persianpenname replied to your post “my brain is being dumb so let’s do a six sentence fic meme: send me…”
Miles couldn’t remember ever seeing a piece of equipment just catch fire like that, so hard and so fast.
But then again, he shouldn’t really be surprised – it’s practically par for the course for a station held together with paperclips and paste (and the Cardassians had thoughtfully yanked out most of the paperclips when they’d pulled out of the sector). This never happened on the Enterprise, he grouses to himself, which he’s been doing roughly once an hour since he arrived on the station.
You didn’t have to accept the posting, says Keiko’s reasonable voice in his mind as he douses the flames with coolant. Orders are orders, he thinks at her, and his mental Keiko gives him that long-suffering look, the one that scrunches up her mouth and makes him want to kiss her.
There is probably at least one more fire between himself and the end of his shift (does the shift really end if he’s the Chief and the engineering staff can call him 26 hours a day?), but he finds he can put up with quite a lot if Keiko’s smiling face is waiting for him at the end.