Head First

There were a few other minor matters to discuss, but half an hour later, the Captain was heading for the shuttle bay and Steven Hartmann was sat in the Captain's chair on the Bridge in Command of the Leviathan.

After an hour of approving repair orders and inquiring on repair times, things were slowing down. The dock crew was doing their job and the Leviathan crew was equally busy, all except Steve. Signing paperwork and approving work orders was something that could be done on the fly. Right now, sitting in that big comfortable chair was getting sleepy. Falling asleep on the bridge would be a bad thing to say the least.......

Standing up on the somewhat empty and quiet Bridge, Steve cracked his back and looked around. No first officer and no second officer.

"Hey, anyone here a Lieutenant ?" He asked openly to everyone on the Bridge. Lieutenant Damson Rhee and Lieutenant Marco Borealiou both raised their hands.

Steve replied. "Beautiful. Mr..... Borealiou, right ? Take the Bridge, I'll be down with the repair teams.... Lieutenant Rhee, back him up."

Marco replied with a surprised "Yes, sir" and started to move towards the chair.

"Lieutenant, I'm going to need you to finish your work at your station... Just run things on this end while I'm out. Call me if there's any problems." he finished as he stepped into the turbolift.

After taking the three minute ride to Engineering, he strode in to find a group of dock workers. Apparently they had been repairing a few things, but right now were standing in a group conversing and wasting space.

Looking around, there were tools, paper cups and general junk everywhere. The place looked like a bomb had gone off even though everything was repaired and ready to go. Steve was starting to get aggravated.

"Hey. This place was supposed to be done a half hour ago. What's with all the junk laying around ?" He called out to the group.

They all turned and looked over at him as he kept going.

"There's cups over there, over here...tools on the floor not put away...and crap everywhere. This is an Engineering bay, not a junkyard. Get over there, clean it up, and move out."

One of the workers started to say something, but was cut off by Steve.

"No, no discussion here. This is not debatable Clean this stuff up, and get out of this bay. Plain as can be. If you don't like it, then get outta here, and get a reprimand on your file. Cause I don't need this on my ship. Now move."

The group sauntered over to their work areas and began cleaning up as ordered. Steve walked out and headed out to the next area. It's not that he liked to get mad at them, but they were on a time budget. This ship needed to get done, and move out. And if that's the way it would have to be to get it done, then that's it. Until Captain Taybar got back, Steve was in charge, and if he could help it, no one was going to be wasting time. There was no doubt in his mind that the Leviathan crew would be on task, but the dockworkers seemed they would take a little longer. They needed a kick in the butt.

He walked into the shuttlebay about five minutes later to find a group of Leviathan crewmembers working like there was no tomorrow. Four of them were welding new panels in place on the walls, and the rest were either running new electrical work or dealing with the computer.

Making his way over to the computer workers, he joined in briefly to see what the problem was.

"That's some nice work, guys. Bounds better then the dockworkers. Those guys have no regard for a clean work environment. Or wasting our time." He said as he watched them. After getting a few thanks, he worked with the welders and electricians for a little bit. Holding panels, holding wire, helping them run the longer, thicker strands, basically anything to assist them. Spending about an hour down there, he headed over to some of the outer corridors in the lower hull. The breached bulkheads had been repaired and sealed, but there were a mix of dockworkers and Leviathan personnel there running new piping, conduits and wire through. Luckily for the new XO, the dockworkers had a pin on their right collar identifying them as such.

Walking up on a group of Leviathan workers, he stopped to look.

"Nice job guys, fitting straight and true. Need a hand" He inquired.

"We're good sir, thanks for asking" One of them said with both his arms behind a bulkhead fishing for wire.

Down the line were the dockworkers repairing the hull bracing struts that were now exposed with the outer skin of the ship as a background. After they covered it with bulkhead panels, they would inject a polymer that would fill the void and be as hard as titanium, but about 100 times more heat resistant. Their work area was littered. with junk. Always the neat freak, Steve glanced down at the spotless work area of the Leviathan crewmembers, and looked down at the dockworkers area.

"When you get that thing welded, clean this area up before you do anymore work. We don't need it tracked all down this corridor. The Engineering group had no regard for the cleanliness of this ship. Or time for that matter…….” He let his words hang for about 30 seconds. “…..Nice weld guys, clean this up before you finish."

*This is going well.” He thought to himself as he headed off to find someone else to order about. *At this rate, we'll be ready to leave dock ahead of schedule, heck we may even be able to pick the Captain up from Jupiter Station.*