Jaxom winced as yet another crate seemed to bang against the ones he was busy stacking and moving, the instruments inside jostling in a way he hoped hadn’t proven fatal to their instrumentation. 

“Its like someone let a drunk badger into this place, and gave them every single spare cable we have,” he muttered as he stopped and moved to place the tool crate back where it should be.

“It would be easier to vent everything into space and just start over,” he said sourly as he used his tricorder to search through the jumble of inventory. He could see no rhyme or reason to anything, and if there had been a sort of master plan at one point, now all he saw was a mess that made his brain twitch. 

He had gotten an early start, the transfer period where he had been stuck aboard the shuttle had been more downtime than he had taken in a stretch. With a clean bill of health, and some doctorly advice regarding that, he had felt ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work. So he was glad no one heard him bouncing around crates like a drunken Klingon in a porcelain shop. 

Sighing, he took a minute to sip from the coffee he’d replicated and let his mind chew the problem at hand. “Thankfully nothing is in the wrong environmental conditions that I can tell. So there is no risk of corrosion, decay or anything else hazardous while this gets sorted. But we have personnel related cargo, mixed with Engineering parts and tools. I am surprised I didn’t see someone hanging from their boots when I arrived, the Chief must be ready to chew durasteel by now,” he said to himself, talking through his thoughts an old habit from time spent in warehousing and other spaces solo.

“Computer. Please advise of any pending maintenance orders. Sort by priority, and list them on my PADD,” he said as an inquiry. “If nothing else, we make sure nothing they absolutely need is buried in the chaos. If there is, we dig it out, and hope it makes a little wiggle room in here. Maybe I replicate a cot and save some time,” he said jokingly to himself, sipping the coffee and seeing the PADD populate. 

The door whisked open with a soft hiss. Niala charged in, her boots thudding against the metal floor. She paused for a heartbeat, eyes flicking to the bio on her PADD, then scanned the cargo bay. Stacks of crates loomed high, a labyrinth of organized chaos. Amidst it all stood a figure in a crisp uniform: Lieutenant Junior Grade Nadir.

Niala’s eyes narrowed, her jaw set in determination. She finally got him assigned to her, determined to see him sort through the mess his department had left. Personal fault or not, her patience had worn thin.

“You,” she called out, her voice slicing through the ambient noise. Her strides were long and purposeful, quickly closing the distance. “You’re Lieutenant Nadir, right?” The words were sharp, her frustration evident in every syllable.

The sharp voice cutting through the ambient noise was startling, especially when he hadn’t expected anyone to be poking around so early. Turning he saw the uniform first, the yellow of operations and the pips of a Lieutenant Commander. He noticed the nose ridges and the fierce expression on her face immediately afterwards. 

“I am Commander Lorra Niala, Chief Engineer. You are to come with me at once, Captain’s orders,” she snapped, her eyes blazing. Her fists clenched tightly at her sides.

Noticing the startled look on Nadir’s face, she paused. Her shoulders rose and fell with a deep breath, and her expression softened. She unclenched her fists, her fingers flexing as if releasing the tension.

“Sorry,” she added, her voice now calmer. “I’m a bit worked up.” Her eyes, now less fierce, conveyed a silent apology.

“I am Nadir. And the Captain had mentioned she would be making me at your disposal,” Jaxom said carefully, noticing the fists loosening a little and trying not to compare her to at least three species of badgers he could think of. With the fire she’d already shown, he was a little surprised things had gotten as crazy as they had. 

“It’s fine. We all get worked up, and us Yellows more than most. Comes from having the other departments constantly wrecking our things,” he said with a smile, attempting a joke to see if it would help dissolve the tension. Especially as he doubted the fire was directed at him personally, he’d hardly been on board long enough to annoy anyone yet. 

“I am guessing you have a mess that looks a lot like the one here, or even worse? And you figure its time to whip it into submission?” Jaxom inquired, hazarding a guess that was what had the Chief of Engineering barking. 

“Ha!” Niala chuckled, the sound echoing through the cargo bay, “Pretty much,” she said with a wry smile. 

She turned on her heel and started walking, beckoning him to follow with a quick motion of her hand. “Come with me.” Her eyes gleamed with a mix of amusement and determination as she navigated through the maze of crates and equipment. “As you humans say – I’ll show you just how deep this rabbit hole goes.”