Ensign Aoife  McKenzie leaned over the master situation “pool table”.  She still wasn’t one hundred percent after being shot on Lupheria, and she tired quickly. Sighing, she dropped onto one of the stools and started entering commands as red, orange, and yellow dots began to populate all over the diagram of the ship.  There was always more work to do.  Job security,  she reminded herself.  But, in reality, at this point, she does with a little less of that.

Imal had yet to meet the CO, she wanted to take a tour of the area where she was working. She had been on the ground for what seemed like for years, when in reality it was only months. Guerilla warfare takes its toll on the best officers. Behind her she heard a console explode. She jumped, and immediately drew her phaser. 

“Sorry…” she said, holstering her phaser, ashamed that she was so frayed from the Houdini mines. 

“Bloody hell!” Aoife exclaimed as she grabbed a plasma extinguisher from under the console. “Jackson, lock down those EPS relays!”

A young crewman sprinted across engineering and swung onto the ladder and scrambled up to the next level.  Aoife brushed past a strange Lieutenant and ran to shattered bulkhead the burning plasma conduit bright in hues of white and blue.  She pressed the trigger on the extinguisher and in a cloud of white she discharged the contents as Jackson had cut off the supply of plasma leaving a black burned hole of melted metal and plastics.

Aoife turned to the stranger, looking pale with pain etched across her furrowed brows.  “I’m sorry, Lieutenant.  I know Sector Command wants that engineering report, but there’s not enough of me to go around.”

“Than Sector Command is going to have to wait, the welfare of the crew comes first, let me introduce myself, I am Lt. Imal, but you can call me Dia, what are we working with here?” Dia asked. Trying to alleviate the stress of the Ensign before her. “In other words, what can I do to help?”

As her words stopped there was another spark, the Lieutenant held up her finger, and used her foot and kicked the computer, it stopped causing a ruckus. Pressed a few buttons and it still worked. 

“I’m Ensign Mckenzie, acting chief engineer. Now, Lieutenant Dia,” she said, too tired to stand on courtesy, “you’ve said who you are, but not why you are here?”

‘Why am I here?’ she thought to herself, “I am the new Chief Engineer, so tell me, what do you want me to take over, Ensign Mckenzie? Perhaps better asking, what is the status report here?”

This was Dia’s first command on a Starship, this was nothing like being in the trenches, she was ran ragged down on Betazed, shuttled between camps and troops. She was tired and wished this war was over. She went to reach for her earring that dangled around her neck but stopped herself. It was a habit that she had picked up while on Betazed. 

Aoife looked like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She wanted to break down and cry. Ever since the departure of the old Chief Engineer, she had been running engineering, and she was drowning. 

“Ma’am… you are the life raft I’ve been praying for.  We lost most of the engineering crew at Tyra when a coolant tank burst. That’s when I got the battlefield commission.  You are looking at the sole officer in the engineering department, and I only have two years at the Academy and eight months in the fleet. What do I want you to take over? Everything.”  She picked up a PADD, downloaded the department’s roster, duty tasks, and system summary, and handed it to Dia.

Aoife stared down at the screen in front of her, gripping the console’s edge until her knuckles went white.  “Are you sure you want this assignment, ma’am?  This ship is cursed. Lt. Jackson and Ensign Selor were killed over there when that console exploded.  Lieutenants Harper and Rosecrans were killed with Captain Fitzpatrick when deck five exploded. Ensign Davies was leading damage control on deck 23 when a Cardassian phaser ripped open the hull. And, of course, all of our senior chiefs and the rest of the officers…” She hesitated and let out a ragged breath. “They were… their organic components were just gone…  I didn’t get this stupid pip,” her voice had shifted from sad reflection to bitterness and resentment, “I didn’t get this pip because I earned it. I didn’t do something great.  I was the highest-ranking survivor other than Commander Berkley, who was in deflector control. Hell, even the XO came out of the intelligence department, and she’s still leading it. It’s a bloody catastrophe around here.”

“Ensign Mckenzie, everyone on this ship deserves medals of honour in my opinion. As this war wages we have been taught one thing, we each have our journeys. You finish the report for the brass, I’ll tend to the rest of the list.” She looked around, “Guess I’m borrowing from Operations and their home departments for their own repairs. First things first, I am going to inspect the engines, and make sure they are not damaged in anyway, than we will go for a drink. Deal?”

Aoife sighed, looking a bit ashamed. “Sorry, ma’am. I didn’t mean to unload on you like that.  I don’t know where that came from. Not very professional of me, I know.” Aoife shrugged and looked away.  “For the first time in almost a year, Starfleet has sent me help. Real help. Not the raw recruits right out of basic training and pressed into the service. It takes over a month to get them up to speed, which takes time and energy, which I don’t have.  And you want to know the kicker? I get them trained up and going, and they bloody get themselves killed. Yeah, I’ll do the report. My condolences on your promotion to Chief Engineer.”

She snickered, “It is okay, I want to make sure that we have the type of working relationship that you can come to me for anything.” She said working on the console opposite the Assistant Chief Engineer, “Just remember you are not alone anymore, and I am not going anywhere. I have been through the worst the past little bit in the trenches. I understand the loss too.”

She hadn’t really had the time to mourn the loss of the comrades she had loss on the planet, but there wasn’t time… “After….”

She was interrupted by a Petty Officer with a padd, “Looks like the Secondary Containment fields had problems in the last test, I am going to check it out.” She didn’t want to walk away from the conversation but she really wanted to make sure the secondary systems were up to par before being caught with their pants down. 

“The  compression coil needs replaced,  unfortunately those are harder to find than Chief Engineers apparently.   I have been rebuilding it for the last six months,  but it really needs replacing.” She gathered up her PADDs. “Go take care of it.  If you’ll permit it I would like to use your office one last time.”

“Alright, we will find one I am sure of it. Go ahead.” she said. 

Aofie entered the office and sighed letting her shoulders slump as the scents of stale coffee and lubricants assailed her nostrils. The desk was covered in discarded PADDs and littered with a dozen empty coffee mugs… No, that one was from this morning.  I never finished it, she told herself.

The floor was littered with broken components in various stages of repair or salvaging sitting directly on the carpet staining it with various liquids and filth. Empty shipping containers for new parts were haphazardly piled along the far wall the packing peanuts littering the floor like white balls of leaves in fall.

Aloud she spoke,  defeat in her tone, “Mckenzie what have you done?”