Engineering Unity

Posted on Sat Dec 2nd, 2023 @ 12:13am by Lieutenant Marikit "Kit" Urso & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov

Mission: S1 Episode 6: Joy and Ashes
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: Date 2371-09-08 at 1115
2855 words - 5.7 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

The transfer to the Vengeance hadn’t exactly come as a surprise to Marikit. Out of the options from the combined crews, she had the most experience under her belt and she had no doubt Annalise hadn’t fought it largely for Kit’s own benefit than anything else. The larger vessel would provide more opportunities for her to work with a bigger staff on projects that would now benefit an entire fleet of ships. A fleet - it was strange to think about. She was surrounded by unfamiliar faces except for one crewman who had transferred along with her. It hadn’t been the most friendly environment, but given the very recent losses incurred by their crew, Kit wasn’t exactly surprised - it hadn’t been outright hostile at least. She also had the benefit of being very good with names and faces, so at the very least she wasn’t constantly having to question people what their names were when she was giving orders.

The state of the ship was… fine. Everything was standard and maintained well enough for the most part at least from what she could gather out of logs. Given the ongoing repairs after the attack, she only had logs and observations of current repairs being made. She’d provided the former assistant chief now turned chief for the Gladius with her own logs and information on the modifications and improvements made to the Gladius, but no records of that nature had been provided to her by the former chief of the Vengeance - it just wasn’t needed. In fact the most interesting things that had been sent to her had come by way of the security department outlining their shiny red matter weapons and operations sending her a list of the ship's inventory. The Vengeance certainly wasn’t hurting for supplies. Kit couldn’t help but be a bit envious that these people had more or less had lives of luxury out here while her people had fought tooth and nail to survive.

There wasn’t really time to dwell on that though, there was too much to do. She focused on the delicate task in front of her, the cramped space she had wedged herself into not bothering her at all. Almost done.

Three crewmen stood at the railing of the warp core looking down at the space underneath it and paused to speak to each other now and then. All three wore similar expressions of confusion, amusement, but also general curiosity at what was going on.

The XO of Vengeance had been very busy lately coordinating efforts to get the ship repaired and ready for normal operations. The night before had been the only real sleep he had gotten for days, and it had been much needed. The halo of irritation that seemed to surround his head finally lifted, and he decided to take some time to meet their newest crew members. The ship had taken many losses, but the personnel transfers from Gladius were used to an even more desperate situation than they were in now. It would be his job to get them oriented with a new assignment, and to show them the order of things here.

He’d read Marikit Urso’s file during his morning coffee and he couldn’t help but have his interest piqued. On the surface, she was a beautiful woman from a huge family, but she had also proven herself to have a habit of excellence as a talented engineer. Based on receipt logs, it seemed the fires of this Delta Quadrant exile had tempered her skills.

He entered Engineering with a confident stride, attracting the attention of the gold-shirted crew standing by the entrance. Between working with the crew here and those in Ops, he’d spent an unusually large amount of time here the past few days and he was now a familiar, if not comforting sight. The wave of intimidation showed that he was respected and feared, and that was the way he liked it most of the time. Turning to one of the crew, he paused in his stride.

“I’m looking for Urso. Where is she?”

“Uh.” The crewman began slowly, his eyes drifting toward the warp core and then back to Andrei. “Over there… doing something with the antimatter injectors.”

Andrei furrowed his brow, his visible gray eye moving back and forth around the central area where the core glowed bright blue. After giving a nod to the crewman, he proceeded toward the core. Fortunately, he’d had a good night’s rest and he was in a good mood, otherwise he might have found this mystery an annoyance. With a thought, he activated the scanning function on his eye patch and searched for lifesigns. Since the area was alive with heat sources and crewmen, he couldn’t get a very clear read, but he thought he saw what might be a person several rungs down the core nestled in an alcove he didn’t even know existed.

“Lieutenant Urso? Is that you down there?” he asked. Someone else might have knelt down, but he remained ramrod straight, even keeping his chin level with the ground. Only his eyes, in the end, were cast down.

“Yeah, one second, please! I’m nearly done here.” Kit called out loudly so she could be heard from where she was. She had no idea who she was speaking to, but they were just going to have to wait a minute.

“Quickly. I don’t have all morning.” Andrei said with a matter-of-fact tone as he crossed his strong arms over his chest and commenced with waiting as he had been asked to do. He was in a good mood, after all.

“Yeah I hear you.” Kit replied, mostly keeping the annoyance out of her voice. About two minutes later, she finished up, did a quick check, and then began the process of wiggling herself out of the tight area she was in. She twisted and squirmed, eventually working herself out under the railing and onto the Engineering deck. With a loud sigh, she pushed herself up to stand, dusted herself off, turned and immediately craned her neck to look up at Andrei.

“Damn you are a unit aren’t you.”

“And what else do you like about me?” he asked, a charming smile appearing on his face as he dropped his arms to his side. The smile faded quickly, replaced by a pleasant expression. His eyes fell on her slender body briefly, but rested on her delicate face. He didn’t hide the look or apologize for it; he never did. “I can only assume you clean up well, considering.”

With a gesture, he pointed to an array of dusty spots on the front of her uniform which were earned climbing into and out of wherever she had been.

“Eh, debatable. I think it’s part of my charm.” She looked down at herself and then back up to him, not the least bit apologetic for the spots on her uniform. She was working, and it wasn’t a clean job.

“What can I do for you, commander? Replicator broken?” She asked automatically, the joke behind it only clear to her.

“Not at the moment, no. I’ve come down to meet the new Chief and give you the lay of the land.” He asked, quirking a brow. “Is your first task on your first day to slip into a dark warm space and hide from your department?”

“First? No. This is like task seven. I’ve been here for a long time.” Kit chuckled and placed a hand on her hip, standing easily and looking Andrei up and down. It was less appraising, but certainly there was a bit of interest.

The interest was immediately noticed; he was used to that. He didn’t exactly hide his own, but he didn’t lean into it. Instead he chuckled lightly.

“Efficient and dirty. An impressive combination.” he said, meeting her eyes with the one he had available. “Is that how you managed to survive on that tiny ship of yours for so long?”

“Honestly pretty much, yeah.” She shrugged and smiled. “So does this all come with a tour? Song and dance? Surprise welcome cake?”

“I don’t bake or give tours, and never mind the singing and dancing.” He said with a shake of the head. “But if you want, I can send my Yeoman to show you around. He might try to show you to his quarters instead though, the tiger. He learned from the best.”

He leaned against the console behind him, somehow regal and manly in a posture that would be relaxed on someone else.

“I could show you After 11 some time, if you’d like, though. It's a great atmosphere and the best way to get to know the knuckleheads on this crew.”

“Sounds like a good time. We’ll see. Shame about the other stuff though, you look like you know how to move.” Her smirk was playful, the innuendo obvious but not overly intense in interest much like her gaze.

“Moving is my specialty, actually.” He said, his own flirtatiousness veiled and just as ambiguous. “But I don’t move for just anyone. I’m very selective about my dance partners these days.”

“Are you?” Kit challenged mildly and leaned in closer. She didn’t seem particularly intimidated by the massive size difference between them; she had no reason to be. “What’s wrong with me, hm?”

“Too short.” He said with a smile. It clearly wasn’t a real critique, but he delivered it with perfect calm and definitive charm. “I could lift you with one hand. Imagine a dance under those circumstances.”

“Oh come on I could stand on your shoes. That’s a weak excuse.” Kit stepped up like she was actually going to do that very thing. “Besides me being short means I can do all sorts of fun things.”

“Problem is, Lieutenant, I think those are the most dangerous shoes to stand on in the entire fleet at this point.” A sing-song voice sounded from behind Andrei. The newly promoted Assistant Chief Engineer stepped around the commander, her cat-like features turning in a gossipy smile.

“Eh?” Kit prompted Nairobi, tilting her head slightly. “Why?”

“Because, if you step on those shoes, his girlfriend will step on your corpse.” She answered with a tightening of her smooth-skinned brow.

“Dramatic.” Andrei said with a smile toward Nairobi.

“Understatement, sir.” Nairobi responded, before turning and walking back to the location of her next assignment.

Kit’s head turned back and forth between Andrei and Nairobi with each bit of the exchange. She then folded her arms under her barely existent breasts and thought a moment.

“Is she your girlfriend?” Kit asked, gesturing after Nairobi’s retreating form and not seeming particularly threatened.

Andrei smiled immediately, showing his teeth and chuckled, shaking his head with his eyes closed.

“This isn’t the sort of orientation I had in mind.” He said with amusement.

“Oh come on.” Kit grinned herself, having a good time with it. “That’s all part of the lay of the land. Should I just start guessing?”

Andrei’s smile continued and he nodded silently. He wondered if she’d be able to figure out the truth of the matter.

“Hmmm.” Kit hummed pensively and suddenly stepped up into Andrei’s personal space, though didn’t touch him. Instead she seemed to be intensely inspecting him. “Well, you probably don’t want someone you can snap in half when you’re getting real deep into your song and dance. You’ve got big hands so she probably has decent sized tits. You look like you’ve got a lot of stamina, probably want someone that doesn’t get winded after a couple rounds…”

“Correct on all counts.” He said, not flinching from her proximity. He was completely unbothered and not at all intimidated by the presence of beautiful women as many men were. He looked into her eyes, seeing the fight there. Silently, he reminded himself of Lyra and controlled his gaze just that once.

“And you want someone relatively tall to dance with… or at least that’s a preference for a girlfriend.” She eyed him again, reading easily that the whole monogamy thing wasn’t his usual style.

“Let’s see. Oh what was her name? The tall scary one.”

“Impressive skill.” He said with a chuckle. “Most people can’t tell what someone likes just by looking at them. I think you might have missed your calling in discipline inspection. But, I’m afraid ‘tall and scary’ isn’t a real answer. I guess that means I win, doesn’t it?”

“Hold on, hold on. Give me a second, it's like my first real day.” Kit waved him off in a dismissive way and put her curled index and thumb against her lips and chin. “Ty… Ry… Hy…. Ly… Ly… oh Lyra Cassiel?”

“Damnit, you got me.” He said, slapping his legs with his hands. “What else can you tell just by looking at me?”

“Woo boy.” Kit laughed and then suddenly took a large step back from Andrei. She was grinning still and laughed. “I can tell you no dick is worth dying for. Do people here know that? I’m guessing not considering Ellis kinda looked like she wanted to hop on for a ride just in passing. Hold on please.”

She picked up one of the tools sitting on the console nearby and struck the railing surrounding the warp core a few times. “Hey!”

Confused, the engineers suddenly stopped and turned their attention to Kit.

“I’m going to give all of you a friendly reminder that no dick is possibly worth dying for.” She paused, looked at Andrei up and down very slowly, then added quickly. “Or pussy.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Andrei said, shaking his head at the display. He didn’t seem particularly bothered by the antics, but he didn’t join her in her public announcement. “Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s get back to business.”

“No, no. That’s a very sure thing. I could engineer something just as good. Definitely not worth dying over. No thank you. Anyways you owe me a drink for guessing right. Good taste by the way, she is hot.” Kit shrugged and then put the tool down. “What do you want to cover?”

Andrei raised his brow at that. Women were saying things like that all the time, but it never panned out in reality. He knew that a machine or a hologram could never be sensitive enough to do what a red-blooded Terran man could. It was a cope from them, he knew, but he honestly didn’t care to force the issue.

“We have daily senior staff meetings at 0730 hours. You need to be on time and, obviously, be able to give your department report quickly. We move out of there pretty quickly.” He said, moving right on to business.

“Sure, not a problem. We did that on the Gladius. Well, we tried to. Our XO was pretty chronically late.” Kit shrugged slightly. “But that’s neither here nor there I guess.”

“I’m always right on time. I don’t know anything about him, but that’s not how I do things.” Andrei said with a somewhat dismissive tone, directed not at her, but at the man on the other ship. “You can trust things to start promptly and end when I say so.”

“Well, that’s a plus.” She didn’t seem entirely convinced of that particular statement, but she didn’t seem to actively be skeptical of it either. She didn’t know Andrei, so she wasn’t going to judge without at least something to go off of.

“I assume you got your new quarters assigned and your security codes up to date?” Andrei asked.

“Yeah, no problems there.” Kit nodded and then paused. “Should I replicate some earplugs? Or maybe just go all out and install some sound proofing in your quarters?”

“Sharing is half the fun.” Andrei said, shaking his head with a grin. “What else do you people have to think about at night?”

“Ew.” Kit’s face scrunched and then she laughed, shaking her head. “Alright, industrial soundproofing it is then. You go get her, tiger. The rest of us will have a nice sleep.”

“You say that now. I can tell you’re one of those who will be holding a glass up to the wall, dreaming of what wonders are occurring down the corridor.” Andrei said, before shifting out into the middle of the room. “I’ve got others on my list, Lieutenant. I’ve got to get to them.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not the jealous type.” Kit assured him and gave him a wink. “Thanks for stopping by.”

“That makes one of us.” Andrei said, before turning and leaving without another word.

END