A Unique Fixer-Upper

Posted on 02 Oct 2023 @ 4:14pm by Ensign Orion Belmont & Ensign Kat Walker & Crewman Apprentice Unknown 'Weirdo'

3,251 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Miranda
Location: Flight Deck

Since his arrival he had made decks 13 through 15 his new home, having not strayed far from them much at all. He had made a small venture or two to the lounge and gymnasium but other than that his time had been devoted to getting Valk #27 up and running. The Commander had been true to her word and had had its repair kicked up the priority list as far as had been possible, but there had been more important things to investigate first and so it was still a long way from being flight worthy.

A week he had been told, which was something he had been frustrated with but had bitten his tongue - for once. Orion didn't do well when he wasn't able to do what he loved and so he had embraced the distraction of the fixer-upper, rather than drinking and other less reputable activities. Currently he was inside the cockpit, having gotten most of that in working order at least, and running various checks on the Valk's systems.

"At this rate Deadeye will have had several wingmen before I even get out into vacuum," he muttered to himself, his brow furrowed in thought as he watched the checks ticking over, "she is helpful though...wouldn't have made it this far without her" he admitted to himself, still not entirely sure how he felt about having an AI as a partner.

Said AI was working on the engine, with the assigned engineer. An overhead crane was used to lift the rebuilt impulse unit up and over the airframe, with the engineer guiding the crane as Kat operated it. It was a delicate procedure, as was everything else on such a highly integrated, advanced machine like a Valkyrie. A week to get it fully operational seemed a realistic estimate. After that there would have to be flight tests, weapon tests, warp tests, which would all add at least another several days to the whole operation.

One thing Kat didn't fully understand or grasp was the concept of pride. Pride in one's work. Pride in seeing something come together, over time. Pride in flying something you've put your own hard work in to. Pride that surely Orion would feel once #27 was up and operational again, flying through the black.

The man with the wild curls and sea-coloured eyes was wandering through the ship, more or less randomly, as he was wont to do. Earlier he'd been sent away from sickbay by a harrowed-looking doctor, who sternly told him to take some rest. His protests, that he didn't need to rest, that he required far less sleep than the average crewmember, had fallen on deaf ears.

And in all fairness, it was a relief to be out of there for a few hours, away from the crowds, the smell of vomit, the smell of sickness, of worry and frustration. It had worn him down, so that his usual ebullient energy now was considerable fainter than normal.

His feet had led him here, to the flight deck, where he knew he'd find one person who – he was pretty sure – wouldn't be ill at all. He was somewhat surprised, though, to find she wasn't alone. "Well, hello there," he called out, cheerfully despite his weariness.

Orion dragged his fingertips through his hair, rubbed his temples to ease the tired ache there and then pushed himself up, levering and jumping out of the Valk to land and see who the new arrival that had called out was. His eyes went to Kat first, smiling genuinely at her for the effort she was putting in by helping the engineer.

"Thanks for operating the crane Deadeye, I'll uh...well the equivalent of a drink will be yours. Still a ways out, looks like we'll be getting plenty of time to get to know each other before we actually fly together," he said giving her a rough salute in thanks, his eyes switching to the newcomer, "friend of yours Deadeye? Afternoon, name's Orion but people call me Jester" he said, offering out his hand in greeting.

The man smiled, as always delighted to meet new people. Especially new people who weren't stumbling into sickbay or who were carried in on stretchers, hoverplates or stumbling between colleagues. "Hello, Orion Jester, pleasure to meet you!" He stuck out his hand and grabbed the one which was offered to him.

Kat's avatar split in two, one the familiar young human woman, continuing to help the engineer. The other, a four-winged, iridescent black feathered creature from earth's prehistory. Body roughly the size of a cat's, with a long feathered tail. It leapt up into the air, and with a strong beat of its wings landed on the curly haired newcomer's shoulder. "Hello Ref. Or should I call you Tychon? I hear that's what the rest of the crew have been calling you," the creature spoke. "Yes Jester, this is a friend of mine"

"A pleasure," Orion returned, keeping hold of the man's hand far longer than was polite, his mouth opening and closing as his gaze fixed onto the...creature, currently perched on the man's shoulder and talking in Kat's voice, "a pleasure...yes....ah...sorry did you say your name? And Tychon? I, yeah I've lost track. You fly around the Odin as a - what is it?" he asked, not quite sure his mind was working. Had he hit his head somewhere and that's why his temples ached?

"No, I didn't say one." The man seemed perfectly at ease with a microraptor sitting on his shoulder. "I don't really have one, so I let people choose what they'd like to call me. Thus far I've people calling me Ref, Tychon, Lou, Riddle…" He waved one hand as if to cut himself short, and grinned.

"It's starting to become a whole collection of sorts," Kat remarked. "Some people collect stamps. Others, names."

"A legion of them, huh?" he said, licking his lips and having the distinct feeling things had run away from him, "well I can't really talk about names. So what brings you down to the flight deck today...Pirate?" Orion grinned, trying to get back to some semblance of normal conversation. "You look like you've fought a few rounds with someone, you...Operations?"

"And why do you change into this, creature Kat?" he asked, head cocked sightly and taking it in fully for the first time now that his surprise had faded slightly.

"I find this form easier to get around the ship. Being smaller and able to fly makes it more efficient to get from place to place," the creature commented, fluttering its wings a bit, as if to emphasize the point. "It's based on Microraptor, an avian dinosaur from Earth's prehistory."

"A microraptor. Yes, I suppose it is very efficient. Just, uh, I guess I'm not used to people transforming into a dinosaur" Orion nodded, not quite sure what else to say, though he felt sure he would have a much longer conversation. His attention was dragged back to the man with a multitude of names as he continued.

"Oh, I like my collection," the man said, still smiling. "It's kind of like a name for every occasion, or something. Not all that different from what you are doing." He gestured to the fighters. "Just… maybe a bit more of it." He strolled over to the fighter on which Orion was working and looked at it before glancing up at him. "I've been helping out in sickbay. Lots of people falling ill, the place is crowded to burst." The smile melted away as he spoke.

"Yes, I had heard something about an illness going around. Lots of people have dropped already. Not exactly the best start on the newest ship I've served in. Then again, always good to get some authorized time off and bed rest. You must be a good sort to try to help all of the less fortunate. Never did have the strength myself. Still...there are things to keep us busy beyond sickness eh?" Orion said, patting the man's shoulder in an attempt at being friendly, noting how his smile had slipped, before he grabbed a hyper spanner from a toolkit on a crate and started using it to open a panel under the nose of the Valk, kneeling and looking back at them both as he talked, "how long have you been on the Odin anyways? Does illness happen often here?" he asked, grunting slightly as he pulled away the panel to check if everything seemed to be in order, as far as he would be able to make out at least.

"Well, you have a clear task here on this ship," the man said, gesturing at the fighter Orion was working on. "I have the relative advantage that I don't, so I was free to help out. I must say I haven't been long here myself, a couple of months, and this is the first time I've seen anything like it." He studied the fighter, walking back a few steps to compare it to Kat.

The fighter was the same, though Kat's was complete and intact, with the cockpit innards replaced by a support system for her AI core. This had taken some time to design and build, and made Kat's fighter stand out. Unlike Orion, she couldn't just hop into a different fighter if needed, nor could anyone else pilot that particular airframe; hers was hers and hers alone.

"I've been on Odin a good few months now, ever since they picked me up in the parallel universe," Kat explained, her paravian avatar balancing precariously on the curly haired man's shoulder. "This is the first time I've seen people get sick on this scale," she added, head bobbing up and down along with her tail. "It's fascinating. I'm trying to gather as much information I can with my sensors, but they are limited and not designed for such use."

"You've been here a couple months," he pursed his lips as he fiddled with some of the circuity, exploring the internals for soundness where they made sense to him as he spoke to Mr. Dozen Names, "and you don't have a clear task? You just help out wherever then? Why no set role?" he asked, the concept unfamiliar given the ranks and structure he had lived so many years with, agreeable or not.

"Wait Deadeye...a parallel universe? You aren't just 'not from around here' but 'here' is somewhere that is literally a different universe? I'm starting to think I was sent here just to be shown how average I am," he chuckled t himself as he pushed himself back up and leant his shoulder against the Valk as he eyed them both, "and you're scanning the ship? And everyone on it? They let you do that? How many times have you scanned me exactly, and you'd tell me if you found something terrible right?" he finished, definitely starting to appreciate that he was likely the odd one out on the ship for more than just being new.

"Parallel universe, yes. One where I, and many others like me, were created by a race called the Drul'Anu," The microraptor hopped off of the curly haired man's shoulder and landed on the floor, the avatar shifting with a shimmer into that of a lanky, bipedal, green skinned lizard person wearing a flight uniform. "Perhaps 'scanning' is the wrong word. I see differently from most biologicals. For example, I see you like this," The lizard person motioned to a side where a humanoid form manifested, though as if seen through infrared. A heat map of Orion, with various overlays like heart rate, core temperature, breathing rhythm, the direction his eyes were looking, all with various notes, highlighted in blue. "I recognize people primarily by their heat signature and various basic life functions. Everyone's heat map is unique. I can also detect fluctuations in this heat map and other assorted primary functions."

He waited until Kat was done speaking and took over. "As for me, well, bit of a story there," the curly-haired man said with a grin. "I was found adrift in a life pod and taken on board." He waved vaguely with one hand in one direction, probably indicating a nearby room or bay. "And more or less the first memory I have is when they opened the pod and let me out. So I've been roaming around a bit, determining what to do, and now I'm following some Starfleet Academy courses so I can actually get a position on board. At least, that was the plan before, well, all this happened."

Orion wasn't sure what he had been expecting but there was a repeat of the momentary slack-jawed expression from earlier in the conversation. Watching the little show and listening was about all he could do before his attention was taken by the multi-named and another mystery was revealed. He nodded a few times, almost to himself as he tried to process it and decided it was better just to give up and go with it.

"I think I'm going to need a drink before I can even begin to process just the past five minutes, let alone the rest of what have been going on aboard this ship. As it is, I hope that you find yourself some direction Mr Names. Lots on offer. For what it's worth, don't do what I did and waste the opportunities. Be smarter. As for you Deadeye, we need to have a proper talk if we're going to be flying together I reckon. Brief version of my story - disappointed parents, joy riding teenage years, excellent pilot, know my way around some mechanics and engineering. Terrible at politics and doing what I'm told. List of ships, all the way to here. Last chance saloon. Hence why I want to get this Valk in the air, find a name for her and get back to doing what I'm actually good at, before I do something stupid" he continued with only a half-grin.

Now 'Mr. Names' (and the new addition delighted him!) looked slightly puzzled. "Why do you consider your opportunities wasted? Didn't you like those experiences while you did them? And didn't those experiences lead you here?" The whole concept seemed strange, even alien to him.

Kat was curious too, so she just listened. Orion's heat map dismissed with a flick of the wrist - a totally superfluous gesture, but she found that people appreciated those - and her avatar shifted back to the paravian dinosaur, with the familiar shimmer. Now to perch on top of the nose of Valkyrie #27. Behind the small group talking, her second avatar - in the shape of the young human woman with slightly too perfect skin - continued to help the engineer with fitting and attaching the impulse drive, now in the wiring stage.

"Looks like you have to earn the right for a shoulder perch," Orion snorted, eyeing the microraptor for a few moments before returning his attention back to the other man and his questions, "what you ask is fair, but not simple to fully explain. Or short. Yes, I did like the experiences at the time, but that doesn't mean they were smart. Sure, they led me here, but I've been here a few days. Not really much time to tell you it's a good thing. I hope so, otherwise I'll really be in trouble. As for wasted...well as I was recently reminded, I am a little long on years to be an Ensign. Honestly, if I weren't a decent pilot I'd probably not even be that. Life has a sense of humour, and it's a right ironic and mardy one too. If I weren't such a Jester I'd probably have given up by now. But me? Nah I'm a fool, I'm too stupid to not carry on. Someone'll probably get me a bell hat one of these days" he said, finally grinning at the end after far too long with an all too serious face

"I suppose that you both have unique perspectives on things," Orion continued, "it's nice, at times, to get a truly clean slate. Though you both seem to have been through the wringer to get one. Do you not wonder, at times, what things would have been like had you not got it? Do you not want to know what your forgotten memories are Mr. names? Does Deadeye not sometimes ponder on what things would have been like had you not been grabbed into this universe?"

"I was found adrift as well, after being nearly destroyed in some war five hundred years prior. Heavily damaged, disabled, unpowered. The crew of the Odin recovered me, awakened me," Kat explained, her voice calm, one might even be forgiven to think her tone pensive. She hopped down from the Valkyrie to, with a flap of her wings, land on Orion's shoulder. This avatar was just light, just a hologram. It could not affect matter, like the other avatar, still currently assisting the engineer, could. Although she could manifest multiple avatars and concentrate on multiple things simultaneously, only one avatar could interact properly with the physical world.

"More than that, they have taken me in as one of their own. AIs like me have sentience rights, in this universe. Before, I was but a tool. A pilot assist, made to lessen the burden of operating a military vehicle so the pilot could concentrate on the battle," she explained, mirroring her motions of balancing herself to the movements Jester made with his shoulder. "But here, I am a person. I'm still trying to come to terms with that. Figure out my place in the wider world. I've actually made friends. And lost friends."

"As for me…" the man with the wild curls shrugged. "No. Pondering upon my past is pointless. It's gone, beyond retrieval-" except for those flashes which weren't quite memories but which on rare moments made their appearance, rising up from the depths of his mind, "so dwelling on all the unknowns is a waste of time. Maybe, someday, I'll encounter someone of my race. Maybe I'll get some answers then. But I have no idea how long I've been adrift, or how I got there. Could've been months, could've been decades. There's no telling. And the universe is too great to dwell on 'what once was'. There's so much more to see, to explore, to discover. New people to meet. Friends to make." He spread out his arms as if to embrace the whole ship, or at the very least the two persons who were here with him.

"So you both say that new beginnings are a good thing and that the past is either irrelevant," Orion nodded at Mr. Names for that one as he watched Kat the microraptor settle on him and felt nothing, yet was still somehow wary whilst at the same time feeling very dapper, "or that what you have here is better. I hope that the same becomes the case for myself then. Though hopefully I don't lose any friends the only possible ones I have here are you two. And that would be quite depressing, no?" he said with a slowly growing smile.

"500 years old and possibly hardly any age at all. Very much extremes to each other, yet you both get on well enough it seems. Maybe I'll not do too badly here at all"

 

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