Booting Up the Drive

True to her word, T'Pren was making an effort to keep everyone on the station and the Hippolyta from dying when the Artificial Singularity Drive was finally turned on. She'd spent most of the day before obsessively calibrating and adjusting everything possible to levels that would have impressed any android. Mostly by herself. And now that she was actually supervising the installation process, she had an engineering deck full of busy ensigns, all triple-checking her calculations and pouring over schematics and doing the work of actually putting the drive into play.

The lieutenant was leaned against the island console, flipping through the plans and procedures for switching the thing on one last time even though she already basically had it memorized and monitoring all systems for any spikes or irregularities that would mean something was already going wrong. So far, so good.

"Oi, Inabnet!" called a scruffy-looking human ensign with a British accent. T'Pren looked up from her work to level a flat gaze at him.

"Ensign Rigley, are we at the Academy?" she wondered, not unkindly. The man in question looked around in confusion and then turned beet red, "Ah, sorry, Inab-- er, Lieutenant. Lieutenant Inabnet."

T'Pren shoved off the console and made her way to where Rigley was working near the warp core. He was on his knees dealing with wiring and exhaust pipes, which is the only way she managed to stand taller than him. Rigley was joining a piece of intricate Romulan tech with standard Federation conduits and doing a particularly good job of it. When the lieutenant arrived behind him, he gave her an apologetic smile. "Reckon I shouldn't shout at you across the room either, hey?"

She grinned at him in return. "Oh, you can shout at me all you want. But not if you're hoping to get any good assignments."

Rai was pacing around the ship, peeking over shoulders and observing crew progress as the integrations took place. "Rigley! Is that how you address your superiors?"

Both the lieutenant and the ensign jerked their heads up in surprise at Rai's voice. Rigley very nearly choked on his own tongue as he tried to make amends.

"No, sir-- I mean Captain, I mean Captain Rai, sir," he stammered, standing so abruptly that Pren had to take a few unsteady steps back to keep from getting his head under her jaw.

"Rigley didn't mean anything by it, sir," the half-Vulcan promised, trying to hide an amused grin. "He's just having a hard time breaking old habits from our time at the Academy together."

He snickered at Rigley's backpedaling. "At ease, just make sure you watch it when we're out there," he said, ribbing the young man.
"Status report, Lieutenant Inabnet? What's the eta on getting the new drive up and running?"

"Yes, sir. Of course, sir. I will, sir," the mortified ensign responded emphatically. And because he seemed so awkward and unsure of what to do next, T'Pren nodded at him. "It looks good. Just triple-check it and finish it up and make sure they all look the same." Rigley gave the lieutenant a grateful look and then buried his head in his work in no small part because there was no hole available to swallow him up and snuff him out of existence.

T'Pren stepped aside to let him work and so that she and Rai could discuss proceedings. "Honestly, I think once Rigley's checked over everything, I'll do one last pass and then..." She sucked in a breath. "And then we can flip the switch. And hope that I'm as good at applied physics as Starfleet seems to think I am." She glanced around to see if anybody else was within hearing distance and then pulled a jokingly miserable face at the Captain. "Please tell me they're sending us a Chief Engineer soon."

"Our candidates are-- well, I don't think you'll be pleased with our options, but yes, my request has been approved," he said.

"Oh, thank you, Starfleet," T'Pren breathed out in relief, although she followed it up with a dubious look at Rai. "What's wrong with the candidates?"

"The best one is uh--ahem," he waited for Rigley to be out of earshot, "artificial. And we already have a synthetic medical officer."

T'Pren took a moment to consider what was just said, doing her best to look like they were just talking about totally normal ship business. But what she actually asked, with a certain amount of fondness for the station, was, "Do you ever get the feeling that DS15 is where Starfleet sends its misfits?"

Rai straightened up and crossed his arms. "Just what are you trying to say?"

T'Pren grinned broadly, although she did at least try not to for decorum's sake. She just failed terribly at it. "I thought I made myself pretty clear," she replied cheerfully, looking sideways at the Captain.

"I mean, yes, of course I have," he said. "We're not a high priority base. Anyone who's anyone knows that."

"And yet here we are, about to turn on the first Artificial Singularity Drive in Starfleet," mused T'Pren, watching the ensigns finish up their work. "In the center of a Bajoran/Cardassian conflict and who knows what else." After a moment's thought, she added earnestly, "And yet it seems like everyone they're sending us, maybe without even knowing it, is perfectly suited to what we need when we need it."

"I'm never going to complain about finally getting what I need and even deserve for my station, but I'm as suspicious as you are," he said.

"Oh, I'm only mostly suspicious," T'Pren replied, looking fully at Rai so she could give him a small smile. "I don't know what anyone else is trying to accomplish with this particular band of misfits...but whatever it is, they can't possibly be aware of just how well we're fitting together." She paused and then admitted, "Well. Most of us anyway."

"People will surprise you that way," he said. "I'll put a rush on an engineer, alright?"

"There's no rush once we find out in the next few minutes whether or not we survive my engineering skills," T'Pren replied lightly, giving Rai another smile. "Although I imagine I'll have a hard time flying the ship and keeping it from blowing up from the inside simultaneously."

"It's not that I don't trust you, but I feel like we should have a designated engineering officer to keep her in the air."

"Oh, agreed." T'Pren grinned at Rai. "It's not that I don't trust me. It's just that I'm a corporeal being with only two hands and two eyes." She gave an exaggerated sigh of lament.

Rigley appeared from around a corner then, standing at attention and addressing his report -- which he'd planned to give just to the lieutenant -- to both officers. "All the connections are identical and secure."

"Thank you, Rigley," Pren replied professionally. "Run one last diagnostic for me, will you?" Rigley nodded and went straight to the island console to do just that. Meanwhile, T'Pren lifted a brow at Rai. "It's almost time. Would you like the dubious honor of turning the thing on?"

Rai's eyes widened in excitement. "Would I ever!" he exclaimed. "Say when."

Rai's excitement was contagious and T'Pren beamed at him. "When I finish my circle of their work, I'll give you the signal." She prepared to step away and hesitated. "Should we contact Tal'Ara?"

"We should," he said. "She might want to be here. Rai to Tal'Ara, we're about to bring the new drive online, do you want to be here for it?"

Tal'Ara was already on her way to engineering when the Captain contacted her. She didn't respond, and walked into the room about 20 seconds later.

She looked around the room. The ASD was ready to go. Random ensigns turned their head when the hard Romulan ex-spy walked into the room, Tal Shiar shawl draped over the shoulders of her Starfleet uniform, as always.

She approached the Captain and T'Pren.

"Captain," she nodded. "Lieutenant."

She took in a satisfied breath through her nose.

"Are we excited?"

"I'm nervous," T'Pren admitted frankly before stepping away from the Captain and Commander so she could take one last careful look at the day's work. Because she really didn't feel like dying quite this way.

"I can't speak for the rest of them, but I am!" he blurted. "How are we doing, Lieutenant Inabnet?"