Harmonics

Posted on Tue Jan 10th, 2023 @ 4:33pm by Lieutenant Thraxina & Petty Officer, 2nd Class Harmony Stardancer
Edited on on Mon Jan 16th, 2023 @ 8:35am

1,344 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Fool’s Errand
Location: Sickbay and Shuttle 2, USS Midway
Timeline: M1 MD02 (2268.16.05) 1500

She was slightly cutting corners, but it was for a good cause. All the Class F shuttles were ready to go; she just needed to fly Shuttle II out and back to the shuttle bay to test the blast shutters on the three forward windows that could be lowered when sensors detected something visually significant. A small point, but one that could save your life if something emitting a strong light blew up ahead of you.

Really it should have been a member of Command or Engineering with the relevant shuttle piloting experience to go out with her while she made the tests. Standard protocol. But she couldn't find anyone and the chronometer was ticking. She stuck her head in a door, which swished open automatically at her approach.

The room looked medical-y, with colorful vials and bottles of unknown liquid arranged on shelves and a blue clad girl sitting within. Thraxina wrinkled her nose slightly: not an officer, some 'other ranks' person - the type who were virtually slaves on her own home planet. It was probably the girl who did the pedicures around here.

"I say, you!" the patrician Andaran hailed the nurse or medical assistant or whatever she she was. "I don't suppose you know how to pilot a space shuttle?"

Looking up from the PADD she was studying, Harmony was a bit startled when the door swished open, not so much from the fact that someone had come in, but because of the request. Normally, of course, someone was looking for help of some sort, but this question was unusual.

"Yes, Ma'am, I can fly," she answered cautiously, hopping to her feet, "but I'm a medic, not a pilot." Not for Starfleet's purposes, anyway, not yet!

"Oh, jolly good, that'll do! Come with me!" Thraxina grinned "I supposed to need someone to be with me who can take over flying the dratted thing in case I collapse in a heap, utter nonsense of course: the thing practically flies itself. It's 'health and safety' gone mad." she pointed out.

"Uh...all right..?" Well, the woman was a superior officer, so who was she to argue? "I can do that." Both fly and tend to any collapsing! Double win!

"So 'medic', not doctor or nurse?" the gold uniformed helmswoman queried, giving Harmony a closer look "Is that what we'd call in our service a 'combat medical technician'?" She still thought of the Andaran Fleet as 'her service' rather than Star fleet.

"Aye, that's it!" Harmony grinned widely. "I'm the one you call in an emergency! So, ma'am, are you sure about this?" Orders were orders, right?

"Of course!" Thraxina said confidently, feeling that no further explanation was necessary.

They soon reached the shuttle bay, where a red-overalled technician was just flipping an access panel shut on the craft in question.

"All ready, Ma'am!" he nodded and Thraxina nodded back.

"Very good, I'll just take her out for a test spin and check that they're operating properly now. I'm taking... er..." she realised that she didn't know what the slim blue-shirt's name was.

"PO 2 Stardancer." Harmony looked over the shuttle with appreciation. "Harmony." She grinned and looked at the officer. "Ready when you are!"

"Harmony Stardancer?" Thraxina was about to ask her what her real name was but then decided, nah, no-one would make up a name like that.

"Alright Stardancer, he's got your name, let's do this exciting blast shutter test. I'm Lieutenant Thraxina, by the way. But you can call me Lieutenant or Ma'am." she offered generously.

"Come on!" she chided as she clambered aboard.

"Aye, Lieutenant, ma'am!" Harmony stepped into the shuttle and settled in the co-pilot's seat, looking over the controls, and feeling a sense of contentment. "So, just taking her for a spin?" Sure would be nice to go out for an extended trip, but that wasn't feasible just now.

"Mmm" nodded the woman with the braid, absently "Just got to make sure this little lot works as well in null-atmosphere as it does in the cosy little shuttle bay." she said as she fired up the impulse engines that were the craft's only form of propulsion.

"No nice little warp bubble to protect us out there. Just us and whatever the universe throws at us." she muttered, seemingly more to herself than to Harmony. She took them out to a place that presumably had some co-ordinates but might best be described as the a** end of nowhere. She touched a candy coloured button which lit up but instead of blast shields, there was a thunking noise from the back of the shuttle.

"Oh great! Take the controls, Stardancer, I'll go back there and see what's happening." Thraxina huffed as she got out of her seat.

"Aye, ma'am." Without really having to think about it, Harmony transferred controls over to her panel, then checked the systems over. "Hey!" she called back, "something looks wonky with the rear navigation sensors...shows they are off line." Nothing crucial for the current task, but important for general use.

"Oooh! All right, let me... OW!" there was a loud bang, and then Traxina shouted "It's all right, put your first aid kit away - just a crossed circuit."

The next sound was of a panel being shut and the tip-tap of the Andaran officer's boots returning her to the front of the shuttle.

"That junction box looked like it was put together by Tellarite! It should be back online now..." She stopped mid-sentence: Harmony's hands were stretched forward to re-engage the rear nav' sensors, exposing her forearms.

"Urgh, what happened to your arms?" asked the ever-blunt Thraxina.

Harmony glanced over at Traxina, a little startled at the question, although she really didn't mind. Most people just stared curiously when they thought she wasn't looking, unsure how to broach the subject, or even if they should. So the direct question was actually welcome.

"Kind of a reminder of poor life choices," she commented with a shrug. "I had a time when I was a little wild, some friends and I stole a shuttle and...well, we ended up in someone's house and I got burned helping."

"What, you AND the shuttle ended up in the house?!" queried Thraxina "Oh My Gods!" she gasped, half aghast, half laughing.

With a little chuckle, she leaned back. "That's why I'm a medic and not a pilot, at least for a few more years yet. I'm just sorry people had to lose their house for me to set my life straight."

"Nobody got killed did they?" the other woman asked. Thraxina had a bit of a devil-may-care attitude to life, it was true, but even she had to ask that before she could really laugh at the idea.

"No, fortunately." Harmony shrugged, looking over the control panel for a second. "One of them was injured, some burns, but nothing permanent. I could have had my scars taken care of, but they are a reminder." She shrugged again. "I think at the time, it really seemed wrong to try to erase my sins."

Thraxina nodded her understanding as she subtly took back control of the shuttle. There weren’t too many houses floating around, here in the vacuum of space, but she didn’t really want to risk it.

“All right, let’s see if these jolly old blast shields work!” she grinned and pressed the appropriate candy coloured button. Metal shutters instantly slammed down and suddenly they could no longer view the vastness of the galaxy around them.

Thraxina checked her instrumentation, then manipulated a more complex series of buttons to make the shields retract. In practice, the shuttle’s sensors would have to close the shields automatically if some massive explosion took place around them.

"Looks good!" Harmony declared, although it wasn't her call in the end. "I guess at least it shows that the repair crews have some clue what they're doing." And at least that didn't mean that they'd have to figure out how to jury-rig viable repairs on their own.

"Some" agreed the woman in command gold, dryly. That should have been it, impulse engines back on, back to the ship. But instead, Thraxina, so far away from home, her beautiful home on Stratos City, high above Andara, dimmed the lights and stared out into the vast open view of the Galaxy around them.

"Do you mind if we just sit for a five minutes... and look at the stars?"

 

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