A/N: Thanks to Anarra for the idea that inspired this chapter!
Personal log, Lieutenant Sonya Hart, Stardate 55763.54:
I just got a message from Betsy today. Eight months from now, I'm going to be an aunt! She and Phil are already trying to come up with names, and he's got an extensive plan for the nursery. At least he had the good sense to leave the decorative choices to her. My brother-in-law may be a great architect, but he's a lousy decorator. That's the best news I've heard in a while. Aunt Sonya has a nice ring to it.
Things here are less exciting. It's not bad enough that Fritz and Rali are complaining about boredom. Now Trish has jumped on that train, too. She says that she'll be woefully under-prepared for the time when she's a Chief Medical Officer. You'd think a doctor, of all people, would appreciate not having her hands full! I don't get it, I really don't.
I suppose that I should admit it: working in Engineering, things break whether or not we see a lot of action. Just today one of the plasma injectors broke, and I spent most of my shift fixing it. Of course we put a new one in, but this was fixable, and if we need to we can put it back in with no problems. This sort of thing is enough for me. I don't want to have to try and bring a damaged warp core back online with some hostile aliens chasing us or any similar adrenaline-rush work. I didn't join Starfleet for glory and excitement. I joined because it's the best way to get to play with technology. What can I say, I'm a purist.
So while the three of them were whining, I sort of spaced out at dinner. Actually, I was thinking about the shift rotation that I have to have in tomorrow morning. Once the conversation turned to ping-pong, though, I joined in again. We're on for tomorrow night. Trish and I left when we were done; the guys were still talking about the new Nova Race or whatever it is that's coming out soon. Honestly, get those two talking about space race programs and it's like they're fifteen. They actually play it on the bridge! If there's ever nothing to do in Engineering, we can set up a chess tournament or something. Until then, I better not catch any of my people playing games on duty.
We finally finished repairing that biobed in Sickbay. I don't know how they managed to fry so many circuits while treating a mild concussion, but it's probably better not to ask.
My real dilemma is Fritz, again. Or rather, still. I'm still working the dating-a-colleague thing through in my head. We don't work together directly very often, but I've never dated anyone I worked with before. Then again, the only serious relationship I've had was Frank DeSol back at the Academy. The price of being a career woman, I suppose. Fritz and I seem to have a lot of potential, but I'm cautious. My forte has always been things that are solid and tangible, which is why I'm an engineer and not a counselor. However, he's also cautious, which means at this rate I'll be fifty by the time we have our first date.
Trish, of course, thinks that I should ask him out. If there's a risk, she insists, it's far outweighed by the benefit. She's also sure he'd say yes. I was going to point out that her relationship track record isn't so great, but she's still sensitive about Henry. The loser did send her a surprise holoprogram, and she played it only to find out it was a Dear Jane holo. Pretty low, and I didn't want to bring that up again.
Well, it's my birthday in two weeks. Maybe he'll do something special.
In other news, I'm pretty sure that Grisham was dared to show up late today, because after I gave him a chewing-out, he muttered something about the problem with synthehol being that you can't blame stupid things on it. Here's another case of something I probably don't want to know more about. Coming in forty minutes late, even after I commed him, he deserved the earful I gave him. And I did it in my office, so the whole of Engineering didn't hear. They probably had a good idea what was going on, but that can't be helped.
I've got to tell Trish that I'm going to be Aunt Sonya. I do wonder if I'm going to have a niece or a nephew, and I also wonder if it'll be possible to get some home leave then."
Eng log.
Next in line: The First Officer
