Meeting the Chief Helm Officer

Posted on Wed Oct 2nd, 2019 @ 11:16pm by Captain Gary Alexander & Lieutenant JG Alexandra Campa

1,133 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 0 - Pre-Sigma Iotia II
Location: Bridge
Timeline: 2167/07/10 1310

The Chief Helm Officer walked onto the bridge. Gary had to refrain himself from staring. He knew that he had picked out a beauty to come onto his ship but seeing her in person was something else. Looking at her, he immediately noticed her huge tracks of land and he smiled. This was a woman that got in a fight with a Tellarite and apparently had quite a passionate personality. He had to sample her.

Moving towards the beauty, he introduced himself. "I believe that you are Lieutenant Alexandra Campa. How amusing that your first name is nearly my last. We could be bookends." The last word was stated with slight innuendo. "Welcome to the Horizon."

She grinned to the captain as he came at her at something close to warp speed. Her eyes moved over him with equal boldness and there might have been a very slight toss to her uniform minidress over her hose. "It means something like one who comes to rescue heroes or so the computers say, but most people call me Alex. It's good to be aboard, captain."

"Alex, then. Off duty, feel free to call me Gary. On duty, Captain will work," he said with a chuckle. "I saw that you had quite the engineering background and now are at the helm. Tell me, why is that? Do you not like my former department?"

"Oh, I love a good engine, captain!" she answered with a wry, knowing grin. "But I thought I'd spent enough time making starships go fast that I'd earned a chance to fly one!"

This girl warmed Gary's heart. She wanted to go fast? He was more than willing. "So, you want to be in the driver's seat, then? Is that how it is?"

"It has its charms," she admitted, "but I am proud to be under your orders, captain."

Gary smiled wider at that. Games it is, then! "But are you not the least bit curious to see what is under the hood? After all, it is one thing to be under my orders but quite another to have first hand experience."

"What's under the hood is a gravimetric field displacement manifold feeding two verterium cortenide coils in spaced nacelles powered by a state of the art plasma injector to generate a subspace distortion in space-time that creates the appearance of superluminal velocity to an observer outside the bubble....sir." She just grins at him, enjoying a literal answer for once.

Smart ass Gary thought chuckling to himself. "Is that a fact? I would have never known if you told me."

She laughed. "But now I'd like to get behind the wheel, sir." She paused and bit her lower lip as if not sure the reference was clear. "Old ground vehicles are a hobby of mine. You guide many of them with something called a steering wheel."

Gary narrowed his eyes, his voice lowered slightly. "Would you think that I would not know my history of ships and vehicles that you needed to explain that to me? It is basic engineering."

Alex froze a moment. The captain's change in tone was definitely a bad sign. She look down and there was a chastened note when she spoke. "I'm sorry, captain. I've just met too many engineers with no interest in even basic history, just the latest model. I've been told I go on too much about my old engines and controllers." She looked up again and a small smile returned. "I am glad to know you also have an interest in the history of the field."

"All of our current technology is based on sound foundations that come from our past technologies. If we fail to understand the older technology, what are we to do if we are faced with a situation where all of our modern technology fails? Die?" He shook his head and continued after the rhetorical question passed for a moment. "I would not let that happen when I was a Chief Engineer and I certainly will not let that happen as the Captain of this ship."

"Oh, you don't have to convince me, captain. I love the stuff! I'm sorry if I came off the wrong way. I just hadn't expected to find such a kindred spirit." She grins confidingly and leans forward. "You know, I actually took an old 21st century groundcar and reconfigured it to to run on a modern fuel cell. I used to love that thing. I'd drive it all around El Paso, Mesa, Juarez."

Gary watched as Alexandra leaned in. His eyes strayed to her ample bosom, as she did so. "Kindred spirit...." His voice drifted as he tried not to stare. He woke himself up as he heard about the 21st century ground car. "What model?" he asked.

"2035 Chevy Corvette," she said proudly. "They had a classic look even for the time they came out. Chevy knew the hovercar would be the norm within a year or two. They were made for someone who appreciated tradition." She grinned broadly. "And that was a long time before I was even born."

"There is no doubt that that is a beauty and even a classic but by then, it was still mostly an automated machine. Give me a vehicle that had muscle and still required one's hands to get dirty. Something that man was still part of the machine. Something like a 1967 Camaro SS 350. It still had a bit of a sleek design and had power to burn. Manual handling...." Gary's words practically drooled from his mouth as he talked about handling a stick. "Oh, if I could have driven that gas guzzler when it was created...."

"Something that old was more than my family could afford," Alex said. "Not too many left. Of course, we might get a chance to drive something similar out here. Plenty of these new civilizations are in their own versions of the industrial age." She rested a palm against the bulkhead and leaned slightly, grinning. "I'm torn..." she says reflectively.

"Torn?" Gary asked concerned. "What's troubling you?"

"Oh, not like that," she reassured him. "I just mean about machines. Part of me wants to say we should get a kayak or a bicycle and really talk about muscle power and part of me wants to say, well, I also like to go really fast. There's something to be said for racing a beam of light and winning." She just grins at that.

"There is that," Gary replied with a warm smile. "And who knows how much more we can win that race by?"

"Hoping to find out, captain!" she said enthusiastically. Perhaps if she knew what lay ahead, she'd have chosen her words more carefully.

Lieutenant JG Alexandra Campa
CHO

Captain Gary Alexander
Commanding Officer

 

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