Can we get a little light in here?

Posted on Mon Feb 3rd, 2025 @ 9:35pm by Lieutenant Commander Mattys Plaatjes & Major T'Ria

2,478 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Drydock
Location: Deck ? / Personal Quarters
Timeline: current

[ON]

The door to her quarters ground open with a less than smooth hiss. T'Ria looked to the now open doorway with suspicion. She would need to procure some lubricant from requisitions to see if that would help the operations of the door. Walking into the space, she looked about the dark quarters that held only the ambient lighting from her viewport to give her any distinctiveness in the space. Vulcans might have excellent hearing and smell, but low light vision was inferior to humans. It made evolutionary sense. Her species evolved on a desert world, in a trinary star system. Between the brutal daytime light and the reflection off T'Khut--the sister world in a tidally locked co-orbit--complete darkness was a rarity.

She walked over to the control panel next to the doorway and flipped a tab that should have turned on lighting to the space. It did nothing. So in true trouble shooting fashion, T'Ria flipped it off and on again, with the same result. Pressing another button, this one the comm, T'Ria attempted communicating to someone who could help rectify this situation.

=/\= Major T'Ria to engineering...there appears to be a small mechanical malfunction in my quarters...=/\=

'This is Co-' There came a dull thud and a stream of Afrikaans swear swords that gradually petered out. 'Commander Plaatjes,' he concluded over the comm, rubbing his forehead. 'Give me a moment and I'll be right over, eh?'

T'Ria closed the line not seeing the necessity of saying anything further. Looking about in the dark she considered what to do while she waited. Stepping further into the room, she dropped her sea bag onto the sleeping platform and moved in front of the small viewport that looked out into the vacuum of space. It provided a most arresting scene of Earth in the background. It gave her something to observe while she waited.

Flipping his PADD over, he found the designated quarters for a Major T'Ria. A Vulcan, interesting, he thought to himself as he gathered a toolkit and made his way through the ship, dodging the hustle and bustle as the Starfleet Operations crews brought aboard the needed supplies and kit for the Meridian's maiden voyage into the unknown. As he arrived at the door, he hit the chime and waited patiently for the response, rubbing at his reddening forehead.

The chime alerted her that someone had arrived to her quarters. Turning she walked back into the Stygian gloom to her door and pressed the button for it to open. Standing in her doorway was a human male, tall and broad with dark brown hair shot through with silver strands; a combination that gave him a rather dignified air, in her opinion. She took a step back to allow him entry. "Commander Plaatjes, I presume? Your efficiency is most agreeable. I have been unable to bring up the lights in my quarters."

'Major,' Plaatjes replied, stepping past the smaller woman and surveying the quarters quickly. 'It's better to knock these kinds of problems on the head, eh. Less a matter of efficiency than crew morale you might say.' He waved a hand about the room before looking at the Vulcan, 'you say all your lights are out?'

"Yes. The control panel appears to be inoperative." She responded in a neutral tone. "I am capable of simple technological repairs, which I believe restoring lights falls under, however I do not have the appropriate tools...including a light source."

'It's a good thing that Engineers always arrive prepared,' Plaatjes grinned again as he dug around in his engineer's kit before pulling out a slim-line LED light. Setting the bag down, he unfolded it, and activated the magnets on the tripod he had created before sticking it to the roof of T'Ria's quarters and activating it. Even in the deadening glare of the device's light he could see the elaborate bun the Vulcan sported. All in all it made her look quite striking. 'There we go,' he declared affably, and dug about once more in the pack before retrieving his scanner. 'Let's get going.'

He walked over to the light switch and activated the scanner, running it over the panel as he talked, 'your repair skills, are they from personal interest, or from your naval training?'

"In training, yes. It is logical to have rudimentary repair skills, given the unforgiving environment we are working in." T'Ria responded as she shifted her weight slightly to the side in order to observe Plaatjes' actions.

'That is true. I expect Vulcan training is fairly all-encompassing regarding basic tasks, no?' Plaatjes said as he ran the scanner over the panel again. He shifted, and held the device out to the Vulcan. 'Do you mind?' He turned back, and popped the panel and accepted his scanner back gratefully. 'Seems like it wasn't the bulb this time, that's something at least,' he chuckled. 'Makes it worth my while coming up here.'

T'Ria took device at his bequest and held it while he studied the now opened panel. When he reached out to take it back, she ensured that he did not accidentally touch her. Although she found humans to be fascinating to observe, their minds were open and thoughts chaotic compared to a Vulcan, and a touch would transmit more than the chief engineer was willing to volunteer, no doubt. "It was not my intention to make things...complicated for you."

'Oh don't you worry, eh. 'Complicated' just means fun,' Plaatjes grinned at the panel he was scanning. 'It's not life-or-death at the moment.' He shook his head, 'I know it must seem strange to Vulcans what with your logical outlook on life, but I find tinkering to be quite enjoyable.' The scanner beeped and warbled as it diagnosed the problem. 'See, here it is. Faulty wiring. Shouldn't take too long to patch up for you.'

The Vulcan woman tilted her head slightly to the side to convey...something. She watched as the ChEng did not respond to it and realized her error. Both cultures had their non-verbal gestures to communicate and she had forgotten herself in the moment. "My apologies. I was attempting to convey curiosity and interest at what you just said. It is ideal to hear that it was a simple wiring issue."

Plaatjes smiled in return, 'it's rare people are interested. You can talk at them all day and they won't take it in.' He shrugged as he fished out some replacement wire from his kit, 'Engineers are just built differently perhaps. Polarities, plasma flows and reactor intermix levels aren't everyone's cup of tea, but it's honest work and it gets us from here to there, you know?'

He began to work, isolating the power flow to the panel and stripping out the faulty wiring, 'here,' Plaatjes held the wire in his hands, 'you can see here where it's already burned out. Never stood a chance.' Looking at the Vulcan he said, a little hesitantly, 'what you said about being curious and interested ... I've often wondered, and I hope it's not an impertinent question, eh, but do Vulcans experience boredom?'

The Vulcan physician raised a brow at his inquiry. "Boredom would be considered as a state of being...uninterested. I should perhaps take the stance that the connotation would denote some sort of emotive undertone and Vulcans do not 'feel' such, but that would be inaccurate. I, personally, have quite distinct preference for the biological sciences but find say...diplomacy and all that it entails to be quite tedious. Engineering in some way aligns with medicine if one considers it in a more broad-speaking manner. We both assess, maintain, and repair complex machines...in essence."

Rummaging around in his kit bag, Plaatjes nodded his understanding, and chuckled at the comparison. 'I suppose, yes. For myself I've never particularly been interested in medicine or biological sciences. They're far too messy for me.' He shrugged as he straightened, new wire in hand, 'give me warp mechanics and plasma flow calculations any day.'

"I have encountered some incredibly messy engineers in my practice, commander." T'Ria replied in a light tone in response. "I suppose it is a matter of preference...grease or bodily fluids. Each have their own disadvantages." She continued to watch his actions with interest. The human male was large and broad, far unlike the Vulcan counterparts who skewed long and lean as a general rule. However, it was his hands that were most fascinating. They moved with an articulate grace that proved he was quite skilled at his craft.

'Everything is a matter of preference,' Plaatjes agreed absently as he concentrated on his work. 'Sorry,' he said after a moment, 'splicing the wires together needs concentration.' Pulling back, he looked at his work, then nodded in some satisfaction. 'Let me tell you. A messy engineer is either incredibly good at his work, or the worst. There is no inbetween, eh.' Plaatjes motioned to the bag he'd brought. 'Would you mind pulling out some plastic sheathing and a heat gun? Not much more to do than that.'

T'Ria dipped her head in acquiescence and crouched down to obtain the items he had requested. It took her some time to locate the heat gun, however it was because Plaatjes' system of organization was incomprehensible to her. She did not make a comment on it, however. A lesson learned; humans did not generally react favorably when overtly criticized for a deficiency. Standing up, she held out the sheathing and heating gun to the engineer. "You are quite efficient. A favorable trait to cultivate."

'Quite efficient is quite the complement,' he chuckled to himself at his own wordplay. Accepting the plastic sheathing he took a few minutes to wrap it carefully around the naked wiring, making sure there was enough overlap that the seal would be good. Giving a gracious nod he accepted the heat gun delicately, noting how T'Ria was at pains to avoid skin-to-skin contact. 'I figure that's quite the complement from a Vulcan. I'll admit that I - here, hang on, let me shift over, you can see the next step a little better - I'll admit I don't know a lot about Vulcans, but we were shown a documentary on our new allies when we formally joined up. From what I understand, it's difficult for us to prevent some sort of psychic transference. If you feel I get too close or what have you in future, you should feel free to correct me.'

"Your concern is acknowledged. Many Vulcans would find tactile contact with a human to be quite...disconcerting. However, I have had considerable training to control such unintentional exchanges given my profession. Please do not concern yourself."

'If you say so, Major,' Plaatjes said with a smile as he began applying heat to the plastic covering, clicking his tongue in satisfaction as the heat caused it to contract around the wiring, sealing it in and ensuring it was safe for T'Ria to work the light controls manually should she need to. 'That's about it for the repair,' he said with satisfaction after inspecting it for a moment. 'I'll just reattach the panel for you.'

"Your effort has been noted, commander." T'Ria responded dryly, acknowledging his work by slowly turning in a circle to inspect what was going to be her 'home' for the foreseeable future. It was...different. Of course it was. A human ship built for human comforts. "Can the 'environmentals' be further customized? Perhaps slightly...warmer?"

Reattaching the panel, he nodded and pointed to a second panel at her quarters' workstation. 'There's some limited environmental controls here. They'll raise and lower the temperature, and allow you to set the humidity - but the second of those is only within certain parameters.' Plaatjes shrugged, 'it's all fairly new to Starfleet vessels. So far it's not taken too much computing power, but with more of our peoples serving together, it's going to increase the bandwidth needed.'

"That is reasonable conjecture given the trend towards further...blending?" She hoped that accurately conveyed her sentiments as sometimes speaking in Earth Standard was imprecise given her limitations with the language. "It would be...preferable to have my quarters set at a slightly warmer standard. If that is not feasible, I will acclimate."

'Try the environmental controls,' Plaatjes suggested. 'If it's not quite warm enough, then we can see what we can do,' he said thoughtfully. 'I'd wager even a Vulcan would get worn down with the prospect of constant discomfort for long periods of time.'

T'Ria dipped her head, not seeing any benefit in saying anything else, and 'tried' the environmental controls, just as Plaatjes directed. A soft whir emanated from the grating that housed the air circulation system and the air began to warm perceptibly. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "It has been...less than ideal, at times." Turning, T'Ria looked Plaatjes in the eyes. "Please inform me immediately if my increased thermal requirements put any undo stress on any ships' systems. I will subsume personal preference for the safety and security of the ship and crew."

He met the unwavering stare for a bit, before it became too intense for him, and he looked away for a second. 'I'm sure it won't come to that, eh. We're pretty low on non-humans aboard, so not many people should need to change their environmental parameters. I just hope you get to settle in and make yourself a bit more at home now.'

T'Ria saw the human male's posture shift subtly and he averted his eyes. Ah. She was 'staring,' again. To another Vulcan it would simply indicate that she was focused solely on him and the exchange; it was...polite? Another misstep; she would have to remember. "Your...well wishes are acknowledged, Commander." She broke her gaze as well. "You have my gratitude for the assistance, both with the power and the environmentals."

Smiling, Plaatjes collected his things, and waved a hand dismissively, 'it's a pleasure, honestly. We don't often get to meet new people on the job - that's usually reserved for briefings. Please let me know if there are any further issues, either with your quarters, or your duty stations.'

The Vulcan woman dipped her head in a non-verbal gesture of agreement. "I come to serve, commander." T'Ria again looked around the space that would serve as her new home, and was now satisfied. There with warmth and light. Acceptable.

======

A Post By:

Major T'Ria
Chief Medical Officer
USS Meridian

&

Lieutenant Commander Mattys Plaatjes
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Meridian

 

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