Allocation

Posted on Fri Jul 8th, 2022 @ 2:22pm by Caeda & Endia
Edited on on Wed Aug 9th, 2023 @ 10:02pm

Mission: Adventures of the ISS Terror
Location: ISS Terror - Main Engineering
Timeline: Date 2371-5-20 at 0915
1780 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Everything was ordered chaos, and Elise Ravenbrook found herself to be the overseer. Such was the task of the Chief Operations Officer of any ship, though the Terror was in a rather unique and unfortunate position. Two words people never wanted to hear together: unique and unfortunate. She sighed to herself as she walked down the corridor toward main engineering with a small stack of PADDs in her hand and the skirt of her uniform flouncing about her thighs. This was probably the most unpleasant part of her job, having to go and tell a department head they couldn’t have all they want when they wanted it. That they had to play nice and share. She then mused on the high mortality rates of operations officers in the fleet and sighed. Perhaps she was just being cynical. Elise was not bouncing back from the trauma of the Caretaker’s array quickly. With a posh and easy upbringing, she had not been subjected to trauma outside what was “given” at the Imperial Academy as a learning experience.

As her mind began to wander to the needle descending and entering her body, she was suddenly snapped out of it as the door of main engineering opened. Elise blinked a few times as if she didn’t know where she was and then stepped inside, clearing her throat and looking at the nearest crewman. “Ah, I’m looking for Commander Quincy?”

“If you listen you can hear his bark, ma’am.” The man said, pointing in the direction of the Chief Engineer’s alcove where the wining sound of the Chief’s voice shaking and bellowing over the humming sound of the warp core. Other crew found them selves coincidentally out of his line of site.

“I mean, what the FUCK are you thinking, girl? Didn’t you read the instructions before you took it apart?! Gods damnit! Why do they keep sendin’ me the smooth brains? Get the fuck outa here!” Came the southern drawl. It wasn’t as angry as it was loud, but the intensity was startling. A young woman crewman scurried out, a handful of isolinesr chips clutched tightly in her hands. With a frantic expression on her, she scurried toward the nearest exit and quickly beat feet out of the room.

“Does this happened often?” Elise asked and expected zero answer as she watched the woman scurry away. Sighing, she closed her eyes a moment to gather her resolve and then walked to the alcove that everyone was staying well away. Coming around the corner, she put on a pleasant smile. “Good morning, commander. Do you have a few moments?”

“Only if ya have more than two brain cells to rub together.” Said Macon “Cash” Quincy. He was older than his Officer colleagues, even older than the Admiral, not that this was a difficult feat as she had been a standard age for a newly minted captain. All those years out of the fleet made that happen. He turned around and, seeing Elise, he returned the smile, though his was wide and goofy. “Hey, blondie! Good to see ya. What can I do ya for?”

Elise’s smile didn’t wane on her face though it certainly did in her mind. She found Quincy to be terribly plebeian and it grated on her sensibilities. “I certainly hope I have more than that.” Chuckling pleasantly, she moved closer to him. “I am here to talk to you about your resource allocation requests.”

Cash was oblivious to her displeasure. He didn’t put too much stock in the opinions of the posh and poised of the Empire, and he could tell she once one of them as readily as she could no doubt tell he was grown in Texan soil on a mid-sized ranch and not an estate. He was proud of who he was and he didn’t try to hide it for anyone.

“Of course you are.” Cash said, grinning at her and running his fingers along the surface of his wrap-out console. He then pulled up one of the stools for her and gestured toward it, inviting her to sit down. “Let’s talk it over, Blondie. Just have yerself a seat and get comfortable and I’m sure we’ll get everything squared away in two shakes. Can I get ya anything?”

“Some sweet black tea would be fine, thank you.” She said and moved to sit down, her posture straight and proper in the stool. Elise placed the stack of PADDs down in front of her and picked up the top one. “I’m going to have to deny your request to use reserves for more than one of your labs for the time being.” She saw little point in beating around the bush.

“Is that right?” He asked, his tone somehow a mix both of assertiveness and unworried ease. He turned his back to her and stepped to the replicator. “Two black teas, double sweet.” He said, pausing, “uhh…a bit of bourbon in that second one.”

He moved back to the woman, carefully placing the cold beverage in front of her and sitting down on his own stool. He leaned back, taking a sip of his drink, cool and easy.

“You must know we’re doing crucial work down here, Lieutenant.” He said, his face downturned in a frown which was standard for him anytime he wasn’t furious or laughing. “ I don’t pad like those other engineers. I ordered two active fabrication labs out of the four because that’s what I need. Now I need you to make that happen for me.”

His air was polite and kind, of not a bit brusque and Gauche. His mind was on results.

“Everyone is doing crucial work, commander.” Elise countered patiently and took a sip of the tea she was given. “Science division needs the resources to expand their scans out in this unknown part of space. There’s been orders from the top to locate suitable vessels to be raided, right now that is paramount.” She took another sip of her tea, finding it almost too sweet on the second sip but she would be polite. “This isn’t like I’m giving the resources to security to light their gym at night.”

“And when we find those vessels and raid them, you imagine the brass will appreciate us not being able to replace blown eps relays because of the shortage? Or maybe those critical little parts of our phaser banks conk out and there’s nothing there to fix it with because we gave everything we had to science.” He said the word like it was dirty, his bulldog face contorting into a irreverent glower. “We can’t do what we need to do with only one. Two fab labs, Blondie, and I’ll get right out of that pretty hair of yours.”

“We have many supplies in storage for such an event.” Elise said and offered him another PADD with a detailed list of said supplies; Elise had done her best to make sure they had enough for most contingencies, though getting flung into the Delta Quadrant hadn’t exactly been on that list. “I know things have been busy so perhaps you were not aware of the full list. Does this help assuage your concerns at all?”

"Of course I was aware of the full list, Blondie. You think I would just randomly start building shit without thinking about it or planning ahead?" he gave her a look that made it seem he thought she was slightly stupid. "That's a cute little list ya got there, Lieutenant, but we are one huge fuckin battle away from needing all those supplies in one quick go."

He sipped the drink again, sniffing obnoxiously as if his nose were slightly runny.

"We don't have Starbases out here, Blondie. There are no rescue crews coming to get us, no haulers coming to tow us back or bring us a brand new warp engine. We are 'as hell' alone out here, so we have to be prepared to help ourselves. And if you think that a ship that's been compromised and outnumbered, with resources in short supply all around the ship, will then how the time, manpower, and energy to run all four fabrication labs to catch up, well then you've still got academy dreams still comin out of your ears. Seventy Years in the wilderness, that's what we're up against."

“I am perfectly aware of that, commander, but it is not my place - nor yours - to question the decisions of our commanding officers.” Elise replied patiently, her face betraying none of her annoyance at his braying and disgusting behavior. “This is what I have to offer you. If we fall to one simple freighter once it is found then none of us are worthy of survival. After this is done, I can promise you a week of three of your labs working with potentially all four on certain days. For now you must make do with one.”

"Awe, HORSE SHIT!" The man said then, smacking his drink onto the carpeted floor beneath him, having swatted the air. Some of the Engineering crew who had started making their way back to their area quickly turned and made their way back to whatever hiding spot they had decided to work in. "You don't know who your messing with, do you, darlin? You cannot be serious; of all the-!"

He stopped mid-sentence, standing up and waving at a slave that was walking by with furious motion.

"Get in here and clean this up!" he yelled then turned back to Elise. "I'm going to talk to Latham about this, Lieutenant. This is ridiculous and I'm hopin mad over it!"

“Then by all means please do, and if the Admiral’s orders change on the matter, I will be happy to accommodate you. However,” Elise stood calmly, “I would kindly ask that you do not threaten me, however vaguely. I do not appreciate it for simply doing the job I have been tasked with.”

"Oh, you'll know when I've threatened you, you little witch!" he said, pointing at here and then giving her a dismissive wave. "Get the fuck out of here!"

Elise turned and moved to leave but paused and looked back over her shoulder. “You are very lucky I value the safety and security of this crew more than petty grudges, commander. For now, at least.” With that, she moved to exit engineering to her next stop with the science department.

END