Catherine Vargas left the bridge and made her way towards Engineering. She was eager to get her hands dirty and prove that she was more than capable of permanently filling the role of Chief Engineer. At the moment, she found herself a little confused as to why the newcomer got the role of both that and XO, but she could understand that the Captain wanted to rely on people she knew she could rely on. And, in the end, what mattered was things getting sorted. “Hi.”, she smiled at Morishita upon entering. “Lieutenant Vargas, Engineering. Where can I help?”

Hina Morishita had returned to Engineering a few minutes ago, and with yet another assignment. Her time on the ship was certainly not boring. But right now she had a warp core to restart, and to ponder her questionable life choices later. The rest of the engineering staff had doubled checked their work and it seemed like they were ready. She tapped a few controls, and looked over at the new voice. “Hey.” she said. “We’re just about to get the warp core going again. You could monitor the plasma flow.” she said, smiling.

“On it.”, confirmed Catherine. Out of habit, she looked over the work her team had done, finding it the way she expected to find it – no mistakes from what she could see right at that moment. “Play nice.”, she said to no one in particular – or at least no one corporal.

Hina either hadn’t heard or was choosing not to acknowledge what was said instead of focusing on the work in front of her. “Ok… let’s bring the plasma flow up gradually. Bring the injectors online…” she stated. “Let’s start with 5% flow. If we don’t explode… we can go from there…”

“Are we expecting to explode?”, Catherine asked lightheartedly, but followed the order regardless. “Two… four… four-seven… aaaand we’re up to five.”, she paused. “And still in one piece.”

Hina laughed. “No… but I also wasn’t expecting to get sucked into a random hole in space when I came here… so… you never know.” she said, grinning. She tapped a few controls, watching data stream across the console. The matter/anti-matter reaction was already really beginning to take hold, but was staying contained. “Looking good. Ok Lieutenant… unlock the magnetic constrictors and bring us to 20%.” she said. If they could reach that, the ship was probably able to withstand more.

“It’s the Cupertino.”, Cat shrugged. “This kind of stuff happens all the time.” The systems responded well, and Cat gave her console a little pat. And then, at eighteen percent, the process shut down automatically.

Hina frowned. That wasn’t what she had wanted to see. “Ok… everyone check your read outs… ” she commented checking her own. She didn’t see anything abnormal. “Computer… what is the cause of the shutdown?” she asked.

The computer’s voice filled Engineering. “Shutdown initiated due to imminent risk of catastrophic failure. Current matter/anti-matter reaction levels indicate structural stress beyond safe operational limits. Continuing the process at this rate would compromise the integrity of the ship’s warp core containment field, potentially leading to a core breach. Recommendation: Perform a full diagnostic of the magnetic constrictors and containment field generators. Consider rerouting auxiliary power to reinforce containment. Once diagnostics are complete, gradually increase the reaction levels in 5% increments, monitoring for any anomalies.“

Hina raised an eyebrow. The computer had actually answered her. Which was nice. Maybe Saffy had been right after all. “Thank you computer.” she commented, looking to Vargas. “Want to give me a hand with the constrictors?” she asked.

“Will do.”, nodded Vargas. “Computer, mind sending me a list of further recommendations you got?” “Affirmative” Cat nodded approvingly and joined Hina. She wasn’t quite sure how to approach the subject, but it seemed that the woman was catching on on her own. And someone had to approach said subject, right? 

Hina nodded, grabbing a tool kit, moving toward where the constrictors were set up. “Nice of the computer to assist use so readily…” she commented, looking to Vargas. She set the tool kit down, digging out a tricorder. “Let’s give these a nice once over.” she added.

“It’s not so bad, really.”, sighed Vargas. “Not any more, anyway. Now it’s just a little… overly concerned and a tad moody.”

Hina chuckled. “Certainly seems nice enough.” she added. “How long has it been this way anyway?” she asked, mostly innocently.

“This exact way, or just different?”, Cat asked back, because the answer would vary depending on what the question was

Hina thought for a moment. “Both?” she asked.

“Uh…”, Cat pondered. “Well it started acting up after the B.L.A.D.E incident. But we had the Cupertino in for repairs and no one found anything. So we figured it’s our imagination.”

“Mm… makes sense…” she commented, running the tricorder over the magnetic constrictors. “Well it isn’t your guys imaginations…” she confirmed.

“Well and then one day, it was just like… this.”, she shrugged. Of course she knew more, but she … felt a little protective of …it. And Morishita was someone she didn’t know at all, and friends with the Captain no less. 

Hina nodded again. “I understand.” she commented. “Well Im sure whatever happened its fine.” she added, smiling.

“Previous Captain didn’t think so.”, Catherine said vaguely. “Neither did the XO. I’m not sure about Captain Nassar yet. You seem to know her better.”

“I served with Saffiya for six years…” she explained. “She was an engineer and eventually the Chief Engineer of the USS Kongo at the time…” she added. She glanced at Vargas. “She called me when she realized that the computer seemed to be alive… she wants to figure out what happened.” she explained.

“I’m not sure it really is alive.”, Cat frowned. “I know it can seem that way, but… It just tries to act like we do, and it uses all the data it can get. Blend in, so to speak. Like you would do when you are in a new environment, I suppose. You might first try to do things your way because you don’t know any better, and then you see people’s reactions and adjust depending on those new parameters.”

Oh. Catherine bit her lip. She had really just meant to communicate these intricacies about their very special friend in the machine, but realised that it also fit to the Captain. And Cat had no business, nor any interest, in criticising the Captain. 

“I see.” she said. She looked to Vargas again. “So why didn’t anyone tell the Captain when she got here?” Hina asked. It had taken one person on the bridge to even give a hint. “I got the distinct feeling no one even wanted to talk to her until one person hinted at something on the bridge.”

Ugh. Was Morishita referring to the computer or… Cat was at a loss. This wasn’t great. 

“It’s complicated.”, sighed Vargas. “Frankly, I don’t even know what will happen now. I just know Captain Jurev wanted to return to have the ship taken another look at, and a day later he was off in a shuttle and apparently retired.”

“I heard about that… we were tracing his path when we found that hole in space.” she nodded. “Im sure we’ll get to the bottom of whatever happened… sooner we do the sooner I can just go back to being an engineer and not XO…”

“Not your thing?”, Vargas asked. She herself did absolutely not want to ever leave her current duty post. “Then again that means you’d leave again, too. Right?”

“I never really had command ambitions…” Hina said, grabbing a tool to realign one of the magnetic constrictors. “So the Captain springing that on me… was not what I was looking for. Not the least of which because it was sure not to make me many friends” she said. She glanced at Catherine, leaving off that it probably wouldn’t have happened if the crew had just trusted their new Captain even a little bit. She returned her attention back to the task in front of her. “Unless Saffy asked me to stay… yea probably. This was only supposed to be a consult for a friend… but if she offered a position I was actually qualified for Id probably stay.”

Cat gave that some thought. She wouldn’t be surprised if the new Captain wanted Morishita to stay, but she wasn’t entirely happy with the idea of her getting the position she had been after for a while. Or rather, she was used to working without reporting to a department head, and she would very much like to keep it that way. “I guess we’ll find out once we’re out of here.”

“Yea, we will.” she agreed. “Hopefully once we finish this and we get warp power back… we can work on getting out…” she said.

“Then let’s get to work, and see if the computer approves.”, Cat smiled, deciding to concentrate on the matter at hand. Get out of here first. Complain about promotions later.