Shoes thudded against the metallic floor, her heart thudded against her ribs as she forced her body to keep moving, to not stop and slow down as her lungs wanted and what her muscles craved; egging her to offer them respite but she couldn't allow it.
Not now…
The Ensign slipped a fraction on a turn but she overtook the one ahead of her, barely seeing the white of their uniform and nearly flung herself across the finish line with a heave… and then promptly collapsed onto her knees; Tilly's head spinning but she felt a bottle being pushed into her hand.
"Hey, hey, it's alright. Take it easy."
"It…" Tilly barely got the sound out before she sucked in a spout of oxygen; blood pumping in her ears. Like it was about to burst out of her chest. "…fine..." A smile crossed her lips though her head turned to see Michael hovering above, her hand out. Tilly just about managed a smile before taking it, allowing herself to be pulled up though she couldn't help but sway back with a groan before pulling her friend's hand to her forehead; the coolness of her flesh almost blissful against her raging pulse.
Michael's lip curled up though she didn't fight her on it. "I see impending doom is working a little too much for you, Tilly."
"Don't…." Tilly paused to ravage down the content of her water bottle quickly, hydrating her with a fresh new ability to talk without feeling like she had inhaled sand, "Don't mock what's working for me, Michael."
"Let me guess, you stayed up a little later or got up a little later and got yourself a little paranoid to get into the necessary mind set of running like I'm about to eat you, yes?"
Tilly's eyes narrowed, tugging Michael's hand to her cheek instead though pulled back to eye the cold limb suspiciously, "Have you suddenly got your telepathic abilities?" What Michael said wasn't…untrue but it was very specific.
Michael pulled her hand away, causing Tilly to pout but let go to take the last few dregs of water quite contently.
"Well, I still think you're gonna give yourself an aneurysm but congratulations nonetheless. Best speeds and flattened your personal best."
Tilly smiled. "I think I'm gonna need a coffee and a sit down."
"Go get electrolytes, a snack and half an hour sit down, much better for you." Michael's head turned away, hearing something out of her range. "I need to go now, but keep up the good work. If your adrenal levels are still just as high later on, I'll be displeased." She gave her a solid look before she was gone in a breeze.
Tilly stared at the former spot for a long moment before huffing and made a beeline away, back towards her quarters.
After a shower, Tilly was glad for a chance though half-heartily had gotten a smoothie than a coffee; she could trust Michael's suggestion in terms of her health, and plus, she could always have more coffee later. With a smoothie, Tilly didn't go for a snack since it more or less equalled the same thing though she was more than happy to sit down on her bed and go through the data she had about Stamets's new augments she had planned. Suckling from the straw as her fingers tapped in the equations, allowing her mind to wander as she made a few corrections.
Bugs were still being worked out; if the commander was human, it would be much simpler but the vast nature of a vampire form meant there was gonna be another hold-up; that they would miss something. She was glad though, Dr Culber had been very…interested in her potential upgrades so she had promised to keep him in the loop.
Though looking at the calculations, Tilly could feel something was starting naked in her face and she wasn't seeing it …
What was she missing?
The question still bugged her even as she headed back to Engineering, though Stamets was working away at his station, Tilly found herself glancing at him thoughtfully from her monitor until he appeared beside her with a raised eyebrow and picked up the PADD she had. Her eyes followed it before grinning sheepishly.
"I take it something of interest about your upgrades is bugging you."
"yes. Very much." Tilly agreed with a short nod. "I'm missing something and I don't like it."
Stamets's ruby gaze turned from the screen up to her. "Then perhaps try and turn your attention to your work and channel that energy into that than this for now. You know I expect a specific standard of work, Ensign."
Tilly pouted softly but nodded. All points were in his court; she was on duty and had other things to do than her side-project. "Yes sir."
In a blink, Stamets was gone, her PADD now beside his monitor.
"Hey, Sparkles."
Tilly jumped as a new voice rang through the room, her attention turning to see a… familiar face stroll in with an engineering kit in hand, a plasma torch under one arm.
Stamets didn't even budge or turn to look at her, even as the woman set her kit down near his station.
"I was told to get friendly on the spore drive's systems. Commander Nhan wants to install more protection around it given there's a chance the…vampire buzz-stoppers might interfere with it and your…mushrooms." Reno started off, her eyes flickering around with pursed lips. "Never thought I'd see the day a ship was run on selective pizza topping…but I suppose that's one thing I can add and cross off my bucket list."
"Interfere?" Stamets's questioned, not taking the rise despite his clear want-to, his eyes only a fraction darker than indicated mild irritation. "How?"
Reno huffed slightly, holding out the PADD. "You can read all about it. I'll make a start in the ones in there," Nodding to the door out to the bay.
Stamets glowered but nodded curtly. "Ensign Tilly can assist, I'll need to see to…other matters"
Tilly could only fathom that it was nothing to do with work but more to do with either personal matters to him or… Michael. She had long since stopped asking about the uber private end of the commander's role in the clan he was in but it didn't make her wonder any less. One day, maybe.
Signing from her monitor, Tilly's eyes flickered to her PADD still at Stamets's monitor before she stole it back; knowing full well he was well aware of such a feat before she slipped away into the mycelium crops, leading the former Hiawatha crewmate in.
"Ugh, I really hope it's not pollinating time. I may not have hay-fever but if one of these ends up going up my nose, I won't be pleased." Reno carried on brightly.
Tilly smiled softly though came to s stop by one of the environmental stations. "Well, we shouldn't worry, the spores don't tend to stick to much organic material; mostly clothes ….or the commander."
"Ah, makes him a little more shiny."
Tilly snorted though the engineer knelt down, and opened up her kit.
"So, what sort of protection are you looking at?"
"Upgrading some shield emitters to lock a force field around all…programmed areas. The resonate frequency, from the simulations may freeze a vampire but it could also kill your supplies."
"Can't you find a material to counteract the resonance? It'd take a lot of power to keep both of them running at the same time." Tilly had seen the specs over Stamets's shoulder enough times.
"When the alert goes on, all axillary power from the external shield is directed to both systems." Reno pointed out, settling own to peel off a panel. "It's not like we have a good strong source of exotic energy much stronger than the resonance frequency. I mean, vampire flesh is one of the hardest materials in the catalog and…that is saying something. I bet it takes a lot to penetrate the skin but I do have to commend the creative mind behind this new method."
"No, you shouldn't." Tilly immediately pulling a face though she knew her tone caught the commander Reno's attention with alarm. Tilly gave her an apologetic look, "Sorry... it's just, the guy that made the anti-vampire tech did it after he dragged the entire ship into a time loop and wanted to sell the ship to the Klingons during the ar. It took a week after to reconstruct Burnham fully."
"Ohh..kay." Reno mused slowly though she had a more thoughtful look. "Your war sounded a little more interesting than mine; time loop and vampires…can't say I'm too displeased to miss it."
For a moment, Tilly watched as the engineer pulled out a few more things before getting to work though she couldn't help but mull a little of this little dilemma now. She had a point and they hadn't tested out the frequencies being a small device; not launched throughout the entire ship before. If they had fired it up before; who knew what sort of damage they could have done to their spore supply. Of course, they would restock from their terraformed moon but that was hardly the point; Stamets had done everything in his power to keep this stock alive and free from corruption as possible. He was not about to start now.
But where would a source of—
"Holy Fuck!"
"What the—" Thud
Reno grunted out, her hands coming to where she had cracked her head at her sudden words but Tilly suddenly found herself flicking through her PADD…oh this was it; this had to be something….
"Where is it?" Tilly's fingers swiped through it until… she found herself looking at the data of the asteroid sample.
Reno grumbled, tossing the tool aside as she continued to rub her forehead.
It took a second before she found it, a wide grin slitting over her face.
"Wanna fill me in?"
"The dark matter asteroid! I've been redesigning Commander Stamets's augment ports to enable a more comfortable connection to the drive. It's been bugging me all day that I've missed something!" Reno's hand drop from her head though Tilly was glad the woman waited, "I knew that connection to the drive isn't…smooth. Like us plugging a finger into a low-vault socket; it's not lethal, you can live with it but it's hardly comfortable. So, I figured that perhaps that the frequency input of the drive into his body was the cause so…I figured a way to use the asteroid to serve as a…go between. When the drive is active, the implants resonate a counter frequency against the harsher ones that flows through the crystalline matrix of his entire form."
"I see where you're going but there isn't nearly enough to line the walls with and you handed half the supplies to Starbase 5." Reno pointed out, though there was an edge of sparking interest in her eyes as she peeked over to the display. "Unless we use the same method of the jammers and use small portions of the samples. Six devices per room and we only really guard this and the spore drive. We have two samples on board."
"We can use one sample for this. There should be plenty and each cubic centre-meter weight a shit tone."
Reno pulled a face, "Then if we use more, we'll need an internalized and miniaturized gravity simulator…god, that'll take a while to build. Especially 12 of them"
"Let's…run simulations on appropriate weight and size to how much space they can project from."
"Good idea." Reno nodded, though she threw her stuff back into the case before pausing, "Wait, if this stuff stops the jammers, would that give Sparkles the ability to whizzspeeds without worry even if the jammer's blaring?"
Tilly shrugged but she could they could both guess at that. But for now, she was happy to not confirm or deny that. A part of her felt like she owed it to her undead crew to keep it quiet; if they had found a workaround; then they didn't want this falling into the wrong hands, especially with Michael's crazy sire lurking in the mix.
Though that did give her an idea; Michael would need it…something too but first; they needed to see if it worked.
Michael found herself staring at the door with a fairly blank expression but she was sure if she was human, her heart would be pounding a little faster. Her form a little stiffer; feeling a little nervous though she watched as the doors opened suddenly, Saru on the other side flinching back, though thankfully, his ganglia stayed firmly inside his head; one of the few improvements of his reactions to her mere presence.
"Commander Burnham." Pike's voice carried passed Saru.
"You wanted to see me, captain." She stepped around Saru, nodding to him her goodbyes, despite how brief the run-in was. Behind her, she heard the Kelpien shuffle into the turbolift before the doors closed.
"I did." Pike was standing at his desk a PADD in hand with a very bright look in his entire posture which she found…relaxing. "I've just spoken with my first officer on board the Enterprise and with Saru. Number one is…going to dig about with the means to get to Spock before anyone else, with our drive; we should be able to jump to any potential coordinates as soon as we get them."
"I see." It seemed simple enough.
"Saru's also given me a report on our CTP, it also seems our youngest candidate is using usual means of motivation." His lip curled, almost amused.
Michael nodded, "I'm trying to persuade her to less drastic measures but she's dedicated."
Pike snorted. "From what I know of that young woman, it'll be hard to change her mind."
"Indeed." Michael fully agreed.
Silence relapsed for only a moment before he held out a second PADD. "I've also been thinking, for things to get a little easier, I'm going to run a deep system diagnostics in a few areas of the ship so I was wondering if you would…want to assist me with them?"
Her head tilted a fraction. It was clear to see the angle he was working on; using their work as a means to spend more time together. It would keep to known boundaries where they could maintain as they…got more familiar with each other. Logical.
"I like the idea of that," Michael nodded.
Pike smiled, his shoulders relaxing. "One hour before your shift end, you can meet me in the armoury? Commander Nhan's running an alpha shift so she won't be around for long."
Michael bobbed her head. "Of course. I'll see you in a few hours."