Can I play engineer

Posted on Wed Jul 19th, 2023 @ 3:36pm by Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Maras (*)

Mission: Fractures
Location: Main Engineer
Timeline: MD -02 19:00
1395 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Maras had been trying to find her place on the ship ever since she had spoken to Cami back on Hysperia. There was only so much thinking about her dead mate and the family that had washed her hands of her she could do so her mind was made up - she was going to track down the chief engineer. It was late so she was hopeful he might still be there as she stepped into the engineering section, her eyes widened in awe. The vast expanse of the room was a symphony of mechanical marvels that she had not seen before not having ventured into many places outside of the living areas.

The air buzzed with the energy of creativity and ingenuity that she had not felt since she had left the Vulcan Humanities centre. Massive machinary hummed with power, pulsating control panels adorned the walls, displaying a mesmerising array of blinking lights and cascading data. Engineers moved with purpose, their confident strides accentuated by the clanking of tools. She felt a surge of excitement and respect for the complex machinery that surrounded her, realising she was potentially out of her league already.

Burnie was running status checks on the matter/anti-matter converter. After the prior failure it was so good to see it operating at high efficiency, with not a hitch. It had taken some time, but the rebuild was solid and he felt a warm glow every time he looked around engineering. Which he did just then, and noticed a visitor. "Maras, hey," he waved at the young woman, wondering why she was there. "Are you looking for someone?"

Maras looked up to see the man stood there waving at her. She offered a nods and walked over to him quickly. He looked a bit confused by her being there which was understand. “Yeah you.” She could have asked him at breakfast or another meal period but she wanted to have a professional conversation.

"Me?" His brows rose in surprise. Why Maras would be looking for him? He could only think of a few reasons she'd come down to engineering. "Did Cassie send you? Does she need something?"

Why did everyone assume that Cassie was involved when she was looking for something herself? She was her own person. “No Cassie did not send me I am here all by myself. I .. well I am looking for new challenges.” She started to explain.

"Okay... do you have anything specific in mind?" Burnie asked. Given the way she'd been gawking he got the impression she wasn't overly familiar with engineering, but you never knew. She might have just been in awe of all the upgrades. "Or any training in engineering or tech?"

A green tinge hit her cheeks as she looked around again and sighed. "That obviously that I do not have the training in engineering or tech hmm?" She asked shaking her head. "No. I was hoping that you might offer an apprenticeship or something?" It was a long shot to say the least but she had to ask the question to at least kill her curiosity.

"Hmm... well, the thing is engineering is pretty specialized. You need a solid foundation in math and applied science, plus design and lab work. There are apprenticeships, but people generally need a fair amount training or hands on experience to qualify for those," he explained. Hating to crush anyone's dreams, he tried to think of some way to bring her in. "The same is true for tech support, but entrance for those roles is less stringent. Do you have any experience with ODN circuits? Or tools? Ever taken a replicator apart to replace an isolinear chip? Repaired a shuttle or done basic maintenance?"

Maras stayed quiet for a long moment before she shook her head. “I have none of that really. My back ground is in Humanities. I was reaching.” she knew that to say the least but at least he was trying to be kind around it better than a long of people could have been around it.

"Hmm..." Try as he might, Burnie couldn't think of an engineering role suited to a Humanities background. "Yeah, sorry. But not every department needs as much prior training. Ask around, try things - you never know what you take to. I never shot a phaser until I joined Starfleet, but much to my mom's chagrin, I got into it and earned a marksman badge."

Maras took a slow breath and regathered herself from the set back. It was not an easy process to try and regather her thoughts and future options but she nodded. “I’ve been trying all day. Security was a bust and Operations you might want to ask your wife.”

"She doesn't run Ops anymore. You need to talk to Trades there," Burnie said, and frowned a bit as he tried to think of something helpful to suggest. "Medical? They need at least as much education as engineers, but I hear the CMO has some sort of training program going, so maybe you could get in on that."

“No I mean ask her about my operations attempt. I do not think it’s for me working with Trades.” Maras revealed but medical sounded interesting. “A training program? Hmm?” She thought about it for a moment considering her options. Medical has never appealed to her coming from a family of high flying science and medical but maybe she could at the very least give it a try to see if it worked with her.

"Medical isn't for everybody, if you're interested... worth an ask?" Burnie shrugged. Medical certainly wasn't his thing - he knew chemistry well enough to have an idea of what was in medicine and he understand basic mechanics, so he could set a bone, or at least tape up a sprain or break with duct tape and a splint, but that was about it. Go beyond those things and you had to deal with insides and bodily fluids, which... No. "Other than that, all can I think of is maybe you work on cataloging the stuff in the Grotto. Not necessarily figuring out what it all is, just archival type work - take images, organize and label, so we can get an idea of what's in there and where everything is." He offered an apologetic look for even suggesting it. "Kinda tedious, so we've only worked on it in fits and starts, but it is something that needs doing."

"Yeah, I will ask." Maras nodded thinking about the medical options she was being given but it was the mention of the grotto that pipped her interest and made her eyebrow shoot up. "What is the grotto?" She had heard the term but no one had really explained anything about it.

"Its where the former owner, the Collector, well, stashed all his collections," Burnie explained simply. "Not sure why it got tagged 'the grotto', but think of it like 'what would happen if a rich eccentric hoarder had a starship hold to keep stuff in?'."

Maras nodded that made sense when she thought about it properly but it was certainly someone who was eccentric who gave themselves that kind of moniker. It spoke volumes of a man who had kept a 150 year old ship if she was honest too. “I might ask as it sounds like a story.” she decided now that she knew that there was such a thing on bird she might ask to check it out more.

"Let me know when you find out," Burnie replied. "I'm kinda curious now that I'm thinking about it again. Anyway, it's worth checking out. There is a lot of cool stuff in there." He ducked his head with a partial grin. "Last time I tried going through it, I didn't get far because I kept getting sidetracked examining bits of odd tech. But even for people not so easily distracted, the work to sort and catalog it all is more than any of us with other jobs can handle."

“Wel yeah this has been enlightening and I appreciate the kindness you have shown.” The woman said quickly as the noticed another engineer coming towards them to give over information or something. “I should let you get back to work.”

He nodded, eyes already scanning the engineering bay. "That I should. Good luck."