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"Engineering Wonder"
[Previous Post Sabrina's "Soulless"]
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<<To believe that emotions are born of flesh and blood is a short-sighted view, one that robotic engineers have spend the greater part of this last century trying to disprove.>>
-Lt. Commander Eriksson, Robotics Engineering Concepts, Starfleet Academy

Setting: USS ANUBIS, Deck 22, Main Engineering
Stardate: 63072.1315

The cold, lifeless warp core stood as a towering reminder to the Oltharian Chief Engineering Officer and his staff as to the state of the ANUBIS and the tasks that they all had been diligently working on for over an hour.  The warp core had been taken offline to permit some of the more crucial repairs to be done faster, a decision that Captain Rikar had not been entirely happy with, but one that she had agreed to based on the necessity of the repairs.

"EPS conduits on Deck 14 through 17 will need to be manually inspected," Sovek, the assistant CEO announced from the Central Control Island as only a Vulcan could.

"Number 3, 5 and 6 Ablative Armour Generators are still not responding and show power fluctuations," Lt. Grant, the second aCEO stated from the other side of the CCI while other Engineers came and went at a frantic pace.  "We may have to wait until we return to NEW ALEXANDRIA to complete repairs on them."

The Central Control Island, or *Pool Table* as many on the Engineering Staff had dubbed it, had always been a gathering place to discuss and report problems faced by the staff under the Oltharian's supervision.  In additional to being located in the middle of main Engineering, it could be observed from the deck above allowing for a greater number of Engineers to attend special meetings.  The holographic display on top of the small table also served to show sections of the ship or specific components with great detail.

"See if we can get some help from the Science Department to inspect those EPS conduits," the Olthairan offered, every single Engineer onboard the ANUBIS having been drawn into working on the repairs of the damaged systems.  Given their current situation Elan had been quite certain that Lt. Commander Maya would have been more than happy to have her people lend a hand.

"What about the generators?" Lt. Grant inquired, not having the authority to proceed with the only possible course of action.

"We do not have a choice," the Oltharian reluctantly admitted.  "Take those generators offline and have teams working on them move to the main deflector array, we are still getting some anomalous readings from the deflector dish.  I would not want to have to tell the Captain we cannot go to warp when she gives the order."

"Lieutenant Fairborn," a raven haired woman dressed in the grey colours of Intel began.  "I am still experiencing some odd feedback in my core processor, and suspect that it may have to do with the nebula's subspace emissions," the Avatar explained, her tone of voice echoed a calmness and serenity that the Oltharian had long ago learned to enjoy and admire.  Although the artificial woman had not held an official Starfleet rank, the Chief Engineering Officer still showed Annie the utmost respect and devotion; after all she had been a physical embodiment of the ANUBIS itself.

"I have two Engineers working on this matter as we speak," Fairborn stated while he added a soft bow, a show of respect that the Oltharian usually reserved for Doctor Summers or any other member of the medical staff.

"May I inquire as to when my internal sensors will be returned to active status?" Annie added, Lieutenant Fairborn having been ready to swear that he had detected a faint smile on the Avatar's lips.  "Not being able to know everyone's location onboard is like a Betazoids suddenly losing their telepathic powers."

Lieutenant Fairborn glanced down at the console in front of him and after having confirmed what he had suspected he returned the internal sensors back to active status with a few touches of his fingers.  Instantly Annie closed her eyes as she processed the wave of new data that she now had access to, and after a few seconds the Avatar re-opened her eyes, this time the smile on her lips as clear as day.  "Thank you Lieutenant Fairborn, now, I believe that Ensign Thomas is coming to see you about boosting the signal on the line-of-sight sensors located on the Array Section."

Just as the Avatar turned and began to move away Ensign Thomas stepped through the large double doors leading into Main Engineering and approached the imposing Oltharian whose back had been to him.

"As soon as the repairs to the EPS conduits are completed I will be able to channel extra power to the Array Section line-of-sight sensors, as per your needs," the Chief Engineering Officer offered to the Ensign who had stopped less than a meter behind him.  The Chief of Operations stared at the back of the giant unable to understand how Lieutenant Fairborn had known the reason for his visit.  The last time he had checked the personnel records, the Oltharian had not been labelled as possessing any telepathic abilities, which of course further troubled him given what had just happened.

--==(/\)==--
Francois Charette {f_charette@hotmail.com}

Lieutenant Elan Talak Fairborn

Chief Engineering Officer
USS ANUBIS

And

Robotics Engineering Officer
NEW ALEXANDRIA