Meeting the boss

Posted on Fri May 19th, 2023 @ 4:21am by Lieutenant JG Amari & Lieutenant Rea

1,231 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Descent
Location: main engineering
Timeline: tbd

Figuring it was high time she explored the area of the ship that would be her home for the foreseeable future Amari made her way onto deck 14 and into main engineering. As the doors opened and she stepped inside she stopped and took in the sheer size of the room, two floors both dominated by the towering warp core that thrummed strongly enough that she could feel it even from several long meters away she could only imagine the power that coursed through it. Gradually she snapped out of her stare and approached a nearby Ensign. "Excuse me. I am looking for Lieutenant Rea."

"I believe she is in the chiefs office." The Ensign replied.

Amari looked around slightly having no idea where that was.

"Over there, off to the left of the warp core." The Ensign added pointing in the right direction.

"Thank you." Amari said, she turned and headed off in that direction mentally kicking herself for not looking it up beforehand. Reaching the doorway to it she tapped the chime.

"Come in!" A cheerful voice called.

Amari stepped in and for the umpteenth time today was surprised by what she saw, the woman was clearly humanoid but with big floppy ears sprouting from the top of her head "Lt Rea?" She asked. "I'm Lieutenant Amari."

"Ah hello!" Rea said skipping forward. "Welcome to the Tokyo!" she greeted her cheerfully. "I'm only acting chief until we get a permament chief. I heard you were a little like me, from a different non-Federation world"

"That's right," Amari replied somewhat glad she was not the only non-federation species onboard. "I was told about the officer exchange program and I asked my people if I could take part. It took some time but they let me and Starfleet decided to put me on this ship."

Rea nodded. "Well, my people have had dealing with the Federation for a long time. We're only an associate world, but we're not actually in the Federation as of yet so to speak. I managed to be sponsored for the Academy." she explained with a smile. "I've never met your species before..."

"I've never met yours either." Amari remarked. "My people, the Lesrai get visits from starfleet ships occasionally, which is how I ended up here. I got talking to an engineer on the USS Broadsword and after a while he mentioned the exchange program."

"The Broadsword..." Rea pondered for a moment. "Thats a Sabre class right? Quite a bit smaller than tha Tokyo" she smiled. "What uniform are you wearing?" she asked curiously.

"This is the uniform of an officer in my species' navy," Amari said, she was planning on wearing it until someone told her not to. "Plus one of your combadges of course, we have a few small ships for local defense. Nothing anything like this ship, it's huge compared to ours."

Rea nodded. "I see" she smiled. "Starfleet modified this uniform for me. But we don't have any 'navy' like you do" she explained. "So, what do you know about Starfleet Tech? Or is this a whole new learning experience?"

Amari shook her head a little. "I have some experience, the chief engineer on the Broadsword gave me some technical manuals back then and I've spent the last 10 days on a runabout getting here. Read everything I could and the crew let me help with running the ship, some simulations and things like that."

Pondering for a moment Rea went over what the lieutenant said in her head. "I see. Well, I'll admit its not going to be easy. I was bred spefically to be an engineer. Thats what my species does, so it comes to me easier then others" she paused for a moment. "I think we could get you started with the basics, then work your way up through the standard engineering curriculum? I can assign you to work with other engineers too so you build up your practical skills."

"I have been an engineer on Lesrai ships for over 4 years, I believe I have 'practical' skills already." Amari said, she didn't want to argue the point with her new boss but didn't want to come across as a primitive who needed instruction in everything. "Your technology is somewhat better than ours but I'll get a feel for it quite quickly. My people have a natural affinity for technology."

"Ah yes!" Rea replied. "Don't you have implants? I read something about implants..."

"I do, almost all Lesrai get several when we're old enough." Amari replied. "I have audio and visual implants, a defensive system and a computer that functions kind of like your tricorders. Plus I can get a feeling for how a machine is functioning just by touching it."

"Interesting..." Rea said as she looked the other alien up and down. "How do they link in with your brain? Isn't that complicated?"

"We have another implant that connects to our brain, it relays audio and text translations from those implants directly and it's there to activate other implants just by thinking about it." As if to illustrate the palm of her right hand began to glow as her computer implant fired up projecting a data screen a few millimeters away from her hand. "Itches a little to begin with but once it's bedded in it's fine."

"Fascinating" Rea replied as she examined the projected image. "So, how does one decide which implants they want? Does it go on what role in society they have?"

"Kind of. There are many Lesrai clans all doing different things, each clan have their own specific implants they use but all of us get several common ones." Amari began to explain. "I'm a clan Sisra by birth but married to a clan Karaya."

Rea nodded. "I see, so your population is divided up into different clans." She said making sense of it in her head. "Well anyways, what made you decide to join the exchange program?"

"See the galaxy was part of it but mainly the chance to play with new technology," Amari said, though 'play' wasn't the most ideal word "it is everything to my people. Clans trade technology between each other, my marriage to a Karaya was to help secure a technology exchange between our clans."

"Hmm..." Rea said. "My people don't have anything such as marriage, or even relationships in that sort of term" she explained. "So, where should we start with your training? Should I call it training? I'm not sure how to refer to your time here. Also, will you be needing a Starfleet uniform?" she asked.

"No, according to the programs guidelines I can wear my current uniform unless the Captain says otherwise, she hasn't." Amari said. "I only bought a couple with me so I need to program it into the replicators if I can?"

Rea smiled. "You can use your tricorder to take specs of it and upload the design into the computer" she told her. "Anyways..." she held out a hand. "Humans call this a handshake. They're fond of it when greeting somone. So, I look forward to working with you."

"I'm familiar with this greeting." Amari took the womans hand and shook it. "We have a similar one, I look forward to working with you too."

"Same here, welcome to the Tokyo," Rea replied.

Posting by

Lieutenant Rea
Acting Chief Engineer

Ltjg Amari
Engineering Officer

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