© Copyrighted 2003 All rights reserved.
Title: Midnight Solution
Author: The Watch Stander
Rating: General
Humor- The Sequel to this is MORNING RETRIBUTION
Summary: After Midnight, strange things happen to overworked Chief Engineers! I got this idea from an email I received about Quantas Airlines and decided to make an Enterprise story from it.
Disclaimer: Paramount owns the whole Star Trek Universe Inc Enterprise & Crew. There is no profit from writing this story, but it was a lot of fun!
Thank you to all the wonderful people who sent reviews.
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Trip walked over to his desk in engineering and literally fell into his chair. He was exhausted. Every bone in his body ached from two weeks of double shifts and living on coffee with little sleep.
It was nearly midnight and all the day bridge crew were asleep in their quarters. He wiped his face with his hand and then realized it was covered with grease. A frown crossed his face as he looked at his reflection on the computer monitor. There were now two more dirty streaks added to his unshaven face. Shaking his head, he decided he could care less what he looked like. His whole uniform was filthy anyhow from working in the pits of engineering. Jon had been giving the ship a thorough shakedown the past two weeks to try and get all the kinks fixed ship wide.
Thank you Jonathan Archer! Just what I needed. No sleep and plenty of stress for two weeks.
The captain even had the nerve to ask him today why he hadn't been to the Captain's Mess recently!
Ha, easy for Jon to say, "Just make it happen, Trip, Oh and we'll expect you for dinner!"
Trip took a deep breath. He was so exhausted he was beginning to see double. Too much coffee was causing his stomach to burn as well. Sighing, he picked up the padd from his desk that had a list of all the minor things that needed fixing throughout the ship on a daily basis. He smirked as he read it.
Everyone must have seen how tired he was, but that didn't prevent them from stopping him in the halls, in the mess, when he went for coffee, and even calling down to engineering to tell him about their minor problems. He'd told them to log the problem on the gripe sheet and he'd get to it as soon as he could.
Now when he saw all the problems listed, he decided he'd had enough! With great glee he started to fill out the information on the padd. After each problem listed, he added the engineering department's action/solution taken to remedy the problem.
Archer's problem was first: Something loose in the command console on my chair.
Trip filled in his solution: Something tightened in the command console on your chair.
An evil grin crossed the engineers face as he really got into it.
Hoshi's was next: Communication console volume unbelievably loud.
Trip's answer: Communication console volume set to a more believable level.
It seemed that everyone had a problem today and he really wished he could see their faces when they read his report.
Travis was always complaining and his was: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick
Trip's answer: That's what they're there for.
Even Malcolm was included: Targeting scanner hums.
Trip loved this one! : Reprogrammed targeting scanners with lyrics.
The engineer suddenly felt giddy, the exhaustion was taking it's toll, he just couldn't stop himself and continued filling in the padd and laughing to himself as he did.
Phlox was even included on the list: Suspected crack in glass door of sickbay.
Trip chuckled as he wrote: Suspect you're right!
Chef even had a complaint: Dead bugs in kitchen.
Trip was merciless: Live bugs on back order.
T'Pol wasn't even allowed to go scott free: Right forward scanner inoperative.
Trip was inspired: Forward scanner always inoperative in OFF mode.
Travis again: Ship handles funny.
Trip giggled: Ship warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.
Archer once more: Mouse like squeak still in the floor of my quarters
Trip got him again: Cat installed.
Even one of his engineers wrote something: Number 2 narcelle missing.
Trip had to get even for that one: Narcelle found on right side of ship after brief search.
Travis again: Evidence of a leak on right main landing gear of shuttle pod.
Trip was really hot: Evidence removed.
He finally came to the last one and how he wished he could see Malcolm's face when he read Trip's solution.
Malcolm's problem :Noise coming from under tactical instrument panel on bridge. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
Trip joyfully filled in: Took hammer away from Midget!
With that he uploaded the report to the bridge and getting up, headed for some long overdue sleep, chuckling to himself all the way.
End :)