Chapter fourteen: starting the trek!
Disclaimer: own Nothing
I'm currently in a very happy mood!
Last month, one of the TV stations in my area ran four of the Star Trek movies. Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, The Voyage Home and First Contact. YAY! I went out and got all the themes for them, which I'm also happy about, great orchestral stuff. Also, my music teacher at school allowed me to get some Star Trek sheet music, I got First Contact. Then there's a new magazine thingy thats coming out and with it comes a diecast model of all the ships of Star Trek!
Anyway, there's me being happy. Cue the USS ENTERPRISE Theme from the 2009 movie
R&R
Tatiana finally made her way to the front of the shuttle where she found that the shuttle that was taking herself and Alexia to the ENTERPRISE was broken. The engineers that had been called to fix it were doing more arguing than fixing. Sighing, she grabbed a small tool kit that was next to one of them and stuck her head under the lid. It was a simple task, a coil had been snapped. It was a relatively easy problem in the terms of engineering. Grabbing some spare copper wire, she managed to pull the two ends together and secure it. Winding another segment of copper on the opposite side as a back-up, she pulled the lid closed and thumped her hand on the glass giving the thumbs up. The pilot started up the shuttle with a start, it had roared to life
"Miss, you shouldn't done that. We were here to fix it." One of the engineers said as Tatiana started to roll down her sleeves, even though her arms had some grease on them
"I topped all of my engineering classes, and it looked like you were just arguing so I helped you. You can say thank you later." She replied as she returned to where Alexia was standing. The line started moving quickly, luckily for the girls, they had been near the front of the line. Taking two seats by a window, the shuttle took off and started hurtling to space dock. Tatiana looked out of the window, that was fogging up, and saw the fleet. It was amazing to see such technology in one spot
"Tats, as soon as we get on the ship, I'm going to have to head to MedBay. I'm sorry I can't help you find where you're going." Alexia said, turning Tatiana's face white. She'd just realised that she had no idea where to sit on the bridge. She knew she'd be assigned alpha shift, but now with the added bonus of not having a friend there to help, it mortified her
"You got your blues?" Tatiana asked
"In a briefcase when I boarded. You didn't get one because, well, I think they didn't know what colour to give you. I think Jim's got something sorted for you though." Alexia said as they landed
"Thanks, I'll see you when I do." She smiled as she was handed a briefcase from an engineer, who she was surprised to see was Justin "Hi, Justin! See you got the ENTERPRISE!" she added as he handed her the key card for her room
"Well, I did help to find Archer's Beagle!" he said as she ran off to her room
"Oh, the shuttle had a broken coil, I managed to temporally fix it, but it'll need some work." Tatiana said as she left as an announcement came over the PA system
"Can Ensign Tatiana Romanov report to the bridge as soon as she receives her uniform. Ensign Romanov to the Bridge." Said the loud speaker as Tatiana made her way through Deck 12 looking for room 1917. Smiling at the irony of the year that the Romanovs were supposed to have been assassinated, she realised that Jim probably had something to do with it. Finally seeing the numbers on the panel next to the door, opening it, she found a few small boxes on the floor next to her bed. Stepping into the bathroom and seeing another door made realise that she was sharing, with most likely another officer. Opening the briefcase she found a blue dress. Throwing her glasses on the side table, Tatiana slipped the dress on before she quickly pulled her hair into a braid, running down the centre of her back before running out the door trying to find the Turbolift. Finally stepping into it, she pressed the button for the deck the bridge was on. Laughing at the panel which had sticky notes stuck to all the buttons telling the new members of the ship where everything was located. The PA system activated again
"Can Ensign Romanov report to the bridge for her shift. Romanov to the bridge." It said just as she stepped out onto the deck that had the bridge on it. Running along the corridors she finally found the prized bridge of the USS ENTERPRISE. Smoothing out her uniform she stood to attention
"Ensign Tatiana Romanov, reporting to the bridge as requested, captain!"
"Nice to see you Tatiana, what took you so long?" Kirk said, turning around in his chair "That was the 5th time that announcement was put out." Jim continued as he stood up
"I apologise, captain..." Tatiana started before Jim cut her off
"Captain at warp, Jim elsewhere, c'mon Tats! You should know that!" he said as he walked over to her "But really, what took you so long?" he continued
"The shuttle I was on, the Galileo, had a broken coil, and the engineers that were supposed to fix it were doing more arguing than fixing, so I did it for them." Tatiana replied, relaxing a little. Sulu had just walked on the bridge and smiled at her, Nyota appeared from the direct Turbolift and was unlocking her station at the back of the bridge
"I'll have Scotty look at it. Anyway, better late than never! And I do believe that you are now the youngest officer in Starfleet history, and on active service? Am I right?" Jim said as he walked back over to his chair, leaving Tatiana standing there. There were countless stations free along the back wall, one in between Sulu and the navigator. She had no idea where she was supposed to sit
"Ensign, why are you standing there? Do you not know where your station is?" asked Spock as he appeared behind her
"No commander, sorry. After the Khan incident all classes on Constitution class ships were banned and classified." Tatiana said as Jim put a finger up in the air
"There's screwed logic Spock!" Jim yelled, happy that he had finally found a flaw in logic. He looked like he was about to say something else but was cut off by yelling from up the front
"JOU STUPID, STUPID CONSOLE! VHY VON'T JOU VORK?!"
"It blacking out again?" Kirk said as he walked over to stop the navigator from hitting his panel
"DA! EET EES WERY STUPID! I ZHOUGHT (thought) ZAT MEESTER (Mister) SCOTT HAD FIXED EET!" the navigator yelled, allowing Tatiana to see who it was. Kirk walked away from the station and to his chair and tapped one of the many buttons
"Kirk to engineering. Scotty, navigation just blacked out again. We both thought that you'd fixed it." Kirk said sitting down
"Capt'n, I canne spare anyone down 'ere. We're already spread too thin sir!" Scotty started before he had an idea
"Well, is there anything we can do to stop that from happening?" Kirk continued
"Ye (YOU) can tell me if Tatiana's on te bridge yet." The comm crackled
"Yeah she just arrived..." Kirk responded looking a little confused
"She was helping me with this kind o' stuff when she was a wee bonnie lass! Get her te (to) fix it. Scotty out." It finished
"You hear that? Do you reckon you could fix a station?" Kirk asked looking sceptical
"Yeah, shouldn't be any harder than hotwiring a car." Tatiana replied as she walked over cautiously, not wanting the short skirt of the dress to come up
"Hotwiring a car? What did you get up to in NYC?" Kirk asked
"Nothing you didn't do when you were 11!" she shot back with a look clearly saying I heard about the Corvette incident
"Ensign, you better clear out. Romanov's gonna fix it for you." Jim said finally back in his chair
"Da keptain." The navigator replied as he got out of his chair and stood next to Sulu
"Chekov, you have one hell of a temper, remind me never to get in your bad books..." Sulu smiled as he continued pre-warp/flight check
"Vell, eets a Russian zhing (Thing)..." Chekov replied, realising how right he had been when he thought that Tatiana would look good in science blues. As she slid under, she crossed her legs, only to remember that she had taken to wearing short shorts underneath her uniform. Thankful for some habits, she heaved open the panel and stared at the contents. It was a mess
"Urgh. No wonder why the panel's not working!" she exclaimed, sitting up a little "Whoever wired the panel was OCD! There are way too many wires that don't need to be here!" Tatiana continued as she lay back down and started to repair the panel. After a few moments, Chekov lent down to see if there was anything he could do for her
"Ees zhere anyzhing I can do for jou, Tatiana?" he asked
"Yeah, get you head out of my light and move so I don't scratch you when I start throwing wires." Tatiana replied as she pulled a handful of wire's out and threw them on the floor. The first few had hit Chekov only because he couldn't get his head out of the way quick enough
"We must leave space dock in a minute, captain if we are to reach the planet within three days as the most direct course would take us." Spock said as Tatiana slammed the access panel on the bottom of the panel shut
"Finished." She said breathlessly, before she started grabbing a few of the stray wires and tying them into a knot around her wrist. She'd find Scotty later and give them to him then
"Fascinating. That took 1.4522874 minutes to complete. Most engineers would have taken that time to diagnose the problem and a further five minutes to fix." Spock said raising an eyebrow from his station, behind Kirk's chair to the left. Chekov had taken no time in resuming his seat. As he prepared to lay in the course and finalise it, he realised that the main screen of his station was still blacked out
"Um, my..." he started before Tatiana leant across from the side where she was standing, and let her fist collide with the console
*BANG!* resonated around the bridge. The station blinked back on as Tatiana shook her right hand. The whole scene was too much for Sulu, who knew that if he ever tried something like that with his station again that Scotty would probably jettison him out of the airlock
"Appropriate much." He said dryly
"You okay, Romanov?" Kirk asked from back in his chair, when he had met Pike, the then captain had said that he was the second delinquent he had met and Kirk had no doubts that Tatiana was the first
"Yeah, where do I sit?" she asked as she finally let go of her wrist
"Well, since this is the flagship, there is a different set up to other Constitution class ships. We're special. So, the heads of the fleet decided that the language officer should be up the front so you'd have the best view of body language. This is because we're usually going on diplomatic missions or as I like to call them 'Pizza Delivery services'. That and the designers thought that... Spock! What's your word again?" Jim yelled as he lead her over to her seat
"Logical, sir." Spock replied, not even turning around in his seat
"Yeah, logical." Jim continued, pulling a face at the word logic "So that you can advise the captain, moi, accordingly." He said as he turned the seat between Sulu and Chekov around and offered it to her. Leaving her to it, Kirk returned to his own chair and started to ask Nyota about clearing space dock. Taking the time, Sulu lent across a little bit to add
"That and if you don't show, then we can turn on the Universal Translator and hope that there isn't a regional accent difference." He said, smiling
"Zat and eef ve aren't here zhen jou can pilot or nawigate for ze keptain." Chekov said enthusiastically
"Great." Tatiana said, a light blush starting, when the hell did she start blushing, especially around Chekov? Looking down at the panel, she realised that panels must be standard across the trainee programs, it was exactly the same as the ones she had practiced on back at the academy. Smiling at the fact that she, the 16 year old from an absolutely destroyed family, had managed to get on the best starship of all time because, well she didn't know why. But whoever it was, they were certainly getting a huge thankyou and a bottle of something. Not vodka though, if her mum saw that, then well, she was stuffed. Quickly pulled out of her musings by the sound of the captain's voice, she unlocked her station with her access code.
"Chekov, is the course set?" Kirk called out as he returned to his chair
"Chto yeshche vy dumayete, chto ya delal prezhde, chem moya stantsiya zatemnennymi snova*?" Chekov replied, looking semi annoyed. As much as he loved Tatiana, the 'Just Friends' statement ran over in his mind, as well as the fact that his prideful Russian side wanted to hate her for beating two of his records. The first, demolishing his marathon record, the second for being the youngest person to get on a star ship, whilst on active service. Oh, and not to mention the looks and the shit everyone had given him for one photo, which might he add, was taken on ALEXIA'S camera?
"Right, I assume, that that was a 'Yes, of course captain, I was just doing that.'" Kirk said looking at Nyota, who shook her head and pointed to Tatiana.
"More or less of that captain." Tatiana replied, smiling
"Sulu, the handbrake off?" Jim continued
"Do it once, and they never let you live it down." Sulu muttered under his breath before turning to the captain "Yes sir, the handbrake is off!"
"Great stuff, you just passed your driver's test. Romanov, you looking pretty?" the captain asked finally sitting down in his chair
"Captain, I fail to see how Ensign Romanov 'looking pretty' as you so put it is relevant to pre-warp sequences." Spock interjected
"It's a human thing Spock. I have to include Tatiana when I ask the front panel stuff now. Sulu take us to warp!"
"Yessir!" Sulu said as he pulled the lever
*What else do you think I was doing before my station blacked out again?