@thisbtchxmpty ( continued )
‘ i’m doing it for the betterment of the science. ’
“Well, you’re lucky ‘the science’ didn’t take your hand off for your trouble.”
It’s absolutely a rebuke, and the good humor in her voice doesn’t soften it very much. But she’s joking, so it’s not grave.
Christine glances up from her notes after a moment to give him a chummy sort of smile. “Tell me about your ill-fated project, then,” she adds, because in her line of work, everyone is easier to deal with if you distract them — and she is genuinely interested. She hadn’t joined Starfleet because she wasn’t curious about the actual engineering that went into it all.
“W-well, uh...” He’s fairly sure that’s humor in her tone, but he’s a bit too frazzled to really tell. He gingerly keeps his hand held out for her to see the scrapes and burns along his fingers. “It was -- it was a test of the, uh, the new plasma flow regulators. I... I th-thought that I could modify the magnetic intake valve to work faster and m-more, uh, more efficiently, and it worked, but then the, uh... the outputs couldn’t handle the excess flow and they... exploded.” He moved his hand slightly to indicate, wincing at himself.
