Between decks

Posted on Fri Jul 2nd, 2021 @ 3:24am by Captain Elijah Michaels & Lieutenant Haruna Mizuhara

849 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: The Lonesome Road

Lieutenant Haruna Mizuhara, the chief engineer of the Ontario was often known for being found more between decks than on them. The Ambassador Class Starship was huge in internal capacity and it was like her own little paradise with plenty of crawl spaces and jeffries tubes. To her, these areas were her own personal spaces. The young Japanese chief engineer was also known for being eccentric and down right unusual in her methods.

"Mizuhara to Captain!" Haruna's voice called over the comm system. Obviously she wanted to tell him something.

“Michaels here, what can I do for you Lieutenant?” Elijah asked as he walked down the hallway towards his quarters.

"Stop walking" Haruna replied simply.

Elijah raised an eyebrow and stopped dead in his tracks. "I'm sorry Lieutenant did you just say stop walking?" He asked her hoping he misheard her.

The deckplate directly in front of him sprang open and Haruna popped up out of a hole like a jack in the box. "Yeah, I didn't want you stepping on me. Plus, you might have been hurt" she grinned. "Oh yeah!" she said as she reached back down into the hole and pulled out a PADD. It was covered in dirt and grease from the interior of the ship.

"That Engineering report you wanted. I was bringing it to you, but I noticed that the relays under the floor weren't quite calibrated correctly. I've been here...." she paused. "What time is it now?"

Elijah looked at her. "It's 18:00 hours Lieutenant, Ontario has already departed Deep Space 5 and is on course to Dreadex." He looked down to her direction between the decks.

"Oh wow, I've been at this like six whole hours" she placed her chin between her thumb and her forefinger. "I'm off a little today, I should have had that done in four tops" she said simply. "So" she said as she leant on the deckpanel infront of her. "Whats been going on around here?"

"Pardon me?" Elijah asked her, curious at her question. He was told that as talented an Engineer she was, she was also very quirky.

"Well, I spend most of my time rowing down below with the other engineers" she grinned. "I never hear the gossip on the bridge, unless I'm hanging around up there" she explained as she crawled out of the hatch and stood slid the floor panel back in place, she tapped it a few times with her foot to attach it back to the deck. "So, where abouts are we going?" she asked.

She raised an arm in the air as if holding a sword "To storm the walls of Troy with out Triremes and giant wooden horse!" she changed stance as if switching to holding a Katana "Or to uphold our honour in a Samurai's fight to the death to aevenge the shogun!?" she stood up straight and simply grinned. "Get what I mean Cap?"

"Lieutenant has anyone ever told you that you are by far one of the quirkiest Engineers ever to grace a Starship?" He asked with a somewhat amused grin upon his face.

"Well, not quite" Haruna replied. "I often get called 'crazy' or a 'loonatic' but I'll take quirky" she grinned. "Afterall I am a girl genius" she added.

"Quite." Elijah responded to his Chief Engineer. "So tell me what have you discovered in the midst of your travels into the bowls of the Ontario?" He asked.

"Many wonderful tings" Haruna replied. "Did you know that this ship still has some of the old fresh water tanks? of course they're empty because of all the replicators. However, I think I can turn them into something more useful"

“That’s a good thing.” Elijah responded. “Ontario has had a few upgrades and updates to keep her in line with the rest of the fleet.”

"Well yeah" Haruna replied. "But there is always cool stuff in the depths of the ship that only we engineers can get to" she smiled. "Lots of old stuff thats no longer needed. Did you know that once upon a time this ship even had a dolphin tank on board? It had something to do with navigation. Its now a fancy new holodeck, but there's still some old water pipework and stuff still there. It seems they never bothered to take it all out" she grinned.

"Ah yes the earlier years of the 24th Century were certainly an interesting time." He commented with a chuckle.

"Oh yeah....wait..." she held up a hand to stop the conversation. "Do you hear that? That's the sound of a plasma conduit that's misaligned..."

Elijah stood there in the silence and paused. "I'll take your word for it Lieutenant." With a glance down. "Well I best let you get on with your duties."

"Aye Cap'tn!" Haruna said with a grin as she broke away from him and clicked open a nearby wall hatch. "Ah, sounds like its just in here somewhere..." she said to herself.

Elijah watched her leave and he was surprised. His Chief Engineer was certainly quirky. It was going to be interesting.

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