Junior Officers

Posted on Wed Jul 13th, 2016 @ 10:14pm by Ensign Vex Krylore

Episode: Lost Property
Location: EPS Control Room
Timeline: 1.5 Hours After Establishing Communications Post

Vex had grown accustomed to some weirdness in Starfleet. It was, after all, part of the job. What he was still unaccustomed to was the vast amount of strange things that appeared to happen to starships on a somewhat startling bases. Ships were always getting caught in quantum filaments, cosmetic streams, or micro nebulas. Holodecks seemed to go offline or try and kill the crew more often than they worked properly and there always seemed to be some sort of time travel paradox a crew was running across in some fashion or another. At least life in Starfleet was never going to be dull.

Given the majority of the senior staff were working on was to communicate with the other ship, the one that was phased out of this reality left Vex to finish up some last minute security checks. Nearly all the defensive and offensive systems were at their peak efficiency with the sole exception being the number three phaser generator, which was having some problems with intermittent power spikes. He knew most of engineering and ops were busy working on the more pressing concern so he felt relatively certain that he could at least diagnose the problem.

Avery tapped another series of commands into his PADD, frowned and then looked back at the display in the EPS Control Room. Located on one of the lower most decks, it was not his favorite place to be but with most of the rest of the engineering staff working on speaking to the other crew, he was left to track down a minor curiosity in the EPS systems. He heard the faint sound of booted heels and on the deck and turned as another junior officer entered.

"Sir," Avery nodded.

For a moment Vex was perplexed. He had no idea why the other man would be calling him sir... at least until he realized that he was a member of the ships NCO staff. Truthfully, Vex had never really understood the officer system in Starfleet.

"Is there something that I can help you with?"

"Um, no ensign... Stiles, was it?" Vex asked.

"That's right, wait Ensign Krylore?" Avery questioned. "You just came aboard, right sir."

"Please stop calling me sir," Vex shuddered. "It makes me feel old."

"Sorry, force of habit," Avery shrugged. "There are a few ensigns on this ship that seem to enjoy pointing out that I outrank them even though they don't know squat about the engineering systems on this boat."

"I can assure you I won't be one of them," Vex responded, looking around the room. "Actually, maybe you could help me with something. I noticed a slight power spike from the number three phaser generator during our normal power up tests. I tracked the problem to the EPS systems but that's about as far as I got."

"Sure," Avery nodded, moving to another panel. "Let's try to power up the generator and see what happens."

Vex nodded and then went to another station and brought the generator online, while Avery watched his own panel. "Yup, there it is. Weird, did you try running a diagnostic?"

"Yeah, it came back fine."

Avery tapped in several commands. "Hm, it could be a faulty sensor relay or maybe a problem with the coding."

"Software?"

Avery nodded. "Yeah, it might take us a while but I get we can track the problem down. I can call you when I am done."

"No way," Vex responded. "I don't have anything else to do and I always enjoy learning new things. I am cement in your hands. Mold me."

"Putty," Avery said.

"Huh?"

"You're putty in my hands and I don't really think that was the reference you were going for, at any rate pull up a chair and have a seat. Time to get your learn on."

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