Making Arrangements

 Month 12 Day 15

0728 Hours

Jane Burke

 Jane was half done with her breakfast when Smitty joined her and MacGregor. “You’re running late,” Duck commented.

“Overslept a bit,” Smitty stated as he sat down and cut his omelet into bite-sized pieces. Despite being late and in a hurry, his movements with his dominant hand were slow and deliberate.

“What did you do to your hand?” Drake wanted to know. Jane took a more serious look and saw that it was a bit off-color.

“Tried to turn off my alarm,” Smitty muttered between bites.

“Your alarm fought back?” Jane asked with a smile on her lips.

Smitty’s face turned ruddy. “I wasn’t actually in bed.”

Such an innocent statement, which could mean so much. Did he drink himself into a stupor and pass out on the floor? Not a frequent occurrence for him, to my knowledge, but it’s happened once or twice. I assume it’s preceded by some kind of trigger, but what could have triggered it yesterday? Would I even know what his trigger is?

“What did you hit, if the alarm wasn’t handy?” Duck asked.

“A wall,” Smitty answered, and swallowed a sip of his coffee. “A bulkhead. It doesn’t matter; I’m fine.”

“You should come to sick bay and get it checked out.”

“It’s fine,” Smitty insisted. “It’s a little sore, that’s all. In a couple days, it’ll be back to normal.”

“Make up your mind,” Duck persisted. “Is it fine now, or do you assume it will be fine in a couple days?”

Smitty gave the doctor a dark glare. “It’s doing fine. It’s not worth mentioning. I don’t need any medical attention!”

“Perhaps not,” Jane inserted herself before tempers got too far out of control. “People have been recuperating from bruises on their own for millennia. Still, I don’t like having my chief engineer at anything less than top condition. So if it still bothers you in two days, I want you to report to sick bay and make sure it is just a simple bruise.”

“Yes, sir,” Smitty mumbled.

I’ll have to check on him in a couple days, see how he’s doing, but he’s acknowledged it as an order, so he’ll follow through. Now, what else was I meaning to talk to him about? Oh, yeah, a certain redhead. “Smitty, I’ve been wondering how Lt MacDowell is coming with her cross-training.”

Smitty stopped eating and stared down at his plate for a moment. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that, captain. She’s been studying on her own, and it seems we can’t keep up with what she’s learned, or we can’t keep tabs on what she’s learned.”

“So, she’s got a brain,” Duck commented.

“Of course she does!” Smitty shot back.

What a change in opinion from her first month aboard. “That must be a frustrating situation for you, Smitty. I know you like to be aware of your peoples’ abilities. Any ideas what to do about it?”

He nodded. “It seems obvious I need to assign somebody specifically to keep an eye on her studies. And make sure they can do it while they’re both on duty, rather than make them do it when at least one of them is off duty.”

“I get the feeling you’re about to mess up the communications schedule,” Jane guessed.

He gave a slight shake of his head. “Not at all. I’ve got Ioboni as shift supervisor on A shift. Now, I’ve got no reason to think he wouldn’t get along with Co—MacDowell, but I know Colleen and Wilson get along, so I thought I’d temporarily switch Ioboni and Wilson. That gives the added benefit of showing the A shift that a woman is every bit as capable as a man.”

“But you still want the 2 women to work together. I’m not sure how that would work with one in engineering and the other on the bridge.”

“Just 2 shifts a week,” Smitty stated. “I can pull some engineering ensigns and techs up to the bridge to cover for Colleen while she’s working with Wilson in engineering.”

“And how long do you think this arrangement might last?”

Now Smitty slowed his chewing of his latest bite of omelet, seemed reluctant to swallow it. “I’m not sure. If I’ve read the signs right, she might want to transfer to engineering.”

If he’s reading the signs right. If he’d said that about a man, I’d be ready to start the paperwork. But women confuse him. He said the same thing about Abdulla, and she has steadfastly refused to transfer. Well, we’ll just have to wait and see, then. “Have you talked it over with the people involved? Ioboni, Wilson, MacDowell?”

Smitty sat up straighter in his chair, as if he found the question almost an affront. “I can’t imagine any of them objecting!”

No, of course not. He is their superior officer, and he can assign them wherever he wants them. To be fair, Smitty seldom has a subordinate feel enough rancor about a transfer to cause problems. “It’s usually appreciated if people get a heads up about a new assignment, even if that assignment is only temporary.”

“Oh, well, yes. I’ll communicate with them about it today, and have the changes take effect... ah, in a few days.”

“Good, that should allow them time to make any necessary changes to their personal schedules.”

Drake drank the rest of his coffee. “So you’re considering asking Mac, er, MacDowell, to join engineering, are you?”

Smitty’s face reddened a bit. He glanced at the clock and considered the rest of his breakfast. “She seems to have expressed an interest in it.”

“Congratulations,” Duck said dryly, gathering his items onto his tray for disposal. “It only took you a year to figure out that’s where she belongs!” He turned from the bewildered engineer to Jane. “Although I do wonder what she’ll do with herself when she’s mastered all the engineering technical manuals.”

“Perhaps she’ll start borrowing your medical books,” Jane suggested.

Duck gave a gentle shake of his head. “I doubt it. I haven’t seen any signs of interest in medicine in her. Not a speck.”