Kalista was in the mess hall after her shift drinking coffee. It was empty mostly aside from a couple of all night workers like herself. It was nearly 4am after all. She didn't mind though, she would be going into her next shift in a couple hours anyway. Not like she really needed sleep. It had only been three weeks and she had managed to get the nickname Commander Hardass.
She supposed it was true. She was hard on people but it made them efficient at their jobs. She raised one of her eyebrows when she seen Lieutenant Reed walk into the mess hall. He was up at 4am on the dot every morning. When did he sleep? He always looked like he was just abruptly woken up.
He was up early as usual. He liked to see her in the mess hall. He hasn't exactly gotten the courage to go ask her anything really. But he did like to stare at her. She was really beautiful and she never once seemed bothered by much of anything that was said about her. Then again, she probably would tune it with two decades worth of Starfleet assignments under her belt.
He got himself some coffee and a bowl of oatmeal as he watched her finish her last bit of stuff on the pad she had and she eventually got up. He finished his oatmeal before she reached his table. "Just talk to me, Lieutenant. You aren't a school boy anymore." She said to him and then she walked away. She had an amazing knack for making him like her even more.
He often wondered why it was him. She had her choice of men on the ship. But why choose him? He hasn't had a serious girlfriend in nearly five or ten years. It wasn't that he couldn't, they just never liked him the way he did them.
She went back to her quarters and stepped into the shower. She let the water hit her bare skin as she rubbed her face. It wasn't long after she got cleaned up and back on duty when everything hit the fan.
"Captain, do you want me to reinforce the hull plating?" She had to shout be heard over the equipmentnthrowing sparks everywhere. "Do it, Cimmander. We're gonna need it." She nodded and took off to engineering. She ducked out the way and then pulled Trip to safety and everybody else.
She had to work fast, rerouting non vital systems to through the system to reinforce the hull plating and structural intergity. Blurring from station to statuon, her brain and fingers calculating risks and outcomes as she did so. She got more power to the shields also. Working with a rhythm, she was able to stabilize the ship with some help from Malcolm and Trip on the bridge. "Winchester to Bridge. What's our status?"
"Stabilized, Commander. Thank you for the shields extra power." Malcolm replied to her. She was good, he thought to himself as he read damage reports. "Oh and Trip says to thank Commander Winchester for saving me and my team. Captain, if it isn't too much trouble may I go check on the Commander?" Jon nodded at his request.
He found her in the hall, slowly healing from a few burns. "Commander do you need medical assistance?" "No Lieutenant. I'm fine." She said as it healed. She was a bit light headed but by not much. He would know, he has been observing her. "Okay but let's sit down." He helped her sit down in the corridor. He stroked her cheek. "You need anything?" He was caring for her now. Be found it odd that he cared so much about one person aside from the Captain.
He sat beside her and held her there in the corridor as he waited for her to feel a bit better before they moved to sick bay. There, Phlox looked her over and made sure she was healthy. For the most part anyway. She was healed mostly except for her scar that remained. She had stopped healing as well years ago. It showed that in the scans the she had some sort of healing delay now.