By Design

Posted on Mon Sep 28th, 2020 @ 4:09am by Lieutenant Commander Mara Ricci & Lieutenant Commander Meilin Jiang
Edited on on Wed Sep 30th, 2020 @ 4:39pm

Mission: S0E0: What Came Before
Location: Sick Bay

Having to stay in Sick Bay for at least 24 hours was going to be boring. Luckily, Mara had bullied the doctor into letting her contact Meilin to come down with a PADD so they could get started on designing the silver circuit. If they could at least get the specs down, she could send them down to her engineers to build and test. And maybe she'd be out of here by then.

So now, she waited a bit impatiently for the arrival of her friend, checking the nearby chronometer every few seconds.

It was a unique situation, which piqued Meilin's curiosity. But it was also a dangerous one that called on her compassion. The demands of duty required her very best performance. It also meant her best friend was working from Sickbay.

"Hello, Mara," she said meekly once she'd arrived at Mara's bedside. "Are you ready to begin?"

Mara gave her friend a gentle smile. "I'm all right, Meilin," she assured her. "They just have to monitor me. And yes, I'm ready."

What may have been a soft rebuke for not inquiring on her condition was like water on a duck's back. Meilin had seen her friend undergo conscious amputation of her limb to stop an aggressive parasitic organism from spreading. This was nothing compared to that. Meilin merely gave a terse but warm smile.

"Excellent," she said, providing a PADD for Mara. "I have taken the liberty of drawing up preliminary diagrams, but they could use an engineer's touch."

Mara took a look at the diagrams and her eyes shot up, impressed. "Are you sure you're not an engineer?" she joked. "These are very good."

"I have been many things in this life," Meilin said with a smile as cryptic as her tone. "Now I am grateful that I have not unduly burdened you with strenuous work."

"Designing isn't strenuous," Mara replied, waving the idea off. "Building is, but designing? Nah. Even so, a bit of tweaking and this will be perfect. For instance, this node should be a bit farther to the left."

"As you say," Meilin said with a faith smile. "Do you feel up to helping fabricate it or will you need to rest?"

"I'm all right so far," replied Mara. "But, I'm not allowed to leave Sick Bay. I suppose if we can get the materials here, I could at least start on it."

Meilin's brow quivered in confused interest. "Manufacturing here in Sickbay? Will the doctor allow it?"

“I doubt it,” sighed Mara. “It would probably be too big anyway. But we could run simulations via the PADD. Fine tune the design a bit. You know.”

"By all means, then." Meilin nodded at the PADD in her hand. "It's already tethered to the industrial replicator's CAD program."

Mara gave her friend a grin. "You are brilliant," she said, tapping a few buttons on the PADD. "Have I ever told you that? Okay, first test. Ready?"

At a nod and a smile, Meilin indicated she was ready.

With a final tap, the initial test began. It started out fine, but after only a few minutes, a fire sparked from somewhere. Mara winced, but allowed the test to complete. "Well, we've got a loose wire or an open circuit somewhere," she said, checking the report. She was confident they would have seen that while building it, but it was important to repair the design so they could get a good test in.

Meilin frowned. "That seems a little obvious..." She pursed her lips. "More like a failed relay. What if we upped the power rating here, there, and there?" She indicated various points in the diagram.

"It seems obvious in reality, but on a PADD, not so much," replied Mara. "But, you might be right about upping the power rating." She grinned. "You know engineers; more power is always better. What do you think?" she asked, showing Meilin the upgraded power ratings.

"I think that since we're dealing with an unknown quantity, then it would behoove us not to cap the power rating," Meilin said. "If these Wire Wolves overload the system then our plan will fail, and containment along with it."

"Touche," agreed Mara. "But, I don't want to make it so powerful it overloads the system. We're on a starbase," she reminded herself. "I'm still thinking in terms of a ship. We have a lot more power up for grabs here. Do we have the readings from the wirewolves handy? We can make sure we can overwhelm it."

"Of course," Meilin said. "Path of least resistance, right?" She finalized the plans and said, "I'll take these to Captain Ingram. Do join us just as soon as they clear you for duty."

"Wish I could join you now," she admited. "I hate being cooped up in Sick Bay."

Meilin looked around to see if anyone was watching. Not a soul. Deftly she approached Mara's biobed and ran her fingers over its interface. "When we served aboard the Palatine, we had the most cutting edge equipment for which I was given override codes. I'm willing to wager that the station infirmary..." She cut herself off. "Indeed," she said with a modest grin. "I'm setting back your admission time by several hours. Not so much as to be noticed, but enough to get you out of that bed sooner."

In a moment's time, Meilin closed out the interface and returned it to the login screen. She spared another smile for her friend. "Be well, Mara."

With a blink of surprise, Mara gazed at the readout on the biobed monitor. It wasn’t much, and she would still have to wear the blasted portable bio monitor for a week, but at least she could be in her own quarters. “Th- thank you,” she said, and then grinned. “I’d say Spires is rubbing off on you, but that’s not right. Maybe he’s rubbing off on me and I’m rubbing off on you. Or do you just hate Sick Bay that much?”

"I do not rub off on anyone," Meilin said. "I will leave that to you and your paramour." A smirk teased at her mouth. "We need you up and around. If I thought you were in danger, things would be different, but I know you to be an unstoppable force. Just try not to be obvious about our little shortcut."

“My lips are sealed,” Mara promised, miming buttoning them closed.

"An Dao," Meilin said as she left.

Almost as soon as the door swished closed behind her friend, Mara's brow wrinkled. Rubbed off? Leave that to you and your paramour? Had Meilin just made a sex joke and Mara missed it?

She let out a sudden bark of laughter that startled a nearby nurse. Mara had to wave by way of an apology as she couldn't stop laughing long enough to get the words out. That had certainly been unexpected and it cheered Mara up more than anything else could have.