Ravi was frustrated. She was trying to make a good first impression on her new colleagues and hopefully future friends but here she was struggling to get the most basic functions out of the Console she was working on.

She felt that it was a very sorry situation to have to say to everyone that there was something wrong with the equipment.  How would that look to them all?  And what if……. Spirits forbid….. if it actually was fine and the fault was with herself?

She tried until it was taking too long for it not to be noticed that she was struggling with it and soon the game was up.  A very kindly Senior Nurse approached her to ask if anything was wrong? and Ravi looked up and became aware of all the eyes that were on her.  It was harsh.

Accepting the kindness at its face value, desperate not to presume she was being judged, Ravi said, as calmly as she could muster.

“Well, yes, I think so………. ” she smiled at the would be rescuer.  “I’m not getting the reactions that I’m used to from this Console.  I hope it’s not that I’m doing it all wrong….”

Ravi knew she wasn’t doing anything wrong, she’d been around the block so to speak, plenty of times and had operated similar scanners and data collection displays in many types of systems:  Cardassian, Bajoran and of course, Federation – to name the most important and relevant. However she stood aside for the Nurse to take her own look at the Console of the Med-Bed’s internal scanner for herself.

It was much to Ravi’s relief that the woman, whose name was apparently Rose McQueen, had just the same problems with the wretched piece of broken technology.   At least all the observing eyes, whether they were directed at her or looking away but listening to hear what was going on, seemed to then go back to a much busier pace of what they were doing.

Rose put in a call for an Engineer and ask that whoever was sent should report to ACMO Winters.  Ravi was grateful for that and for the new found friend’s support.  Buoyed by this turn of events and a new friend made already, Ravi felt her nerves dissipate and her characteristic (but odd for someone with her predominantly Cardassian features) smile had returned by the time the Engineer arrived. 

It wasn’t long for an engineer to arrive in Sickbay, and as Erica entered, carrying a repair kit, her uniform covered in a number of grease marks, she looked around, finding who she was looking for. Before heading to Sickbay, she had looked up the record of the woman, and made her way over to her. “Ravi Winters? I’m Chief Engineer Erica Anderson. You said you were having a problem with a console?” Erica asked, already prepared to get to work and fix the problem.

It wasn’t the first problem of the day either. There seemed to be a feedback loop in the EPS grid causing a number of issues, and Erica would chase it down, no matter what.

“Hello Erica, thank you for coming in so quickly.  I wanted to start well as this is my first shift here but this cantankerous machine is determined not to play nice.”  Ravi said lightly, taking the CEO straight to MedBay 4 where she had been having the trouble.  “I won’t try to tell you your job so I won’t try to guess what or why it’s not on its best behaviour”

Ravi opened her left arm to indicate the console at the rear of the bay and stood back to allow Erica full access.   “I was trying to get some basic scan facilities started up…….”  she added the initial clue to get the Engineer started.   

Erica walked with her, listening to what Ravi had explained. “We have been having some issues with a feedback loop in the EPS grid, which has been causing a few issues in basic systems, and I’m trying to track it down. Thankfully, all I need to do, if it is the cause of the problem, is to depolarise the main system bio neural relay and the isolinear chips,” Erica explained, as she knelt down, opening the console, kneeling down. She looked at it, before opening her kit and starting to scan the boards. 

Ravi went gratefully back to her work and left the obviously very competent Engineer to hers.  She had been very impressed though and she made a mental note to try to look up Erica Anderson when she was off duty.  Perhaps she might invite her to meet in 10 Forward sometime.  She would like that a lot.  She resolved to make off-duty contact as soon as she could.