Brevert & Bravado

Posted on Monday, 30 March 2020 - 3:30pm by

Mission: Operation: Overdrive
Location: USS Fontana | Science Laboratory

ON:

His Starfleet uniform did not have the same weight on his collar than those he had been used to answering to on his last starship assignment, but this assignment was not like one he had ever been on before. He was over his head and out of his realm, a true fish out of water. In fact, he felt as though he was nothing more than a guppy from a small confined aquarium in a Captain's Ready Room, tossed into a large oceanic body of water...salt water. He would need to quickly learn to adapt in order to survive. Right now, Senior Chief Petty Officer Alvaro Muniz felt like he was at his breaking point. He was a scientist in the basic sense of the word, a man who enjoyed lab work and the occasional fieldwork, but he did not lead any archaeological digs nor perform groundbreaking experiments on shield harmonics nor warp core stability. He accompanied scientists in the field, he helped dictate their notes, and he proofread their proposals and drafts.

Muniz was not even an instructor at Starfleet Academy or otherwise. Yes, he occasionally spoke at symposiums, usually for a few minutes as a warm-up act to a headliner. He sat in the Fontana's science lab, a desolate place with various work stations and chairs. He was hunched over in one chair, holding his head, running his fingers through his head. How did I get here and how am I going to do this he thought to himself. The USS Fontana was not a science vessel, and it's actual Science Department would be extremely sparse when it was fully crewed. Right now she was set to disembark with a skeletal crew in a few days on a shakedown mission testing out the latest QSD modifications traveling out to rendezvous with the USS Camelot which was far away. The QSD was needed to make the journey to the far galactic south near the fringe of the barrier.

Dangerous nebulae and astrologic anomalies plagued the area. Some of which were well charted and documented while others were still mysterious in almost every single way, but the mission was not scientific in nature. It was not exploratory, at least not this leg of the voyage. So, what was going to happen? There were no science officers slated to board the USS Fontana. Senior Chief Muniz; however, had the most seniority of the few science techs that had been assigned to the starship Fontana. Behold the man's stress being shot through the upper hull of the starship. He was going to have to shoulder the department for this leg of Fontana's journey unless in the next few days the Fleetyards or someone coughed up a science officer. At this point, the senior chief would have taken a first year cadet over himself. True, he had far more experience, but he did not see himself as remotely prepared for such responsibility.

He had placed a service request with Engineering or Operations, whichever could fulfill his request sooner rather than later. He was doing his best to get the science department ready for the voyage ahead even if they were not slated to be needed, the dangers ahead were enough to almost certainly guarantee someone with a science background would have to be on duty to offer input or be a science consultant to another department or several. He got up from his chair and began to pace, his lab coat swaying as he tugged nervously on the collar of his uniform.

Eyelaya had been sent to the Science Offices. She figured that the duty officer did it just to get rid of her but she was to help out with getting items that hey needed. She was comforted to see that all were working together and across all departments to ensure that the ship launched on time. It took her no time flat to get there and she carried with her the standard issue Starfleet tool kit just in case. She was rarely without it.

Arriving in the lab she called out, "Hello?"

"Hello" replied Muniz immediately coming over to the woman. He met the woman with a smile and reached out offering her hand. "Senior Chief Petty Officer Muniz," he said introducing himself and gesturing towards one of the replicators in the room. "I need your help with that," he said shaking his head. "They put two food and beverage replicators in here, but that one is was supposed to be an industrial replicator."

She shook his hand. "Hello, sir. I'm CPO Eyelaya." She looked towards the replicator. "Let's see what's going on." She walked over to the replicators examining them. "This one appears to be out of alignment too." She closed the analysis tricorder. "Do you have a preference sir was to which one is food?"

Muniz shook his head. "No, I have no preference which gives me a cake and which gives me acid, but I definitely want one that is industrial. We cannot afford to be leaving the science lab and heading down or up another deck in search for an industrial replicator" he said with a small chuckle. "Charmed to make your acquaintance, Chief. Feel free to change the alignment of that one. I really want this place pristine for the science officers when they come aboard."

"I can understand that," she said. The alignment took only a few minutes and she set to work on removing the old replicator. Each part was removed carefully and mapped. "My apologies for the mistake," she said as she pulled out the replication unit and boxed it up. She had called down to engineering before she stared and the new unit had arrived just in time.

She slowly started unpacking the new unit.

Muniz paced around while Eyelaya worked near the unit. Alvaro had a tendency to move about frequently, always fidgeting and pacing in times like these. There had been several dozen ideas and concerns flowing through his mind. One of which was pondering what this starship would encounter out near the barrier. The Camelot was not in the safest known region of space. The anomalies alone were enough to tear a starship apart. "It was not your doing I'm sure. The fleetyard engineers worked fast to meet the needs and demands. Accidents happen" he added. "I have certainly made more than enough mistakes in my lifetime and accidents are not always avoidable" the man continued.

"That's the truth. No matter how you prepare things to happen." She picked up a tube-like object connecting it between the matter stabilizer and imaging port. She stopped then. "I have an idea of how to get you a better range. It's not exactly fleet approved but I've done something similar on my previous post and the science department loved it."

He was nervous about making any changes that were not fleet approved, but she spoke with confidence that lead him to fully trust that she knew what she was doing. "Chief, I'm not looking to be the Chief Science Officer here...not remotely close to it. I do not want to make any changes that go against the standards. I appreciate the thought and do hope that you make it a formal request with Engineering and Operations. Perhaps they will approve of it and send you back up here at a later date to make the change you have in mind?"

"If you like. It will take some time to get the approvals. Basically it has to do with the imaging. It gives you the standard replicator but also a mobile pad that can be taken anywhere in the lab. It lets you see an image of the product and examine dimensions before you solidify the molecules."

Muniz nodded "I like going by the book as much as possible and following the structure" he explained. "As you can see...I don't have officer's pips on my uniform. There may be more of us on this starship than them, but when it comes to making alterations to the starship or anything of that sort, I would rather not ruffle any feathers" he added. "This was not the sort of assignment I ever expected to be given, but I am grateful for having been given the opportunity."

She smiled, "I tend to ruffle feathers wherever I go but no problem. I'll do a standard and try get the CEO to approve the changes." She happily worked slowly returning the panel to it's place. "Alright try it." She studied the man as he did.

The man approached the industrial replicator and considered his 'order' for a moment. He would have to try this out to make sure it worked. "One glass beaker of liquid potassium chloride," he said. The replicator came to life and in a light show of a whirl, the beaker appeared with the contents he had requested. He carefully removed the beaker and made another order. "One-quarter pound of raw shatnerite," he instructed and likewise it appeared.

He looked over at Eyelya. "I think you did it, Chief. It's not denying my requests and giving me milkshakes" he said with a small chuckle.

"Hey don't knock a good milkshake. I became hooked on those while on Vulcan...and yes they have milkshakes but weird ones like Banana and Plomeek." She smiled. "It's good to see another enlisted crew member." She wiped her hands and held her hand out. "Official meeting. I'm Eyelaya."

"Álvaro" he replied shaking her hand again. "I'm a laboratory technician," he said with a smile. "I guess you could say I am the keeper all this science equipment and when we do have some more science focused mission assignments, I'll be assisting in research, data collection, and running the tests and experiments for the science officers and reporting the results."

"Excellent." She smiled. There was an awkward pause. "Oh wait! You can help me. I have a mission from the doc. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

He shrugged "Hey, this place is pretty calm at the moment," he said gesturing around the room. "I can spare a few minutes to help you. What may I assist you with, Chief?"

She ruffled around in her bag and came up with a paper and pen. "Ha! Medieval but effective. Okay so would you like to participate or watch a comedy night? Also what kind of off hours items would you like to see, you know, classes, seminars, talent shows ... stuff like that."

"Well, I think keeping crew morale up is important, but I am more of a theater kind of guy myself. I also like concerts" he said answering her questioning. "If there were some sort of comedy event...I'd go to it, but I am not likely to participate" he added. "The thought of classes and seminars interests me though."

"Okay!" She said writing it all down. "This should be interesting! What do you want from a Spirit committee?" She asked in a very reportedly fashion.

"Spirit" he replied teasingly. "I do not really have an opinion on that" he added. "Now, if that's all that you need from me, I have a few scans and tests to run for the medical department."

She grinned, "Absolutely! I got what I need." She waved the paper. "Good you meet you, sir." She packed up her bag and headed off in search of the doctors.

She's got a lot of energy thought Alvaro.

OFF:

SCPO Muñiz
Laboratory Technician

CPO Eyelaya
Engineering