Turbulence

Posted on Mon Jul 13th, 2020 @ 5:04am by Captain Cynthia Jackson & Lieutenant Kevin Chambers

1,048 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 3 - Coming Full Circle
Location: Engineering

There were maybe six hours until Legacy was going to arrive at its destination of Vulcan. However, the flying was no longer smooth. Legacy started to hop, bump and skip as what were obviously time and space distortions were being flown through. Could this be a problem for the ship itself?

There was something messing with his ship. Kevin mentally planned on seatbelts and hung onto the Legacy’s corridor wall as he slipPed a good 10 feet before he skidded to a stop. There was a shudder, almost as though the ship had suddenly breathed in and found the sensation quite distasteful. These time distortions must be affecting the ship somehow. “Chambers to the Bridge,” he called out as he raced to a turbo lift. “Heading down below to investigate the origin of these shipwide anomalies.”

There was a ripple that travelled a distance along the wall and then felt like it moved through him as he moved through it. He looked around wondering what, if anything, that might have changed. But perhaps it might have occurred to him, had he not skipped that one semester of biology, that he, too, could be affected by the same anomalies. Give him time...

A familiar shape was ahead of him. However, last time he did not see her curvy figure from behind. She was shorter than Kevin might have expected. Regardless, Naryi Avonavi seemed immersed in some sort of repair in the Jefferies Tube. "Whoever is there, reach into my tool kit and give me my hyper spanner."

Kevin blinked to clear his vision as he moved to the tool kit. The hyper spanner was in his hand before he realized it. He looked beyond the Engineer to his precious Legacy. He could see the issue, but this part of the ship had been overhauled... hadn’t it? He narrowed his eyes to cling to memories that were swirling in his head. Out of order? Out of sync? Out of... the time anomalies.

“Where next, Chief?” he asked. Anything to help him get ahead of the curve and make the rise somewhat smoother, he hoped.

The woman responded, "We need to check the intermix chambers to make sure that this turbulence is not causing a fracture anywhere." She got out of the Jefferies tube and looked squarely at Kevin. "You again? How? What are you? Who are you?" The questions, this time were more curious than hostile. Standing at 5'4", with a tool box nearby, she did not look terribly imposing but her posture showed that she was used to being in command.

“Me, again,” he said easily and smiled. It was easier to have a discussion when phasers were not involved. “I just have the oddest question and then we can discuss the implications to our engineering hearts’ content.” His hands were both visible and regardless of how vertically challenged this one might be, he wouldn’t’ ever underestimate a woman with determination. “And I will happily answer your questions.”

“How?” Kevin shrugged. “I don’t know exactly, not yet at least.” Picking up the tool box he said, “I suggest we talk and work Chief, because...” He sighed, taking a deep breath. “...I’m not sure how much time we have.”

“What I am is more complicated an answer than you might expect.” He walked to the next section, standing in front of the intermix chambers. “I’m human,” he began, chuckling. “And I just so happen to be the Chief Engineer of the Legacy...” he waited for her bristling to cease before he completed his sentence. “And it’s the 231st day of 2261 - August 18.”

He waited a beat. “And I guess I answered the Who question too.” He leaned and started expertly checking the chamber. “Same questions to you.” His voice echoed as he worked. “In whatever order,” he continued. “I’m not picky.”

"You're right, this is complicated. I'm the Chief of Security and I'm human. It is the 231st day of 2261, or August, 18. So, we're on the same day and time and we're apparently both Chiefs of Security of Legacy. Right?" She stopped, put her hands on her hips and thought. "I suppose that there could be some sort of rift in the time-space continuum."

“No matter what it might be,” Kevin said, “Let’s see if we can put our heads together to figure out whatever’s going on.” He thought for a moment. “We’re on our way to Vulcan... what’s happening to your Legacy?”

"We're heading to Vulcan, as well. There were space-time distortions coming from Vulcan."

Kevin nodded. “That sounds like the origin point.” He sighed. “And also the point of confusion.” Their conversation was interrupted by a lurching that caused Kevin to grab onto the handrails by the wall opening. “And if we don’t do something, this ship feels like it’s going to shake itself apart before we get there.”

"I'll be damned if anyone or anything is going to shake apart MY ship," the woman told Kevin. "But the fact that we are both here probably means that science is going to need to help figure this out."

“Don’t they always?” shot back Kevin and appeared to have almost surprised himself.

The woman nodded. "They always have their heads lost in the clouds. Someone has to bring them back to the ship to solve real problems."

“Then let’s go do that,” Kevin said and took a step forward before stopping dead and turning around. There was real relief in his face as he saw her still standing there. Part of him was sure she’d be gone... back through to her Legacy.

“Look,” he began and took a step back towards her. “There’s no guarantees that we’ll be able to work together on this and even see each other again.” He gave her a Kevin Chambers dazzling smile. He meant it to be goofy as hell; he never took himself too seriously on a good day. Today? Was not one of those days. “So, good luck with Science and all that.”

"You too. Take care of our ship," she told Kevin as Legacy hit another bump, knocking Kevin to the floor. When he looked up, the other Chief Engineer was gone.

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