Tedious...butt very importand work

Posted on 28 Aug 2025 @ 1:59pm by Lieutenant Commander Harva Taliborn & Lieutenant JG Zhivise Silatuyok

596 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Unity
Location: Bridge

"Lieutenant Silatuyok?" A deep basso profondo rumbled. His pronunciation of her name was close enough for government work, though he could use a little bit more practice. "Can I ask for a moment of your time?" the massive black-furred wolfman asked.

Zhiv was semi-busy and concentrating on a task when she felt the floor shake a little bit. "oh, um, hello, commander, and of course," she quickly added.

"Name's Harva, chief engineer aboard this boat," The ship's largest officer intoned. He hadn't met Zhiv before, and wasn't going to assume she knew him. "I've got a favor to ask of you. Just a favor, since I'm not in your chain of command, but I need a capable pilot to fly around in a workerbee for two, maybe three hours, and run a script I've written. you game?"

"Harva, pleasure to meet you, and if I ever turn down an opportunity to pilot something, call the doctor as something very wrong has happened," Zhiv chuckled, "may I ask what the script is?"

"Just a script to scan the ship from the outside. What I need is a skilled pilot who's patient enough to follow a corkscrew pattern around some parts of Odin, allowing the script to scan the ship for anything that warrants some additional maintenance," Harva explained. "You see, Odin is a fairly young ship, but she's been through the wringer - getting yeeted across the boundaries between realities and alternate universes is gonna do a number on any ship, and those alien squid machine things a few months back also did some damage. I want to make sure that the ship's in tip-top shape and want to do a full in-depth once-over. Now that we're docked, I have the opportunity to do just so, and you can help me with it. Now, once again, this is just a request for a favor. I'm not in your chain of command."

The assignment was simple, which had its own dangers. {Alternate universes, alien squid machines, and realities,} Zhiv thought, but all this did was bring a grin to her face. "I mean, I may not be the most patient person, but when I get a chance to fly, I can be the most patient person," she chuckled.

"Just upload the flightplan on this PaDD to a workerbee of your choosing, fly the course projected on the HUD and keep the speed to 25 kilometers an hour or below, the program will take care of the rest," Harva explained, his deep voice rumbling. "Not the most exciting job, but important. When it's done feel free to just fly around for a bit at will if you want, if anyone asks what you're doing just send 'em to me, I'll take care of it. I know you pilots love stretching your proverbial wings. Hopefully a workerbee can scratch that itch."

Zhiv took the PaDD and looked at the flight plan, "I have just the workerbee for this," she said with a smie, "looking at this I'll need like 5 or 6 hours maybe a little longer," Zhiv said grinning with the permission to keep the workerbee out for a little bit, "and yes it'll do just that," she chuckled.

"Excellent," Harva agreed, with a smile. "Well, I've got a lot of work to do. The program will ping me when it's done, so you just go have fun and it'll all work out. Thanks again," the tall officer nodded.

"Excellent, and you are welcome," Zhiv said standing up, with PaDD in hand before heading to the life, and down to the hangar.

 

RSS Feed