As Cooper exited the lock and took off her helmet, the smell of freshly made coffee greeted her. "Ooh that smells good!" Cooper exclaimed as she took off her gloves.

"I just made a pot. Would you like some?" 

"I don't mind if I do," she said as she removed the pants of her suit. "Could I please have a little help with the breastplate?"

"Certainly," Snyder said. "It's hard to get those off in zero g."

The two of them worked together to remove the bulky piece of equipment. After about five minutes, Cooper stood there in just her jumpsuit. The two of them worked together to stow it in a locker. When that chore was finally finished, she reminded him about the offered coffee. 

"How do you get coffee on board?" Cooper asked.

"Well, it's an old tradition here on the Lexington. The officers in charge of this section are told about a combination locker somewhere in main engineering and given the locker's code. When they find it, there is always a large store of instant coffee inside."

"Now that's a grand tradition," Cooper said.

"I think so too," Snyder replied as he filled a small squeeze bulb with the coveted liquid. Then, changing the subject he said, "Everyone is at their respective stations, so go ahead with your normal morning routine."

"Will do chief. Thanks for the coffee."

"No problem," he said as Cooper floated further into the engineering section. 

She found her first crew person at the fusion reactor's control panel. "Good day to you Specialist Green," she said as she floated over to the workstation next to the specialist. 

"Good morning to you, Cooper," Green said, never looking away from the screen. 

"You are working hard," Cooper commented.

"I'm trying to get the tritium properly balanced with the deuterium injectors. Right now, the reactor is only at fifty percent capacity."

"I see. That is a problem."

'It really is a problem,' Cooper thought. 'With the reactor running at fifty percent there is no way we can sufficiently heat enough water to maneuver like the bridge expects.' 

"God forbid we need to turn the ship at full speed until I get the intermix fixed."

"Why don't you ask Specialist Miller to come up and help you?"

"Unfortunately, this happens on a weekly basis, so I know I can have it fixed by the end of my shift. I've just got to have a lot of patience."

"Why not just switch out this reactor once we get back to Phobos?" Cooper asked.

"I've been asking the brass to do just that. Unfortunately, they keep coming up with excuses not to."

"Wow, that must be very frustrating for you."

"It sure is. Now, while I would love to chitchat with you, I have a reactor to fix."

"I understand. Good luck."

"Thanks."

---

The next crew person Cooper came across was Hoover. He was wandering around the water manifold, which would direct super-heated steam to the proper thruster. Each time he floated to a new station he jotted something down on his portable. 

"Hello Specialist Hoover. You're hard at work, as usual."

"Hello Lieutenant Cooper. Give me a minute. I'm just finishing up with the hourly checks."

"Sure."

After a few minutes, Henry completed his task and floated towards Cooper. "All four valves are fully operational. They are ready for use."

"Thank you for the report," Cooper replied crisply. Of all the crew of secondary engineering, Henry was the most by the book. 'He always refers to me by my rank and is never truly at ease when I am around,' Cooper realized. 'I wonder why that is.'

"Is there anything that I can do for you, Ma'am?" Henry asked somewhat nervously.

"No. That will be all. I was just checking in with everyone."

"Thank you, ma'am," Henry replied as he started to do his checks all over again.

'Well, at least he's consistent, and he's a good worker,' Cooper thought as she went in search of the last member of their little group. Cooper found her double checking the valves between the main water tank and the one designed to hold the super-heated steam before sending it to the manifold and out through the thrusters.

"Hello Specialist Thompson," Cooper said as a greeting.

"Good morning, Cooper," Thompson said as she checked over the gauges of the propulsion tank. "I will be with you in a moment."

After a five-minute break, Thompson finished entering the information into her portable and drifted over to Cooper. "What's up?"

"Nothing really. I just wanted to check with everyone before going to sit in the control room."

"The inflow to the propulsion tank is fine, as is the outflow. The problem is that the temperature and pressure of the steam inside the container are low. I take it that Green is having trouble with the tritium and deuterium intermix yet again?"

"Yes, he is having that problem right now," Cooper said.

"Sounds like we need to get Snyder to report this to main engineering."

"I'll let him know. Talk to you later, Thompson," Cooper volunteered as she drifted towards the main control room.

Upon entering the room, she reported the reactor problem to Snyder as promised. 

"Damn, I'm going to get chewed out again," Snyder exclaimed as he pulled up the live feed from the reactor. 

"I thought that the proper fuel ratio was one deuterium atom for every tritium atom."

"Thats what most fusion reactors need to have. However, this one is finicky. It requires a slightly higher amount of deuterium than tritium and that ratio changes by the week. Because of this, we have to use trial and error to find the proper intermix every seven to ten days," Snyder explained. "The mixture is pretty far off if the reactor is only working at fifty percent."

"So, you have to contact main engineering to explain all of this?" Cooper asked.

"Yes, because it will take Green all shift to figure out the new mix," Snyder said. "I can't exactly cover up an outage for eight hours."

"I wish that there was a way that I could help," Cooper said with complete honesty.

"I would get you to make the call for me if you weren't under my command," Snyder admitted.

"I don't mind," Cooper said. "Besides, I am on good terms with Lieutenant Commander Marshall. I doubt he would get as angry with me as he would with you."

"Well, if you don't mind," Snyder said with a grin. "It's your funeral."

With her commanding officer's approval, she used the com built into the workstation she was sitting in. "Cooper to Marshall," she said.

"Marshall here," came the prompt response. "How may I help you?"

"Sir, I am currently working in secondary engineering, I am afraid that we have a bit of a situation."

"Let me guess the reactor is being a pain," Marshall said.

"Yes, sir it is."

"What is the pressure down to?"

"Fifty-three percent,"

"Son of a bitc-" Marshall began, only to catch himself before he finished. "Okay, I take it that Green is already on top of the issue?"

"Yes, sir."

"Tell Snyder that I expect hourly progress reports. I also want you to tell Green to stay on the problem even after his shift is over. This is more important than his R and R."

"Yes, sir. Will do."

Marshall then cut the com-link without a goodbye.

---

The next time her duty rotation placed Cooper in the engineering section Lieutenant Commander Marshall ordered her to report to main engineering as soon as she went on duty.

This time, instead of going to the bow of the ship she used a sled to go to the stern of the ship.

Main engineering was much larger than secondary engineering. After all, it contained eight mini-fusion reactors as well as the required manifolds and propulsion tanks for the main thrusters. It also contained a much larger control room than secondary engineering with a dozen workstations.

From here, every system on the ship could be controlled. While there was also an "engineering" section on one of the spinning arcs, they could easily override those commands from main engineering. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this section was the heart of the ship while the bridge was its brains.

These thoughts went through Cooper's mind as she went through the aft section's main airlock. Just outside of the lock was a changing room with space suit lockers lining the walls, floor, and ceiling. After taking off her suit with the help of the private first class stationed there.

Upon stripping down to her jumpsuit, Cooper floated towards the control room. "Lieutenant Commander Marshall," Cooper said. "First Lieutenant Cooper reporting as ordered."

"At ease, Lieutenant," Marshall said after the two had saluted one another. Then, in a louder voice, he ordered, "Clear and seal the control room."

Once the crew exited the room and closed the doors behind them, Marshall said, "Please have a seat." While pointing to the chair at the workstation beside his own.

After Cooper was situated, he began, "Do you know why I wave called you here?"

"I imagine it involves the call I made from secondary engineering," she replied.

"Yes. While I know you are trying to be helpful, you need to steer clear of such situations."

"Why are you telling me this?" Cooper asked.

"Well, for one thing in just a few short months your lowest possible rank will be that of lieutenant commander on the Hope mission. Heck, judging from your work ethic you will probably be a full commander. I want to help you avoid some pitfalls of being a senior officer."

"I see," Cooper responded. "What is your advice?"

"Never, ever do anything to help a junior officer when they are due for a well-deserved chewing out. While it would seem like a good thing to do, they will quickly forget your kindness. However, it will be years before they make the same mistake again after a good dressing down. "

"Thank you, sir, for your candor," Cooper replied with a grin. "I take it that Snyder gets a good dressing down every week or so?"

"He sure does," Marshall said. "We have a replacement reactor on board. He just doesn't want to do the work needed to drag the new reactor to the ship's bow and install it. He keeps saying that they need to do that level of work when in drydock."

"Oh, I see," Cooper replied. "I didn't know that we already had a replacement aboard. Now it all makes more sense."

Then, after a pause, she asked, "Why don't you just order him to replace it?"

"I could, but that wouldn't highlight Snyder's laziness."

"So you want him to do it on his own?"

"Yes. He needs to learn that as an officer he can't just sit on his behind and go with the flow."

---