Shuttles and Spaceships

Posted on Sun Mar 24th, 2024 @ 6:08pm by Ensign Skye Vos & Petty Officer 1st Class Mateo Wright

1,691 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 1 - Project Concord
Location: Shuttle Bay
Timeline: Before the transwarp jump

Petty Officer 1st Class Mateo Wright frowned slightly as he looked at the shuttle. The brand new, never been flown past its test flight shuttle. Not a scratch on her. Well, that was a lie. There was one scratch by the nacelles, clearly done by someone carrying something too close to it. An accidental scrape. He looked away from it, to try and focus on something else before his eyes were drawn to it again. "It's fine," he muttered, to himself. "It's just paintwork, it's fine. Doesn't matter." He stood there for a moment, his hand twitching as he stared before he grimaced and walked away...and grabbed the toolbox.

It didn't matter except it did and now he had seen it he couldn't unsee it. And while everyone else were busy with important things, he was just obsessing about the scrape. So. Best he fixed it. He sat down, taking the buffer out, studying the scrape. "Don't worry, we'll get you nice and pristine again..." he whispered, to the shuttle rather than anyone around him.

"There's a scratch there..." Skye Vos pointed down at it from where she'd approached stealthily to see what he was doing with the shuttle. She was wearing her uniform, apart from the jacket, content in just the poloneck. "Just there..."

"I know, Vos," Mateo said, knowing at once who it was when he heard her voice. He moved to rub it, frowning slightly as he let out a breath. "Never been flown out of the shuttlebay and still there's a scratch on her. It's insulting. Careless. Can't even blame it on you."

She lifted her hands up in a 'don't look at me' gesture, arching an angled eyebrow at him. "I haven't even flown anything yet! You probably caught it with a crate or something...."

"I caught it with nothing," Mateo said with a grumble, before he looked at her for a moment. He frowned, as if suddenly remembering something. "You're here for something specific."

"I just wanted to get acquainted with the smaller birds. Good job I came along when I did..." Skye gave a tut as she shook her head and looked around...but there was a gleam of humour in her Vulcan set eyes.

Mateo chuckled at that, shaking his head. "Officer like you? Don't you have enough with flying the ship?" he asked before he shifted, moving to buff the scrape. "You can stand there and watch, or help. Up to you." He glanced at her and finally smiled, his brown eyes warming up with it.

"Well when you put it like that," Skye dropped down to join him, shaking her head as she took hold of the panel firmly in both hands to keep it steady for him. "It's alright. I won't tell anyone you're going around and wrecking the ship before we're even launched."

He watched her, eyes narrowed for a moment. "That's just what I can expect...attitude from the bridge crew," he murmured, making a point of looking really offended. Even if he wasn't. This was banter, if nothing else, and he could handle that easily enough. It was even fun, usually the officers didn't talk to him.

"Oh, I've not even started yet," Skye warned, but with a small smile as she glanced across to him. "So, I hear you used to be a hotshot pilot."

Mateo let out a breath, shaking his head. "Nope, wasn't me. Wrong Wright. That would have been the Wright Brothers, I'm just a glorified deck chief..." he said lightly, reaching for a spanner.

"Uh huh..." she watched him intently, catching hold of it for him to offer over. "I guess I just heard wrong then?" she said lightly, a touch of doubt in the back of her tone.

He paused before he took it, giving her a small smile. "I used to be a pilot. But that...was a while ago now. Now, I just manage the deck," he said, reluctantly. It was the way she was looking at him that had made him answer.

"Hm..." she watched his face carefully, trying to work out how much to push her luck...before deciding she'd gone far enough for one day. "Well, there's no 'just' to it," she acknowledged honestly.

He smiled, unable to stop it as he looked at her with an almost cheeky expression. "I just make it look like hard work, most of these things are automated. Not that I'll let you leave in a shuttle I haven't checked. You might want to check under the co-pilot seat. It's where I put the emergency bag of snacks."

"You put snacks in the shuttles?" Skye asked with surprise, laughing as she arched an eyebrow. As Vulcan as the gesture was from the half-Vulcan woman, it seemed slightly misplaced with the smile that was also on her features.

"Yes," Mateo laughed, at her reaction...and her face, the juxtaposition of the very Vulcan expression teamed with the smile. "Look, emergency rations are fine, but last time I lived off them I would have given my left leg for a chocolate bar."

"Chocolate," she let out a whistle, shaking her head. "That's it...no shuttle is safe or sacred from now on..."

"I take care of my pilots," Mateo said after a moment, meaning it as he met her eyes. "Make sure the shuttle has what a person needs as much as is functional."

Skye nodded, looking down with a small smile, trying to seem casual rather than amused. "You really care, don't you."

Mateo let out a breath before he frowned. "Not really," he said but he didn't mean it. He sighed and looked at her, a small smile coming to him. "Just making sure none of my pilots get too cranky, or else there is paperwork and getting the counselor in and all that annoying stuff."

She gave a mock shudder at that, shaking her head as she reached out for the hyperspanner to pass over. "Oh I'm done with counsellors. 50,000 psych evaluations to get in the fleet? I think I'm set for life."

Mateo laughed at that, his eyes shining as he sat back and watched her, taking the hyperspanner. "You think you're done? I'm going to be chained to mine working through my..." he rolled his eyes, because it sounded so dramatic. "Issues."

She gave a small, half, knowing smile at the words, or more, how he said it. "How very Holo-tele-novela..." she teased him, her dark hair flicking with the way she shook her head at his dramatic style. She appreciated it though.

He laughed at that, grinning as he gave her a nod. "Just imagine me as the troubled brother of the lead. Once, I was brilliant. Now, I crawl around in the muck, drinking my troubles away and curse the one who got away from me. Ah, my heart..." he gripped his chest playfully before he shook his head.

Skye smiled with him for a long moment, chuckling softly before reaching out to take the steraliser to help clean up the sheet of metal. "Still...doesn't mean you're not still brilliant," she pointed out lightly.

He chuckled, a soft sound as he looked at her. "I don't think I ever was brilliant," he said, quietly. "But I was lucky. Sometimes, luck matters more. But eventually it...runs out." He paused and watched her. "You're one of those annoying people with the silver linings, aren't you?"

"I'm afraid so," she quirked an eyebrow at him, a smile of amusement pulling at her lips at the suggestion. "There's a balance to the universe. To nature. Why not luck."

Mateo shook his head, smiling at that. "Balance, destiny...all that?" he asked her, finishing the work and sitting back, rubbing the back of his neck almost tiredly. "You believe in that?"

"Of course I do, it's the only thing that makes sense," Skye replied in a tone of voice that said it was obvious. "The patterns...the cycles...the balance...you see it everywhere in the universe, as clear as a set of blueprints."

He watched her for a long moment before he looked down. "I always just thought of it as organised chaos," he admitted, almost shyly. Because he wasn't sure what was right or wrong. "But when I was out there, flying...there was a balance of something more than just technology and skill."

"I'm no philosopher or priest," Skye shook her head firmly before giving a shrug for good measure. "But it seems a pretty intricate balance has to be maintained to achieve flight."

He watched her before he smiled, raising an eyebrow. "The knack," he said and tutted. "The feel. You just know, your entire body's adjusted to it. Your soul maybe. And I guess amongst the stars..." he gestured around him. "We are all philosophers and priests to our own convictions."

"And fires know we all start praying when it looks like it's going wrong," she rolled her eyes with a soft chuckle at the thought, shaking her head. "And we're still alive, so maybe it worked."

"Hm," he looked at her before he took a deeper breath, standing swiftly. "Maybe. Or maybe no one is listening and it is dumb luck." He watched her before he offered his hand to her, to pull her up.

She took it firmly, pulling herself up with it before dusting her hands off and setting them on her hips as she looked down at their work. "There's always someone listening when you're on a ship. Best not forget that," she gave him a small, playful smile.

He looked at her, searching her eyes for a moment. "Yes Ensign," he said playfully, giving her a salute that was, at best, sloppy.

Skye rolled her eyes at the attempt, already turning to leave. “That was pathetic…good job for you that I don’t give a damn…”

"Just as well we don't really salute in Starfleet," Mateo said with a wink before he turned back to his work. "Although if we did, it would be a Vulcan one."

OFF:

PO1 Mateo Wrigt
Ensign Skye Vos

 

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