Topic: Star Trek: The Scales of Eternity Subject: Getting to know you... ((Collab with the Facelicker))
Stardate: 2365.05.15
USS Peregrine, Deck 5: Shuttle Bay 2 - Aurora Angel 13:00
The Commander (he had continued to call her Eugene a few times this morning, and so she had thus far refused to call him Tochi in response), had left a while ago to head up the flight controls on the bridge as they pulled into the Calican system. Kennedy had already checked in with Lt. Sa’eidron and made sure the woman, who sounded a little perkier than she had for a few days, was good to go with engineering and to once again establish that she should call with any questions. Which left Callie alone with the Aurora.
In her headphones a heavy base beat was drumming out a familiar tune and she bobbed her head along with it. Last night they had worked on reinstalling the blast shields that she had noted. They had also sat down with that bottle, Tochi drinking more than she had, and hammered out plans for what else needed to be worked on. Now she double checked her PADD to make sure she had the calibrations correct for the asymmetrical E-M coupling she was staring at. She then nodded to herself.
“Alright then, let’s get to it…” She tapped the side of her headphones and the volume cranked up a notch. Callie flipped a wrench out of her tool belt and into her palm, then crawled down onto the floor and scooted herself down into the slender Jefferies Tube that held the coupling.
Her foot tapped on the floor as she lay on her back half way in the tube.
“We will rock you… alright, just a hair to the left Callie. Not too far, if you screw this up you’re going to have to pull out the whole rig and refit it. That spotted bastard won’t be pleased if you screw up his ship on the first day… that’s it… just a hair more… stop… are the champions… good, now to the next one…” She muttered to herself as she worked.
Stardate: 2365.05.15
USS Peregrine, Deck 5: Shuttle Bay 2 - Section M-13 - 13:16
“Bloody hell,” Megan mumbled around the last bit of the cranberry-oat muffin she had just poked into her mouth, “an’ I thought th’ bridge certification exams’d put me off me head.” Weaving her way through the maze of crates, spare parts, and maintenance equipment, she sucked the remaining crumbs off her fingers and scowled at the course listings displayed on the PADD in her other hand; “These fookin’ Acad’my courses, though’re like ta set me right barmy! Advanced subspace geometry, Advanced Navigation, Command an’ Control, Fractal friggin’ Calculus…” a heavy sigh heaved from her tiny chest as the curriculum scrolled on and on, “...reckon there’s worse way ta lose yer nut.”
She flopped down amongst the crates of her usual study spot in the shadow of the Aurora Angel, her thoughts letting go of how taxing the courses Commander Zai had told her were contingent to keeping her commission were and, instead, slipping back to the horrors of those who had gone mad in the face of Chimera for a moment. “Aye,” she scarcely whispered, shoving a hand through the mass of copper curls that sprouted from her head and rubbing at where her neck met the base of her skull, “plenty o’ worse…”
Like most of the Peregrine’s other crew who had survived the Chimera incident, Megan didn’t like to dwell on those thoughts overlong but, also, like the others, she knew it would be a long time before she’d come anywhere close to being free of them. She pinched her eyes shut before the tears could come, again, and continued kneading at her neck until the shuddering of her breath found its way to a more even rhythm. “Right then,” she breathed, determined not to let those thoughts clutter her head before she managed to get through, at least one more assignment, “let’s be to it.”
A determined grimace etched itself into her elfin features and she cued open her Astrogation coursework. She had been head down over the PADD for only moments before a question regarding tri-axial spatial orientation skewed her expression from determination to frustration. She was sure she knew the answer but, for some reason, it was being evasive, and, as her eyes lifted from the PADD and into the netherspace of the shuttle bay in hopes of finding it, she finally realized that the tarps in which the Angel had been draped for so many months were missing… “Iesu mawr,” Megan swore, leaping to her feet quickly enough to spill the PADD from her lap and send it clattering to the deck, “I dinnae think Tochi’d touched th’ thing since…”
A faint clatter and clang resonated from within the Angel’s interior, then, drawing the Ensign’s wide-eyed gaze to the little ship’s aft loading ramp where a wash of light spilled onto the deck. Megan knew that Tochi was on the bridge, at the moment, and she strongly doubted that Linc would have been doing any work on the craft without having told her about it. “Wha’ th’ bloody HELL?!” A fire kindled in her chest and quickly spread to her cheeks as she stomped from her study spot toward the base of the ramp. “Swear ta Jesus, if et’s one o’ them newbies pokin’ ‘round where they don’ b’long…” She snatched a heavy spanner from the rack of tools huddled near the Angel’s gangplank. “...I’ll dent their blinkin’ dome!”
“Oi!” Megan called, storming up the ramp with purposeful determination, her ire rising with each step. “Who inna name o’ Mother Mary’s muckin’ about in here?!”
No reply.
She made a quick search of the cargo bay and, having found no one, moved deeper into the Angel’s belly. “Ye’d best answer,” she hollered, clutching the spanner with both hands as her gaze frantically scanned each module in search of the intruder, “er I swear ta Jesus, I’ll put a divot in yer head tha’ll no come out, aye?!”
It wasn’t until Megan had nearly reached the hatchway to the bridge that she spied a pair of legs poking out of the access port of a Jeffries Tube, one foot tapping rhythmically. She sucked in a deep breath, assured her grip on the spanner, and crossed the distance between her and the disembodied legs. “Whoever ya are, yer gonna wanna come oota there afore I take this spanner tae yer ankles!”
Still no reply; and the one foot continued tapping to a phantom beat that Megan couldn’t hear.
“OI!!!” the waifish ensign veritably shouted, then, drawing her own foot back and lofting a swift kick at the sole of the other’s boot, “I said ta haul yer apple-polishin’ arse outta tha’ tube!!!”
“Wha… in tarnations!?” Callie felt someone kick at her foot, her reflexes overcame the logic of her being in the confines of the Jefferies Tube and she tried to sit up, again bashing her head into the metal frame of the ship.
“Dammit! This stupid ship is going to be the death of me!” She cried out and laid back down, pulling off her headphones as she tried to wiggle out of the tube, just in time to hear the end of the Welsh lass’s tongue lashing. Callie pulled her head out of the tube and stared up at the woman with a quizzical look on her face.
“Yes? I’m out now… what exactly are you going to do to my arse?”
The blood drained from Megan’s cheeks as quickly as it had boiled there to begin with when she recognized Commander Kennedy’s face emerging from the Jeffries. “Ohmuhjeezus,” she squeaked, dropping the massive spanner and bouncing back a foot or two, “I’msosorryCommanderIthunkyemightbesomeoneelsean’shouldn’beherean…” She threw her hands up in surrender, blinked her giant, pale blue eyes in sustained shock, her mouth falling open. “Puhleeze don’ report me, sir,” she pleaded, abashed that she’d not only threatened but, also, technically, assaulted a superior officer. Then, it dawned on her that, as far as she knew, Commander Kennedy didn’t even know about the Angel and, as such, probably shouldn’t be poking around… especially in her nether regions.
“Uhhhhhhmmmmm,” she droned, her hands slowly falling to her sides and a bit of tension draining from her features, “I...if’n I might ask, Commander… does Tochi know yer… here… doin’ whatever it es yer doin’?”
Kennedy put down her wrench and got to her feet while the girl rattled on. She dusted herself off a little and looked at her squarely in her eyes. Then snapped her fingers a few times. “It’s… O’Malley… O’Neil… O…” Kennedy shook her head and sighed. “Nope… not coming to me. O something from that little island across the pond though. I’m not going to report you, although… I am intrigued to learn that my arse can polish apples. And do you go around kicking everyone whom you think is out of place? Your career is going to be entertaining…”
She laughed a little and turned away from the girl, grabbing a rag she had left on a nearby counter and wiped at her hands. “Does Commander Zai know I am here?” She posed the question without answering it and gave a slight shrug, smiling while she still had her back to the girl.
“It’s Owen, sir,” Megan swallowed, “Ensign Megan Owen… yemayhavemeconfusedwi’PettyOfficerO’ConnerfromOPSbutthat’sunnerstandableaccentsbein’similaran’sechbutshe’sheran’I’mmean’...Well,I’msorrahaboutyerarse,sir,Idunnotha’itpolishesapplesan…”
Commander Kennedy pulled the smile off her face and put back on her most stoic expression before turning back around to face Owen. “Ahh… Owen. I was close.”
The little Ensign’s head fell forward, then, and she lofted a resigned sigh. “Ensign Owen, at yer service, sir,” she reiterated, “My sincere apologies fer th’ kick an’ th’ threatenin’ an’ wha’no’...”
She shrugged and then really took a look at the forlorn look on Megan’s face and couldn’t help it any longer, she burst out into laughter.
“Do you ever take a breath when you speak Ensign?” She was laughing so hard that tears had started gathering at the corner of her eyes. “Calm down… deary. Nothing to report. And of course Zai knows I am here, I ran into him last night in the Aerie and we spent several hours in here afterward going over the beaut. I wasn’t expecting company today, he didn’t mention sending help.”
She dabbed a little at her eyes with the rag, still chuckling a little. “I wouldn’t dare work on this lady without his permission.” Kennedy held out her hand, “Good to meet you Owen.”
Megan had continued blinking abashedly at the deck until the CEO’s extended hand breached the edge of her vision and, when it did, the waifish ensign’s shoulders slumped in relief and a breath to punctuate that feeling escaped her at the same time. “Ya c’n just call me Megan, sir… er Meg,” she offered, accepting the proffered hand and giving it a light shake as her eyes finally came up to meet Kennedy’s. She offered a shrug at those last words and rolled on; “Depends on who ya might be an’ yer preference, I s’pose. Either’s fine, sir.
Good ta meet ya, too, Commander Kennedy, innit?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I dinnae know, Toch...er… Commander Zai’d slipped ‘er from ‘er linens, agin. S’pose I was jus’ surprised ta see ‘er undressed an’ lit up an’... an’ yessir, I do take a breath ever’ now an again… an’... an’...”
In a moment that rarely happened for her, Megan realized that she was rambling and still pumping Kennedy’s hand. “Feck me,” the girl sighed, letting go of the Commander’s hand, casting her eyes down once more, and flushing a little, her pale cheeks going pink as she sucked in a long swallow of air.
Callie took her hand back and laughed again. “I’m out of uniform, you can drop the Commander… you can stick with Kennedy though, Megan. And I’m not sure I believe you about taking a breath, but I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
“I s’pose no’,” Megan tittered, still somewhat nervously, “Mos’ other folk dinnae believe tha’, neither. An’, yessir, Kennedy it is, if ye insist, sir.”
Kennedy smirked and then looked around the ship and Megan’s gaze followed. “Truth be told it was I who unveiled the sexy bitch. Curiosity, cats and all of that… but I swear I never touched her without permission. Zai was on board with working on her again, I think he’s wanted to… just needed a nudge…” She gave Megan a warm smile. “So are you familiar with her?”
Megan smiled back just as warmly but there was a tinge of sadness lacing the expression, as well. “Aye,” the elfin girl nodded faintly, “I was th’ first ta fly ‘er, truth be told. Pro’lly weren’t th’ test flight Toch was truly hopin’ fer but…” She let the thought fall with that.
Owen! I knew that name… Kennedy cursed herself for a moment for not connecting the name with the ‘maiden flight’ of the Angel. She winced a little bit. “Sorry… it was a good flight from what I heard…” she said softly and gave the girl a sympathetic look.
It was all Megan could do to keep her face from screwing up into the ‘ugly cry’ thing when Kennedy said the words ‘good flight.’ It was, of course, and, at the same time, it wasn’t. The Angel had flown and staved off evil just like her namesake, of course, but that maiden flight had also seen Asovil sacrifice herself for the sake of the crew and, had Megan been able to have done anything to keep that from being so… well…
She choked that thought down, too, and, trying to keep her smile bright and cheery, tilted her head toward the bridge. “Oh, she flew like she were a dream,” Megan swooned, “Whodathunk tha’ manual controls’d be sooo smooth. C’mon,” she turned her little feet in the direction of the bridge, “Did he show ye th’ analog FCS? JesusJosephan’Mary! Tha’s a thing ta b’hold… an’ fly! I’ll show ya.”
When Megan moved on Kennedy went with it and let the smile pull back onto her face. “I spied it, but honestly I haven’t really gotten up to my elbows in it yet. You going to give me the grand tour of the FCS then?”
The hatch whispered open in response to Megan entering her access code and, despite the sigh that whispered over her lips as she crossed the threshold, the tiny woman veritably skipped toward the Angel’s CONN. Kennedy followed, smiling, glad to see that there were others on board the Peregrine who felt the same about the Angel as she was coming to feel, it gave the ship the potential for a brighter future. When they got into the bridge Kennedy leaned up against one of the other station desks as Megan made her way to the command chair.
Megan grinned brightly at the CEO as she plopped herself into the seat and, as it spun her to the CONN, adjusted itself to her frame. A little hand reached forward, then, and cued in a command sequence that set the consoles to shifting about and the throttle and joystick emerged from their hiding places. “This,” the copper-tressed girl almost moaned as her hands settled on the analog controls, “is what flying is all about.”
Kennedy crossed her arms and grinned at her. “I wouldn’t know. Flying was never my thing. But I get you. I feel the same way about a well oiled warp drive. Now that whole configuration and way it almost organically blooms around you… that’s very nice. I said she’s a sexy bitch… and I meant it. Starfleet could learn a thing or two about ship design from the Trill I think.”
“Aye an’ fer shure, lass,” Megan concurred with a broad grin, “Jus’ like slippin’ between Risian silk sheets wi’out yer knickers on, innit?” She glanced back over her shoulder at the engineer then, an almost embarrassed expression on her face, Kennedy simply gave her a smile and small wink in return; “I mean… uh… I get yer analogy, Kennedy, but ya gotta give flyin’ a try a’least once. Especially in th’ Angel! Were we no’ at warp, I’d almost be tempted ta ask if ye wanted ta take ‘er out.”
Kennedy shook her head and gave off another small laugh. “I’d really have to get Zai’s permission for that, and he’d need to take a good long look over my flight history before he did it. I took some flight courses at the academy, let's just say I didn’t make a good impression. Last time I tried piloting a shuttle I nearly took off the tail during landing. I’m a grease monkey and I’m okay with it. Maybe someday though… we’ll see.”
The elfish ensign, first, visibly cringed and, then, giggled at Kennedy’s anecdote. “Well, luv,” she said, keying in the sequence to return the analog controls to their bays and turning back to face her, “Should ye e’er care fer a lesson, I’m yer lass, aye?”
Megan lounged, almost contentedly, in the CONN seat for a moment, seeming to relish in the way it cradled her. Then, as the brilliant grin spread back across her face, she leaned forward and pushed herself to her feet. “If ye don’ mind m’sayin, Kennedy,” she sighed, “I’m glad ya go’ Tochi ta open ‘er up, agin, poor memories aside. This bird deserves ta fly an’, sadness bein’ wha’ it is, it should’nae stop ‘er from spreadin’ ‘er wings.”
Kennedy nodded and let her fingers trail over the console she leaned against, feeling the subtle way that the displays were set into the counter, then the perfect curve of the counter edge itself. “Yes I agree with that whole heartedly. I’ve only known her a day and I can tell she’s something special. I might not be the one sitting in the pilots chair, probably safer, but I want to see her spread those wings out there amongst the stars…”
Megan practically beamed at those words… Oh but this is gonna be a good’n fer Tochi, she thought, strolling back in Kennedy’s direction, an’ fer th’ Angel… “Seems ta me,”she observed, “ye;ve got ‘er a step closer to tha; vera thing, sir.” She clasped her hands behind her back then, and rocked back and forth between her heels and toes as her eyes darted about the ship for which she obviously shared an affection with the CEO. “Anythin’ I can help ya with? I’m a wee bent on studyin’ this evenin’, after all.”
“Well… before you kicked me. I was working on the asymmetrical E-M couplings, seems they are all a bit cockeyed. I’ll take a hand getting them wrangled…” She pushed off the console, grinned and started back with Megan to where she had been working.
“Aye,” Megan snickered, following in Kennedy’s footsteps, “ Asymmetrical’d lead ya ta tha’ assumption wouldn’ it?” She cowed a bit when the engineer flicked a glance back but her smile didn’t diminish. “Sorry… could’nae help m’self, there…”
Posted on 2021-02-16 at 23:38:10.
Edited on 2021-02-16 at 23:43:38 by Merideth
|