The Lack of a Frying Pan and a Kitchen Sink...

Posted on Sun May 22nd, 2011 @ 7:06pm by Lieutenant JG Toshie Minamoto & Captain Nathan Cowell MD

Mission: Shore Leave 2; Picking Up the Pieces
Location: Commodore's Ready Room, Bridge, USS Arizona
Timeline: Following 'Beyond the Union Gateway'

'The turbolift ride to report in always seemed to be the longest,' Toshie reflected as she stood in the middle of the turbolift, her arms crossed, and looking idly at the ceiling of it. The young engineer had just come off a successful tour as the assistant to the chief engineer on the Endurance but this was completely different. Here she was on her own and in charge of keeping a ship running herself. She was confident she had the capabilities, but there was always that nagging feeling in the back of her head. Then there was the first meeting with the Captain... sure to set the tone for her service on the ship over the next few years.

"I would have enjoyed my time off on the Starbase over the last few days a lot more if I wasn't constantly worrying about that..."

She let out a sigh, then straightened up as the turbolift came to a halt, lowering her arms as the doors came open and strode out onto the bridge. She didn't pause long there, looking over the bridge of her new assignment for a brief moment before heading to the Captain's Ready Room and pressing the chime on the door.

A brief pause followed her pressing the command key before the sound of a rather authoritative "Come!" broke the silence, as well as the threshold to the Ready Room. The doors responded to the voice of the Commodore as if they were living creatures, scared of the repercussions of failing to act swiftly. Once the woman was inside, the man behind the desk finally looked up to see who it was. Commodore Nathan Cowell frowned as he took note that he had no earthly idea who she was.

"Need something, Lieutenant?" the old man asked, leaning back in his chair.

Toshie gave the slightest wince at the strength of the order before she stepped forward and through the opening doors. The young woman came to attention in front of the desk, eyes focused on the wall behind the Commodore, "No, Sir. Lieutenant Junior Grade Toshie Minamoto reporting for duty, Sir. I just transferred from the Endurance as your new Chief of Engineering."

"Ah... you're the Borg's replacement then," Nathan said, motioning her forward, "Have a seat then. Have you been briefed on what's been happening, Lieutenant, or shall I give you the run down?"

Her head tilted to one side quizzically at the Commodore's words. "Excuse me, Sir, the Borg's?" She moved into the offered seat and shook her head, "No, Sir, I haven't been able to talk with anyone about it yet."

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Three of Seven," Nathan clarified, "He was acting as our Engineering Chief after our last one went MIA during the attack... Which brings me to the current state of the ship, as I'm sure you saw. We were attacked by several overly powerful Romulan vessels, managed to scrape a victory out of the bottom of the barrel, but only just... Lost a lot of people, the First Officer and Chief Engineer to name only two..."

"Overly powerful does seem to describe most Romulan warships, Sir..." Toshie nodded in agreement, though her eyes were a little wide at the mention of who she was replacing. "Besides the personnel losses, Sir, just how badly damaged is the ship? I get the feeling I'm going to be thrown right into the frying pan."

"No, you're jumping head first into the fire. Romulans blew the frying pan all to hell. Kitchen sink too, but that's not as important. Right now, our biggest problems are the power relays, the warp conduits in the lower nacelles are pretty much fucked up beyond all hope of repair, so you might want to just gut them and replace the whole thing. Might also be nice to have some new shield generators installed," Nathan listed off.

Toshie couldn't help it, but she rubbed at her forehead with her fingers, "Are any of my engineering rooms still intact? I'm glad I got some rest on Starbase 900, I don't think I'm going to be able to get any sleep for awhile... I should be able to repair the conduits, but it's going to take some time. Do I have a full engineering team?"

"Right now, you're at half manning, but you have the entire station's compliment of repair crew to help out. Use them, abuse them, whatever you want. As long as my boat gets back to near new condition, I could care less. Anything else?" the Commodore asked.

"Hmm, that'll be tough, but I'll get the job done, Sir. She'll be ready to go when you need her. Once I go down and assess the damage, I will prepare a list of supplies and manpower I need and I'll submit it to you're, err, first officer." She looked a little sheepish for a moment as she recalled his words about losing an XO. "I'm sorry, Sir. I didn't mean anything by that... I don't think I need anything else at the moment though."

"Major Harper will attend to your list," Nathan said, waving the comment aside as trivial, "I'll make sure he makes your needs a priority. Might even be worth saying hello to him, being he will be your First Officer. Nice to have you aboard, Ms. Minamoto."

Toshie rose to her feet, coming back to attention for a moment before relaxing, "Yes, Sir, I'll track him down and introduce myself on my way to engineering. Three different engineering rooms, this is going to be fun..." At the greeting she smiled and nodded her head a little, "Thank you, Sir, I look forward to serving under you." With that, she turned and headed for the door, pausing at it and looking back, "And Sir, I appreciate you selecting me for this assignment. I won't let you down."

"I'm sure you won't, kiddo," Nathan nodded in reply, "Enjoy."