Engineering Problems? You've Been Played

Posted on Sat Aug 14th, 2021 @ 9:12pm by Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant Commander Tyler Driskill

Mission: The Boneyard Heist
Location: Aerowing Integrated Craft

Calypso sat in the pilot's seat, popping bits of popcorn chicken into her mouth as she waited while taking a bit of a break. She'd given herself the task of running the diagnostics on the small craft and evaluating them for repairs required. She wasn't qualified to DO the repairs, but at least she knew enough to be able to figure it out. Not to mention, it was closing in on time for Tyler to hunt her down for a mid-day update on everything he'd been looking at and she needed to stay where she was so he could do that much easier.

Tyler had tracked the Commanding Officer down to one of the shuttle bays, then he narrowed it down to the Aerowing section and then found Cally. "Anyone in here" he called out jokingly as he entered the rear of the craft.

"Only we little mousies!" She called out in a falsetto in response, "Come to the front, have some popcorn chicken! Lunch is always a good thing to get your mind off the problems we've got going on!"

"Boy there are plenty" Tyler replied with a huff as he made his way to the front of the craft. "What ya up to Cally?" he asked only using her first name because no one was around.

"Oh, not much, checking out this one and the Waverider just to see what needs to be done with them to make them safe to fly. I can't fix them, but..." She shrugged, holding out the small bucket of chicken in offer to him, "What have you been up to, Tyler? Weren't you going to go down to Engineering to check in with the Ensign we've got minding the store?"

Tyler took one of the chicken bites "I did and she's..." he popped the bite in his mouth and gave Cally a look "Quite the sassy Lieutenant Junior Grade."

"Oh?" Calypso remarked, a curious look in her eye, "The Lieutenant was down there too, not just Ensign Morris?" Her look grew suspicious, "What was she working on?"

"Nothing when I found her" he kind of tilted his head and gave Cally a look "but we need to find a dilithium matrix or we are pretty much stranded." Tyler gave her a PADD "Our Lieutenant Davenport says it's near impossible." he took the other seat in the cockpit of the craft.

"We're not going to get one anytime soon, I've already sent three requisitions for one." Cally shook her head, "I've also got a message out to see if there's a way to recrystallize the one we've got to a more effective umm... Crap, I don't know what the word is, I'm no engineer, I just read that it might be possible somewhere." She sighed, "Aside from that, though... What else did she have to say?"

"The ship has several structural issues," he gestured toward the PADD, "Honestly I agree with her, we need more engineers" Tyler kind of shrugged "I'll help out where I can, but I am no engineer either."

Cally finally took a look at the PADD, then keyed down further on the list one line at a time, then lowered it slowly, "And did she say how long it was going to take to get underway?" Her right hand moved to one of her pockets, then to another before finally snagging a PADD from the third.

Tyler shook his head "She's supposed to get me a full rundown of what we need and estimates of how long," Letting out a deep breath "But from the sound of things, it's gonna be weeks."

It was almost instinctive how her left hand reached up and caressed her pips, "Then I won't be in the Fleet by the time we leave, these would probably go to you..." She said quietly, before calling herself to heel and activating the PADD that she'd pulled out of her pockets and doing some mental arithmetic, "But... You got this 'preliminary' list from her, right?" Calypso patted the PADD he'd given her.

"Aye" he said and put a hand on her knee "I have no interest in adding anymore pips to my collar." He smiled at her, making eye contact, "We will get everything figured out. Any ideas where we can get a matrix?"

"You got played, Tyler." Calypso said quietly, "Davenport played you like a fiddle." She handed over HER PADD, the one she'd gotten from the maintenance crew as soon as she'd arrived, with the exact same information that the PADD Tyler had given her, just slightly rearranged. "Where was she when you got down there? I mean, was she in Main Engineering, the Chief's office or where?"

Tyler had a rush of anger wash over him. "The Chief's office with her feet propped up" he looked over at Cally "We had words at first." he added before shaking his head.

"Conspiracy theory that we're all out to get her?" She asked, the look on his face confirming it, "Goes to her pattern... You came up through Security, are there vid cams usually in Chief's offices, say... One that looks down from above or behind the desk?"

"Should be unless someone disables it." Tyler gave a nod to Calypso. "How could I not see I was getting conned?" he looked away and then back at Cally.

"Some people are good at doing that, usually through distractions, like blaming others or promoting problems... Come with me." Calypso said, leaving the chicken and sweeping out of the shuttle and towards the console on the hanger wall, signing into it quickly and punching up security controls, "Shit... Tyler, you know how to work this better than me... Where would it be?"

The former Security Officer pulled up the proper file for the over desk camera and started it running back. "I knew she was doing something on that PADD" he was referring to just a moment before he walked in the office when the engineer was playing Damjat on her PADD.

Calypso nodded slightly, “And that seems par for the course with what I expected to get from some other ship’s transfers.” It was a sad tone of voice, but her eyes turned to him, “Your choice, Tyler, do you want me to go ‘check in on her’ and call her bluff, or do you want to handle it? Or, of course, we could go together to handle this. I don’t know if we want to play her little game or just go crashing in boots first.”

"I say we present a united front." Tyler smiled at Cally "Maybe word will get around that we are on the same team." he made air quotes.

“Perhaps because we are?” Cally smiled crookedly, “Sad thing is that she’s our best engineer right now… But…” She perked up, “let me give Jenna a call and her meet us down there. She’s a Cadet Fourth Class that I met a few times for tennis matches, intriguing girl she is. At least she can keep tabs on our friendly Lieutenant Davenport, right?”

"You're the boss." Tyler said with a smile. "I'll be glad when we can finally get underway." he wasn't sure what it was, but he was ready for the ship to be repaired and as crewed and supplied as it was going to get.