Not all thumbs?

Posted on 25 Nov 2018 @ 6:31am by Staff Warrant Officer William Griffin & Lieutenant Commander Gemma Alexander

875 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Fractured
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 3: 1600

With some free time Lt. Gemma Alexander was finally able to shake loose she went in search of one Staff Warrant Officer William Griffin. She'd begun to dust off her engineering extension course knowledge in a training program with her friend Odette Farrar, when the Chief Petty Officer had been killed she'd stopped. Meant to pick it back up but it took time to get past the death and then with everything happening, well she'd just never got back to it. She arrived in Griffin's domain and glanced around, if he'd was free great if not she'd try to set up something later.

"God damn stupid piece'a'junk thing, work!" Griffin picked up the offending flow regulator that he'd been working on repairing for the past fifteen minutes and lifted his arm to throw the thing across the room. The appearance of a red-shouldered lieutenant somewhat deflated him, and with a thunk he put it back down on the work table, not very gently. He recognized the lieutenant after a moment, Archer... Alexander, was it?

"What can I do for you, Lieutenant?" Griffin grumbled, swallowing back the tiredness-fueled frustrated anger.

"I come in peace..." She said raising her hands briefly in mock peace as humored filled eyes glanced at the regulator on the table. "Just a few questions but I can come back if this is a back time..."

"Now's fine," Griffin grumbled at her, the anger in his body language fading quickly. On one hand, he didn't really have the time to be pandering to pilots with engineering questions, he and his team were working flat out to get the Black Hawk back together. On the other hand, the distraction was welcome and he was, he supposed, the chief engineer now. "I could use a break from this damn thing anyway. Ask away, lieutenant."

Gemma smiled, she understood frustration, "I have some training in engineering extension courses and for a while I worked with Chief Farrar..." She was glad she was able to get over saying her old friend's name without issue anymore, "So I'm not all thumbs but recent events have led me to believe my engineering fu may not be up to speed on improvising and other creative ways to get something to work. Winner and I got the sensor/comm idea to work but I was less comfortable than I prefer."

And she was used to be good at what she did, comfortable in her work. To be honest she hated not knowing something she felt she needed to know. Especially as it related to flight. "I'd like to work on that and what with us being so far from help, being able to do my own repairs properly without bothering an engineer type may help when we're short-handed." She replied logically having taken time to actually think about it properly.

Griffin frowned slightly, he appreciated the idea of improving skills and self-reliance, but he didn't have the time or energy to babysit a newbie wrench turner. "Lieutenant, I'm willing to help ya, but there ain't much I can teach about engineerin' improv, that's more of a feeling than a skill." He grumbled, the ability to work with your hands and your gut instinct, to cobble, bodge and fudge things together on the fly without a guide or a procedure was not something that everyone had, you were born with it or you weren't.

"But," he continued, "if ya wanna hang around and do some engineerin' work you're more than welcome, word of warnin', though. I don't got time to be goin' over work that ain't done right." That technically wasn't true, his team of engineers were currently putting the Black Hawk back together by the seat of their pants. The book hadn't so much been thrown out as it had been shredded, eaten and then crapped back out, but that wasn't the way to teach. "First job," he shoved the regulator towards her, it was a minor part that wasn't time critical, "take this damn thing an' see if you can fix it."

Her eyebrows raised briefly, if he had trouble she wondered what he expected her to do. Then she figured "Well I asked for it. Guess it's not like I wanted training wheels." She thought. Also, she knew a test when she saw one, if she wanted to learn this. Also to learn more in-depth related aerodynamics, she needed to start somewhere. She nodded and rolled up her sleeves pulling out a PADD from her pocket to call up the schematics, her face took on a determined expression. "I got a bit of time now, not going to get easier if I wait." She replied.

"I reckon the flow rate sensor's done, but the damn thing's fused. You'll probably have to cut the casing to get to it. Good luck." Griffin told her, then turned and walked back to the console. His next project was already waiting for him.

She glanced over at him, she would have to use torch cutting tools. Why did no one tell her she would get to play with fire? She considered this might be more fun than she thought as she bent to the task.

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