Engineering Knowhow

Posted on Thu Sep 25th, 2025 @ 7:38am by Lieutenant Aidan O'Connor & Chief Petty Officer Aaron Geiger

1,396 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Holding Pattern Hijinks
Location: USS Washington

Aidan and a sheepish looking ensign stood waiting for the full load to transport over. The long await ship Kobayashi had finally arrived, and along with the supplies it was delivering, two dozen new crewmembers were coming aboard, including a group of rotating in engineers. The ship was still a bit light there since the incident with the Mirror Universe insurgents, and Aidan and his people had been working a great many double shifts to compensate for the loss of personnel.

"Just signaling now lieutenant" the transporter chief noted. "Preparing to transport six."

"Energize" the Irish lieutenant said in that gentle voice of his, a touch of exhaustion present. He watched as the group materialized on the transporter pad in the standard blue hue of a Federation transporter, and as they did, he took a deep cleansing breath and let it out slowly, clearing his mind and readying himself.

"Right then. Listen up lads..." he began, before noticing the beautiful young female ensign, "and you too lass...I'm Lt O'Connor, and if you are here to work in Engineering, and by the look of your uniforms you all are, then you'll be working for me. Technically speaking, it is the captain's ship, but we're engineers, and the ship doesn't run without us. Now then, Ensign DeVito here is just going to check to make sure we have everyone we are supposed to, and then we'll go from there."

The callow and timid young ensign checked his PaDD and then began to call out names, "Ensign Powers." He looked at noted the tall skinny ensign in the back. "Ensign Slater." Looking again, standing in the front, just to the right of center was a muscular looking human that fit the description. "Ensign Morris." The third choice was next to Slater, this time a handsome male that could rival O'Connor, at least in appearance. "Ensign Kreuzer." Another human, but by the looks of him, he had some Rigelian in his background. "Lt Kapowski." It was the woman. She flashed a smile that could melt a glacier in the middle of winter on Andoria. "Chief Geiger" the young ensign called out, looking around for the last person on the list.

"Here sir!" Called a confident voice immediately. "Chief Petty Officer Aaron Geiger, reporting as ordered." The Chief stood in a crisp uniform, but with sleeves partially rolled around his forearms. He carried a backpack full of tools, emblazoned in Engineering Gold over his right shoulder. "And what a ship she is." Aaron said looking around the transporter room.

Chief Geiger waited for the officers to step off the transporter pad first, forming a group around the Lieutenant. Finally, he approached and offered his hand. "Nice to meet you sir, can't wait to turn some wrenches and get this beautiful lady running better than ever."

Aidan shook the chief's hand. "Welcome aboard Chief." He looked to DeVito, "Where is the Chief berthed?"

DeVito checked his PaDD. "The Chief is here on Deck 9 sir. The rest are berthed on Deck 4" he replied.

"Chief, you look ready to get to it. That is a welcome change. Been shorthanded here for several weeks. You feel like getting to work?"

"I am sir. I took the liberty of downloading and going through several of the Sovereign class specific technical manuals on the trip over, helped drown out the chatter of our esteemed young officers." Geiger said with the slightest of smirks. "In fact..." He walked over to the rear of the transporter pad and lifted a small access panel, swinging his pack down beside him reaching inside. "That slight hissing noise you hear for a few minutes after the beam sequence finishes?" Several mechanical clicks sounded shortly followed by the panel closing.

Aaron stood back up and walked over to the group again. "One of the minor power relays shook loose. Happens with people walking over the pad over time. We can mark that off in the maintenance log. One less thing sir."

Aidan gave a soft chuckle. "You are certainly going to help me clear the long list of things the captain wants done around here. You work that efficiently, we might even have time for some craic and a few drinks down in the lounge. Get down to Engineering after you check out your quarters and I'll put you to work" Aidan said with a smile. "The rest of you lot, go with DeVito to see your lodging. You are all on duty for Delta shift in four hours."

Geiger made his way through the passageways of the deck to his assigned quarters. As the doors hissed open, he smiled. "Room to myself, finally making Chief was worth it." He placed the pack down, taking out his well-worn olive drab tool belt and clipped it on. Then reached back in and took out a small, framed photo, placing it on his empty desk adjacent to his rack. It depicted a group of smiling young crewmen surrounding a surly Tellarite Lieutenant all wearing Starfleet's previous uniform. -Engineering Dept, USS Trial 2372 "Crafting Excellence One Bolt At a Time!" It was the before. Even after all these years this picture proved to be a different reality. The one before the Dominion and the one after, the one of now. There was no time to dwell, he'd survive as he always had, keeping busy.

Aaron consulted his PaDD and swiftly traveled to Main Engineering. Nearly colliding with a young Ensign as he entered. "Ope, sorry about that sir. Didn't see you there." He said with an apologetic smile. Spotting the lieutenant, he excused himself politely and approached.

"Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long sir, what've we got?" Chief Geiger said joining him.

Aidan chuckled. "I actually talked up that new lieutenant. Couldn't help myself. But you are right Chief, time for work right now, play time will have to wait." He looked over his list of things they were working on, "I am guessing you have seen pretty much everything, am I right Chief?"

"Oh I wouldn't say that sir." Aaron replied. "If I've seen everything that would mean the journey is over, and I'm not ready for my destination quite yet." He said with a wink. "Still, I would describe my experience with starships fairly extensive. Although, the Washington is by far the largest ship I've crewed." He looked around at the other engineers going about their tasks. "I'm well versed in most of the sub-systems maintenance procedures. I also learned against the Dominion I've got a decent head on my shoulders for damage control should this ship find itself on the two-way phaser range. I can handle specialized problems myself, or if you give me a handful of enlisted crewmen, I can organize them for widespread issues. Also, won't hurt my ego if you send me out on the tasks, you'd rather not do yourself like height adjustments to the captain's chair."

Aidan nodded. "You've been around since before the war. That means you can handle weapons systems and defensive systems repair. You know, this ship may be a Sovereign class, but it has a few modifications thanks to the captain. I didn't know about them until I arrived, and you have to have the right sort of clearance to even work on those systems. I checked your file and double checked with tactical, and you are cleared. I need you to go repair the faulty relays to the ablative shield generators. I can assign others to assist you if necessary."

"Aye Aye Sir, consider it done." Aaron nodded, already looking through schematics on his PaDD. "It'll be tight quarters accessing the relays so a full team would slow me down more than assist. However, this is a good opportunity so if you can spare them I'll take a young technician with a desire to learn with me." He looked back up at the Lieutenant. "A good Chief is a fire and forget torpedo sir. If you want to sync your maintenance reporting with me; I'll move through the critical items independently and update the feed. As we work together more, I'll be able to better anticipate your priorities."

"I'll look into that Chief" Aidan replied. "I'll have Ramirez meet you at the first junction. Have fun with this Chief. When you get done, I'll see what else you can work on."

 

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