Star Trek: Eventide 777 - ┊alpaca-stables

It was quiet here. She climbed up into the hayloft and settled down on a pile of hay. A long sigh escaped her and she stared up at the ceiling. Shit. She’d taken Isaac to this place once. They’d had wine. They’d kissed, hay in their hair, stupid jokes about alpacas and wandering hands… “No, don’t think about that,” she scolded herself. There was a spider in a cobweb above her head. She concentrated on it, thought about the life of a spider instead of her own.

1

“I knew I’d find you here. You always come here when you pity yourself.”

The familiar voice ripped her out of her thoughts. She turned her head. “Rico. Hey.”

The teenage boy let himself fall into the hay next to her. “Hey,” he said quietly.

“I’m sorry for all that… I just didn’t want to lie, you know?”

“I know. It’s okay. You’ve never been a good liar anyways.” Rico shrugged.

“True,” said Mika, letting out another sigh. “I should go back and talk it out, shouldn’t I?”

“Maybe. Or you could come with me and I could show you the thing I’ve been working on!” He poked her shoulder.

Namika raised an eyebrow at him. “Intriguing. Though I should really set things right with mom…”

“You have all week to do that. Come on!” He was already getting up and brushing hay off of his poncho and trousers.

2

Mika really couldn’t say no to her little brother, so she ended up climbing back down from the hayloft with him. Rico led her to the back of the stables, through a door, into an unused shed. Or at least it had been unused last time she’d visited. Now, Mika found herself stepping into a little workshop.

“And there we are! Welcome to my little realm,” said Rico proudly, gesturing at the insides of the shed. There were tables and shelves with tools and papers and PADDs and sheets of metal, other stuff that looked a lot like electronic garbage, but it was treasured by Rico. In the middle of the room stood his whole pride, covered by a blanket, so that Mika couldn’t see it right away.

“Wow,” said Mika, gaze roaming the shed. “Nice place.” A little smirk came over her lips. “Hey, that’s an old PADD of mine, isn’t it? And that’s my toolset!”

“Yeah, I borrowed some stuff.” Rico shrugged. “I figured since you were gone in space anyway, I might was well make good use of all the shit.”

2

“Hey, watch your language, young man!”

“That’s bold, coming from you.” They grinned at each other.

“Yo, what’s that?” Namika pointed at the thing that was covered by the blanket. It was about two and a half meters long and almost reached up to Mika’s chest in height. She had a vague assumption, but could it be…?

2

3

“This is what I wanted to show you,” he said solemnly. And then he reached for the blanket and pulled it off. He revealed a Vespa, ancient, rusty and dented. But it was holding together!

Namika’s eyebrows shot towards her hairline. “Woah! Rico! How did you even get your hands on a thing like that!” In utter disbelief, she stretched out her hand to touch the rusty metal.

Rico shrugged nonchalantly, but he was grinning. “Oh, you know. I know the right people.” Noticing her sharp look, he immediately raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, hey, I swear it was all legal, don’t look at me like that! This guy was selling it in the city. I decided I’d help out mamá in the store until I got enough money together. And then I bought it. I tell you, it was pricey, but totally worth it!”

Namika chuckled lightly. “Well, you’ve always been good with money.” The kid would beat anyone at monopoly. Mo would like him, thought Mika distantly and walked around the Vespa. “Do you think we could make it work again?”

1

“I doubt it. I do my best to keep it in shape, but… Well, to be honest, it’s pretty wrecked. Unless we’re willing to completely go away from the original Vespa engine and wheels, I don’t think it’s possible. Then again, I’m not that good with engineering. Tío Marcel helped me with all the engineering stuff.”

Tío Marcel was your typical ‘weird uncle’. Ever since Tía Alma had died, he’d started collecting cats and vintage vehicles. He also grew cannabis in his porch, legally. Mika liked him, though he was a bit of an odd character. “Go away from the original design? As in, make it into a hover bike?” With a gigantic grin, she looked at her brother. It was easy talking to him, she’d missed this, and the idea of spending most of the week with him, tinkering, suddenly felt incredibly welcoming.

1

Rico matched her grin. “If you think it’s doable!” Isaac would probably know exactly whether it was doable or not. But he wasn’t here and Rico didn’t want to bring him up, as curious as he was about the breakup. “I have a couple of spare parts! Purchased for little money all over the world, had the shipped in.”

“You continue being the guy in finances and shipping and one day you really will be taking over the farm,” said Mika absentmindedly, crouching down to inspect the bike’s wheels. “Hm. I don’t know yet if it’s doable…”

“But you can find out, right?” There were few things his sister couldn’t do once she’d set her mind to it. Like one time she had insisted on learning a fourteen page poem by heart, just to prove someone wrong. She’d done it in one night, Rico remembered falling asleep to the sound of her reciting it. (edited)

“We’ll have to find out,” said Mika and then she heard the sound of a whirring engine and turned her head.

“Oh, that’s papaíto! We’d better go and greet him.”

Following the noise, Mika and her brother left the stables and went to the #┊fields in front of their house.

1

Rico was already waiting for his sister by the Vespa and he perked up as she entered the shed.

“Alright,” said Mika and put her hands on her hips, ready for tinkering. “Let me have a look at this beauty!”

Rico stepped to the side, gesturing towards the bike. “The engine is totally wrecked. Tío Marcel said he can’t fix it anymore, but we got rid of most of the rust.”

“Hmmm,” Mika hummed thoughtfully as she put one hand on the bike and looked at the engine. “Yeah, that one seems to have its days long behind itself. Which means we could replace it.” She pulled out her PADD and handed it to Rico. “Try and find a scheme for this machine. And if you don’t find one, scan this bike with my PADD. We need to figure out the mechanics before we replace anything. My old hoverbikes are still in the garage, right?”

Rico took the PADD and nodded. “Yeah, both of them.”

Yeah, Mika had two bikes. While one was functional and relatively new, the other one was a bit dented and had some malfunctions. Namika had promised Rico she’d one day fix up the broken one and give it to him for his birthday. She glanced up at him. “Would you be ready to sacrifice your birthday present for spare parts and turn this Vespa into your new present?”

2

Rico’s face lit up. “If we can make this bike work?! Duh! Of course!”

Mika nodded. “Good. I think we might have everything we need, then. I’d like to get a schematic of the bike before I start working on it - and maybe give Mo a chance to reply to my message - but you can already bring my old bike in here if you like.”

“Sure!” Rico was already looking up old timey motorbike schematics on Mika’s PADD. Conversationally, he asked, “Who’s Mo?”

“Station Commander on triple 7. He used to be in engineering, and I happen to know he has a thing for old tech. Not to mention the fact that he can handle himself on a hoverbike,” replied Mika with a small smile. Her eyes were fixed on the Vespa; she opened the inspected how the wheels were attached to the rest of the bike. Replacing the wheels would probably be the most difficult part, she mused.

“You know the station commander personally? I found schematics by the way.” He handed her the PADD back.

1

“Nice, gimme!” As she was looking over the schematics, she answered, “Uh, yeah, we met randomly and then we kinda had a hoverbike race on the holodeck. He lost, obviously, but did give me a run for my money. I guess I’m sort of befriending him… huh, that might work,” she muttered, mentally caught up in how a hover engine would be compatible with the Vespa. “Honestly, Mo is kinda weird, but very nice in his own way. If I ever become half the Captain he is now, I’d be proud of myself.”

“Oh, dude, you won a hoverbike race against a starfleet captain?!” His eyes glittered. His sister was so cool! Something to brag about in school. There goes Mo’s reputation as a hover biker in New Lima, I guess.

1

“Oh, please, I have yet to meet a Starfleet Captain who would even stand a chance against me on a hoverbike,” she said, looking up with a grin. That was when her PADD gave a chime and she looked down again. “Looks like he replied by the way.”

“Ooh, what does he say?” Rico restrained himself from looking over her shoulder. Well mannered boy.

Namika smiled as she read Mo’s reply. “I think he’s afraid we wanna destroy a piece of culture, he’s asking how much of it we want to replace. Also he wants pictures and schematics.” Which she was willing to send to him. She took some pictures of the bike, then typed back a reply.

“Cool! I’ll get the old bike in the meantime.”

When Rico left the shed to get the other bike, Namika stared at her PADD and wondered why waiting for Mo’s reply gave her such a feeling of anticipation. She legitimised it by thinking that she really really wanted to build a hoverbike Vespa. Yes. That was it.

“So? What’s he saying?”, asked Rico, pushing the bike into the stable.

Mika, totally caught up in texting shenanigans with the Captain, looked up. “Huh? Oh, he’s saying it’s doable, he sent me some notes and stuff. We’ll have to replace the innards completely though. Do you have varnish?”

“Sure!” He nodded towards one of the shelves in his makeshift workshop.

“Perfect. Also, come take a selfie with me.”

Rico went to stand behind Namika, producing a picture where his head was over her shoulder. Namika was grinning behind her glasses, Rico was sticking out his tongue and forming a peace sign with his hand. In the background, bits of the workshop could be seen - tools and pieces of metal and boxes in shelves.

“Good one,” said Namika and typed out a reply to Mo.

“Oh, by the way. Mo said I should tell you something cool and captainly.”

1

“Is that a direct quote?”

“Yes.”

Rico laughed and then he said, “I gotta meet that guy.”

“You’d get along like a house on fire, I wanna see you play monopoly against him. No wait, you might actually set the house on fire.”

1

“Okay, less texting your Captain and more tinkering!”

“You’re right, you’re right.” Namika closed the messages tab and pulled up Mo’s notes about the schematic. He had a scribbly handwriting, suitable for someone who probably had to note down a lot of things very quickly. She was able to make out the meaning, though. “Let’s get to it! We’ll need to disassemble the whole thing.”

“Say no more!” And then, they got to work.

They spent all evening tinkering in the shed. Namika used Mo’s notes and her own knowledge of hoverbikes, and by the end of the day, when the sun was long gone and they were working under artificial lights, the Vespa was disassembled, they’d cleaned all the pieces and Namika had taken out the engine and the wheel generators from her old hoverbike. Namika stood in front of the mess they’d made and wiped some sweat off her forehead, which only left a smudge of motor oil in its place. “I think that’s it for today.” (edited)

“But I wanna keep going!”, whined Rico. The next moment, he was suppressing a yawn.

Namika smirked. “You can barely stay awake. Let’s get inside and get cleaned. Also, I’m hungry.”

“But-“

“Rico, we have all week to work on this, okay?” She put away the tool she was holding and waved for him to follow her out of the shed. “Come on.”

Reluctantly, Rico followed. “Fine…”

1

Rico was already waiting for Mika in the shed when she returned. But as she came it and he saw her face, he immediately knew that something was up. He wanted to ask, but only if she wanted to talk about it.

“Hey, Rico,” said Mika and forced a smile. She did not want to talk about it, she’d much rather hide away in Rico’s hover bike project. “Let’s get to work, shall we?” Nb: Rico understood the communication between the lines and he nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! So, I took another look at Mo’s notes and he said we need to reinforce most parts so I was thinking we’d start with…” And then he explained his whole plan for how to proceed. (edited)

22:59

Namika managed to relax a little, listening to him talking. She agreed with most things that he proposed, threw in some corrections and questions at times. And then, they got to work.

Building a hoverbike with Mika felt like diving into a different time and space. It was their little togetherness, away from stress and arguments. Rico enjoyed it, enjoyed having this time with her which was so precious - it was precious because she was so often gone, somewhere in space, while he was so often struck down in bed or in a hospital. This was precious.

After hours, they were still in the shed. Rico had pulled out some snacks from one of the cupboards at some point. Namika had turned on some music on her PADD. When one song ended and faded into the next, her eyes came up to rest on Rico who was currently trying to make heads and tails of one of Mo’s scribbly annotations. “Hey, Rico?”

“Hm?” He looked up with big eyes.

“Promise me something?” She spoke softly. “Promise me you’ll never start smoking?”

1

Rico blinked. He hadn’t been expecting that. But… his sister sounded terribly earnest and serious about this, so he nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, sure. I promise.”

Namika swallowed, nodded, smiled. “Thanks.” And then she went back to work. They tinkered for the rest of the evening.

1

“I think we might be able to get this thing to work tomorrow and then we’ll just add finishing touches the day after tomorrow,” said Mika, hands on her hips and looking down at all the pieces that were spread out on the ground.

“Oh, cool! We have all weekend to drive it around, then!” Rico grinned at her and ran a hand through his ever messy ruffle-able hair.

Namika pulled a face. “Uh, about that… I uh, might use the weekend to go to the Academy and get my 5th level piloting license…” She gave him an apologetic look and she couldn’t help but know that she was disappointing him. She felt terrible. She’d come here to spend time with her family and now she was just abusing that time for another stepping stone on her way to captaincy, wasn’t she? Fuck.

“Oh…” His face fell. It felt like a stone sunk inside of his chest, hit his stomach area with a thud. But he nodded, trying to shrug off the disappointment. “Cool. Yeah, cool, go get that license.“ He looked away, crouched down next to the Vespa engine and didn’t meet her eyes.

1

She bit down on her lower lip, trying to make eye contact with him and failing. Maybe Isaac was right. Maybe she was too invested in her career. ‘You’re so set on what you want, you don’t stop to think about others!’ That’s what he had said. And maybe he was right. Maybe he was right. Namika took a small breath. “You know what, I just changed my mind. I can take the exam on Monday.” She’d just have to return to the station a little later, then. Which meant less time with Mo, but so be it. “You could help me study on the weekend. Sound good?”

A smile split his lips. Just like his sister, he always looked a little cheeky when he smiled. “Yeah! I can do that!”

Namika responded with a much softer smile, expression coloured by relief. Yeah, this was right. This would be the right thing to do. “Wonderful. Let me just write to Starfleet Academy.” And Mo, she’d let him know she’d be staying away for a bit longer. She pulled out her PADD.

Rico waited for her to send the messages and started working on the bike.

Namika came to help him immediately after sending that first message to Mo. No time for texting now: sibling quality time. They got pretty far, managed to enforce all the pieces and so on, then Rico got hungry and Mika decided they should go back inside and she would cook for them.

Rico agreed, wiping his dirty motor oil hands on his working overall.

“We should both change, though,” said Mika, looking at the shed and then themselves, the whole mess that they had made.

“Alright,” mumbled Rico and tailed after her to the house.

1

It was noon. Mika was sitting in the stables with Rico, two PADDs on her lap, studying for her exam.

Rico was adding finishing touches to the Vespa hoverbike. Adjust the pitch of the engine here, the intensity of the dampeners there… “We should test it,” he said finally, standing up.

2

Mika raised her head, pulled her eyes away from her studies - shuttle warp technology, interesting stuff - and looked at her little brother who was standing next to the Vespa, hands on hips. The hover Vespa was looking good! The wheels had been replaced by hover wheel generators, blue rings of light that were hovering a good few inches away from the ground. The innards were all replaced, but it still looked pretty much like a Vespa on the outside. It wouldn’t be fast, both of them knew that, but it would be fast enough and very aesthetically pleasing. Rico had painted it a nice shade of pistachio green. Neither of them were very artistic, so they had refrained from painting motives on it, but there was a scripture on the left side, titling the Vespa ‘Alma’ in memory of their aunt. “Alright!” Mika lay the PADDs aside. “Get your helmet. Let’s take her for a spin!”

1

“Yesss!” Rico jumped up immediately, a big grin on his face. He grabbed his helmet and then shoved the Vespa outside of the shed, past the alpacas and to the fields. Mika in tow.

1