“The time is 0600 hours.”

Ian Rockwall woke to the computer voice, a gentle synthesized chime, and bedroom lights softly increasing in brightness. He made sure he would wake up on-time, for today was not a good day to snooze.

“Computer, stop alarms. Quad zebra mocha, hot.”

The computer chimed its acknowledgement and the small replicator near the bedroom door sparkled to life. Ian’s “wake me up fast” beverage appeared in mere moments. Sure, he could get something fresh from the coffee shop, but he wanted to walk out of his quarters actually looking awake.

Ian rolled out of bed, trudged to the replicator to retrieve his order, and took one sip. Any mild concerns he had about the accuracy of Culver City’s replicators were gone. The temperature was perfect, just like back on the starbase–not burning hot, but just enough to be satisfying. He let the myriad of chocolate flavors roll on his tongue, and then took a few more sips to get him going.

While Alpha shift started promptly at 0800, Ian wanted to get into Main Engineering quite early to do some final checks. When he discussed the idea yesterday with Alavan Xenn, his senior, Lieutenant Xenn agreed to the idea, and they agreed to be in engineering no later than 0700.

Ian started changing out of his sleepwear when he realized he’d need something to eat, or else Lieutenant Xenn would start hearing Ian’s stomach growl by the actual start of Alpha shift. “Computer, one bowl of granola in vanilla yogurt.” Something light, he thought.

The replicator produced Ian’s request as he was putting on his uniform jacked. Ian quickly consumed the bowl of breakfast and drank his mocha, then promptly exited his bedroom and quarters at 0620.

The corridors to and from the turbolift were dim, as the Gamma shift night watch mode was still well in effect. Main engineering held a similar quiet demeanor, the late shift engineers working quietly at their consoles–a contrast to the bustle of the prior morning. Ian walked unhurriedly into the cavernous room, nodding at several personnel he had not yet met. Though there was no direct familiarity, the exchanged glances purveyed a mutual respect and understanding–no question between engineers that they belonged, no matter the time of day.

Ian approached a console at the base of the still-dormant warp core and looked up, admiring the towering reactor. He and his Alpha shift warp team would start it up in only a few hours. Ian smiled, giddy at the thought of hearing the thrum, thrum, thrum of pulsing magnetic constrictors guiding the fuel streams to the dilithium chamber. The sound would not be unfamiliar, but this time it would be from his reactor, on hisship.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ian observed a crew member stepping from a high Jeffries tube portal near the top of the chamber–the same tube that he and Lieutenant Xenn used yesterday to access the upper core injector systems. Their work, and much of the other work accessed via that tube, would have been fully completed and not need to be checked again, so it was curious that someone would need to access the systems there this morning.

The crew member descended down the personnel lift to the main level, and Ian recognized the man more clearly: Commander Brian Park, now in engineering coveralls. Interesting, Ian thought. He’d heard of commanding officers liking to get their hands dirty, but this one looked keen on detail work.

Ian briefly tapped some commands on the console near him to check core hardware status. Indeed, one change was made: the upper injector flow calibration factor was adjusted to point-two-one-three–within limits, but not the standard operating configuration. Ian tilted his head at the change, feeling a small ping of confusion: did he miss an order? Was there something specific about this core that needed that change?

“Ah, Lieutenant Rockwall! Excited to get her started?”

Ian didn’t realize Commander Park had walked so quickly to stand beside him. “Yes, sir, indeed, sir,” he responded, quickly shoving his confusion down. “I came down to…well…admire the core and maybe check on a few more things before my shift. Very excited to be here, sir.”

“I understand completely, lieutenant,” Brian nodded. “I heard last night that this is your first starship posting?”

“Yessir.”

“I think you will enjoy it, mister Rockwall. Very capable ship, reliable warp core. Of course, we’ve been parked for three weeks, but I’ve been over the maintenance logs–she’s eager to fly.”

“Thank you, sir.” Ian responded cordially, but his eyes drifted back to the console, showing the injector configuration changelog. Commander Park followed Ian’s eyes to the display.

“Ah good, you’ve been looking at the core configuration already,” Brian acknowledged.

“Yes, sir…” Ian trailed off, internally conflicted. He wanted to ask about this adjustment, but didn’t want to immediately offend his new commanding officer with a veiled accusation.

“Something on your mind, Lieutenant?”

That decided it. “Actually…yes. I see the upper injector calibration is set to point-two-one-three now. I remember calibrating this to point-two-zero-zero with Lieutenant Xenn yesterday. I saw you come down from the maintenance hatch but I’m not sure who…”

“I made the adjustment, Lieutenant.”

“Oh,” Ian responded, still somewhat confused. “I don’t remember seeing that ordered, did we miss–”

“Not at all. I prefer the new calibration setting. I’ve found it improves power efficiency on my ships.”

Ian nodded, accepting Commander Park’s explanation, but still holding some confusion. “I see, sir. Um…I…did I need to check with Commander Olivarez on variances from standard?”

“Oh no, Lieutenant, documented standards are fine. I figured I’d just make the adjustment myself, tune up the ship to my liking.”

Ian glanced at the console display. The commander’s adjustments appeared compliant.

“Commander–Captain, sorry, if I may: I see the level of detail in refactoring the other systems to compensate for the change. You did all of this yourself, just now?”

“I did, Lieutenant. Surprised?”

“Um…sorry to be so…blunt, but yes?” Ian said, a tinge of insecurity in his voice.

Brian chuckled, trying to provide some semblance of reassurance. “Oh!” he exclaimed, suddenly realizing a missing detail. “I apologize, Lieutenant. We didn’t converse much last night. I remember us being in proximity but never in the same conversation. I’m an engineer by trade as well, so I know a thing or two about injector calibration.”

Ian started putting the pieces together, but needed one more piece of information. “I see sir. Did our work meet your standards?”

Lieutenant Alavan Xenn approached Commander Park and Lieutenant Rockwall before the commander could respond to Ian’s question. Xenn’s face gained an intrigued expression as he recognized the CO.

“Lieutenant Xenn, good morning. Lieutenant Rockwall and I were just discussing an injector calibration adjustment I made.”

“You made, sir?” Xenn looked at Ian for confirmation, now more intrigued. Ian nodded.

“Yes Lieutenant.” Commander Park pointed at the console display with the calibration factor readout. Xenn looked at it, then looked at Ian, then back at the display. “As Lieutenant Rockwall and I were discussing, I made a slight adjustment to boost some power efficiency. And…may I reassure you both that this is entirely about my particular preferences with core calibration and not a reflection of your work. I’m a tinkering engineer at heart, so I wanted to take care of this early. But, you caught me!”

Ian and Xenn gave each other a reassured glance. So this wasn’t their new commanding officer already criticizing their work–just a fellow engineer doing what they too might have done.

“Lieutenant Xenn, I’m sure you’ll find the core calibration to be within tolerances?” asked Commander Park.

Xenn checked the same data that Ian had analyzed. “Confirmed sir, the other specs are tuned to the new calibration and the injector is in ready state. It looks good to me. Thank you, sir.”

“Of course, Lieutenant. Now, I should get out of your way, and…” Commander Park turned to look at the coffee cart near the port pool table console, in apparent shambles with no clean mugs and the coffee pot indicating empty. “…I’ll have the coffee shop send down some fresh pots of coffee and clean mugs. And…do either of you want anything specific?”

Ian’s brow raised, not expecting his CO to fetch a coffee order. “Oh, no, I’m sure I can just replicate something–”

“Please, Lieutenant Rockwall, I insist.”

“If you say so, Captain. A cappuccino would be nice.”

Commander Park turned to Lieutenant Xenn. “For you, mister Xenn?”

“Same as Lieutenant Rockwall.”

Brian smiled. “Very well.” He tapped his combadge. “Park to the Craft Table, please send down two fresh pots of brewed coffee and two cappuccinos to main engineering. Oh, and more mugs.”

“Yes, Captain,” a coffee shop attendant responded over the com channel.

“Should be down in a few minutes, Lieutenants. Thank you.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Ian and Xenn responded, as their CO turned to exit engineering. They both watched him leave, took a beat, then looked at each other, eyes slightly widened.

“So he just made that change? Didn’t tell anyone else?” Xenn asked.

“I guess so, I just walked in here and saw the change, and saw him come down from the Jeffries tube,” said Ian.

Xenn shrugged. “I mean, Park’s an engineer, so it sounds like he knows what he’s doing, but…I’m not used to the Captain of any ship making a specific adjustment like that directly. At least, not on the ships I’ve been on.”

Ian and Xenn caught sight of the fresh coffee pots coming in, plus a tray with two steaming cappuccinos in fine gold-rimmed china. Atop saucers were cups labeled with the Starfleet delta and USS Culver City in gold lettering.

“Do you think Commander Park is trying to curry favor with us by ordering these?” Ian asked Xenn, as they both claimed their beverages.

“Maybe. Though maybe he’s trying to reassure us that our work was fine? I don’t know. It’s interesting.”

Chief Engineer Lucas Olivarez walked in a moment later, headed directly for the coffee pots, where he filled a mug with black coffee before saying anything else.

“Lieutenants, you didn’t have to come in early.”

“No, sir, but,” Ian explained, “Xenn and I wanted to double-check the core configuration. But…the Captain got here first.”

“Commander Park? Was he looking at it?” Lucas asked, intrigued.

“Yes, he adjusted the injector flow factor. Point-two-one-three.”

“Ah. Not surprising,” Lucas responded, unbothered.

“Oh? Did he tell you he was going to do that?” Ian asked, trying to make sense of his CO.

“No, but it’s fine. In the three weeks I’ve worked for the commander, I’ve seen that he likes to make tweaks to the engineering systems. Nothing harmful, and a lot of them good adjustments. I’ve advised him to let his engineering team to tweak things, but Commander Park insists sometimes. I’ll tell you: your point-two-zero-zero calibration was fine and by-the-book. Xenn, you’ve probably seen that; Rockwall, nothing to be concerned about, but it’s a great opportunity to see alternate configurations.”

The two warp engineers gave a simultaneous sigh of relief at hearing the chief engineer’s reassurance. They both took a moment to sip their steaming cappuccinos–a reward for the last several minutes of mild worry.

“Well,” Olivarez started, “since we’re all here way earlier than we need to be, and Gamma shift is still busy, let’s go over the warp reactor startup procedures. We’re not expecting anything out-of-the-ordinary, but you fellas should check over the details.”

Lucas Olivarez gestured for Ian and Xenn to gather around the port pool table console, calling up the reactor startup checklist file and pointing at various line items. For Lucas and Xenn, this was routine. For Ian, this was prelude to the first starship warp core startup of his career.

“Rockwall, you might want to put your cup down,” said Lucas.

The cappuccino cup made a clattering noise against the saucer as Ian’s excited hand caused the cup to tremble. “Yes sir,” Ian said as he recognized the noise and gently put everything down on the console. The chief engineer smiled, recognizing the only-too-common “elated engineer syndrome” and continued his briefing. Lucas would gladly admit the same excitement, though he was seasoned enough to keep it in.

Launch time for the Culver City would be here soon enough.