Taking Stock I

Posted on Mon Aug 8th, 2011 @ 4:51am by Lieutenant JG Toshie Minamoto & Lieutenant Jasad Broca & Lieutenant Torrna Maliya MD

Mission: Tomorrow's Arizona
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: Prior to Strange Encounters

"Sure, tell me to fix them, like I didn't notice the damage." Toshie grumbled to herself as she manually regulated some of the EPS grid while repairs were in progress. Her head was killing her, the large black and yellow bruise on the side of her face standing stark against her skin. Her assistant should be back by now. A swift tap of her fingers opened the comline. "Jasad, update on the repairs. Where are you?" She tried to disguise the irritability this headache was giving her, but some of it leaked through.

She reflected back on the last few days while resting her chin on her hands and closing her eyes. "Maybe I'm not ready for this yet.. " A soft sigh escaped her lips. "I haven't even socialized with anyone who isn't part of my department. I even eat my meals in my quarters..." Then a deeper sigh and she lay her head on the edge of the console, something she regretted immediately as a lancing pain shot through it. "It.. itai....!"

Jasad tore his eyes off of the Doctor's backside as the call came in on the com. He got up and glanced around, seeing the Chief at one of the rear stations. He'd forgotten to update her on the work he'd completed. He'd forgotten she was even in engineering somewhere. He was being a very bad assistant, come to think of it. Perhaps his little wound had derailed his attention more than he wanted to admit.

Dusting imagined dust off his clothes, he went over to where Minamoto was working diligently at a console. Or striking her head against it, as the case was revealed to be. "The rupture is sealed," Jasad reported, at attention. "The air handlers seem to be back online. I apologize for the delay. The Doctor was just here to tend to a minor injury." He scrutinized her face. "And if I may venture so boldly, Sir... while black and blue are excellent colors on you, I don't think they necessarily indicate good health. Should I call the Doctor back to have a look at those bruises?"

Toshie sat up abruptly as Jasad appeared out of nothingness besides her. Sequestered in her personal workspace in Engineering, she was cut off from most of the going-ons in the rest of the area. "I didn't realize you were back yet...sorry." She rubbed at her forehead. "Good, good. That should be most of the repair work we need taken care of. I was getting reports from half the deck about those."

As she saw his scrutiny, she brought a hand up to her face and lightly touched it against the bruise. The wince that came across her features definite. It was painful. Still, she turned a little red and shook her head. "N...no, it's fine. It'll go away on its own." Another wince appeared, though smaller and not brought on by any pain but by the realization that she hadn't been to Sickbay at all since coming on board, despite the messages that got sent out. "I don't need a Doctor."

"Hmm," Jasad said. "Well, while I wouldn't give our Bajoran Doctor high marks on bedside manner, she is quite competent and efficient. And I suspect she might warm up to you more readily than myself." He sighed, "Though you'd probably recover much more quickly if you occasionally took some time off. Since the EPS problems are finally stabilizing, I think I'm going to invoke Regulation 8." He held his hand out to help her up, "I'm taking you to the mess. You are going to enjoy something savory and fattening. Then we will discuss the possibility of you taking a nap."

His brows lifted and he added menacingly, "And don't make me invoke Protocol 3.14, Sir."

Toshie stared at him dumbfounded for a few moments before her mouth opened as if she was trying to say something, then closed again. She accepted the hand and stood up next to him, sighing and rubbed at the other side of her face away from the bruise. "Right, right, I guess I can't say no to that. Curse your logic." She grumbled a bit, but smiled at him before stopping and narrowing her eyes. "3.14?"

Jasad smirked at his superior officer. "Why, Pie, of course."

As he led Chief Minamoto out of Engineering, he turned to Macy. "Mister, remember to take turbolift 7 offline and bring it back to this level, and place a containment forcefield on corridor segment C-17 as we discussed." He gave the Petty Officer a hard look that just dared him to question the instruction. Then he turned to Minamoto. "Fire drills ordered by the Commodore," he explained nonchalantly, "Quite routine and terribly uninteresting."

Entering the hallways leading out of Engineering, they came across the Doctor. "Ah, Doctor, what a coincidence seeing you again so soon. I'm surprised to see you still in the area." He glanced at the Turbolift, then at the corridor that might have offered an easy alternative path. "Ah. The Fire Containment Drills. I forgot all about them. Doctor, have you met Chief Minamoto?" He stepped aside so that the Doctor could get a good look at the Chief. Then he tapped his badge.

"Broca to Macy," he said, "This is a bad time for the fire drill. Restore all systems, please."

"Oh, pie, duh." Toshie smacked herself on the forehead with her hand, which naturally caused her to almost yelp from the pain. "Gah...need to stop doing that..."

As he lead her out of Engineering to the turbolift that would take them to the messhall, she looked at Broca quizzically, "Fire drills? Why wasn't I informed?" Her face tightened in a defensive look but she didn't get a chance to say anything before they ran into the Doctor. "Oh, umm, good morning? Day? Evening? Sorry, it's been a long duty shift." She gave an embarrassed little laugh as she tried to sidestep around the Bajoran and continue to the turbolift.

Maliya was NOT happy by this turn of events. Just as she was giving herself a 'well done on not killing the Spoonhead' peptalk, said Spoonhead cane after her. And then she noticed the state of the woman. "Hold it right there, Lieutenant." she barked, opening up her tricorder and setting it to scan Human. "I need to take a look at you. Name's Doctor Torrna by the way, pleasure." she said, ignoring protest from Minamoto.

Jasad pretended he hadn't heard the Chief's question about the drills. Momentarily, the containment forcefield dropped and the turbolift indicators lit back up. "I was just taking the Chief to the mess to enjoy some food," he explained to the Doctor. "I thought good food might ease the throbbing pain in her head from those bruises. Would you care to join us? We can share this turbolift." He hoped no one would bring up the fact that there was a mess hall on this level.

Toshie sure wouldn't at this point, she was too busy trying to ward off the doctor. "Lieutenant Minamoto is mine..." she replied as she held up a hand between herself and the tricorder. "I just stumbled and hit my head, it's nothing. Really, I'll be fine."

~Oh for Prophet's sake, another idiot~ Maliya groaned inwardly, "Tell you what, I join you in the Mess Hall, you let me scan you after you've had some food?" she tried a compromise. The silly Engineer had every right to refuse treatment, but that would be...well...more than silly.

Jasad watched the exchange between the two with concealed humor. He'd wanted the Doctor to have a look at his Chief, and that had been accomplished. His scheming done, there was little to do now but wait for all the colors to come out in the wash. He half hoped the Doctor might eventually order Minamoto to rest. The Chief of Engineering had a terrible tendency to run herself ragged, and he suspected she'd need to be fresh for the trials ahead.

Toshie gave a small growl at that, but she nodded at the doctor. "Fine, I guess that will be acceptable." She looked between her and Jasad and shook her head, "Come on, you two, let's get something to eat." There was a hint of a smirk on her lips as she said that while she fumed inside about being cornered. At least her lack of a physical hadn't been brought up yet.

Still, she pivoted on her heel and headed to the turbolift without looking back at them until she stood in it.

Maliya sighed, following after the woman, trying her very best to ignore the fact she'll be spending a prolonged amount of time in the company of the Spoonhead. That made her feel queasy. So instead, she focused on Minamoto, wondering for what must have been the umpteenth time why people insisted they were fine when it was obvious to the next layman they were not. ~Everybody lies....the body doesn't~ she thought as she observed the younger woman.

"You always this headstrong, Lieutenant Minamoto?" she asked.

"She left a dent in the bulkhead, I hear," Jasad said with a slight smile. Then he ordered the turbolift to take them to one of the mess halls/lounges on one of the other decks. He wondered privately if he'd catch hell for this little incident later. Still, he was her assistant. It was his duty to assist her even when she didn't think she needed it.

If that meant cleaning the Jeffries' tubes for a week, so be it. He seemed to spend half his time in those devilish cramped utility corridors anyway, with the frequency of EPS failures on these Starfleet ships. Keeping a ship at the cutting edge of fighting trim seemed to require some degree of delicacy in the ship systems. Not for the first time, he wished that Starfleet built their ships with a bit less sophistication and a bit more resiliency. Still, he might feel differently when they were in a fight, delivering phaser bursts that were 15% more powerful than those of their opponents.

The turbolift let them out near the lounge, and Jasad led them down the corridor to the large room. He wanted to give the ladies plenty of space to talk, and to fence about with that medical tricorder...