=== USS chimera Mess Hall=== Keylor had gone to the mess hall. The day before he had requested that at the minimum, the replicators in the mess hall are made operational immediately. With more and more of the crew arriving, he felt it would help speed up repairs if they did not have to leave the ship every time they wanted a glass of water or a sandwich. The latest report he had received form the base engineers said that the replicators were functional. As he approached the mess hall he noticed that the door was wide open. He stopped and inspected it. Keylor poked and prodded the door. He tried to pull the door closed, but it would not budge. He tried the manual controls next to the door. They did not work either. He stepped through the door. {Well, so much for the mess hall being in tip top shape} he thought. Keylor walked up to a replicator and commanded it. "Risan root beer!" he called out. HE had had the heavily caffeinated beverage once, right before he was posed to SB Aurora. It was a little sweet for his taste but the caffeine was enough to get even the dead to walk. The computer chirped and materialized an object. Keylor picked it up and looked it over. The glass was all contorted and the liquid inside was dribbling out of one corner. The liquid was just as messed up as the glass, what was supposed to be Risan root beer, looked more like the bottom of a cesspool. Keylor gently set the glass down and had the replicator reclaim it. He then flipped off some of the remaining putrid sludge off of his hand and tried to order something else. Athena was walking around the shop trying to familiarize herself with the actually layout not just what one could get from a pad or a console. As she was passing the mess hall she noticed that the door was open and she walked in wondering if there was some technician or engineer that needed help. As She scanned the room the only person she saw was a high-ranking marine. She quietly walked up behind the officer and asked, "Having any luck." At the sound of her voice the officer jumped ever so slightly but just enough that the contents of his glass found their way onto Athena's uniform. Her intake of breath was noticeable. "I hope that was supposed to be a cold beverage, because it certainly was." Keylor was focused on the replicator; he did not even notice someone come in behind him. He had decided to try to manually replicate some water, since he could remember the formula for that (H2O). HE had just picked up the mal-deformed glass of the icy cold liquid to inspect it. HE picked up the glass and sniffed it. It looked like water but it had a strong sulfur smell to it. He was then startled a bit as someone right behind him spoke. Keylor spun around," No not really..", spilling the smelly icy water on the person directly behind him. Keylor stood immobilized for a moment. He could see the expression on the counselors face change to pleasant to 'OH the it COLD!" HE grinned and simply apologized. "Um.. Sorry about that." She bit her lip as the smell cold liquid started run across her skin. She breathed in deeply and nodded. "Its all right. I don't think I want to try anything that's coming from the machine though." She smiled. "I guess I could report in though.... Captain." The humor of the situation wasn't lost on her but it might be more humorous to her if the smell wasn't so bad. Keylor looked about the room for some sort of towel or rag, he found none. He then looked at the replicator and thought twice about replicating one. HE looked back at Athena. "Well I would give you something to wipe your self with, but I see nothing, and I would be afraid to try to replicate one." He smiled "And you presence on the ship is dually noted. Keylor motioned over to a table that surprisingly had chairs to sit in. He waited for Athena to sit and then joined her. "So how are things? Have you met any of the other crew yet?" Athena took a seat and made herself comfortable as possible, at least all the water was soaked into the uniform now and not running down her body. "Yes, I've run into a few. There's probably an engineer somewhere either studying up on betazoids or think I'm some kind of magician. And I've seen the XO, Lt. Guzman." Keylor nodded. He wondered exactly what Athena had done to cause that comment. Not wanting to stir up a long explanation, he continued. "Have you had a chance to take stock in your area? Do you need any thing to finish off your office?" Keylor prodded gently. He hated to admit it but of all of the crew on the ship he needed her the most. She was the ship counselor, his third voice when it came to certain matters. Matters of crew are the most important. She would act as his personnel divining rod, helping Keylor to keep the crew up to speed and read for anything. "No, I don't need anything. About the first thing I did when I came aboard was to get my office squared away." She smiled. "Well, I would like you to start on crew evaluations as soon as possible, starting with the ODA teams. When this ship is ready to go, I don't expect any boring assignments from the SSF. And by nature of out ship, the ODA will most likely be experiencing some sort of action." He waited to see her reaction. She raised an eyebrow slightly and said, "Aye, sir. Are you sure you wouldn't prefer I start with you?" She waited for his response as she began to wonder why she had been assigned to bridge crew rather than medical, but there were a lot of things different on a ship. {Action!} The word echoed through her head. After helping with ship repair she thought almost any member of the ship would be ready for action. "In due time counselor." Keylor responded casually. " Eventually you will have to have profiles worked up on all 150 crew members, including me. " HE motioned to the walls of the ship. "IF the base engineering crew is accurate in their assessment, we will be space worth in 4 days. SO that does not give you much time to get many evaluations done." Athena's clear blue eyes stared at him for a few seconds, "That's only 35 crewmen a day. That shouldn't be a problem." She smiles at the captain as she gave a small mental assessment. {OK, that means I'll have to meet 2 crewmen an hour for 17.5 hours and then I'll have 6.5 hours to shower, sleep and anything else.} "Well I don't try to get them all done in 4 days." He chuckled a bit. Just take a good stab at getting some done before we leave." He smiled. "Wit all of the repairs that need to be finished up, many people will be too busy with the ship to take off from working. Get who you can now, that is available and then get the rest after we get underway." "I'll do what I can. I all ready sent for the most recent evaluations on file and I'll go from there. Maybe I'll jut use brief short meetings of 15 to 30 minutes to get an initial base line." She looked around the room and let that bit of information sink in. "In the meantime, if you don't mind, I think I'll grab a shower and change, sir." Keylor nodded. "Good that will get a basic idea of the crew in a short time." She stood and started toward the door only to see it suddenly close. {Oh, great. I hope that opens when I get to it.} Keylor stood up as Athena did. He saw slight scowl on her face and then he looked at the mess hall door. He knew it was stuck upon earlier, he figured she was wondering if they were both stuck in there. The two of them slowly approached the doors hoping that they would open, the did. "well counselor, I will expect a brief report on those you can interview shortly after we depart, when ever that is." He smiled. Athena gave a small sigh of relief and a smile. "Yes, sir," she said as she walked out the door and toward the trubolift where she hesitated and wondered if she should try it or not. The need to get out of her smelly clothes won and she gambled on the lift. Amazingly it worked as well. ===End log=== LtCol Bretam Keylor Captain USS Chimera & Lt Athena Wellington Ships Counselor USS Chimera