Star Trek: Starbase 777 - ens-summer﹢ens-winters

[D]What. A. Day. Autumn had spent their shift running around fixing everything the ghosts had broken on the Kon-Tiki and they were ready to drop onto their bed.... But they were too tired to do that, so they just slumped down on the quarters' shared sofa and turned on the screen to watch something random. There were days on the station where Autumn had absolutely nothing to do, and then there were days like this (not to mention there was more of this tomorrow - Kon-Tiki needed to be up to the Fleet Museum's standard, and that was going to be VERY hard). Not that Autumn minded it too much, they liked the busy work - less time bored was just objectively better. It was just that the volume of work that needed to be done (while well-managed by Allan and Alizati) was unexpected at first. The good thing was that Autumn wasn't swamped with work, they were still able to finish their work schedule. A good thing then, that the Engineer had downtime for the foreseeable future - they were going to use it to relax as much as possible. They'd taken off their uniform top, and was chilling in their undershirt watching some type of Andorian cooking show, and was surprisingly fairly invested in it (the judge had just declared Ushaan on one of the contestants).

[D] Lente came walking in, wiping her hands on her pants. Despite having been on the away mission and probably deserving some rest, she'd had to go over some reports for the incident, and then she'd been sent off to the sickbay on the ship to make any repairs that were deemed necessary. Still, she had time off now, and she wouldn't start until late tomorrow, so she was going to enjoy it. When she saw Autumn sitting on the sofa, slumped in on themself like an overworked sack of potatoes, she grinned. "Honey, I'm hooooome!" she joked, before quickly disappearing into her bedroom and coming out a minute later with a sweater and a pair of sweatpants that she'd had for so long they probably weren't appropriate for wearing in public anymore. She plonked herself down next to Autumn, and before even taking a look at the screen, she asked, "what are we watching?"

Unlike Lente, Autumn hadn't clicked that new their roommate was also their best friend (exactly like the academy), so they'd considered it quite a shock when they heard said best friend announce her presence. They knew they had a new roommate, they saw the boxes being moved into the other room - apparently Autumn was as blind as an aenar and didn't read the name on them. Now officially jumpscared, they looked around trying to find where Lente was, before noticing her leave her room and sit down next to her. "LENTE?!!??!" Purely on instinct, Autumn dived over to Lente's side of the sofa and gave her a tight hug, before sitting back down with a dumbfounded look on their face. "I had no idea it was you who was assigned to the other room! How are you? How long have you been stationed here?" Autumn was going to ask far too many questions, and they managed to reel themselves in at the last minute.

Lente laughed loudly at Autumn's reaction, hugging her back quickly. "Do you not get notified when someone comes join your quarters? I got a neat little message about it when I was notified that I was going to be stationed here," she said, grinning broadly. Leave it up to Autumn to miss something so obvious. "Been here a few weeks now, I think? We keep missing each other, I've been picking up some slack in the sick bay, and I don't know where you've been. I'm great though! There's loads of nice people here, like you said." Lente couldn't wipe the grin off her face. It was true that she'd been super busy since being stationed here, and she usually came back to her quarters at really odd hours. Still, she was glad to have her best friend back. That's what she was hoping for when she got stationed here, after all.

"I thought I did but it must've either not arrived or was sent to my junk folder!" A reccurring problem on 777, if the rumours were anything to go by. "The only way I can think of is if we have opposing shifts? That way when I'm on shift you're asleep and vice-versa. I'm on Beta shift, by the way." The best shift, though Autumn declined to add that. "A few WEEKS? we're both either blind or have excellent time keeping." Autumn laughed, happy that they were reunited again. Turning back to the screen, Autumn looked at what was playing. "As for whatever this is, I think it's some kind of Andorian cooking show, although right now it's a fight to the death between the head judge and a contestant?"

"Yeah, Delta shift for me. It's been a bit messy the past few days though, so I might be changing to the Gamma shift, that's what I'm working tomorrow. So we might see more of each other!" That was exciting! Lente also hoped she'd get into a better rhythm soon that would allow her to not fall asleep of fatigue as soon as she hit her bed in the mornings. Maybe she should stop trying to overachieve in her first months on board. She also turned to the screen. "Cooking shows and deathmatches, my favourites. Who started it? Contestant unhappy with the feedback they received?"

"Actually it was the judge, who got so repulsed by the contestant's cooking so much they took it as an insult to their entire bloodline of chef ancestors." In a similar vein, Autumn was also trying to overachieve, servicing and verifying nearly every shuttle that landed in their assigned hangar. It's not like any of the other Mechanics were complaining - if Autumn did all the checks then they would be able to sit back and relax. The station, for the past few minutes Autumn had forgotten that they weren't at the Academy anymore. As the contestant took a jab at the head judge's arm, Autumn turned back to Lente. "Speaking of shifts, did you do anything on Kon-Tiki? I was there all day repairing and replacing things before it left." (edited)

"How bad must the cooking have been? I can't really imagine anything tasting that bad, to be honest... no, wait, maybe I can. That time you put a cup noodle in the microwave for an "ancient cultural experience" but forgot to put water in it could probably have earned you a deathmatch," Lente joked. "Actually, yeah, I was in the sickbay for a few hours, cleaning up after the energy beings-ghosts-whatever they were. Had to make sure nothing would more break while it was on its way," Lente almost sighed. The ship was already old as balls, putting it into service again was never going to happen, and leaving her to figure out how to put tech from two centuries ago back together in a way that was both functional and in keeping with its era was annoying at times. Mostly because she was on a deadline and couldn't just spend a few hours tinkering with stuff, but still! (edited)

Autumn feigned an offended expression. "I can't help it if I set off the fire alarm in our dorm just because the cup was missing the instructions!" They still push that excuse when in reality, they were blind and missed the clearly written warnings on the side. That said, even Autumn's immediate family know they had an innate and impressive skill to burn water if they tried cooking, maybe some people (like the poor contestant) were just cursed every time they touched a kitchen. "You should've heard the things the Fleet museum rep was saying over the comm to the Engineering senior staff, turns out the walls are quite thin if you yell loud enough. They wanted it better than when it arrived." Autumn laughed, recalling the choice words that the representative used. Oh yeah, they were pissed.

Lente laughed. "Oh man, no, that was definitely your fault. You're lucky there were no Andorian judges there to witness it, I'm definitely not strong enough to defend your honour." She rolled her eyes at the mention of the museum rep. "They have their own people for that, man. I shot the damn thing- oh, I didn't even tell you about that! I had my tricorder on me, because I always have my tricorder on me, and Lieutenant Allen said we had to look for bioelectrical signs. I'm like, bioelectrical, that's what I do! Among other things. I read off what my tricorder tells me, and suddenly I have a phaser in my hand and Lieutenant Allan is telling me to shoot! I've barely held a phaser outside of simulations before! It was crazy," she finished. It kind of had been crazy, and she'd definitely not presented herself as professionally as she wanted to in that situation, but, well. She'd helped save the day in the end, so that was pretty cool. "What was I trying to say? Oh, right! I shot the thing, and I'm 100% sure that whatever it was, we didn't put it there, so realistically, the museum should have kept a better eye on their ships. We were solving what was essentially their problem. But don't tell anyone I said that," she begged, not wanting to get into trouble with Lieutenant Allen, or worse, Commander Alizati.

"No way, you stopped it from getting worse? Hats off to you, Lente; I didn't know you knew how to aim properly!" Autumn was teasing Lente, but they were second-hand proud of the accomplishment she did. "Really though, I'm impressed. Did Science ever work out what it was that caused the power surges anyway? They caused havoc in the shuttle bay at first." For the first time in a while the mechanics had to do actual engineering work to stop things overloading. "Actually what did it feel like? Shooting the one thing we're told never to damage at the Academy?" Going against four years of training to save the station, was certainly an odd situation.

Lente laughed at the tease but smacked Autumn's arm anyway. "I didn't even know I know how to aim properly," she joked, though it was slightly based in truth. She'd never been the best shot, and she'd hardly needed to be when her aiming in daily life was limited to lobbing stuffed animals and the occasional grape at Autumn. "I honestly don't know if we figured out what it was, it doesn't seem to have been able to communicate, but it did actively seek out energy sources, so maybe a lower lifeform of some kind? We didn't get much of a chance to study it, it was kind of trying to kill us." Which was a shame, to be honest. Lente would have liked to know, if only to soothe her curiosity. But in the end it didn't matter much anyway, since it was dissipated now. "I was so nervous about the warp core, you won't even believe it. It was turned off, but surging anyway with that stupid thing messing with it, and I was trying so hard not to damage anything... That was probably the most stressful moment of my life." She didn't know how well she'd succeeded in avoiding damage to the warp core, but nothing had exploded, so she'd succeeded well enough, in her eyes.

"Just goes to show you're a natural!" Sure they teased, but Autumn knew they wanted the best for each other - and they were genuinely happy for Lente, even if the situation wasn't the most stress-free in the world. "It sucks you guys never found out how to communicate with them though, I'd like to give whatever it was a piece of my mind. Maybe we could bait one back with the station reactor?" Something to suggest to science, although Autumn would understand if they were less than enthusiastic about it. "It was stressful, but you survived so that has to count for something right? Small wins! And hey, not everyone can say they've shot a warp core before - I know I wanted to during finals." Once again, stressful but no one died. Then again the same logic didn't apply. Oh well, it was true though!

"I don't want to be on the station if or when that thing gets lured here during the reactor, but you have fun," Lente said, waving her hands to enhance her point. She wasn't going to be dealing with spooky things like that again anytime soon, no thank you. "Shooting a phaser in the vicinity of the warp core of an ancient ship is more stressful than finals week, if you can believe it," she joked. It was also kind of true, but at the same time, she only had to shoot a phaser for a few seconds. Finals week stress lasted nearly a month.

"I swear, nothing beats finals week stress." Starfleet promoted a positive mental attitude, but that didn't stop the innate pressure to Do Well. Autumn had stress nightmares about it for weeks even after finals ended. "Suit yourself, looks like I'll get to commune with the dead before you do." Autumn put on a tone of superiority - meant to tease (even if it did sound badass to talk to the undead). "You alright, by the way? From the sounds of it you were under a lot of pressure." Autumn looked over at Lente, barely out of the Academy and she already had to go against what she had been taught - Autumn didn't envy her, not by a long shot.

"The only way I'll ever commune with the dead is if I somehow get symbionted and am expected to perform the zhian'tara,"Lente said, feigning drama and despair. She'd do the whole Kon Tiki thing again in a heartbeat, if it was necessary, but talking to ghosts was a step too far for her. She sighed. "I'm fine, just tired, to be honest. I didn't really feel the pressure in the moment at all, it was mostly just adrenaline doing the work there. The part where I got sent to the sickbay to work on centuries-old tech was way worse, in that regard," she said, laughing. For the love of God, please don't make her do that on a time crunch again, Starfleet!

"You'd make any host jealous with your own symbiont." Autumn got up from their very comfortable position (pausing for a second to get the pins and needles out of their leg) and walked over to the replicator to make a drink. "Yeah I get that, the repairs after anything are always the most boring." Well, that and the inspections. Turns out Tactical weren't as liberal with their shuttle parking as their Academy stereotypes turned out to be. Not that Autumn minded, if every shuttle was badly damaged then nothing else would get done. "You want anything while I'm up? I'm making a hot chocolate." "I doubt it was as pressurising as having to root around a genuine 300 year old warp core to find out what the phaser hit." Autumn wasn't a warp mechanic either, but the other engineers needed their help passing over tools. "Not to discredit your shooting ability, it was so effective!" Autumn said with a smile.

"I don't mind the repairs so much, I just hate when they have to be finished yesterday. Honestly, every single officer in the command track should be forced to take an engineering class just to learn how long things take." Wasn't that an idea. Maybe that wouldn't solve all issues, but it would deal with a bunch of them. "Yeah, I'll take a hot chocolate as well, please! No whipped cream." Lente watched as Autumn stretched and walked off to the replicator. "I tried my best not to hit much," she replied to Autumn's jab with an exaggerated pout, pulling an even more exaggeratedly sad face when they comment on her shooting again.

Now that was a sentiment Autumn could get behind. Command officers - more specifically ones in desk jobs - never realise what it takes to make repairs, they just want it 'done.' "It would be entertaining to watch a desk officer try and replace an EPS conduit on a time limit." And probably incredibly cathartic. Replicating two hot chocolates, down to the specific gram (it was a mathematically perfect drink - a replicator pattern made by Lente and Autumn in the academy), Autumn picked up the rather large mugs and brought them back over to the sofa, plonking themselves back down and handing Lente her own. "One Summer-Winters special, made to order as always." They looked over at Lente, a genuine smile plastered over their face. "Seriously though, you did well." Just then, a thought came across Autumn's mind. "OOH, are you going to the winter ball?" (edited)

"Thank you very much, good sir, just what I wanted." Hot chococate truly was a science, and the two of them had spent inordinate amounts of time trying to figure out the perfect drink. She sighed as she took a sip, smiling back. "Thanks, Autumn," she said genuinely, both at the hot chocolate and the compliment. She thought about Autumn's question for a bit. She didn't really enjoy formal events usually, they were mostly more effort than they were worth. But also... she liked dressing up sometimes, and it was her first formal event at her first assignment. Maybe she should go, if only to show her face. "I'll go if you're going," she decided. With her best friend at her side, nothing could go wrong, right? "We could go in matching colours, if you want?"

A Secret Santa gift arrived for Autumn: This present was actually pretty small. It was neatly wrapped in hot pink wrapping paper, with a purple bow stuck onto it. Inside, was a bracelet! It was gold, with a flower decal made out of amethyst and garnet crystals. Whoever made the bracelet had skill, but it wasn’t perfect. One of the metal pieces hadn’t been bent perfectly. It still held everything together and wasn’t going to cut someone, it just didn’t look perfect. The bracelet still looked beautiful, though. It was perfect to wear if you wanted to dress up, or just be fancy while enjoying the gardens. There was also a typed and printed note. It read, “Happy holidays, Autumn! I hope you like your gift, I think gold and amethyst go well together. Sorry it is not perfect, I’m still learning the ins and outs of jewelry making. From, your Secret Santa”

Lente's gift, when she decided to open it, was wrapped in yellow with an orange bow. Within, much more clearly labeled, was building blocks -- space Legos, if you will -- intended to be built into an intricate bouquet of flowers of all different shapes and sizes. There was a red rose lying on top, and a note as well. "Happy holidays! I asked around a bit to get an idea of what you'd like. I hope you like it! P.S. There's a brick separator in here too. Just in case. ~ Your (not so) Secret Santa"

Outside Lente's door was a medium sized sphere wrapped in green wrapping paper with little Borg cubes and spheres on it. The wrapping was honestly not very good, but it was hard to wrap a sphere! The sphere shape was actually made of cardboard and there was a small pull tab near the bottom that would open the sphere. On the top of the wrapped sphere was a letter written out in Rihannsu with a Standard translation printed directly under it.

Dear Summer, I heard it was your birthday! Not yet, but soon! I was really excited about the gift so here it is! I filled the sphere with miniature versions of my alcove parts! I know you like putting things together and figuring out stuff, but if you get stuck there's a manual inside. The parts create a mini alcove that is compatible with your PADD or any other electrical device! You can also choose the colour you want the lights to be, I like rainbow best! I also included a manual that explains Borg code since you will need it to programme the alcove! Thank you for helping me with my ear! I appreciate it, hope you have a wonderful day and a great birthday coming up! Lhi erh'fvi, Six of Nine

Lente was sat down at her desk, staring at the screen in front of her, tearing the words she had typed to pieces with her mind. She'd never been a wordsmith, her father was the storyteller, the poet, the kernels of wisdom wrapped in soft-spoken sentences. She took after her mother, who liked facts and reasoning and problem-solving, and the certainty that if you took an equation and solved for x the day after the next, it would still get the same answer. Ugh, this whole thing was stupid. Why was she even writing the Joining Commission anyway? She'd told her dad she didn't want to be joined, and she'd meant it. At the time, at least. But that was over four years ago, nearly five... and right now, she didn't know how she felt. Stars... well, nothing wrong with trying, right? She didn't particularly want to be rejected, but that was the reality for ninety-nine percent of Trill who applied to be joined. She just wanted to know if she was good enough, smart enough, worthy enough to make it even one step further along in the process. If her hard work and calculations and late nights and messy sketches amounted to anything at all. She shot a look towards the corner of her desk, where the first working prototype of the bird she'd made for Captain Torre'vnau was now joined by the little alcove Lieutenant Lhi had given her for her birthday. If nothing else, at least she had proof that she helped other people. That her work had merit even if she never made it past the first hurdle. Even if the morbid curiosity that had gripped her for a while now amounted to absolutely nothing, and the effort to compile all of her research into a machine that could actually, properly synthesise and retrain neural matter to function properly within established neural pathways, would have been a waste. Or, perhaps, more like an inevitability that she'd been putting off until she came to the final decision to put herself out there. She did plan to build the thing, after all.

03:11

The indicision was possibly worse than the prospect of being disappointed. If she tried but failed, couldn't she at least say she tried? But she hadn't been an applicant since she was a teen, and even if she had been, she'd always play second fiddle to full Trill. It was to be expected she failed. Nobody would look at her any differently for it. But if she didn't try, she wouldn't have to live with the sting of knowing she wasn't good enough. And wasn't that what she was after? The knowledge that if she wanted to, she could, even if that was not what she envisioned for her own life? Just a small sliver of validation that she couldn't get from telling her dad about the applications of her research, or informing her mother of the complexity of her equations. They were proud, but they were proud of her regardless. Her colleagues wouldn't come close, either. The Engineers couldn't be asked anything about brains, and the doctors should stay far away from building machines, and even if she wasn't the only biomedical engineer on the station, she was the only one who could follow her own thought process. Yeah, maybe compiling that document was kind of necessary, after all. Without sparing it another second of agony, she hit send, watching the message load as if seeing it travel to its destination in real time. Then, she turned off the console and headed to her room. It was time for bed, anyways, and she'd done enough work today. She'd worry about it in the morning.