PLOT

[montgomery l. scott]

Scotty was not, in fact, purring over the warp core.

Instead, he was perched up on a walkway towards the top of engineering, staring down at the group of frigid looking, uniformed engineers stalking about below as they inspected everything. The refit was basically done now, which meant that a set of politically beloved, good for nothing engineers had to come in and look over everything to make sure that everything that he already knew was fine was actually fine. He didn't really mind them being there so much. He was sure they wouldn't find anything wrong and he might get a compliment or two out of it, which was all good. However, they'd come with orders for him not to do anything well they were working and to not bother them well they were looking around, and that irked him. It was his engineering. All that was before them was his, and he hadn't a clue what he was supposed to do since he if he wasn't supposed to be working.

"Damn burehcrats;" he grumbled, not in a good mood by this point. He'd be fine as soon as they were done, but he was no longer feeling trusting that they wouldn't go and mess something up. One of the men whispered something to another, who nodded, and he squinted his eyes at them, before sighing and turning his back to them. He leaned against the railing, resisting the urge to just keep staring and hovering like a mother bear. It wouldn't do him any good to start complaining about this like a child either. So he just had to find something to do until they were done and pretend that he hadn't be at all bothered the entire time. According to some, reading engineering magazines did not count as something that wasn't work, but what was something else that he could do? This was stupid, considering he was on duty too, no matter what what those men said.

Food sounded good. A haggis sounded really good, something very traditional and Scottish and like his dear mother used to make. But he wouldn't be able to have any whisky with it, because he was on duty, so that pretty much ruined the whole idea. He could have just gone and have a sandwich, but by then his hope set on the savory flavor of the food of his childhood, and whisky, so now it just didn't sound as good. Sighing, he turned around and peered down once again, to realize that the bureaucrat engineers had disappeared. Where had they gone off too? He knew all the engineering better than anyone, but he wouldn't be able to find them unless he knew where to look! It seemed a bit extreme to go and use one of the computers to locate them too, since he wasn't supposed to be bothering them. He leaned farther over the rail, looking about the floor below.

"Damn bastart burehcrats;" he growled.

[kentra m. donrav]

The Chief Engineering Officer spoke no language that Kentra Donrav was familiar with. Certainly it seemed like English, but she was not quite sure what kind of variation on it that it was. Over the centuries she had amassed a fairly large amount of dialects, tongues and languages but nothing had prepared her for the rapid and confusing Scottish tongue of Montgomery Scott. Climbing out of a Jefferies Tube she approached him tentatively, not quite sure whether she should just ignore him. She had already heard the stories about him being exiled to the ice planet near Vulcan for vaporizing Admiral Archer's beagle (which she had found out was a kind of a dog), and so his sanity was hardly something she took as a given.

"Sir," she said clearing her throat to let him know that she was behind him, "I can scan for a burehcrat but I do not remember seeing anything about those on the manifest. Perhaps we can order some from the spacedock's supply officer?"

Glancing away somewhat nervously she readied herself for whatever craziness he might unleash. And in a way he would have been right, he was a senior officer and thus he had the right to go about the section that was under his command raving like a maniac. The other engineering officers had not said anything, so perhaps this was normal on the Enterprise which given it's brief and violent history since being completed was understandable. Though Mr. Scott was young, she also knew that she was younger than him or at least appeared that way. Correcting him, or attempting to ensure his insanity did not get them all killed in some kind of dilithium catastrophe was perhaps not her job. Though of course despite the fact that her true nature as a joined Trill was secret she had kept to herself, she was old enough to know when someone needed calming down. Or at least she figured she was.

She looked down over the side of the railing that Scott was leaning over and wondering if he intended to lean any further and thus put himself in danger of falling she added, "Sir if you fall they might promote me to your job, and I do not want your job so please do not fall."

She glanced back at him, then up to the Jeffries Tube where she had been a moment ago running diagnostic checks on the ventilation systems to the turbolifts. It was menial work, but it was stuff that needed to be done before the ship could relaunch. A lot had been damaged in the battle with Nero, and thus a lot needed to be repaired or replaced altogether. At the end of the day that was the job of Mr. Scott and his engineers. Even the ones that were afraid of him.

[montgomery l. scott]

Scotty jumped a bit when someone cleared their throat behind him, swirling around to see Donrav standing behind him. She was one of his engineers, an odd one with spotty skin, not that he had anything against aliens. He didn't mind Keenser, when he wasn't climbing on things, for one. However, he hadn't exactly expected anyone to pop up behind him like that. He blinked at her, then tilted his head slightly as she started to speak, confused about what in the world she was talking about. Since she was actually speaking with an accent, what the hell 'burehcrat' meant at first eluded him, and it was distracting that she seemed a bit nervous to be talking to him. Were they missing some necessary supplies? If they were, he should get right on that, but, no, wait, she was talking about what he had said. He blinked again, having no response before she added another request.

After a moment, he looked back down over the rail he was still partially leaning over, staring at the walkways below were no one was. Then he straightened up, giving Donrav a wry grin and raising his hands to show that he was moving away from the edge as he took a step back. He finally got what she'd been saying, and he was now amused, enthusiastic, and forgetful about the unknown men wandering his department. He glanced up at the Jefferies tube above them after she did, peering up into it was a critical sort of eye for a moment. Then he was grinning at the lieutenant in front of him like therbe wasn't going to be a tomorrow. "No need ta' worry 'bout me fallin'! Even if I did, can't be more than a short drop, and I certainly don't wan' no one taking over meh job;" he reassured, craning his neck out again so he could give the distance he might have fallen a proper look.

Taking a moments pause, he scratched at the back of his neck. His buzz cut hair was looking scruffy, as did the scraggly hair that grew on his chin and around his mouth. It was well apparent with him that appearance took second fiddle to a wide variety of things. "So;" he started, now trying to recall what he'd finally understood that she'd been trying to say and she could probably answer. He placed his hands on his hips, settling his weight, well he processed it. "Ah, got it. I was talkin' about 'burehcrats'. Those folks looking about, writing notes and talkin' all secretive like amongst themselves. I don' like 'em bein' about;" he explained to the officer, smile becoming more wry again. He waved his hands out at where the political minding officers had been, turning away from her to squint about, as if he was trying to find where they'd gone off to once again.

[kentra m. donrav]

The lieutenant nodded but did not say anything, still trying to process what he was talking about. She turned away for a moment and closed her eyes to concentrate, somewhere she knew she could do this. It was just a case of finding the right memories. They weren't hers, not Kentra's anyway but rather Vantour Donrav who the symbiot had lived with nearly a hundred years ago. Vantour had been a diplomat and ambassador between the Trill homeworld and the Federation, and amoung the many places on Earth that he had lived was the British Isles. Opening her eyes she gave up for now. Retrieving his memories would obviously require more focus than she was going to be able to give the process right at the moment when she was expected to be fixing a starship. Scott explained himself to her anyways, what he had been looking for where the Federation people who had been there making notes about the refit of the ship. His suspicion of them seemed misplaced to her, since they were just checking on things to make sure that the ship was up to Starfleet specifications prior to launch, but she did not say that. Correcting senior officers, particularly ones that seemed slightly off, was not something that she was ready to do.

As for him not dying, she seriously hoped not. It was pretty well known how nearly everyone on the ship had managed to rapidly move up the chain of command during the Romulan attack, with cadets ending up as Captain, Chief Medical Officer and filling even more spots. Had the Enterprise had a more typical maiden voyage she would have actually still outranked both Kirk and at least Doctor McCoy since she was a lieutenant and after graduation they would have been ensigns. Their field promotions had leaped frogged them, and though she had no real aspirations to command herself, which was one reason she wanted Scott to live as opposed to fall to his death, the Trill had to wonder if the rapid rise of the command staff had caused resentment amoungst the crew who had formerly been their senior officers but now found themselves taking orders from people who had been cadets less than a year before.

"I am sure they won't be a problem. This is a great ship, I've been on a few. Trill, Andorian and even the USS Farragut," she said, "This is by far the nicest one I've been on, though the NX Enterprise was one of the nicest ships I had been on at the time then too."

It took a second to realize what she had said. She blinked and hoped that he would not have noticed it, or assumed she was talking about a museum display or something. It had not been the first time one of her past memories had surfaced, inserted itself into her mind and then come out as if it were actually hers. There was no way for the officer, in her twenties, to have ever been on the pre-Federation Enterprise. Vantour had. Suddenly she realized that she had even once petted the beagle that Scott was said to have vaporized, though again she was Vantour at the time.

"Maybe they just do not trust us after the beagle," she said, glancing at him to see his reaction. This would be a way to confirm whether or not he had vaporized the pooch, though it also might be a good way to get herself latrine duty. At the very least it might move his mind off of the fact that she had just claimed to have been on Admiral Archer's Enterprise.

[montgomery l. scott]

Scotty didn't notice that she turned away and closed her eyes, too busy just answering her questions and talking as he looked about in his slightly paranoid, irrational way. It was just him being upset about being told not to work that brought out the slight paranoia. In his book, that was on par with sending someone to an automated station on a frozen planet that was classified as dangerous. It wasn't any of those things that effected his irrationality and obliviousness. Though he was a technical wizard and a genius in his own respect, he had one real passion and that was all he focused on. He didn't tend notice much and a lot went over his head. That isn't to say that he couldn't keep an eye on things, but he prefers to just keep an eye on his little bit. That specific love of only one thing was why he had no interest in being more than an engineer himself.

That tendency to not care about trying to notice things and the fact that he was a bit busy obsessive over not being able to work was why he didn't notice even when Donrav mentioned being on a ship she couldn't possibly been on. His brain jumped to immediately thinking of the outlines and schematics of all the sorts of ships she mentioned - basic Andorian and Trill designs, all the details that he knew about the Farragut, every little nook and cranny of every design plan there had ever been for the Enterprise. He scoffed at the idea that any of those other vessels were any were near to being on par to his vessel. Alright, fine, it was technically Kirk's vessel because he was in charge, but his relationship with the ship was far better than even the captain's. The Enterprise was his ship, which was why he was all sulky about having others go poking around without him.

"None of 'em can have anything on the Enterprise. Wait till ya' get to know her properly;" he said proudly, and probably would have continued except that Donrav had decided to mention that damn beagle. It wasn't that he had anything against the beagle. He just had a bit of problem with people always bringing up the fact it hadn't appeared where it was supposed to and judging him on that. Turning a bit red around the edges, Scotty ducked his head and rubbed at the back of his neck slightly sheepishly. Who had started telling the new engineers the story about the beagle? Except for the fact Keenser didn't tend to say a lot to people, it was likely it could have been the other officer. He wouldn't put it past Kirk, if it involved a girl, though he felt that the captain had more loyalty to his crew than to talk about that. He hoped that it wasn't going around the Academy.

"That was an accident, and a total fluke. I'm good with a transporter. Ya' heard about me portin' three people from two places onto one pad, right? I can show ya' the equations I've done for it. They wouldn't be anywhere without meh. I'm perfectly trustworthy;" he replied to her stoutly. Leaving sheepishness behind in an instant, he gave her a cheerful grin again. Without much of a care, he wrapped one arm around her shoulder and dragged her over so they were under the Jefferies tube that she'd been working in. "So, what were ya' doin'?" Shifting topic easily, he moved on to something that was about work and wasn't about him. That made him much happier, though he'd never been more than a bit grumpy to begin with. As long as he could think of something other than worrying about people looking around and beagles, he was perfectly content with life.

[kentra m. donrav]

At least Engineering was something that they could talk about. Even before joining Kentra had been interested in engineering. As with humans it was odd for a Trill female to be into the nuts and bolts of how things worked, most of them tended to enter into the more theoretical sciences or something that avoided actually having to get their hands dirty. However since her brother had cast such a long shadow on Trill she had been forced to find her own life off planet, and the easiest way to get off planet was working in an engine room. Eventually she had grown to love it, and now she was pleased as she could be to be working on the newest and greatest ship in the fleet. One of the reasons she did not want Mr. Scott to fall and break his neck was that if he did she would move up the chain of command and that would mean less time actually working with the engines and more time doing things like making sure the crew was working well together and doing paperwork.

He asked about the Jefferies Tubes and her work up there, and she was glad that he did not even seem to have noticed her slipup. Much more confident talking about things that Kentra knew rather than something that she had to rely on the memory of a past life. She was a bit surprised by the sudden physical contact as he pulled her towards the hole that she had just climbed out of, his arm around her shoulder, but she decided not to protest. Finding common ground with her superior officers, whether it be the section chief Mr. Scott, the new Assistant Chief Engineer whose name she had not yet memorized or the ship's Captain the now in-famous James T. Kirk. Donrav pointed up towards the tube.

"I've been seeing reports of slight dips in power to the turbolifts and other secondary systems. Most of it's unnoticable, but they show up on the diagnostic checks. I'm one of the smaller crew in the section so fitting in there isn't an issue. I was just going over the power couplings to try to find where the bleed off was," she said, "The readouts show a spike in the ship's sensor strenght around the same time these power drops are happening, so I'm thinking that it's possible if the sensors aren't bleeding off some of the energy," she explained, "The drops tend to be happening at the start of each shift change, which is when the crew would be doing a sensor sweep. In space dock since we're not actually moving, the sweeps aren't done as regularly... and I'm talking too much because obviously you knew all of that."

She glanced at him and winced slightly. Clearly he was going to think she was a nervous ensign just out of the Academy, as opposed to a lieutenant with a full year of starship experiance under her belt.

[montgomery l. scott]

Scotty listened to the lieutenant as she chattered on about how they were having power spikes and how it was connected to their sensor sweeps. The entire time his attention remained fixed up on the open space above them as he peered at it intently, rather than ever looking at his subordinate's face. He had noticed the dips and the spikes, as he did have the fun task of going over every diagnostic and readout that ended up on the desk he very rarely checked. However, there had been more important things to check over and fix up with all the refitting that had been going on, since they hadn't even started out on what would be their long journey yet. It was satisfying to him to know that one of his crewman had the initiative to go and check out the problem, especially one as slight and small as Donrav was. Not that he wouldn't have loved to drag himself up in the tube to check it himself, if he'd had time.

When she trailed off at the end, realizing that he probably knew most of this, especially the theory and practicalities of it after the data, he grinned wide, intent staring not shifting. He did notice that she winced slightly, since he still had an arm draped around her shoulder in a companionable way. If she didn't complain and didn't seem to bothered by it, he was doubtful to think enough of the gesture again for the time being to think to reverse it. He wasn't bothered by the fact that she'd been ramblingly on. So far, she'd shown that she was competent enough and willing to work. She just seemed a bit nervous around him and to generally be a bit simple in terms of how she behaved. A small bit of him agreed with the idea that it would be bad if she got suddenly promoted. She seemed a better engineer than a commander from his experience with her.

"Something probably got worn out and started crossin' with other things, which is why it's bleedin' off, though I suppose ya know that;" he replied to, adding a sideways look at her to show he was teasing just a bit with the last part. He didn't doubt that she was perfectly qualified and perfectly capable as an engineer. It took someone who'd shown that they were the admirable sort to get to the Enterprise. "Have ya found anything? Related to the problem or anything else? I'd like to know, before they find anything;" he asked, mind whirring as he considered the problem and eagerly pried to try to find the solution. With a jerk of his thumb, her indicated that the 'they' could be taken to vaguely meant to be the group of people poking around. It was with that motion that he absentmindedly released the younger engineer, hardly noticing it at all. His fingers twitched over some imaginary item he was handling.