Fit for an Empress

Posted on Mon Nov 23rd, 2015 @ 8:24am by Captain Charybdis MacGregor

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Taking Chances
Location: USS Bonne Chance, Deck Five, Lt. Charybdis' quarters
Tags: bonnechance

The checklist for leaving a starship was rather short, in Lieutenant Charybdis' experience. Clear out your quarters, field day them, sign out of the crew roster, sleep with the Captain, insult the XO and walk off the boat with whatever you planned to take with you.

Signing onto a starship was another matter entirely.

A standard crew complement of 430 crewmen meant that there was a considerable amount of organization that had to be undertaken to keep them all organized, and that meant that every department had to be dealt with in turn. Sign on for the duty roster. Departmental sign in. Physical exam. Quartermaster check in. Ombudsman check in. Communications check in. Engineering check in. Operations check in. Quarters assignment.

It was going to take her two days just to find all of the departments that she was supposed to be checking into, forget about actually accomplishing the required communications with said departments.

At least a few of them had gone easily. Her physical was complete, and her medical records were onboard... though she sincerely hoped that they wouldn't be needed. She had no desire to spend time in sickbay unless it was assisting the CMO with research or solving a problem of some sort. And she liked the doctor... he seemed like an easygoing peer for senior staff, and it surprised her that he was only a lieutenant, like herself, yet he was responsible for an entire department.

Chief Petty Officer Henry Gutierrez had also been a pleasant surprise, when she had checked into operations. He had immediately assigned her quarters, registered her with the quartermaster, and given her a few tips for dealing with some of the other departments. The ship didn't seem to lack for friendly advice, and she was happy to listen to it... after all, it gave her a far better barometer of what shipboard life might be like than any rumors she may have heard about life on a heavy cruiser.

She had forgotten to ask Dr. McKenzie if the expecting crewmen would be transferred off the ship now that they were going to be expecting... after all, a starship was no place for children. Fraternization was strongly discouraged, and while there were babies born on starships while on missions, there were no long term care facilities for them. These were multifunctional vessels capable of handling any number of different types of missions, but bristling with phasers and photon torpedoes, there was no mistake... these were warships, not daycares.

As she walked the corridors she was amazed... there were so many non-humans onboard. It had been her understanding that very few non-humans had chosen to serve in Starfleet, and that most of the crew complements of such Earth vessels were comprised of humans. That certainly did not seem to be the case here, where around every corner it seemed she continued to encounter more and more alien species with which she was unfamiliar. Perhaps they were on temporarily assigned duty while here at the starbase, she mused, but there certainly seemed to be an awful lot of them onboard.

Arriving at her quarters on Deck 5, she entered her data tape into the slot. This enabled the door to recognize her biosigns and open, as it would now automatically open for her in the future. That would explain why Sickbay was ahead of the Operations check in, she realized- they needed her life signs on record to key her quarters to them. Rather ingenious, really- she surmised that Security could override the locks, but otherwise it insured privacy, a rare commodity on any spacefaring vessel. She stepped back a few feet, then approached the door to test it as Chief Gutierrez had instructed her, and the door slid open with the slight 'swoosh' noise common to Constitution-class starship portals.

She stepped into her quarters and nearly dropped her case on the floor in amazement. Her quarters were huge! They were composed of two areas which were separated by what appeared to be a retractable, transparent aluminum partition. The room's entrance opened into the living area, where a library computer terminal and work desk were provided. Her own desk! Her own computer terminal! Right in her quarters!

It was practically decadent.

The room's corner circular nook was occupied by a dining booth, which Chief Gutierrez had mentioned could be modified at the officer's request. She had thought it would be a simple flip-down seat tray, but no, it was an actual dining booth! She could seat four people in there... in... her... quarters...!

The other half of the quarters, beyond the vast living space, was a sleeping area, which held a single large bed that she quickly realized could double as sofa during off-duty relaxation. A transparent door led into the bathroom area... her.. own... bathroom...! It had a stall for sonic showering with a lavatory built into it for space considerations, as well as a sink with running water and a polished bulkhead that served as a mirror.

Chief Gutierrez must have made a mistake in his assignment, she realized... this must be one of the VIP staterooms, or perhaps senior staff quarters. He had definitely responded to her charms when she had flirted with him, and while it was not easy to look down the uniform tops, she had given him ample opportunity and she was certain he'd tried... but surely he could not have liked her THIS much!

She fell backwards to flop upon the immense bed... it had to be over a meter wide! She measured with her arms... one point one three seven, to be exact. Absolutely amazing... and soooo soft! This was certainly not her bunk on the Antares in the closet that she had shared with three other crewmen... this was nicer than Captain Matthew's bed! She squealed with delight as she rolled around on the vast expanse, luxuriating in the opulence of it all for a few moments. When she calmed down again and began to consider which department to approach next on her check in list, she realized that there was a sound that was amiss.

Being new aboard a starship meant a host of new noises and sounds that she knew would eventually fade into the background hum of the vessel to her. But for now every sound was sharp and new, and she was cataloging them as she proceeded about the ship... in engineering one could hear the strong thrum of the engines, even at impulse power. She had yet to make it to the bridge, but she knew that it would be alive wish sounds from all of the instrumentation online there. But for now here in her quarters, she became aware of something else entirely... a hissing sound, with an occasional pop and crackle.

Ordinarily she would file the hissing as another background sound and proceed, but the popping and crackling indicated a loose wire or short circuit, likely attached to a speaker. She rose slowly from the bed, moving gingery towards the living area of the quarters, following the sound. It was not coming from the computer terminal's speakers... so that left only a hidden speaker or... there it was. The comm speaker on the wall was the culprit... the hash of interference was remarkably faint, but it was there. Over time someone with less sensitive hearing might learn to ignore it and never know why their quarters irritated them slightly, but it would interrupt sleep patterns and irritate on a subconscious level.

Psychological warfare... she wondered if it was a test of some sort, but quickly dismissed the possibility. This was Starfleet. That wasn't how they did things.

She looked in a few of the drawers, and sure enough, in one was a basic toolkit. She selected the screwdriver and used it to remove the speaker plate, then inspected the wiring and the circuit connections- all of them were solid and intact. She did not have a meter to test the voltage, nor a tricorder to take readings, but this was basic engineering. It was a class that she had actually taken three times at the Academy, due not to her inability to comprehend the material, but instead because of a personality conflict with the instructor, who did not care for her flippant tone and lack of respect (which he absolutely demanded, thus insuring that he got it only grudgingly from the cadets).

She pried open the access panel of the comm system and checked the wiring there before she spotted the culprit- a duotronic relay interface that had been faultily installed. It wasn't seated quite properly, but had instead been jammed in sufficiently to make it work, but poorly. She clucked over the poor workmanship, and levered the wedged part back out of its housing. Once she had freed it, she considered taking it to the Quartermaster for a replacement and dropping the damaged unit off for repairs, but with a seismic shrug decided against it.

Charybdis preferred her self-sufficiency, and if the unit could be fixed, why not handle it herself? She used the flat of the screwdriver to steady the contacts as she twisted the prongs of the unit back into their proper alignment with a slow and steady pressure, and in a moment the unit appeared to be back to its proper configuration. She gently placed the duotronic relay back into the control interface, where it slid gently before clicking satisfactorily into place. She powered up the unit and it was now blissfully silent, and she tested it by flipping the switch and declaring, "Lieutenant Charybdis to Operations."

"Operations, Chief Gutierrez here. You settled into those quarters, Lieutenant?"

She smiled and arched an eyebrow. "I am indeed, Chief. I haven't gotten lost in them, but I might. Would you like to come by for a tour?"

There was chuckling on the other end. "Maybe another time, Lieutenant, I'm on duty right now."

"I'll leave the invitation open. And Chief... thank you. Charybdis out."

She had access to the ship's library... in her own quarters... and she was curious to test the doctor's recommendation about setting conversation protocols with the computer. But she still had a lot of checking in to do yet, and too much work to do before she could settle in to her new home. But for now, she looked around once more at the embarrassment of space, where she could lay on the floor with her arms over her head and nearly be unable to touch the opposite wall, and she grinned like a child on her birthday.

Her new home.

****************

"Hey Chief... that new lieutenant, the vulcan with the big..." Chief Gutierrez cut him off before Crewman O'Neil could finish the rest of the statement.

"Uh huh. What about her, O'Neil?"

"I was looking at the assignments... didn't you put her in the same qurters the last two Execs were in, where they both said the place just drove 'em crazy?"

"Yup, that I did."

"But that's Deck 5, Chief... that's the senior staff quarters. Is she the new CSO?"

Chief Gutierrez shrugged and held his hands out, palms up. "Two senior staff have had it so far and they demanded relocation. Nobody wanted it, it was an open berth... and she ain't fully checked in yet. For all I know she just might be."


The ways of enlisted men scoring points with officers had changed in many ways over the centuries of naval traditions... but some things remained constant. Straight men appreciated pretty women, and a smile and an appreciative word would get a lot further than an angry and demanding authority figure.


Charybdis fell back on the bed one more time with a luxuriant sigh. Fortes fortuna aduivat indeed.

 

RSS Feed