By Lair Kellyn and Avery Breaux
80124.1430
Current Time: Following First Day
--=Main Engineering; USS Serendipity=--
80124.1430
Current Time: Following First Day
--=Main Engineering; USS Serendipity=--
Avery became aware of her voice long before he was aware of her presence visually.
Of course, he had no idea that the female lyric soprano happily trilling out that piercingly clear aria as it approached with maddeningly rising volume belonged to his department leader, Lair Kellyn.
As she rode the open lift down from the second level of main engineering, she finished her scale up to a flawless crescendo. The sound reverberated off all the walls, and seemed to be magnified somehow by the thrumming of the warp core.
She stepped off the lift, grinning ear to ear.
She observed with perverse pleasure the expression that crossed Breaux's face. She walked up to him and gently patted him on the shoulder. "Sorry. Was I singing too loud? I just love the acoustics in here."
Her first inclination was to slap him heartily on the back, but she just wasn't that mean.
Still, a hangover on the first day of duty was just cause, in her book, for a little teasing at the very best, and strict reprimand at worst. Avery's ability to perform his duties seemed not the least bit impaired, which was lucky for him because she'd have come in doing a lot worse than singing if she had observed that it was.
She was all for celebrating and having a good time, but she was nothing if not exacting when it came to running a very tight ship in her department. She surveyed the crew around her as they worked on their various tasks.
"How is everyone this bright, shiny, new morning? That was quite a launch last night wasn't it?"
"Yeah." The young crewman that Breaux had been working near, Jack Halliday, saluted her with his hydrospanner. "We were watching and listening to the audio feed of the Captain's speech down in Illusions Lounge. The party seemed to migrate from the arboretum after the senior staff left, and the atmosphere among the crew down there was. . .spirited. Very. . ." he smiled at her. "Festive."
"Looks like it was spirited among the senior officers too." Kellyn wiggled her eyebrows mischievously at Breaux. "I had one beer with Keiran and then I swore off. Looked like a boy's club at that table anyway. Much as I like to think of myself as just one of the guys, even I know when to step off."
Breaux managed, "I should have tried harder in the Critical Decision class in the Academy." Avery handed Kellyn a series of padds with completed tasks outlined in great detail. The last of the padds were suggestion as to things that might need their attention in the near future.
"I'm having one of the teams make some adjustment to the Bussard collecters...we found on Erasmus that we could increase our deuterium collection by 17%, which always helps in a pinch," Avery advised as Kellyn scrolled through the padds.
He hesitated before continuing, "I also made available some work I've done with antihydrogen...it's helped us in a pinch or two...given us power where we didn't have it before -nothing Earth shaking, just helpful."As Kellyn went over the material he moved to the replicator to refuel on coffee. Engineering always had a less officious approach to their demeanor, as opposed to work on the Bridge. Breaux asked Kellyn if she wanted some, herself.
"Always. Mocha Latte, please." Kellyn continued reading the info he'd handed her as he moved away.
"Coffee, double cream," Breaux commanded and the replicator made yet another concoction of the dark mistress. "Mocha Latte." Avery handed Kellyn her mug, and received only a nod of acknowledgement as she took it into her free hand and continued reading.
Avery held his cup to his nose, inhaling and closing his eyes. "Good Gods..." he quietly uttered before sipping.
He made his way over to the console nearest Kellyn and finished some detail work on yet another project. He waited for any instructions or updates she might have.
"These are impressive improvisational modifications, Mr. Breaux. I'd like to get to work on implementing them immediately. Thank you for suggesting them."
Breaux smiled in reply.
"We need to have a long, ugly, talk about the Alchemy. With everybody in the department." Kellyn announced, feeling that for the moment Sera was doing well and that she could focus more of her attention on resurrecting the poor prototype.
"We burned out her transwarp drive when we were forced to make a jump before it was fully recharged on the way back from the rescue," Kellyn informed Breaux. "It has to be stripped down. Warp coils, matter anti-matter reaction assembly, power transfer conduits. . ." She paused and sipped her coffee, clinging to the mug for dear life. "She can be repaired. Which is good. What is bad, is that it's going to require a lot of my time and I can use all the help I can get."
Kellyn swirled the liquid in her cup a little to mix the chocolate flavoring more thoroughly through the coffee, as for some reason, it had a tendency to settle in the bottom.
"What this means, Mr. Breaux, is not only will I need your assistance working on the Alchemy, but with your experience and years of training, when I'm gone on Alchemy missions, you'll be heading up Sera's engineering department." She took another sip and then looked up at him over the rim of the cup. "What say you to that?"
"I'm honored...thank you...more than willing to do what I can," offered Breaux. He gave it a beat, "Say the word and I'll assemble the teams..." he paused, not wanting to seem ungrateful, "...do you forsee a time when you'll need me on the Alchemy?"
"Kind, humble sir, a man of your skill and experience?" Kellyn said, pausing to drain the rest of her cup dry in a hurry in order to roll up her sleeves and get to work. "I can't imagine a time when we won't need you."
Breaux nodded and smiled, feeling slightly ashamed, yet needed, "It seems I'm conflicted by more than Fleur's ability to craft delectable desserts...I'll get started right away."
Breaux turned to the young engineer, "Hardaway..."The young engineer hurried over, "It's Halliday, sir."
"What is?" Breaux said, absent-mindedly looking over a padd and considering work in lieu of the Alchemy and on board on occasion.
"My name sir...it's Halliday," the engineer managed.Avery looked around for Kellyn...she had moved to a console on the far side of Engineering, at least for the moment.Breaux leaned in toward the young man, his eyes riveted to his, "Did you just call me sir?"
The engineer took a half-step backward. Breaux continued, "Then...we're even," and he smiled broadly. "This padd takes top priority, get the two best teams YOU think we have and meet me here in one cup."
"One cup sir?" Halliday asked.
Breaux shook his head as though he was embattled, "The time it takes me to have another cup of coffee. Halliday, is this how our relationship is going to go?"
Halliday smiled, spun on his heels and headed off to round up the troops.
Lt. Avery Breaux
Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity/Alchemy
and
Lt. Commander Lair Kellyn
Chief Engineer
USS Serendipity/Alchemy