smile an easy and patient one. "We are very fortunate that you were available indeed, and though I wish we could offer you recompense for the inconvenience..." He trailed off as Kodak picked up again.

Nir exchanged handshakes with each man- his was a firm style, a quick jolt of a shake. "Nir Giorgiou," he introduced himself.

"Normally, we'd give you some time to check into your quarters and get settled before putting you to work," the Captain began again, "but I'm afraid we've requested the senior staff to assemble on the Bridge in short order. You've got a few minutes to check into Engineering, replicate a uniform, and then change, though," he indirectly ordered, nodding down at Nir's jumper, "before we need you upstairs. Afterward, Commander Takomi will see to it that you're assigned quarters and get settled in ok."

"Understood," Nir said, shouldering his toolkit onto his shoulder with a weathered strap. He began to follow the two officers through the door, already noticing how much smaller even the corridors were on the Sojourner compared to the Tsimshian.

Looking then to the human at his side, the Chameloid said, "Ensign Gonzalez needs that accommodation for his own quarters. Sadly, we don't have the room for that," he lamented to Takomi, "but let's put him with you," his eyes shifted to Nir, "if you don't mind? He's a good kid, very quiet. Doubt he'll keep you up or anything," he smiled warmly. "We'll just need a little time to get things shifted around for you both. You two can move in once we're en route to our destination."

Nir had been on the ship for less than a minute and had just been told that as a Chief he'd be sharing with someone at all, let alone an Ensign. He reached deep into himself, a visceral instinct from how he would try to find places of privacy in İbrahimpaşa. Privacy was so rare on Kentauros. Privacy was rare on Ithemba Station, Proxima Shipyards and at the Academy too. Tsimshian had been a bright spot. "I'm sure I'll manage," Nir assured the Captain. "It's a place to sleep."

"You'll learn," added Takomi, "that the Captain runs a tight ship." He paused then, and likely for longer than was necessary. But the smile he wore flickered, caught the corner of his eyes, and briefly set them to dancing. A joke? About the limited space? It would seem so, for the Executive Officer appeared particularly pleased with himself. "However, we will do our best to see to your needs as soon as time allows. It, too, is a limited commodity at the moment." He inclined his head again, quickly and only a fraction, as if by way of apology.

Nir glanced at the First Officer with a curious brow raise like he may have missed the First Officer's meaning, his subtle humor. He sniffed and adjusted his shoulder strap, "I'll adjust. I'm a hands-on Engineer. We wade in and fix what's broken. That's how we do things on Kentauros." He smiled a small smile himself, a sense of wry, desiccated-dry humor there, as earthy as his blue-collar mechanic vibe, "Tight or loose, as long as things get done."

Nir nodded again. "Where is our next destination," he asked. "Tsimshian is heading to Tulgana IV, then rendezvousing with the fleet at Starbase 20. We were at Condition Yellow, standing orders, for the past week."

"That's a long time for yellow alert," the Captain commented wryly as he walked down the corridor. "As for us, we're headed into Klingon space. This might sound a bit...self-serving," he chose the word carefully, "but I'm a Chameloid, if you're familiar? My people are a mythical race of skinchangers. Shapeshifters," he clarified, using the term that had become such an epithet during the Dominion War. "Aside from myself -- an abandoned orphan -- and a few others over the last 100 years," Kodak explained, "my people haven't really been seen. But we've just discovered some information that may lead to a colony of Chameloids. Starfleet has tasked us with following the trail and tracking them down."

Turning a corner, the Captain led the way into a turbolift. "Engineering," he said as Takomi and Nir followed him in. As the lift began moving, he turned to the mop-headed engineer and asked, "Ready to keep our ship operational while we go on a scavenger hunt of sorts? The Sojourner is barely out of spacedock but I'm told she's ready for anything. Doesn't mean we are, though. The crew's been on shore-leave for over two months now. I anticipate your people might be a little bit rusty, being their first day back and all. Think you can ease 'em back in, Lieutenant?" Two questions posed, two answers expected: the Captain waited patiently for both.

Nir proved to be the type to play things close to his vest. "We'll get everything into shape before we stare down," he assured though he knew new ships. Nir had worked on new ships. Whoever assured the Captain that this ship was ready for anything might have had sharp teeth and big ears.

"The Klingons are pissed off right now. I hope you speak Klingonese," the Engineer added. "And know your way around a dk'tahg. Somebody attacked some border outpost. That's where the Tsim' was showing the flag before Monitor relieved us." Nir looked up at the ceiling of the lift pod, aware that his scent from sweating in the plasma relay room was starting to fill the room. "I've never heard of a Chameloid," he admitted. "Except the ones that run the show in the Dominion." The doors to the turbolift opened and Nir stepped out.

"Those," Kodak said stiffly, "are Changelings." There seemed to be a steely edge to his raspy voice, something heavy but sharp. "My people can only mimic other humanoids and, even then, our golden eyes always give us away. We cannot change into objects, nor do we command legions of Jem'Hadar to wipe out entire civilizations." The Captain's tone was derisive but droll as he explained this, as if he'd had to do so hundreds of times in his life. He also walked at a faster clip then, as if he were hastening the interaction in the wake of the Nir miss. "Engineering," Kodak said then, stepping into the engine room and gesturing around. "Your people await, Mr. Giorgiou. I'll see you on the Bridge in a few minutes. Satoru," he nodded to the Commander before stepping back out, abruptly ending his part in the conversation.

When the doors of the turbolift closed, Nir glanced at the First Officer. He'd mixed up his shapechangers. Then again up until twenty seconds ago, he hadn't known there was more than the single kind. But he'd clearly offended the man despite not passing vocal judgment on a former enemy of the Federation. "Is it me or did I hit a nerve?" Nir admitted to the turbolift door before his gaze returned to the older Asian man.

"False equivalencies are ever-dangerous," commented the Executive Officer. "I would not concern yourself with it, however. There is much to be done, and something so small is easily forgotten amidst more pressing issues." The expression that Sato wore was a patient one, his aged features set with a calm and quiet smile. "Fortunate or not, I plan to keep you busy enough that you might just forget it as well. You will find an extensive list of system checks that need to be performed as soon as they can be. I will want comprehensive diagnostics as well as your personal assessment of this ship's capabilities." He didn't blink or flinch as he said it. He was serious. Among the cold, emotionless assemblage of facts and figures... he was looking for the new Chief's individualized opinion.

"Take the few moments the Captain has given you, Lieutenant," advised Satoru as he moved slowly toward Engineering's exit. "Use them wisely. Orient yourself," he said as he took a step, "center yourself," as he took another, "prepare yourself," he concluded. "For after this meeting the Captain has called, there will be little time for any of it."

Somewhat laconic by nature, Nir's response was a nod, "Understood, Commander. I'll change and get up to the Bridge." He adjusted the strap of his tool kit into the groove of his shoulder. He nodded respectfully. Even a cursory look around- a breath, even- told Nir this was a new ship- and that meant that list was going to be gigantic. Nir had worked in the shipyards of a post-Mars Federation.

Takomi paused for a final moment at the threshold. The door had already opened to permit him passage, but he remained just long enough to nod in return. A gesture for a gesture, "See you soon, Lieutenant." One last step carried him out into the ship at large. As it did, the door closed, and left Nir alone, if only briefly, with his engine and his thoughts.

A Post By:

Captain Bjorn Kodak
Commanding Officer

Commander Satoru Takomi
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Nir Giorgiou
Chief Engineer