Check the Plumbing

Posted on Sat Jun 19th, 2021 @ 6:36pm by Lieutenant Commander Emni t'Nai & Lieutenant Nir Giorgiou & Lieutenant Chaali & Ensign Noah Balsam

Mission: The Place of Skulls
Location: Port Nacelle; Power Distribution Annex 14C; Sickbay
Timeline: Mission Day 2 at 0730

Nir Giorgiou's sigh was contentious, brusquely huffed through his lips. He wet them with a dash of tongue, while he rested an elbow on his knee. He held a lengthy tool in his hand with a bifurcated, fork-like ending. The space was small and low, so low one had to stoop or sit- he'd chosen the latter. His milky caramel skin, heavily freckled, was a-glisten with the results of his labor, his sleeves rolled and buttoned at his elbows. "Shit..." he muttered. He sniffed and swept his forearm against his nose. Irritably the engineer dropped the plasma flow regulator with a clamor into a clamshell of tools.

Nir eyed the assembly- there was just no way to effectively fix this flaw without the Sojourner dropping out of warp. He and his team had narrowed down the anomaly in the warp field to not a software issue, but one of hardware. It was a misaligned magnetic field lattice. Nir picked up his PADD and flinging fingers at it, noting that, at the first opportunity- in essence, when out of warp- this needed to be fixed. Misaligned plasma conduits feeding your primary faster than light drives - and its ability to collect fuel otherwise- were not something you wanted to be "off" in a mission in the Delta Quadrant, let alone among Klingons.

Nir flung the flag notice to Lieutenant Chaali and Commander Takomi under "immediate attention advised, at next convenience." Then he settled his PADD in the bend of his knee and lap and began to pile and press his tools back into their molded spaces. His dark eyes settled on the bane of his morning and with a small shake of his head he uttered, "Fucking Antares Yard...."

Nir lashed his engineer's kit across his body and laid it across his back- and then started through the Jeffries' tubes for the slow crawl back into the body of the ship. When he re-emerged, it had been almost twenty seconds since his commbadge chirped at him, but he'd seen little reason to try and answer around heavily shielded and polarized plasma conduits. "This is Giorgiou. Go ahead."

"t'Nai here Lieutenant," the doctor-calm voice of Emni t'Nai came across the comm, made slightly tinny by the badge's small speaker. "You were due in Sickbay at 0730 for a physical. The computer tells me you're in a nacelle."

Nir rubbed his muzzle, thankful the Doctor could not see his eyeroll, "Got a ship to put together here, Doctor. I don't have anything that's gonna kill me," Nir countered with an even tone on the short side of fully diplomatic. He rose and pulled out his PADD to check the location of his next assignment. Check on the Kid in the CC. His feet carried him toward the turbolift and he swung into it. "Unless lack of sleep is suddenly lethal."

If a voice could raise an eyebrow, Emni's would have done so. "Respectfully, Lieutenant, the appointment isn't optional. You can come to me or I can come to you, but either way Commander Takomi has requested all staff undergo an updated physical as part of our shakedown." There was a somewhat expectant pause in her speech before she added, "So would you rather I have you undress here or in front of your new team?"

"Deck Five," Nir announced to the turbolift, "You've never been to Kentauros have you, Doctor," Nir countered while the turbolift went into motion, "Public showers, monitored water rations, shared living space? No skin off my ass on that one," He notched his kit strap into the nook of his shoulder and neck, "What's more important to the ship? A stable power grid when we enter Klingon space, or a routine physical with nothing to find?"

A chuckle cut through the comm. "Come to you it is then. I could use the stretch. Would you like to tell me where on Deck 5 you're headed or should I ask the computer to locate you for me?"

Nir smirked himself as the turbolift halted, "Catch me if you can, Doctor," the doors parted and Nir stepped off- reaching back to slap his commbadge against the wall of the turbolift. He made a quick way to the computer core, his guess being he had little time before she caught up with his distraction. Nir swung the bow of the corridor and stepped into the Computer Core. A waft of heat struck him, along with humidity and the tickle of heavy ventilation.

Had the Kentauran still been in the turbolift he would have heard the audible sigh that emanated from his commbadge before the comm was closed.

Nir eyed a Bolian woman leaning over a hunched slender person with skinny arms out like he was some kind of landed aircraft. They appeared to be scanning code. "If I'm not interrupted something," Nir said. The two straightened and turned. "Need a quick from Balsam here," he nodded at Noah Balsam. He gestured at Chaali, "I've tracked down our power issue. We have a lattice misalignment. It's in your messages."

Nir adjusted his shoulder strap again, "How's it going Kid?" His eye was critical for a moment. "You look like hell, no offense." Nir hadn't attended Debbie Gless' unveiling of her new Diner only thirty minutes prior. Noah blinked with dark, glassy eyes exhaustion.

"I-I'm fine, Sir. Just tired. I was up all night on a special project."

Nir inclined his head, "Giorgiou. Not Sir," he gestured with a wave-off, "I'm not a Red Collar." He checked the chrono, "Can you power through? We need a full Level Two Diagnostic run on the Bussard filtration software protocols."

Weakly, determined in mind even if his body wanted to fail, the thin one bobbed his head, "I'll get on it Sir..." Nir raised a brow at the second Sir. Noah winced, "S-sorry..." As he spoke, Nir checked the chrono again. And as the doors hissed open, he sidestepped behind one of the large subprocessor plate displays.

There were only so many places on a ship this small that the new chief engineer could possibly be going and Emni had already narrowed it down to a handful before Giorgiou had stepped out of the turbolift. She was already on the move by the time he had removed his commbadge.

She blinked a moment as she entered the computer core, the temperature difference hitting her like a wall. Of all of the people she might have expected to see Chaali hadn't been top of her list.

Chaali blinked and warmly smiled at the Romulan, her hands clasping behind her back. "Oh, Good Morning Doctor. How can we help you?"

Emni peered around before returning the Bolian's greeting. "Good morning Lieutenant. You wouldn't happen to know where I could find Lieutenant Giorgiou, would you? It seems he's decided that the Chief Engineer is exempted from mandatory physicals. I offered to bring the physical to him if he wasn't free to come to Sickbay, but it seems as though he lost his commbadge before he could tell me where to meet him." She raised her hand, a commbadge held between her pointer and middle finger.

"No," Chaali said with an impish headshake as, in stereo, Noah said, "Yes." They looked at one another.

"No."

"... Yes..."

"No."

"Yes?"

Chaali put a cerulean hand on the Midshipman's shoulder, "I haven't seen him since this morning's briefing." She raised bald eyebrows at Balsam, eyes on his mouth, "And neither have you."

Noah looked at the Doctor, "Ri-right. No. Sorry. N-not since this morning." What Noah hadn't noticed was the gentle, feminine pulse of a finger, rested on her abdomen, that Chaali signaled his location.

Emni nodded, knowingly, at the two of them, her face serious despite the amusement dancing in her eyes. "Of course," she replied even as she moved closer to the pair. "Would you let him know that I have his commbadge if you run into him?"

"Be happy to," Chaali mused at the Doctor, her own light denim eyes brimming impishly. Noah looked at the two women with some degree of confusion.

The Romulan woman cracked a smile then, placing a single finger to her lips as she moved further into the space. There were clearly more than two people present in the room as their emotional signatures clashed against each other. Emni recognized Noah from their brief time together with the LMH. He had clearly been working hard as exhaustion rolled off of him in waves tinged with flares of eagerness and uncertainty twined together. Although Emni hadn't seen Chaali except in passing the last night on Risa she was glad for the familiarity of the Bolian's emotions. Her amusement bubbled over and the doctor enjoyed the boost that her enjoyment of the situation gave. She was also... well... what Chaali felt was her business.

The final signature was off to the side of the other two in the direction that Chaali's cerulean finger had indicated. Emni winked as she drew level with the woman, continuing the charade that she was unaware of the ball of annoyance and urgency that clearly gave Nir's presence away. "I'll see you both in Sickbay for your own physicals then," she said as she stepped beyond the two and turned to face the form of Nir Giorgiou.

"Oh!" she exclaimed in mock surprise, "Lieutenant Giorgiou, you're not... hiding from me are you?"

Nir Giorgiou was leaning an elbow on the bulkhead, eyes narrowed with far less amusement. His mindscape was a disciplined story of stress and irritation- his imago one of a self-tamed rebel that had very little love for bureaucracy or stratified ranks. He stepped past the Doctor with an intimate closeness, a brief glance at her ears, "Wouldn't be the first bureaucrat I hid from, Doc, don't flatter yourself." He smiled a twitch on his caramel-freckled face and he stepped past her. "I've got a ship to fix. I don't need red collars breathing down my neck when their engines won't go or their shields flux." He unzipped his jumpsuit and loosed it from his chest and arms. It hung down to his waist. "Let's get this over with." He folded his arms across a developed chest under a t-shirt.

Nir's eyes fell on the Doctor and he waited, "You move. Here or wherever. But let's dance."

"Here is fine," Emni responded, eyebrows raised at the engineer. Although she was largely comfortable with physical closeness--she was in close contacts with patients all day--it was unusual for a crew member to deliberately brush that close. Most people noted her Romulan features and gave her a wide berth when not experiencing her ministrations. The last time she had experienced someone unnecessarily close had been during Karim's meltdown just after their fateful run-in with the Vidiians. She blinked lightly a moment, making an effort to push that memory to the background.

Eying the Kentauran, she set a small medkit on the ground, bending over to pull out a medical tricorder and a PADD, her fingers nimbly pulling up the engineer's file.

"Shirt too," she noted without looking up as she tapped a few notes into the file.

It was peeled off in a wordless flourish and dropped on the floor. From behind him, Chaali's eyes widened while she tapped a blue finger to azure lips. Noah swallowed. "I-I'm going to go do that diagnostic." He said with a finger gestured at the door. He moved to grab his engineering kit from the wall. He brought its strap across his narrowness, the bulk of it resting against his butt.

Chaali eyed Noah with bemusement, a quick sidelong glance. Human musculature was quite different than Bolian. Bolian males were soft and streamlined to contend with an aquatic ancestry, and of course cooler temperatures. Humans were so angular. She came to the front. "

"I'll ask around for some help when this is over," Nir assured the Midshipman. Noah nodded and turned to lankily stride out.

Chaali came to the fore next to the Doctor, "While I have you here... both of you. Just what is that for?" She pointed at Nir's belly button.

Nir raised a brow, "Got to start a treasure hunt somewhere..." he said with stiff, disciplined patience. "We done yet?" His eyes fixed on the Doctor.

Emni chuckled lightly at Chaali's question, running her medical tricorder over the Kentauran as she did so and pointedly ignoring Nir's inquiry about being done. "It's where the fetal umbilical cord was attached," she explained as she went. "Basically where the child's sustenance came from while in the womb. After birth the cord is cut and the remaining piece dries up and falls out after a week or so. The umbilicus is left behind."

"Ahhh," Chaali noted with a sage-like nod while Nir raised an almost playful eyebrow. "And those?" She pointed at Nir's nipples.

"Decorative," Nir rumbled.

The tricorder chirped its confirmation that all vitals had been stored as she finished her explanation. She tapped it lightly sending the vitals off to the engineer's file before setting it on the floor.

"Arms out to your side please," she instructed, placing her palms flat against his biceps and pressing down lightly. "And straight up." She repeated the motion using gentle pressure to pushing the man's arms outward."

For his part, Nir did comply. When Nir raised his arms up, Chaali tilted her head and was amused by the shift of pectoral muscle. "Why are Human men so hairy under their arms. It looks... inconvenient." Nir smirked at that.

Emni stifled a laugh at the most recent line of questioning, moving to tap notes into her PADD. "The nipples are a holdover from how human embryos form. Human men have nipples because embryos all follow the same blueprint in their early stages of development. This includes the development of nipples. The two differentiate after about 7 weeks when the male embryos begin development toward their sex organs. The nipples are a holdover, but ultimately, as Lieutenant Giorgiou noted, 'decorative' so to speak."

Finishing her notes she turned back to the engineer. "You'll need to sit down for the next part." She indicated a stool waiting for Nir to sit before drawing out a small rod.

Nir sat down and rested his hands atop his curly-haired head. This was clearly bothering him only in that he was losing time on his schedule.

"The hair in the armpits is actually found on the males and females. Some females choose to remove it for aesthetic reasons. Hair in different places on humans is designed to prevent chafing and protect the skin from friction during activities like running or sexual intercourse." She tapped the engineer's knee with the rod as she finished her explanation causing it to jump.

Nir raised an eyebrow with a sly quality to his mouth, "Some men remove hair too, Lieutenant. Doctor. Let's not be sexist."

Again Chaali nodded with something akin to a sage-like instructor taking in the situation. "Bolian men are very different." She noted, "Especially my co-husbands. Bolti is very proud of his stomach." She raised a hairless brow, "And thighs."

Emni nodded her agreement to the Bolian's statement. "Yes, there does seem to be a range in terms of what males of different species take pride in. Human males have been known to be particularly proud of the size of their sexual organs although there doesn't seem to be a direct correlation between size and sexual pleasure for their mates."

The doctor turned, searching the space for a straight line and finding it in a seam on the floor. "If you could walk along that seam in a straight line please," she said to Nir. "Down and back."

Nir was up and he walked the line. The Bolian moved and stood next to Doctor t'Nai, close enough that her bleachy Bolian body chemistry wafted. "Oh our Bolian men are the same. So proud of their fork." She tsked and shook her head.

Nir pulled his arms back into his jumpsuit and zipped up, "We're done," he stated with a patient evenness. But his line would not be crossed further. "If you need more, contact the CMO on the Tsimishan. Captain Choudry is her name." He nodded at them, with a curt bob of respect.

Emni frowned, all hint of the amusement she had previously worn evaporating. "Lieutenant Giorgiou, you don't know me well. So I can understand why you would assume that I am simply following commands without regard for inconvenience or annoyance to the crew. But, unlike you, I am part of the crew here who returned from the Delta Quadrant on the Adelphi. And, unlike you, I have an idea of why an updated physical is a worthwhile process right now even if it does seem extraneous to anyone outside of the medical team."

She paused in her speech, leveling a pointed look at the Kentauran. "I hope you never have reason to understand why I need this information," she said with a quiet steel. "But in case we are so unlucky as to encounter a situation where we do, you may find yourself thankful that I'm as familiar with your physical state as I am."

The Romulan woman took a breath, turning to begin repacking her equipment. "It's your choice, of course. You can let me finish the vision and hearing screenings and get back to your work unmolested or I can explain why I don't have complete physicals for all senior staff when I submit my report."

"As a healer," the Engineer said in the open doorway,, "You know the difference between a sick patient and preventative medicine with a healthy body. Which one is more important short term?" He asked. Nir strode back in and the doors closed behind him, "Your patient is not sick. Mine is. Which one is the priority?" Which one endangers a group and which one may or may not hurt a single?" He looked between Chaali and T'Nai. "You'll get your scans," he bobbed his head once, "When I'm reasonably sure Kodak's ship isn't going to fail him." He rose his hand, palm up, "Commbadge please."

Emni nodded, handing the commbadge back to the engineer as she did. "I'll make sure your reasons are clear in my report with a recommendation that you be exempted from the remaining tests while you complete your own work."

"Thank you," he said, attaching the badge back to his chest.

"But Lieutenant," she added as he again turned to go, "Those scans; I'll expect them before we reach Pathfinder Station."

"Agreed," Giorgiou conceded with a nod. He tapped his badge, "Giorgiou to Balsam. Lets coordinate with Mulhern in Engineering," his voice trailed off as he passed back through the doors and they closed behind him.

Chaali sighed, "He's definitely not Nico, is he..." she said with a touch of lamentation.

The Romulan doctor slung her med kit across her torso, her expression thoughtful. "No," she agreed. "He isn't." She turned to face Chaali as she spoke. "But I think he'll be a good fit."

=/\= A mission post by =/\=

Lieutenant Nir Giorgiou
Cheif Engineering Officer

Lieutenant Emni t'Nai
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant JG Chaali
Chief Operations Officer

Midshipman Noah Balsam
Computer Systems Specialist