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Fighting Fit

Posted on Thu Oct 29th, 2015 @ 8:32am by Lieutenant Commander Le Austin & Lieutenant William O'Hara Jr & Lieutenant Alana Tovan & Lieutenant JG Allison Price

Mission: By Dawn's Early Light
Location: Engineering War Room

Allie Price stretched as she entered the engineering department conference room. Before Lieutenant Commander Le had called for the short notice meeting, she had been going over a sensor calibration report for the Jackal. Their last mission in the vicinity of a pulsar did a number on their systems. None of it was irreparable, but it was still maintenance that needed to be done.

The young redheaded engineer was surprised that she had arrived first, but then the meeting had been called without much notice. The rest of the staff had probably been delayed, though she was a bit confused why Le called the meeting, and not Lt. Marz. She didn't think much more of it, replicated a glass of ice water, and found a seat at the table.

Austin came in next, from somewhere deeper in engineering, "Afternoon, Price," He said with a smile, glad to see a familiar face at the table.

"Good afternoon, sir," Allie replied with a friendly smile. "How are things going on the Montreal?"

"Well, I left her aces, but that's not my concern anymore. Her new Chief Engineer can try their best to live up to my performance numbers," Austin said, chuckling. "The Big Girl is my worry now, seeing as how I'm the station CEO again and all," Austin replied with a proud grin.

Allie's face lit up. She was nearly as excited as Austin was. "Congratulations, sir! You know, this place really didn't feel the same without you."

Alana tried to slip in quietly while the other two engineers were talking, and found a seat at the table. She immediately went back to work on her PADD, not wanting to interrupt the other two.

However, Price didn't let her get away from it. "Lieutenant, did you hear the news? Lieutenant Le has been made chief engineer again."

Alana looked up. She wasn't nearly as interested. Partly because she didn't really know Austin, having joined the station after he had left, but also because as long as it didn't affect her job, she didn't necessarily care who was in charge. "Congratulations," she said with little enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, the youngest of the officers was still excited. "So what about Lieutenant Marz? Is he still here, or has he been reassigned?"

"He was reassigned. Deep space explorer, I think. I'm a little bit jealous because from what I hear, he'll be able to play with some new tech they've cooked up based on the Borg transwarp technology. It's a really long way from finished, but it's in the early prototype phases. Ground breaking stuff," Austin replied, grinning. "But, on the other hand, this old girl's heart sure does feel like home," He added, patting a nearby bulkhead. "I'd have a hard time ever leaving for good."

Bill arrives as the doors opened to a room full of talk. He tried to ignore the chatter since it was not meant for him as he moved towards a table and took a seat quietly waiting until called upon.

Austin narrowed his eyes at the new arrival, "Sorry, I don't think we've met. I'm Lt. Cmdr. Le Austin, returning CEO," He said, standing up and walking over to give the man a hand to shake.

Bill stood up again as the Lieutenant came over as he started to introduce himself. As he quickly listened before he spoke. "I am Lt. William O'Hara everyone usually calls be Bill. Nice to meet you Sir!" Bill spoke with a southern accent smooth and clear. As he put his hand out to shake Lt. Cmdr. Le Austin.

"You too," Austin said with a grin and a nod.

He made his way back to the front of the table and leaned on his knuckles with a smile, "Hi all. If you'll grab a seat... Some of you know me, others don't. I'm Lieutenant Commander Le Austin, and I was formerly the CEO of this station. Well... turns out, I am again. So if you guys are looking for Marz, he won't be around. He's been transferred to bigger and brighter pastures, so you're stuck with little ole me. That being the case: I need sitreps on everything you can give me. I was looking over some of the reports, but they looks a little stale. So... whatdoyagot?" He said, clapping his hands together and rubbing his palms together.

Bill sat there quietly since there was nothing for him to add at present other then maybe introduce myself. But he held off on that for now. feeling more out of place then part of this meeting.

The ever bubbly Lt. JG Allie Price spoke up first, which gathered no arguments from Alana. "Most recently I've been recalibrating the sensors on the Jackal. That pulsar we encountered recently wreaked havoc on their alignment. Other that that, I had a few technicians looking into some replicator issues on Promenade 631. It sounds like they just needed a quick software reboot."

Alana reluctantly spoke up. She too had been busy, but preferred to stay quiet about it if possible. "We had some complaints from one of the resident freighters. Their stabilizers were out of alignment. A visiting freighter also needed some help with life support. They were generating plenty of heat, but weren't able to regulate it in some areas of the ship. The technicians just finished that a couple of hours ago."

Bill stood up a moment after the long silence. "I just wanted to introduce myself. I am Lt. William O'Hara everyone usually calls be Bill. Nice to meet you All!" Bill spoke with a southern accent smooth and clear with a small charming southern smile. As he took his seat hoping this would help him feel more in place here.

"It's nice to meet you, Lieutenant," Allie said, reaching across the table to shake his hand. "I'm Lieutenant junior grade Allie Price. I've been here on the station since I was a cadet intern, so if you have any questions about where something is, feel free to ask."

"Thank you I will." He said with a small smile. "That might come in handy." Bill commented calmly and quietly.

"Alright," Austin said, clapping his hands together, "We've got a lot of readiness prep. As of right now civilian ships are going to have to hold their own until we have everything nailed down and operating at peak efficiency. We don't know what these Sojourners are going to throw at us, but we can be certain it won't be good. Now," He picked up a couple of PADDs nearby and looked the first one over, "We've got... let's see... we've got six Auxiliary Generators around the station that have been rerouted for various purposes. Those need to be routed back onto the primary grid ASAP. We've got four phaser banks that aren't working to reroute power to other systems. Looks like there's some work going on there, but we need that prioritized. From what I'm seeing it should be a days worth of work. Two at the most," He explained. "Plus... I don't know... half a dozen other things that need to be fixed or optimized. I've assigned out the issues to each of you, you'll find them in your day work. These assignments take priority over all others, period. We have to be ready for whatever is coming, or we're going to lose a lot of people. Any questions?" He asked.

Bill looked at the rest of them noticing he had no job. "Excuse me sir? Am I on observation duty??" Bill asked with a smile.

"Do you know how to use a hyperspanner?" Austin asked, grinning a bit.

"What type of question is that?" Bill said dismayed by the comment. Of course not hearing a reply after that.

Austin laughed, "Then no, you're not on observation duty. There's plenty of stuff we need fixing, you'll be on regular duty like everyone else," He said with a smile. "If you need help, or have questions, that's what they made comm badges for."

Bill honestly did not know what to say of Austin's joke. He moved back out of the way as the others were still doing there reports and addressing there concerns. Bill was not sure where he was going to end up but he listened quietly to the others.

Allie looked a bit confused and looked around at the other engineers. "Sir, it sounds like we're expecting an attack? Is that true? Would they really attack here?"

Austin sighed, "The truth is, I don't really know. But it looks like that may be in their potential bag of tricks. And if it is, we have to be ready," He explained.

Allie had a look of concern on her face, though it had not quite devolved into panic. Alana had a pretty good idea what thoughts were going through the young girl's head. No one could ever be fully ready for battle, but they had to do what they could do to be as prepared as possible. "I assume it's safe to say that making sure the station is battle ready is our top priority?" Alana asked.

"Yes, definitely," Austin replied, nodding. "If the station isn't ready, this whole situation could easily get out of hand. I don't want us caught with our pants down because of something that we overlooked. So right now, station readiness is out top priority," He explained. "Anything else?"

Austin gave a moment for any further responses, then clapped his hands together, "Awesome. If you think of something, let me know. You've got your jobs assigned, take off. Let's get this old girl fighting fit!"


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