May I Have My Job Back?
Posted on Tue Feb 6th, 2024 @ 11:22am by Lieutenant Elen Diari & Ensign Connor Turner
Edited on on Wed Feb 7th, 2024 @ 11:04pm
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 15 - The Evil That Lies Beneath
Location: Main Engineering - Deck 11 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD002 0800 hrs
Milly was gone. Tea had been drunk. Nerves were hopefully steeled. As Milly had said, Elen was just a woman. He should be able to talk to her, shouldn't he? After all, he could talk to Marjani. He somehow managed to talk to Milly. He had even started talking to Zhara. Granted, he might not be looking at any of the women, well, except Marjani and on rare occasion Milly, when he spoke to them, but he actually had done it!
So, Elen should not be any different, should she? Connor thought about it and decided that she was. After all, this involved confrontation and confronting anyone was not in his nature. Nonetheless, with Paisley being gone, perhaps he could come back. While Ops might be better suited for a computer specialist, the Chief there was right incompetent in his opinion, and T'Ket had impugned his girlfriend's honor.
There was the issue that most of engineering was full of women, which did make him uncomfortable, but perhaps that was the lesser of the evils. Firm in his conviction that coming back to engineering was in his best interests, he actively sought out Lieutenant Diari.
El sensed Connor coming into engineering, and left her usual place at the system table, walking to wards him "Oh, looked with the targ dragged in, Connor how are you?" she smiled.
This is one of those situations where I should not answer honestly, isn't it? Small talk pleasantries.... "I'm, um, alright, uh, Chief. I've, uh, well, been trying to adjust, um, to ops." He looked everywhere but at Lieutenant Diari.
Should I ask how she is? That would be appropriate, would it not? "Um, how are you, um, ma'am?"
El just kept smiling "Same as always. Oh, by the way, I'm Betazoid, can hear your thoughts, so you can be honest. You want to come back here, but don't want to offend anyone."
I did not think that Betazoids were supposed to read thoughts, but maybe they're super strong right now. "Um, well, yes, and, well, you know, Ensign F'rar does not, well, seem to be on the ship anymore, so, I thought...."
"You can come back, no problem, if Thex doesn't need you anymore, Paisley's away on the Lexington deep space mission, so won't even be in the Quadrant for at least five years. I would have called you back as soon as she was out the airlock, but reports were you were doing an excellent job there. I'm a little impressed, actually, at your work." Diari replied, remembering a missive from Ops that she'd read.
Connor blinked twice. There were reports? Already? He had upgraded the computer core and done a number of small repairs around the ship, but they warranted that much? All that Connor could muster was, "You are? You were? Um, really?"
"Yes. I asked Thex for an update, told me what you're doing down there, and I liked what I heard. If you want to be in engineering again, we'll happily take you back, just keep up the standard you've set yourself," she reassured him.
"Thank you!" Connor exclaimed with uncharacteristic emotion. He actually looked at Elen for several seconds before realizing what he was doing. His eyes immediately darted to the floor. "Um, and, well, sorry about my outburst, um, then and well, now. Still alpha shift, then?"
"Could be..." El smiled back, "But there's a team leader spot on Gamma Shift if you want it, your shout."
"Team Leader?" Connor blinked disbelievingly. He stood frozen, not knowing what to do or thing. Why would he be offered a team leader position? He barely could talk to people and women were a completely different thing altogether. Engineering seemed full of them. "I'm, uh, honored, um, ma'am.... May I, um, think about it?"
"Of course, talk with anyone you like about it, let me know by this time next week, and don't call me ma'am, and we're cool." Elen replied. "It's only a five-body team, one of three on the shift, so it's not mega-responsible."
"IF I, um, I should not call you, um, ma'am, uh, what should I call you? And, um, well, if I took this position, um, would I get to pick, my well, team?"
"My name's Elen, maybe use that? As for your team, I'll give you a list to choose from, but if there's people you want to work with, we can discuss it." Elen answered, thinking who he would choose.
"Elen?" Connor asked hesitantly. "But, um, well, you're the chief. You wish me to ignore, well, rank?" he blinked, daring to look up at the Chief Engineer for a fleeting moment. "A list, um, OK. Um, what, about that, um, new engineer? Um...." Connor paused as he tried to figure out who Milly was. Oh, bugger! I never caught her last name, did I? Think, Connor, think! Was it Ambrosia? Ambers? No, no.... Ambrose? I think that's it! That's it! "She went to the academy with me. Um, pink hair. Ensign Milly, uh, Ambrose?"
"Yeah, no ranks down here, whoever's got the most experience in the project runs it. As for Milly, yeah, just had a meeting with her, seems cool." Elen rubbed her chin "It's a maybe, will ask her, if she says yes, then it's a yes from me."
"No ranks?" Connor asked, just as confused as pleased about being allowed to ask someone for a shift, if he took the job. Gamma lead? He definitely was going to have to talk to Marjani about this. By his rough calculations, this should sync up their work schedules better so they could spend some more virtual time together. Marjani would have to be excited about that, wouldn't she? But lead? At least he could sort of talk to Milly. "That's um, highly, uh, well, unusual, um, El...Elen," he dared to test out with a squeak.
"Not really, we've a lot of enlisted folk down here, guys with twenty-thirty years experience, so they know their stuff, doesn't feel right them calling a new ensign, fresh out the academy, sir in my opinion, so we decided to drop ranks," the chief explained.
"But we have a lot of, um," he cleared his throat before continuing, "um, female officers." Connor found a spot well behind Elen's right shoulder that looked like a safe place to stare.
"Yes, we do, and no gender, polygender, and whatever Dave is as well. I use guys as a non-gendered term. Your predecessor as computer expert, Debs, was a female Lanthanite, with fifteen hundred years of computer knowledge. Never felt right having her calling people sir," Elen reminisced "She's on sabbatical at the moment, if she comes back, no picking up her nasty habits."
Connor did not know whether he was relieved or distressed that Elen had no idea what he was talking about when he was referring to female officers, in that it was very difficult for him to interact with them, and the prettier they were, the harder it was for him. "Um, what, um, nasty habits?"
"Anthropomorphism of the computer, it's an 'it' not a person. I know sentient computers, ours isn't. That and Tellarian cigars, the smell... urgh, even thinking about them turns my stomach" Elen scrunched her face up "and they're bad for your health."
"Although... she might be able to help you with the nervousness. You're doing the same over the shoulder, look at the shoes thing my friend Johnny did. Don't be scared, we don't bite. Okay, Paisley did, but she had reasons."
Connor was not about to contradict the chief about computers having feelings. "You're right about the cigars. I cannot stand the smell, either. But, um, Paisley, um, well, she was, well, mean!" Connor then braved looking Elen in the eye, growing indignant. "I did nothing but try and do everything and then some that she was asking me and there was no pleasing her. A complete nutter, she is," Connor concluded.
"Now, Connor, I wouldn't say that. I know complete nutters, Paisley had a long way to go in nutter training to be complete. But happily, she's a few light years away," Elen replied, going over to the table. "Right, if you're back here, I want you to read this, a couple of articles from the journals about computer upgrades and get back to me later with your opinions." She handed him a green Padd.
Connor politely but hurriedly took the PADD. He personally could not think of anything better than studying potential computer upgrades. "Certainly!" he told Elen with a dreamy tone. Any hesitation was long gone from his voice as the conversation turned to computers. "I'll go over all of this immediately. I wonder what wonders may be in here." He turned on the PADD and started reading right in front of Elen.
"Yeah, you know how I was just talking about sentient computers, it's the groundwork for making our systems ready for when they come on mainstream, two different workflows, wasn't sure which to go after, if any." She explained, "Go ahead and contact anyone who'd you like to on this."
"Contact anyone?" Connor asked. "Why would I do that? This is all wonderful material." Thoughtfully and seriously, he told Elen, "The problem with sentient computers is the programming and the limiting of their functions. Everything is taken literally. Look at androids. You even have to program or allow them to grow a sense of humor. In an emergency, you have the issue with a sentient computer making a decision that might not be what was intended. Programming has to be done cautiously. I wonder if there is anything in here about colloquialisms, sarcasm, and analogies." There was a determined, yet curious look about his eyes.
"I meant outside experts, maybe the authors of the papers, you know people like that, to get further information and those are the sort of problems I want figured out first before we plug one in, will our systems cope. I'll be looking forward to your report, hotshot," she smiled, placing her hand on Connor's shoulder.
Connor immediately stiffened and his eyes went wide the moment that Elen put her hand on his shoulder. He looked at Elen like he was a deer caught in headlights. He swallowed hard and tried to speak, but words would not come out. Hot shot? Me?
Elen just nodded, going back to her work.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Elen Diari
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Connor Turner
Computer Systems Specialist, USS Pioneer
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