Talking Comms

Posted on Thu Aug 1st, 2019 @ 3:32pm by Lieutenant JG Serenity Hayes & Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Kincaid

1,294 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 0 - Pre-Sigma Iotia II
Location: Subspace Receiver
Timeline: 2167/07/10 1145

Though he'd barely settled in, having just finished his conversation with the Captain, Nick put himself straight to work. The job of XO, while on paper the more important one, could wait. First, he needed to ensure the ship was functioning properly. In Main Engineering, he reviewed the repair and refit logs, and in doing so found one issue that hadn't yet been addressed: a fault in the subspace receiver. The diagnostician had identified a handful of damaged relays inside it that needed to be switched out.

Toolbox in hand, he walked to a wall comm unit and activated it. "Chief Communications Officer, please report to radio access." He closed the channel and headed there himself.

"Aye, Sir," Serenity answered. "On my way." She waited for her relief to arrive and then made her way down to the access point. Slender and petite, she threaded her way easily through crew members congregating at junctions or making their way along the ship's corridors. As she approached, she found the ship's first officer already there and pulled up short in surprise. "Sir," she said in a voice that was both soft and melodic, "You asked to see me?"

Nick smiled and offered his hand for a handshake, his toolbox in the other hand. “I did. Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Kincaid. First Officer and Chief Engineer. You must be Lieutenant Serenity Hayes?”

"I am," Serenity said as she shook his hand. Not being a contact telepath meant that she had no fear of casual touch; having grown up on the Xanadu meant that she was familiar with a myriad of customs handshakes among them. She smiled, an easy, friendly smile, and the thought occurred that she had been doing less of that on the Bridge. She brushed it aside, along with a tendril of blonde hair that escaped the loose knot she had fashioned this morning, as she said, "How can I be of help?"

Nick pointed to the door to the access room for the communications system. “Three damaged relays need to be replaced. We’re already limited to transmitting lightspeed radio messages. I’d rather not cut off our ability to receive subspace messages from Starfleet Command too. I thought maybe you could give me a hand? This system is as much yours as mine.”

"You know, it was on my list to check," Serenity said, "and I'm happy to lend a hand." She gestured toward the door and bowed slightly. "After you, Sir."

“Thank you,” he replied as he stepped to the door. It opened, revealing the bulky subspace receiver and radio transmitter. “Late in the war, I served on a subspace transmitter ship,” he said as he started walking around the machine. “The Bell was huge. The dish alone was as big as the Horizon. I can’t wait until they miniaturize that technology.”

"One thing about technology," Serenity said as she walked into the room and moved around to the access panel, "it always improves so I think its going to happen." She popped open the panel and moved it to one side so that the commander could fit in.

Nick set his tools on the deck and squeezed into the tight compartment first. "Could you pass me my toolkit before you follow me in?" he asked, his hand reaching out as close to the access port.

Serenity passed the toolkit over, waited until he was in, and then followed. Having grown up on a ship, she had no fear of tight spaces and truth be told, enjoyed the work.

"So tell me about yourself, Ms. Hayes," Nick said as he pulled a spanner out of his toolkit and began uncoupling the first relay. "Or may I call you Serenity? Or do you have a nickname you prefer?"

"Serenity's fine," she answered, "or Ser. That's what my sisters used to call me though there was a few months where we all got into inventing long unflattering names for each other." She grinned at the memory though it faded, as it always did, as memories of her father intruded. She shoved the thought back into the recesses of her brain and continued. "Mine was six or seven words long if I remember correctly."

Nick couldn't help but smile and laugh as he pulled the first broken relay out. "Yeah, that sounds about right. I was the oldest of four, and it was my job, my duty even, to make sure everyone had an unflattering nickname. It helped that my brother was already Richard. Not hard to get a bad nickname from that. Can you hold the new relay in place while I attach it please?"

"Of course," Serenity said. She fit the relay into place, the benefit of slender fingers made agile by years of drawing, and smiled. "Four, huh? I have six sisters in all."

“Six?!” Nick asked incredulously. “I’m not sure I’d survive six siblings.” He quickly attached the new relay as he chuckled at the notion. “That should be good. Two more like that and we can test it. One here,” he pointed to a relay next to the one they’d just done, “and one here,” he pointed to one near Ser’s head. He passed her a spanner. “You start detaching the one near you? One person can remove them; but it’s easier for two to install the new ones.”

"Almost done with detaching," Serenity said as she worked. "Just a moment more." She thought about what it had been like on their family ship and her mind skittered away from those last memories, unwilling to visit them. "It did have its challenges." She grunted slightly, feeling a slight resistance as she pulled the relay off and set it off to one side. "Got it. How are you doing with the last one?"

“One second,” Nick said as he finished working on his relay. “Done.” He pulled it off and set it with hers and picked up two fresh ones, which she handed to Ser. “Same as last time.” As she held one in place he began connecting it. “I will miss them though. My siblings. Especially little Hana.”

Serenity nodded in agreement. "I do sometimes, miss them. Never alone. Always someone to talk to no matter the time of day or night ... and the endless practical jokes."

Nick smiled. “I do miss the practical jokes. But on a ship this small, you’ll always have someone to talk to as well.” He finished connecting the relay and then had Ser hold the next one in place. “Seriously, my door is always open. Not just as ship’s First Officer, but as a friend as well.”

She held the relay in place as she considered her answer. In her time aboard, she had started to make some realizations and, truth be told, was already considering putting in for a transfer. Still, she watched him as he worked and realized that she felt less guarded around him than others she would not name. Though how that would translate to going to him with her problems, she had no idea. Having them was one thing; talking about them was quite another -- especially to someone that held the Captain's ear. She shifted through responses because she preferred the truth whenever possible and settled for honest but noncommittal. "Thank you, Sir," she said. "I appreciate that."

"Any time," Nick replied. He finished making the last connections. "Okay, don't touch anything, because I'm turning power back on." The receiver hummed to life. "Excellent!" I think a break is in order before we test this thing. Would you care to join me for lunch?"

Serenity smiled, less hesitant this time, as she said, "That's sound good, Sir. I'm starving."

 

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