Routine

I grabbed for my alarm to turn it off, still 99% asleep. I'm just not a morning person.
"I love you Billie but shut up." I said and opened my eyes. I have the alarm connected to my cabin's lighting systems so the lights came on automatically with the alarm. I stood up, put on my shirt and went to our collective bathroom.
Me and other 4th rank officers have to share bathroom, but thankfully not toilets. That was hell when I was rank 5 because other people can be very messy. As I entered the room and went through the small privacy tunnel we have I saw other girls fighting naked in the showers. It wasn't a real fight, thankfully, just them messing around and slapping each other with towels, otherwise I would have to intervene immediately.
"Mickey, Johanna, Anna, stop it or you'll get hurt and I would be held responsible because I'm your superior officer and I was in the room. Do that on your own time, in your cabin and not on wet floor." I said, not wanting to deal with any fractured limbs immediately after I woke up.
"Well, officer, you weren't in the room when we started and before Nat started showering." replied the ginger one. Anna is like that, sneaky and always have a way of responding. Good kid but has a bit of a way to become an officer she told me she dreams of becoming.
"Yeah sure, whatever. Just don't get hurt." I replied and turned on my tooth brush. I don't shower in the morning like others because I'm kinda shy and the showers are open all the time, so I mapped out time when this room is mostly empty. As I was brushing my teeth I checked my schedule on my watch, well I say watch but it's more like one of those old phones with 6" screen people used to carry in their pockets strapped on my arm. It was the usual routine.
-Engineering officer, rank 4 - Kayela Northwood; TASK LIST-
+ Shield capacitor bank D health check [HIGH PRIORITY - Assistance assigned]
+ Lubricating bearings on elevator cabin: SHAFT 3
+ Air filtration check up / maintenance - deck 4, section 3a
+ Communication network hub check - deck 4, section 3a
+ Assistance in engineering section B if spare time is available.
[SHIFT LENGHT: STANDART NON-FLEXIBLE 12H with dynamically assigned breaks]
I was kinda surprised that I got high priority task assigned, I wonder if I am that assistance or I receive assistance. Although, come to think of it, it's not a tactical shield so it's on my skill level.
I went to our cafeteria to get something small to eat and to get coffee as I still had about an hour before my work day started. As I entered I noticed that few high ranking officers were already there. They usually eat at their own cafeteria on deck 2, but I'm guessing that someone wanted a change of pace. As I grabbed a chocolate croissant and a latte I said hi to my first officer, a tall guy who looks intimidating at first but is actually a sweet person once you get to know him. We chatted for a bit about stuff and went to our respective tables, he went to one further to the corner of the room, I sat more in the middle. I marked the high priority task as the first one I'm gonna do so it informs other crew members about the time of my arrival. It should take around an hour and the fact that I could assign time to it means that I will get the assistance, not the other way around, thankfully. It will also inform the bridge crew that shields are being worked on.
As I was finishing my breakfast I noticed my Captain, tall woman in her 40s, walking in and heading directly towards the table where Johann sat. She seemed serious.
I did think what was that about, mind you, I can go a week without seeing my captain. My direct superior is not even Chief engineering officer, it's his assistant. Her role is the one I'm aiming for, not so much of responsibilities that my hair would go gray and not too little so I would be bored. Like for example Captain. She wakes up, does her check, issues commands if necessary and then is in her office the whole day, apparently play video games, but has so much responsibility that a lot of captains go mental over the stress. A small ding woke me up from my thoughts, notifying me that I should go to my first task.
Once I arrived at the station a small brunette was waiting for me there already. Johanna, another girl I saw messing around this morning.
"Did you had your fun?" I asked playfully as I unlocked the door. I didn't want to come across as too pedant.
"Yes. My ass still hurts from how Anna slapped me with her towel. I need to repay her for that." was her response. I laughed because it reminded me that I was the same in her age.
"You should. Towel ass whooping is serious. Anyway, I saw your background is in electrical, am I right?" I responded and started focusing on our job.
"Yes madam, High voltage electrical equipment, active defense systems and power delivery systems are my specialty." she said, very proudly. And she should, these things are hard to master.
About a second after she finished the maintenance doors opened and the room within was lit up with ceiling light fixtures.
"Excellent, we don't need to replace any light bulbs or other equipment. Johanna, start the automatic health check so we're done as soon as we can, I have a lot to do today" I said as we entered the room.
"Oki." responded Johanna and headed towards the control panel in the middle of the room. She turned it on and entered a command into it, which started an automated health check up.
After about an hour of that script running and doing other checks we had our result:
-NO LOSS OF CAPACITY DETECTED-
"That's what I wanted to see. Thanks Johanna, see you later." I said
"Sure thing madam" she said and went on her way. I exited the room, locked it and headed towards elevator shaft 3.
As I arrived there I called the elevator, once when it arrived I've put it in service mode, which consists of plugging in my watch to the control panel diagnosis port and selecting the "Service" option on it. Once the elevator switched to the service mode I disabled the gravity in the shaft and cabin, meaning that I could effortlessly maneuver and work on the top and on the bottom of the elevator. I opened the hatches on both sides and started putting oil on the bearings. It went smoothly, but it still took about an hour. Once I finished I put everything to normal and set the elevator to "Lubrication spread run" which, as the name implies, spreads the lubrication evenly over the bearings. This process take about 25 minutes and I have to be present for it, because I have to put the thing into full operation mode once it's done, so I've decided to chat with my friends.
Me: Hai.
Nikky: Hi, what ya up to.
Me: Lubing your mom's shaft.
Nikky: I saw you. Pervert.
Yanne: Lmao Kaye what? I didn't know that Nikky's mom is Elevator shaft 3.
Me: hehe
Nikky: O_O That was supposed to be a secret.
Me: You think that Yanne can hold a secret?
Nikky: no
Yanne: ...
Yanne: Anyway, does anyone know why one of the 5 school kids has totally blue ass? Apparently she can't even sit down.
Nikky: Lmao what?
Yanne: Yup
Me: Yeah those dumbasses were slapping themselves with towels this morning. Had to stop them, they were messing around on wet floor and I don't want to write that report to Captain.
Nikky: OOP
Yanne: oof
Me: Ye. What's for lunch btw?
Yanne: Burgers with fries.
Nikky: O
Me: Excellent, see you there?
Nikky: Sounds good
Yanne: Sure.
Me: oki cya later
I closed the app, smiling. Those dumb kids.
As the progress finished I switched the elevator back to operational mode and went towards section 3a. I was on a deck 4 already. First task was to clean the air filters. These nano filters can clean a lot and usually smell accordingly. I went to the AC maintenance room and pressed the filter clean button, which ejected the old filters and I put in new ones that were ready in the room. I then did a full suite of tests that I won't bore you with, but it took me around an hour and a half. I then went to check the networking closet to finish this big task. I peaked inside and realized that this is gonna take me a long time, so I decided to call in the lunch with girls. I opened the watch and saw a message from Yanne:
"Kaye, don't expect me on lunch and this evening. There was a problem in the main engineering and it caused multiple injuries and the hospital is full so I'll have to take overtime. I'm sorry"
I stood there in shock. Main engineering, Nikky, my gf, is stationed there. I decided to message her, but before I could start typing I received message from her, saying:
"I'm fine, just a burn from plasma injectors. Abandon everything you're doing and come here ASAP. We need everyone we can and Chief tech gave me clearance to call you."
I locked the door and headed on my way as fast as I could and while I was on my way the accent lights went from blue to Amber. This wasn't a routine anymore. I've gotten to deck 5 and was stopped by a passenger. We don't usually carry passengers so I was a bit surprised that I saw him.
"Madam, I'm sorry to interrupt but can I ask what's going on?" he asked.
"Yes, we have a technical issue. Please head into your cabin for your own safety, thank you." I responded and he freaked out a little because I sounded more worried than I anticipated I would. How could I not, my girlfriend was hurt. Once I arrived to main engineering section I realized why we were on amber alert.
The main plasma injector to the fusion core was ruptured and halfway melted, creating a pool of molten metal on the floor.
"WARNING: CORE EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN REQUIRED. MELTDOWN IN PROCESS. PLASMA VENTED INTO OUTER SPACE." sounded through the engineering from the computer.
"Kaye. Amazing, you arrived." said our Chief tech. Tall and masculine guy with very deep voice. "Please, man the plasma venting on the emergency vent panel." he followed. I looked around and located the panel.
"Where's Nikky?" I asked back.
"She's fine, just burned, go man the station. Don't worry she wasn't hurt badly." he replied and I went directly towards the station. There was a lot of values in red, so I toned those off. Few seconds after I done that I received a call from the bridge and when I answered I saw the face Captain Jellenne.
"Miss Northwood, what's the situation? And why isn't Jeff answering?" I turned around and saw him deep inside of some panel working on something.
"Chief Technical officer is busy and as for the situation: We have a meltdown in process, we're venting plasma in space, main plasma injector is melted and there's a pool of molten metal on the floor sealed by internal shielding." I responded
"Can you tell me for how long can we maintain warp?" she asked back. I looked at the neighboring screen, which showed rapidly declining power levels. I looked for the power usage / generation charts and it told me that we would start using more power that our failing power core can provide in 40 seconds, which will trigger FTL halt.
"According to predictions less than 40 seconds until FLT halt with current speed." I replied
"Thank you." she said and ended the call. She must've known about those injuries, hence why she didn't ask. I glanced towards the neighboring screen again and saw the number jump to 3 minutes and the power draw from our Slingshot drive go rapidly down, meaning that helm slowed us down.
"Who called?" asked the Chief tech.
"The captain wanted to know for how long can we maintain FTL." I said. "They then slowed down to minimize the power draw."
"Excellent work. Shunz's panel broke and I had to unplug it and plug it back in so I couldn't answer. Once the plasma is vented to space you can go to hospital to Nikky."
The rest of venting was more less un-eventful and once it was done we dropped out of FTL and switched to backup power, started waiting for assistance and I went to the hospital to look for Nikky. Once I arrived I found her almost immediately. She was treated by an amazing nurse, our friend Yanne.
"Oh thank god you're alright." I said when I came over and hugged her.
"God?" asked Yanne.
"And thank you for being such an awesome nurse." I responded.
"So what did you do once you arrived into engineering?" asked Nikky while Yanne continued to bandage her burned arm. I told her what happened.
"Someone's finally getting private shower." said Nikky with laugh. Despite her injury she was in a good mood. I was so happy she was alive I kissed her on a cheek.
"O, a kiss. Have you seen that?" she reacted.
"Yeah, you two are adorable." said Yanne. "Look, I have to go back to work, the meltdown hurt a lot of people. I'll talk with the rest of you later. You can go. Cya" she followed.
"Cya" said me and Nikky in unicine.
As we walked the hallway to my cabin Nikky asked: "Can I sleep in your cabin today? Mine feels lonely without you."
"Sure, I'll love to have you there." I said, happy that she finally wants to do that. "But I need shower first." I followed.
"Yeah, I need one too. And don't worry. Yanne gave me water resistant bandage so I can go to shower." she said.
As we made our way into the showers I've heard laughter coming from there. "They wouldn't" I said to myself. Yet when we arrived in the showers we stumbled across Mickey, Johanna and Anna, slapping each other across their asses with towels again. Also yes, Mickey had completely bruised ass from this.
"You girls just won't change, huh?" I said.
"Look madam, this time the floor isn't wet." responded Anna with laughter.
I guess that some routines will stay the same no matter what. Like 19yo cadets slapping themselves with towels across the ass.