| Cogs for the Wheel |
| Summary: | Ren arrives for a day of work in Engineering. Merrell and Astrid rotate in to begin their jobs on the Cerberus. Work, work, work. |
| Date: | 019 BCH |
| Related Logs: | None |
| Players: |
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[ Engineering ]------[ Deck 11 - Battlestar Cerberus ]
Pipes, conduits, and cramped passageways. Heat and the smells of sweat and machine oil. Engineering is a maze of hallways that run deep into the aft of the Cerberus. Dotted with a few storage rooms, offices, and workshops, this section of the ship is constantly staffed by a huge team of professionals. From the main fuel tank feeds to the massive FTL drive room, no other part of the ship is more important than this section that provides propulsion and life support to every section of the battlestar.
-=[ Condition Level: 3 - All Clear ]=---------
Ren is just coming on shift, so Engineering is his first stop. He's checking over the former shift's progress reports at the moment, seeing what's still in need of being done. Inevitably, there's /a lot/ for a mechanical snipe to do on a /nearly/ finished battlestar.
She's little so there isn't much sound when she walks except for the rubber of her boots aqueeking on the floor occasionaly in the random wet or oily spot. The woman's hands are tucked into her pockets as she strolls through with a light smile on her face. Eyes wander of the equipment and vent systems as she wanders up to Ren. She smirks. "Hi there. Know where I can find a Department Head?"
Ren looks up and over at Merrell. Trying for a beat to place her face, and failing. He shrugs. New faces around here these days clearly aren't unusual. "Captain Gabrieli? I'm afraid I'm not sure just at this moment, Chief. Buried under a mountain of paperwork, or off on an inspection, if I had to bet cubits on it. We're trying to make sure everything on this girl's banged into place before she jumps off."
Astrid arrives from the Deck 11.
Astrid has arrived.
"Ain't that the way it goes? I just got aboard about two hours ago. I need to report in." The woman's soft voice probably doesn't quite seem to fit the rank, but there it is anyway. Merrell turns her eyes back to the Specialist at the desk who is reviewing reports. "My name's Robin Merrell. New Mechanical and Repair Chief." See certainly seems cheerful enough.
Ren offers Merrell a grin, inclining his head to her respectfully. "Specialist Elijah Ren. Good to meet you, Chief. I'm tasked mainly to M-and-R myself. Mainly. I basically do whatever those with more stripes than me tell me to do." His grin quirks crookedly. "I've been with Cerberus for about a year. Helped build her. So did the Captain. Where're you coming from?"
Another new arrival enters to brighten everyone's day. Astrid strides in through the hatch, a folder in hand and the glittering green and silver insignia of a mid-grade petty officer on her collar. Her lips are pursed as she whistles some jaunty tune or another. Glancing at the other two already in the area, she drops the folder on the desk in front of Ren. "Astrid Ter Avest," she preemptively introduces herself, her lips oddly set in a half sneer, half smile. "Just got here last night, thought I'd drop off my paperwork."
"Good to meet you, Specialist Elijah Ren." To the next, Merrell gives a soft laugh rotating a little at the hips as she looks around the room. "Ah the easy days. Enjoy being told what to do while you can." She then settles back on him, face turning ot some surprise. "Oh yeah? Looks like you all have done one heck of a job. I'm pretty impressed with what I've seen so far. But I'm coming from Battlestar Corvus. I just finished off a five year stint in M-and-R over there. Is this your first posting??" With the new arrival, the SCPO looks to Astrid and nods. "Hey that makes two of us. Looking for the Captain, myself. I'd welcome you aboard but I think I actually have to have checked-in before I can do that."
Ren crosses his arms along his chest, beaming at Merrell's praise. Or, rather, her praise to the ship. "She looks like she's come together real well. The Captain knows his stuff. I can't wait to see how she jumps." The eagerness makes him look even more boyish. He shakes his head at the question. "I did my training at the Scorpia Shipyards and was there for about a year after basic. Until I asked out." He adds hastily, "I mean, can't miss a chance to be involved in a project like this, right?" He looks up at Astrid's entrance. Offering her a friendly enough grin. "The ChEng's got a desk in the back. Probably best to park it there. He's everywhere and back these days making sure the ship's finished on schedule, so I don't know when he'll be back here."
"Sure thing." Astrid retrieves her folder from where she'd dumped it, but she doesn't run off to find the aforementioned desks right away. Instead, the woman looks down at Ren. "So, you helped build the thing, didja?" She grins. "Big motherfrakker. Looks like y'all did a nice job on her, though. Good thing, too. I hear we've got a bunch of muckety-mucks coming on board to have a bit of a look-see." She twirls the folder in her hand. "Okay, I'll go drop this off. Give the poor Captain more paperwork to sift through." With an insouciant grin, Astrid meanders off in search of the aforementioned ChEng's desk.
"I'll say. She looks pretty from the flight in. That was a nice treat to see her in dock like she is. Though I'm kinda jealous I didn't get to help build her. That's quite an honorific you've got there. But yeah, I'm anxious to see her handle a few jumps, myself." Merrell pats her pocketed hands to her hips happily. She's anxious to get to work. "Scorpia must have given you some great training, too. I've never actually been there, if you can believe that. But I've heard lots about it. How did you like it?" As Astrid moves off, the SCPO grins after her. "Best of luck. If you find him, let him know his M-and-R chief just arrived."
"Yeah, she's big!" Ren chuckles. "Biggest thing I ever built before this was an old Tauron Five-Eighty sedan back in high school. Well, rebuilt. Mom commandeered it from a junkyard and forced it on me. Ran pretty good once we were done with it, though. But this is /way/ more impressive." He shrugs, adding half-sheepishly, "I mean, not that I built her all on my lonesome. I just did some work." He chuckles to Merrell. "Well, there's still work to be done to get her jump-ready. So you'll have a chance to say you did it, Chief. Getting out in space'll be a hell of a thing. I've never served on a battlestar before. I mean, even if I've been here for a year, it's not like she was flying." He turns his head as Astrid goes, offering a "Holler if you get lost" to her.
"Yeah yeah, sure sure," Astrid calls back flippantly behind her to Ren as she walks off in search of Gabrieli's office. It turns out she won't need the help, though, as she manages to find the ChEng's (empty) office, in which she leaves her folder. A minute or two later, she's back at the front where Ren and Merrell are talking. "No such luck, Chief, sorry," she says, having seen no sign of Gabrieli. "You both M&R? Electrical's my specialty, though I did a fair bit of DC work back on the Pentelikon, too. Missle frigate," she clarifies. "Dunno exactly what they'll be having me do here yet, though."
"Hah. No kidding. That sounds like one neat project. I've never actually rebuilt anything like that, myself. But yeah, this is quite a bit more impressive. For sure." Her hands continue tapping her hips in her pocket, the woman seeming to fidget a lot. "Oh I know what you mean. Everyone puts in their own share of work. But it would seem like you all did a lot of the heavy lifting before I got here. I'll just be finishing up a few projects before we move out. I can't easily claim to have put a year of blood, sweat and tears into this place." She smiles easily and glances behind her before stepping back to lean agaisnt the bulkhead. A look to Astrid on her return and she dips her head. "Electrical. I've done some of that myself but its been a long time. Back before I worked on any battlewagons like this one. But yeah, I'm M-and-R. I guess senior enlisted in that section??" She looks to Ren for confirmation.
"That's my main assignment, M-and-R, yeah," Ren affirms to Astrid. "I shift around wherever the NCOs and officers tell me to, though. I've been doing some training on damage control work. I figure it'll be a bigger issue when we get out in space, but I want to be prepared. I'm probably weakest on Electrical." He adds, "Name's Specialist Elijah Ren, if I didn't say so before."
Ren adds, as to Merrell's position, "You're more senior than me, Chief. So I figure. I haven't looked a full personnel roster, though. Tons of people are coming in these days."
Astrid smirks. "Yeah, I got that." His name, she means. "Well, that's good. I've got a little bit of mechanical training too, but it's definitely not my strong suit. These hands were meant for more delicate work." Ah, the irony abounds there. Or at least, it would if any of these people knew who she was. But then, a lot fewer people follow the goings on of college Pyramid than follow the professional leagues. "Might be I'll see you in DC, then. Like I said, depends on what the Chief — " The ChEng, of course " — wants to do with me."
Merrell nods a few times to Ren's remarks. "Yeah I wouldn't mind seeing a Roster, myself. I might recognize a few names. But eh." She shrugs. "Later. So what kind of production ghosts have you all had? Any recurring issues? Problems with assembly?" She then looks to Astrid and chuckles. "More delicate work? Geez. I don't know how you survived in Engineering." Its definitely a light-hearted tease for Astrid.
Ren gives Astrid's hands a look. He can't help himself. He grins a little but, whatever he's thinking, he at least has the sense not to verbalize it. To Merrell he shrugs. "The ChEng would be a better one to ask about that. Especially when it comes to the fine systems. I've mainly been welding and putting up walls. There'll always issues with construction but it hasn't been anything too extreme. Just loads of work. I never knew how much went into a battlestar until I started crawling around this thing."
Astrid laughs wickedly at Merrell's remark. "Neither do I, Chief, but I've muddled through somehow." The dark-haired woman is a master of the tongue-in-cheek. "Can you imagine my reaction to getting an assignment to damage control? My gods, I might break a nail." Catching Ren's look, her grin widens and she wiggles her fingers at him. Her nails in particular are well kept and heavily polished, if not actually painted. "Yeah, they're pretty nice, ain't they?"
Merrell chuckles tp Astrid. "Well that's a start, isn't it? But yeah, I think we'll all be breaking ourselves to get this new girl chugging. I'm personally looking forward to it. I'm a little excited to be honest." By the tone of her voice, she's probably understating her feelings. Looking back to Ren: "Yeah I'll check in with the Cheng when I see him. But I'll see about getting these reports from him so I can bunker down. If anything special comes up, interested in getting pulled in for projects? Maybe do some EVA work if need-be? And the workload doesn't really fizzle. Once its assembled, you still have to maintain and fix stuff. Its an ongoing battle."
"Uh, not bad," Ren says with another grin. Though he makes himself look away from Astrid and her hands to nod to Merrell again. "We'll probably need to do some EVA inspections, at least, before we touch off. Got to make sure the rivets are tight for hyperlight travel. I'm cert'd for zero-g work, Chief, so if you need a hand on one of those outings let me know. I kind of like space walking. It's quiet out there."
"Oh, don't get me wrong, Chief. I'm thrilled to be on a battlestar, myself. Got nothin' against busting my tail, either." For the first time, the young woman seems completely serious. It doesn't last, though. "We'll get her going if I have to go out in an EVA suit and push. Wouldn't be the first time, anyway. Well. Except for the EVA suit thing." Astrid nods to Ren after the mention of zero-G. "Same goes for me, too." She pauses, as if realizing something. "But I suppose that would go through my chief, wouldn't it?" Astrid chuckles derisively at herself. "Don't get ahead of yourself, girl." Like the chuckle, her last sentence was self-directed.
Merrell nods. "Likely. I'll want to head out and check out the burn panelling on the inside of the engine nacelles before we push back from the drydock. If you've never been out inside those things, they are pretty awe-inspiring. The consistent temperatures they have to endure are staggering. But I'll keep you in mind for some jobs." The woman lifts a leg slightly and plants the bottom of her boot against the wall, resting the toe on the ground. "Yeah, no problem, Avest. I can get with your Chief and talk it out. There's plenty of electrical work to be done o nthe outside of the ship. The armor plating is a bitch to get off but underneath there is plenty that can go wrong in wiring and electrical."
"Plenty of work of all kinds to be done," Ren says wryly. "Speaking of, I'm due to actually get something done this shift. I'm supposed to check rivets up on Deck 7. The team I was on did most of the welding on them, and they want us to make sure it's holding correctly. Good to meet you both."
"Heh. I'm not even on shift, yet, and I did what I came to do, so I'll go ahead and get out of your hair. And same, Ren." She winks down at the younger man before turning back to Chief Merrell. "Um, it's Ter Avest, Chief. Two words, one name." She shrugs irreverently. "Don't ask me. Didn't come up with it, I was just born with it. Anyway, a pleasure meeting you too."
"Fair enough, Specialist. Good to meet you. I'll be in contact about getting some things done." She nods and pushes lightly off the wall, looking to the PO. "Yeah, I'm going to go get some chow and then see what kind of trouble I can get into. I'll see you all later. And hey, sorry about the name. See you both later." The SCPO lifts her hand in a light wave and heads off down the hallway towards the stairwells.
"Later, Ter Avest," Ren says with a crooked half-grin to Astrid. With that, he grabs a tool kit and goes off to tool around the battlestar.
The smirk is back on Ter Avest's face. "No worries, Chief. Just lookin' to avoid any misunderstandings down the line, is all. You two take it easy, now." With that, she's out the hatch a few steps behind the chief, on her way back to her berthings.