Keeping busy.

Posted on Mon Apr 20th, 2020 @ 7:57pm by Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Lieutenant Commander S'hib

Mission: INTERMISSION: Rebuild, Reuse, Recycle
Location: Starboard Nacelle - Jefferies tubes
Timeline: Two days before departure
2075 words - 4.2 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON]

"Couldn't they have sent someone smaller..." S'hib snorted as he moved down what seemed to be the longest Jefferies tube on the entire ship, his hooves clacking against the metal gridding as he lumbered his bulk down the tube.

"And who the hell is climbing around here without authorisation anyway." He complained to himself while stopping and attempting to sit down, shifting his weight awkwardly before giving up and laying on his back with a huff.

"This is... exactly why I didn't become an engineer." S'hib neighed, feeling the metal grid digging into his back as he flipped open his tricorder. "But, if I'd known I'd be doing this..." He huffed, pocketing the tricorder and rolling onto his front. "I wouldn't be security either." He continued, oblivious to the fact he had been talking to himself more and more frequently since being rescued from the Orion slavers.

"Maybe a chef, Naxea liked my cooking after all..." S'hib said as he opened the next access hatch, dragging his long body out into junction that would allow him to move up into the Nacelle.

There was movement ahead in the tube, and he saw the shadow cast around the bend by the strip lights. "Its definitely getting louder." said a voice. "Have you told engineering yet? Something may be wrong. Though it feels like a loose panel rather than anything else."

“Alright, just want you to know that I am very tired so please don't run...” S’hib huffed as he climbed out the ladder hatch into the Nacelle maintenance shaft, shaking his head and mane before standing up and looking around, wondering why on earth anyone would be loitering here of all places.

There a young pink haired woman stared at him, sitting on the floor of the nacelle interior. her jaw had fallen open slightly. and then she said "Sink me! You're a horse!"

"And you're not supposed to be here." S'hib snorted while folding his arms, trying to ignore the horse comment as he looked at her pink hair.

"Commander Taylor said I should explore and get used to things whilst we were in dock." Miraj explained. "And I probably won't get much of a chance to look around once we get underway. Warp fields and people don't really mix, after all, and I wanted to know if any changes had been made to the basic structure to take into account the slipstream drive and the ability to slide from Slipstream straight to Warp, which is awesome but a completely different form of flight, and I don't know what the change is going to feel like."

“Seriously,” S’hib snorted, throwing his arms out to his side. “Twice in one day.” He exclaimed, more so to himself than Miraj. “And why didn't they send you with an engineer? someone who could show you around?” He added abruptly, lifting a hoof up nervously before tapping it against the floor.

"Well, I went to engineering, but there wasn't anyone there, I guess they're all off on R&R, or lusting over the Slipstream or something." Something that was definitely on her to-do list as well. "So I thought I'd just, you know, pop in, rather than bothering anyone, because I'm really just trying to get a head start on my sense of the ship. I can't really get much done whilst we're in dock" She paused, because she needed to breathe.

"Do you need to pop into the other nacelle as well..." S'hib said with sarcastically, a wholly unimpressed look on his long face as he glanced behind himself. "Wait, weren't you talking to someone else?" He snorted, looking back at Miraj and the walkway behind her.

The young ensign looked a bit abashed. "No-one. Just the ship."

“Do you always skip to the nacelles on the first date Ensign?” S’hib snorted, finding her interaction with the Elysium to be amusing.

She giggled a little. "Technically not my first date. I've been in the saucer section Jeffries tubes and had a look at the thruster manifolds from the inside."

"And the Elysium is ok with you poking around her insides?" S'hib replied, folding his arms behind his back and moving towards the pink haired individual, his hooves echoing down the maintenance shaft as he stopped and glanced at the panel that seemed to be loose. "This your doing, or was it like this when you got here..." He replied with a twitch of his lip, leaning his neck down and snorting loudly.

Miraj looked offended. "I would never do anything to hurt a ship, even something that little. I could tell there was something out of wack from the bottom of the stanchion, and since I wanted a lookup here anyway I thought I'd try and track it down, then I could tell engineering."

"Ensign, I'm pulling your leg ya know that right?" S'hib replied with a soft laugh, curling his upper lip in amusement. "Just make a note of where the fault is and when we get back to the main deck you can call it in." He finished, moving back to the access hatch.

"Okay." She promised as he retreated out of sight. Though they hadn't exchanged names, as an afterthought she added. "It was nice to meet you!"

"What?" S'hib asked, his ears flicking slightly as he looked back at Miraj, confused that she wasn't following him. "No, Ensign... Wait where are your shoes," He asked, suddenly noticing her bare feet.

"In my quarters." She looked surprised he would ask. He had hooves, he didn't wear shoes either. She assumed, she now was at completely the wrong angle to see if he had shoes like earth horses, nailed to his hoof. "You don't need shoes on a starship."

"You do if they're part of your uniform... It's a little different for me, but you need to protect your toes." S'hib said, becoming both confused and intrigued by the person before him.

"From what?" She shrugged. "We're in dock, not at space, and it feels better, skin to skin contact, as it were. You can get more sensation that way."

"Sensations? from Elysium?" He questioned, looking back at her feet. "What is it you can feel... uh, Ensign, I don't believe I asked your name."

"Miraj Derani, sir." She replied, "And I can feel... lots of things. Vibrations mostly. The gravity coils are really feint, but you can pick those up if you concentrate. They're just ever so out of sync with the general hum from the fusion generators. The nacelles are pretty much asleep, so there's not much right here, but go closer to engineering its more obvious."

"Please, call me S'hib... I'm not one for formalities." He said with a shake of his head, feeling as if he had simply fallen into his current rank rather than earn it. "Though you will have to excuse me, one moment Ensign." He said sternly, tapping on his comm badge as he looked back at the loose panel.

"Lieutenant S'hib to Engineering, I'm with Ensign Derani In the starboard nacelle, we may have found a problem... could you possibly run a system startup diagnostic on the coils, see if there are any power supply issues." S'hib smiled, looking back at Ensign Miraj.

"Of course," Came the reply over the comms, his voice sounding somewhat perturbed by the two officers being inside one of the Elysium's nacelles. "Running the start up sequence now."

"Let me know if she feels any different." S'hib said with a nod, motioning his hand for Miraj to feel the ship while he flicked open his tricorder.

As the slight current ran through the system to test it, Miraj twitched. "It's still there. like an irregular counterpoint. Probably a loose panel rather than anything wrong."

"Think you can find it?" S'hib said, tilting his head slightly to the side, curious at her ability to feel such minute vibrations, let alone tell what was wrong.

Growing up exploring the various wrecks and flotsam that her father and his crew had salvaged, she had developed a sense for issues, but someone else had always tracked it down and fixed it. "I don't know. I've never tried. I mean. Usually, when I say I think there's a problem, I get told to absolutely not move or touch anything."

“Well, if it helps I could order you to find it... Ensign.” S’hib smiled, crossing his arms and mocking the authority he had with a wide smile. “Besides my tricorder isn't telling me anything...” He lied, flipping it shut in hopes of twisting her arm.

"Okay." She shut her eyes, and listened to slumbering giant around them. letting her mind drift, she realised it was back down the nacelle near the bussard manifolds. Taking a few steps back, the slightest of echoes got fractionally stronger, confirming her suspicion. She moved forward until they were right under the feeds from the Bussard collectors. "Around here somewhere I think."

Looking around S'hib noticed nothing that seemed out of place, although not being an engineer he was relying more on the fact that everything looked the same. "I'm curious as to how you can hear the Elysium so clearly Miraj, I don't mean any disrespect but my ears are far better than... yours." He finished as something clicked in his mind, a small revelation as he twitched his tall equine ears slightly to the side. "There," He pointed. "I can hear it." He smiled, figuring that Miraj could simply; feel the vibrations, rather than hear them as he could.

"I'm not listening listening. Feeling. Hence feet." She reached out to the warp coils. "The more skin the easier it is, but I don't think I could get away with walking around naked."

"No, you would not... and I'm speaking from experience." S'hib sighed, watching Miraj feeling more of the ship; finding it slightly ironic that she was talking to one of the only members aboard the Elysium that could have climbed out of the Jefferies tubes, seen her naked and still only complained that she had nothing on her feet.

She looked at him, "You ran around the ship naked?"

"I wish," He scoffed before looking towards her to explain. "My people don't wear clothes you see... and I have on occasion, forgotten to wear my uniform."

Miraj's imagination painted a vivid picture of that across her brain and she giggled, and then slapped her hand over her mouth, "Sorry Sir."

"Well, I wasn't completely naked, I did have my comm badge on." He proclaimed, forcing his tone to be as serious as possible as he moved passed Miraj and examined the warp coil she had been drawn towards.

"It's, not the coils, they're cold as Davey Jones' locker," Miraj was looking all around. "There's a loose plate somewhere, needs belaying."

"Hmm... maybe this will help." S'hib snorted, lifting a hoof up before kicking it back down, feeling the vibrations shudder up his bones as the catwalk echoed on either side of them.

This time she actually heard it, a tiny rattle, and she hunted round. "There." She pointed up at one of the ceiling panels that was sitting slightly proud of its fellows. "It must have worked its way loose whilst the ship was being worked on. I doubt Engineering have been up here to do their inspections yet. We're not due to leave for two days."

“Nothing like a bit of percussive maintenance... which is probably why I get told to stay out of Engineering.” S’hib smiled as he looked back at Miraj. “You, on the other hand, should see about helping engineering, I think they would find you quite useful.”

Miraj shook her head. "I can't do anything faster than an engineer with a tricorder, or more accurately. And then I have no idea how to fix any of it. It's just a thing I can do. Besides. I'm a pilot. I'm more use up on the bridge than underneath engineering's feet."

"You don't give yourself enough credit Ensign, trust me, I know what that's like," S'hib said, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. "But I'm glad you're the one flying the ship." He smiled before looking back up at the problematic panel.

She blushed a little, going the same colour as her hair. "Thank you, sir."

OFF:

Lieutenant S'hib
Security
USS Elysium


Ensign Miraj Derani
Flight Control
USS Elysium