First Impressions

Posted on Sun May 10th, 2026 @ 10:10am by Captain Alistar McKeon & Lieutenant Megan Hawthorne

1,448 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: New Horizons

The doors to main engineering parted with a low hydraulic hiss and allowed Alistar to enter without announcement. The activity level on the Helvetia was already high, but here, the department was already in full motion. Engineers moved between workstations and the various consoles, their voices overlapping in clipped exchanges as they worked. The engineering crew moved with the competence of a crew that knew their jobs, but it seemed to lack the cohesion that only came when officers had worked together for a while. It was understandable, as the Helvetia was still brand new and the engineers had only recently been assigned. Alistar didn't say anything, instead he simply observed as he slowly moved along the upper level at a casual pace.

It was at that moment that a brunette woman in her early thirties, carrying a whole stack of PADD's seemed to emerge out of nowhere. She collided with the Captain. His larger build knocked her backwards, causing the stack pf PADD's and tools to scatter across the deck. She landed with a bump on the floor along with the PADD's and tools, slightly dazed amd confused at what had just happened.

The impact barely moved Alistar. Instead he instantly shifted his stance in order to keep his balance, a reaction that years in Starfleet had driven in to a second nature. He raised his eyebrow as the padds flew everywhere. After a short pause, he reached out with his hand. "Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yeah," The woman said as she took his hand and allowed herself to be helped up. "Sorry about that..." she then noticed the four rank pips on his collar. "Captain. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to you know, bump into you or anything... Jeez, this isn't the best first impression is it?" she laughed nervously.

Alistar offered a small half grin. "It's alright, Lieutenant," he said. "Believe me, this is far from the worse first impression that I've ever been involved in. It was partly my fault since I was slowly walking in everyone's way, but it's been a while since I was on an Intrepid class."

"Oh no, not at all sir." The woman said. "Anyways. Welcome to Engineering. I'm your new Chief Engineer. Lieutenant Megan Hawthorne." She introduced herself with a cheeky smile and a hint of sparkle in her eyes.

"Alistar McKeon," Alistar returned the introduction with a small nod before he frowned briefly. "I wasn't aware that Starfleet had assigned a chief engineer already. That must be the fasting posting assignment that the personnel department has ever carried out."

"I've been here for about a week already," Megan replied. "They wanted me here first to supervise and oversee the final stages of the ships construction. You know, fitting the carpets, screwing in lightbulbs, ensuring the toilets all flush. That sort of thing." she grinned. "Oh, and please don't use the replicators right now. We're having some issues programming them. For the last two days they'll only make Apple Pie when you ask for any other sort of food. Did you know you can actually get fed up of apple pie and custard?!"

Alistar winced just a little. On board a starship, the crew worked best when there was food readily available. So did captains. "And if I have to guess, we don't have any senior ranking operations officers assigned yet to help fix the problem, do we?" he asked.

"Not that I know of." Megan replied with a slight sigh. "But we could use one soon, because..." she leant a little closer. She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Between you and me. I've put on at least three whole pounds from all that apple pie!" she explained whilst tapping her hand against her belly. "And that's coming from the girl whose family orignated from the home of Appie Pie! Good old England!"

"I knew there was something wrong with you," Alistar said in a calm and quiet joking tone. "I personally prefer pecan pie, but apple is a close second or third. But I agree, we need to get that fixed. And, I won't tell anyone about your weight, so long as you keep my ship running smoothly."

"Oh, there's no need to worry about that. Not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but I am a pretty decent engineer." Megan grinned in response. "Plus, this is a brand new ship. So we expected gremlins in some of the systems."

Alistar nodded in agreement. "I expected problems with the newer systems that they put in the Helvetia, maybe the sensors, tactical systems, hell even the engines. But the replicators? I need you to tell those gremlins that they better pack up and get the hell out or find a different part of the ship to infect."

"Well, we are due to power up the warp core this morning. First time switching to internal power." Megan told him as she crouched down and started picking up the scattered PADDs. "That way we can start to test the plasma flow to the nacelle coils and ensure that our warp drive... you know... actually works."

Alistar raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He had been told that the Helvetia was ready for departure, but clearly someone had overestimated the shipyard's ability to get a starship ready on time. "Are you powering up the primary warp core only, or including the auxiliary core as well?" he asked.

"Only the primary core." Megan replied. "She's done her space trails of course. We had a few niggles with the core, so we've had to make some slight changes to the core configuration. I suppose you could call it 'ironing out the creases'." she smiled looking up from the floor as she continued to gather up the PADDs. "As for the auxiliary. If we want to test that, we'd have to pull it out and slot it into the primary slot. However since its smaller and les powerful, it can only get us to warp five at the most."

"Warp five is better than no warp at all," Alistar said. "But just to be on the safe side, I'd like to test the auxiliary core as well. See if the shipyard can help with the swapping out procedure. It'll cut time on the replacement and testing. We'll be heading out beyond the Federation's borders, so I want to make sure that everything is in working order before we head out."

"Oh, it was tested before it arrived. I can run a full diagnostic if you want sir." She said as she raised back to her feet PADD's tucked under her arms. "It'll take at least another day to swap out the cores if you still want me to do a full test sir." she explained.

Alistar thought for a moment before he nodded. The Helvetia hadn't received official orders yet, but they would need to be ready to depart within a day of the standing orders when they did arrive and delays wouldn't go over well with Starfleet Command. "Run the diagnostic first, and if there's anything that looks suspicious then pull it and run a full test," he said.

"Got it Cap." Megan said giving him a mock jokey salute with two fingers. "I would invite you to join me for lunch. I might be able to make the replicator make something else than Apple Pie. Unless you want that... I suppose one more slice couldn't hurt..."

"Unfortunately, I'll have to take a rain check on lunch, but as soon as the replicators are fixed and we're underway I'll definitely take you up on the offer," Alistar said.

Megan smirked. "Its a date then." she chuckled. "I hate to be informal and all that Cap. But, I still have a lot of final touches to do. Lots of lightbulbs to still screw in and stuff like that."

"I understand," Alistar said with a slight grin. "I'll let you get back to putting in light bulbs, although I personally feel that operations should be doing that. Good luck with the gremlins, Lieutenant."

Megan gave him a cheeky smile in return. "Thanks sir. I'll remember to not feed them after midnight."

"I believe that was the mogwai that you had to feed after midnight in order to get gremlins, so by that logic they've already been fed after midnight," Alistar said.

"I'll check that with the night shifters." Megan grinned as she took a few steps away from him. "See ya later Cap." she called back giving him a small wave.

"Good luck, Lieutenant," Alistar said with a small chuckle. Shaking his head just a little, he started towards the door.

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