Wake Up Call

Posted on Sun Jul 28th, 2024 @ 7:53am by Lieutenant Marikit "Kit" Urso & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov

Mission: S1 Episode 8: Resolutions
Location: Aeroshuttle
Timeline: Date 2371-12-27 at 0500
3034 words - 6.1 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

Andrei liked to have fun, but he was an orderly man. As much as he liked Kit, she didn’t seem to share this personality trait. He was clean, while she had literally thrown all of her clothes all over the place. He left his bags closed and neat when he wasn’t accessing them and she left hers exactly the way they’d rested after she received what she wanted from them. The night before, she’d gone to bed and he stayed up completing some extra work.

He was tired, so when her first alarm went off at 0500 hours and proceeded to allow it to ring for the next four minutes. He got out of bed, walked over to her alcove, and reached over her sleeping, curled body to turn off the alarm from her bedside console. He wasn’t angry, and understood that not everyone was as responsive to some alarms as others.

Kit didn’t even stir other than to sigh and wiggle a little. Her head one on one pillow and she had her arms wrapped around another while she slept peacefully on her side curled up into a compact ball. She was sleeping in a tank top and long shorts underneath the sheet of the small single bed she was sleeping on. The alarm had scarcely been turned off for a moment when another one sounded and Kit continued to simply sleep without a care in the world.

Andrei rolled his eyes. She was one of THOSE. He canceled that alarm as well before turning and heading straight back to his bunk. Then, laying down in the double bunk, he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. After fifteen minutes of silence, he finally drifted back to dreamland.

It seemed almost the moment Andrei drifted off, the alarm began to sound again from Kit’s bunk. This time she rolled over onto her other side, stretched, but immediately curled back up and continued to peacefully dream of whatever she was dreaming about.

“Godsdamnit, Kit…” he growled, his eyes flashing open as he leaped out of his bed and crossed the distance between them in a second. With a pointing of his finger, he deactivated the alarm and frowned down at her for a few seconds. He returned to his bed then, and sleep came more easily than last time.

Again, her alarm sounded. This time she stretched out and groaned, but instead of turning it off herself, she pulled the pillow she had been holding out of her arms and covered her head with it so she could continue to simply ignore the incessant noise playing by her head.

Andrei woke, his jaw tightening. At first, he didn’t get up, as he was focused on calming himself down. After a few moments, however, he climbed out of bed slowly, and walked over to Kit’s bunk again. This time he stared at her for a long while, looking particularly displeased. He then grabbed the pillow off of her head and started to pummel her with it over and over until she was awake.

“Do you hear that, Marikit? It’s the sound of your nineteenth fucking wake up alarm going off without you moving a muscle! No wonder you’re always late to meetings!”

Immediately, Kit yelled in alarm as Andrei started hitting her. She threw her hands up to fend off the attack while twisting her body so she could get up. “Hey! What the fuck?! Sto- STOP IT! I’m awake you asshole!”

She grabbed hold of the pillow but Andrei was easily able to get it out of her hands, so instead she just curled forward into herself and put her arms over her head while the alarm still sounded. “Stooooooooop!”

He continued to hit her with the pillow several more times, doing no damage, but making himself perfectly clear. Then he put his arms around her, grabbing her legs, and literally lifted her to move her aside on the bed. Climbing in next to her, he ran his hands over the bedside console with a frown.

“Shut up. I’m putting an end to this farce myself. You might be the worst bunk mate ever.”

“Fucking… fuck…” Kit grumbled and turned her head, glaring sleepily at him as he put his hands on her bed. She picked up her other pillow then and smacked him upside the head with it. “Get the shit out of my bed you weirdo!”

Andrei ate the impact, but ignored her for a few more seconds. He had deactivated the entire alarm function and then established a security lockout at his access level. Even a skilled engineer couldn’t crack the code without several weeks of sustained effort and a hell of a lot of luck.

He stood up out of bed then and grimaced at her.

“Fine, devil woman. Go back to sleep.”

“You’re so rude.” Kit grumbled at him, hitting him a few more times with the pillow as he retreated but then promptly flopped back down into the bed with a dramatic sigh and curled back up. It seemed she did intend on going back to sleep despite now not having any alarms to wake her. That was Andrei’s problem now, not hers.

Much to his dismay, Andrei was now very much awake. Instead of going to bed, he called onto the floor between their bunks and started with some push-ups, and then moved on to sit-ups. He made them look effortless and took quite a while to make sure he got as good a workout in as he could. He didn’t pay any attention to whether Kit was awake or not.

“Computer, ETA to destination.”

“You will arrive in 21 minutes, 43 seconds, the computer responded.

“Shhhhhh sleep time.” Kit grumbled from the bunk and put one of the pillows over her head again, trying to ignore Andrei and all of his noise in favor of going back to sleep.

“Kit, wake up.” He said from the floor, poking her in the side with his finger. Messing with her was more fun than he would admit, so he refused to smile about it. “We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“I. Am. Sleeping. Fuck off.” Kit replied, shying away from his finger and throwing the pillow at Andrei instead to try and get him to go away. They definitely couldn’t have nearly already been there; she hadn’t slept nearly enough and there were alarms she hadn’t heard yet.

“You’re acting like a child.” He said, climbing to his feet. “I could launch you out of that bed onto the floor, but I can’t change you into your uniform, so I don’t really want to go down that road. Get up.”

“Just the worst man.” Kit half grumbled, half growled and then finally rolled over and sat up. She took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and looked around. “What, no coffee? No breakfast? No nothing? You suck.”

“I’m not your servant, woman.” Andrei said, finally grinning. “Your wake up habits are an attractive recipe for misery for you and anyone who sleeps with you. Now put your uniform on so we can eat.”

“Bet our girlfriend would have woken me up with coffee and kisses.” Kit grumbled as if she were sulking and pulled herself out of bed with obvious effort and over to her bag. She picked through it, throwing some clothes over onto the bed until she found what she wanted, then dug a bit more and pulled out her uniform.

“You suck.” She reiterated and then moved to the bathroom to clean up and change.

“At least you care.” He said, chuckling and pulling off the dark blue shirt he had worn to bed, revealing his chiseled, powerful torso. He folded the shirt neatly and placed it into a second small bag for dirty clothes. He had taken a shower the night before, so there was no need to wash again. He pulled off the shorts he was wearing, leaving him standing in gray boxer briefs. “What do you want for breakfast? Do you go light or heavy?”

“Filling. Don’t worry about it though; I like what I like and I’ll get it.” Kit called from the bathroom as she stepped into the sonic shower. She yawned as the waves began to run over her body and reached up to rub her face. After a minute of standing there she finally stepped out and pulled on the clothes she had dragged in with her. She was interested to see if she would learn anything useful at the conference, but she understood that likely the only reason this “trip” was even a thing was Andrei was looking for a cure. It was a noble purpose of course and Kit didn’t mind, but she also knew he probably really didn’t give a damn about the whole engineering side of the equation.

She walked out clean and dressed in her uniform with an open jacket and the pants option for women as was her usual. She didn’t even spare Andrei and glance and moved over to the replicator. “Urso Rice Beta-1.”

From the replicator came a plate of steaming rice with what appeared to be some sort of cut up sausage and a glass of water to pair with it. She picked it up and walked over to the table with it to sit down.

“So what’s the plan when we get here?”

“How many rice dishes do you have planned in the system?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her request. Beta-1 was very particular, and it made him wonder. He pulled on a tank top and then his uniform pants. Grabbing his socks and shoes, he walked over to the couch in the back room and pulled them on.

“I’m Filipino.” She replied with a wave of her fork as if that were a sufficient answer to his question. As he had walked by, she had looked up at his broad body and let her eyes linger for a long moment until he made it to the couch and she focused her attention back on her meal.

“Right right.” he said, beginning to tie his shoes. “Anyway, to answer your question, my first priority is to scope out the safety of the conference area. I have no intention of leaving you alone with a bunch of aliens if they’re going to try to do you harm.

He stood and walked into the quarters again, and then emerged with the rest of his uniform. He slipped himself into the red shirt, adjusted himself, and then put his arms through the uniform jacket.

“Once I’m satisfied it's safe, we’ll go our separate ways to get into our own trouble. I’m going to have you check in once an hour though.”

“Sure, sounds fine with me. I’ll say like doctors, Engineers generally have really upscale conferences that are more likely to have whores and drugs than anyone shanking someone else.” She flashed him a grin. “Don’t get yourself into trouble, eh?”

“Don’t buy too many whores.” he said, zipping his jacket and grinning. He went over to the replicator. “Andrei Breakfast Option 1.”

A large plate stacked with eggs, sausage, bacon, and half a grapefruit materialized. He grabbed it and walked over to the table. Sitting down, he started eating immediately.

“Just one or two. We’re limited on time so I may have to double up.” She speared a piece of sausage on her fork and brought it up to her mouth. “So what are you planning on getting?”

“A cure for the disease on Gamma Eridine II. Possibly get my hands dirty, if I need to.” he said. It was clear he was speaking seriously and there was no joking in his response. “I don’t care about anything else.”

Kit frowned, her nose wrinkling. “I meant for Lyra. I know you’re going to look for information on the cure, obviously.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked, splitting the grapefruit with his fingers and plunging his lips into it.

“Hello? You went on a trip without your woman - with another woman I might add. You’re supposed to bring them back something to show you were thinking of her during your trip.” She popped the piece of meat in her mouth. “You’re bad at life.”

“My family is languishing on a planet, currently being abandoned to live in the Delta Quadrant for the rest of their lives. I think I’ve been a bit busy.” he said, looking up at her, his mouth and chin wet with the sour, sweet juice of the fruit. “I’m sure I’ll come across something she would like.”

Kit looked at him like she had something to say but thought better of it and just shrugged. “Whatever. You do you.”

“I already am. And I’ve been doing it quite well so far.” he said, grinning in the eyes as he focussed on the grapefruit again. He was eating it in a rather undignified manner as he would if he was alone. There was something about the animalistic process that was cathartic for him. Once the rind was impressively clean, he put it back on the plate and wiped his face with a napkin. “What would you get her, if she were your girlfriend? Just for the sake of research.”

“If she were my girlfriend, I wouldn’t have left her.” Kit replied simply with a grin and finished her meal. Standing immediately, she walked over to the replicator with the plate and cup, chugged the rest of her water, then put both in the replicator to recycle.

“She’s the ship’s second officer and is back on Vengeance doing her job. We are soldiers of the Empire and warriors.” Andrei said, popping bacon into his mouth. “And that isn’t remotely an answer to the question.”

“Well, like you said, you’re sure you’ll come across something she would like. Why do you need to ask me about it?” She challenged, obviously amused by this turn of events. The thought hadn’t even entered his mind that he might be served by getting something for Lyra.

Andrei blinked. A rare occurrence, he wasn’t in the mood for this game. Playing the day before had been fun, but today, he was geared up for battle. Talking about getting presents for his girlfriend was the last thing on his mind, and he felt quite justified in that. He’d had a dream the night before that involved his family, and he was still sick over it.

“Never mind.” He said, frowning as he popped the last bite of food into his mouth and then quickly shuffled the plate into the replicator. “I’ll figure it out.”

“Just get her some candy or something, man. It doesn’t have to be that deep.” Kit sighed at him. “Just a ‘hey, you actually entered my mind at some point on this trip’.”

She turned then and moved up to the cockpit while zipping up her jacket.

Andrei said nothing as she departed. He put the incident and the thought behind him. He couldn’t possibly know what they have on this moon anyway, as it was completely alien to them. He went into the bathroom and brushed his teeth before exiting the hall into the cockpit as well. He noticed Kit at the helm, so he sat at the Ops console instead.

“We’re entering the system, dropping to impulse.” She informed Andrei as he sat down and tapped the console to do just that. “How long are we planning on staying here before we head back?”

“A day. Maybe two if I can’t find what I’m after in that time.” He said, working the console in front of him and bringing up a map of the planet. “Any other questions?”

“Nope, don’t think so. Want to take over?” She asked and indicated up to his patch.

“Yeah.” he said, his voice sober and distracted. He networked with the computer and accessed helm controls. “I’m bringing us into range. Check and see if their traffic controller has sent us an orbit placement.”

“Checking.” Kit replied, leaning forward a bit to the console and lightly tapping at it. “They have, sending it to you now. They also extend their warmest welcome.”

“How cute. Clearly they’re just being nice.” he said, issuing his commands. “Pulling us into the designated orbit.”

When it was done, Andrei stood and gestured to the transporter.

“I want to make sure you get where you’re going first.”

“Sure.” Kit shrugged and walked toward the small transporter pad. “Do you want to physically meet up at some point today, or just check-ins?”

“Not for security purposes. If you want to grab lunch, I think that should be fine. As long as I’m not locked in pulling a stubborn Vidian’s teeth out with pliers.” he said, and smiled, though it wasn’t remotely a joke.

“We’ll play it by ear I guess. Don’t get yourself into too much trouble, okay?” She gave him a wink and stepped onto the pad.

“I make no promises.” he responded, lifting an eyebrow. “And you fill your mind with engineering technical bullshit.”

“Yeah yeah. I’m ready.” She waved a hand at him and rolled her shoulders, giving one more quick look around the area to make sure nothing was amiss and waited for Andrei to transport her down. “See you later.”

“Energizing” he said, initiating the transporter system with the aid of his patch. It occurred to him as he did it that he had never tried to use it with a transporter before. Walking over to the console, he scanned to make sure Kit had arrived in one piece. When he saw she had, he set the shuttle on vacant mode and stepped into the transporter himself.

END