Now what? Every time she had a few minutes to work on a pet project someone somewhere would need something.

"Prescott," she replied.

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"I hope I'm...not interrupting anything, Lieutenant Commander, but there's a serious problem with the sensor array in the cartography lab."

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Of course she was interrupting. Min was always working on something. Workaholic didn't begin to describe it.

"I'll be right there." She stood up and left her office.

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When she arrives, Effie will be staring at her display mournfully.

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Min entered and noticed the look on Barclay's face. It was similar to the one Min had on her face when she was forced to take time off. "What seems to be the problem?"

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"It won't relay any new radiation data. Not on the display, not via voice. A first-level diagnostic didn't work."

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"It sounds like..." Min trailed off as she was already thinking about three different things it could be. She grabbed her scanner and went over to the one wall. She popped a panel off and started looking at the circuits and conduits.

"So where are you coming from and who did you piss off to get assigned here?"

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"Earth. San Francisco. I... don't know whom I pissed off. I'm... not very good at noticing stuff like that. And I was never stationed anywhere for very long."

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"Sounds like you're just one of the unlucky who got assigned here by dumb luck," Min said as she stuck her head into the opening in the wall. "I bounced around a lot before ending up here as well."

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"So did you not piss anyone off either," Effie tries to understand the lines of reasoning.

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Min chuckled. "Oh no. I did piss people off. They shipped me here and said this was the last chance Starfleet was going to give me. I screw up here and I'm out the door."

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Effie listens, and then thinks about that for a moment.
And then, with one of her slightly 'off' looks. "Well, in the circumstances we're going to be in, if the chief engineer screws up enough, we're probably all going to die." Beat. "So that would save them time."

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"I don't screw up in my job," Min defended. "I have 'issues' with authority and doing things by the book."

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Effie flinched, but only a little. "Well, that's a lot safer, surviving-wise."

But now for the important part. "So do you think you can fix it?" There's life and death, and then there's her maps.

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Everyone had to have priorities. "I can fix it," Min said as she scanned the one conduit. "Won't take long."

"So what do you think of our captain?"

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A relieved sigh. "Thanks, Ma'am. I'm really glad to hear that."

"The captain seems very nice." And a salvation from angry injured Tellarites.

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"Please, call me Min. I hate being called ma'am."

Min reached in and started to reroute the datapath.

She nodded. "She does. I met her when she was posing as an ensign down in Engineering. Seems to know what she's doing."

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"All right. Thank you, Min."

"Me too. She really does. That's good." A pause, another absent thought. "I hope we get to excavate some soil samples somewhere soon."

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"Let me take a guess...you're the type that likes away missions?" Min asked.

Hrm. That wasn't going to work. Time to try something else.

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Effie blinks at the question and looks thoughtful. "Not away missions per se. It depends on the chances for readings and samples."

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"I can understand that. Sort of. I prefer not to leave the ship. Too much to get done here. Why waste time on planets?"

There. That should do it.

"Give it a try."

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"That's understandable, too..."

Effie touches the right parts of the display, and -- it works! All the right numbers to make all the right pictures. "Oh! Yes! Better now!"

And she politely says thank you, but she's already busy bringing up the woefully incomplete map and altering it with the new data.

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"Welcome. Call me if you need anything else."

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