Fanfic: Starship Elyssa Chapter 4 - Part 4
I'm sorry this is so long guys. I have no self-control.
_+_+_
With the determined stride of woman with purpose and productivity, the Asian Vulcan made her way down the hallways past the busy progress of the Enterprise. Konei was light on her feet, but still narrowly missed the lift. She resigned to go to the next lift further down the hallway, and she would’ve just barely caught it to, if a meddling teenager hadn’t gotten in her way.
“Excuseme, excuseme, excusemueerf!”
“Huuf!”
Without any warning, except the frantic politeness sputtering from his mouth, a bright eyed, curly haired Russian collided into Konei from the side. They hit the ground with a sort of fumbling only demonstrated by people on roller skates, or in this case, awkwardness. Konei instinctually groaned, holding her head, as the body around her scrambled to get to his feet.
“I’m wery sorry!” He began stuttering in Russian, as he leaned over, taking her by the arms without her permission, and helping her too her feet. Still dizzy from the fall, Konei was confused as to why she was being summoned to her feet. She looked over and the Russian suddenly stopped in mid Russian sentence. Konei was not dumb, and all the events concluded in her head
“You should be more careful,” she said. She pulled her arms away from him and began picking up her PADDs. “Logic dictates that an object moving at an high speed in a enclosed area with many obstacles posses a high probability of collision, thus slowing down the speed of the moving object. If you were passing through an asteroid field, the most rational way would be to move at a regulated pace so as to dodge the objects, for the least amount of impact.”
The Russian stared at her, then opened his mouth. “Yes, that would be the most rational way.”
She nodded. “Good bye.” And Konei slipped through the Russian’s fingers like sand. She stepped past him toward the lift, weaving through people, and although the Russian turned to stare after her, he made no effort to chase her. He made a soft curse in his native tongue, and then abruptly heard his name rang through the system speakers.
“Chekov! Where the hell are you?!”
The Russian bolted from where he stood, moving past people in the same manner as before, calling back to the voice, “Aye! I’m on my way!”
_+_+_
Hours past midnight, the bowels of the ship were still swarming with mechanics. Beads of sweat were trickling down Teixeira’s face when Roads joined her. She lifted her mask when she heard her name and saw the woman entering the garage.
“Hey. Need a hand?” asked the Captain of her ship. Teixeira grinned.
“Sure, if you think you can manage?”
Roads unzipped her Academy coat and dropped it on the ground to the side. She picked up a pair of gloves and a visor from the equipment rack and joined Teixeira over to the table.
“Just hold this down while I weld,” Teixeira ordered.
“Cool.”
Teixeira began welding and a few seconds later Roads began talking.
“I think I need a vacation-”
“CAN’T HEAR YOU, HON’,” Teixeira shouted over the blast of hot metal. She stopped so Roads could speak.
“I need a shore leave.”
“We all do, Hon’. But you know, duty calls,” Teixeira began blasting again. Roads shouted over the sound.
“HOW DO YOU KNOW MR. SCOTT?”
Teixeira immediately stopped and stared at her through the mask.
“You’re asking me this now?” asked Teixeira with annoyed disbelief.
“Well, yeah.”
The Engineer paused.
“We were in the same class together. He was the instructor’s assistant and I was a cadet. It was quantum physics II,” and she bent over to continue welding. When she was done patching up the wearing and tearing, she pulled up her visor and set down the tools on the hovering table next to her.
“Were you guys dating?” asked Roads, bluntly, through the mask. Teixeira shook her head as she looked over the piece.
“He seemed pretty into you in the transporter room,” said Roads. “Blair said she could feel a wave of pheromones from him”
“That’s cause Blair is naturally a love doctor,” quipped Teixeira, amused. “Her Orion body automatically picks up those things.”
Teixeira pulled the piece from Road’s grasp and placed it aside on a new stack. She picked up another broken piece from the side and gave it to Roads to hold.
“Visors down,” she ordered, and picked up the welding tool to begin repairing again.
“HOW DO YOU KNOW HE’S NOT INTO YOU?!” called out Roads over the sound, and Teixeira immediately stopped.
“Would you shut up?!” she harshly whispered. Roads gave her a sly look and smirked like a fox.
“You liiiiiiike him,” she teased.
“WHAT WAS THAT?!” Teixeira called out as she began welding some more, the roar of the hot metal fusing between the patches drowning out the last of Road’s comment. When it stopped, Teixeira pulled up her visor to give Roads her best impression of a serious, deadly mother fucker.
“Don’t you say a word of this to anyone,” she threatened. Roads became tightlipped and with her tips of her glove made clear they would be sealed for as long as they needed to be. Teixeira didn’t believe that a small act was an iron oath. “I mean it.” She emphasized. “One word, and I won’t tell you anything! Ever again.”
“Alright!” Roads said defensively. “So when did you first realize you liked him?”
“Can we not talk about this here?”
“But-”
Teixeira gave that look again, and Roads closed her mouth abruptly. When the Chief Engineer turned downward to continue her work, Roads impatiently blurted out.
“When?!” She pleaded, and Teixeira dropped the tool on the table with a heavy, angry thud.
“Look, would you rather me fix the ship or flood you with details of my long ago love affairs?” offered Teixeira, complimented with a fluttering of her eyelashes. Roads stared at her, then nodded.
“You’re right, let’s fix this ship.”
“Thank you.”
_+_+_
COMMUNICATION FROM STARFLEET PERSONAL FREQUENCY.
INTERCEPT.
REPLY.
U.S.S. ENTERPRISE(07:00:03): Enterprise.
U.S.S. ELYSSA(07:00:58): Enterprise, this is Lt. Cannito from Starship Elyssa, are we clear to begin boarding the relief crew?
U.S.S. ENTERPRISE(07:01:44): This is Lt. Uhura. How will you be transporting said party?
U.S.S. ELYSSA(07:02:21): Via Shuttlecraft. The Engineering crew possess equipment that is vital to the repair of your ship.
U.S.S. ENTERPRISE(07:03:59): Roger that. You are cleared to board.
U.S.S. ELYSSA(07:04:19): Understood. Cannito, Out.
COMMUNICATION CUT.
_+_+_
“Doctor Leonard.”
The short brunette in glasses looked up from her medical observations of a patient to the yeoman.
“May help you Hassenmuller?” asked Leonard as she clicked off her medical instrument and the humming went away. The patient also looked toward the man in the read shirt, curious.
“Ensign Konei has placed you as member of the relief part, committed to delivering excess supplies to the medical bay of the Enterprise,” declared Hassenmuller, reading from the PADD.
“What?” demanded Leonard, she ripped the PADD from Hassenmuller’s hands. Hassenmuller waved to the patient.
“Hey, Greg, how you doing?”
“Well, I woke up with an extra penis.”
“That’s…nice.”
Dr. Leonard rolled her eyes. “It’s a side effect from an experimental drug Greg so naively tried,” explained the short brunette as she scanned down the message. She sighed in frustration and handed the PADD back to Hassenmuller. She began packing up a tricorder, and called Chase into the room.
“Greg, you’re free to go, take this and this,” Leonard leaned over close enough to give him two separate hypos to the neck. He flinched from the shock. “And after twenty four hours, you’ll be back to normal. I suggest you tend to your duties and refrain from any erotic provocative material.”
Greg nodded numbly as he slipped off the medical table, as Chase came into the room.
“What’s up?”
Leonard was still packing up.
“You and I are collecting medicine and treatments to take over to the Enterprise crew. Apparently during their attack, they lost a considerable amount of chemicals needed to treat injuries created by neuronal burning,” explained Dr. Leonard as she finished pressing the vials into place in her case.
“But I wasn’t done checking inventory,” protested Chase.
“There’s no need for that now,” interjected Hassenmuller who was still hanging around, poking at blinking objects. “We’ll be at a starbase soon, in about two weeks or so.”
“But that’s in two weeks!” Chase once again protested. “This is not a good idea.”
“It’s what the Captain has ordered,” Leonard finished. “Now get with it, please.”
Chase didn’t finish arguing against the idea of sharing the Elyssa’s medical supplies but he also obeyed orders, gathering the listed medical supplies on a hover cart. Dr. Leonard made another nurse help him, and she tended to a few remaining patients who were in the final days of recovery. She checked the time and called for Cannito to get her a shuttle to the ship.
_+_+_
It was 11:00 hours, and Spock was done with fixing the wiring of the navigation system. He finished replacing the blown wires, connecting the final two, and closed the case. He lifted the cover and reattached it, clicking it into place. He rolled out from under the desk, greeted by a friendly face peering over him, leaning on her smooth dark legs.
“Lunch?” she asked with a smooth smile. Spock could not help but return it.
“Of course,” he replied as he sat up and easily got on to his feet. He picked up the rolling board and tucked it under his arm, and the woman who had invited him stood up beside him, pulling the hem of her read skirt down.
“Ensign Chekov, you have the con,” Spock said as he cleared his throat. The curly haired Russian nodded from his post, and the Vulcan and his companion moved to exit the bridge.
“Should we dine in the cafeteria or take our meals to a more private location?” suggested Spock. The dark skinned woman was thoughtful.
“I think, the latter would be a more profitable situation,” she said with a suggestive smile. Spock rose a brow.
“You’re implying another activity might take place instead of eating, Uhura?” asked the Vulcan.
“It’s certainly under consideration,” said Uhura with a gleeful smile.
“Commander Spock!”
The commander turned to his name being called as a young man slowed from a jog to a walk. He raised his wrench in the air, and he seemed to be sweaty from where he came. “The Captain wants-”
“Which Captain?” asked Spock immediately. The Engineer seemed to be confused, as he replied.
“Er, Captain Kirk,” he answered. “He needs you on the Engineering Deck to calculate the projectory of certain elements if we were to go a head and experiment on fusing the crystal fragments-”
“There has never been a successful study of reforming dilithium crystals-”
“Look, it‘s not me who‘s doing it-” But Spock cut him off, turning to Nyota sharply.
“Excuse me, Nyota,” he apologized. “I must take care of this immediately before the Captain blows up the ship-”
“But Spock-” Nyota began to protest, but Spock, uncharacteristically placed a hand around the curse of her ear.
“I promise to make to make a sufficient trade of my time to you later on in the evening,” promised Spock, and with that, he turned around and headed quickly to the nearest lift, followed closely by the Engineer.
Nyota Uhura sighed in disappointment and turned to head toward the Cafeteria. She passed Lt. Montrose on the way who smiled at her. “If you need company Uhura, I‘d more than happy to”
“Not if you want to keep your nuts, Bill,”
“Alright then,” Lt. Montrose backed out, and Uhuru’s stride became all the more determined. She entered the Cafeteria and immediately picked up a meal from the replicator. When she viewed the layout, she could see that it was only a quarter full, no doubt due to a substantial amount of the crew injured. She tried not to let that thought bring her down. Uhura never felt uncomfortable finding a friendly face or someone to sit with, and she instantly spotted her cranky friend. She walked over, and when he spotted her coming his way, he attempted to stand up to pull out the seat for her. Uhura was too quick for him, and she set down her tray before he could pull out the chair. He stood there awkwardly before sitting down.
“Thank you for the thought, Doctor McCoy,” she said sweetly as she slid into her seat.
“Uhura, I don’t know how you continue to be a shiny little penny in this overflowing fountain of shit,” lamented the Doctor.
“I’m sorry?” commented Uhura, certain she didn’t hear him right.
“Look around you, everyone looks like shit. Everyone has been working non-stop since the incident. No one is cycling shifts. I‘ve even pushed people, but some are lacking in respect for the chain of command,” Dr. McCoy seemed to be giving the eye to an officer from a distance, and Uhura spotted the gentleman shrink and remove himself quickly from his table and the room.
“Well that’s unfortunate, but I have to admit, I just now cycled a shift with Jillian. I only did it in order to have lunch with Spock, but,” Uhura sighed stirring her pasta in the sauce, “the captain seems to take precedence over lunch with me.”
“I’m sure Jim didn’t mean to steal him away from you,” offered McCoy, slicing a piece of his fish with the long side of his fork. “If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t seen Jim since 22:00 last night.”
“No offense to you, but Jim isn’t your boyfriend,” corrected Uhura, looking up from her pasta as she took a bite.
“I mean, Jim must be working hard if he’s not bugging the shit out of me in the medical bay, and if he needs Spock, it must be important,” concluded McCoy.
“I know,” Uhura confessed. McCoy watched her expression change from anger to depression, and he decided maybe a change of subject would lighten her mood.
“How is uh, communication?” asked McCoy, sweeping a forkful of greens.
“Well, it’s mostly fixed now. We just have to patch up the outside frequency receivers, and we’ll be back on the Starfleet channel,” reported Uhura.
“I’m sure Jim will be pleased to hear that,” commented McCoy. “I know he’s been dying to contact Admiral Pike since the Elyssa arrived.”
“Yeah, he didn’t seem too happy yesterday on the bridge,” said Uhura, taking another bite.
“The Captain of the Elyssa practically bitch-slapped him in my medical bay when they boarded,” said McCoy, with a hint of a smile.
“Really?” said Uhura with disbelief. She chewed the vegetable thoughtfully. “Any reason she hit him?”
“No, neither of them would tell me, but it’s not hard to guess,” said McCoy, back to a sour mood.
“Kirk should learn to keep it in his pants,” Uhura added.
“Don’t hold your breath.”
“Uh-huh.”
_+_+_
“Captain!”
The blonde haired, still incredibly smooth man turned to see his first officer running toward him.
“Oh hey, Spock you got my message! Cool, now-”
“Please do not fuse the crystal fragments it will be of no use to this ship except to diverge it into more hazardous particles and kill us all,” rambled Spock.
“Spock,” said Kirk with a serene tone. “Calm down. We’re not doing that anymore.”
“Then what is the intended reason for having me here?” asked Spock, rather sharply. Kirk raised a brow.
“Yeeeeaaaah, I need you to brainstorm with Scotty over the warp core. When the crystals exploded, the wave also busted three power valves,” Kirk explained, leading the way toward the warp core. As they got nearer, the temperature steadily increased, no doubt because the life-support systems were growing weak. On the other side, a team of workers were circling the warp core of the ship. He called out the name of his Chief Engineer to get his attention. “Scotty!”
The man turned to his name being called in a black tank and his pants and boots, having dressed down to work in the heat. He was holding a shovel, alongside a crew of workers, all the while sparks flickering around them. The heat increased as they drew closer.
“Scotty, what the hell is this?” groaned Kirk.
“Captain, I know what you’re going to say, but it’s not what it looks like-”
“Oh it’s exactly what it looks like!” corrected an angry woman Kirk suddenly noticed. She was the same woman from before, Miss Teixeira, dressed down to a sleeveless under shirt and pants, and shoveling away at the destroyed concrete center. He also noticed another woman by her side, the oh so demanding, commanding Captain Roads. Her academy, formal uniform was incomplete. Her coat was gone, she was sweaty, and her sleeves were rolled up to her biceps. Her body twisted as she dug deeper and lifted the shovel low to carry and drop the unwanted material behind her. Kirk tried not to stare.
“Shut it! Does not!” The Scottsman barked back at Teixeira.
“’Does not?!’ What are we twelve?!” snapped Teixeira, throwing her shovel to the ground. “Just what the hell were you thinking, using triple the energy in a low shielded generator?!”
“Look, if it proves anything, it proves that we’ll need to replace the valves than reinstalling the vials of dilithium,” defended Scotty.
“Your logic proves unfruitful. All you have done is waste valuable time, material, and manpower,” reprimanded Spock.
“Please don’t start,” jumped in Kirk before Scotty could raise a threatening finger in his first officer’s space and Teixeira could jump into the argument. “Look, let’s just move the rubble and deposit it in the garbage disposal unit so that we work on fixing the warp core.”
“We won’t be able to do that now.”
“Why not?”
“We’ve already blown our last remaining energy receiving valves.”
Kirk stared at Scotty. “You’re kidding.”
“He’s not kidding,” assured Road’s voice, coming into the conversation now, but she didn’t stop to talk. He glanced at her shortly before returning the focus to Scotty.
“Alright, so we blew a valve, is there anyway we can pick up a spare part in order to-” Kirk was cut off by the brunette.
“Don’t even-” Teixeira glared at him. She turned her head and bit her bottom lip, restraining herself before finishing that sentence, “We are not taking apart my ship.”
“No one’s saying that, we’re just exploring our options,” defended Kirk, placing his hands on his hips.
“You’re exploring how much you can get away with my generosity,” accused Teixeira, taking a step closer.
“Lass, no one gonna lay a fenger on your ship,” Scotty assured Teixeira, jumping in between her and the Captain. Kirk wasn’t sure if he should be afraid of this one. Teixeira glared at Scotty before taking a step back.
“Other options?” reminded Roads, still digging out the rubble. Road’s voice was beginning to come in out of the conversation like a haze. Scotty rubbed his hands over his face into his hair, thicking. The shadows under his eyes seemed deep with thought and concern.
“Maybe if we configure the spare parts from the shuttle bay, we’ll be able to create a valve similar to the ones destroyed,” Scotty theorized.
“What parts of the shuttle bay do you suggest we have to spare?” asked Spock
“There are a few things we don’t need to use at the moment. The glass of the spare shuttles. The plutonium used in the tractor beam,” suggested Scotty.
“So what happens when you’ll actually need to use the spare shuttles?” differed Teixeira, arms folded across her chest.
“What is the likelyhood we’ll be receiving any visitors in this shape?” said Kirk.
“You’re receiving visitors now,” Roads voice came in again.
“You’re not guests, you’re more like ‘plumbers,’” corrected Kirk. Roads rose her brows to the remark but said nothing.
“I don’t approve of this idea. In case of evacuation, we’ll need all shuttles,” stated Spock.
“With the Elyssa here, what are the chances of being attacked and being unable to defend this ship?” interjected Scotty.
“The more we are without stable conditions the more likely it is for us being attack, despite that presence of the Elyssa,” concluded Spock.
“We will protect you,” Roads voice rang in with the sudden thud of her shovel like a period to her words. She was climbed over the rubble toward the circle of mind, and vowed. “So long as the Elyssa is attached to the Enterprise, we‘ll protect you.”
Kirk stared at her before turning to Scotty. “As soon as we get out of the border of the neutral zone, we’ll take apart the extra shuttles and remove some plutonium from one of the tractor beams.”
“Aye Captain,” agreed Scotty. “Teixeira, less move this bloody git out of the way…”
“What do you think I’ve been doing for the past hour? I swear…” Teixeira and Scotty returned to shoveling, and Roads turned to work on removing more of the destroyed rubble. Kirk turned to Spock, but made sure that Roads remained in his constant view over his first officer’s shoulder.
“Is the navigation system up yet?” he asked. Spock folded his hands behind him.
“The navigation system is operable, but the flight system is still incapable so long at the left thruster is out,” Spock reported.
“Scotty, how soon could we get the left thruster working?” Kirk called over to his Chief Engineer. The noise of bickering behind paused as the scottsman looked up.
“In about four days, Captain,” replied Scotty.
“Eeeeeeeh, can you do it in about two?”
“I can’t change the laws of physics,” he called back.
“Two and a half.”
“Three.”
Kirk smiled, and Scotty grinned. “Alright, Teixeira, lass, drop what yer doin….” to which her reply was “YOU drop what you’re doing…”
“Spock, I know I’ve been asking a lot from you.”
“On the contrary, Captain,” Spock reassured him, “The maintence of this ship does not serve as an undesirable task and the hours which I have worked may be a stretch for a human but are within reasonable limits of a Vulcan.”
Kirk smiled warmly. “Of course, I forget.” Kirk looked over his shoulder as Roads was finishing up.
“Uhura has Starfleet communication channel up, do you wish to transmit a message to Starfleet command?” asked Spock. Kirk nodded.
“Yeah, I wanna get in touch with Pike,” he confessed. “I’ll meet you back in the bridge in half an hour.”
“Yes sir.”
Spock departed, and Kirk walked straight up to Roads.
“What’re you doing down here?” he demanded of her. Roads looked up at him, confused and tired. Mostly tired.
“I’m helping out, why?” she asked. She was crouched over the hover card and when she stood up, Kirk could smell the heat and grime from the engines. Her cheeks were flushed, and the ends of her bangs were wet. She ran a hand over her forehead, fingers through her hair to the back of her neck.
“Nothing,” he dismissed the argument.
“You know, what you said about moving the ship before disassembling the shuttles?” said Roads, placing her hands on her hips. “Was that because you don’t think the Elyssa can defend the Enterprise successfully?”
Kirk was not one to back down. He folded his arms over his chest. “I don’t doubt that the Elyssa is a formidable ship, but I’m not sure if it’d be the best defense against a Klingon attack.”
Roads narrowed her eyes at him and took a step toward him. “I know that your penis has trouble with my vagina but soon it’s got to learn that as awesome as you and your crew and this ship is, it can’t do everything by itself.”
Kirk locked eyes with her, and Roads for the second time found it hard to let go. She shouted loudly, breaking the contact, “Wifey! I’m done here!” ,nd Roads walked past him. A second or two later, Teixeira called back, as the Captain of the other ship made her way toward the exit.
“Okay hon!” Kirk turned, unamused, biting his lip, as Teixeira finished within earshot, “Hey Blair is in the artificial gravity chambers!”
Roads raised a hand to signal she heard, as Kirk watched her go, before turning around and marching in the opposite direction.
_+_+_
Part 5
http://kiyda.livejournal.com/294212.html#cutid1