Fashionably Late
Posted on Sat Sep 9th, 2023 @ 11:00pm by Lieutenant Commander Sydney Reid & Staff Warrant Officer N'Vara Eroskar
937 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
First Contact
Location: [Deck 22] Operations & Logistics Center
Timeline: MD1: 1415 Hours
As the lower half of the Warrant Officer extended out from underneath the console, the Ops Chief continued to swipe away at the controls on top of it. "...Diagnostic complete. Still picking up a slight bit of latency delay from the Main Computer Core."
There was a moment of silence followed by a short buzzing sound before N'Vara's voice came muffled, "Run it again."
Letting out a small hum before starting another diagnostic check, it only took a few moments before Sydney answered back, "That did it. What'd you do?"
Sliding out from underneath the console on the small hover creeper, small tools resting on her stomach, the Orion looked up at the Lieutenant Commander and answered, "I fixed the problem," with the same monotone she often spoke in answering questions to others.
Rolling her eyes as she looked down at her, Sydney shook her head for a moment at herself, "That's what I guessed," she answered, having should have already known how the Computer Systems Specialist would answer.
Since arriving aboard, the two women had been working closely for quite a number of hours as the Operations Chief wanted to ensure that all of the ship's systems were in order and working at the maximum efficiency, while also being sure none of the hazardous programming or hardware that had been the cause of Starfleet's massive embarrassment two years prior. Even if the Intrepid crew had been assured the newly-christened vessel was free of any such Borg-derived technology or programming, Sydney had wanted to be sure, and N'Vara had been a vital part of that process.
Sitting up as she picked her tools up to drop them in the small toolbox off to her side, the Orion asked of the human, "Does that mean I'm we're finally done?"
"Ummm..," Sydney started in clear hesitation as she began another, more extensive diagnostic, "...Probably?"
Letting out a heavy breath of frustration as her chin dropped to her chest, N'Vara's voice was more of a murmur as she noted, "We've gone over every centimeter of the ship's computers and programming." Letting out a slight growl as she turned her gaze up to Sydney, the engineer sounded exhausted, "There is not a single resistor that can be traced back to the Borg. And you haven't found any remnants of the coding, right?"
Sydney's eyes glanced to the monitor on the console she'd been working at, taking note of the diagnostic giving her the same result it had dozens of times before. Frowning, "No..," she answered before moving to do one last check, "I've spent my every waking moment ensuring something like what happened can't happen here. Last thing I want is to become a slave to the Borg."
"You've no idea…" the Orion muttered as she pushed herself up from the hover creeper and began to pack up her specialized toolbox, being very particular about where each tool went.
The muttered words had not gone unheard by the Xenolinguist as Sydney finally turned her gaze to the specialist to ask, "Hmm? What was that?" but offered a smirk as she did, exchanging a knowing look with N'Vara. They'd worked enough hours together already for the Orion to know the human's hearing wasn't deficient in any way.
With only a nod before she started towards the door, knowing well her part of the work was done, despite what the Lieutenant Commander might request later, the doors to the Ops Center swooshed open, but she leaned against the frame as she turned back to ask mockingly, "Weren't you supposed to report for a Staff Meeting by now?" while miming to the imaginary chronometer on her wrist.
Looking at the Orion questioningly before turning back to glance at the time display on the console she'd been working out, Sydney turned back with a feigned look of shock that didn't seem to either fool or bother the Warrant Officer. Tipping her chin down and looking at the engineer from beneath her brows, the Ops Chief asked rhetorically, "You really think I wouldn't have prepared for this eventuality?" Turning back to the console to run yet another round of systems diagnostics, Sydney gave a quick wave over her shoulder, knowing N'Vara was going to be one her way as she added, "I already have Armidale handling it. If the Captain really needed me there myself, he would have included my name in the request and not just the 'Department Representative'."
Shaking her head at the Ops Chief, N'Vara hummed disapprovingly before saying, "I know you like to think you are always the smartest person in the room, but sometimes you make some dumb choices, Reid."
The slight tip of her head let the Orion know the human was rolling her eyes at her before sniping back, "It's not much of a competition with you in here."
N'Vara let out a sharp, "HA!" in disbelief before chuckling into a sighing, "I'll wait for your next work order request, Commander. Good luck explaining to the Captain why you sent your Assistant to the Senior Staff Meeting. I'm sure he'll love it," she said before giving a quick wave Sydney barely noticed before finally exiting the Ops Center.
Despite the warning, Sydney wanted to finish up the last of the diagnostics to ensure all of the ship's programming was in order and her own additions had been properly implemented. While everything had been green across the board since Day One, that didn't mean there still weren't improvements to be made in her mind. The Captain wouldn't miss her for one boring briefing once he saw the quarterly efficiency reports.
RSS Feed