Fresh Opportunities

Posted on Saturday June 20th, 2020 @ 11:05 hours by Mayterial Droz & Kari Pahlmihr & Kala Marika

Mission: Safe Passage
Location: Cargo Bay 12, Deck 5, S.S. Fawkes
Timeline: MD03 - Somewhere before launch
1715 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

(OOC: Heya, I thought it would be a nice idea to have Kala meet one of the cargo crew)

Kari had been slowly working through the tasks on her list. She wasn't really in a hurry, the people around her on the Fawkes had been giving her quite a bit of leeway after her run in with the Orion syndicate. Her leg still didn't feel quite right and she didn't have the additional latinum to spare to get Lorpax to give a second opinion on it. She didn't know whose bright idea it had been to get a Ferengi doctor, but she hoped that person needed a recurring prescription or something. She sighed a bit as she looked at another container of root beets. Securing the cargo before departure was tedious work at the best of time. Right now it seemed like time didn't go by at all.

As part of her first day after she'd joined the crew, Kala had been assigned to get acquainted with the boat and her crew, help out where she could, and just make herself useful as they prepared to undock. Cargo was the lifeblood of a freighter so she decided to start there. She'd been making her way along the bay, checking lashings and manifests against the official record stored on a small padd she'd been given. Everything seemed to be in order so far, what she expected tho knew sometimes the ship's manifest was intentionally wrong. That was not her concern at the moment, and as she made her way along, she saw a deckhand working on securing a container. "Need a hand?" she asked the equally petite women as she came up, noticing the women's hands were busy securing the lashings.

"If you can hold this," Kari barely looked to see who it was that offered their help. If someone came to help out securing the cargo, she'd be happy to jump on that offered help, regardless of who it was. With the help of the mystery deck hand she was able to fasten it almost twice as fast, once done she turned to Kala, "Thanks," offering a hand to shake, "Kari Pahlmihr"

Kala took the strap given her to hold, letting the deckhand finish lashing down the cargo, before handing the remaining length back to by tied down as well. Kala watched patiently as the women finished, before standing. It was only once the women stood that Kala realized she was Trill, not human as she'd presupposed, but also noticed the piercing blue eyes. "Kala Marika." She said offering hand back, "Able Deck Hand. We'll be working together."

"I guess so," Kari shook the hand and gave a smile before letting out a sigh, "I hate doing rounds these rounds of the cargo bays, such a drag." She leaned against the cargo crate and eyes Kala up and down trying to determine if she was a good addition to the crew, "This just a one time trip? Getting to the other side without having to pay for the fare? Or you aboard for a longer haul?"

"Maybe so, but necessary. Beats doing it on old Terran ocean going vessels though, pitching deck, ocean spray, large waves, shifting loads. Just checking the lashings could kill you." She smiled as they shook hands, "Longer haul hopefully. I signed for a two run contract, hoping to sign for a longer one once I've proven myself to the Captain."

Kari twitched a bit at the mention of lashings. The scars from her encounter with the Orion Syndicate still fresh under her shirt and overalls. The new deck hand couldn't know of course, and it would probably be a topic that would trigger bad memories for some time still, maybe it would never fully go away. She was just glad that the Captain had chosen to head for calmer waters, "Hopefully. She might seem like a bit of a hard-ass, but she's really nice once you get to know her."

"To be honest I haven't met her yet. Came aboard yesterday, familiarizing myself with the vessel, met the Bo'sun this morning. Some point I suppose I will meet her, but senior staff tend to have a lot on their plate."

"I guess," Kari didn't really mingle with the people on the upper decks much, the only moments she had interacted with Mayterial was when she was hallucinating on what the crew had come to call Pixie dust, the second time she was beaten senseless by the Orion syndicate thugs, "How's the new Boats? The previous one got arrested for having sex." She finished checking another container before turning back to Kala, "she was Deltan."

"The new Bosun T'maekh? Romulan, strikes me as a competent no-nonsense sort." She paused, moving to another container beside Kari's next, checking the lashings as they moved down the bay. "I doubt he'll be arrested for that particular charge. Then again, a single meeting in the morning isn't enough to make an informed assessment." She paused, "How many contracts have you had with the ship?"

"I've been here since the Captain got the vessel back. Contracts are automatically renewed unless you or one of the command crew explicitly stops them." Kari shrugged a bit, "I think this is the third or fourth leg in my stint here."

"Got the ship back? How'd she lose it in the first place?" Kala was a little confused but tried not to show it. Captains didn't just lose a ship, there was always something bigger then that at play, and that concerned her a bit.

Kari stopped working and looked around, as if ready to divulge some super-secret information. Of course if you took a cursery search to a local news source you would come up with all sorts of juicy details surrounding the Fawkes, its Captain and its former crew, "Her then first mate, and rumour has it her former lover," She took a moment to allow for that to sink in, "ran a smuggling operation behind her back. They got busted in a sting operation. The entire crew got arrested, the ship turned inside out," she shook her head with a slight smirk, "you should've seen the place when we first got in here," she turned back to what she was doing, "Fawkes got locked down in dock, all the evidence was considered and a judicator found that the Captain was innocent in all of this. That she simply had trusted the wrong people."

Kala knelt to check the deck mounts for the next cargo pallet. "Nothing like a sordid tale." she chuckled. "Respect to the Captain for getting out of it with her ship and career. I didn't fare so well back in the day, why I resigned from Starfleet."

"Oh?" Kari paused a moment to look over at Kala, "please, do share." She smiled at the bit of juicy gossip on offer.

Their banter was suddenly interrupted as Mayterial entered the cargo bay, "Miss Malika, may I have a word with you please?" She gave a modest smile in the direction of Kari before returning her focus on the new Able Deck Hand.

Kala was a bit surprised when the captain entered the cargo bay, and it took some force of will not to stand to attention, the Starfleet training drilled in over so many years. "Marika Ma'am. Sure. What about if I may ask?"

"My apologies," Mayterial gave a slight bow in offering her apology, "I have some questions about your resume," she stepped aside to allow for Kala to pass her by into the corridor before she stepped outside herself and the doors closed behind them, "How much do you know about outdated Warp 5 engines and Groumal class freighter's tech infrastructure?"

Kala followed the captain out of the cargo bay, pausing in the hallway. The question about her technical skills was a bit unexpected, but perhaps shouldn't have been. "We studied them at the academy, well, warp five engines in general. I'm hoping to earn my engineers rating, so been studying engine's like the Groumal's, and her systems, yes."

"Well, you can study them a lot more closely now, if you want," Mayterial was able to suppress a sigh, "I've unfortunately had to let go of our Engineer, but I don't have time to waste on trying to find a new one. So if you can get us to the next port, there's a significant raise in it for your services." She didn't need Kala to commit to an extended contract, all she needed was to get to Betazed without delays. Every day she delayed she was hemorrhaging GPL.

Kala was a bit surprised to hear that Mercy had been let go, the Sirran had seemed a nice enough woman, if somewhat intimidating. "I can get us to Betazed Captain. You have my word." Even as she said that, she really hoped Mercy had left the engines, her engines now, in good shape, no nasty surprises for them once they got underway.

"Good, that's good." Mayterial nodded, "you can actually also take the Engineer's quarters, but you'd have to talk to the Quartermaster, Miss Nachtnebel, she'll be more than happy to accommodate you." She put her hands behind her back and smiled at the woman, "is there anything else you'd need for me to get off to a good start?"

"I may have a request or two once I see the state of the engine room. I trust that regardless of whatever the reason for her departure, Mercy ran a tidy efficient engine bay." Kala paused, fingers clasped behind her, "And thank you Captain, it's been a while since I've set foot in an engine room, I missed that aspect of my previous career."

"We're leaving in about an hour, so you better get to it," Mayterial gave a slight nod at the woman, hoping it would be enough to dismiss her. She wanted to have a talk with Kari. It had been some time since she had been in the hands of the Orions and May hadn't really had time to talk to her properly since.

"Understood Ma'am." She glanced over at Kari, "After shift Kari, mess hall. I'll finish the story. Promise"

[OFF]

Mayterial Droz
Captain

&

Kala Marika
Engineer

S.S. Fawkes