Meeting the CEO

Posted on 20 Jan 2020 @ 5:28am by Lieutenant JG Lilura Karakalakss

Mission: Mission 2 - The Agora crossroads
Location: Engineering
Timeline: Mission Day 6
2260 words - 4.5 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

A couple of hours in his quarters, Michael was able stow most of his items where he was semi-satisfied. He will probably be changing things around later, but right at this moment, Michael wanted to start exploring the Andromeda. From the specs he brought up on his PADD, there were quite a few levels he could explore. There was one place in particular though that interested him the most, and that was Engineering. After all, Engineering was one of his loves.

Feeling the prickle of anticipation, and eagerness to go to the heart of the ship, Michael made his way to the turbolift, indicating his deck destination. Deck 36. The lift doors opened with a quiet hiss, Michael stepped out, making his way to Main Engineering. The doors of Engineering opened, and in Michael went, feeling a bit of a high rush through him. The quiet thrum of the warp core, was music to his ears as he looked around to where the Chief Engineer's office was located. Before going in that direction, Michael decided to pause for the moment and just enjoy the sounds of engineering.

A tall, bald headed Terran with glasses, dressed in enlisted garb, came over to where Michael was standing. As it was an operations officer and not the CEO or ACEO, no call went out for officer on deck. He smiled to Michael and said, "Greetings Sir. Welcome to engineering. I'm Senior Chief Petty Officer Lyons, lead enlisted. Anything I can help you with?"

"Right..." Michael coming out of his sort of meditative state. "Actually, yes you can help, I am Ensign Michael Hawkins, the new Chief of Operations. I was wanting to meet Lieutenant Karakalakss plus get a view of Engineering as well. From what I can see, its beautiful." giving a quick smile to Lyons.

Lyons away from Michael and around Engineering. "Yes sir, the view is striking." He turned back to Michael and continued, "I gather you have a hankering for engineering work besides Ops. Common, Lt. Karakalakss is in the CEO office tinkering with warp spatial harmonic telemetry sensors. And, fair warning, she is not you're typical humanoid race either."

"I do like engineering, as well as science, ops is a combination of the two worlds so to speak." Michael replied, "And as for Lieutenant Karakalakss not being of a typical humanoid race..." he shrugged nonchalantly, "the universes have different races which makes up a wonderful part of life. I am looking forward to meeting her." Glancing towards the CEO's office door.

"Thank you again for your help." Michael commented, and headed in the direction of Lieutenant Karakalakss office. There he pressed the chime to announce his arrival.

The door opened and a melodic voice range out, "Come on in, nothing in danger of exploding as far as I know." There at a work table, crouched, was a 'maybe kangaroo?' muzzle and head shape with green eyes staring intently at a module on that table. Her hands were tinkering with two static iso tools. She was fur covered, had large ears, luxurious long brown hair, and a green feather earring in her right ear. A tail snaked up from behind her to grab a coffee cup to bring to her muzzle, where she took a drink while still working with the module. She stated, "Three seconds please, almost there."

Liking the sounds of the melodic voice,Michael stepped inside, and smiled not saying anything while he watched Lieutenant Karakalakss at work. He admired the deftness and skill, plus the concentration she placed in her work. Michael also noted her physique and that the lieutenant was attractive. He hadn't caught sight of her eyes, due to her focus on her project, but he noted that her hair was a lovely dark auburn. Not wanting to be deemed rude, even though he was struck by her beauty, Michael did a quick once over the CEO's office, while waiting for her to be finished.

Lilura smiled, showing her lips went all the way back to where her eyes were. She exclaimed, "Done!". She shifted her legs under her, and then stood up from where she was crouched at the work table. Up, and up, till she was looking down at the project from a 6ft 6in height. Her ears and hair made her seem even taller, 6'9" to 7', depending upon where her ears were placed. She now cocked her head, taking in the uniform and the not known Auric signature before her of a 5' 11"... Humanoid, Terran, male. She smiled and stated, "Well, shoot, where are my manners? You're not engineering." She came around the table to offer a hand, claws retracted, and said, "Hi, I'm Lieutenant Lilura Karakalakss. Please, if you're off the clock, call me Lilura. And you are?"

"Lilura, a beautiful name. I'm Ensign Michael Hawkins and since I am off the clock you may call me Michael. I'm newly arrived and am the new Chief Operations Officer." Michael taking her hand without any hesitation. "A pleasure to meet you. I had watched a newsreel about the attack on Starbase 308, and if I am correct, you were the one able to defuse a bomb that some terrorist had placed. Glad you were able to do so." still holding her hand, as he looked up into her green eyes. After a moment Michael realized he was still doing so and released her hand, his cheeks going a faint pink. "Sorry there, I feel like I have met a celebrity and am acting like a star struck fan. Really though, I think you are amazing." Giving her a warm smile.

A little darker coloration occurred along her muzzle at the word 'beautiful'. She enjoyed him and his actions towards her and she knew he was genuinely interested in her from his actions and thermal readings. She gurgled in gentle humor at his realization he was attracted to her and the 'excuse' he managed to so quickly come up with. Lilura replied, "Well, I was glad I was able to disarm the nefarious device as well. I don't think I would have liked to end up other there, over there, and up there." She moved over to the replicator, turned to him, and stated, "And, here I was hoping you found my eyes to you're liking. Something to drink?"

"Peppermint tea please, over ice with a slice of lemon, slightly sweetened." He replied. "I will admit your eyes are a lovely shade of green. I wasn't able to see them while you were working on your project. Chief Lyons had mentioned that you were fine tuning the warp spatial harmonic telemetry sensors?"

Liliura looked over at the Replicator and its panel lights responded in the proper order, even though she didn't touch them. She called out, "One Peppermint Tea, coming up." She curtsied lightly, murring in delight on his comment about her eyes, and then continuing on. "Yes, most definitely. While the overall idea and efficiency are 'great' according to known specs, it can be improved, if you understand spatial harmonic dynamics. Variations of those are used in special algorithms in computer AI models, and extensively in certain technologies. So, I am creating mimicking forward wave of far space telemetry to ride the spatial harmonics on, then tuning the odd order harmonics to follow the wave, while suppressing the even order through burst phase out, with a quadrature phasic sigature wrapped around a smaller inside quadrature phasic signature."

The replicator chimed and opened. Lilura's tail snaked into the replicator and brought Michael's tea to her hand, and then with her hand she handed it to him. "Your Tea, Sirrah." She grinned and concluded with, "And, let's see the results." Lilura activated the table hologram with its representative waveform and an efficiency readout. The four dimensional waveform flowed with a living undulation that seemed to mimic the long range sensor background noise graphs above it. The meter showed 121% efficiency. Lilura sighed, "Sorry, best I can do with the tech as it is. If I can overlay a Federation diurnial gel pack into it with AI tuning algorithms, I can try to get that to 137% or better. Hopefully that will be good enough, or may cause a fight as the current tech is the best it can be. That has happened before, not fun."

"Thank you," Michael replied accepting the tea, then taking a sip. "Perfect." moving towards the table hologram. "Starfleet can be protective over the engineering, and at times don't take kindly to what they might deem a slight on their technology. However, there is always room for improvement, and that's why they do bring in people with different perceptions and talents. Its an ever evolving science and technology. And.. from what I can see so far, you have a different set of perceptions, one that seems more attuned to different harmonics."

Michael giving the display a better look. "I knew an engineer, Hope Robins was her name, who seemed to have an affinity with what she worked on. She seemed to be able to coax a bit more power out of generators, upped the efficiency of technology. It was as if she were able to see the energy patterns, or feel the harmonics that the technology was emanating. A time or two I have heard her talk to said item she was working on, like a doctor would to a patient to figure out what was wrong or where it hurt."

Lilura gurgled, and replied, "I do that was well. I think all good engineers talk to their charges, after all, it does work, at least, to us." She took a swig of her coffee, then stated, "It would be cool if she did, I mean, see the energy patterns. I am a Soliodaran, a species that has electromagnetic and electrical field sensing organs lining my sides, kind of like the ampullae of Lorenzini found in certain creatures of earth. So, yeah, I can 'see' the outputs of the equipment I'm working on and adjust for the most efficient and balanced waveform. Well, and it does help in damage control to find the areas of interruptions and then direct crew to that spot to be repaired." She gurgled again, "And, as most humanoids look the same to me, I use that sense to learn their auric signature, the electrical patterned flow of their nervous system, to tell them apart. Another interesting thing, I have thermal senses in my cheeks, and the telltales of interaction that can show."

" That is incredible, and the sort of senses that would be handy to have." Michael responded then remembered he had tea in his hand, taking a good drink of his peppermint iced tea. Unfortunately, he drank too quickly causing him a bit of brainfreeze. He winced, feeling the pain arc up along his temple.

"Brainfreeze!" he gasped out, "I need to remember to drink more slowly." he goes silent as he pushes his tongue against the roof of his mouth to warm the frozen area.

Lilura's tail shifted over to wrap about Michael's neck, supplying heat to the arteries supplying blood to his brain. She gurgled in humor and replied, "Humanoids seem to love brain freeze... if not for the sensations, then for the attentions. Warm up, and then we can continue our conversation." Lilura shifted into a waiting stance while her tail imparted heat to Michael's neck.

Michael was startled at first when Lilura's tail loosely wrapped around his neck. he quickly realized what she was doing when he felt the warmth emanating from her tail, his brain freeze quickly leaving. He gave a quiet sigh of relief,

"Thank you, Lilura." he said looking towards her. He then glanced down at the iced peppermint tea in his hands. " I don't think I will be finishing this right now." giving a slight chuckle. "I am all right now, the brain freeze is gone, and I would like to know what you like to do besides your first love of being engineering."

Lilura laughs gently and replies, "Flirting, dancing, Trak'ha Martial Arts practice, and body building, at least, I think that is what they say. How about you?"

"Dancing... I love dancing, we will have to do some dancing together. I also practice martial arts. Shotokan Karate. I have quite a few hobbies and things that I love to do." Michael said with a smile, which had a hint of weariness. The heat from Lilura's tail was rather soothing and the journey to get to the Andromeda was catching up to him.

Lilura sensed the heat changes and Electrical pattern slowing down within his nervous system. She snorted out in humor, "You are running low on sleep. If you trust your CEO, please, lean back in the chair and get a nap in. I will continue to work on getting the Telemetry sensor changes mapped to apply to the Andromeda, and after ninety minutes, I'll wake you and you can treat me to a snack. Deal?"

"As much as I would love to take a nap here, I am going to go stretch out in my quarters. However later on, we will definitely have a snack or even a meal together." Michael giving a weary smile."Thank you for taking care of my headache, and my welcome to the ship."

With a smile, Michael takes his leave from engineering.

Off:


○● Lieutenant JG Lilura Karakalakss
Chief Engineer
USS Andromeda

● “ Ensign Michael Hawkins“
Chief Operations Officer
USS Andromeda