Resupply Blues

Posted on Fri Jan 27, 2017 @ 8:50am by Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit

2,635 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Silence
Location: USS Victory - Ready Room

"Thank you Yeoman Taylor." Kennit said as he set a tray with a mug of coffee on her desk along with a PaDD. "You're welcome Captain. The PaDD contains transfer orders for new crew assigned to come aboard while we are here at Theta 7." he added.

"I'll pass it along to the XO .." she commented as Taylor left.

While the coffee (a caramel macchiato, extra whipped cream) was cooling slightly from 'molten lava' to drinkable.. Rhea pulled up a comm message window and quickly drafted a text message for Torres in Engineering, informing him to expect a shipment of spares from the station. Mostly basic items, but she had successfully arranged for the transfer of tow magnatomic alternating relays, three secondary oscillating phase controllers, and a spare asymmetrical plasma capacitor.

She ended the message with, "This was all they had available for your requested resupply. I've sent a request back to HQ to try and get the rest. So stop nagging me. And see that your resident malcontents deliver two bottles of the apple pie moonshine they bottled last week to my quarters.."

Signing the message, she sent it off and then leaned back in her seat. Propping her legs up on the desk, she picked up the coffee and took a sip. It would take him a little while to get the message.. but she knew he'd responding back.

Miguel was tired and was finally about to go get some much needed sleep. He didn't remember a day in his life when he had felt so tired before. He had been pushing himself beyond even his limits, sometimes working more shifts then he should so that way he didn't need to make one of his staff do it. But everyone had a point where they would break and he was reaching his. That was when he saw the Captain's message. He got up and left engineering.

A few minutes later he was at the Captain's ready room door and he pressed the button requesting access.

Watching him walk in after calling out for her visitor to enter, Rhea cocked her head to the right and studied him a moment. "You look like shit."

"Well I was just about to go to bed when you placed your bar order." he said as he placed his engineering kit down on her desk. He opened it and then pulled out a small bottle. "This is all that's left of the apple pie moonshine. At least until we get those final components so we can fix the til." he said as he handed it to her. "But in case you want something better..." he pulled out another small bottle the liquid was thick and green inside of it.

She whistled softly as she picked up the bottle and held it to the light, admiring the rich green color of the liquid inside. "Aldebaran whiskey." Looking at him, she said "you've been holding out on me..."

Reaching into a desk drawer, she pulled out two shot glasses and said, "Care for a shot?"

"Sure." He said as he pulled the old fashioned cork out of the bottle and poured it into each glass. "As for holding out on you... a good engineer knows to give their Captain what they need, not what they think they want." he told her. "Or so one of my mentors always told me." he added.

She snorted. "Haven't you learned yet.. I always get what I want. One way.. or another."

He slid her glass to her and recorcked the bottle as he sat down. "Is that why you've... altered your uniform?" he asked taking a swig of his glass.

Taking the glass, Kennit swirled the liquid a moment before downing it in a swift, practiced swallow. In response to his question, a decidedly amused aura came over her. Leaning over in her seat, resting her elbows on the desk and cradling her chin in her cupped hands the Captain answered, "My uniform is within regulations. It's just not as boring.."

"I'll say that." he let slip out . "But why the change all of a sudden. The uniforms didn't seem to bother you before."

"I didn't say it bothered me." Kenny immediately answered. "I said it was boring."

"Okay.. then why all of a sudden do you care if it's boring or not? I'm just trying to understand what's going on here. You haven't been acting like yourself lately." he said. He almost added that it was ever since the incident with that Borg ship.

"On the contrary..I feel more like 'me' than I have in years.." she told him.

"Oh? Do tell." he said as he sat back some more trying to relax as he took another drink of the whiskey. So many changes... or rather suprises lately. First the Captain and her Borg implants, then the SCPO appearantly being a Romulan spy. He wondered how many more people on this ship had hidden secrets like this.

"I will deal with the Romulan shortly. She presents no threat any longer." Her tone of vioce I as she spoke held a note of underlying malice that was unmistakable.

"As for the rest.. you knew damn good and well that while I do have a background training and experience as a science officer..the last thing I ever was..was some pocket protector using, lab coat wearing automaton."

"True... I don't know this just seems different." he added.

Taking a sip of her drink, the Captain replied "Not to me.."

Miguel finished what was in his glass and then poured himself some more. "So what brought about this revelation to be less boring?" he asked her.

Her eyes met his, and for a long moment she didn't speak. Finally, she said "Has it occurred to you.. that perhaps..the reassimilation by the Borg simply...reset something and returned me to the person I am, not the person who was created by medical tinkering my section 31 prior to my reassignment from my...former duties."

That was something he had to admit that was something that he hadn't thought of. He was pretty sure that all this was something new coming out, but now he had to consider that it might be something old. That was something that effected him more then he'd admit to others. It was something that was hitting pretty close to home in fact. He didn't say anything and just nodded as he remained in thought and drank some more.

"So what is it specifically that your resident miscreants require to repair the still." The Captain stated.

"The contraption that makes that apple moonshine you have come to like so much." he told her. "The parts they used to make it weren't up to snuff so some of those parts will allow to make a better quality product. Some of the other items on the list is just to try and have as many spare parts for things we may need down the road." he added.

Silent a moment, the Captain set her glass down and then looked at him. "I know what a still *is*. I asked you what parts exactly are needed to make the repairs ..."

"I was just trying to give you plausable denyability." he said and then went on to give her a complete run down of what was needed. Once he had those parts he could make the still his junior officers had put together not just safer but more efficient.

"Plausible deniability my ass.." Kennit muttered as she accepted the list of needed parts. "I'll see what I can do.." she added, waving a hand toward the listed information.

"And a fine ass that is..." is what he almost said. But he wasn't that tired or drunk yet. "That's all I ask." is what he did say.

"Anything else?" She questioned, "speak now or forever keep your trap shut."

He rubbed his chin with his left hand as he pondered that question. He then poured himself some more of the whiskey and took another drink. "There is something I have been thinking about telling you for awhile now, but haven't been sure how to. And with recent events I didn't know if I should even bring it up." he said.

"Well..." she replied while pouring herself another shot as well, "That makes it impossible for me to know what to do doesn't it..."

He took another drink, it still wasn't enough to effect him. How the hell was he going to say this and how would she take it. What should he say he has a unique medical condition that he's been hiding. In the end he decided to just come out and say what was on his mind. "I'm... sort of... an augment." he said and then looked up to see her reaction.

Staring at him, after a moment she said "Sort of an augment." With a shake of her head the Captain added, "That's like saying I am 'sort of a killer'. Care to elaborate?"

"That's where it gets complicated." he said as taking another swig of his glass which now emptied it. He placed it on her desk as he stood up. He walked to one side of the room and looked out the window. "Back during the Eugenics wars it was assumed that the last of the free Augments left with Kahn and would be eventually found 300 years later by Captain Kirk. They weren't the last ones on Earth. There were others but they decided to withdraw just keep to themselves. They still believed in genetici engineering but decided to do it in a different way. Instead of artifically modifying their genes or the genes of their offspring they sought to use natrual evolution to perfect themselves. So families would be paired with each other based on desireable traits. As such I'm sort of an augment. Even though my genes were never altered, they are extremely enhanced compared to a normal human. Since I was never altered it's not something that medical exams would find unless someone was looking for something. During my 4th year at the Academy there was an accident and one of the Doctor's discovered my heritage. I was almost dismissed, however Starfleet Intelligence deemed that since I was never actually altered and that since I had passed all my psych tests that I was safe to continue. They then erased any knowledge of my background."

"Explains all the muscles then.." the Captain commented.

He smiled "I guess it can be said I'm naturally gifted in that area."

The Captain let out a quick, short laugh and said, "I can still kick your ass..Augment or not."

"Nanite enhanced strength versus genetically engineered. Now that would be a fight worth seeing." he said with a laugh of his own. Then he paused for awhile. "It's good to let someone know finally. Especially with everything that's happened lately."

"I know all about keeping secrets." Kennit answered in a matter-of-fact voice. "My entire career has been filled with events and actions that can't ever be made public."

"I guess it's part of the whole package when you have to live in the shadows due to orders." he said.

Taking a sip of her drink, she said in a low tone of voice he'd never heard from her before. Low, husky, and very..very dangerous. "I have never lived in the shadows my dear Miguel. Haven't you figured it out yet? I am the shadows that everyone else feared. I'm the one who was sent to make problems go away. Whatever problem was tasked to me.. went away."

"I became Starfleet's go to man when they had issues that other engineers couldn't fix. That's the real reason that I got put on the Prometheus Development project. Because they needed my special talents to figure out how to make this class ship work. Especially that damn multi-vector assault mode. They were stuck on it for years. I solved it in a few weeks. You can imagine that there were several senior engineers that had been doing that sort of thing for years weren't happy that this kid only out of the Academy for six had figured out what they couldn't. For the next six years I worked on whatever special projects they deemed needed my touch."

"Yeah.." she laughed. "Remember the issues eleven years ago with Andor.. until their military led leadership was... changed."
He should. The entire Federation had expected war, only to suddenly have the Andorian Leader, Bath Th'taosreq had quite literally disappeared from negotiations and was replaced with the current leadership in power. Asaraav Ch'arhaahlik had steadfastly refused to reveal the events which placed him in power over the passing years.

"There isn't much that I don't remember." he said as he thought back to those days. Especially since the timing was interesting since that was when he was assigned the Prometheus project. "Let me guess that was you?"

She smiled as she shook her head, "My personnel record shows I was stationed at Regular Seven observing the formation of the proto-planetary disk around the star which ignited into full fusion an estimated 5000 years ago."

"Sounds like a boring assignment." he smiled getting her meaning.

"Boring indeed.." she replied in perfect seriousness.

"So do you have any idea as to why Starfleet has us running around like couriers?" he ashed her. It made no sense to him Victory was designed and built to fight. It seemed to be in appropriate use of resources to him.

"We are on our own out here. Who better to send into unknown territory.." the Captain replied.

"That's not what I mean." he replied. "I guess I've just been feeling that this ship isn't being used for what it was designed for."

The Captain cocked her head at him, then said "That bored are you?"

"I guess I am." he said with a laugh.

"Well" she drawled in response. "I'm not going to conjure up hostiles just to give you something to shoot at."

"No I wouldn't want anything like that. It's just since the starbase was destroyed it's felt like we've been waiting for the other shoe to drop. I guess I wish it would just hurry up and do just that." he told her.

The Captain laughed at that. Picking up the remaining moonshine in its bottle, she rose and walked to a cabinet by the wall and leaned over for a moment, opening a drawer and placing the bottle safely inside. Turning back to him, she said "Be careful what you wish for. You may get it."

He couldn't help himself and admired the view as she leaned over. When she turned back he wondered if she had caught him. "I'm a big boy I'm sure I can handle it." he found himself saying.

"Yeah...you say that now. After the next time we get into a situation and things get damaged by combat you'll be singing a different tune.." the Captain answered.

"Well if you don't want to complain so much.. then don't let my ship get damaged next time." he teased.

"Your ship?" Kennit echoed, her tone of voice one of mocking surprise. "Since when .. Last time I checked I'm pretty sure this is my ship.. you're just here to keep it pretty for me.."

"I designed her... she's like my baby... so she's mine. It's just on loan to you until they make you an Admiral and give you a desk job." he said mimicing her tone as he rose from the chair. He placed the glass she had given him back on her desk. "I better go get some rest, another long day tomorrow. Thanks for the drink." he added and then left the Captain to her duties.

 

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