JP: Lt Josh Herrick & Ens Kimonzi Lahl — Transporters are back, if you dare!
Mark P
OOC: We can assume this scene happens enroute to the I-Kiyo after we departed from the Oort cloud. I checked with Brent in the Discord about Frontier Day as we can assume we've heard the news coming in.
((Transporter Room 4, Deck 7, USS Octavia E Butler))
Josh hadn’t yet had a chance to work directly with Kimonzi yet on a normal basis — whether it was meeting her under an assumed alias or trying to wrangle a crazed counselor — he wanted a chance to connect with her and aligned the duty roster to do so.
Now the focus had been around patching software on all of the transporter systems after the events of Frontier Day. Given their mission resided in the Gamma Quadrant, they’d been lucky to escape the Borg programming from activating.
The chief waved a wand over the pad, and it immediately turned bright red.
Herrick: It looks like they didn’t miss any transporters when they made these ‘enhancements’.
He said the last word with a shudder. Josh reflected on the recent letter he’d gotten from his dad, who’d been lucky enough to have his impromptu assimilation undone with no ill effects.
He’d been on one of the new Sagan’s when the signal was activated and fleet formation took effect. He described it as the most harrowing experience of his career. It had been the first letter where his dad had shared the less utopian side of the service.
Lahl: Guess we’ll have to fix it up then.
Kimonzi pulled out a set of tools and got to work.
Herrick: You’ll find that out here on the frontier that, despite all the skill and training, some of it comes down to pure luck. Unlike some of the folks back home. (beat, changing topics) So, I hear you shot Jack? ::wiggling his eyebrows:: and lived to tell the tale.
Lahl: ::wheeling around and pointing her tool at him:: You want an Ion Mallet to the ribs next time you step on the Parrises Squares field? This is how you get an Ion Mallet to the ribs.
The chief hadn’t expected such an abrupt and literal turn from the shorter woman and it reminded him a bit of Lhandon. He raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture.
Herrick: Just poking fun… news travels fast on the OEB. I’m sure you’re gonna be able to look back on it and laugh, Kessler certainly doesn’t have any hard feelings about it.
Kimonzi did not want to talk about shooting Lieutenant Kessler. She was still upset by the whole misadventure and was still worried Promontory was going to come down on her like a bag of bricks. Josh decided it was better to yet again change topics before he ended up with a spanner to the head.
He settled for the oldie, but goodie.
Herrick: So, why Starfleet?
Lahl: I wanted to see the galaxy. And also they have all the best engineering toys. When I was growing up I was constantly tearing my toys apart and putting them back together. What about you?
Herrick: It seems like I was born into it ::thinking about his dad again:: My father’s in the Corps of Engineers, leading a large part of the recent refit work across Starfleet…
He trailed off, wondering if his dad would’ve felt guilty about missing the ‘Borgification’ program when certifying them back into service. He hadn’t made mention of it in the communique, but something had felt off.
Herrick: And, I enjoyed disassembling things as a kid too ::smiling:: Though the ability to reassemble them came much later. Then I joined a junior Starfleet club which prepped me into the academy, and then here. I never expected to become the chief so fast though.
Lahl: Oh, interesting. How long have you been in?
Herrick: Since 240005, and I became acting chief five months after that. At least I had a good mentor at the time, and now that I’ve made it through the academy and served, I can confidently say that the only thing that adequately sets you up for success is experience.
Kimonzi continued working on the project they were assigned to. It was good to be working on something “normal” rather than something with massive hallucinogenic properties. Josh watched the newest engineer onboard place the panel back over and reseal it.
Lahl: That’s good. Sometimes my experience is weird. As I’m sure you’ve heard about.
Herrick: (smirking) We’ll use this to complete the final test.
He withdrew a banana from his toolkit, and placed it on the transporter pad. He nodded to Kizmoni to initiate the Level 4 diagnostic.
Lahl: A banana?
Herrick: Eli recommended it, he mentioned that the potassium factor plus minor radiation made it an ideal candidate for testing out our recent problems. oO I wonder what an assimilated banana would look like? Oo And, if it blows up, there’s not much hazard to us aside from cleaning up.
There was a terse letter from Ryes still sitting on his desk about the last 'banana' incident; but given Eli had phase shifted into another reality, he decided to not pursue the matter any further.
Lahl: I see…
Josh watched the banana dematerialize, this type of sequence would take a few more seconds than normal, and another minute for the results to come in.
Kimonzi watched the banana herself and waited for it to reappear.
Trying to pick up the dead air, he inelegantly segued to another topic.
Herrick: Have you heard about JOPA?
Lahl: JOPA? What’s that?
Kimonzi racked her brain, and Lahl’s brain for good measure, but none of the six lives of Lahl had anything relating to JOPA in their memory banks. She looked at Herrick quizzically.
Josh made an over the top gesture to check that no one was listening in before letting her in on one of the worst kept secrets of Starfleet.
Herrick: (smiling) The Junior Officer Protection Association, or JOPA for short. The first rule of JOPA is not to talk about it… after this conversation.
Lahl: That doesn’t sound dramatic. oO There seems to be a lot of secretive things on this ship. Just what did I get myself into? Oo
Herrick: No, no. It’s nothing too crazy. It was set up so that the lower deckers have their own forum to meet, shed the work stress, and help each other around managing senior officers. ::tapping his second pip:: Since I made Lieutenant, this will be my last one.
Lahl: Ah, I see.
Herrick: It’s absolutely voluntary, but if you’re interested, you’ll get an invite and we’ll see you there. Again, no pressure.
Lahl: I will do so. Thank you sir.
The banana rematerialized as the computer slogged through the extra recording and verification steps, and thankfully the fruit didn’t explode. As Josh looked at the diagnostic logs, they showed green across the board. No unwanted assimilation programs, no weird phase variances, no weird power fluctuations. Nothing extraordinary, and that’s just how the chief liked it.
---
Lieutenant Josh Herrick
Chief Engineer
USS Octavia E. Butler
O240005JH3
he/him/his (player/character)
&
Ensign Kimonzi Lahl
Engineering Officer
U.S.S. Octavia E. Butler
O240107KL4