Engineering Chit Chat
Posted on Mon Nov 4th, 2019 @ 8:57pm by Lieutenant Connor Turner
659 words; about a 3 minute read
Mission:
Mission 2: Into The Breach
Location: Engineering
Connor once again found himself face to face with the computer that he coerced to keep the warp core stable. He looked at Aiman-Tamar and then quickly looked away. "Um, uh, ma'am.... I, uh, um, am not sure what to tell you to do here.... Um...."
Leyla gave Connor a reassuring smile. "Easy, Connor. I know a bit about computers too, but I think I probably need to see if I can dig into any logs while you've got this thing stable."
"Um, OK, um, Lieutenant. If you wish to dig into the, um, logs. I'll, um, just watch, um, my handiwork to make sure, um, we don't go 'boom.'"
"Turner...you don't have to be all nervous. You're nice and all, and I have heard how you are around women. But," she said as she started pulling up the files carefully, "I'll just be a friend, yeah?"
"Um, what, um, have you heard?" Connor asked, concerned. "I, um, just want to, um, get this work done...."
Leyla smirked as she worked, "Just that you are nervous around women. That's all. I'm not trying to make you nervous, I just want to get the work done too. I'm not comfortable down here."
"It, um, it is not a pretty sight, is it?"
"No," she said softly as a shiver went down her spine, looking around for a moment, "It really isn't. I'm glad I was given this job instead of another one..."
"You should not say things like that!" Connor exclaimed. "Are you trying to jinx us?!"
Leyla sighed, "Okay, okay, I won't talk about that." She fussed with a stalled download and got it going again. "I'm curious what all will be in these logs."
"As will I," Connor admitted. "Slipstream technology is wonderful in general...."
"But in practice can be very unstable. I've looked at the science side of it, and it's absolutely crazy. Fun to look at in theory I suppose."
"It should be very stable," Connor countered. "It is just very, um, precise. I don't think it was working improperly at first. Something must have happened."
Nodding, Leyla looked over a few things. "Or they played with something. Testing something or some such..."
"I think that something happened to it," Connor said while looking at his handiwork, keeping the core stable. "Feel free to check the data, though."
“I’m just going to download for now, review on our way back to the station. We need to make sure that everything here is taken care of before we do anything else.” Leyla sighed, “I sure hope they weren’t doing things they shouldn’t have been. Anyone who has even studied this a little bit would know not to.”
"Are you certain, the Commander doesn't want us to solve problems here?" Connor asked worriedly.
Leyla gave a small shrug, "There is too much to sort it all down here. I'll do what I can but...just too much."
"I understand," Connor replied. He then paused for a moment and asked, "Why is it that women are so difficult, er, complicated, er, I don't know how to phrase it. I'm sorry."
"No, it's okay," she said with a smile. "I'm simple, as long as I can get the work done, and people aren't overly mean to me? You won't see my angry side."
"Why would I, um, be mean to, um, you?" Connor wondered aloud.
Leyla shrugged, "Just an overall statement honestly, Connor. I don't think you'd have any reason to be."
"I'm confused," Connor replied legitimately so. He mumbled under his breath, "Computers are so much easier."
"Now there I agree, at times. Other times the sensors fight against me and I get frustrated with them. But most systems do sometimes."
"I never have that problem," Connor told Leyla matter-of-fact. "You just have to, well, know how to, um, talk to them."
Leyla smirked. "I will leave that to you then, I'm no engineer."