All Systems Green

Posted on Mon Sep 21st, 2026 @ 8:07pm by Lieutenant Tyler Hunt

1,145 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Outward Trajectory
Location: Main Engineer
Timeline: MD01

The door to engineering opened as Lieutenant Hunt entered the busy room. Enlisted personnel and a few officers moved around the room, preparing the Eventide for the eventual launch. Little did they know that launch date was happening much sooner than expected. "Everyone gather around," he shouted.

A couple of the personnel turned their attention to the shouting officer, then quickly got the attention of the others who missed him shout. Moving in closer, the enlisted staff surrounded him along with three Ensigns. The officers moved up to the front of the crowd.

Now that everyone was within earshot, Tyler put his hands together in front of him. "Not sure if you have heard yet, but the Eventide will be departing much sooner than expected."

"How much sooner?" one of the Ensigns questioned.

"Within the next hour kind of sooner," Hunt answered.

The crowd started speaking among themselves, which came with several concerns. A few of the concerns seemed warranted. And one of those concerns regarded the lack of a Chief Engineer. The Lieutenant was all about addressing those concerns. But now, just wasn't the time for that. This ship had to be launched ASAP.

"Focus everyone," he called out. The engineer staff once again went completely silent. "The Eventide will be shipping out without a Chief Engineer, but in the meantime I will be doing double duty being over Operations and Engineering. All your other concerns will be addressed after we get this ship underway. Get to your stations everyone."

The staff turned and moved back to their assigned duties, awaiting for further instructions. Turning his attention solely to the Ensigns, Hunt smiled. Two of the Ensigns were fresh out of the Academy, and it showed in the look of slight terror on their faces. The Ensign who had to be about two years older than the others, was a bit calmer. But clearly was concerned. "Ensigns Chinua Oni and Lisa White. I get that this is your first assignment and you two are still learning the ropes per se. But trust, you two will be just fine."

Both Ensigns smiled and nodded. They gave a slight look to the other Ensign, who they clearly had been leaning on since arriving. Living together in the lower decks over the last couple of weeks, had a way of bringing people together or wanting to beat each other. From the looks of things, these three were more along the former. "Joshua Deer this would be your second assignment in two and a half years, if I am correct?"

"Yes sir," Deer said confidently.

Tyler couldn't help but notice the sense of pride in the young man who suddenly stood a little taller and his chest puffed out quite a bit. The Lieutenant almost chuckled, but recalled that the young was just trying to make a good impression in front a senior officer. They all had been there, and in some cases, the goal to make that first impression never went away. "You're going to be my Head of Engineering. I'm leaning on you to keep these two together and monitor this place in my absence. Understood?"

Joshua was silent for a moment before nodding. "I understand completely, Lieutenant Hunt."

"Everyone, get to your post."

The hum of ships power systems came to life as the Ensigns returned to the awaiting staff. Around the warp core, the department came to life. Interesting enough there was a time briefly in the Academy where Tyler had concerned being an engineering during his sophomore year. But overall, operations definitely caught his interest. Operations gave him the chance to somehow be involved in every department's business.

"Ensign Deer bring the impulse reactor up for departure readiness," the Chief Operations Officer called out. "And somone give me a diagnostic of the EPS grid. I don't want I don't want to discover that something decided to shake loose after we leave spacedock."

"Yes sir," Deer and White both called out.

Climbing the ladder to the station in front of the warp core, he watched the Ensign Deer work the controls. The man was good and clearly knew his way around the warp core. In all honesty, Tyler wouldn't be too surprised if the man wasn't up for Lieutenant Junior Grade. If things went well with him running the place, Hunt considered possibly putting in the recommendation himself.

Around engineering the enlisted personnel moved between their stations. Displays on panels went from maintenance mode to active mode, one system after another was brought online. The enlisted personnel here, for the most part,had a lot of years of experience doing their jobs, as in most departments in Starfleet. With the exception of those who were fresh out of training. Hunt found them to always be dependable. You tell them what needs to be done and they got it done.

"Lieutenant Hunt impulse power on standby," came a report from across the room.

"And the EPS grid is showing nominal," Ensign White chimed in.

Tyler smiled with a sense of pride as the results came over the master display. Going over the system, he muttered to himself. "Life support, internal dampeners, structural integrity, impulse engines, thrusters, warp drive all green." With the exception of one yellow light indicating port maneuvering thruster. "What's going on with the port maneuvering thruster?

A Petty Officer looked over the panel and looked up at the Lieutenant. "Pressure fluctuation in the in the reaction control assembly. But within tolerance."

Thinking for a very brief moment, Hunt shook his head. "Not good enough for me. Tolerance in spacedock is very different than when the Captain gives up the order to move away. Ensign Oni take someone with you and give me my green light."

Oni pointed to two engineers who grabbed their tool kits and followed him down a hatch. Tyler sighed, staring at the master control panel. The last thing, he needed was to mess things up en route to this very important mission. He didn't mind the pressure too much. But at the end of the day this was still a lot of pressure running two departments. Moments like these determined if you were truly ready to swim in the deep end of the pool.

A few minutes went by when the voice of Enign Oni came over the comm. "Lieutenant Hunt how is that port maneuvering thruster looking now?"

The light on the panel was still yellow, then quickly changed to green. "We're in the green Ensign. Now get back out here, and good job." Everything in engineering for the most part, was prepped and ready to go. Now he had to get back to his own station on the bridge. "Ensign Deer, I'm heading to the bridge. Hold things down here in engineering. The rest of you, excellent job."

=================
Lieutenant Tyler Hunt
Chief Operations Officer
USS Eventide

 

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