A Strange Department - Part I

Posted on Sun Mar 29th, 2026 @ 9:09pm by Lieutenant Commander Sabastian Walker & Lieutenant Commander Elyse White

1,050 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Forgotten Wounds
Location: Main Engineering | USS Arcadia
Timeline: Pre Arrival at Designated location

ON:

The following morning, Elyse knew what she had to do. The XO role may not have been what she had wanted, but in the grand scheme of things, it seemed to come naturally. It may have been out of necessity, but she was coping. The one thing she felt would be difficult though, would to be to sort the first thing on her agenda. Unfortunately for her, it meant a discussion that bordered on professional and personal.

Elyse walked into engineering and looked around, trying to find Sabastian.

Sabastian walked out of one of the side rooms barking orders. "Henderson get Thol and realign the second Phaser coil again. I don't like the output. Timpleton you have worked 14 hours go home. You need rest. Lana I need you and Ela to check the flow processors and then go home see my comment to Timpleton."

A tall Effrosian woman called back. "You got it chief. Have you had breakfast?"

"Not yet. I got..." Before he could answer she'd all but floated towards him and shoved a granola bar into his mouth. "This is temporary. I will personally bring you breakfast and if you don't eat it I will airlock you."

He laughed. "Try it Ela."

She stared him down matching his over six food height. "Try me Chief!"

He sighed. "Fine, I'll eat. Ya'll will be the death of me."

"Not if starvation gets your first!" Thol called.

Sabastian grumbled heading towards the big control panel.

Elyse quite literally walked into Tholos whilst she was looking for Sabastian, "shoot, sorry. Oh, hi, Tholos."

Tholos smiled as he steadied her and stepped back bowing. "My lady! Welcome to Engineering."

She smiled, "gawd, you make me feel old or regal. Of which, I am neither."

"You are very regal." He smiled a goofy smile at her.

The Effrosian female walked up to them. "Stop flirting with the XO Thol and get your work done. I scanned the Chief he's Vitamin C deficient. Your job, since you got sleep last night, is to get two five hundred mil bottles of orange juice in him. If he won't drink it there is a tablet in the top drawer of my desk. Dissolve it in water thirty minutes before you give him the water. If they are not up tomorrow I am considering knocking him out and taking him to sickbay."

Thol sighed. "Got it Ela."

She gave a nod and turned to Elyse. "Commander." She gave a nod and left.

Thol laughed. "Please ignore her. She's always so...charming."

Elyse blushed but then focused in on what was actually said. And, she was not liking what she was hearing about Sabastian. She sighed and shook her head. Looking back at Thol she grinned, "I'm more worried that she thought you were flirting. You need to up your game and be more direct, Tholos. I don't do subtle." She looked around, "speaking of your chief though, where can I find him. I'm still getting used to the layout of this ship and I've yet to be down here."

He smiled. "I shall keep that in mind," He sighed. "The Chief is down that way." He pointed to a hall. "Hell be in the main control room. He likes to check all the readings a thousand times a day."

Elyse followed his gaze but still looked rather puzzled, "maybe you should continue your knight in shining tin foil reputation and walk me there." She looked up at him and smiled sheepishly.

He grinned. "Absolutely." He offered her his arm. "My Lady."

Elyse eyed the arm before chuckling and shaking her head, "just lead the way, Tholos."

He grinned. "One second." He ran to a small cubby and pulled out a bottle of orange juice. "Let' see if I can distract him enough." He motioned for her to follow and soon they were standing in front of the control room. He paused. "This is sneaky so I'll count on your discretion okay?"

Elyse took the orange juice from him, "I've got this one covered, don't worry. Thanks for showing me to Sabastian's office." She paused, taking a small chance-- they had agreed to be friends after all, "if you find yourself wanting coffee again tonight,. I’m sure I may be in the same place with a hot chocolate again."

"I love evening coffee. See you there."

Elyse knocked on the door frame, and smiled at Sabastian, "Gabriel, a word, please."

"Elyse. Come on it. Just getting some input readings. Those upgrades from the base are just now showing their....issues."

Elyse shut the door behind her and then put the orange juice in front of him, "think you can pause for two minutes so that we can talk?"

"Orange juice?" He looked up at her. "And my door is always open for chats."

Elyse looked behind her, just to ensure that the door had in fact shut before she spoke, "you have a very impressive team here. Seems being on a ship is less like a job more like a family. Very close knit. I'm impressed with how your department seems to value their leader, inclusive of figuring out that you are low on vitamin C and require this." She gestured to the juice, "drink it or Tholos will be beaten by a woman. Not me. But some other woman."

He sighed. "Ela..." Sabastian scrubbed his hand down his face. "Yeah. She's the mother of the department." He took the bottle. "They are a little...overprotective."

"I respect you a lot and you will one day be back in this position and will be able to be mean to me, Walker, so I will say this cautiously," Elyse firmly stated, "they shouldn't need to be. I know that life has been hard-- I can't even begin to imagine how hard-- buy your team are going above and beyond in an unhealthy way. Extra hours, lack of sleep, lack of food and drink, lack of focus on real duties-- all to look after you. That is a recipe for disaster. We need engineering. We cannot have issues because their chief cannot look after himself in the basic form and is blind to see how dangerous this could be long term."


To Be Continued...

 

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