Star Tracker of the Ship Harmony:

by Ponyess

The Captain's Office: 6

Author's Note:

Princess Twilight Sparkle's POV

I had ordered to have the Engineer by the name Gleaming Engines escorted to my office, in order to have him debriefed. It is a fairly regular event.

I had summoned my own chief engineer, as well as two other engineers and the head of security, but kept the guards escorting him. Something told me this is more than the common engineer coming on a friendly visit. He wasn't just here to share a cup of tea over a chat with me, or any of my engineers. That much was obvious, not so much, just because neither his ship, not his name was known to me.

My security officer sit by my side as the engineers moved into my office. They had arrived just in time, just before my priced engineer was due to arrive, with his escort. If everypony come in the proper order, this is bound to line up nicely. Most of it may be mere formality, but I like to stick to it in times like this.

As my guest engineer finally did arrive, all the crew I wanted by my side are firmly in place, which is convenient. I didn't want them to slip in after the engineer. Not so much because I didn't trust him, it's just a matter of tact and protocol. I want it to go by the book, from page one and forth.

“Welcome to the Harmony! I hope it will be a pleasant stay, and that you will not be disappointed!” I greeted him, standing up for forms sake, before he had entered the room.

“Thanks, I feel honour. That is exactly how I feel. Since you had me escorted to your office, I take it you wanted more than just an official greeting. I'm afraid my protocols may be a bit on the rusty side. On the other hoof, my captain runs a loose ship on trust and respect. I keep the ship at her very best, without stepping on any hooves, and he let me do my job. I guess this is why I love my work so highly!” Gleaming practically blurted out.

“Trust and respect, these are admirable traits, both in a captain, and her crew. If you can live up to these, and perform your job, you could have a very promising future and career on my ship. I would imagine you're eager to see more of my ship. A tour seems to be in order, once we're clear here!” I pointed out, looking curiously at the stallion before me, and the strange device resting on his head.

“Ma'am, it pleases me no end to hear you're valuing these characteristics. It's okey to address you 'Ma'am', is it? A tour of your ship would be great. I expect to build some understanding of your people along the way. We can as well clear the business at hoof, before the tour!” he pondered.

“Either 'Ma'am' or Captain would work here. I was foreseeing the tour, my Chief Engineer will follow you around, once you're there. By then, I'm not needed following you around. She will be much better at explaining anything you may ask at that point, at any rate!” I pointed out, nodding to my Engineer to take over.

“Since I don't have any part of your service record, I have very little to go on. For now, I'm going with the assumption that you did pilot your shuttle on your own, and that you're the Chief Engineer of the ship you came from, which both do speak highly of you. Naturally, we do have the information from our navigator scans, but these doesn't seem to be very clear on anything useful at this point!” my engineer opened up.

“These problems will be taken care of soon, I would imagine. As an engineer, I'm required to be fully capable of piloting any shuttle available, at the very least, since it may be required on occasion. I'm mainly stationed in the Engineering section of the ship, where most of the critical systems are. I would expect them to have these scans, as a function of operations. You're a Unicorn, just for the record?” Gleaming responded, and looked curiously at the Engineer, without giving much any emotional signs.

“I would expect as much. Makes sense. Then your ship would have the same type of scans telling you about our ship. Yes, but you're an Earth Type, yet you're an Engineer. I'm curious to see you perform on the ship, but I didn't need to wait all that long to see this, the tour is mere minutes away, you see!” she pointed out.

“It's these scans had led us to taking the detour. We're explorers, finding a 'first contact' is always exciting to us. I certainly am looking forwards to it, but I could wait a few minutes, as you suggested. See? Not really, I'm actually blind, but I've learned to adapt to my situation. That's why I'm wearing this!” he pointed out, pointing a hoof towards the grey metal device on his head.

“That would explain a great deal. I've never seen a ship quite like the Enterprise you came with. Nothing of her class have ever been sighted anywhere in our space. Explorers? You must have seen more than I dare dream of, then? Blind? Now, that's a surprise to say the least. Your device replaces any kind of hoof held scanners, I take it!” she pondered with a shocked expression at the end, trailing off.

“She's actually an 'Ambassador' class ship, and our flagship, as it were. We've certainly seen more than our fair share, in part due to our Captain, I'd dare suggest. He's a stallion well beyond his years in experience. Yes, I'm afraid so, and from birth. I never needed a hoof held scanner, no. The only real downside is that I never saw the beauty of a 'Sunset', or a 'Dawn' in its true glory, the way it is supposed to be experienced.

“That sounds impressive, and by the looks of her, I'm inclined to find it very fitting. Though I'm curious as to why the ship was designed like this. For an Earth Pony, I can see a convenience, never to be bound to the scanners. I would nonetheless like to show you one of ours, just for the sake of comparison, since I'm sure you're familiar with the workings and use of them!” she put forth with an unsure smile on her face, floating the sample out of her saddle bag, leaving a glowing trace of magic from her horn, and a thin string all the way to the scanner.

“That's interesting. I can see your horn glow as you manipulate the scanner. I see the light, but that's not all there is to it. Am I correctly assuming an earth Pony shouldn't see the rest of it?” He proposed in a curious tone of voice, without any further details.

“You're supposed to see the light, but that's about as much as you should see. By the look on your face, you could pinpoint the exact frequency? If your vision is anywhere near what you just let on, you could tell any Unicorn, just by said frequency. You could hold a clue to something greater than we dare speculate about, right there!” she pondered.

“My ears are bleeding from the assault of mere technicalities of your words!” the chief of Security groaned.

“I guess we had better go and see the more interesting parts of our ship, before she put you in the brig!” the Engineer suggested in a teasing manner, trying her best to hide her smile under a hoof.

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Comments

[damnaion]

yes a lovely sci fi chapter and yes this a good chapter

[Ponyess]

4026241 since you mentioned him, I compare him with our very own and much beloved 'Dicord'. Picard seems to go along well with him, and so much so that Q sought him out throughout the show., there's a chance Discord would act the same way?
ah yeah, the griffins, they do have a few inersting similiarities, I guess we are bound to acknowlege?
the promotion never lasted long, just enough for a few interesting episodes. he hated it beyond discription, on some occasion. He's the born Captain, so they had him busted back down each and every time.
I guess Kirk, in his day was much like Picard?
the Engineer is the regular guy in this group, Guinan had her mystic tricks, which is why I sent her to see Zecora.
Picard hasn't really reached his destination, since he is to 'infiltrate' the ranks in order to get to his end point, which goes well with his character, in the manner I saw him. Both because he had done well with infiltration, and a few other intersting traits he's shown before.
I imagine he is the only human worth sending to where he is going.
4026338 In this case, I have only the trk end of how to handle this scene, aside from the characters themselves.

There's the next chapter, I hope it makes sense here now.