Longfellow had walked the hallways of the Eos station, his thermos of tea in one hand and his PADD in the other.  It had been confirmed that the station was in abject disrepair.  Every corner he had turned had found additional layers of the dysfunction that the station was exhibiting.  Henry wondered if this had truly been the best choice he could have made or if he had made the decision in the heat of the emotions of loss.

He had walked slower down the corridor towards sickbay.  The truth was much harder to face for Henry, he realized.  They’d taken to space together and in agreement that they needed something different…something bigger.  Now he looked around the large station, wondering if he’d come too far into the black.  Maybe if they had stayed on Earth, Thea would be alive.

It was impossible to know.  He knew this in his mind.  But his heart was the bigger of the two in this moment.  He would need to get to work and put his hands on something he could control and manage.  Henry stepped in front of the doors to sickbay and waited.  And waited.

And waited.  There was a spark and hiss from the door mechanics as Longfellow stepped back slowly, muttering a “What the hell?”.  He glanced at the door frame for a moment, looking for an errant sensor or something.  Seeing none, he stepped to the door again.  This time it shuddered halfway open, giving the doctor cause to curse quietly under his breath.  Grumbling, he pushed and pulled the doors open with significant effort trying to get into his sick bay.  Ten minutes later, he had the doors opened.  They had tried to close, but the mechanics within the door had given a groan and a shriek before grinding to a painful halt.  He sighed and tapped his communications badge, “Chief Longfellow to engineering.”

Granth was on his hands and knees; the side panels of a console and various wires and tools lay in a disarray around him. He had his head in the console, shining a light around. His commbadge going off startled him. He shot up and banged the back of his head on the console, emitting a few expletives. He crawled out and sat on the floor, tapping his commbadge, “Krajj here. How may I be of assistance to you, Longfellow?”

Henry explained that his door troubles allowing, “Given the state of the station, your list is probably longer than the trip to the Moon and back again…but I wanted to put it on your list.  I don’t think I’ll be getting any patients anytime soon…but a functional door would be nice in a few days or so.”

Krajj emitted a small snort, his tone a bit sarcastic, “Which moon? Considering I just hit my head, you may be getting some soon.” He spoke as he stood and gathered his tools up, “That’s high priority, actually. Especially for medical. I’ll head over right now, Longfellow.” He double-checked his tools to make sure he had them, already headed towards Medical.

Henry chuckled to himself as the channel closed and went about getting sickbay ready for the chief engineer’s arrival.  He noted the lights were starting to flicker, and the consoles were not fully powered.  The dust and disrepair were a constant observation.  He quickly wiped down one biobed and snagged one of the working medical tricorders as the CEO stepped through the door.

Granth strode into Medical and lets out a low whistle, “You have just as much work as I do… Ah.” He stopped and pulled out his PADD, making a list, “Doors, lighting, consoles, looks like wiring issues…”

Longfellow gave him a nod and gestured to the room, “Welcome to the continuing story of the station of mess.”  He slipped out the aging medical tricorder, “I’m going to need to get me some more modern equipment.”  He completed the scan.

Krajj looked amused at Longfellow, “Lemme know what you need, and I can put in an order with my equipment. Wonder how off that thing is bout my head.”

Henry chuckled, “I’d say put some ice on it, but what this dinosaur can tell me is you’ll live.”  He tossed the scanner onto a table.

The Chief Engineer looked horribly confused, “I’m going to need you to elaborate on what a dinosaur is.”

“Old Earth history.  Massive beasts that roamed and ruled the earth millions of years ago.  It’s a metaphor for how old that tricorder is…old enough to be a museum.”

Granth nodded slowly as he listened, “I should look into that later; sounds interesting.” He turned to indicate toward the doors, “Do you know about the manual override? I should send out a notice informing about it, I think.”

Henry chuckled as he realized, “I hadn’t even thought about that, Chief.”  He moved to the doorway and, after some searching, found it on both sides beneath a rusting and dusty panel that opened with a creak and groan, “Well, it exists.”  He examined the unit on the inside of sickbay, “It looks like it still works.”  He glanced at the CEO.

Granth nodded firmly, “I would sure hope so. Its purpose is to open the doors in case of power failure.” He strode up to the door and did a scan with his tricorder, “You mean to say that you were wrenching on it to open it with your hands?”

The chief medical officer glanced at the door and then back to the CEO, “It took me some time…but eventually, I got it open enough to get in.”

Krajj looked quite amused, “I am impressed by your strength!” His eyes snapped make to his tricorder, scowling at it. He muttered a few expletives and whacked it on his palm several times. It gave a pathetic, warbled chirp. The Chief Engineer lifted his eyes to the ceiling; briefly, lips tightly pursed. He shook his head and strode to the panel that Henry had opened, “I suppose I will have to do this the old-fashioned way. I’ll place in order for up-to-date medical and engineering supplies, it seems!” 

Henry felt for the chief engineer.  There was no greater position on a ship or station that was harder than the one in charge of keeping it running.  The hardest part for this chief engineer was the station was woefully out of date and had come ‘as is,” which meant that to get it where it needed to be – there was significant work ahead.  “I’ll get you my wishlist shortly, Chief.”

Granth pulled out a little light and peered into the panel. He wrinkled his nose, “I’ll clean out the panel too. The circuitry is way out of date, and there’s damage to some of the wiring. Should be a pretty basic fix, no more than an hour unless I run into more issues. Wires and circuit boards well stocked.” He straightened up and looked at the CMO.

Longfellow was thankful for the man’s attention to detail, “I would have been happy with a Tuesday in the near future – an hour is well within ‘miracle’ territory.”  He gestured to the rest of the room, “I’m going to start my side of getting this place from ugly to beauty.”

Granth chuckled, “I consider medical to be top priority, especially with the shape this place is in. I’m happy to bump it higher on my worklist.” He paused, considering his next words. He gestured towards Henry, “Tell you what, make me a list of what is broken and needs fixing or replacing and send it to me; I’ll get fixing things. Sound good?”

Henry gave him a quiet and thankful nod, “Your a good Chief.  I’ll lend my hands where I can – I took some engineering training over the years.”

Granth gave the doctor a wide smile, “I’ll be back with those parts and get to work on that door….” He gave a firm nod and turned to head out.

Longfellow turned to the sickbay, giving it a long look, “Well, best get to work.”