Personalizing My New Ride...

Posted on Mon Jul 8th, 2019 @ 4:29pm by Dixoho Saa (*)

Mission: Mission 9 - Daucina
Location: SS Mary Rose, Shuttlebay, Shuttlecraft Alexandria II
800 words - 1.6 OF Standard Post Measure

The cockpit of the newly named Alexandria II was a scene of deconstruction. Nearly every control console was open and in various states of being either upgraded or completely replaced. There were nearly a dozen coils of fiberoptic cables, of various thicknesses and lengths, stacked against the rear bulkhead. A few crates containing spare parts were placed by the two secondary stations, on the port and starboard side of the currently cramped cockpit.

Micheal was on his back, his arms and most of his upper torso, buried inside the work access compartment beneath the main control panel, located at the fore of the cockpit. There was a small red toolbox by his left hip, open, and some of its contents strewn about, both in the toolbox, on the deck between the box and Micheal, and even balanced on his stomach.

He was currently replacing the wiring and control circuits of the helm system. During the flight up to the ship, he felt that the controls were a bit sluggish, so he decided to start with the helm system in his work to get the runabout to the level that he wanted.

Dixoho stepped over this and then stepped over that as she made her way to where there was some cursing. "You do realize that you know a helm operator who could help, right?" She asked, leaning against a console as she watched the scene before her.

Hearing the voice that always makes him smile, Micheal stopped what he was doing and slid out from under the console, smiling up at the beautiful Trill. "Well, yeah, actually I do know a certain, rather attractive helm officer who could help me." He reached out with his left hand and gently caressed her right calf. "I was just trying to get a jump on the work before I asked you to come down here."

The woman looked down at his hand on her calf and shook him off teasingly, then held up the tray she was carrying. "Don't forget food. You didn't come out for lunch." The woman said putting it down on a pile of innards from the consoles.

"Lunch?!" Micheal asked, a tone of suprise in his voice. "What time is it anyway?" He sat up and reached over to the tray. Lifting the plate cover up, he smiled, seeing that Dixoho had brought him one of his favorite lunch meals, a meatball hero with melted mozzarella cheese and a healthy covering of hot marinara sauce. "Oh! You're the best, babe!" He reached out and picked up the first half of the sandwich, taking a decent bite out of it. He closed his eyes as he enjoyed the savoriness of the food. "Thank you."

Dixoho nodded and moved to sit in the pilot's seat, looking around with intrigue about what was going on and what was started. "It's fourteen-hundred, give or take a few minutes," she replied softly. It hadn't been the sandwich that had been on offer in the mess but the meatballs weren't hard to turn it around.

"Fourteen-hundred?!" Micheal was very surprised. "Jeez, I've been in here for nearly twenty-four hours!" Even though he had started out feeling very comfortable in bed with Dixoho the previous night, after only a couple hours of sleep, he snapped awake, his mind working overtime with ideas. "I hope I didn't disturb you any when I got up. I was trying to be very quiet," he started sincerely. He took another bite of his sandwich before continuing. "I also hope that you don't feel that I didn't want to be there with you, because I do. I was just feeling very wired and I needed to work out the energy."

The woman shrugged. She hadn't thought anything of it, they didn't spend every night together and she herself sometimes had to get up at random times if they were docking or needing navigation advice. "You didn't." The woman assured softly as she moved to start looking around more.

Micheal took a drink from his water bottle as he watched the beautiful Trill inspect things. "One of my goals is to get Rebecca's file integrated into the runabout's main computer. The only catch on that is that she was designed and built with Andromeda Galaxy tech. So, I'm going to have to jury-rig and modify a lot of the systems." He paused long enough to take another bite of his sandwich, before washing it down with more water. "What are your thoughts about this whole venture?"

The woman looked at him and sighed. That was the question she had hoped he wouldn't ask but he had so she wasn't going to lie. "I don't understand why you want a new ship," Dixoho said honestly with a shrug.

TRUNCATED