Kane Vs Rosie

Posted on Wed Mar 28th, 2018 @ 11:37pm by Reessem Nubohn KIA (*)

Mission: Mission 6 - Azzia
Location: Deck 19 Just outside Aux Generator Room
Timeline: MD02 12:00
2645 words - 5.3 OF Standard Post Measure

A constitution class vessel is big. In the secondary hull alone there are over 5 km of corridors, that didn’t even include all the Jefferies tube, crawlspaces and miscellaneous opening that honeycombed the engineering decks. For the past three hours, it seemed to Deacon that the ships administrator had him up, down around and through most of them. The woman’s knowledge of the ship could only be referred to as encyclopedic, allowing them to bypass the sealed areas by routes what would probably take Deacon weeks to learn. And her patience with him, as he poked, prodded and scanned equipment every couple of minutes seemed inexhaustible, however their legs weren’t.

They broke for ‘lunch’ just before they reached the auxiliary generator room. Their feast consisted of a cold cut grinder, a couple pieces of fruit and thermos of cold strong tea that Deacon had packed in the bag slung over his shoulder. As with all new shipmates, their conversation quickly turned to the inevitable ‘Well what’s your story then?’ So Deacon found himself sitting on an old crate, trying to encapsulate his life over tea and luncheon meat.

“It’s not that weird.” Deacon insisted defending his last story, “It’s just what my people do. I was essentially, indentured to the Ferengi for six years.” He could see doubt in Reessem’s eyes as she nibbled on the sub roll, she was perched on the edge of a huge viewport overlooking the planet below. “And hey if it wasn’t for that I’d never have learned my trade and have found myself here having to share my lunch with the likes of yourself.” He winked with a grin, “Now how about you, Sunshine? Like the movie say how did a girl like you, blah, blah blah, blah?”

A cyclic whoosh, repeating once every second or so, was so clear you would swear even the walls of the junction pulsed with the beat of it. "It's her pulse," Reessem said with a massive smile, the sounded made her relax. "Sunshine... please... I ended up here by pure chance." She admitted slightly unwilling to tell him how Gregnol had saved her from something a lot worse.

Deacon didn't know if it was her smile or the split second of vulnerability, but he suddenly found words spilling out of his mouth. “More and more, I see within you light that would put all the stars themselves to shame,” Deacon said in Rigellian, “More’s the pity you don’t see it.” Words just hung there as Deacon absorbing every syllable along with every grease and grime filled detail of her face and fleck of blue and brown within the deep green forest of her eyes.

He looked away then, finding something of interest outside the viewport. “That was just a silly poem composed by a man with no talent,” he shrugged looking back at her with a melancholy grin, “But did you hear not hear how that sounded? " He asked playing the clown, "It is the linguistic equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. That’s why i need your help with my French." He added trying to bury what he said under the usual BS, "You can say anything in you language an have it sound so, so...French! If I said ‘My toilet is clogged you moron’ it comes out like ‘Ma toilette est bouchée toi crétin’ now that actually sounds like poetry, doesn’t it now?”

The woman found herself laughing just a little as he spoke French and shook her head. "It is a pretty Poem." She assured softly as she shook her head. "Most crew just speak Federation Standard. There are a little group that speak Betazed and the Captain speak Russain when he gets annoyed... only Jeassaho understands that." She said hinting at the man.

Deacon felt an icy hand grip his heart, as what Reessem said lodged in his brain like a spanner jamming the gears of malfunctioning clock. Clearing his throat he nervously eyed the now coy look on her face, "And what languages do you speak?"

Reessem shrugged a little. How many languages wasn’t important to her as they came to her easy peasy un like a lot of things. “Um… I speak three Human languages – French, Italian, Chinese. Federation standard, Fergangi… and then some others I speak less fluently.” She didn’t want to blow her own trumpet on things as it wasn’t a big deal just allowed her to work on a ship like Rosie.

Deacon just nodded, looking impressed. On the inside, he was thoroughly confused. 'It is a pretty Poem' Did she understand what he said? Most wouldn't, but then again most aren't the individual sitting across from him. "You are an interesting woman, Reessem Nubohn," he said as all of his pretences fell away, under the warm glow of her deep hazel eyes, "Don't let anyone tell you different."

"But listen now we can't be lollygagging around here all day," He said picking up the remains from lunch, "I think we better continue on. I'd like to see what's behind those doors" he added moving toward the hatch to the auxiliary generator room, and away from the awkward feelings that seemed to bubble up every time he looked at Reessem.

He chided himself for his foolishness. It was totally irrational and out of place. He had just met the girl, hell today was only the second time they spent any time together. And yet he knew what her hair smelled like underneath all the dirt and grim. And when she was relaxed easing her defences, she'd wrinkled her nose ever so slightly when she smiled or laughed, just for a second. But he'd known women just as attractive, who spoke plenty of languages, part of his brain argued. All true, he admitted to himself, but none were quite Reessem Nubohn.

Deacon's thoughts on Reessem were quickly derailed as hatches to the generator room parted assaulting his nose with a pungent odor. It smelled like a bog at low tide. "Whoa you don't have to be an engineer to know that isn't right." he said blocking his nose."What do you think?" he said nodding to the darkened room.

The woman winced at the smell as it hit her and sighed standing up wiping her hands on her trousers as she did. "I wouldn't claim to know in slightest. I've barely been down here other than guiding new crew or occasionally on an inspection with Gregnol." She admitted thinking that The Captain only took her so she could write. She knew the routes could offer a tour but beyond that, she was out of her league and slightly useless. The small woman stood piling her hair up in a high ponytail out of the way just incase she needed to get to work.

Deacon smiled at her as the tied a durag around his head work lamp out of his bag. He then handed Reessen a second work light and entered the dark, foul-smelling room. “Let me see if I can get some lights on.” He said as he walked toward one of the walls. “Hmmm, that’s weird” he added looking at his tricorder, “Most of the generators are in good shape, but according to my readings the power transfer circuits seem non-functional.”

Deacon found the problem when he opened a loosed the circuit panel. In it he found almost all the isolinear chips corroded and in the middle of the space a large cottonlike mass “Oh my sweet...” Deacon started to say.

Then glancing at Reessem, “Have you ever seen Talarian hook spiders?” he asked scanning the room, “Bodies are about half a meter long, with legs about twice that. Scary buggers to look at but pretty harmless really, unless you blunder into a female’s nest, which I think we have.”

Looking very seriously at Reessem he said, “We need to back out of here slowly, just keep your eyes sharp and head for the door.

Reessem was just about to turn but noticed a silhouette in the piping above to Deacon’s shoulder. What she thought were powerlines were a spider’s hooked legs that were now quivered ready to stab down on the unsuspecting Rigellian's back.

The young woman without thinking pulled out the small basic phaser from her pocket and fired until the spider fell dead next to the pair. "I...it... was going to kill you." The woman said having moved before she had even thought about it all.

Deacon just started at the smouldering ruin at their feet as his heart pounded in his chest. It had been a breeder female, half again as large as any he’d seen before. Hooks had dug two ugly furrows into the permacrete decking, two furrow that were right where his feet would have been if not for Reessem, whose look of warning gave him the split second he needed to spin away. "Well that would have really and truly sucked." he said crouching on the backs of his heels staring at the spider, "Legitimately, Mademoiselle, you just saved me from a world of hurt, and possibly from being fitted for a body bag."

His gaze shifted to her, standing next to him in relaxed and efficient Weaver stand, her phaser pointed toward the deck, "My compliments to your training regimen," he said nodding at the weapon, "I think I owe you a dinner, but no lobster, I'm not made of latinum." He added with a wink

The woman slowly lowered the tiny phaser and put it back into her pocket. It had been a request from the Captain and boy was she please there and then that she had agreed to the promise when it had just save someone's life. "What about the eggs and how the hell did it get on here?" She demanded adding it to the list of thing that had freaked her out since coming onboard.

Deacon tried showing her his most reassuring smile, "The egg mass won't be a problem," he assured, grabbing a pair of work glove from his bag. Standing up he walked back over to the circuit panel, "As for how it got here, could have been any number of ways, they're only a couple centimetres long when they hatch. It could have hitched a ride on a box of fruit or vegetables, any cargo container really. Hell these things can survive hard vacuum, It could have crawled over on a refueling umbilicus." He explained as he carefully removed mass of 'cotton' from the circuit board, and laying it on the deck, "Could you phaser that for me. please."

"This ship spills more and more secrets by the hour." The woman whispered as she looked around hoping that they wouldn't discover anyone who had accidentally already stumbled along here. The woman didn't say anything as did as requested without a problem. "I am surprised no one else has stumbled upon them Kea is always wandering around." She said thinking of the brunette Engineer,

"No big surprise, really," Deacon replied as he searched the generator room, "like I said, with the exception of a nest, they'd usually avoid anything bigger than itself. There are ten decks in the secondary hull alone, more than enough nooks and crannies to hide in. What worries me is that those stupid things will eat almost anything to survive." He explained as his light settling on something on the ceiling, "Up to and including conduit insulation, evidently."

Gritting his teeth, Deacon took a Cat's paw from his belt. Extending its length to nearly three feet with a flip of his wrist he carefully pulled the flap of the conduit back to see the extent of the damage. He had just enough time to read "LOW PRESSURE STEAM LINE" before the weight of the paw caused the rusted, stembolts to shear, snapping the conduit from the ceiling.

The woman yelped as she some the rusted material start to full and pushed the older man out of the way trying to keep her balance but failed drastically landing on the deck. "Do you have a death wish on this ship?" She wondered softly.

"No, but I think the Rose is trying to tell me something," Deacon replied picking himself off the deck, then pointing to his own ears explained, "not just for decoration. " As the rusty water started to flow onto the deck from the broken pressure line, Deacon sighed feeling foolish.

"Let me help you up." Grasping Ree's hand he pulled harder than he intended and suddenly found himself nose to nose with the young woman, having her cradled in his arms.

The woman yelped as she was tugged up and pretty much hanging in the air. “Um... thanks... but any chance you can put me down?” She wondered softly.

Deacon cleared his throat, "I..ya..ah...um...ah... Yes, yes of course. Terribly sorry about that." he said dropping her to the deck, which would have tumbled her over if he didn't grab her up in a second awkward embrace. Jumping back quickly to place her at arm's length he coughed, "Let me...um...I need to...yeah...shut off...that, that ah...steamline." he added avoiding her gaze, "Why don't you wait out in the corridor, I'll be there in a minute."

The young woman nodded, that sounded like a good idea on her part, this was just getting awkward and out of hand. She nodded and quickly went outside to the corridor waiting for the man to reappearing hoping he wasn't going to get into any more issues.

It took a few moments to isolate the broken steam line from the rest of the system. It took a few more moments for Deacon to center himself. Breathing out slowly he decidedly stood up straight and squared his shoulders as he walked out towards the corridor. "Mademoiselle," he said with a slight bow, "I would like to thank-you for what you did in there, and apologize for acting like a foolish schoolboy." He looked her straight in the eye, despite his embarrassment, "I thank you for your tour. I understand how valuable your time is as well, so if you feel you need to leave I can find my way to engineering on my own."

"Stay safe... the ship has an issue with you it seems." The woman said looking a little confused as she backed up already. What was it about this man? "I need to sort out the crew's wages," Reessem said quickly needing to get out of the situation quickly.

Deacon watched Reessem retreat down the corridor with a twinge of sadness. Placing his hand on the bulkhead he felt the ship. With the mixture of logic and superstition that exists deep on the souls of all engineers, he said "Don't worry my girl, I understand. If I had someone like that under me wing, I'd protect her from the likes of me as well." Then smiling, he tapped a support strut, "Now let's get to work, I may not be around long enough to make you the bell of the ball, but I promise you'll be able to turn a head or two before I'm done."

Before he headed down to engineering the looked to where he last saw her, resolving to put Mademoiselle Reessem Nubohn out of his mind. Turning to go a lyric of that stupid song came to him, in a clear voice he sang, "There's something in the way, she moves." Deacon gave a mental shrug, maybe it wasn't the strongest of resolutions, but he' try.

OFF::

Deacon Kane
Slowly becoming the Chief Engineer
Mary Rose

Reessem Nubohn
Administrator
SS Mary Rose
(NPC Gregnol)