Ensign Rachel Flores - Checking Up on Ollo

[Anath G'Renn]

((Engineering Support Office Three - Deck 36, USS Constitution-B))

With shore leave underway and the chaos of the wedding behind them, there was time for other projects that weren’t huge priorities. Rachel had taken over Support Office Three again and started her work. A segment of warp coil took up most of the workbench space, leaving only a small area for tools and the disassembled case pieces. One of the things Rachel had to be caught up on was the damage that warp fields could do to subspace. And while great strides had been made in that area specifically and in propulsion generally, there could always be a bit more fine-tuning.

But the project wasn’t only about the warp coil. While she was working on it she thought she could kill two birds with one stone. There was another matter she had wanted to handle since they finished the aquashuttle construction. One of the engineers, Ollo, had been injuried and had seemed to be suffering a crisis of confidence. It wasn’t the first time she’d tried to help mentor someone in her department who seemed to be having some problems. And one of her favorite tactics was to work on it while working on some other project so they didn’t feel singled out or like they were in trouble. She was an ambush mentor.

Rachel got up and stepped out of the office, moving through main engineering in search of the Bolian engineer. She spotted him over by the warp core and made her way over. When she got close enough she cleared her throat to give him a bit of warning as to her presence. Ollo had something of a reputation for being accident-inclined, so she didn’t want to spook him.

Flores: Ollo, can I borrow you?

Ollo: Response

Flores: It’s a project I’m working on in support office three over there. I could use a propulsion engineer, if you’re available.

It wasn’t an order or an official project, but she wasn’t expecting him to say no. It was interesting, Ollo outranked her. But she often wound up in a position of authority on certain projects based on the main engineering hierarchy. When the chief or, better yet, the commodore asked her to get something done she would use whatever resources and personnel were needed. And apart from any of that, she remembered how excited Ollo had been to join the aquashuttle project. He would probably enjoy working on something other than a warp engine efficiency diagnostic.

Ollo: Response

Flores: Awesome, right this way!

Ollo: Response

She made her way back across main engineering to the support offices and waited for Ollo to enter office three before following him in.

Flores: I’m working on some suggested modifications to the warp coils to pass on to the chief. I think they can still be further tweaked to minimize our warp field’s effect on subspace. ::She tapped a row of PADDS on the drafting table:: These are the previous research on environmentally-sound warp field geometry. Right now the Galaxy-class is within the new regulations. But there’s no rule saying we can’t try to make it even better.

Ollo: Response

As she removed the outer casing off the section of warp coil to show off her new modifications, she started her interrogation.

Flores: Your foot doing better?

Rachel glanced down at the Bolian man’s foot, which last she had seen had been in a partially-melted boot after a puddle of nacelle coolant leaked out during the aquashuttle conversion project. She’d seen the final report from sickbay when she assembled the weekly incident report. But that didn’t say how he was feeling now, in the week after.

Ollo: Response

Flores: It was certainly an interesting day in the shuttle maintenance bay. ::Beat:: You know it wasn’t your fault, right? In the aftermath of everything there was a lot of confusion, but it sounded like you were blaming yourself. Someone else opened the wrong interlock. Why are you so quick to think everything is your mess-up?

She knew something about it, having asked the chief about it during their last meeting. But she wanted to know more about it from Ollo himself. And it would help to hear what the engineer was thinking and feeling.

Ollo: Response

Ensign Rachel Flores

Engineering Officer

USS Constitution-B

A239402AG0