For The Very First Time

Posted on Tue Dec 1st, 2020 @ 12:20pm by Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Rozia & Lon Nren & Lieutenant Roxa Onaix
Edited on on Sat Dec 5th, 2020 @ 3:25pm

Mission: Enforced Intermission
Location: Transporter Room, Unnamed Starfleet Vessel

"Energize." Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Rozia gave the order to the Engineering Ensign that was serving part time duty as the transporter chief. The ship still didn't have a name and she was only a few weeks away from being ready for her shakedown cruise. Just that morning, Commander O'Hern had left the ship for the last time, formally turning the ship over to Evelyn for the final touches and to iron out any bugs. It would be the engineer who would then turn over the ship to the first commanding officer and revert to her official status of Chief Engineer and Minder of the Quantum Slipstream Drive, something she looked forward to.

Of course, part of being 'in charge' also meant that she was the one to greet the incoming members of the prospective crew of the new Odyssey-class starship and there was a lot of starship to get used to and introduce people to. She already had well over a hundred of her engineering crew on board going through the systems and squashing the bugs they found. Truth be told, if the ship was needed to move somewhere for an emergency, she could do the job, but it just wouldn't be right. And the two people that were arriving... Lieutenant Roxa Onaix, a Betazoid Intelligence officer from the USS Horton and a civilian named Lon Nren, who'd won the contract for the main lounge of this ship and would run the place.

As the shimmer of the transporter beam expanded and then contracted, Evelyn clasped her hands behind her back and put on the slight smile that her people knew was her go-to with new people. She waited for a trio of heartbeats after the shimmer stopped and then nodded, "Lieutenant Onaix, Mister Nren, welcome aboard. I do apologize, but as of the moment, this bird doesn't have a name, but we expect to obtain one within the next couple of weeks. I'm Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Rozia, the Chief Engineer and at this time de-facto commanding officer until we're assigned an actual Command officer."

Lon looked positively jovial as he stepped down from the transporter pad. The Betazoid extended a hand to Rozia. "It is a pleasure to meet you Commander." He said.

She unclamped her hands and gave the civilian a firm handshake, “The pleasure is mine, Mister Nren, especially after you get the lounge all set up.” Her smile grew a bit, “Unfortunately, you’re going to be the one to figure out how you want to do it, because it’s an empty room at the moment. I’ve got one of my engineers at your beck and call to help with the requisitions and programming needs that you’re going to have, but it’s a completely blank slate for you to play with.”

Smiling, Lon spoke. "Speaking of the lounge, I have some containers that are making their way through customs. I would appreciate some assistance in making sure they get aboard."

“Just let your new minion know which customs warehouse they’re in and we’ll see what we can do to expedite their arrival.” Evelyn grinned, “Can I assume there’s nothing in there that the customs people will be suspicious about? Or are we going to have to get ‘creative’?”

Lon appreciated the offer. "Everything should be in good order for them." He said with a charming smile.

Roxa had swung her bag over her shoulder and came off the transporter, she was excited to be serving aboard the ship of no name and gave a nod and general "hello"

Evelyn hadn't been ignoring Roxa and looked apologetically at her, "If you both don't mind, I'm going to get you to your quarters, and Lieutenant, we'll take you to yours first. Your clearances are already in place and you have access to virtually anywhere on the ship. Your office and your quarters have standalone consoles alongside your normal ones for any classified material that can't be allowed in the main computer system. You also have a double-safe in your quarters, we had someone from Intelligence install the inner safe with the direction that you have the combination for that. When you're ready, I'll come up and make sure we get the outer safe combination programmed properly. I haven't gotten your nametag on the outside of the quarters yet, because I'm sure that people will get lost a fair bit."

"Very good Commander" Roxa replied with a smile, it sounded like the Lieutenant Commander had everything under control. Roxa would go over the latest intel reports once she was settled in, she was sure there were some things she was behind on.

"Mister Nren, regrettably, you won't get all the lovely considerations of the Lieutenant here. You're going to be stuck in the civilian areas of the ship and also the crew quarter areas, since I'm sure you'll be asked to deliver some special dishes, by the way, I'll need the menu just in case." She winked at him, "For any other areas, you'll need approval from a senior officer and have an escort to those areas, those terms to be changed by the incoming Captain at their discretion."

"Completely understandable." It was a strange feeling for Lon, starting at the bottom again. Aboard the Galaxy he essentially had free run of the ship. He was often called to the Bridge to deliver tea to the XO, or to Engineering to bring lunch. This was certainly a change.

While she wasn’t Betazoid, something niggled at the back of Evelyn’s mind, or was it Rozia’s? Either way, her instincts were rarely wrong and she felt the need to explain, “I’m sure that you’ll be given far more freedom on the ship than most other civilians, especially since you’re going to be an essential and permanent fixture on board. For the moment, though, I’m just being extremely cautious and probably paranoid. We have a lot of the newest equipment on board, some of it highly classified, and I’m just the engineer charged with keeping it all working properly, not the one who will be running the entire ship. If and probably when the CO gives their approval, I’d love to give you a tour of engineering and the heart of what makes this ship what she is.” She gave a soft smile, hoping she was getting across that it truly was just her own paranoia.

Roxa gave a smile. "Right much of it is classified and you will be given a list of decks and sections that are off limits to someone with your access levels."

While Nren understood the limitations that were imposed on Civilian contractors on Starfleet ships, he couldn't help but feel a bit insulted by Roxa's assertion about someone with his access levels. He forced a smile and returned his attention to Evelyn. "So engineering eh? That must be exciting?"

“Exciting? Yes, at times, especially when things go spectacularly wrong.” Evelyn chuckled and grinned, “But most of the time it’s boring work, running checks on perfectly operating machinery and systems, routine maintenance and answering the silly foibles of random people asking us to do mundane things. The boredom is a sign of a really good engineering crew doing the job right, so that’s what we s shoot for. And skill upgrades, of course, getting every one of us to learn new things so we can be ready for those ‘exciting’ times. Of course, we’ve been ironing bugs out of the system for a few months and plenty of them to go around, so make sure to report any of them right away so we can squash them. Just no spiders, please, those are o e of the only things I can’t handle well.”

"Call security for spider squish" Roxa added with a certain tone to her voice.

Lon chuckled. "Shall we move on to the tour then?"

"That would be great" Lieutenant Onaix gave a slight smile.

Evelyn chuckled, "Right, I suppose that would be for the best, then, but it's going to be quick, because if I gave you two a tour of the whole ship? She's over a kilometer long, a third of a kilometer wide and thirty-seven decks; It'd be a multiple day event." She grinned, "So what say we start with..."