Breaking

Posted on Mon Nov 13th, 2017 @ 11:34pm by Lieutenant Renee Salchin & Captain Michelle Bartlett

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/3
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: Sometime on June 18th, 2399

A program deep in the computers, placed there for just this purpose, finally activated. As soon as it activated,nit erased itself, the final spiteful moments overwriting its own self with an executable file of a common diagnostic program. It wasn't targetted to hurt anyone, just to...

In the Ready Room, the screen went blank and the entire desk console went dark, the smell of something wafting from it in the telltale signs of an overload.

Michelle was going over everything and submitting her final report before going to bed for at least a few hours. There would be time for proper resolution in the later morning. As everything went dark, she looked around. "Oh bloody hell. Bartlett to Engineering." she said as she tapped her commbadge.

Renee tapped the comm key for the call she'd made sure she would be there to answer, "Engineering, Chief Petty Officer Salchin, how can I help you, ma'am?"

"Chief, the ready room has gone completely dark and everything's shorted out on it. I thought we got most of this under control." she said. Not necessarily irritated at the engineers, just at the fact she really needed some rest.

"I will come handle it personally, ma'am. I can be there in three minutes." She reached down and grabbed her carryall bag that she kept with her. Three minutes later, she'd crossed the bridge amd hit the comm chime to be let in.

"Come." Michelle replied.

As doon as the door opened, Renee swept inside and came to a brief attention in front of the console before unslinging her bag and finding a clear corner for it, "It just went dark, ma'am? No warning, no apparent reason?"

"Not that I could see. It just went pitch black. Terrible timing for it."

"Well, that's not good, ma'!" Renee shook her head, "Pardon the forwardness, but we have yet to meet, ma'am." Tenee grinned at the new CO, "I just happen to be one of your engineering flunkies." She shooed Michelle out of her seat, then slid the chair away and plunked herself under the console and sniffed, "Burnout...Silicon with a hint of aluminum, I believe."

"Let me guess. Due to the isolinears?" she asked, hoping that eventually all these failures would stop.

"Actually, from this angle it looks like a micro-conduit overload.. melted a chip right here, I see, but it doesn't look like that was the cause of it. Probably damage from a power surge during the battle, ma'am. Won't take but a few minutes to fix." Renee poked her head out and smiled to the skipper, "While I'm doing this, if it isn't too out of place, tell me a bit about yourself, ma'am?"

"Not at all. I'm originally a scientist. Stellar cartography, that is with a minor in archaeology. I was born on Earth and got to go to a lot of different planets with my father. He was a professor on Earth. I started out as an enlisted cadet and decided I wanted to do officer training so I stayed an extra four years.. Did some time in command and then served as a diplomatic officer." Michelle replied. "How about you?"

"Well, ma'am, I got thrown out of the Academy after getting in with one of the highest engineering aptitudes in a century, enlisted after a couple months and proceeded to screw up my career until my dead best friend's fiance turned my career around and took me to a ground base with him to work on tech. I'm just happy to still be in the Fleet, ma'am." Nothing but the truth in that, just a lack of details.

Michelle looked surprised at the disclosure. Not the way a person would typically introduce themselves, but the last few days had been unusual times anyway. "It sounds like you've been through enough... May I ask what happened?" she asked. She could certainly pull any personnel record she wanted, but she wanted to hear what happened straight from the source.

"Quite honestly, ma'am, I screwed up by the numbers." Tenee chuckled as she stripped out the melted chip, "If there is a record for demerits, I think I must have crushed it at the Academy and after enlisting, I just didn't do anything properly, i don't think. I just didn'tbhave any focus and got bored really easily."

"Well, some of the best Engineering minds in the Federation have had a rough start. A few brushes with disciplinary committees didn't seem to hurt B'Elanna Torres." Michelle said. "We can't all be Montgomery Scott or Geordi La Forge."

"Oh, I understand that, ma:am." Renee smiled into the console, grabbing a micro laser welder and other tools, "But I don't think that any of them were literally within an hour of being booted out of Starfleet until a brand new Chief Engineer came on board and went to bat for her."

"Now there's a hell of a story!" Michelle said with a laugh.

"Yes, ma'am, indeed." Renee agreed, "But diplomatic you said? That sounds awful boring to me, give me something like thia any day of the week."

Michelle chuckled. "Oh, I wouldn't say that." she paused. "One of my first diplomatic mission, an official insisted that we have sex in public to commemorate the start of negotiations. We, uh... Figured out other arrangements."

Renee laughed and pulled herself out from under the console, hauling herself to a knee and punched a few of the darkened keys, which promptly flashed and the console began to start up again. "Back when, well... I'd have volunteered!" She watched the boot-up of the console, "And she may not be good as new, but you shoulder be able to do whatever you need to. I'll get a crew up here tonight to give it a full servicing."

"Sounds good." Michelle said. "And it's a pity you weren't here back then. I might have sent you." she added with a chuckle. "If there's any further issues, I'll let you know."

All right, ma'am." Renee smiled, packing up the tools and damaged chip, "And if you need anything else, I:m always here."

"Of course. Thank you very much." Michelle replied as everything came back up and running.

OFF:

Captain Michelle Bartlett
Commanding Officer
USS Wellington

Chief Petty Officer Renee Salchin
Engineering NCO
USS Wellington