Progress?

Posted on Fri May 6th, 2022 @ 5:13pm by Lieutenant JG Ryan Kade III
Edited on on Fri May 6th, 2022 @ 5:15pm

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: USS Elysium - Deck 7, Shuttle Bay
559 words - 1.1 OF Standard Post Measure

A golden-shouldered uniform slipped out from beneath the shuttle. The equally golden hair, no doubt previously clean and combed, was at that moment a complete mess of frizz and grease. Splotches of said grease could be seen all over him. “Hey,” He said as his indigo eyes locked onto the approaching security officer.

“Yeah?” The other human replied, slicking his hand through his almost-perfectly-coiffed dark brown hair. Equally dark brown iris’ stared inquisitively down at the other man who was effectively upside down.

“Hand me that micro-welder, would ya, Lieutenant?” He asked as he motioned to an L-shaped hand-sized tool that was just beyond his grasp.

Ryan crouched down, careful not to crease his uniform the wrong way as he swept up the tool into his hand. After he was certain he’d picked the right one, he wordlessly handed it over.

Bigsby nodded in appreciation, taking the welder and fiddling with the settings. A tiny little blade of white plasma stabbed out, changing subtly as it was adjusted. “So, aren’t you supposed to be haunting the brig or somin’?”

A roll of the eyes preceded the security officer's smirk, “I’m not always in the brig.”

The engineer slid back under the shuttle. Light danced as small welding sparks ignited from contact with the hull. “Coulda fooled me.” He muttered between the loud noises of his work beneath.

“Yeah, well,” Ryan replied loudly in order to be heard over the squealing of super-heated metal, “maybe if you stopped getting into trouble you’d see a lot less of me in there.”

“Hah!” Bigsby huffed between deep breaths as he pulled down on a loose hull section he’d been working on, “can’t make any promise.”

Ryan shook his head before continuing, “I hear you’ve been promoted to first-class, Crewman.”

A resigned sigh could be heard from beneath the shuttle. “... yeah,” he said sarcastically, “I’m sure it was.”

“That’s good!” Ryan tried his best to keep the atmosphere positive. The welding started up, again, as if the noise itself was all the dispute one needed. Ryan found himself staring down at the floor for just a moment, before he finally decided to join his coworker. He positioned himself onto a spare dolley and slid beneath.

Bigsby did nothing for a moment, then decided to settle for yet another sigh. “Come to check up on me?” He said as he wiped grime away from his forehead with an already dirty sleeve, which only partially helped. Mostly, it just smeared even more.

Ryan chuckled, pulling out a perfectly clean handkerchief from his vest pocket and wordlessly offering it. “They wanted to move you even higher, didn’t they?”

The engineer stopped wiping his face with the offered handkerchief, leaving it there over his features for a solid moment before finally pulling it away. As it did, his vacant expression spoke volumes. “Yeah, they did.”

“Want to talk about it?”

Bigsby’s lips compressed as his whole body seemed to tense up, ever so slightly. In the end, his reply was the same as it had always been, “... no.”

Ryan nodded quietly to himself for a few seconds. Keeping it light, he looked over at the damaged hull section that the crewman had been hard at work repairing. “So… how can I help?”