Loving Every Minute

Posted on Sat May 21st, 2011 @ 4:36am by

Mission: Shore Leave 2; Picking Up the Pieces
Location: Various
Timeline: After "Grease and Guts"

PO2 Zander Devereux checked the last EPS conduit on his "To Do" list on the grease-smeared PADD in his hand and grunted. "Why do I always get the dirty work?" He scratched his head with his free hand, getting even more grease and ship liquids in his hair. "Oh...because I'm a grunt. That's why. Got it, Boss."

Crawling, crouching, and squirming through the Jeffries Tubes, Zander checked the readings on his tri-corder and muttered under his breath. The damned power distribution nodes were in such a state of chaos that he wondered how the Arizona was even functioning. This was going to take some time to get the flow evened out so one station wouldn't blow while another station took forever to do any damned thing. Opening his took kit, he grabbed a Flow Distributor and set to work on getting the thing set the way it was meant to.

Thirty minutes later, he moved to the next area that demanded his attention, checking his chronometer and wondering how long it was going to be before he could crawl back to his own quarters and take a shower. Being filthy was part of an Engineers job, but even he had to admit that he was getting really ripe. He made a mental note to himself not to sniff his own armpits - or anyone else's - until he could take a long sonic shower.

Grunting to himself, he sorted through his tools until he found the KLS Stabilizer that he had managed to scavenge from one of the better tool kits that he had found after Engineering had been cleaned up. All he had to to was maintain the power output stability and the section would be cleared. It took him three tries and a bit of creative cursing before he was able to maintain his grip on the tool and actually put it to use.

Taking a short break, he leaned against the wall beside the panel he was working on. "What's that, Boss? You want me to make a laser phaser gun out of a hunk of crystal and a metal piece of bed? You got it! One miracle coming right up. Oh. The karaoke player broke. that's an easy one..well, one you get the right people. You have to set up a neutrino field inside a can of peas, hold on to Geordi's visor and sing into Data's knee. Heh. Of course, you'd have to get those two from the Enterprise, but you can make a requisition."

Two hours later, PO2 crawled out of a maintenance hatch on Deck Two and breathed a sigh of relief. He loved ships, but they were often a huge pain in the behind when it came to repairing them. Between him and the rest of the Engineering team, they had managed to get all the EPS conduits on line, stabilize the power fluctuations, and maintain the integrity of the warp core. Not bad for a ....days..weeks? work. He had no idea how long he had been crawling through the Arizona's belly, but he did know that if he didn't get something in his belly soon he was going to fall over.

Orienting himself after several false starts, one of which led him to the Engineering Support Labs where he dropped off his tool kit, he made his way to the Mess Hall. The looks he got from people around him ranged from pity to curiosity to confusion; it wasn't until he thought about it that the people had been looking at the greased up, smelly, wild-looking version of himself that had just spent ten hours crawling through the ship.

Smiling and taking a huge gulp of coffee before tearing into a huge steak, Zander had to admit...he loved every second of it.