Meeting the Boss

Posted on Mon Aug 26, 2019 @ 3:11am by Lieutenant Kyra Silvan Daughter of House Kilrah & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes

Mission: Refits and Reviews
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 1 1039

Kyra woke up with a start. She had only put down her bags and sat down just a few minutes ago but now it was four hours later! 'Holy shit! Computer what time is it?", she said.

"Time is 1039 hours", came the answer.

Jumping from the bed she grabbed her jacket and took off down the corridor to main engineering. Looking for boss, she tapped the window on the office, "Can you tell me where the Chief is?", Kyra said.

Master Chief Barnes had just finished the morning's briefing and sent the various teams to their assignments. On his desk, or in his hand rather, were the ablative armor specifications that he had to review before getting the staff together and start the manufacturing and installation of the new equipment.

Hearing the knocking on the glass, Tom looked up to see a Klingon woman clad in a Starfleet uniform standing there, appearing to be in a rush to be somewhere. He did hear her question, so he responded simply by smiling and giving her a wave. But he made no other movement to stand or verbally answer her.

"So I guess you are the Chief.....Hi, I am Lt. Kyra Silvan your Assistant CEO, reporting for duty", she said.

Tom set the padd down and waved the woman inside the office. "Welcome aboard Lieutenant. Can I get you something to drink?" By now, Tom had risen and was moving towards the spartan replicator beside his desk.

Walking into his office, "Yes thankyou, ractijino would be fine", Kyra said sitting down in the chair. "This is some lady we've got here. I see she is being upgraded. Looks like armour plating......correct?", she added.

Tom returned from the replicator with a Klingon drink for the Klingon engineer, and a cup of coffee for himself. "Regenerative Ablative," he explained, sitting back down and flicking up a holographic simulation. "And yeah, the Triumphant's a great ship. Up until a few days ago, I was the ship's Operations Chief. Inherited Engineering as a necessity. The Commodore seems to like me here, and I have to admit, I do too."

"Operations Chief? This must be a feather in your cap then. These Odyssey class ships are awesome. She has almost as many decks as a Galaxy class. Well for me this is a sweet deal cause I came from an Ascension class ship, USS Mekong. She was huge and I was the CEO till she got.....", lowering her head in reverence.

"Destroyed?" Tom asked, his tone a little insensitive though consequence and not intention. He'd moved from ship to base to ship to ship over his career, and only had ever seen one or two destroyed or decommissioned.

Drawing a breath, "Yes destroyed........", she said as a stray tear fell. Wiping it quickly, "It hurt me to the core while I was in the escape pod, to see her explode. Between the sadness and anger I swore I would get even some day, and believe me I will some day, or die trying", Kyra said.

For a moment, Tom felt ashamed of himself. Part of it was realizing how insensitive he'd been a moment ago, and the other part was realizing how atypical the Klingon woman was in front of him. He had expected a more steely persona to accompany her forehead, yet that was rather judgmental on his part.

"Get even?" Tom asked. "Was the Mekong lost in battle? It'd have to have been an impressive foe in order to take down an Ascension."

"Well....the Mekong was damaged so bad it had to be towed back to space dock and was decommissioned.

For me, she was destroyed in battle, and yes we were up against two rogue Romulan Warbirds that had been modified or upgraded to weapons of some type of EMP discharges. I want those ships and I want those p'tags who upgraded those ships. They killed more than half of my engineering staff and murdered the captain and first officer in cold blood!", Kyra spit out angrily.

Tom really didn't know what to do with that. He had enough experience with Klingons to know that he needed to give them space for their outbursts, but he also had a responsibility to make sure the officers under his charge could hold it together when needed. "Space is big, but the galaxy is a small place," he said at last. "If someone's out there targeting Starfleet vessels, you can rest assured they'll be caught sooner or later."

Calming herself before she spoke, "I know sir and in due time they will be caught. I wanna be there when they do get executed for murder. Rest assured Chief, as long as there is breath in this body I will lay my life down for this ship and her crew. That includes you as my superior officer", Kyra stated.

He appreciated the Klingon tenacity. "For all our sakes, Lieutenant, I hope it doesn't come to that. But if it helps, I would give my own life for any member of this crew. One life to save hundreds is a noble way to go, I think."

"It is a good day to die when it is done in the line of duty", Kyra stated. She waited for her boss to say something else before she stood up to leave.

"Indeed it is," Tom confirmed. "If there's nothing else, Lieutenant, I'm sure you have to settle in. We have a staff briefing shortly and I'll be going into detail on our assignment," he gestured at the display of the ablative armor. "It's going to be a busy couple of weeks."

"I am sure of it sir", Kyra said, looking at the intricate display of the ablative armour. "That is going to be some job if you are going to cover her with that", she added.

"Hopefully, Lieutenant," Tom said with a smile, "that you have more than a knack for understatements. Honestly though, this is just par for the course with life on the Triumphant. There's always something just around the corner, so there's no room for dillying and dallying."

"No Chief it certainly is no time to slack off. Hm.....", she said looking at the display. "How do you plan to go.about doing it quickly and accurately. One mistake and the whole shebang unravels", Kyra said still looking at it from all angles.

"We've got two hundred engineers aboard the ship," Tom answered simply. "And we've got a fair portion of the station's crew and workbees dedicated to the task. We should be done in a week or so."

"Sounds good, um ...who gets the job of scanning the hull plating to make sure it's done right?", Kyra said chuckling.

"It's yours if you want it," Tom said with a smile. Not that the task was optional for individuals. "Seriously though, it'll probably be all of us that'll be checking over the installation. The Triumphant hasn't seen what you would call a normal mission. We need to be sure that the armor will deploy quickly, accurately, and maintain its tensile strength under pressure."

"That much is certain, oh sir do you .......would you mind if I studied this in my quqrters later. It might help to make a better work plan if I could study it more?", she said.

Tom nodded. "Of course. This will definitely take some time to install and deploy, so we definitely need to become experts on what we're about to do, and quickly."

"Thanks Chief. I will study it and see how to do it efficiently in a little less time perhaps", Kyra said getting ready to leave.

"Let's hope you do," Tom said with a smile. "If there's nothing else, I suggest . we hop to it. Welcome aboard, Lieutenant."

"Thankyou Chief. I will get on this right away", Krya said as she left the Chief's office.

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