Out of the Box

Posted on Thu May 28th, 2015 @ 11:21pm by Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco & Ensign Daisy Skie-Cloud

Mission: The Belle of Bellatrix
Location: Mess Hall
Timeline: 2278.48: 1305hrs.

Daisy sat in the mess hall, grumbling softly as she glared at a piece of equipment. Her jacket folded neatly and hung over the back of her chair she sat in. Her tray sat next to her of empty dirty dishes. Her attention was more focused on piece of equipment she was fiddling with. She would give it a slap and resume fiddling with malfunctioning piece of equipment.

Just about to take her own lunch, pocket it and return to her office, Ri noticed the communications officer's trouble and sidled up to the edge of the table, her tray still in hand. "Is it giving you lip or something? Do you need a hand?"

Daisy looked up. "Yes Lieutenant." Shoving the equipment she was trying to get to work towards DiMarco. "Please sit." Smiling in relief. "The Device just up and quit on me. Refuses to work anymore."

"Well, yeah.." the engineer said, dropping down into an open chair with boneless grace. Ri slid her tray aside and reached for the device with her fingertips, drawing it towards her slightly. "You smack a console. You kick a shuttle. Little babies like this require finesse. You've got to sweet talk them, then thump them and if they still don't work, you start your threats."

"It won't work, cause I already tried talking to it. And please forgive me for using violence on it. I may have broke it." Daisy looked down with a soft blush on her face. "After my meal I was going to get a new one. But I need the information on it. I recorded a transmission on it near the end of my shift on the Bridge that I was in the process of translating. It just up and quit on me!"

"Hey.. it's nothing to get worked up over. Don't even worry." The blush threw Rianna off completely. The kid fit her name- all soft and delicate like a flower- which in turn mean that Ri had no idea how to deal with it. "Even if it's bustified, we can pop out the internal memory and transfer it to a new hardbox, no sweat."

"That would be very nice!" Daisy exclaimed looking up at Rianna. "I have a new language on it that I picked up. I just hope that I can get another chance at recording it. Captain is expecting a working translation on it today." She fidgeted in her seat, looking hopeful.

"Okay, okay.. so look.." DiMarco unceremoniously plucked up her lunch, smooshed it together enough to be pocket-carrying size when wrapped in a napkin, picked up her drink in one hand and the device in the other. "Let's go open up this baby and see what we can do with it. I've got the right tools and the work space on Deck H. There's this funny little guy named Jeffrey there that works magic on anything techety-tech. Between him and I you'll be A-OK in a tick."

"Awesomeness!" Daisy exclaimed delightfully, picking up the trays as she stood up and left her uniform jacket still draped over the back of her chair as she disposed of the trays after Rianna got her food prepped for travel.

"Jacket.." Ri reminded her almost motherly before leading the way out and into the hall. "So you're communications.." she said, just to keep the conversation going. "Just always had a knack for language or was it something that you pushed to learn because you wanted it?"

Skie-Cloud sighed as she scampered back to get her jacket and return. "A bit of both. My home world is a major resort for everyone since Terran have joined the Federation of United Planets. Fup as we call it. We've gained control of our weather and terraformed it so that clothing was not needed. Except for the more hazardous jobs that needs to be done." She moved along side of Rianna as she spoke. "I've always been fascinated with Languages and cyphers. It makes one feel at home when you're on a strange planet far from home to hear your native tongue being spoken. Plus it is good to show that you're interested in the new species you meet when you make the effort to communicate in their native language. It shows more of a peaceful intent than a superior attitude that you deem them as inferiors."

"I can see that.." The more the woman spoke, the more Rianna's gut started to talk. This one will need an eye kept out for her. This one will need someone with a big stick looking out for her. It wasn't that she rang of being unable to take care of herself, just that she was sweet in an odd way and that didn't come around every day. The thought made Rianna groan inside, as the last sweet kid she took to looking after ended up getting her in more fights than she could count because she was pretty and kind and the wrong kind of men just flocked to her in droves. Yup, she sighed. She'd better find out if the brig had good food in advance. "How long have you been out and about off world now?"

Daisy looked thoughtful as she did the math. "From Terran perspective. 2 years to date. Sol-3 perspective, 5 years." She smiled warmly as she took in a new section of the ship. "Is it always this noisy down here?" Peeking into room or down corridors that she could see into.

"Oh yeah. That's the heartbeat of the ship that you're hearing. Hit the right warp and the deck plates down here hum. It gets so ingrained in you that when you're off ship, you feel like part of you is missing. If the vibration isn't right or the hum isn't quite on key, something's broken." The engineers said as she steered them through the passages to a small workshop tucked back off a cargo area.

"Jeffy, bud, this is Daisy." After she pointed it out, a small, thin man moved from his corner of the workshop. Before then he almost blended in to the off yellow light and odd corners. He was all lank and odd angles. Odd on top of odd with a bit of awkward thrown in for good measure. "She has a broken goodie that I need you to eyeball and see if we can fix it."

Jeffrey smiled thinly at Daisy and mock-removed a hat to give her a crisp bow. "Welcome to the pit, ma'am. "

Daisy bowed back as she was wearing pants. If she had a skirt on, she would've curtsied. "Thank you for your welcome, Master Jeffery. And a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She spoke to him as one would an equal or better than herself in stature and station in life.

"Let us see what you have here then.." he said, taking the box and gently setting it on his desk. He took a multitude of fine tools out of a tube set in a tray at the rear of a bench and rather efficiently stripped the exterior of the case off of it in a matter of moments. His long fingers teased and pried with a surprising amount of grace until the frame was completely uncovered. After a bit more of poking, he tugged a bit of wiring out of the center that looked as if it had fused into a solid mass in one section. He held it out on the end of a pair of long, skinny forceps for Daisy to see.

"There was a power surge? A fan disruption? Perhaps the cooling unit died?" Jeffrey suggested more than asked before showing DiMarco as well.

"The wiring's easy to replace. The rest seems intact, though, yeah?" Ri peered a the unit as well, cheek to cheek with Jeffrey without either one seeming the least bit bothered by it. "Ehh the fan.."

Jeffrey waved a hand as if it was no big deal. "We can replace that and perhaps shield it better against surges. I would wager that the rest is intact.. give me just a few moments. Ri, if you would do me the honors and tip my wires?"

He set to work systematically taking apart the interior of the cube and replacing components from the bottom up, Ri assisting him as an apprentice would while he masterfully rebuilt the piece. The entire process took about twenty minutes, before the machine dutifully hummed to life again.

This was way out of her league. Daisy helped by staying out of the way of the two working. Not even lifting a hand to fetch anything as they knew the workshop better than herself. She smiled as the device hummed to life. "Thank you very much!"

"Any time. Jeffy's a god at fine work. I just tinker with it really, but between the two we can get it done." Ri gave the comm officer an impish grin.

Daisy return the grin with a smile that radiated warmth. "You both have my gratitude." On impulse, she hugged Jeffrey and then Rianna, of thanks and friendship. She played the recorded transmission of the new language. It was way clearer than when she first heard it. "I gotta get you both on the bridge and overhaul the coms station!"

Ri returned the hug sheepishly. Hugs were one of those things that got weird quick unless everyone was drunk. Then hugging was every other beer. It was like saying 'I love you temporarily now hold me up'. "That takes a little more planning, but yeah -- we can do that."

Daisy nodded as she moved towards the exit. She was engrossed in the message, replaying it as she spoke the words along with the message as she walked out from the workshop heading back up to her territory of the ship. She gave a wave to Jeffrey as exited.

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Ensign Daisie Skie-Cloud
Communications Officer
USS Farragut

Lt. Rianna DiMarco
Engineering Chief
USS Farragut

Ensign Jeffrey Alteman (PNPC DiMarco)
Engineer