Whatever this is, it is not coffee

Posted on 26 Mar 2025 @ 7:15am by Lieutenant Commander Harva Taliborn & Lieutenant JG Zhivise Silatuyok

1,206 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Miranda
Location: Zhiv's Quarters

Zhiv sprayed the liquid in her mouth. " What in the...this is what they call coffee," she said, coughing and sputtering, trying to get the god-awful taste out of her mouth. Quickly, Zhiv sent a work order down to engineering as she needed her coffee. It tasted excellent—oh, that smell—and it also helped her focus—something about the caffeine.

From the engineering crew's perspective, a defective replicator was a very low-priority ticket, which got moved to the bottom of today's action list. Someone would get around to it, eventually. Harva, though, recognized the name underneath the ticket - or instead, did not recognize it; as such, he saw this as an opportunity to meet a new crew member, and he took it upon himself to resolve this ticket personally. After all, all the proverbial fires were under control, critical and secondary systems were working within nominal parameters, and even the repairs to Ensign Walker's airframe were winding down and nearing their conclusion. As such, he went to the offending replicator, PADD, and tricorder in hand. As he approached, he tapped his comm badge. "Commander Taliborn to Lieutenant Silatuyok, I'm here to answer your engineering ticket. Could you come to the replicator and run me through the problem?"

"I'm on my way," Zhiv said, hitting her badge as she wrapped up filling in her replacement. Then, she got on the lift and was brought back to her quarters. "...um commander Ta, uh, sorry, I have already forgotten your name," Zhiv said as she pressed her hand onto the biometric reader and led the commander into her quarters, "here's the replicator," Zhiv quickly said, "and, order hot coffee, it comes out as not coffee more like a coffee sludge, and lukewarm as well," Zhiv added.

"Oh - you're just a ball of energy, aren't you," Harva quirked a brow at Zhiv, amused, in a friendly way. Big, lumbering steps took the massive Sirran over to the replicator, where he ordered a coffee, observing the swirls of energy as matter materialized. "... Huh," he offered, rubbing his chin, having the replicator recycle the - thing it manifested. "Yeah, that's - not supposed to work like that," his deep, rumbling bass voice resonated as he removed the access panel to the machine's innards. He could tell by the pattern of the swirlies that something wasn't calibrated right.

"Sorry, I haven't had my share of coffee for the day," Zhiv said, rubbing her eyes. Between that and meeting everyone, "Please tell me that it is fixable, and hopefully a quick fix," Zhiv said, forgetting some of her manners or social etiquette.

"Eh, don't worry about it," Harva waved dismissively at her apology. He was never one to stand on ceremony or etiquette anyway. It's much better just to be yourself. Maybe that was why he wasn't invited to official gatherings much. "And I'll get this replicator working right, don't you worry," though the first order of business was figuring out why it wasn't. He carefully removed the control circuit board, examining it for apparent defects, blown components, etc. "So, you're helm, right? What made you choose that?"

"Oh, that is fantastic news," Zhiv said, lighting up at hearing that it was fixable, "oh, my dad, he is a test pilot, and the stories he told me, and then just wrapping her head around how fast you can go even on just the power of thrusters is....," Zhiv said as she just let out a sigh.

"Impressive, yeah," Harva agreed. He contemplated the circuit board for a moment, sniffing some of the components - usually, if an element died, it would leave a distinct smell. "It's much the same for me, though still different. Knowing how powerful some of this equipment is, we can simulate the sun in a reactor; it just always intrigued me to understand how it worked and be able to maintain and tune it." Satisfied that he'd found the culprit, he produced a small set of tools from a pouch and set about undoing the component.

Zhiv smiled. She loved hearing stories like that; they were just pure. "Imagine having a ship with an artificial sun for their reactor; how powerful and fast that ship would be," as she allowed her imagination to go wild.

"Well, Romulans use a captured singularity core for their capital ships. This could be argued as coming quite close already. But give me a good old-fashioned matter-antimatter reactor any day of the week. More stable and a greater potential. Just trickier to keep supplied with fuel," The offending component now undone, he handed it to Zhiv. "Could you run to the nearest functional replicator, feed it this, and tell it to supply a fresh, undamaged one? Thank you."

"Yeah, um, yes, of course," Zhiv said, taking part and looking around, "right, be right back," as she rushed out into the corridor. Luckily, there was a replicator just a little bit down the corridor. A few moments later, she was back in her quarters, "here you are," Zhiv said, handing the part back to the large engineer the new part.

"Ah, perfect. Thank you," Harva hadn't needed Zhiv to get the replacement part; he could've easily done that himself, but he'd learned long ago that people liked to feel useful and like they'd contributed. And if a gesture as simple as this could make Zhiv feel like she helped, all the better for everyone, right? He carefully set the component - a small black block of resin with five through-hole legs and a copper coil visible in the resin - into its place. He set about flash-soldering it to the board using his convenient pocket-sized plasma torch and a never-leave-home-without-one little spool of soldering tin. "So, how'd you get to serve on Odin?" he asked as he worked.

"An officer from Starfleet Personnel came and said that there were several vessels that needed helm officers, and well, I needed something that I could prove my worth so I could hopefully get myself as a test pilot like my father," Zhiv said without a breath, or even realizing how egotistical it sounded.

"Test pilot! Huh. Fascinating," Harva mused as he inserted the control panel again, ensuring it was secure, before powering the unit back up. "Computer, one coffee," he requested, observing what happened. The familiar swirl of energy deposited a mug of a steaming liquid that at least looked and smelled like coffee—closely examined before a sip. "Welp, there you go. All functional," he grinned as he started putting the faceplate back on.

Zhiv grinned, "good, good," Zhiv said almost. jumping with giddiness, "You do not want to see a pilot caffeinated," she said with a chuckle.

"Right. Well, I should head back to work, got more tickets need answering," Truth be told he enjoyed heading out and answering tickets. It got him around the ship, it helped him meet new people and the work was varied.

"...well, again thank you for coming, and getting this fixed," Zhiv said with a smile.

"Very welcome. Anything else breaks, just submit a ticket, someone will be over when they can," Harva rumbled, heading back out with a wave and a smile.

 

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