PNPC Ens. Imogen Lacy — Let it Lie
Naxell
((Cargo Bay 3, Deck 15, USS Khitomer))
Lacy: ::softly:: Exactly what I needed.
She slid back in place under the console and eyed its guts. There were some troublesome components that hadn’t been touched in a long time, and they were in dire need of additional leverage. Gripping the handle of the wrench in the delicate and professional way all ship’s engineers were familiar with, she gave the thing the hardest thwack she could muster from her current angle.
Prix: So what do you need me to do, Ensign?
Lacy: Right now, keep an eye on the energy flow. I don’t intend to die on my back.
Prix: Energy flow on the buffer shunt is shut down. You should be safe to proceed.
Ginny offered an appreciative murmur and set the wrench down on her abdomen. Inside the terminal was a nest of data and power conduits, and a bank of multicolored isolinear chips. This was what she was looking for.
Lacy: Proceeding…
Prix: Have you ever had such a nagging voice in your head?
Ensign Lacy had grown accustomed to small talk. Everyone in the Gamma Wing at the Academy had known better than to engage her with it, perhaps in no small part because her brother had convinced them all it would be wasted breath. But her fall from elite grace and into the junior officer ranks of the USS Arrow had taught Imogen that expectations were different when one’s work was more mundane. And so over time the engineering crews of first Arrow and later Khitomer had worn her down, like a boulder in a stream, until she produced barely any waves as they washed past her.
Even so, this was a decidedly strange way to begin.
Lacy: How do you mean? Pointing out your every mistake, telling you the fate of the Federation hangs on the decisions you do—or don't—make, taunting you with where you might be today if you had worked just a little harder?
Prix: Response
Lacy: ::gritted teeth:: Then, no. Never.
Ginny drew out a yellow isolinear chip with one hand, and then reached down and slipped the portable data spike from her waistpouch with the other. Holding both up in front of her face, she made careful manual adjustments to the instructions encoded on the chip.
Prix: Response
Lacy: I am literally and figuratively lying right now, Ensign.
Prix: Response
End of Act I
——— ● ———
Ensign Imogen “Ginny” Lacy
Engineering Officer
as simmed by
Commander Nax-Ellarneii-Tellargo
Commanding Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240001NH3