Some Sage Advice
Posted on Wed May 20th, 2015 @ 9:30pm by Captain Aidan Rackham & Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco
Mission:
The Belle of Bellatrix
Location: Main Engineering [O Deck, USS Farragut]
Timeline: 2278.49: 1200hrs.
"Nope! Nope! You're still choking up, hoss! Quit sweatin' so much and open up the line a bit more. You're doing fine!" Ri DiMarco yelled over the edge of the railing to an engineer one level below- and obviously in earshot as he bellowed back up at her.
"Reeeeaaaal funny, wrench rat! Ow, damn it.. How's the read now?"
"Still tighter than your shorts, hayseed! Keep being so prissy with that coupling, buddy, and I'll have to ask your old lady why you can't get the job done!" That got a couple of laughs from the railings above and below- including from Hank, who the remark was directed at.
Still not budging, boss. I'm gonna need a second set of hands on this.
DiMarco opened her mouth to tell Esco to mind the readings and head down a deck to help herself, but low and behold she saw the Captain striding down the way and quickly took the closest tool at hand and rapped it against the railing twice, warning anyone nearby without saying a word to mind their mouth while the honcho was in earshot. She leaned in close to Esco who was already nervously eyeing the captain- no doubt picturing what 90 things went wrong to have a brass man walking through the pits- and whispered in his ear. "Tell Paul to get with Hank on the fix and you take over the feed. I'll head this off."
He answered her with a low growl that was as close to talkative as Esco liked to get in a day and off Ri went to meet Rackham with a tight grin, wiping her hands off on her hips just in case he wanted to shake hands or something formal like that. "Afternoon, sir. Welcome to the pit. What can I do for ya today?"
Engineering was the last stop on Rackham's whistle-stop tour of the stations and as expected, there was DiMarco up to her elbows in some kind of grime or other. Thank god they made protective suits or she would probably go through a uniform a day.
"Afternoon, Lieutenant." Rackham eyed the nervous looking ranks who seemed to be desperately grappling with... he had no idea what it was. "Everything going okay?"
"Everything's spiffy," she answered with her usual lopsided grin. "Just up to the usual no good, sir, while getting what's gotta be done done. Don't mind the boys none- they're just bein' creatures and forgetting their manners. A little shy 'round the tongue when it comes to brass coming around. That usually means trouble.." Ri let the words trail off while studying Rackham's face for a moment. "So is it trouble?"
"No trouble." Rackham said breezily, still trying to come to terms with the scale of the engine room- he had never felt comfortable among the engineering apparatus. "Thought I'd come down and see how things were coming together."
Ri, glanced back over her shoulder and found that most of her men had conveniently made themselves gone from view, then back at Rackham with a small sigh. "So you want the two credit tour then? I promise not to get you all dirty or fill your ear with jargon, just show you that all is neat and stitched up and running smooth. Heart, lungs: whole shebang."
"That would be excellent. I'm going to be relying on you to be my eyes and ears on the lower decks. I know there's nothing that sparks hate more than constantly having the higher-ups looking over their shoulders." Rackham had already had a few less than pleasant experiences as an executive officer and he doubted that it would be any better now he was the CO.
DiMarco's eyebrows raised sharply at that, her crooked grin dipping just a little. "'Scuse me if this is out of line, sir, but I'm gonna be frank here. You tell me to be your touchstone down here; that's fine. But anytime you get the need to go walking down here , you do so. This ain't no club. If any of my guys gives you any noise for being here, you tell me and I'll jerk a knot in their head. It's your ship and you'll do what you do. If they ever want departments of their own, they've gotta learn to deal with command crew properly."
She set her hands on her hips, half expecting a flak from the next bit that came trailing out of her mouth. "Any ship that I've ever been on falls one of three ways: either the captain's loved and people follow him by choice. The captain's hated and he's followed by will. Or he's a mediocre snot and they pull the bare minimum to stay out of his way. Down here the third option won't apply because I won't let it happen, but the other two are up to you. You lead my men, they'll follow and they won't gripe a bit about it."
"I appreciate that." Rackham replied, his confidence partially restored. He could tell DiMarco was an incredibly competent engineer. Turned out she was a pretty competent counselor too. He patted one of the bulkheads in an effort to change the subject. "How does she compare to your last assignment?"
"The ship?" Ri made a face that conveyed whether clearly that she still wasn't decided. "The Katana was a piece of crap, but she was mine. I knew her inside and out. Small ship, tight crew, systems shoehorned in and waaaaay overdue for upgrades." She smiled warmly as she thought about her last post. "I loved her."
"The Farragut still needs to show her colors. The upgrades weren't as smooth as i'd like, so there's still way too many systems just biding their time until they blow up. Looks great in theory and give midline performance reports, but pfft.." She waved her hands for a moment then shrugged. "Computers lie. They're sneaky. Everything says that it's fine until some subsystem loosely connected overheats and you get a cascade failure of system A that shuts down F through J. Luckily, for you I have my guys eyes on, hands on and we go over the systems physically anyhow. Make 'em work for their dinner." -Back to your question- I'm still getting a feel for her. We're still in in the wooing phase. Ask later."
"I'll be sure to check back." Rackham smiled.
Captain Aidan Rackham
Commanding Officer
Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco
Chief Engineer
