Character

Month 16 Day 5

1115 Hours

Smitty

Smitty looked up to see MacGregor and a female doctor as they sat down at the mess hall table with him. "I thought you'd be here," Drake stated. "Lt Cmdr Smythe, this is Dr. Francine Lister, the psychiatrist here on the St Elmo. Fran, this is Smitty, chief engineer on the Fireball."

"Pleased to meet you," Smitty said, offering his hand over the table.

"I think I saw you when you first came aboard," Dr Lister told him, shaking his hand briefly. "You came to sick bay to look in on Mr. Facchini?"

He nodded as he cut off a piece of his omelet. "Yes, we were study buddies at the Academy. I wanted to let him know I was taking over repairs while he's laid up."

"I wouldn't think he was awake enough to be aware of you."

"No, he did seem to be pretty out of it," Smitty agreed. "But his fingers moved while I talked, so I think he heard me."

"Smitty, Francine has been talking to Dr Fong, and it's her understanding that the Fireball has a man-hater among her crew."

Smitty swallowed his latest bite and took a sip of his juice. "Man-hater? What are we talking about? A woman who was betrayed in love? Because that, unfortunately, happens far too often. Probably on any ship."

"No, something more complicated than that," Lister stated. "This would be a woman who won't let any man touch her, doesn't go on dates, pretty much won't have anything to do with men. And isn't particularly fond of women, either, most likely."

Smitty cast his mind over the female crew members that he knew, but that didn't seem to fit any of them. "Doesn't sound familiar."

"But Dr Fong—"

"She's talking about Mac," Drake broke in. "But you're right, I wouldn't call her a man-hater. She just doesn't trust men, probably because of her upbringing."

Smitty stared at the other man at this outlandish statement. Remembering the girl who had first come aboard, over a year ago, she was a flirt, but not ready to follow through once she had a man's attention. She relied on her Gaelund strength to give her 'No!' a punch. But if that was true, then how did she get pregnant? Surely if it was rape, she would have reported it. Or was she too embarrassed to have been bested by a normal human? Of course, more recently... "Her views have... mellowed... in the past year."

Drake looked surprised. "I'm not sure I agree with that assessment."

"I think I would know," Smitty said gruffly, and drank half his cup of coffee. He glanced at the chronometer, wondered how quickly he could get away from these doctors and to engineering.

"Why would you know?" Dr Lister asked, her eyebrows knit in confusion.

He hated to be rude, but this conversation was extremely boring. "Because Colleen MacDowell is my protégé." He looked at the clock again and decided he didn't have enough time for another cup of coffee, he'd have to make this one do. He was still hungry; maybe he should have gotten a couple pancakes to go with his omelet.

"You don't consider this protégé of yours to be a man-hater?"

"Not at all," Drake said before Smitty could respond. "Like I said, she didn't trust any men when she first came aboard. No, Let me correct that. She trusted one, a young man who had been her brother's roommate at the Academy. She calls him her adopted brother. There were some skirmishes when she first came aboard, as some men refused to believe she meant no when she said it." He smiled as he cut up his roast beef. "She even managed to give a black eye to a security shift supervisor, but that was due to a complete misunderstanding. But like Smitty indicated, things have, er, settled down quite a lot since those early days."

"The way you describe her, it seems pretty much like what any young lady newly transferred might have gone through. Maybe she's not the one Dr Fong has told me about."

"She is," Drake responded. "I've seen his files on her. Personally, I think he's completely misread her upbringing and blown it all out of proportion."

"How so?"

"First of all, she's Gaelund."

Lister paused to think. "Heavy worlder? So she's extra strong?"

"Right. And it's still in the colonial stage. Women there are supposed to get married and have a lot of kids. Bring the population up."

"A heavy patriarchal society. Not that unusual in a colony."

Smitty stopped listening. Whatever Colleen's upbringing has been, she's in the Fleet now, and has to live by Fleet regulations. Her past doesn't matter. That's what I have to remember. However she got pregnant, whoever the father is, none of that matters. So long as she marries me. He abruptly put his coffee cup down. "Excuse me, I need to get to engineering." He got up.

"Mr Smythe, perhaps I could meet your protégé?" Lister asked hurriedly.

"What?" He stopped, his tray in his hands. "Why?"

"Well, I've just been given a 2nd opinion of her character. I'd like to meet her and make up my own mind." She got up and picked up her tray. Drake quickly followed suit.

Smitty sent a smoldering glare in Drake's direction. "This is not a good time, doctor. She's just finishing up a 12-hour shift, and I'm sure she'd like to get some sleep. All my people are working 12 and 12. It gets the work done, but doesn't lend itself to a lot of social activity."

"I assure you, I understand. I just want a few minutes with her. I'm due back in sick bay for the rest of my shift, and I don't make a habit of being late."

"Smitty, play nice," Drake said quietly.

Maybe I am out of sorts. Long hours of work, babysitting an idiot who Stinky somehow took on as his protégé... It's going to be a long repair job. "Yes, well, come along. I still need to debrief her and Wilson on what they've gotten done."

"I won't get in your way, I promise," Lister told him, and they all left the mess hall.

Reporting for Duty

Month 16 Day 4

2329 Hours

Ivy Wilson

Ivy frowned as she re-entered the dimly lit female barracks. If Mac doesn't get up now, she won't make it to engineering in time to relieve Smythe.

Mac's bed began to beep, just as the redhead emerged from the bathroom. "I'm up," she said softly, and the beeping stopped.

"Are you ready for another extended shift?" Ivy asked as Mac padded down the aisle between the beds.

"Do I wear yesterday's uniform again?"

"No, I left a fresh one on the foot of your bed."

"I see it. I hope it fits."

"It's one of yours. Put yesterday's in the packaging, and it'll get shipped back to the Fireball for cleaning."

"Thanks. Nobody ever told me things like that." She paused in opening her package. "Illumination full," Mac said and smiled as the room brightened. "Now I can see what I'm doing." She removed her fresh uniform from the plastic and began to put it on, paused to take a sip from the glass of water sitting on her bedside table. She grunted. "That's gotten strong."

Ivy picked up Mac's discarded uniform. "How does water get strong?" She started stuffing the laundry into the plastic bag.

"It's ginger tea. A pick-me-up."

"You're going to need it. You don't have time for the mess hall."

"Wasn't planning on it," Mac answered, and sat down on the bed to put her boots on, took another sip of her tea.

"You're going to wish you had before our shift gets done," Ivy warned her.

"I'll survive," Mac growled, and started putting her hair up. "Sorry, Ivy, I don't mean to snap. But my schedule is very messed up. My body is out of sorts."

"As long as you don't snap at the St Elmo people."

"Baker isn't supposed to be there when I am." Mac stood up, her glass of tea in her hand. "Okay, I'm ready. What do I do with my old uniform?"

"I packed it," Ivy told her, and led her to the small lobby. "This table by the door is where we leave our dirty uniforms, and this afternoon, a fresh one will have arrived. You'll just need to find yours." They left, headed for the lift.

"Thanks, Ivy. This is a new situation for me."

"It's been a while since I was in an emergency work party," Ivy told her friend. "Mr Smythe told me to set up your bed for extra gravity, and I thought there'd be things nobody's told you about. So I'm glad he's got us working together."

"Just don't let me take a swing at Baker," Mac muttered as they got on an empty lift.

"He rubs me the wrong way, too," Ivy returned.

When they exited the lift, they found Lt Jamison. He looked at the glass Mac carried and frowned. "You can't take an open glass of liquid into engineering." Pink flags of color lit up his cheeks. "Sorry. That's one of Mr Facchini's rules. Maybe it's different under Mr Smythe."

"Not really," Ivy answered. "Can you help her out? Mac didn't bring a mug from the Fireball."

"Ahh, sure. Hang on." He disappeared through a doorway, then reappeared with a mug, which he offered to Mac. "Borrowed it. When you're done, take it to the mess hall for washing, and it'll be sent back to him."

"Thank you." Mac transferred the pungent liquid, then put the lid on the mug.

When they entered engineering, Smythe looked up from a console to give them a brilliant smile, despite his tiredness. "There you are!" He walked over and took hold of Mac's shoulders. "Did you get any sleep?"

The only time I see that smile on Smythe's face is when he's looking at Mac.

"Yes," Mac answered, and gently removed his hands. "Thank you for making sure I had a proper bed."

"You'd soon be of little use on this project if you couldn't get some decent sleep. So, let's all go to the office, and I'll brief the 3 of you on what's been done and what I see needs to be done next." Once in the office, Smythe stood behind the desk, which put the wall chronometer in front of him. He sighed. "Colleen, I told you to relieve me at midnight, not before."

Mac nodded. "Since I'm relieving you, it's my duty to arrive early enough to be briefed before I actually take over."

Smitty gave a faint grin. "Well, you're here now. And I can't fault you for showing up early, as long as you can handle a 12-hour shift."

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

"Try to take coffee breaks and a meal break," he went on. "You, too, Wilson."

"Yes, sir."

"We're still waiting for reports from the labs, but I've removed the remaining power relays from here in engineering, and they look like melted sludge. It's obvious they didn't work the way they were intended, so I've got fabrication making new ones of the old design. At least I know the old design works." He indicated 2 piles of papers on the desk, one much taller than the other. "I've had people run diagnostics on every system. Now they've started tearing the systems apart, one by one, and replacing every questionable piece. This tall stack," he indicated the pile closest to the office door, "still need to be done. The short stack has been done. Remember that, and don't get them confused."

"Did you get any useful information from Oakhurst?" Mac asked, and sipped from her mug.

Smythe gave a short nod. "What he's provided so far seems to confirm what I already suspected. When the power relays started to fail, Stin—Mr Facchini went to the warp alcove to shut things down. From the looks of it, those crystals exploded in his face, just as he shut the power off. That stopped the north nacelle from experiencing a full explosion, but the port and starboard were too far gone. What it means for us is several days of hard labor rebuilding all the systems. So just keep plodding along. Give people a pat on the back when they finish a system, make a big deal out of taking that system off its backup."

Ivy nodded. "Make each small goal an accomplishment to keep burn-out and fatigue at bay."

"Exactly. I've got the Fireball's fabrication making new bulkheads to replace the ruined sections of the nachelles. So, if you can, find some EV workers and send them to remove the damaged sections. Cut them up and send them to the Fireball as raw material."

"I can think of 3 people who are well trained in EV work, sir, if you want my input," Jamison offered.

"Good," Smythe agreed. "Leave the warp alcove alone for now. I saw some cracked pipes in there, pipes that carry nasty stuff, so I'll deal with that when I'm on duty. Now, can you remember all that?" They nodded, and he smiled. "Good. Now, Wilson, relieve me, please."

Surprised, Mac uttered, "What? Wait..."

"Mr Smythe, you are relieved," Ivy stated formally. "Come on, Jamison." She pulled the St Elmo lieutenant out of the office with her.

"There, we've got 2 minutes before you go on duty," Smythe said behind them.

"Not enough time," Mac answered.

"Can't you at least give me a clue what it's about?"

"Not without..." The voices faded behind them as they moved away from the still-open office door.

"Um, do you mind if I ask?" Jamison started. "I know it's none of my business."

"They were engaged, not long ago," Wilson stated softly. "He still wants to be. This ensign we're approaching looks confused. How do you suggest we handle her?"

"She always looks confused, but once you start talking about what she's doing, she knows what to do. I'll handle it."

A Brief Respite

Month 16 Day 4

1959 Hours

Drake McGregor

Drake looked up when 2 more trays were added to his table, and smiled at the newcomers. "How are things going in engineering, or is it too soon to tell?"

"Too soon," Smitty answered as he sat down and rearranged his items on his tray. "Did have a bit of good luck, though. Baker was so slow to do anything with the nachelles, Colleen found them full of crystal shards. She just finished vaccuming them up and got them to the science labs."

"Good work, Mac," Drake told her, and noticed dark circles beneath her eyes. Well, she has worked 12 hours today, and she isn't used to that. Smitty's got the beginnings of dark smudges, too, but it won't do any good to point that out to him. "Turns out we removed 2 or 3 shards from the injured today, and those were sent to the labs, too. It's standard practice here, because if the crystals have been chemically compromised, they want to know what chemicals may have contaminated the people."

Smitty looked up in surprise, a bit of potatoes on his fork. "I hadn't thought of that."

"I can only hope that if we ever had a crystal emergency and had to dig shards out of somebody, that I would have thought of it. And while I'm hoping, I'll hope that you don't ever let things get that bad on the Fireball."

Smitty nodded as he ate, and added, "And the captain wonders if I should tell her about every little blip, most of which amount to nothing."

"Don't get me started down that road of worry; I have enough to deal with in sick bay."

"It's a deal. You worry about your patients, and I'll worry about engineering. I think I know when it's time to inform the captain and the rest of the crew."

Drake turned his attention to Mac, who was eating, but without much energy. "I expect this Baker character you anticipated isn't the Baker you thought it might be."

"Oh, it's him, alright," she answered, and glanced across the nearly empty mess hall to where an engineering lieutenant sat scowling at his dinner. She smiled at Drake and whispered, "But for the moment, I out-rank him!" Her eyes twinkled mischieviously.

"Yes," Smitty agreed in a low voice. "And I saw what you did to make it appear like he was slow to respond to a summons. I'll have to find half a minute to fix the doorbell."

"Yes, sir," she answered contritely. "But in the end, it wasn't necessary, because he certainly took his time reporting to the office!"

"It always seems like they do, especially if you're peeved at them," Smitty revealed. "Now, what's this about, a relationship gone sour at the Academy?"

No, Drake thought. But I'm not surprised that's what he assumes happened.

Mac looked up in surprise, and then went pink. "He wouldn't leave me alone! Matt and Bugalu both tried to get him to back off, but he wouldn't. And I reported him numerous times during 3rd year, but he wouldn't give up."

"Perhaps he thought you'd done something that indicated you were interested."

I thought Smitty was too much a gentleman to assume the woman was at fault.

"All I did was agree to meet him at the Horseless Carriage for a drink! Only he brought a dozen friends with him, and it turned into a drinking game, but they didn't all drink every round! And then they got impatient."

"I think it used to be called hazing," Drake stated. "Getting a freshman drunk until they passed out. People felt it got out of hand at the colleges in the 21st century, and it was outlawed after a few of those freshmen died of alcohol poisoning."

"If you weren't interested in him, you shouldn't have agreed to meet for a drink," Smitty opined, his mouth pinched.

True, but she was just a kid, and kids don't always think things through.

She shrugged one shoulder, as if the other still wouldn't work well. "I wanted a drink."

"If you were of legal drinking age, you could have bought your own," Smitty stated.

"I hadn't figured that out yet," she stated defensively. "I'd only been away from home a couple weeks, and I wasn't allowed to buy my own drinks there." She gave a sly half-smile. "Of course, I wasn't of legal drinking age on Gaelund."

"What?" Smitty asked sharply.

"Gaelund years are longer than standard Fleet years," Drake pointed out blandly. "Now, what are your plans? After I finish eating, I'm going to nap until midnight, when I'll report back to sick bay. Davis is covering for me until then, and Fong will take the B shift."

Smitty finished his meatloaf and pulled his piece of pie toward him. "I'm working until midnight. We're doing 12-hour shifts. That's why Colleen will be headed for bed as soon as she's done here."

"What!" Mac's fork clattered to her plate. "No! I'm your protégé! I can't—

"That's exactly why," Smitty interrupted. "I need you to nap until midnight, like MacGregor, and then relieve me. Wilson will be doing the same; you'll be working alongside her. But I need you to see my vision for how repairs should go, and see that people are doing what needs to be done. To be my voice when I'm not there. You're the only one that can do that."

Still unhappy, she retrieved her fork. "I hope I can hold my temper around Baker."

"Don't worry about him," Smitty told her. "He'll be working the same 12-hour shifts that I will—midday until midnight."

She grimaced. "And if he shows up in engineering on some made-up excuse between midnight and midday?"

"Tell him to go away. And if he doesn't, have security remove him for interference in the completion of repairs."

She gave him an uncertain look. "Is that a regulation?"

He took another bite of his pie before he answered. "No, I can't think of one that has that wording. But he will definitely be there against my orders."

She swallowed and looked at the food remaining on her plate. "Thank you, Smit."

"And I remember you wanted to talk, earlier, but we couldn't. If it won't take long, perhaps we could tomorrow, when I relieve you."

She bit her lower lip for a moment, then sadly shook her head. "I don't think it's something that can be rushed. Or if it can, it ought not be."

She was still staring at the rest of her meal. And looking more and more tired with every passing minute, Drake decided. "Come on, Mac. Let's get you to the barracks so you can sleep."

"Barracks? A barracks bed? Oh, that will be fun."

"It's only intended for you to sleep there," Smitty told her. "I told Wilson to get a portable gravity generator and set up a bed for you."

"Oh. Gravity. Yes, that's good." She suddenly pushed her tray away a couple inches. "I wonder if the kitchen has any ginger so I can have some tea."

The two men watched her approach the counter and talk to one of the cooks. "She's very tired," Drake mentioned.

"Yes. I noticed."

Getting Things Organized

Month 16 Day 4

1701 Hours

Smitty

Someone approached the open office door, and Smitty looked up from the list he'd made of the few facts he knew about what had happened. His visitors were Lts Rominoff and Zolka, the actual D shift supervisor here on the St Elmo. "Gentlemen," he greeted them. "Again, thank you for coming in so promptly, Lt Zolka, and to both of you for relaying my instructions. Now, I'm trying to figure out just exactly what happened to cause the crystals to explode. Do you have any knowledge about that?"

Lt Zolka took the lead. "Sorry, Mr Smythe, neither of us were on duty during it. We found out about it when the sirens went off. We came to see if we could help, like all of engineering, and the place was a shambles; electrical explosions happening everywhere."

Lt Rominoff went on. "Mr Facchini and Lt Niles had gone to the warp alcove just moments before the explosion. Both men were in pretty bad shape."

Smitty nodded. "Well, I know there were some changes made to the warp power routers a few weeks ago. Your boss wrote to tell me about them, but he didn't go into any details. And I can't make sense of Facchini's filing system. I'd appreciate it if one of you could find the specifications on those new routers."

"Do you think they had anything to do with this?" asked Rominoff. "I saw them when they first came aboard, and they seemed very streamlined and clean."

"I don't know if the new routers had anything to do with it. But the ship has run fine for years without any crystal explosions until now. I'd be remiss if I didn't take a look at them."

"As far as I know, they haven't been removed yet," Zolka stated.

"That's good. Let's plan on removing them and sending them to science, along with their specs, to have them examined. But, once again, we need the specs."

"I think I can find them," Zolka volunteered, and saluted as he left the office.

"Now, if we just had some shards of the crystals," Smitty muttered to himself.

Someone else came to the doorway. "Lt Oakhurst reporting for duty, Mr Smythe."

"Good. Come in, Oakhurst. You'll be working with the St Elmo computer people. Lt, eh..."

"Roosevelt, sir," Rominoff offered.

"Yes, Roosevelt. Is the computer supervisor. I gave her a long list of information I'm looking for, so see what you can do to help out. Basically, I want to know what equipment showed any stress or failed to work, and when. Starting a full 24 hours before the explosion, because crystals don't fail that easily. The St Elmo comp sci staff are working their normal shifts, and that's fine. But you, Oakhurst, will be working 12 on and 12 off. All of us from the Fireball will be. The St Elmo has graciously made a couple barracks avaible so we won't have to spend time shuttling back and forth."

"Okay," Oakhurst said. "I'll go find Lt Roosevelt and get started."

"Good. Do that," Smitty told him, and followed him out of the office, into the engineering lobby, where he consulted a couple read-outs, and came back to the office with a little smile on his face. "Like I thought, the nacelles are now completely off-line. Colleen—I mean, MacDowell—should be back in a few minutes."

Surprised by the man's use of a first name for an underling, Rominoff searched for something to say that wouldn't refer to that slip of the tongue. "You mean that strange silence deep down in the ship? I was wondering what that was."

Smitty gave him a broad smile. "You're already partially in tune with your ship, lieutenant. Keep it up, and you'll reach a point where you won't need the machines to tell you there's a problem, you'll have already felt it."

"Thank you, sir. Some of the younger guys tell me I'm imagining things."

"Don't believe it," Smitty suggested. "Okay, Oakhurst and, um, Roosevelt are busy with the computers. Zolka is looking for the specs for those new power relays. Everybody else is working on diagnostics. So it seems like the next things to do are remove the power relays and see if we can collect any crystal shards to send to the science labs."

"Sir! I found the specifications for the power relays!" Zolka exclaimed, waving a data crystal in the air as he entered the office. "They seem to be made of layers of a couple dozen different materials."

"Well, that's different from the old ones," Smitty commented. They used to be made of solid rosidium, with a micro-coating of non-stick theron. Leave it to the desk engineers to decide not only to change them, but to complicate the production of them. "So, any idea where we might find some crystal shards from the explosion?"

"What about the shards Medical has removed from the injured?" Rominoff asked. "Could those be used?"

"Maybe. I'll call sick bay and ask if they've still got them." He reached for the intercom when he saw Colleen marching across the engineering lobby, her hands clenched at her sides. Lt Baker sauntered behind her, looking pleased with himself.

"Mr Smythe," she greeted as she stepped through the open door. Her lips were pinched, and her eyes flashing with anger, but for once, that anger wasn't directed at him. "The nacelles are divorced from the power grid."

"Glad to hear it. Now I can send a team to remove the power relays."

"I volunteer," she stated at once. "But whoever you send will need to wear a space suit, even in the north nacelle."

Baker was leaning against the doorjamb, grinning. There wasn't any room in the office for him to step inside, and Colleen made sure of it, having stopped just inside the door.

"Something strikes you as funny?" Smitty asked his friend's protégé.

The grin faded, but Baker didn't get a chance to answer. "He finds it amusing that he did the work so slowly, I finally did it myself, just to get it done."

Smitty gave Baker a sharp look, wanting to chew him up and spit him out for such a childish trick. I'll have plenty of time to show him the error of his ways, if I have him work the same hours I do. He turned his attention to Colleen. "Is the bulkhead of the north nacelle that fragile? We could throw a force field around it, and-"

"It was cracked in several places," she broke in. "A force field is a good idea. But the main reason is the crystal shards scattered about. Most of it the size of dust particles. You can only see it because it glitters in the light. There are some pieces big enough to see laying about, easily disturbed, and capable of doing some damage to an EV suit. Mine had a few tiny holes punched in it by the time I got done."

Smitty smiled broadly. "Gentlemen, we've just found the shards we need."

Colleen looked mildly confused at first, then nodded. "There's some in the port and starboard nacelles, too, but less of it, because some has escaped through the breaches."

"Lt Zolka, throw a force field around the nacelles, then make a copy of those specs and get it to the science lab. Lt Rominoff, take a shop vac and a crystal containment bag and go with Lt MacDowell to the nacelles to vaccum up the shards and remove the power relays. Place the relays in the bag for transportation. Don't forget your EV suits, and even then, be careful." Now he turned his attention to Baker. "Once they're gone, Mr Baker, I'll debrief you about this incident and the steps you've taken."