Engineering Enmity

Posted on Thu Jan 20th, 2011 @ 12:58pm by Lieutenant Dravic Rixx (MIA) & Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Mantell

Mission: Hippocratic Hijacking
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: Sometime between "Mistaken Identity" and "The North Star Situation"

Schematics. Schematics, where are the damn schematics for this ship. The one ship I planned to avoid my whole career and never learned her layout, now I gotta be the CHENG, great. Standing up from the chair, and moving to the doorway of his office, he spotted a young Petty Officer entering Engineering, looking around nervously.

"Petty Officer..., What's the matter," The Chief Engineer intentionally left the name hanging, hoping the kid would understand.

"Macy, sir," looking around Engineering, "Sir, someone has been tinkering with things up on the second deck."

Lt Rixx motioned the Petty Officer into the office, and the door closed. After PO3 Macy had explained what happened with the XO, "Thank You, Petty Officer, You did your job. I don't care who they are, all modifications to Engineering Systems will be approved by myself, or one of the Engineering Shift Supervisors."

As soon as the Petty Officer had cleared the door, Rixx threw the PADD on his desk across the office, "Who the hell does this guy think he is?"

[Lt Rixx to Commander Mantell, we have a problem, please report to my office.]

The voice from his combadge startled the boy, causing his glass of milk to tip over into the tray of Mac'n'Cheese, and spilling over onto the floor. The result made for a soupy concoction of pasta and dairy products swimming about on his lunch tray. If not for the request, Jack might have stayed put and finished the meal, even in its current state. With a tap of his combadge, he acknowledged the request. Seeing a Mess Hall attendant already hurrying over with cleanup supplies, the Miran nodded his approval and headed for the doors, wondering what their Chief Engineer could possibly have a problem with.

Regretfully, Jack had still not made his way to Main Engineering, a thought he lamented once more as he passed through the double doors of the ship's primary engine room. He had peeked into the saucer's partial engine room, intended mostly for maintenance and routine repairs than real work, except in the event the ship needed to separate into its multi-vector attack mode. Main Engineering was a different beast altogether. The Warp Core made up the focal point of the large room, seemingly irregardless of the fact that it was not in the exact center. Its lulling hum was comforting, like music to the ears of the boy, who had suffered in silence on the bridge, the ready room or in his office for the past couple days.

A nearby crewmember pointed the Miran First Officer to the office entitled to Lieutenant Rixx, and pressed the doorbell. When he was permitted entrance, Jack inquired to the room's lone occupant, "You rang?"

Dravic stood when the XO entered his office, and extended a hand half in greeting, half indicating the chair on the other side of his bare desk. Dravic had not been on board long enough to add any personal touches to the office yet, and its spartan nature made him feel almost as if this wasn't quite real, yet.

"Sir, you are responsible for all matters of crew discipline, and I need to talk to you about a problem I am already having with a member of the crew," Dravic shifts in his chair and leans back, "I have an officer who has decided that he is outside of the standard Starfleet Protocols and Regulations, this is a situation I have never dealt with before, and I could use your advice on how you would deal with this sort of troublemaker."

Taking the seat indicated by the Chief Engineer, the boy listened to the Lieutenant's explanation for calling him there. As he did, Jack grew confused. Whenever he had a problem like Rixx was describing, he visited the Executive Officer, not the other way around. Was Rixx an agoraphobic or something, someone who wouldn't leave Engineering? This might just be the wrong ship for him, if that was the case. The boy struggled to find a reason for being in the Chief Engineer's office, but tried his best to respond to the question posed to him.

"Well, I'm still new to Commmand. So I really don't have a clue. I know you're supposed to come to me with it, and that's about all I know." Jack had been on the receiving side of a grievance by his department head before, but never on the side of the third party to arbitrate it. He shrugged in apology, and, uncertain, suggested, "Have you tried talking with the officer?"

"Well,sir, funny you should suggest that," Rixx spins slowly in his chair for dramatic effect, when his face is visible again, his eyelids have disappeared, and he stares directly at the Executive Officer, "Son, we have a little problem, I have a report filed by one of my Engineers that you were reported in a restricted area, on the second deck, attempting to modify ship's systems without orders from the Chief Engineer, or one of the Engineering Duty Officers. This is a major violation of Starfleet Protocols. I know I don't have to tell you the way this could be construed. Sabotage."

"Whoa!" Jack yelled, crawling to the back of his chair in surprise at the Chief Engineer's transformation. What is he, a Changeling? Before he could ask, Rixx continued, and the boy's eyebrows narrowed in response. Sitting back up in his seat, the boy's face clearly reflected his dumbfounded reaction. Restricted area? Violation? Sabotage? Was the man -or whatever he was now- out of his mind? "Are you kidding me?" he began, rebuffing the Lieutenant's accusation, drawing on the hours he poured over personnel files to make his case. "Sabotage? I was the Chief Engineer on a starship before you even joined Starfleet. Hell, I was in Engineering when you were just in diapers!"

"Don't give me that restriction or violation B.S." the boy pointed a finger at the Chief Engineer, leaning forward in his chair to appear as intimidating as a Miran could to a grup. "I'm the ship's Executive Officer, I'm above the Chief Engineer's orders."

"Don't remind me about Diapers, do you know how demeaning it is to soil yourself, just so you can start a new legit life?"

Rixx slid his chair up to the desk, "I'm sure you get my point, Commander," Rixx bit his lip as he considered his options, "You do not make changes to the ship without complete design annotations in the ship's schematics. If you were a Chief Engineer, you know this. Bring me the changes you want, and I will review them and make a determination. By the Book, Commander."

Rixx smiles and leans back in his chair, and mumbles, "Unless..."

"Huh?" Jack inquired, his curiosity overpowering his frustration.

"I want you to keep those Intel kids off my back, the ones on the ship at least," Rixx looked around the desk for the PaDD he wanted, "Check this out," sliding the Padd with his notes on the still he was planning, "And keep the ol' Man out of my engineering spaces, and we can work something out," after a short pause as the XO reached for the Padd, "How do you feel about moonshine?"

"Oh, I don't think the Captain cares about Engineering. He was a Doctor, you know. He'll probably be in Sickbay more than Engineering," the boy chattered quickly, his earlier frustration all but forgotten now. It returned with an insidious vengeance when Rixx asked about moonshine. Alcohol? What would Jack care about alcohol? He had seen plenty of people drink it and act like complete fools afterward. Alcohol was for idiot grups. "Ever seen an Alverian Spiked Canine eat a Kandipper? It must taste like candy to them, but then they go absolutely crazy, biting themselves, running into rocks and acting like three-month old pups. I saw it at the zoo once, and someone told me the Kandippers are like alcohol to them."

"So why would I want to drink it?" Jack made a disgusted face, even sticking out his tongue to illustrate his point. "I can keep the Captain out of here for the most part, I'll bet you. But I don't play around with Intel."

"You don't have to," Dravik grins as he realizes what he really needs from the XO, "Sir, Forget about the Captain, and Intel, I want you to look the other way when I start selling my hooch to the crew. I'll cut you in on stuff I get in trade, Latinum, Holodeck time, things like that. You look the other way while I run my operation," Rixx slides the Padd back onto the heap at the edge of his desk, "and whatever it was you were trying to do, I'll get it taken care of."

"What are you talki-" the child's small jaw fell agape as he considered the implications of what the Lieutenant was proposing. "Dude, what happened to 'by the book'?" The boy stood up, nearly knocking his chair over, and took a step around it toward the door while still facing the desk. "Umm, I don't think so. You're crazy, man -or whatever you are."

Rixx shook his head, "I was kidding about the Engine Room Hooch," rolling his neck slowly, as it cracks multiple times, "seriously though, keep everyone else out of my damn engine room. I don't like people hovering, people who do, well I've been known to make their lives quite miserable. As a fellow engineer, you, I'm sure I can and will tolerate. Besides you look like your 6, so it'll keep me laughing."