A sideways move

Posted on Wed Feb 21st, 2024 @ 5:38am by Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Lieutenant JG Maxine Mckull

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Chief Flight Controller's Office, Deck 7 - U.S.S Elysium
Timeline: Several months ago
1651 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure

With her first checkin completed and the situation with her quarters resolved, Max, once again, found herself riding the turbolift.

In a way, she was starting to feel like a yoyo. So many trips, she was moving about far more than she usually did. But she wondered just how long that pattern would hold. She was, after all, just settling in.

The lift stopped on deck 7 as she had requested, and Max stepped out into the corridor. She passed several crewmen on their way to who knew where, dipping her head in silent acknowledgement as they greeted her.

That, in itself, would take some getting used to. Most folks aboard DS4 stopped doing that a long time ago.

Finally spotting the door she was looking for, Max came to a stop. She reached out, lightly pressed the chime, and waited.

The door opened, and Maxine saw a young girl, barely old enough to graduate the academy standing in the middle of a projection of the Bajoran side of the Federation, looking from a patch near ds9 to a padd in her hand and back again. "I wont be long, I promise, I've just got to get the checks done, but i think I'm nearly done."

The greeting surprised her somewhat, though her face remained as unreadable as ever. She gave the young woman a nod of affirmation.

"Do you desire I wait here?"

The words were almost completely flat, with barely enough inflection for it to seem like a question. Perhaps more unnerving was the fact that as the words were posed, her lips did not move even a little.

She wondered, idly, if she had been expected. If she had, wouldn't her superior be ready for her? Or perhaps this... whatever she was doing was taking longer than anticipated?

"Wherever's good. Just need to do this. Actually, go over there, and put your finger on Secarius for me. I swear the elevation's out of alignment." The pink haired girl waved vaguely at a cluster of stars on the other side of the projection.

Max tilted her head and nodded, stepping into the room. As the doors closed behind her she realized the room was much more dimly lit from the inside than it appeared. Receiving her instructions she moved to stand by the indicated star cluster, placing a finger where she was requested to. She stood in silence, watching the woman clearly a few years her junior work away. She felt at a loss for what to say. Was it even wise to try to fill the silence, lest she distract her superior?

The girl glanced at Maxines finger, then a star just to her left, and then back to the finger. "I knew it!" she sighed. and touched her communicator. "Raoul?" there was a moments pause before an acknowlegemnt. "The navigation update has done the thing again. I need you to reload it. Sorry."

The projection winked of, and the pink-haired girl turned to Maxine. "I'm sorry about that. What can I do for you?"

Max blinked as the simulation was terminated, allowing her eyes a few moments to adjust. She pulled a PADD out of her pocket and offered it to the younger officer. A copy of her transfer orders assigning her to the flight control department aboard the Elysium.

"Ensign Maxine Mckull, reporting for duty," she said, her voice completely flat, lips unmoving.

Max braced herself for Miraj's reaction.

whatever she was expecting, she got a slightly wild panicked expression, and then sheepish look. "Oh shit. That was today? Er, sit down?" She pointed at the chair next to the desk pushed up against a wall. "Sorry, I totally forgot. I know Coco said something, but it just went straight out of my mind. Have you been on board long?"

Coco? Max tilted her head faintly but didn't say anything. She was sure she'd learn who that was before too long.

"I have been aboard roughly two hours," Max offered in her dull monotone. As she spoke, she took the indicated chair and crossed her legs at the knees.

"Okay, goood, not left you wandering about. hang on." Miraj started rummaging through a pile of padds on her desk. "Its Max, yes?"


"That is correct," Max affirmed. She clasped her hands in front of her chest, examining her superior for a moment. "And you are Ensign Miraj Derani."

"thats me!" Miraj agreed, finger flicking as it scrolled through. "SAys here you got attacked by pirates on your last posting. And you were a nurse?"

Max gave a slight shake of her head. "The Ajax was attacked by pirates on patrol," Max started. "I was helmsman, at the time. My last posting was aboard Deep Space 4, where I was a nurse. I was transferred after that very incident."

The implant hid the irritation she felt, as did her face. She had lost years of searching to that transfer, and after she helped the Ajax secure a victory in the engagement. That was one hell of a reward for doing a good job.

"That's a very sidewise move," Miraj observed. "Pilot to Nurse."

"I minored as a medic," Max shrugged helplessly. "Evidently Captain Mills thought my skills would be put to better use elsewhere."

"Sounds like an idiot." Miraj replied. "Taking a pilot away from the helm. That's just cruel."

"Apparently, the damage inflicted upon the Ajax was considered too great for its rewards," Max offered by way of explanation. "I did what was necessary for our survival, at the time."

"It still sucks. He shouldn't have done it." Miraj shuddered at the thought of being stopped from piloting. "So Ely goes to 9.9, but we also have a retrofitted QSD. Do you know what that is?"

"The quantum slipstream drive was an experimental engine first constructed by the crew of the starship Voyager, in the hopes it would cut down on the time it would take to return to the alpha quadrant," Max recited. "I am familiar with the history, if not the design and operation of the drive, ma'am."

"We can fix that. Its a lot more physical work than normal piloting though. lots of microadjustments. Its delicate. You need to be really responsive, and quick. And its a hundred hours in the simulator before even a basic live flight."

Max nodded appreciatively. The QSD, from what she had come to understand, was indeed a beast to operate. The smallest phase variance could spell disaster. One mistake could fracture a ship's hull. But Max knew she could handle it. She had bounced a starship off a planetary atmosphere and gone to warp inside a solar system. She knew she could handle this, too.

Giving a nod of understanding, Max posed the question with a deceptively dull tone. She had to admit, she was looking forward to the challenge. That, at least, was one thing she lived for.

"When do we start?"

"As soon as, really. Its not like you'll be able to get all those hours done in a week." Miraj put the padd aside and shifted forward somewhat nervously. "Can I ask a question?"

Max nodded at her superior officer's words, there was indeed little sense in putting off tomorrow what could be done today. Everything else she needed to take care of had been, which left her, for the moment, with little to do.

But Miraj's sudden shift into nerves gave Max pause. She tilted her head before offering a little shrug. "I cannot prevent you from doing so. However, unless ordered to I do hold the right not to answer," she replied.

"How does the robo telepathy work with communicators?" Miraj was genuinely curious on how the voice that arrived in her head could cross lightyears.

Max shook her head in reply and extended her right pointer finger, lifting it and tapping at her upper lip. "Telepathy is not involved," she stated. "At least not in that sense."

She paused, lowering her hand and clasping them in front of her. "The implant converts my brainwaves, and the accompanying thoughts, to spoken word."

"So what's making the sound?" Miraj tried not to be obvious in looking for the speaker.

The questioning. The curious. Max tried to tell herself every time that the people who posed them, the people who were curious were for the most part, just that. Curious. Still, she hated having to talk about her implant. This was her superior officer though. A woman she didn't know. She didn't want to leave a bad impression on her first day of the job, after being cast away for five years. So she bit her metaphorical tongue and humored Miraj's curiosity. "A subdermal implant in my lip."

Max reached up, tapping her lip. If one looked close, they'd spot the smallest hint of a scar under her nostrils.

"That's so cool." Miraj leaned forward as if she was looking for the wires. "Though you're more relaxed about it that I would. I'd be trying to lipsync to my own voice. that would be weird."

If she could've laughed, she found herself thinking she would've. Instead, Max gave a small shake of her head and gave Miraj an amused little huff. While that was certainly possible, it was a lot of effort to go through to present herself as being normal, when she knew she couldn't.

"It would be a significant expenditure of time, to learn the proper movements to appear to be speaking as others do, with very few gains," Max replied with a small shrug. "I cannot hide the flaws of this unit, so I do not see why I should try to."

Miraj nodded. "Good point." She stood up from her desk. "So, do you want the tour?"

"That would be much appreciated," Max stated calmly, watching Miraj rise from her seat. She got ready to follow her superior, to wherever she saw fit.