The Three Projects

Posted on Sat Mar 15th, 2025 by Lieutenant Rhys Bennett & Lieutenant Amelia Baird

1,064 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: M01 - The Hooke
Location: Crew Mess, USS Hooke
Timeline: Present

Amelia had found it somewhat interesting when the Captain had decided it was for the best to send a junior engineer rather than the chief engineering officer for an away mission. Though, she wasn't about to complain about it, clearly there had been a reason for this decision. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, however, and decided it was just for the best if she got something to eat. She went through the line and grabbed something from the salad bar before seeing Lieutenant Bennett sitting alone.

"Mind if I join you Lieutenant Bennett?"

Rhys had barely begun eating what was in front of him, "You most certainly may join me." He said happily before gently pushing the chair across from him out slightly with his foot. "How are things down in engineering?"

Amelia shrugged, "It's a new ship with a few strange glitches, but nothing my engineering team can't figure out and fix. How's the science labs?" She asked. Amelia really didn't want to discuss work all that much, though she didn't mind for the moment because it at least took her mind off the away mission.

Rhys shrugged, "Pretty well. Kind of boring without a whole lot of things for my people to do if I'm being rather honest." He took a few bites from his plate filled with fish and chips. "I kind of figured I would be down on the planet instead of up here, but the Captain had his reasons I'm sure."

And, now they had gotten to it. Amelia simply shrugged, "I did find that rather unusual. Maybe the Captain is simply testing the junior personnel? Or, he's anticipating something and we'll be needed up here." She replied, however, she had considered a number of explanations for why they had been left on the ship. "There's a dozen different possible reasons for this I suppose."

Rhys took another bite as he listened to the engineering chief talk. "Or, he doesn't like having his senior officers on the planet?" The question seemed sort of odd in his mouth, even getting stuck there as he spoke the words. He found himself shrugging yet again, "Only way to know is if the Captain tells us I suppose."

"Yeah." Amelia said between bites. "It's not like I have a bunch of work to catch up on up here anyway. I'm not implying that engineering is entirely boring, but..." Her voice seemed to trail away as she hesitated. If Amelia was being completely honest, it was rather boring up on the ship right now. Engineering was a finely tuned instrument that seemed to be humming along just fine without her.

There wasn't any danger to the ship, nor to the crew. This was turning out to be a pretty standard mission set for them, which she assumed gave the crew time to get used to each other. Amelia wasn't afforded the luxury of making such assumptions. Rather, she spent her time making sure the engineers were ready for anything. "Are you working on anything interesting?"

Rhys shook his head, "Not at the moment. I'm just waiting for Ensign Roma to get back to the ship with whatever artifact they found down there. So far we've not heard anything from the away team, which has me somewhat nervous truth be told." He knew there were a dozen different possibilities for science experiments he could be doing. There was also his review of the science fair projects that had been submitted.

"Unless you count reviewing the science fair projects the three kids on board submitted forward for approval," Rhys added.

"Oh?" Amelia asked.

Rhys nodded, "Katelynn is doing a her project on old Earth combustion engines." He pointed out and grinned, "I don't know if the ship archives have the necessary components for her to do it, but we'll see. The other two projects are somewhat standard, Paige is doing a hoverboard project and Charlotte has more of a medical science component to it, she's going to try and infect nanites with a virus."

Amelia raised a brow, "That last one sounds kind of dangerous. I hope it's a dormant virus and these nanites aren't Borg."

Rhys laughed, "No, it's nothing like that. The virus is the common cold and the nanites are the same variety as students have made in years past. I've asked that all the students conduct their work in the secure science lab just in case though. Don't worry, if we get some nanites in the systems with the common cold I'm sure we'll be fine."

Amelia shook her head, "You say that now," She told him. Amelia shook her head, "Well I'm sure all the projects will turn out just fine. It sounds like there's quite a mixture of things the three of them are going to be doing, their parents will certainly have their hands full."

"Oh yes," Rhys told her. "I think my hands are going to be quite full as I help Ensign Roma guide the students toward their ultimate goal. It's not a competition after all, this is supposed to be a learning experience for each of them. I'm sure they'll do quite well anyway." He told Amelia with a great deal of confidence. He had nearly finished his plate of food as he sat there talking idly.

Amelia had a smile on her face as she thought about the projects these three were going to complete, "What does Commander Preston, Captain Cohen, and Lieutenant Bancroft think of these projects?"

Rhys shrugged, "I haven't asked any of them. I would assume the three girls probably spoke to their parents at length before they'd settled on what they wanted to do. Hopefully without providing too much insight on what the ideal science fair project would be, or what one looked like mind you." He finished the last few bites from his plate and rested his chin on his fists.

Amelia finished her meal, "It was nice chatting with you." She told him with a grin. Amelia proceeded to stand up, "I best get back to engineering."

Rhys watched her stand up, "I probably need to head back to the lab at some point." He also proceeded to stand up and followed her toward the exit from the crew mess. His thoughts were squarely on the science fair projects, having temporarily forgotten about the away mission.

 

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