{{{OOC : Sorry for not posting everyone. Don't want y'all to think I just

abandoned ship :) I've had a final, 13 page paper to write, two essays, regular tests to study for, homework, legal battles, and everything. Just general fun, you know, that's kept me impossibly busy up until now. Okay, I've done given my excuses, on with the post.}}}

Kaitlyn stared at Commander Terrakian, wondering what it was exactly that made him have doubts about the Chief Engineer, and if he had doubts, why it was he had chosen her in the first place. However, it was not her place to ask as much as she would like to. So instead she kept her composure expressionless, being careful not to do anything that would give away some sort of opinion either way.

"So, then, lieutenant..." he continued nonchalantly, "...unless you have any questions or comments, dismissed."

With that Kait stood up, making it clear that there was nothing else. What else could she do that wouldn't incite any misleading ideas? She didn't want to think anything low of her new chief. After all, she was quite eager to see what it would be like to have a female chief, since Kait was used to having all males as her chiefs. It was a good change. Perhaps they might even be able to get along, talk about things that the male chiefs would have found as being "girl things". However, Kait began to have this horrible feeling that her chief would be this militaristic type woman who enjoyed ordering people around. That would create an even bigger problem then, especially considering Kait was accustomed to being quite an independent worker.

Kait turned away from Commander Terrakian and exited, not bothering to look back. Now wasn't a proper time to play the "let's get to know you better" game with him. She didn't know if there ever would exist such a time, but that wasn't the most important thing. That was only important for chiefs such as Lt. Hargen. And even though the Commander's hint at her gaining such status perhaps later on had created some hopes of anticipation, reality told her that none such would happen. Why bother to prepare? The only preparations she would make were for her chief, who she would have the most interactions with. Perhaps it was important to get Main Engineering in order, but there was one thing she wanted to do just before going back.

It would only take a minute. Going back to her quarters would let her get a look around which she hadn't had the chance to earlier. But mostly, she was expecting to hear from someone. While walking to her quarters, she passed by two officers. Before, she hadn't seen anyone, maybe more people were coming on board or it was just coincidence.

Upon entering quarters, she pressed a button on the screen of a standard-issue computer which sat on the standard-issue desk. Quite an uninteresting place to inhabit. It was probably the reason she spent so much time in Engineering or wandering around outside of quarters. Even though much of the parts to the ships were standard-issue also, each ship still managed to somehow have the most distinct feel and appearance. As did this ship.

Kait dropped the thoughts on her mind as she saw a message appear on the screen. It was from her brother, Cody. It was just a message from him saying that he was happy about his decision to go to Starfleet Academy and the recent happenings there. Fortunately, it was an up-beat message this time.

Kait remembered how she hadn't had faith that he would stay in the Academy. In fact when he thought about joining, she had offered no encouragement. He said that with her help he could change this time. "I am not one to try to change anyone. Because I can't," is what she had said in response. It was something so true, something she believed in so much. Yet it had hurt her brother that she would not support him. Kait had supported him in other endeavors of his, but each one of them he ended up quitting only after months or a year at most of working at it. Somehow Kait wondered if her not supporting him this time had somehow helped still because for the first time he was sticking to something. He had been at the Academy for two years now and showed promise.

Kait put off writing a response in favor of going back down to Engineering. Hopefully, she could beat Lt. Hargen down to Engineering. Then she thought to ask the computer something.

"Computer, what is the current location of Lt. Hargen?"

"Lt. Hargen is in her personal quarters."

Kait should've thought to ask the computer earlier. But it didn't matter now. She still had some time to get down in Engineering and get everything in working order, perhaps. Kait left her quarters and headed down to Engineering.

<<Engineering>>

Kait walked into Engineering and noticed that it was beginning to look more populated. She counted heads and found there were a total of five people down in Engineering. All of them human or so it appeared except for the one Klingon. All of them just standing there talking, not knowing what to do, except for the Klingon. Kait wished she had looked at the engineering personnel before coming onboard. She didn't know anybody's names.

"Everyone," Kait spoke up loudly to get everyone's attention. "I'd like you all to come here," she said a little less loudly. Everyone came over, a little more slowly then she would've liked, but at least they did.

Once everyone was there she introduced herself. "I'm Kaitlyn Brennan, assistant chief engineer. The chief engineer will be here soon but until then, all of you are on shift and expected to work. Generally, all that needs to be done before shipping out is 'check-ups' and repairs. I will assign each of you a particular job."

Kait proceeded to work out jobs for each of them. Kait chided herself for the slight fear she felt after ordering the Klingon to run analyses on the transducers and the warp plasma coils because of the look of aggression he gave her. Kait pretended that it didn't affect her since it was probably a ploy to make her feel intimidated. Not in this lifetime, she smirked at him. He was probably just upset that she interrupted what he was in the middle of already doing.

Just as Kait was giving the last person her assignment, she noticed that another person walked into Engineering. Since it was from a distance, Kait's first thought was that she had another hand. But then as the figure walked closer she noticed that the person resembled the Chief Engineer's picture. She laughed at herself as she realized that it was.

The Ensign walked off, going to do his job. Kait was quite pleased that she had successfully got all of Engineering to work. The Chief Engineer would be impressed, she thought.

But just then she realized while everyone else was working, she was just standing there doing nothing apparently. That wouldn't look well. Kait decided to go find something to do so that she would look busy, at least somewhat. However, as luck would have it, she didn't get that chance.

Lt. Hargen walked straight up to her and said, "Hello, Lt. Brennan."

Okay, the chief recognized her. Means she had already seen her records. Kait smiled, which must have looked fake because it was, and said, "Hi Lt. Hargen."

"Lieutenant Commander," she corrected. Kait analyzed everything and tried to determine if she was upset about her error in memory. How could she have messed up something as simple as rank? Lt. Hargen continued unaffected, "Are we preparing for the status report due tomorrow morning?"

"What status report?" Kait asked, confused.

"On the whole ship," she said as if she should already know. Perhaps Kait took it wrong.

"You mean, we're supposed to have all the current specs on the ship done all in one day? Are we going to get more hands?" Kait was a little upset, but tried not to show it too much. She had no idea why.

"It should be easy enough as long as all of us work at it," she stated simply. Kait hoped that wasn't some snide remark on how she appeared to have been doing nothing. Instead of jumping to conclusions, she took it as an innocent statement. Kait thought about pointing out how she had assigned everyone tasks so that Engineering work would get done. But she thought better of it since she didn't know if the Chief would appreciate that or not since she might've wanted to arrange Engineering herself.

Maybe helping the Chief hadn't been Kait's motive in beating her down here in Engineering. Kait loved to take command and stole every chance to do so.

Lt. Hargen looked as if she was ready to leave when she said, "Oh, and one more thing. Your attendance is required at the Staff Meeting tomorrow morning, at ten-hundred hours."

This time she just stood there. Kait wondered if she should move on but instead did nothing. "Is there something in particular you'd like me to do?" Kait offered. She hoped that was the case but she began to fear that Lt. Hargen was going to ask her something else. Hopefully, she wasn't thinking of doing one of those get-to-know-yours right now.

{{{Hey Viv, I would've wrote more but I thought you might want to continue this since I'm likely to mess up your character if I go too far.}}}