Anything is Possible

Posted on Thu Mar 27th, 2025 @ 8:05pm by Ensign Skye Vos & Lieutenant Commander Joseph Sledge

1,341 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 3 - Discord of the Mind
Location: Shuttle Bay
Timeline: Before reaching the asteroid field

ON:

Skye sighed as she finished up the diagnostics of all the shuttles in the bay. Her chin was propped up in her hand, and her elbow rested on the edge of the console. The way her lips pursed added to the picture of boredom. Of course, ensuring all the shuttles were up to par was a regular part of the day job, but it held little to no interest for the half-vulcan pilot.

Joseph was down in the shuttlebay checking on a few things that he had noticed was off while he had been on the bridge. Looking towards the shuttle closest, he noticed Ensign Vos and tilted his head. Slowly he walked over and spoke "Everything alright Ensign...?" Blanking on her name at the moment and looking somewhat apologetic.

Skye straightened up, clearing her throat as she hurried to create a more professional image. "...Vos. Ensign Skye Vos," she picked up on his cue for help with her name, but took no offence. She didn't know who everyone was yet either. "I was just trying to find out. The general diagnostic threw up some irregularities so I set more off. It's definitely this one..." she patted the side of the shuttle closest to them.

He looked to the shuttle that she had patted and nodded. He looked back to her and smiled as he spoke "Well. What kind of irregularities are you finding on this craft?" He shifted a bit as he watched the Ensign, having noticed some non Vulcan tendencies. It intrigued him some.

She blinked with mild surprise. Was he going to help her out? It wasn't often the VIPs came down to help out with menial work. She went through a number of emotions...surprise, concern, suspicion, worry...but settled at 'what the heck, if it gets the work done quicker'. "Looks like it's the power distribution throughout the shuttle. We've got unexpected errors blinking across the board. But nothing came up as damaged."

Joseph nodded as he moved towards the shuttlecraft. He opened up a panel that allowed access to the craft's power distribution system and spoke "These type 9 shuttlecraft have always been a little hinky when it comes to their power systems. I swear you could look at it funny and it'll shit itself in to a cascade error..."

Skye couldn't help but laugh at the way he put it, dropping down to a crouch to look with him. "So maybe it was my fault afterall then, sat over there, giving it dirty looks," she joked lightly.

While his features didn't show it, laughter and a joke coming from someone of Vulcan descent still caught Joseph off guard. He smiled and looked back to Skye as he spoke "Eh. It happens. At least it isn't a Peregrine class. Those things are far more temperamental."

"I bet they're a dream to fly though," she said softly with a knowing smile, and a tone that gave away her want to get her hands on one.

He smiled and shook his head "As far as I know, the only way to get a hold of one is to join Starfleet's Starfighter corps." While he worked on pulling an EPS tap out of the area he was working on.

"You ever get that chance?" she asked as her head tilted with curiosity, wondering if he was speaking from experience.

Looking back to Skye for a moment, Joseph took a breath and nodded "I did. On my last posting. We needed a fighter group to attack, most of the pilots were injured, so I volunteered to fly one of the fighters..."

She watched him with a mixture of emotions at the turn in the story, touching her middle at being slightly taken aback by it. "That takes some guts..." she observed before a slight chuckle finally escaped. "I think I might be just a touch jealous."

He nodded gently as he checked over the EPS tap. He sighed softly "it was a last ditch effort... The Jem'Hadar ships were hammering the fuck out of us... We found a weakness in their shields and exploited it with a few well placed micro quantum torpedoes.. Probably should have used a Tricobalt device on them instead."

"Yeah," her voice turned a shade quieter at the stark reminder of just how brutal the war had been. "Things got pretty desperate there for a while."

He nodded gently as he looked over the tap a bit "It still is desperate.. The Breen entering the war doesn't help..." he sighed gently and looked to Skye.

She searched his eyes for a long moment, a familiar feeling of anger and queasiness passing over her as she thought on the whole mess. She'd vaguely hoped that the worse was over. "You really think so?"

He nodded gently as he slowly sat down on the nacelle of the shuttle. He looked to Skye and spoke softly "I think it is bad for now. But the Federation always turns things around in the eleventh hour.. I mean hell, two years ago we were at war with the Klingon's because of the Changelings. Now we are allied with the Klingons. Hell, even the Romulans have joined the war effort. We will prevail. You understand Ensign?"

She bit the inside of her lip as she let his words ease the anxiety that had threatened, but she finally gave a firm, decisive nod. He was right, after all, the Federation was nothing if not adaptable. "I suppose if we can jump to the other side of the galaxy, then anything is possible."

Joseph gave Skye a bright smile and nodded as he spoke "That's the Starfleet spirit Ensign!" He winked at her and moved back to the shuttle "Now then. How about we work on this plasma flow regulator while I clean this EPS Tap's ports and connectors?"

"Deal," she said quickly, because two pairs of hands were better than one and she didn't intend to waste the offer of help. She hopped lightly up into a more vibrant crouch position, tricorder in hand already scanning.

They moved together, working quickly to fix the issue with the shuttlecraft. He kept an eye on the Ensign, seeing how she reacted to certain monkey wrenches he threw at her, figuratively speaking. After a while he spoke "How's the new EPS tap working Ensign?"

Skye gave a firm nod of satisfaction as she looked over the readouts. She was a pilot at heart, and her skills around actually fixing up a bird were rudimentary at best. But she'd watched him work throughout, taking interest and notice in his methods. "Functioning within acceptable parameters," she assured him, although she had a hunch he'd already known.

Joseph smiled a bit as he heard Skye's response to him. He had already had the report pop up on his PADD right in front of his face. He slowly popped out from under the console he was working on and spoke "Just a few more diagnostics to run, eh? What do you think Ensign?"

"I'll get them started," Vos nodded her assurance, heading for the main console to set them running again. "Good to know I've not broken the small birds on our first mission out..."

Joseph grinned a bit as he looked to Skye. Softly he spoke "It'll take more than a small foul up to break these babies. Believe me." He reached over and gave her a pat on the back "Trust me Ensign, you're fine. Just remember to look at the manual for them occasionally."

"Ergh, reading..." Skye rolled her eyes, but there was playful mischief with it now rather than the touch of insecurity that had shown itself before. "Okay, deal, Commander..."

Another grin came from Joseph as he watched the young Ensign. A nod of his head to the young hybrid as he spoke "Alright. Lets get this done." With a smile and a wink to the young woman.

OFF:

Lt. Commander Joseph Sledge
Chief Operations Officer / Second Officer

Ensign Skye Vos
Pilot
(PNPC Wilde)

 

RSS Feed