Chapter 6

Sherene had taken the long turbolift ride down to the lowest sub-level of Starbase 1; the Power Core. Being so far underground reminded her of the subterranean cities back home, apart from the warmth.

Normally, civilians weren't allowed in what some of the staff called "the Dungeon," but Chief Engineer Patel had insisted on meeting at her work, and had cleared Sherene for access. Like Captain Thorpe, Patel was eager to be interviewed.

The engineering crew had apparently been informed of Sherene's clearance, as someone helpfully pointed out to her where Commander Patel was when she entered the Reactor Control Room. The room was spacious but felt cramped with all the busy machinery, consoles and personnel populating it. Sherene's antennae were twitching from the high concentration of electrical energy in the air.

Commander Patel stood at the central console with her back to Sherene.

"Commander?" she said as she approached the Human.

Patel held up a hand, one finger extended. "Hear that?" she said.

Sherene listened carefully. She could hear a low thrumming from the reactors beneath their feet, and worried that perhaps there was some abnormality that her untrained ears couldn't detect.

"I don't hear anything," she said.

"Exactly," said Patel, turning to face Sherene with a smile on her face. "Supervisor Grum has been gone all day, negotiating with the Draco, so he's not constantly at our elbows, interfering. With any luck, these deliberations will last weeks."

Sherene returned Patel's smile, although she didn't fully understand the Commander's glee.

"So, uh, are you ready for your interview?" she asked.

"Not out here," Patel said. "This way."

Patel led her into an adjacent storage room filled with equipment and spare parts.

"You've come to the right woman, Sherene," said Patel as she perched herself on a cargo container. "No one knows more about Starbase One than me. I was part of its construction team."

"I know," said Sherene with a proud grin. She had done her research on Patel as well. "But I'm more interested in the staff themselves for this article." She similarly sat up on a large container and activated her recording padd.

"Tell me about yourself," she said to Patel. "How did you get into engineering in the first place?"

Patel grinned and folded her arms. "Ah, well, that was my upbringing. I was born on a freighter, the Cleopatra."

Sherene raised her eyebrows, and her antennae pointed forwards. "Really?"

"Yep. Somewhere between Sol and Vega, on the backward leg of the journey. My mum always joked that heading to Earth feels like going downhill, so I came tumbling out." She chuckled.

Sherene joined the light laughter. "So growing up on a spaceship gave you an aptitude for engineering?"

Patel nodded. "It was hard not to learn about the ins and outs of ship maintenance. Everybody had to pitch in when needed. My dad was the chief engineer, and used to say that he had an 'understanding' with Cleo. The ship."

"He encouraged your skills?"

"Yeah. Although I never quite agreed with his philosophy that there should be mutual cooperation between people and machines." She chuckled again. "I prefer to be the one in charge."

Sherene smiled and nodded. "So how did you go from the freighter to Starfleet?"

Patel sighed. "The Cleopatra was an old ship. One of the first long-distance haulers. By the time I was in my teens, it was past its prime, always shaking apart at the seams." She smiled at the memory. "The crew always made it clear to us youngsters on board that we had best look for work elsewhere, as Cleo wasn't going to be around much longer.

"So, I applied to Starfleet, which was a new organisation at the time and they were looking for people with space experience. Shortly after that, they retired the Cleopatra." Patel gazed wistfully at the floor.

"That must have been difficult," said Sherene.

"She was my home for years," said Patel, looking up again with a sad smile. "You get a special connection with your home, you know?"

Sherene nodded. "All too well." Rather than get into her own homesickness, she asked, "What happened to your parents?"

Patel's smile became more joyful again. "They both took early retirement, cashed in their ECA pensions and bought a house on Altair Six. It's something of a haven for old hands from the cargo service.

"We laugh at how, after all those years in space, we all ended up living on planets."

Sherene smirked. "And how did that happen? You coming here, I mean? Working on Starbase One?"

Patel was now firmly back in a good mood. "Well, for most of my time in Starfleet, I was posted to Jupiter Station; handling starship repairs and upgrades. They thought my expertise was best shared with as many vessels as possible.

"Then I was reassigned to Earth Station McKinley, overseeing starship construction itself. So, when they resumed the starbase project, I was one of the first people they asked to join."

"Sounds like they kept you moving around a lot."

Patel's smile wavered slightly. "I suppose. That suits me though. I'm used to it; moving from place to place."

"Yet you accepted the Chief Engineer position here," Sherene said with an inquisitive tone.

"This is my baby," said Patel, her expression lighting up again. "I put a lot of hard work into the base; I want to make sure it's looked after. I… I consider this to be my new home."

Sherene wished she shared Patel's sentiment, but she didn't think she'd ever think of this place as home.

As Patel commenced a long, detailed history of the starbase's construction, Sherene also wished that this interview had been as short as Thorpe's.