Engineering Appointments Kept
Posted on Mon Jun 30th, 2025 @ 5:34pm by Captain Niun Standing Bear & Lieutenant JG Elen Rell
3,263 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission:
Prologue
Location: Engineering, USS Guinevere
Timeline: Two days after 'Bit of a Wander'
Engineering hummed the way a ship should: not silent, not chaotic, just... right. That steady pulse of systems running clean, of voices low and purposeful, of diagnostics scrolling neatly along their panels.
And in the middle of it, half-tucked into an open access junction near EPS Control, was Elen Rell.
She’d claimed a section of floor beside the wall panel with the casual authority of someone who belonged there, boots kicked off to one side, legs folded beneath her. The panel itself was open, revealing a webwork of filament bundles and plasma routing nodes...carefully parted, not scattered, like a surgeon laying out tools. A toolkit sat within easy reach, half-open, its contents organised not by regulation but by some internal logic that made sense to her fingers if not to anyone else.
Her fingerless gloves were off, gently put to the side by the toolkit, a black and teal yarn crafted into something she could sense pressed against her wrists and hands. Her fingertips moved lightly, reverently, over the insulation of the EPS interface manifold. She wasn’t repairing anything. Not really. Just running a scheduled efficiency recalibration, on the computer's recommendation. But she moved with that same focused energy she gave to everything technical: immersive, tactile, rhythmic.
Her lips moved slightly as she worked...not words exactly, more like subvocalised pacing. A quiet hum of thought turned into motion, grounding herself in the feel of the components, the low thrum of power beneath her touch, the scent of warmed polymer and recycled air.
Around her, the usual background noise of Engineering continued: footsteps, tool clinks, conversations. A couple of engineers passed behind her, barely glancing over. They knew her mode by now. When Elen was in the zone, unless something exploded or needed her input, she didn’t hear much outside her immediate two-metre radius. It wasn’t aloofness. Just focus. Full-body, neurospicy, clock-melting focus.
She shifted slightly, thumb brushing over a flow regulator as she checked its resistance reading, then nodded to herself and reached for her decoupler. The green-handled one. Her lucky one.
All systems green. All patterns holding. Just routine. And it was a comfortingly beautiful routine.
She didn't look up yet. Not when the doors hissed open. Not when footsteps crossed the threshold. But the moment lingered. A ripple in the hum. Something about the change in air, in presence, in quiet.
Almost like she'd sensed it.
Almost like she knew someone had stepped into her space.
Niun moved with the singular quiet grace that was a hallmark of his kind, more out of habit than any real need, as he all but flowed through engineering, sliding around busy technicians, offering nods and quick smiles, as he passed. His boots were custom-made to Mri standards, silent and nearly as flexible as his bare foot would be, but the uniform was Starfleet standard. Ostentatious. Command red too noticeable for his taste. His training made him itch to remove it first thing whenever he was in training; it too had been tailored to fit his lean form without any restriction of movement. First Officer of the ship or not, he was a warrior and always ready to fight.
He came to squat beside her, a position he could hold for quite some time (and had back when he spoke Mri and carried his sword as well as his combat knife), and watched her completing her task. Waiting, sliding out of long habit into a stillness of the soul that was almost meditative. This was her turf, this Amrazi girl with an inner fire that made her almost glow, and he was content to be in her presence, to wait for her notice. It was right for the Azhadi had no sense of hierarchical structure. They knew, from long experience, who was best at what and easily gave ground when needed.
The decoupler clicked softly as it disengaged the node housing. Elen’s fingers paused for half a second...not from alarm, but from a subtle shift in environmental input. Sound, shadow, movement… weight on the floor.
And something else. Stillness.
Her eyes flicked sideways. She didn’t startle, not with Niun. He was quiet in a way that didn’t press. Like static interference dropped out of a communicator, harmless but there. Like exhaling into calm. Different from when she was with Jace, who felt more like an air pressure change.
“You’ve got good boots,” she said finally, not looking at him yet, just acknowledging the shift. “Didn’t hear you.” Another pause. Then she gently reseated the node, fingers quick but respectful. Only when the panel was stable did she glance his way, a sideways look, quick and assessing, a little surprised but not displeased.
“There we go.” Her smile warmed, eyes bright behind a few stray curls that had fallen loose. She started packing the tools back, fingers moving quickly. Like it was second nature, but even so things weren't put exactly where another engineer would. And some of the tools had... embellishments. Not standard Starfleet, but technically not against regs.
“You came.” She scooted slightly to the side, making space on the floor as if to say: this isn’t just mine now. You can be here too. “I'm glad, I wasn't sure. I know you're a busy man.”
Niun sank to the floor in a graceful move, folding himself easily into a comfortable position. "It is unwise," he said quietly, the words moving across the space between them in a soft, accented stream, "to keep a teacher waiting. There must always be time for what is important. This is right, yes?"
Elen gave a small, pleased hum at the sentiment, her fingers moving swiftly but carefully as she packed the tools away, making space in her peripheral vision for Niun to settle in beside her. "Very right, actually," she said, nodding, then flashing a quick, warm grin. "There’s always room for the important stuff. And... well, to be fair, I was hoping you'd show up. I don't always get the luxury of teaching on my terms, but when I do, it's..." she paused, lips quirking to one side, "...kind of like finding the perfect flow regulator. Everything just clicks."
Her eyes flicked back to the panel, her smile softening. “What you’ll see here… it’s not just about getting the specs right or fixing things. It’s more about the feel, you know? The way systems breathe. The hum underneath that tells you when something's a little off. Doesn’t matter how advanced the tech is, it's all just a little off without input from a person.”
She reached out, brushing the surface of the EPS conduit again as if it could tell her something. “I like feeling the pulse of it all,” she continued, almost absently, as if the words were part of her process. “It's like...a conversation, but in plasma flows and currents. You have to listen.”
Her fingers, sure and steady, slid the last tools back into place as she turned her head slightly toward him, the curious gleam in her eyes softening a little. “How’s the... how’s the ship feeling to you? More than just the stats, I mean. You’ll get the basics, of course, but it’s different when you listen to her.”
"It was hard at first," Niun said, his gaze slanting away as he struggled to express a Mri thing in not-Mri words, "to hear. Layers of sound to ... strip away. Chatter of people who hate silence interrupted by the clatter of tools treated poorly. The groans of bodies that fight movement. But it was there ... she ... was there, beneath all of that. The sounds shift from place to place, some corridors are open to her and others less so. More hidden." He shrugged lightly. "It is difficult to explain. I have always listened ... to the sound of wind through the long grass and the way the world quiets when a predator draws near. The crack of a twig, the splash of water in a stream. The heavy breathing of a predator hunting. I do not have this anymore but the need to listen, to understand, it remains."
Elen nodded, her fingers pausing mid-task as she tilted her head, considering his words. “Yeah, exactly. It’s like...you can’t just look at the specs. You’ve got to feel it, right? The ship has her own rhythm. Her own hum. You know when something’s off, even before the computer catches it.”
She glanced sideways at him, a quick grin flashing. “It’s kind of like people, I suppose. They’ve got their own beat too, all the little spaces between the words. But the ship? She’s far more honest. Can’t fake her rhythm.”
She fidgeted with a tool, then glanced back at him. “How’s it going for you, though? Listening to the ship, I mean. It’s like a puzzle, isn’t it? The crew’s one thing, but the ship’s a whole other creature.”
"I do not always understand what I hear, what I sense," Niun said. "When I work out, when I practice, mind and body are one. That is how it should be at least for me. We Azhadi are trained to move as though we were one person and I was good at that, connecting, the flow of movement, this is something I understand. It feels right and sometimes, wrong, so one searches through what my senses tell me, what my body tells me, and I figure it out. Correct it. This took many years of training. On the ship, I know it is something but whether it is a good something or a bad something. This I do not know."
Elen nodded thoughtfully, lips pursing slightly as she considered his words. “I get that. It’s like... tuning in, right? Feeling that alignment between mind and body. It’s the same with the ship. You know when something’s off, but sometimes it’s like trying to figure out what’s just a little out of sync without knowing the exact note that doesn’t quite sound right.”
She glanced sideways at him, a small smile playing at the corners of her lips. “But it sounds like you’re already getting the hang of it. I mean, you're not letting the noise distract you. That’s a big part of it, isn’t it? Sorting through the static to find the signal.” She paused for a moment, giving a soft laugh. “And hey, it's a good thing you’ve got that background in figuring out when something’s wrong. It’s the same skill, really. Just... instead of a body, it’s a ship.” She gently placed the last of the tools in her kit, letting the hum of the ship wash over them. Then she stood up and gestured toward the table-like master console nearby, the one that showed the output of all systems. “But hey, you’re going to love this part. This is where the full picture comes together. Not just the isolated nodes or individual systems, but everything — all of it laid out in front of you, all the systems working in sync or not, and you can feel how it’s all tied together. It’s a bit like the ship’s heartbeat. You get the sense of everything breathing in time.”
She led him over, pausing just before the console, where the diagnostics and status of the whole ship were clearly displayed. “This is where you’ll see how the ship is doing as a whole. Systems are talking to each other here. You can see if one part’s pulling too much or lagging behind. But it’s not just data, it’s like... a conversation. With all the pieces talking to each other.”
"And to you," Niun added as he looked at the console. "And red, as this light is here, does that mean it relates to command, the way our uniforms do? Or is more indicative of a problem, the way it was during training at the Academy?"
“Hm…” Elen tilted her head, eyeing the red section with a thoughtful squint. “That bit there? Diagnostic in progress. Red generally means trouble, yeah, but in this case, it’s just ‘Hey! Look here!’ Not ‘Brace for impact!’” She smiled, tapping the console lightly. “We like blue. Blue means smooth sailing. Green’s grand, yellow’s a bit of a warning, like, ‘Oi, keep an eye on this.’ But red’s only really bad when it comes with klaxons. If you’re hearing alarms and seeing red? Then yeah, something’s gone sideways.” She grinned at him. “But for now? Just the ship clearing her throat.”
"That's good," Niun said, laughing lightly, "my first middle of the night drill at the Academy, with the klaxons and red lights everywhere?" He shook his head ruefully at the memory. "I was out in the hall, dagger out, looking for trouble before I was fully awake."
“Ugh, seriously, I can’t believe they made us do those!” Elen chuckled, shaking her head. “I swear, I almost lost a boot one time while trying to make it through a hallway in the dark. And the worst part? They loved it. Just...waiting for someone to trip over a chair or, I don’t know, fall out of bed at 0300 hours. What a thrill, right?” She grinned, clearly entertained by her own discomfort. “I once ran out of the dorm, half-knitted scarf still wrapped around my leg. Fell asleep in the middle of making it, and the yarn wrapped itself around me as I scrambled to get to formation. Now that was a sight, let me tell you.”
She clapped her hands together lightly, the memory still funny to her despite the chaos. “Right, enough about my wonderful Academy memories. Follow me, I’ve got the perfect introduction for you.” She gave him an easy smile, and then led him down the hall, her energy still bubbling.
The blue glow of the warp core greeted them with its steady hum. Elen looked at it with a soft, affectionate smile. “Here she is, my favourite girl in the galaxy,” she said, her voice warming, as if she was talking about a family member. “The heartbeat of the ship. The sound changes with the warp speed, like a purring cat. Low and peaceful when we’re cruising, but when we push the throttle...she gets all revved up. This ship comes alive with her.” She gave Niun a playful grin. “I swear, if this ship had a heartbeat, it’d be right here.”
"Warp core breach is a 215 kiloton of TNT-equivalent explosion or 10 times that of the Hiroshima bomb. That's for Earth's twentieth century. Explosion would in turn liberate the greater amount of antimatter held in storage pods releasing an explosion potentially 100 million times greater." He shook his head slowly. "My people believe that death should come when one is no more than a sword's length for an opponent. To cause that much damage ...." He reluctantly dragged his gaze away from warp core and back to Elen. "... it's a dangerous heart."
Elen’s smile didn’t fade, but she gave a small, thoughtful hum as she turned her gaze back to the core. “Yeah, it’s definitely dangerous when it’s not properly taken care of,” she said lightly, her tone laced with that mix of casual professionalism. “But you know, that’s kind of what makes it exciting. I mean, sure, it could blow up everything in a really dramatic fashion, but...that’s why we’re here, right?” She motioned to the equipment surrounding them, the hum of the core and the pulse of the ship as a whole. “It’s like any heart, really. Every heart has its risks. The trick is knowing what keeps it ticking without skipping a beat.”
She glanced sideways at him, her eyes alight with a quiet understanding. “And hey, that’s why we’ve got people like me around. We make sure it doesn’t get too carried away.” She shrugged lightly, the corner of her smile curling with a playful challenge. “Besides, the more dangerous it is, the more thrilling it feels when you’ve got it all under control.”
Her gaze flicked back to the core, her smile softening just slightly. “But yeah, I’ll admit...if it did go wrong, I’d probably be making a whole lot more noise than I am now.”
"I am dangerous too," Niun said. "On my world, we were called 'living weapons' and there were those, I think, who thought we were too dangerous to remain. So, I understand this ... dangerous and yet, helping ... keeping us all safe."
Elen's eyes flicked down to the floor for a moment as her thoughts drifted, though her expression remained warm. The words had settled differently in her mind, but she wasn’t ready to voice it.
She knew the kind of dangerous Niun was talking about, but there was something there, deep in her, that understood it in a more personal way than she would have liked. She had seen it in others, in her parents years ago during the Dominion War. And, without thinking, her mind jumped to one of her friends. The one she had insisted needed a friend and so she had just taken space in his life. A sudden spark of recognition flickered inside her, though she quickly shoved it down. He would never want anyone to make that connection, and she would never be the one to betray that. But the awareness was still there; something about their shared experiences, their quiet strength but projected in different ways. It was a different kind of dangerous, though, the kind that she never feared.
“You’re right,” she said softly, shaking off the brief reverie. “Sometimes it’s about balance. About knowing when to be dangerous and when to be safe. We all have our ways of being ‘dangerous’, but the trick is making sure it’s always in the service of something good. The trick is… knowing how to control it.”
Her smile returned, but it was softer now, as if the exchange had changed something inside her. “I guess...you can either be the sword, or the shield.” She paused, turning her eyes to look at him. “Or both.”
"It is a good way of expressing it," Niun said, his midnight blue gaze focused on her, and nodded. "I will think on this. You watch over the ship as will I. We share this duty, yes?"
"Sure thing, we will!" Elen’s eyes met his, holding his gaze without missing a beat. Her smile was warm, genuine. "We’re Starfleet. It’s what we do! We share the duty. Ship matters, and so do the people on it. Might not always feel like it, but we’re all pulling in the same direction. You, me, the poor enlisted who has to scrub the transporter pad after some goo-inducing away team…" She winked and then glanced back at the warp core, tapping her fingers lightly against her leg. "We all watch over each other... and the ship."
"Agreed," Niun said, warmth kindled in the depths of his midnight blue eyes, "we will."
Captain Niun D'Sai
First Officer
USS Guinevere
and
Lieutenant Elen Rell
Engineering Officer
USS Guinevere
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