USS Edinburgh- Engineering- 2200

“….I am now a First Officer…which is weird to say out loud.” Okada paused and sat back in her corner of main engineering, “Although if you asked my old boss he’d probably tell me I shoulda been farther up the ladder yada yada.”  She pulled out another PADD, “Repairs are going well – the bridge is halfway complete – they’re bringing in new consoles first thing in the morning.  The sensors system is getting refit at noon and the shields are getting their rebuild started first thing in the morning as well.  They’ve taken a look at our buckled decks and have assured me they’ll have it done in 5 days, but I’m going to get out there to see if they’re right.  The hull work has already started and they’ve got a night crew up there even now doing all the work they gotta do.”  She scrolled through the PADD, “They’ll take a look at the power system as well and we’re going to figure out how to best compensate…but you can only do so much with a ship that’s not built to stand up to what we stood up to…damn Romulan Warbirds.”  She snagged her cup of hot tea and slammed it down before continuing, “I’m hopeful we can The Eddie back out there again – I spent over ten years working in Bravo…after all this…I’m not sure I want to ever come back to stay.”  She thought for a moment longer, “I’m hoping for some holodeck time…but we’ll see.  Computer, end log, and file in ship’s log.”  The computer beeped and she returned to her PADDs and the ongoing status reports on the repair and refit work going on.  She sipped from her non-alcoholic Moscow Mule until the doors to Engineering sprang open.  She leaned over to look past the humming warp core and found her CO walking her way.  “Commander?”  She nearly fell out of her chair but recovered and set it back down as he approached carrying a large bag.

“Good evening, Lieutenant Commander.”  He pulled up a chair and pulled two glasses and set them on the railing, “And congratulations on making it through your first day as First Officer.”

She smiled widely, “Thank you, Commander…it still feels weird to say that with my name.  First Officer Katsumi….or Executive Officer Katsumi.”  She looked from the glasses to the bag and back to him, “What is this?”

Harris gave her a long look as he explained, “You were remiss in your questionnaire that I had you fill out.  You did not reveal that your parents own and operate one of the best…if not the best sake sakaguras in the world.”

She stared at him, “How did you…”

He put his hands up, “I do my research on my crew – learned it from a previous CO.  I always do a background – that questionnaire is part of the process.  I learned from him that the best way to work with your command crew is to get to know them through food, through drink…and sometimes both.”  He pulled out a bottle of sake, “It wasn’t easy getting a bottle of SuHan, but I called in a few favors.”  He poured his cup and hers and put the bottle on the floor, “Now…the other thing I learned is that you have a love of all things Chicken Tempura Don with a special kind of dipping sauce.”  He pulled out of the bag two containers and handed one to her, “Tentsuyu with wasabi, which sent me on a search for good wasabi.”

She popped open the container and was immediately overwhelmed with the smell of her home kitchen.  She stared at the meal and then at her CO who had already started eating.  She pulled out the chopsticks and slowly brought a chunk of the meal to her mouth.  It tasted as if she had never left home.  Her heart was filled with warmth and she held back a tear or two as she chased the bites down with sake from her parents sakagura.  Okada shook her head at her commander in disbelief, “You got it just right, sir.  How in the hell did you do this?”  She took another bite and closed her eyes as the nostalgia for her hometown just outside Nagasaki flooded her senses.

Ambrose took another bite of the Chicken Tempura Don and took a draw from the glass, “I asked around.  May have even reached out to your parents.”  He chuckled, “They had stories to tell about you, Chief.”

Okada groaned, “Which one did they tell?  I can guess.  Either the one where I took apart the family shuttle overnight or the one where I installed some upgrades to the home oven.”

Her CO laughed, “No, but they alluded to some incidents and accidents in that area.  No, they told me the story about how you found out one of your neighbors was having trouble with their new refit apartment…all that technology apparently was driving…what was his name?”

She chased several bites down with a pull of sake before explaining, “Mr. Matsa.  His wife had died years ago and he’d gone on living in their apartment.  Progress being progress they came in one day and refit the entire place when he was out riding his bike.  Came back and they tried to explain it all to him…but Matsa threw them out.  They’d taken everything that reminded him of his wife – all the old equipment…the color scheme…all gone in an instant.”

Harris waited for her to continue the story.  She chowed down on the rest of her meal and looked up with a ‘What?’ look on her face.  He prodded her, “So you did something amazing.”

She refilled her sake and sipped at it, “I don’t know about amazing.  I talked to Matsa the next day and he seemed off.  Like something was missing.  So asked and asked until he just told me..through tears and all that.  So I got a little pi…upset.  I went to the guys who did the refit and got them to reinstall the entire old apartment.  I don’t think I’d ever seen Matsa that happy.”  She chuckled, “We went on walks every morning and he invited us over for dinner once a week.  I loved that old man.”  She sat back in her chair, “That was some damned fine food, sir.”

Ambrose chuckled, “You left out the part where you threatened to beat those guys into, I think your mother said, ‘A billion bastardy pieces’ or something like that.”

Okada cringed but smiled in the end, “I’m not proud of it…but it got the job done.”

Silence held as they sipped at the sake for a moment longer before Harris stood, “I should head back to the station.  Thanks for letting me crash your engine room, Chief.” 

“You’re always welcome here, sir.  Once an engineer…always an engineer.  Thanks for dinner.”

He gave her a nod and headed towards the exit but stopped and turned to face her, “I’m really glad I have you as my first officer, Okada.  I need people who are willing to stand up for others.”

She sat forward, sensing the serious compliment being given, “Thank you, sir.  I promise to elevate my threats in the future.”

Ambrose laughed and waved goodnight as he headed back to Bravo.  Okada sat, thinking over their conversation.  She wondered what the next mission would hold…and how it would test each of them.