Mikali sh'Shar - Andorian Blues: The Barzan Freighter, Part I
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David Adams
Nov 2, 2020, 12:54:29 AM11/2/20
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(( Drydock, Iana Station, 1600 hours, Day 2 of 365 ))
At the end of her actual first work shift, Mikali and Catscratch were tasked with refitting a section of the station's endless swarms of worker bees repair systems. The two of them were sweaty and splattered in hydraulic fluid after getting it done, but while Catscratch was eager to knock off, Mikali had more work ahead of her.
The Barzan freighter had firmly snagged her attention. Tasha's extra credit side project... it sat in the main drydock, tucked in out of the way, triaged in favour of other more important tasks. But Mikali had the time and drive.
The freighter was of Barzan make, a stocky, blocky thing a little bigger than a shuttle. For some reason they liked small, cheap ships. Who knew. Now it had sat there for at least an hour, in the main drydock, and its required long-range sensor overhaul would take another five hours. Five more hours of work. She could do it.
Catscratch wiped her hands on her uniform, face wrinkled in disgust.
Catscratch: Ugh. I'm filthy. I'll see you back at the dorm I guess.
Mikali, her eyes fixated on the freighter, just nodded. The freighter tugged at her, urging her to get started, but she would have to do a lot of preliminary work before she actually pulled apart the long-range sensors and replaced them. First she would need to remove the plate above the thruster manifold, and then...
A voice beside her gently nudged her out of her thoughts.
One-Joke: Hey, Mikali. How was your first actual day of work?
She didn't even realise he had been standing there.
sh'Shar: It was good. Satisfying, I think. Worker bees are basically the bacteria of any station or ship. Constantly doing unseen work behind the scenes, and without them, everything would fall apart.
Her eyes fell back on the ship.
sh'Shar: Just wish I could do more.
One-Joke: Don't worry too much about it. Your first week is a period of adjustment, and you did great with your tasks today.
Her eyes lingered on the freighter. It was out of place, just sitting there on the open drydock deck, nobody disembarking or embarking. It had its engines and reactor powered down and her antenna could detect no heat coming from it. It had been cold for a while.
sh'Shar: Why hasn't anyone fixed that thing yet?
One-Joke: Thruster manifold needs removing before we can get to the long-ranger sensors. If it needs a full rebuild, we'll need an anti-grav dolly to lift the new piece into place. Said dolly is in use on the worker-bees, so there's no chance we can get it done today. Not a problem. We'll tackle that tomorrow.
sh'Shar: Do the owners need the freighter today?
One-Joke snorted playfully.
One-Joke: Not sure. I'm sure some Barzan somewhere does, but they will just have to wait. I've bumped them to tomorrow.
sh'Shar: Is it urgent? What they needed the ship for?
One-Joke raised an eyebrow at that.
One-Joke: No. Going to some party or something. That's why it got bumped; there's no precious cargo about to spoil or anything. Don't worry about it.
A party wouldn't wait 24 hours. That person was going to miss out.
sh'Shar: When did the Barzan need it by?
One-Joke: 0200. But like I said, we can't fix it without the tools.
(( FLASHBACK: Mikali's Childhood ))
Fifteen year old sh'Shar stared at the Ferengi shuttle helplessly.
sh'Shar: How do you expect me to fix that? The thruster manifold weighs more than I do!
Xhard, her captain and boss, had a distinctly Ferengi smile on his lips.
Xhard: Anyone can fix a ship with the right tools. Out here, in the black, running Ketracel... we can't rely on regular resupply and maintenance. We have to make do. We don't have the luxury of the right tools. That's the job.
Of course it was the job. Mikali sh'Shar could do it. Probably. If she had the right tools...
sh'Shar: But I mean... it's so heavy.
Xhard nodded understandingly, folding his arms in front of him.
Xhard: That's what separates the good from the great, Mikki. The ability to get things done even when there are setbacks. Let me show you a little trick I picked up when I was just a junior engineer working for slips in the Ferengi dry docks...
(( Flashback ends ))
Xhard was a miserable, lying, bastard sack of pond scum but he did know how to fix a ship with only a subset of the (cheapest) equipment. Getting the manifold back into place would be tricky, but she had an idea. sh'Shar clicked her tongue.
sh'Shar: I can get it done before 0200. Tell the Barzan they'll have their ship ready.
A flash of concern crossed One-Joke's face.
One-Joke: The replacement piece weighs eighty kilos. Without an anti-grav dolly, how will you get it back into its slot if it needs to be replaced?
sh'Shar: Andorians are strong. I can bench press eighty kilos. I'll use a simple pully to take the weight.
One-Joke: There's no mounts for a pulley.
sh'Shar: There's metal, isn't there? I'll attach some pulleys with electromagnets.
One-Joke nibbled on his lower lip thoughtfully.
One-Joke: Could work. We could replicate something like that very easily. But there's a lot of extra work that goes into replacing that thruster assembly. It's going to take longer than even a double shift to complete the required maintenance before 0200 tomorrow, and as I said, we're only in your first week.
The solution seemed easy to her.
sh'Shar: Then I'll work longer.
Her Human boss considered, obviously weighing the issues.
One-Joke: I'm not sure I can authorize this. I don't want you getting injured on your first work day. Correction, getting injured after working a double shift on your first work day.
sh'Shar: The pulley will take the weight, and I'll put a section of hull plating down so that if I drop it, it won't crush me. It's eighty kilos, Petty Officer. Not a whole ship.
One-Joke: That's not exactly Starfleet regulation maintenance procedure. Where'd you learn that trick?
It was probably best not to say, but she did anyway.
sh'Shar: Uhh, a Ferengi ship.
One-Joke's disapproving frown told her all she needed to know about that answer.
She moved on as quickly as she could.
sh'Shar: Hey. Worst case, maybe the dolly will be free by the time it comes to lifting it in place. Even if it's not most of the work will be done. Maybe that Barzan can stand to be a little late to their party. But they wouldn't have to miss all of it.
One-Joke didn't answer right away, clearly holding back his decision.
sh'Shar: Gimme a chance, boss. I can do it.
One-Joke: Miss sh'Shar, let me pull back the veil a little bit.
He made an exaggerated "Wizard of Oz curtain pull" motion.
One-Joke: Part of this program's point, its purpose, is for participants to display their judgement so they can earn back the trust with the individuals and organisations that they've lost it with. This is why the program is the way it is: you're given responsibility and the opportunity to make decisions, because out there you'll be asked to do the same thing. There will be people above, below, and around you who are relying on those calls to be accurate. This is about forming good habits. Nothing more and nothing less.
One-Joke: ReachOut isn't a punishment, it's a voluntary work placement program. You're here so we can demonstrate that you can work unsupervised, in a supported and structure environment but one where your judgement is relied upon. Here, just like out there, you make a decision and you live with the consequences. As long as you're not endangering anyone, including yourself, whatever decisions you make are your own, and I encourage you to exercise your judgement as long as it's safe to do so. My job is to make sure that you do so safely.
He considered, letting his words sink in.
One-Joke: So. What I'm concerned about is that you might be biting off more than you can chew. You might be throwing yourself in too deep too early, trying to do a big burst of work right at the beginning and coasting on that. But what we're looking for is consistency. We want you to be consistently reliable, not occasionally brilliant and coasting on your success. It's important you understand this. We don't care about your max effort, we care about your ninety-ninth percentile lows.
Consistency. Her biggest enemy. Practically her nemesis.
She could count on one partially-exploded hand how many times she'd "saved the ship", various ships, various crew, various away teams. It didn't count for jack because she could, on the other hand, count the number of times she'd caused or nearly caused a disaster too.
She was a great pilot, when she wanted to be. But the key was not occasional greatness, but consistent goodness.
Reliability.
sh'Shar: I do understand. My goal is to be consistently this good, all day, every day. ::she inhaled, held it for a moment, antenna wiggling:: Because... because every day is going to have problems, isn't it? Every day there are going to be people wanting this and that, there are going to be shortages, there are going to be challenges, there are going to be holdups and let-downs and failures. And my job here, Petty Officer, is to make sure that every day, I work harder than those problems, so every day, stupid Barzans can go to stupid parties. That's what I want to do.
One-Joke seemed vaguely disappointed, to her surprise.
One-Joke: You understand, though, that while that's very passionate and I respect your work ethic, what I'm seeing here are a lot of red flags. You said you learned on a Ferengi ship: let me guess, you didn't exactly have a high leave allowance in that work environment, did you? What worker protections were there? What provision was there for taking a personal day?
sh'Shar didn't have to answer that, because the answer was extremely obvious. Ferengi working conditions was basically a punchline, and the Ferengi word for "leave entitlements" was four letters long.
sh'Shar: I was in Starfleet for longer. I know how to take care of myself.
Although, then again, if she knew how to take care of herself, she wouldn't be here.
sh'Shar: What if I took tomorrow off instead to make up for it? I work a double now, I take a day off to recuperate.
More lengthy consideration from One-Joke, scratching his chin thoughtfully.
sh'Shar: ::softly:: I just don't know Lieutenant MacFarlane very well, Petty Officer, and she offered me this chance to prove my worth. I don't want to let her down.
O-J seemed to reach some kind of decision.
One-Joke: It's up to you. In your assessment, given the limitations in front of you, can you perform this task before the deadline in a safe and reliable manner, and do you think you'll be adequately rested—physically, mentally, and emotionally—for your shift on day four?
Mikali did not hesitate.
sh'Shar: Yes.
One-Joke just nodded his approval.
One-Joke: Then that's the decision. You have six hours, four minutes left on your sixteen-hour double shift to do twelve hours worth of work, and you're without the tool you need to get it done in that time.
sh'Shar: Yes Petty Officer, I'm on it.
Mikali turned and power-walked over to the freighter.
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