Arrogant Snob VS Chip On A Shoulder

Posted on Tue Aug 1st, 2017 @ 6:53pm by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Jeassaho Kea (*)

Mission: Mission 4 - Combustion
Location: Deck 6 - Converted Cargo Bag
Timeline: MD 01 :: 20:00
1849 words - 3.7 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Jeassaho was wearing an engineering boiler suit. She had some grease on her suit and her face and all over her hands. Her hair was tied into a haphazard ponytail with some loose strands finding their way on her face. A loud bang followed by some swear words were heard from the compartment that she was trying to work in and she resisted the urge to laugh at the sheer exhaustion she was feeling.

Braden saw a sign up sheet for helpers to repair the bay so he once he was patched up properly he went to eat then a nap before returning to the scene of the crime. He walked into the bay and saw Jeasaho in an engineering dirty uniform. He had put on a coverall jumpsuit and thick gloves from the 'clean' stack outside "So you still seeking helpers or should i go?"

"You got that stick out of your ass yet and can you weld?" Jeassaho wondered softly wiping her forehead which just moved the soot and grime around her pretty face. In the ten hours that had passed since the last time he had been in the Cargo Bay a huge pile of twisted metal was in the corner.

Braden ignored the comment and picked up a welders cover. "Where should I go to work?" Braden had helped with repairs to the small craft as a marine, he figured the ship would be much the same, they were made of the same materials after all, just bigger.

"It's mostly welding the damaged areas out." She pointed to where the hull plating had twisted. "Anything that looks bomb-y to be put in the trays for security and the Captain to go through." She murmured pulling free a piece that looked like it had been the mechanical floor to allow the other cargo bag below to be moved up and down. "Be careful though. I've already fallen through a few areas that can't weight bare and I weigh a lot less. They have been marked out the best I could." She indicated a few areas that had white paint around them.

Braden tilted his head but spoke in a quiet authoritative voice "Ahh, have you sent a team down to deck-7 to inspect the damage. They could shore up the ceiling below if the deck is that compromised? Or you could lay out some hull plating on the weakened areas for a temporary fix? Working on an unsafe floor is rather reckless."

Jeassaho turned slowly to look at him. For such a small woman she had an incredible presence about her that made people normally relax and admire her but now she looked angry. "Do you think i am that such a bad engineer that i wouldn't have done that?" She wondered just as quietly.

"I think you told me the floor was unsafe." Braden could care less about her attitude, he had seen a lot worse then her as a marine. Having the demon face of a Reman in your face as he tried to kill you left most other confrontations a very pale second. "If you had taken the precautions I mentioned then the floor would no longer be unsafe." He smiled "I have not formed any opinion to your competence as yet. I have noted you definitely have an unwelcoming demeanor, at least where I am concerned. I can not hold that against you though, a lot of people do not like me it seems."

"Have you wondered if it was because you are full of yourself. You've been here a week and I don't think I've met anyone who doesn't think you are a smug bastard who had rubbed everyone up the wrong way. You aren't in Starfleet anymore MacCloud which means we don't have the resources or expertise to do what I would normally do to approach a situation like this." The small woman took a deep breath before she spat more venom at him. "The floor below lifts up and down, currently it is on the top level making it impossible to access to do much more than..."

"Whoa you two..." Rueben said hooking an arm around Jeassaho before she launched herself at the man. "What is going on?"

"Your engineer here was telling me I am considered a smug bastard. She was explaining standard safety protocols do not apply on this ship as it is not a Fleet vessel. She also mentioned she does not have the expertise or resources she needs. She was explaining in her own sweet manner how the deck below is somehow making it impossible to shore up this floor to make working conditions here safer for the people working here." He shifted his focus from the Captain to her adding "did I leave anything out?"

Jeassaho made another move to get at him but Russain Captain picked her up off her fit. "Go take a walk!" He instructed her. She shoved the Captain away from her and muttered something in a soft language.

Braden watched her walk away. He spoke absently to the air around him. "I never even saw her before this mornings incident? I helped her and she acted like I stabbed her in the back? Now I walk in here and she jumped on me as soon as I entered the bay." He shrugged "by your leave Sir I will go get some hull plating to shore up the floor here to make it safer to work on."

"You can't... JJ wasn't just being difficult." Rueben murmured pulling out a piece of plastic film from his jump suit. It was strange to see the man in anything other than his black trousers and black tee, he looked more approachable and less formidable in the old style jump suit. "This deck runs on a hydraulic lift to make the cargo bay below able to hold different types of containers."

Braden had no idea why he could not lay down a few sheets of hull plating so people would not fall through the floor but the Captain agreed with the engineer so he shrugged and went to work cutting away burned or heat warped supports and then cutting new ones from stock and welding them into place. He avoided the other engineers as their glares made it apparent they supported the woman. Other then not bothering the other engineers though he concentrated on the tasks at hand and worked efficiently, accomplishing as much as any of the others and a good bit more then most of them.

"So how come you can weld and do that?" A voice asked after an hour or so of silence in the Cargo Bay or what was left of it. Jeassaho stood there holding a steaming mug.

Braden knew the voice and replied without turning "Marine fighter units are often short tech support. We all sort of got on the jib training repairing our own boats. No one wanted to be out of the action because their ride was dead lined. He finished the weld then turned raising the full face hood. "There are other reasons as well but i generally do not get into them much. People begin to think I am an arrogant snob if i talk to much." He smiled as he said it. "You want to start over or would you rather just keep the chip on your shoulder?"

"I already think you are an arrogant snob." Jeassaho commented on as she held out the second mug to him. "Hot chocolate?" She offered.

He shut down his equipment and removed his hood and gloves "thanks." He accepted the cup and blew across the top before sipping. "Should be done here soon, has been a long night for your crew but they stuck to the task like real troopers." Braden was tired as well "tomorrow I will be at the Captain's discretion if I am here working with you or somewhere else. He wanted me involved in the investigation of this incident."

"He was muttering something about forensics. Did you find anything else as you were going?" She said sitting down on the floor crossing her legs. "They are troopers." She assured. The few Engineers that they had were good, they were getting there and that was all she could ask from a bunch of civilians who had learnt as they were going.

"The evidence points in my way of thinking to an attack to destroy the gifts? Which makes no sense to me. The bomb and it was a bomb was a fire bomb. It obviously caused a lot of damage but the damage to the ship was peripheral. The bomb was seemingly placed to and designed to focus the fire at the other presents? They used phosphorous as a catalyst to ignite the magnesium. Both those elements burn at heat level to.. Well melt even a starship hull. They burn very fast though and the design of the bomb meant the damage to the ship would not be a disaster but the gifts.. They would be consumed." Braden reverted to his marine report to command tone as he basically was giving a report. He made eye contact after "I have no idea why someone would destroy the wedding gifts.. Unless?" Braden looked around "unless a valuable gift was a fake and this is a scam?"

"Shh..." The woman said lowly moving closure to him. "Some of the Engineers are Ardanan miners." She whispered indicating a pair that were helping move the damaged plating to carts to take to the industrial replicators for destroying. "It makes no sense it's why Rueben is conducting interviews tomorrow." She murmured as one of the Ardanan's smiled at her.

Braden nodded as he smiled back at the miner. He had not known about the miners helping and she had asked about what he knew. "I am sure it will come to light eventually." He answered trying to be discreet. He finished the hot chocolate she had brought him and stood "I have a little more to do before I call it a night. If you need me for anything else just call me. If the captain does not need me I will come."

"Yes but they don't need to know that you know that when I didn't know that when I didn't think the investigation was finished," Jeassaho said stretching out her legs in front of her as she stretched a little. "Go for it. I don't think i am finished yet." She had a few more things to think about and process.

Braden stopped to process the long run-on sentence before nodding. "I agree, it was indiscreet of me." he put his hood and gloves back on, turned on the welder "clear." He spoke warning anyone he was going back to work. He began working to finish this last support he had planned for the day.

OFF:

Braden MacCloud
Chief Science
SS Mary Rose

Lieutenant Commander (LOA) Jeassaho Kea
Engineer
SS Mary Rose

Rueben Gregnol
Captain
SS Mary Rose