[sb118-artemis] Ensign Tho'Bi - Is There a Senior Engineer in the House?

[Tobi]

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(( Main Engineering - Deck 16, USS Artemis-A ))

The young ensign was disappointed with himself.  He had failed to come up with an answer to the lieutenant’s conundrum.  While he had not finished top of his engineering class at the Academy, he had finished close enough; close enough that he should be able to come up with an answer, and yet, he had not.

The engineering deck was alive with shifting console readouts and the steady pulse of the warp core.  The Mizarian science officer opted for a change in tack.  

Sadar: W-Well, what was your specialty at the Academy?

While all his contemporaries had raced after the cutting edge fields of Trans-Warp, Temporal Shift, and Multiphasic shields, he had looked backwards and sideways.

Tho’Bi:  Fusion and alternative power sources ::becomes animated:: Oh!  Yes!  An alternative computer core.  You hook up a portable computer core to handle any data overflow.  ::nods::  Job done.

Sadar: An extra computer core? ::considers:: That could work?

Tho’Bi:  Standard Away Mission Potable Core should do.  Buuuuut… hook up one of the spare shuttle computer cores from supplies ::nods and smiles:: and you’re disco biscuits.

Deep space freighter crews could be a clannish people;  some descended from the very first sub-light freighter crews, fusion-powered spacecraft that ventured between worlds in great protracted trajectories spanning years.  Their culture was one in suspended animation, separate from the wider galaxy, and so too was their slang.  He had first heard the phrase as a young boy, when his mother was stationed on Deep Space 3; ‘disco biscuits’ meant ‘excellent’.

Sadar: Disco...? ::shakes her head:: I-I mean, I wouldn’t know the first thing about hooking one of those up... And how should it be stored? Will it take up space?

Evidently, the lieutenant had not spent as much time around deep space freighter crews as he had.  He made a note to not use such slang in the future.  A note he promptly forgot as he rapid-fired-technobabble in the direction of the lieutenant.

Tho’Bi: I could hook it up for you ::scratches back of neck:: though, I’d need permission from a senior engineer. ::his head rocks from side to side::  And… their sign off before we turned it on.  ::nods and smiles::  Yeah.  Maybe better to just get a senior engineer.

Sadar: Oh... O-Okay. W-Who would you suggest?

The Lieutenant appeared to be increasingly anxious, though the young ensign had no idea why.

Tho’Bi: Lieutenant Minthar.

Sadar: I... I-I see. I guess, if you say so.

Tho’Bi: :: looks around :: I don’t see him.

Sadar: The mission departs in a couple of days, so I hope that’d be plenty of time. We aren’t often this close to the Alpha Quadrant, so we need to get as much value out of the trip as we possibly can.

The ensign switched his attention back to the lieutenant.  He nodded along as he listened.

Tho’Bi:  :: still nodding :: Best to make an early start.  We should speak with Lieutenant Minthar now  :: looks around :: If we can find him.

Sadar: Response

Tho’Bi:  Sorry about this, Lieutenant.  :: looks quickly around :: I’ll ask one of the other ensigns.

He makes a move in the direction of the nearest ensign.

Sadar: Response

TAGS/TBC

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Ensign Tho’Bi

Engineering

USS Artemis-A

A240203T11