by LT Commander Rada Dengar
090128.04
Following In High Places
-=Main Engineering, USS Serendipity=-
090128.04
Following In High Places
-=Main Engineering, USS Serendipity=-
Admiral Lassiter had come bearing Engineers, and one of them had been keeping Rada very busy.
Lt Commander Amelia Weston, the USS Gauntlet's Chief Engineer, had graciously offered to personally come over to assist with planning the repairs. She was so gracious in fact that she’d gone as far as deleting Rada’s plans from the computer’s memory banks and putting her own in their place.
Rada had tried his hardest to be agreeable but as best he could tell she had a very strict policy against agreeing with anyone else on anything, or perhaps it was just with him. He had very diplomatically thanked her for her help but said that he could organise the repairs on his own from here on out. He’d said it twelve times since she’d been here; including several times in different languages just in case, but she somehow missed his words every time.
She was a very formal woman with a strict belief in adherence to protocol; the type of person who always followed the book to the letter even when she knew she’d found a typo. At first she had simply decided to change every setting she could lay her hands on and Rada had allowed her to do if it kept her busy, knowing he could fix them when she’d gone. But then, her suggestions for improvements had moved onto more personal things.
She said she knew Rada hadn’t been in the position for very long and that she would give him the benefit of her experience. That experience totaled twenty years. which, as Jamie helpfully pointed out to her meant she was at least in her forties. He then added that she looked older.
She didn’t like Jamie very much, though she seemed to like Rada.
She had plenty of nuggets of wisdom to share with him. It was quite inappropriate, she informed him, for a Chief Engineer to be seen with their uniform in the mess his was when she’d first entered; his sleeves having been all bunched up around his shoulders. She was a true believer in the art of delegation and so had not found herself in such a state in a long time.
Every time she saw him she had something else to say. “Oh, Lieutenant Commander,” she called out when she spotted him, Rada cringed with the sound of her voice. It was not an unpleasant voice but the effect was similar to Pavlov’s Dog with her voice standing in for the bell and her words to come representing the powdered meat not fit for human consumption. “I just had another thought.”
“Oh, yes?” Rada said politely, forcing a smile on his face.
“Now, don’t be offended by this,” she said, putting her hand on his arm and bracing him, “but the atmosphere in here is somewhat informal. You really should work on that.”
“Oh?” Rada asked, slipping to the side to escape her grip. He’d learnt it was best to keep his responses short, it was the only practical way of shortening their conversations.
“Yes, definitely. The way I see it…” she said as one of her men handed her a PADD. She stopped to read it.
“Here you are, sir,” the man barked, he said stepping backward with his hands behind his back “I believe that’s all in order, sir.”
She nodded her satisfaction and handed the PADD back to him. He then walked, practically marched away, straight back to work.
“I really don’t see the problem...” Rada started and as if on cue Jamie popped up.
“Hey Rada! I have to tell you something,” he said, shouting across the room. “Sorry for interrupting…” he said cheerfully as he arrived. He saw Amelia out the corner of his eyes and seeing how annoyed she looked added “Sir,” as Rada advised him to say around her. “Sorry for interrupting but this isn’t the type of thing that can wait very long,” he then proceeded to look down at his chronometer and wait for several seconds.
Amelia’s eyebrows immediately shot toward the roof and the shock on her face begged the question of why Rada hadn’t had this man court-martialled yet.
Finally Rada had to ask. “What is it, Jamie?”
“You asked me to remind you when it was almost oh-nine-hundred hours,” he said still looking down, waiting a few more seconds then looking up and adding “Now it is.”
“Thank you, Jamie.” Rada replied, smiling with appreciation for how precisely Jamie defined almost. Turning to Amelia, Rada gladly added, “If you’ll excuse me, Lieutenant Commander, there’s somewhere I need to be. However I’m sure if you have any questions Crewman Halliday will be more than happy to help.” Jamie nodded that he was; she was clearly disgusted at the thought.
There was a spring in Rada’s step as he moved through the halls of the Sera. He’d not had a chance to see Kellyn yet since she got out of Sickbay, but had arranged to see her now.
He rang the chime to her quarters and immediately heard the excited voice of young Lair Arie. "Come in, Rada! Come in!"
He was unprepared for the display of happiness to see him that awaited the moment the doors parted. Arie, usually much more the picture of Salvek's training in Vulcan reserve was, instead, the image of Kellyn's Bajoran emotionality.
The child threw her arms around him, and hugged him tightly, nearly knocking the unsuspecting Angosian off of his feet. "Thank you, Rada, thank you so much."
"You're welcome?" Rada said automatically, though his tone clearly indicated that he had no idea what she was so grateful for.
Arie continued to squeeze him tightly as she answered his unspoken question for him. "You saved my mother's life. You and the Doctor and Reece and the rest of the team. Thank you, Rada. If you hadn't repaired the emitter..." She couldn't continue.
She rested her forehead on his arm, and Rada couldn't help but notice how much Arie had grown since he first met her family, aboard the flagship what seemed to be ages ago now.
He patted her on the top of the head and then gently began to disentangle her arms from his middle. "I did the best I could. We all did the best we could."
She nodded, and stepped back as she heard her mother's footsteps approaching. "I think you did very well."
Rada said nothing, he simply nodded.
"Do you think that I could play with Tam later?"
"You'll have to ask his mother if he's done with his homework, but if he is I don't see why not," Rada answered gently, as he stared beyond Arie and caught Kellyn's eyes for the first time.
Hers were a swirl of conflicting thoughts, a storm at sea against which she seemed to be fighting very hard to keep herself on course.
"Arie, get back to your meditation now. Your father is waiting for you." Kellyn instructed.
"Yes, Oko-mekh." Arie answered obediently, stopping to give Kellyn a kiss on the cheek before finally searching out her father in another room.
"Hello." Kellyn said. For the first time she could ever remember, she felt uneasy with Dengar's eyes upon her.
"Hello."
"Would you like to take a walk? I've been cooped up in here and I need some air."
"Are you sure you're up to it?" He was still concerned for her physical recovery and didn't want her to overdo it.
"I think I can handle getting to the Arboretum. Then we can sit down."
Rada nodded again and gestured politely for Kellyn to go ahead first through the doors, before following just one step behind her.
LT. Commander Rada Dengar
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
(With a very tiny amount of Lair Kellyn at the end...
I only mention it because if I don't, he'll call me on it *laugh*~ZL)
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
(With a very tiny amount of Lair Kellyn at the end...
I only mention it because if I don't, he'll call me on it *laugh*~ZL)