A Second Of Your Time

Posted on Wed Mar 26th, 2025 @ 12:34am by Lieutenant Hikari Takanashi & Commander Celeste Tiae

1,445 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: 84 Years Young
Location: Shuttlebay

The shuttle had taken a rather eccentric course through the area of space that was taken up by ships in mothballs, just waiting for someone to take an interest in them. To be sure, there was a buzz of activity around several of the starships that were more 'modern' in their design, only relatively recently retired to the reserve fleet and therefore far easier to bring back into service than the ancient Miranda-class ship that they had just buzzed. USS Millard Fillmore was one of the original Mirandas, barely upgraded past the late 2280s before being placed in the reserve fleet, along, with all compartments open to the cold vacuum of space to prevent the inevitable decay of the internal systems. A handful of moving pinpricks of light had been visible through the windows of even that ship, evidence that a team was inspecting her to see if even THAT relic could be brought back into service to fight the Dominion.

But there had been barely a handful of seconds for Celeste to notice the lights before the shuttle had flashed past between the dorsal mounted sensor pod and the main hull and banked hard between a pair of even more ancient repair ships before beginning a curlicue course towards the Excelsior-class ship that had begun to become visible past a more modern Ambassador-class ship, the USS Cybele, which had been retired only three years previously and was already showing signs of preparation for movement, running lights blinking, all lights functioning and a handful of workbees hovering around even as a small flotilla of the same were moving towards another ship.

The pilot next to her was muttering over the comm to the ship coming up, a few exasperated words, then a few more that were more terse, before finally snapping and barking that she was coming in to land and too bad for whoever wanted to stop her. "Shirley, settle down." The Aethiri gently stroked the bundle of fur on her lap and received an apologetic look from the pilot, but that didn't stop the diminutive woman from setting a reckless course towards the shuttle bay, only slowing at the very last second to cross the atmospheric field at a respectable drift to land ever so gently on the deck without even so much as a possible scratch.

Celeste stood and patted the woman on the shoulder while the furball hopped down and stretched with a wide yawn before padding towards the back of the shuttle where the hatch was already opening. The young-adult looking Commander walked out the hatch and down the ramp before looking around from the deck, certain that someone would come looking for the intruders aboard the ship.

The shuttlebay was in thousands of pieces. Many of the wall panels laid on the floor exposing the wiring, conduits and machinery behind. It was obvious that it had been stripped for parts over the years. Old shuttles sat abandoned by the walls, dead and lifeless and the floor was littered with spare parts and bits of the ship piled up. The entire bay looked like a building yard and was just a mess.

The doors opened at the end of the bay and a young face peeked around. It was a young looking woman with blonde hair and striking blue eyes. She seemed curious to see who had landed in the shuttlebay, but was clearly hiding behind the door itself.

After spotting the Commander she jumped out. Her uniform was covered in dirt and grime and she only wore the gold undershirt. The undershirt itself had the sleeves rolled up to her shoulders and had also been tied upto her chest revealing her midriff. Beads of sweat ran across her skin as she stepped out and she looked visibly flushed in the face.

"Erm..." she said as she approached. "Who are you?" She asked as she stepped closer.

Celeste stood straight as the windfox next to her sat primly next to her, wrapping his tail around his paws, "Commander Celeste Tiae, the incoming Exec of The Sullivans." She gave a slight smile, trying not to look imperious as she towered over woman she was over half a foot taller than, "Recently of the Harbinger and perhaps a bit annoyed that the Captain came over without me." The smile broadened as she showed she had some humor to her, "But it's her prerogative, isn't it?"

The young woman rubbed the back of her head with a nervous smile. "Yeah... About that. I don't actually know where she is right now." She admitted. "Pretty much internal system apart from life support is kinda... well... kaput right now."

"So you've gone and lost the Captain." Celeste remarked with a smirk on her face, "Oh well, I'm sure that if we need to find her, that we can find a way to do it, but for now we can let her putter on her way around doing the things a Captain needs to do. I suppose I could also do the same, but I'm glad to have run into someone that at least looks like they're an engineer or perhaps Ops officer? You sure aren't from Security."

"What gave it away?" Hikari teased.

Celeste chuckled at the obvious tease and seemed to unbend a fair bit as she settled her weight on one leg and bent the opposite knee slightly, "I suppose I should ask your name then, right?"

"I'm Lieutenant Hikari Takanashi. Currently the Chief Engineer overseeing the refit of this ship." Hikari explained with a cheesy grin. "She's certainly been and continues to be a challenge."

"I can only imagine... Retired over sixty years ago, no upgrades or anything of the sort." Celeste nodded, then shook her head in what was a non-verbal sigh, "You've got a lot of work ahead of you, even if just cleaning up the shuttlebay. Of course... Could you use some help with this area, perhaps someone to at least start tidying up the place?" A mischievous glint entered the Aethiri's eyes.

"I guess so, it's not exactly top of the priority list right now..." Hikari replied as she looked around.

From the shuttlebay ramp, a small woman stood with jaw agape and arms crossed under her disproportionately large chest (for her size), eyes staring daggers of ice at the back of the Commander's head, "Wait, what? Celly, you never said I'd have to be part of a CLEANUP crew! You just said I had to fly, that's all!" A plaintive whine was obvious as she attempted to stomp down the ramp in a huff, not succeeding.

Celeste chuckled and winked at Hikari before turning slightly to give the diminutive officer some attention, "Them's the breaks, as you tend to say. Lieutenant Takanashi, this is Lieut-"

"I can introduce myself. Lieutenant junior grade Shirley Onuei, best pilot in the fleet! At least on small craft and ships, and don't listen to ANYTHING that Celly here says about me, unless it's good, because she makes fun of me!" The flurry of words belied the 4 foot 10 inch stature that they came from.

"Well," Hikari said puffing her chest out. "I'm Hikari Takanashi! Best yard engineer in the fleet! If I do say so myself!" She matched and tuned the pilots energy and attitude perfectly as if they were in complete synchronisation. "Wanna go play with that?" She asked thumbing to an old type four shuttlecraft sat by the wall. "Original 2290's design, she's a classic!"

"Well, DUH!" Shirley said, puffing out her own chest in response, "Does she turn on? If not, we can get her fixed right up! I'm decent with electronics and I know that thing is going to require at least an overhaul, but we can do that!" She grabbed Hikari's hand and started to tug her over towards the shuttle, but gave a guilty look over her shoulder, "We need to um... Make sure we can move the shuttle around so I can clean up in here, right?"

"Yeah... That's totally why we need to go do this!" Hikari smirked as she was dragged away by the over enthusiastic pilot.

Celeste watched as the two far shorter women vanished into the old shuttle and a squeal of delight emerged that could only be Shirley being really excited over this. "I guess I'll see myself around, then." She said to the empty shuttlebay, smile on her face. Oh my, this would be an interesting assignment, that was for sure.

Posting by

Commander Celeste Tiae
Executive Officer
USS The Sullivans

Lieutenant(jg) Shirley Onwei
Small Craft Pilot
USS The Sullivans

Lieutenant Hikari Takanashi
Chief Engineer
USS The Sullivans

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