Random Thoughts in a Jefferies Tube

[Shane 0]

Random Thoughts in a Jefferies Tube

By Ens. Shane Tayjer

Stardate: 0807.24

 

 

Shane was inside a Jefferies tube on deck 21, replacing some burnt-out isoliner chips. He systematically pulled out a broken one, tossed it into to a bag and slid the new chip into its appropriate slot. Nothing really challenging, just a simple task that need to be done. So he, being the new ensign, got assigned to it. He didn't mind jobs like this, it gave him time to think.

 

This was only his second shift and it had been just about as uneventful as the first.He had checked in at Main Engineering and Lt.Hardy had told him to finish the job he had started yesterday. So here he was.

 

Shane hadn’t really got to know anyone yet, he had spent most of his free time either unpacking or sleeping.He hadn’t even met the Chief Engineer. The Chief had been gone at some meeting when he had arrived for his first shift, so Lt. Hardy had started him on this job. He had spent the rest of the day in the Jeffries tubes. At the beginning of this, his second, the chief was somewhere else at the time so Lt. Hardy had told him to finish up in here. Maybe he would meet his boss when he finished here.

 

Well, Shane thought, I’m glad to finally be on a starship and have the chance to explore the unknown. This is why he had joined Starfleet. It may not be in the position he had wanted, he would have rather been in security. But God obviously wanted him in Engineering. Sure was a strange way to get me in this position, though ,he thought, glancing down at his robotic right arm. A week after his injury he would have thought it kind of embarrassing to go back to his old security department. His first real fight and he loses his arm. How’s that for combat skills?

 

Shane had tried to make the best of his injury. The challenge of designing and building his replacement arm had been entertaining. The design had come from an ancient 2D movie he had seen once. Some people had asked him why he didn't just get a more realistic looking bionic arm instead. But where was the fun in trying to hide the fact that he had lost a limb? After he started getting used to it he began to consider it an honor to show that he had lost it fighting to protect someone. Shane shook his head, Now I’m starting to sound like a Klingon.

 

Shane replaced the last chip, put the tube panel back in place, gathered up his tools and began to head back to Main Engineering.

Edited July 25, 2008 by Shane