"All finished." Geordi detached the forceps holding Justine's eye open, and she lost her comically bug eyed look. "Still working out for you?"
Justine blinked a few times. "Yup. Good as new."
It had been more than a year since Geordi had designed and installed Justine's ocular implant. He'd given her the option of infrared and UV vision as well, but Justine had chosen "normal" – just regular, everyday visible light. The tiny implant restored vision in her damaged eye and was hidden behind a colored lens, almost impossible to spot. It required yearly maintenance, but Justine seemed to have adapted well to it.
"Thanks, Lieutenant," Justine said, with a smile, and left his office. Almost immediately, the other ensigns broke into a piteously out-of-tune rendition of "Happy Birthday."
"Happy Birthday dear Juuuuuuuuuustiiiiiiiiine," they finished, as Justine grinned and put both hands over her ears in mock horror, "Happy Birthday to youuuuuuu!"
Someone produced a cake with a single candle in the shape of a giant number '6.' Justine laughed. "You guys are jerks," she said, and blew out the six. "I don't look a day over five and a half."
Just when everything seemed right with the world, the red alert sounded. "Battle stations!" someone shouted. The cake was dropped, forgotten, as everyone scrambled to their positions. The entire ship shuddered as someone registered a hit. Justine slid and scrambled to stay upright, and clung to the railing as she dragged herself to her terminal. She paled slightly at what she saw. The exterior of engineering had been hit and was rapidly losing power. Another hit could –
The ship shuddered again, and this time, there was no mistaking it. The warp coil was overheating. A shower of sparks overhead let them know the ship had been hit a third time. Something was wrong with the gravity field, and it felt like the ship was listing dangerously to one side. Justine let go of her terminal and slid along what used to be the floor, ending in a heap near the main warp coil ejectors.
Geordi had the same idea, and he slid awkwardly into place beside her. Justine was already punching in code. "Get it offline?" she shouted over the roar of the red alert.
"Absolutely," Geordi said, throwing the manual decouples. Nothing happened. The increasingly frantic hum of the warp coil stayed constant. Geordi swore, and pulled up the circuitry map. "We've lost command from this station."
The ship listed even more sharply. Justine swallowed. "The other station's…" What used to be a short walk down to the lower deck was now a 900 jump down two floors, with the rapidly overheating warp coil right in the middle. Justine took a deep breath and put one leg over the railing.
"Justine, no!" Geordi grabbed for her, but she had already swung herself over the side. She landed with both feet on the outer shield of the warp coil, wobbled for a precarious second, and then slid off and below with a shriek.
"Justine!"
"I'm ok!" She screamed back, from somewhere underneath the warp coil. Out of his line of sight, Justine mouthed silently in agony. Her ankle was a sudden lightning strike of pain. She hissed as she dragged herself along what used to be the wall – now the floor – and found the other warp coil terminal. She threw the decouplers and was rewarded with the unmistakable whine of the warp coil powering down. She sighed and laid her head against the wall/floor, when gravity was restored in a rush. She found herself flung backwards on to the proper floor, and the wind came out of her in a huff.
"Oooof."
Her head was still ringing when Geordi pulled her upright. Dizzy, she thought perhaps the gravity had shifted again, but then realized the sudden reorientation was Geordi clutching her to him. The red alert stopped ringing, and Justine could hear his ragged breath. "Don't you EVER," he said, "do that again."
Later, in the debriefing, Geordi explained what Justine had done to the senior officers. He wasn't surprised when, a few days later, Captain Picard had asked them both to his ready room. After thanking Justine for her service, he declared that a field promotion was in order.
Geordi glanced at Justine in time to see her eyes widen – in joy, and shock. Picard handed her a new uniform pip and Justine pinned it on with shaking hands. She stammered her thanks, shook both their hands, and when they were dismissed Geordi and Justine wore matching grins, Justine still limping slightly on her newly healed ankle.
In the turbolift back to engineering, Justine postured, throwing her head back so that Geordi could admire the new pip. "Looks great, Lieutenant," Geordi said, brushing his fingers along the new rank. His hand lingered.
"Not your ensign anymore," Justine whispered, teasingly.
"I suppose not," Geordi said, and kissed her.