A/N: Thanks for reading!
U.S.S. Enterprise: An Engineer's Adventure
Chapter 12 – In the Aftermath
"Waters, do you wanna hear a joke?"
Penelope knelt down by B Section's artificial gravity generator. It had been giving the crew trouble for the past few days when in one of the mess halls, people and their food started floating up to the ceiling. Since then, even the Bridge had been occasionally affected, leading to one irate Captain and one stumped Assistant Chief. Her portable light fluttered into the machinery.
"Hey, Waters," George repeated from the catwalk above her, "I said do you wanna hear a joke?" Penelope put her head closer to the wiring of the unit, trying to discern the problem. Scotty had told her to not come back until the thing was fixed, since no one in B Section, even Yomai, could figure it out. Why Scotty couldn't come down and fix it himself, if he and the captain were so adamant about it being done, was a mystery apparently too complex for her simple understanding.
George sighed audibly from overhead. "You've been so pissy lately, Wrenchy. It's bumming me out." He used the nickname on purpose to get a reaction from her, so Penelope kept her focus on the problem at hand. The wiring appeared perfectly intact, so she shut out that area and continued on to the plasma powering unit.
"Waters, you can't keep your nose in that generator forever, and then you'll have to admit that you're hopelessly in love with me," George exclaimed loudly, drawing the attention of all the other B Section engineers, "We'll run away together and have twenty children and we'll name them all Scotty. Somehow they'll all have Scottish accents, and – hey, Commander Yomai, so nice to see you."
Penelope could hear Yomai's harsh voice echoing around. "Where are you supposed to be, Ensign?"
"You know, sir," George nervously laughed, deflecting the question, "I was just joking about all that." There was a long pause, and then George added, "One of them would definitely be named Yomai. Of course."
"Get back to your station, Ensign."
"Right. Yes, sir."
Penelope concluded that the plasma coils weren't the problem either. Frustrated, Penelope moved on to the electric propulsion operator. At first glance, the thrusters appeared normal, but when Penelope examined the area more closely, she realized that the link to core power was being halted by a misplaced cooling cap. It looked remarkably similar to a piece of the metal thrusters, so it was likely no one had noticed it. The Assistant Chief reached in ever so carefully and extracted the object, placing it gently down beside her on a cloth. Then she used a clamp to adjust the thrusters so that someone better suited could find a more permanent solution.
Flipping open her PADD, Penelope commed Yomai and informed him of the issue. After he acknowledged, Penelope cleaned up her hands, her tools, and the station. She headed to Scotty's office to start writing up the report, but when she arrived at her destination, there were more people than she'd expected. Scotty, the captain, and Lieutenant Sulu were all gathered around the Chief's desk. Judging by the trio's happy expressions, flushed cheeks, and the almost empty bottle of Romulan ale, Penelope assumed they'd been there for a while.
"Sir, the gravity's been fixed. It should be back to normal within the hour," the Assistant Chief informed Scotty. He blinked over at her, and both Sulu and the captain turned their faces in her direction.
"Good," Scotty hiccuped, "You're off, then?" Penelope nodded. No point trying to get any work done in the office anymore. "Have a nice night, lass." The Assistant Chief started to walk away, planning on doing the report in her quarters. "Oh wait!"
The engineer paused, turning around. Scotty chucked her a PADD, and Penelope caught it. At her questioning look, the Chief Engineer explained. "Gus left that in here during lunch. Could you run it back to him for me?" Under normal circumstances, Penelope would be irritated at doing errands for Scotty, but Penelope couldn't bring herself to care much.
"Yes, sir," Penelope said. She left the room without another word and took a steady pace down to E Section. Gus had been made the new E Section Head two months ago during Starfleet's formal investigation surrounding the Klingon attack.
Once the Enterprise had reached Starbase 14, Penelope had been brought into interrogation. The captain had accompanied her, and whenever the questioning got intense, Kirk would simply make some sort of arrogant response for her. It had gotten the man in some amount of trouble with the Admirality, but he hadn't seemed to care.
After a week, of which she spent almost the entirety under observation or questioning, Starfleet had declared her free from suspicion. Carol's testimony had also been taken, along with the entire Enterprise crew. From what Penelope had heard and read, the attack had been orchestrated by a radical group of Klingons wishing to incite war on the Federation. Because they were supposedly not affiliated with the Federation-recognized Klingon government, though some claimed there were backdoor dealings between the two, the Federation and the Klingon empire had solved the issue through diplomatic talks and a new arms treaty.
Illa's case was still classified, but Kirk had taken her aside and told her all he could. Ilia Illa was a fabricated identity created by the warring faction to infiltrate the flagship and hand over Federation technology to the Klingon's. She had been placed in their path, and they had taken her aboard. Kirk informed her that there were suspicions of her heritage, that she may have been related to a retired Klingon war general. She was at least partially Klingon, and her human family had been threatened to coerce her into complying with the mission. In the end, she had turned against the Klingons, sabotaging their goal, killing most of their crew, and blowing up one of their ships while she remained inside.
Two crewmembers had died during the attack: Royce, from E Section Engineering, and Perry, from Security. Royce had been killed in a struggle with one of the Klingons, and Perry had been killed during the ultimatum issued by the attackers. Penelope struggled to understand what the point of their deaths were, and how to cope with the knowledge that it was partially her fault they were dead.
If she'd only caught on sooner, if she'd only have told Scotty to find someone else for E. But she didn't and she hadn't and that was what life was now. Upon reaching E Section, Penelope left the PADD in the hands of Ensign Gomez, and she promptly left the area. It took about five minutes to get from Engineering Deck to her quarters, and during that time, Penelope tried to keep her mind blank.
The lights came on instantly as she entered. "Computer. Dim lights," Penelope ordered. As the brightness lowered, Penelope glanced over at her computer, seeing a new message signaling in the corner. Penelope clicked on it, and the second communication she'd gotten from Tommy since leaving over five months ago sprung up.
I crashed the bike. My license is revoked for a month, but I'm fixing everything.
-Tommy
Penelope supposed she should feel worried and angry at both the content and brevity of the communication, but instead she just exited the message and went to remove her uniform. Once dressed in more comfortable, Starfleet issued clothing, Penelope sat down on her perfectly made bedspread. The room was so quiet compared to the Engineering Deck, and the silence pervaded her senses in an odd way.
She'd wanted to start the report on the artificial gravity generator, but Penelope no longer had the energy for it. "Lights off." She was plunged into darkness, and Penelope laid down on her side. Eyes sliding shut, the Assistant Chief hoped for sleep. It had been difficult to find it since the Klingon attack, and Penelope continued to feel frustration at her lack of rest.
An hour later, Penelope felt no closer to sleep than she had during her shift. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ever-smooth ceiling. Royce had been a troublemaker, Penelope recalled. He was always giving Illa grief, acting like a silly idiot. Perry had been more serious, taking his duties at Starfleet very solemnly. They'd worked out together a few times, and Penelope had appreciated his quietness. There were far too many crew aboard the Enterprise that loved to talk.
Knowing she'd never fall asleep at that rate, Penelope decided to go running. She put her hair up in a tight bun and threw on some workout shoes. Exercise Room 1 had a large circular track, and after Penelope completed some warm-up stretches, she began a steady jog. There were only a few Security personnel around, as most of the crew were probably at dinner.
Yalmark was running opposite to her on the track, but neither tried to approach the other. Penelope tried not to think of anything at all, but her mind kept sinking into nostalgia. She remembered the way Royce had once thrown up on Scotty's shoes after a night of drinking with George and herself. She remembered running that same track in companionable silence with Perry. She hadn't known either crew member well, but she'd known who they were and what they were like, and it was hard not to blame herself when their faces came into her thoughts.
As Penelope sped up, the strain her body was under distracted her from any unbidden recollections. She could feel her heart pumping in her chest and the blood flowing through her veins. Her legs finally ached enough that the engineer slowed down to an easy jog, and then she stopped completely. She went over and leaned against one of the walls, catching her breath.
Having worked up an appetite, something that had also evaded her recently, Penelope went to the nearest mess hall. She slid in her meal card and ordered a sandwich and water. As soon as the water came out, Penelope drained the entire glass, wiping her mouth and getting it refilled. Sandwich and drink in hand, Penelope spotted Keenser alone at one of the corner tables.
It was late enough that there were only about ten other crew there, so the noise level was significantly hushed. Penelope slid into a seat opposite the other engineer. Keenser glanced up at her arrival, and then back down at his simple food rations. Penelope knew Keenser didn't need to eat often, yet almost always accompanied Scotty when the Chief had meals. It surprised her to see Keenser alone in a mess hall, but she didn't ask about it.
They ate in silence. Penelope was halfway through her (probably) ham sandwich when Keenser reached out and put a hand on her elbow.
"You remember that one time when everyone in Engineering spoke in Scottish accents for a week?" the engineer suddenly asked Keenser. He nodded, pulling his hand away to pick at his meal. "That was Johnny's idea. He told me to suggest it to DeSalle, and I tried to tell Johnny he'd never go for it. Johnny kept saying 'No, no, trust me, he'll do it'. So during one of those inter-section meals, me and Johnny, we went up to ask DeSalle, and then he just laughed."
Penelope felt herself smiling at the old scene, the muscles on her face feeling strained. "And then he made the order behind Scotty's back, remember? And everyone was doing their best to do the accent and not laugh. Scotty got so mad, claiming no one even sounded like him, and he was stomping around Engineering like a child." Penelope put down the sandwich, the smile still twitching at her lips.
"Things were so different back then, weren't they? DeSalle did such a good job, always knew what he was doing. Here I am, almost a year and a half in, and still I've got no clue," Penelope admitted, meeting Keenser's eyes. "Do you miss him? DeSalle?"
Keenser nodded his head once, eyes dropping down in a clear sign of sadness. "He was a good man. I don't know how he put up with half of what Scotty asked him to do." Keenser agreed, folding his arms. "I turned out to be pretty useless."
The other engineer didn't say anything, never did, but Penelope could sense his disagreement. "I am, though. Do you think … do you think Scotty would sign an assignment transfer?" The idea had flitted through Penelope's mind ever since Starfleet had let her go back to the Enterprise. She'd thought there was no future for her aboard the vessel. Just because the Admiralty claimed she was innocent didn't mean the rest of the crew would agree, but no one seemed to give her any trouble over it. Even so, Penelope could feel the passion for her job fadng quickly.
A fresh start, maybe on on Earth, would be better for her. She'd agreed to go on the five year mission to escape the monotony and the memories her home contained, but there'd been nothing but disaster after disaster for Penelope since she'd left planet. Johnny wasn't there to make it better or to make a joke out of the situation, and when she realized she'd been having George fill that role for her, the Assistant Chief had immediately put distance between them.
All she wanted was to do her job as an engineer, and instead she'd been: suspended from duties, close to assaulting her captain, ordered to see a counselor, betrayed by someone she had considered a friend, and accused of being a Klingon spy. Maybe this was her true punishment for nearly killing that man in the park.
But perhaps the last five years of her contract would be better served somewhere her incompetency would have less far-reaching effects.
Keenser shook his head violently at the question, so Penelope sighed and let the topic drop. Maybe he wasn't the best person to ask, but she didn't know who to go to for a second opinion. Everyone she wanted to ask had a biased perspective, and the ones who didn't were people Penelope didn't want to discuss something so sensitive with.
"Goodnight," Penelope said to the other engineer when she'd finished her meal. On her way out, she dropped her dishes in the cleaning bins. As she walked along the hall, Penelope passed by some crewmembers. One or two shouted out a greeting to her, and Penelope waved a hand back in a small motion.
The elevator took her back down to her quarters, and after taking a quick shower, Penelope changed again. She let her hair tumble around her shoulders in bouncy, wet curls. Clicking on an old holo-movie she remembered from when she was a teenager, Penelope curled in a ball on her bed. Her eyes blearily watched the story unfold in front of her. It was an action movie, with flying car chases and a renegade on a mission.
Sounds of phaser shots and rumbling engines put Penelope into a restless sleep.
When she awoke, the holo was at the starting screen, options flickering in the darkness. Penelope reached forward and shut the machine off, throwing the projector into her bedside table drawer. The computer informed her of the time, 0356, and Penelope knew there would be little hope in trying to go back to bed.
She threw on her uniform and work boots and headed down to the Engineering Deck. Once she arrived, Penelope entered Scotty's office. All three of the men from the night before were passed out, causing Penelope to shake her head. She came forward and shook the captain's shoulder lightly. The movement had him up and out of the chair in a flash, and Penelope took a step back in shock.
"Waters?" Kirk whispered, blinking around the room.
"Yes, sir," Penelope responded quietly. "I thought you might want to take yourself and Mr. Sulu back to your rooms." The captain's gaze fell upon her, and Penelope wondered if the man was still drunk because his cheeks were flushed.
"Yeah," he said slowly, "Yeah thanks." They stared at each other in a moment Penelope could only describe as odd, and then the captain went forward to grab Sulu. "Come on, man. Time to go to bed."
Sulu groaned, leaning on the captain. "Don't le' th' pirates get me, sir," the helmsman slurred, his legs dragging as the Kirk hauled him out.
"Course not, Sulu. As if I'd let pirates take any of my crew," Kirk proclaimed, throwing a playful wink over his shoulder at Penelope as the pair left the office. Sighing at the mess, Penelope resigned herself to dealing with Scotty.
"Mr. Scott," Penelope said, coming forward and putting a hand on the Chief's arm. "Mr. Scott, wake up." It took about a minute for Scotty to enter the waking world, and about five more minutes of convincing the engineer to go back to his quarters to sleep.
"Okay, Wrenchy. I'wus jus' a wee bit of ale," the Chief Engineer told her, his speech even worse than Sulu's. Despite his protests, Penelope got Scotty in a similar position as Kirk had attained with his helmsman, and supported the man as they made their way to the elevator. Once inside, Penelope let Scotty rest against the wall as she called out his floor number.
It took a bit of heavy-handed effort to get Scotty to put the code in to enter his quarters, but after threatening to tell the captain about the D Section distillery, Scotty revealed the information. Scotty's rooms were a bit larger than her own, but just as bare. There were no decorations, save a few small mechanical projects laid around haphazardly. It was obvious he hardly came to the room.
Penelope set the man down on the bed, instructing him to remove his shoes. While he did that, and unfortunately started butchering some folk song, Penelope grabbed a glass of water from his replicator. She set it on the end table. "Go to sleep, sir."
"Are you okay, Wrenchy?" Scotty asked, the alcohol and tiredness making his voice hard to understand. The question came from nowhere, and Penelope wondered what the man was talking about.
"I'm fine, Mr. Scott." The Chief Engineer rolled around in his blankets, and ended up looking like a burrito. Penelope rolled her eyes when she thought he couldn't see, and then left to go grab some medicine for him from Sickbay. No matter how many times he tried to convince her, Penelope did not believe Scotty was immune to hangovers.
Sickbay was quiet during the early morning, and there was only one doctor on duty, Dr. Sanchez. She approached on of the nurses, asking for some pain medication for Scotty's hangover. He laughed at the mention of the Chief Engineer.
"That doesn't surprise me. I swear that man comes in here every few days for this stuff," the nurse told her, handing her two small tablets.
"Really?" Penelope asked in surprise. The nurse, Lincoln, went on about how he was sure Scotty was an alcoholic before she finally got to leave. Penelope thought the information could come in handy if Scotty ever irritated her too much. Once she'd returned to the Chief's quarters to drop off the medicine, she went back to his office to finally write the report on the previous day's artificial gravity problem.
She had almost completed the preliminary sections of the report when the door swished open, and the captain entered. "Sorry, Waters, I think Sulu left his PADD in here." Penelope waved him in wordlessly, stylus in her moving hand, and turned back to the report. She could hear him shuffling around a bit before finding the PADD.
"Got it," Kirk informed her unnecessarily. Penelope nodded absently, tapping the stylus on the side of her own PADD as she thought about the steps she went through to remedy the issue. "Hey listen," the captain began, drawing her eyes from the screen. "Are you okay?" Penelope raised her eyebrows at the man.
"Yes." Did she seem ill?
The captain looked a bit uncomfortable, running a hand through his hair before beginning again. "Look, Waters, I don't know how you're going to take this, so just don't kick me out?" Penelope leaned back in Scotty's chair, not making any promises. "You're … you mean a lot to Scotty, and Scotty's one of my closest friends, and you're one of the crew, so if you need to talk about anything, just, you can come to me. You know that, right?"
His speech had been a bit hurried, and Penelope wondered just how often James Kirk ever felt out of place. Probably not often, and it was kind of amusing to be on Scotty's side of the desk watching the captain try not to make a fool out of himself at four thirty in the morning.
"Are you still drunk, sir?" Penelope questioned, her tone overly polite. Kirk glared at her, blue eyes narrowing. Before he could berate her, Penelope started talking. "Actually, there is something I want to ask you." He seemed to be astonished at her taking him up on the offer, but he still took a spot in the chair he'd been recently passed out in.
"Go ahead."
Penelope placed her PADD on the desk atop a small model of the antimatter chambers. "Do you think I should request an assignment transfer?" Kirk blinked slowly at her.
"Like, leave the Enterprise?" His bewildered tone made Penelope internally smile. Of course the captain couldn't imagine anyone wanting to leave the ship. It must be quite different for him, as being the captain meant a lot less flexibility in assignments. Once a captain got a ship, they generally stayed there until they either retired or were promoted. Or died. Whichever of the three happened first.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I don't think I'm good for this ship," Penelope told him.
"Don't think you're – what're you talking about, Waters?" Kirk wondered.
Penelope paused, collecting her thoughts to attempt to present a convincing case. She wanted an unbiased opinion, and though the captain could hardly be considered objective, the two of them were not close enough that he'd convince her to stay just because he liked having her around.
"I can't imagine I've met anyone's standards for completing my duties," Penelope said, shaking her head, "And I don't want to be in a place where I can't do my job."
The captain looked confused. "Do you show up when you're supposed to?"
"Yes."
"Do you do what Scotty tells you?"
"Yes."
"Do you oversee and complete the tasks that fall within your parameters as Assistant Chief?" Kirk's voice fell funnily on the words, as though he thought it was amusing to ask such a question.
"Yes."
Kirk sighed. "Then I don't see the problem."
"The problem," Penelope insisted, "is that I can't help but think someone else could do it better." She kind of deflated when she revealed her worry aloud. It was one thing to think up something like that, and another thing to admit it to another person. Especially if that person was the captain of the starship that she worked in.
There was a small pause, and then Kirk crossed his arms and looked directly at her. "Did Scotty ever tell you why he wanted you as his Assistant Chief?" Penelope shook her head. "He came to visit me while I was still in the hospital last year. He knew I was itching to get out of bed and back to work, but Bones wouldn't let me leave, so he'd come there and secretly give me updates about the ship and the crew." Penelope felt a smile tug at her lips. It definitely sounded like Scotty.
"So one day he comes by and starts telling me about this Lieutenant Waters character who'd been in charge of some section or another in Engineering, and he goes on and on about how great you'd be as the new Assistant Chief. And I asked him what made this one engineer so special when we've got more experienced officers requesting the job. You didn't even apply for it, but Scotty was so adamant. He told me that you were the most dedicated, hard-working officer he'd ever met, with more hands-on skill than he'd ever seen, who could fix anything with just a wrench, and he said if I didn't promote you to Lieutenant and give you the job I'd be a bigger idiot than even Bones thinks I am."
Penelope was quite simply stunned. "When I found out about why you were in Starfleet, I had some reservations," Kirk admitted, "and even though I signed those court papers, I went to Spock to ask him why he thought it was a good idea to have you on the Enterprise. Spock doesn't hand out praise, ever, so when he tells me that you've done nothing but work with efficiency and professionalism since the first trip out, I decided it was probably a damn good thing I listened to Scotty."
"I know these past few months have been rough, trust me, I know, but when you tell me you think someone could do your job better, I can't help but want to meet this mystery engineer. But I'll tell you, Waters, I think you're selling yourself short. I don't think you realize how well you balance out Scotty and this deck, because if you did, you wouldn't even have a passing thought about leaving."
When Kirk had finished, Penelope took a deep breath and then burst into laughter. She couldn't remember the last time she'd laughed so hard – or at all – but she couldn't help it. The captain seemed beyond confused at her reaction. "Uh, are you alright, Waters?"
Penelope nodded frantically, trying to stifle her chuckles. "I'm sorry," she gasped, "It's just, my god, you're good. Is this why Carol likes you? I honestly had no clue why she'd bother to date you until now." Kirk's expression turned annoyed at her comments. "Sorry, sorry, I don't mean to be rude. You are good-looking, if that helps."
She watched as Kirk tried to fight a smile, and then just let it fall across his face. "I am, aren't I?" he asked in a high-pitched voice, and Penelope threw her stylus at his head. It bounced off his cheek and fell to the ground
"I change my mind. I still don't get it," Penelope said.
"You love me, Waters. Admit it. They all do in the end," Kirk teased.
"Unlike your Bridge, Captain, I'm not going to pretend to even liking you a little bit."
"Lies. Haven't you heard? I'm a charmingly genius super-captain with the ability to save the universe," Kirk declared.
The Assistant Chief tilted her head in thought. "Nope. All I've heard about you is the long list of both Terran and alien STD's you've spread around the galaxy. Hasn't McCoy warned you about the dangers of risky sex?"
"Nah, he mostly just gives me a shot of gin and claims it's medicinal. Then he takes five shots of gin himself, self-prescribed. I don't know how he got that medical license."
"Probably by insulting the licensing board into submission," Penelope offered. Kirk laughed loudly.
"I think I may use that sometime."
"Feel free."
Kirk leaned forward, the joking tone still in his voice. "Still want that assignment transfer?" Penelope met his blue gaze before shaking her head.
"I don't think so," the Assistant Chief said. She'd been played, but that was okay because the point had been made. He thought she did a good job, and the tension between them that had only been increased by Illa's betrayal had dissipated.
"Good, cuz I don't think I could handle Scotty storming onto the Bridge tomorrow, demanding to know why I was letting you go. He can be downright scary when he needs to be," Kirk commented, his expression far away like he was remembering something. "Anyways," Kirk said, "glad we talked, Waters, and have an excellent rest of your morning."
As Kirk got up to leave, Penelope called out. "Hey, Captain?"
"Yeah?"
"This can go both ways. I imagine it might be hard, talking out things sometimes with the Bridge crew. I know you all are close, but sometimes people are too close," Penelope said, and upon seeing the understanding in Kirk's eyes, she continued. "If you ever have something you don't want to discuss with people that are going to care too much, I'm here if you need."
Kirk smiled tiredly. "It's so sweet to know how much you don't care, Waters."
"You know what I meant."
"Yeah," he nodded, "I do. And thanks." He gave her a wave, and then he was out the door. Penelope took a deep breathe, looking around at Scotty's mess of an office, now littered with a two empty bottles of Romulan ale. The smile started to droop as she was once again alone, and the warm feeling in her chest that came from Kirk's speech started to fade.
Thinking nothing at all, Penelope snatched up her PADD and set about finally completing the report.
