Another day, a whole 'nother set of fresh possibilities

Posted on Friday 16 July 2021 @ 14:08 by Captain Melody Jones

Mission: A Cry from the Darkness
Location: Shuttle bay 1
Timeline: MD8 1500
1039 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Melody entered the shuttle bay and watched as the shuttle carrying their new engineering specialist landed on the deck. It wasn't required for the Captain to meet but Melody felt like getting off the bridge for a while and having the Captain meeting new crew members was good for crew morale she thought.

She straightened her uniform over her baby bump which was starting to show more prominently and gave it a gentle pat as she waited for the shuttle door to open.

Standing in the aft compartment of the shuttle, Jack was looking forward to this assignment. This would be his first run on board a starship and even though he’d helped to build and refit half the fleet, they were always coming and going from the shipyards so he never got attached to them.

As the ramp lowered, Jack took a deep breath, adjusted the strap on his shoulder bag, bent down to pick up his toolbox and stepped out into his new adventure. Almost immediately he spotted someone standing there waiting for him. Quickly looking the person over, he noticed the red colour, the rank pips and the maternity uniform and was a little confused,hmm, I’ve just arrived and it seems I’m already in trouble he thought to himself as he walked toward the officer.

“Whatever it is, I didn’t do it Ma’am” Jack said, putting on a boyish smile, “Chief Petty Officer MacGyver reporting for duty”


Melody let out a chuckle. "I can see I'm going to have to keep an eye on you." She held out her hand "Welcome aboard the Merlin Chief, I'm Captain Jones. If you'll follow me I'll show you to quarters so you can drop off your bag and then onto engineering. "Is this your first time on an Excalibur class starship?"

“You don’t see many of them, even at the yards, though I’ve crawled through one of the other ones out there” Jack replied, looking around the sizeable shuttlebay, “though to properly answer your question this is the first active Excalibur class I’ve served on. She’s quite the big lady” he said, looking back to Melody, “oh and may I assume congratulations on your child?” Hopefully he hadn’t just insulted his new CO

Melody raised an eyebrow. "Very smooth Chief. Thank you. It's babies actually, There's two in there." Melody led the way to the turbolift. "These two will make three in total. I've already got a daughter, Sansa. You'll probably meet her at some point.

As they boarded the tubolift, Melody address the computer "Deck 19, crew quarters." She turned back to Jonathan. "So... What's your speciality?"

“Maintenance and Electronics with some experience in ordnance disposal” Jack replied as she listened to the turbolift, “well at least the lifts sound in good shape”

"Not had any malfunctions with the turbolifts so far..." Melody said, hoping she had not just jinxed the whole system. "I was a flyer during my academy days. The faster the better but, I spent some time as the Cheif engineer on a Sovereign call starship."

The lift came to a halt on deck 19 and they made their way to his quarters. "These are yours. If you want to drop off your things, I'll take you to main engineering."

Taking a quick look around his new quarters, Jack dropped his shoulder bad near the door and stepped back out, “Alright, let’s get me to work. I’m sure your chief will be happy to have an extra pair of hands” he said, tapping his toolbox, “I’m sure there’s a system on this ship somewhere that needs tending too”

Melody winced slightly as they headed back to the turbolift. "Actually.... We're without a chief engineer at the moment. The assistant engineering officer is in charge at the moment. It's a long story." They boarded the turbolift again. "Main engineering."

Jack cocked an eyebrow at Melody's words. A ship without a proper chief engineer? That had to be a first. “Fair enough, so long as someone has hold of the reigns down there”

The ride to deck 26 only took a few moments and they stepped out into the cavernous room that was main engineering. Dominated by the warp core at one end, the room was a lot larger than on most starships.

"And here we are." Melody said as they entered. "Is there anything you need bringing up to speed on?"

Jack looked around in amazement at the large space that was engineering. It was larger than he’d expected for a starship and it was certainly busy. “No that’s alright ma’am, I’m sure the staff down here will catch me up. Unless there’s something specific you want to tell me about?”


"Maintenance and electronics you said...." Melody mused. "I could do with a full report on the state of our warp and impulse drives. We've been pushing her quite a bit recently. Also an updated maintenance schedule, anything that looks like it needs services or replacing, especially in the EPS power grid. We've been picking up some minor power fluctuations recently. Think you can handle that?"

Again, Jack flashed a boyish smile, “sounds easy enough, you want the report by end of shift?” He asked half joking. He was looking forward to crawling through the superstructure of this behemoth of a ship.

Melody fixed him with a stare. "I like my flying fast mister. I like my diagnostics to be accurate." She kept a straight face for a moment longer before the corner of her mouth went up I a half smile. "Let's see what you can deliver in 72 hours. Carry on."

And with that, Melody headed out of engineering.

“3 days? Geeze I could fix half the problems I could find in that time” Jack said to himself as he reached into his toolbox for his tricorder, “alright lady, let’s see what you’ve got for old Jackie boy”


OFF:

●●●● Captain Melody Jones
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin



>>>* Chief Petty Officer Johnathan "Jack" MacGyver
Engineering Specialist
USS Merlin