Something Witty Goes Here

Posted on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 @ 2:44pm by Ensign Felicie Rivero & Cadet Senior Grade Brady Macleod

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Main Engineering

Felicie groaned in frustration and stepped back from the console in front of her, swept her messy blonde hair up into an untidy ponytail and put her hands on her hips. "Right, that's it..." she muttered darkly, taking a sharp breath before stepping in to the console again. "This is your last chance, because seriously, if you don't work this time, I'm going to bloody kick you!" she exclaimed, clearly frustrated with what ever it was she was trying to accomplish.

Brady had kept the chuckling mostly to himself, but at this point couldn't help it. "Well that's rude! I'm working as fast as I can!" he said. He had started settling in, though he was still thinking a lot about the cute adjutant he saw at the bar on shore leave not long ago. He was damn fine. Even if he didn't seem to know it himself. It was probably time to let down his hair just a bit.

Startled at the unexpected voice, Felicie spun around, her hands still on her hip as she tilted her head to one side slightly, studying the owner of said voice. She sighed heavily. "Sorry, I didn't realise anyone was still around. I was just having a difference of opinion with this stupid console, I'm sure it does things deliberately just to taunt me!" she stated with annoyance. "You're the cadet, right? Brody?"

"Brady." he said. "And it's okay. I wanted to jettison the power distribution consoles an hour or so ago the way they were acting."

"Well, at least it's not just me then!" Felicie grimaced. "I've been chasing a feedback loop through this console for the last four hours. Every time I think I've found it, it bloody shifts again! Short of pulling the whole damn console out and rebuiding it from scratch, or dropping in plasma grenade, I'm about out of ideas!"

"Hmmm." Brady said. "A feedback loop? That's strange." he said, grabbing a diagnostic PADD. "When did it start?"

"It was reported by one of the junior officers on the graveyard and I ended up with the short straw. I would much rather have worked on basically anything else!" She grinned slightly. "Personally I think they're keeping me in main engineering to keep an eye on me because they think it'll keep me out of trouble." Felicie finished with an easy laugh.

Brady laughed "Don't we have someone that beamed a Commander just a few feet away and made her nauseous? Not sure you're who they should be worrying about!" he said as he continued checking the loop. "Stubborn little thing."

"Oh, transporter mishaps are the least of their issues... you should see what the..." her words trailed off as she suddenly realised what she was about to say. "I mean, you should see what some engineers get up to. But hey, you know, if you have the skills, and no one gets really harmed, is a prank or two that big a deal?" Felicie crouched down next to the console. "If it wasn't for the fact that the console noticeably destabilises everytime it loops I'd think this was a stupid prank. The only thing I haven't done yet is check the touch screens for any pressure sensitivities... I guess that could be responsible, but at the same time, I'd rather not have to pull the whole touch screen out and test it unless it's a last resort."

"I wonder if it's an issue with the chips themselves." Brady said. "And nothing wrong with a little fun. You know boring engineering would be otherwise if you couldn't just randomly invent crap?"

"I had contemplated it being a problem with the chips themselves, but once the chips were replaced the loop moved into the relays. So I replaced the relays, then the loop shifted to the power interface and started causing mild power surges in the console, so I rewired the power interface and now it's looping back in the chips. I think that plasma grenade is starting to sound good!" Felicie stated with a shake of her head.

"You might be right." Brady replied. "So how long you been aboard anyway?" he asked as he started scanning the chips.

"Long enough to wish I'd stayed in the Alpha Quadrant," Felicie replied with a smirk. "I came on board not long after all the catastrophe, just before the last mission. I'm still a newbie. How about you?"

"Me too. I wanted to do my study semester out here... Seems I'm getting more excitement than I expected." Brady replied. "But I mean hey... no Romulans, right?"

Whacking him across the back of the shoulder, Felicie shook her head. "Now you've gone and put your foot in it!" she stated with mild annoyance. "Just because you've said that we're gonna have them banging down our doors!"

"I mean we've already got the Cardassians... What's a few of them?" Brady asked with a chuckle. "Maybe whatever's left of the Tal Shiar can outsmart them."

"I'd rather not deal with them at all if it's all the same. I mean, seriously, they're kind of creepy! That green blood thing just gives me the wiggins!" Felicie shivered involuntarily. "I'd rather deal with the spoonheads."

"You'll get no argument from me on that." Brady replied. "But this quadrant isn't so bad... Lots to see, do... Check out." he said with a bit of a half-grin.

"Well I guess that depends on if you're talking about the sights or the talents," Felicie replied with a grin. "But they can both be rather appealing..."

"Bit of the sights... Bit of the talents... Bit of the people board." Brady said. "What do you know about that Ensign that works for the Commodore?" he asked... "We're going to have to basically remove and reinstall all the chips again to see if the feedback loop goes away."

Dropping to her knees next to him, Felicie started pulling chips, separating them into piles as she worked. "Not a great deal. My friend in medical has spoken to him quite a bit, she says he's a sweetheart, but he's damaged goods... and I'm most definitely NOT his type... who knows, you might be though!" She paused for a moment and glanced at the pile of chips between them. "Do you think it's worth testing these individually and see if any single chip might have issues? Maybe one of them is having a personality disorder today."

"Damaged goods eh?" Brady said. "He didn't seem so bad when I tried to talk to him. Assuming I could even get him to say more than six words." he added as he pulled out chips. "Might be a good idea to isolate them. If it's just one chip we can always replicate a replacement. I'd like to avoid uninstalling and reinstalling an entire panel." he said.

Felicie grimaced at the thought of the extra workload testing each chip individually would bring them. "I guess 'damaged' is a harsh word, he's been through some stuff, that's all she'll tell me. Something about patient confidentiality. You'd think that the girl code would trump that, but, she's all straight laced now. Let me guess, you're keen?"

"It's hard to explain." Brady said. "I mean me and the guy I was seeing? That's going to end soon... It was nothing but drama before I left and its just more drama after. He just... He seems like he needs some actual human contact."

"Well... you know, if you're really all that interested, I can see what my friend will tell me?" Felicie made the offer with a shrug. "You should come with, we can get together for drinks one night. Just so long as no one orders anything with a side of ranch, we should be fine."

"You may be onto something." Brady said. "And ewww... ranch? Really? That's like... nasty."

Felicie laughed. "You have no idea. She dumped a whole bowl of it on my head. It seriously took like a week to wash the smell out of my hair! And all I did was tease her a little about her girlfriend." She finished with a pout.

Brady laughed. "I mean its pretty gross to start with but... that's a whole other level." he added as he kept scanning chips. "I'll make sure to avoid that. I prefer other sauces anyways. There's this one Bajoran one that I used to get all the time back at the Academy that goes good with almost anything."

"I'll organise something... that is, if I can ever get this stupid console working!" She grimaced as she turned her attention back to the recalcitrant device in front of her.

"There's a couple of chips here it looks like are defective. We'll have to replicate a couple more."

"If you strip them out I'll fire up the replicator," Felicie replied as she jumped to her feet easily. "Fingers crossed this is all it needs then we can get out of here!"

=/\=

Ensign Felicie Rivero
Engineering Officer
USS Wellington

Cadet Senior Grade Brady Macleod
Engineering Officer
USS Wellington