Pleasant Company

Posted on Sat Nov 8th, 2025 @ 5:09pm by Doctor Kim Standish & Lieutenant Commander Jethro "Jet" Romanowski

1,685 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Prelude: The Gathering
Location: Officer's Mess
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 0000

Jet took a sip from his coffee mug before returning it to it's saucer before rubbing his eyes. Splayed out in front of him were numerous schematics and PADDs as he poured through each one. One of the many duties of a newly commissioned starship's chief engineer was to verify that the ship's construction drawings matched with what the yard worker's actually installed. While Proxima wasn't the first in her class, she was the most modern. There had been several systems that had been upgraded, but mating them with an older ship design always presented some challenges. One of the issues they had found during the shakedown was the updated ODN conduits lacked sufficient shielding in certain areas, and there were sporadic power drains. From what he could work out, this wasn't due to an engineering design flaw, or a yard installation issue. Rather, from what his analysis showed it had been a procurement issue. Whomever had supplied the materials to fabricate the insulation had supplied an inferior quality. The schematics he had in front of him were marked up with the affected areas, an he had a requisition order ready to submit to the Starfleet Corps of Engineers for their next supply run. In the meantime, Lambda-2 had enough material on hand that his engineer's had been able to fabricate a temporary fix.

He sighed again before he closed his eyes and rolled his neck trying to relieve some of the tension that had built up. Jet was not made for sitting down and pouring over paperwork. He was a doer, he needed to be active.

The door of the officer's mess opened with the telltale quite whoosh of pneumatic movement, but instead of closing a moment later remained open--clearly sensing someone in the door who was not yet entering the space. Kim scanned the room, eyes ticking over everyone present until they landed on a red uniform that she felt somewhat confident meant its wearer was an engineer. Her eyes narrowed slightly, watching the man unhunch his shoulders and roll his neck. "Posture," she murmured to herself. "Gets 'em every time."

And then she made a beeline for his table, leaving the doorway to finally whisper shut behind her.

Not bothering to ask if she was welcome the CMO swung around the edge of the table, pulling the opposite seat out with one hand and dropping into it before leaning forward to settle her elbows on the table in front of her. This maneuver worked for all of a moment before she seemed to recognize the various elements scattered about the table. She glanced down at the space, sized it up, and finally settled her elbows, hands clasped in front of her as she took a long hard look at the man across the table.

"You wouldn't have to do that if you sat up straight," she commented, eyebrows rising as she looked pointedly at his shoulders then back to his face. "You're an engineer right?"

Jet sensed that someone had sat down at the seat opposite him before he heard the slight rustling of his papers being slightly askew. The voice that chided him didn't sound familiar, but then again everyone was still relatively new on board. Rather than his usual snarky comeback, he sighed slightly before speaking, "I promise you that whatever maintenance request you have it's on my list and will be taken care of as soon as i can get to it. That's why it's called a shakedown," he said before he opened his eyes and looked across the table at the woman with bright red hair that blended almost seamlessly with her uniform. He then noticed the mint green color of her rank strap with the white stripe indicating she was a department head, one of his peers. "Oh," he said before blushing slightly, "I'm sorry...iI thought you were Ensign Packer again. He's been hounding me about the dim light in the astrophysics lab."

An entirely unladylike snort escaped the CMO as she eyed the engineer, noting his own rank straps. Her eyes flashed recognition and the tiniest smile pulled at her lips giving the impression of a cat having gotten into the cream. "Ah ha," she said dryly. "So you're the big boss down in the engine room. You could just send Packer to one of your lackeys, you know?"

He cursed himself internally for being so rude when she first approached him. Jet was usually pretty open and friendly, but he could be cantankerous sometimes. He reached out and straightened up the papers around him. "You'll have to forgive me, I don't think we've been properly introduced yet. Lieutenant Commander Romanowski, Chief Engineer," he said as he offered his hand to her from across the table.

Kim shook her head, but shifted her clasped hands so that she could accept the offered handshake. Unlike what one might expect her grip was firm, almost businesslike. The kind of grip that suggested strength in those hands even if their femininity made them small in Romanowski's bigger mits. "Dr. Kim Standish," she responded. "Lieutenant Commander as well should you prefer the rank. But Doctor or Standish or just Kim are fine." Keen eyes traced over the engineers shoulders again. "Do you use a pillow when you sleep or do you sleep flat on the bed?"

"Uhh...pillow normally," he said as he returned his hand back in front of him and giving her a quizzical look. Any other person, he would've thought the question odd, but the fact she was a doctor made it not so far fetched. He'd met his fair share of odd sawbones, each one was unique. He stared at her as she eyed him like a steer, watching as her eyes traced around his shoulders. "Is my posture that bad," he asked becoming slightly self conscious. His mind went back to all those memories of his mother chastising him to sit up straight when he was a boy. It would be a shame to know all her hard work had been for naught.

At the admission of a pillow Kim's eyebrows rose ever so slightly, but the expression--rather than being helpful--merely added more uncertainty for anyone who might have been listening to her evaluation. "Your posture isn't that bad," she finally pronounced, clasping her hands in front of her. "But you probably could use a different pillow. The way you're rubbing your neck you've definitely been sleeping at an awkward angle, let alone sitting hunched over..." she gestured with one hand, releasing it from the clasp of the other as she did so.

"Or you could just pop by Sickbay and I could give you an analgesic. If you think that," here she gestured again but this time in the direction of his neck and shoulders, "is a temporary problem."

She shrugged then as if her commentary was not only a normal sort of conversation piece, but something that she'd completed and checked off a list. "So," she continued, mid-shrug, before Jet could respond. "How do I get my medical storage lockers bumped up your list? Locker 1 can't seem to hold a standard temperature and locker 2 won't seal. I've got half of our compliment of medications shoved into a temporary spot with timers and thermometers in place, but I'd prefer not to lose what we've got and need to restock before we even get our feet wet. One of your..." here she paused, clearly reconsidering a word choice that she had been about to make, "... people... keeps telling me it's not high enough priority."

Jet subconsciously rubbed his neck again as he mulled over her comment. He'd never thought that his neck pain was that bad of a problem, rather he always assumed it was due to working in confined spaces like he normally did. He would consider he offer though, at the very least it would give him a reason to see her again. At her mention of her problem he frowned slightly before pulled over his PADD and brought up the appropriate list. "I do apologize for that. We are still trying to piece together what is actually priority and what isn't," he said before he brought up the complaint report and read it quickly, "Looks like he logged it for the science lab instead of sickbay." He then looked up at her apologetically, "I'll be sure to have a word with Chief Perkins after this meeting. But Medical is a high enough priority to get you pushed up the que. I'll have my guys take care of it next duty shift."

"Excellent. Thank you," the doctor replied, standing as she did and dusting her hands together as punctuation to a completed task. "I'll let my team know to expect someone next shift so that they can get everything back where it belongs right after." Lacing her fingers in front of her, Kim extended her arms out and then up, stretching. She was halfway through the stretch before she tilted her head and eyed Jet's shoulder's once again.

"A good stretching routine would help too," she said almost absently and then, offering the man a smile, she stepped around the table, patted one of the shoulders in question affectionately, and left the mess without looking back.

Jet watched her go before he returned to the PADD in front of him. He quickly typed out a text message and sent it before he thought back to his encounter with the Doctor. He smiled to himself as he thought about the randomness of the encounter, but he found it quite charming. He stole a glance around the mess before he stood and immitated the stretching move that Standish had made before she left. He felt his shoulders popping as he did so and there was a sudden rush of relief.

"Huh...imagine that," he said to himself before he checked the chronometer on the bulkhead, then gathered up his items and headed towards the exit. Perhaps he should find a reason to ask the good doctor if she had any other advice.

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