See? I'm picking up momentum here! I'll be keeping up the rhythm, I promise:)
Chapter 15. Better than a cancelled date
Merrrshika had been sitting idly on the ground of holodeck two for over an hour when Tuvok, Murphy and Robinson showed up. Harry's absence because of his night shift was the result of a mistake in the assignation of duties, which had made him the only available senior officer for the last night shift on the bridge. In exchange for Harry missing the morning's lesson, the first officer had promised that he would be given a shift to train with her before the next session with the others.
"Good… morrning I think everrybody!", Merrrshika began enthusiastically, too happy that her boredom was over.
"Good morning, instructor," Tuvok greeted her.
She noted his used of the title "instructor" and was rather flattered that the Vulcan acknowledged her rank in this manner.
"Well, as you know it, it'sh yourr firrsht shimulation with the shuttle prrogrram. Please put yourr shafety wearr."
They put on their riding hat and so did Merrrshika. She then opened her program, noting with amusement that Tuvok tried to understand the workings of her security protection, but she gave him a crooked smile and finished quickly so he had no time to figure it out.
Merrrshika designated Tuvok to go first, because he was the highest ranking officer and, being Vulcan, was immune to stress or pressure. He would be less likely to feel nervous than the others. The pilots strapped themselves in their usual seats and Merrrshika joined them. Tuvok sat down in the pilot seat and half-turned, awaiting Merrrshika's order. She had implemented in her program a holographic projection of the pilot, and when she activated it, a three-dimensional image of Tuvok materialized in the air. The holographic Tuvok floated there without the visual hindrance of the saddle and helmet, so she would better see his every move.
"You can take contrrol of the rreins," Merrrshika said. "Rrememberr that thish is the shimulation based on Zeta's rreactions. Be niche and gentle."
"Yes, instructor," Tuvok answered, his head in the pilot's helmet.
The shuttle startled, and the holoprogram even reproduced the shiver of artificial gravity that shook real shuttles.
"To prrevent herr frrom doing that, you can touch the shaddle beforre you take the rreins," Merrrshika instructed.
"Understood," Tuvok assented.
"And you can shtop to anshwerr like a Shtarrfleet officher, I prromishe I won't tell the captain."
The two other apprentices chuckled and Tuvok simply ignored her.
"Take herr out of the carrgo bay. Rrememberr to hold herr with yourr leg while she turrns."
The turn went very well, to Merrrshika's surprise. She would have expected some hesitations or adjustments, but the shuttle pivoted in a single movement. Merrrshika observed, thanks to the holographic projection of Tuvok, that he put his leg at the right place with the exact pressure.
"Make thrree orrbitsh at minimum impulshe, balanching herr frrom shide to shide to familiarrize yourrshelf with the degrree of shupporrt she needs frrom yourr hands."
"Hi."
After an orbit and a half, Tuvok had the commands well in hand, so Merrrshika let him make a few spirals, dives and glides. He managed very well, even though he had a tendency to move his weight to the right and moved his head in small jerks in the pilot's helm. After an hour of excellent work, she declared the lesson over and congratulated him. He had not been thrown, which was commendable.
Murphy tried next. Merrrshika let him pilot Zeta's simulation, even though she believed he would probably end up piloting Epsilon. Murphy held himself in the saddle by squeezing his legs and asked manoeuvres a little rudely. Merrrshika constantly reminded him to be gentler, but she did not begrudge him his brusqueness, because she knew breaking the habit of an impulsive Walendorf would take time. However, Zeta seemed of a different mind, because she ended up so exasperated that she violently shook and threw Murphy out of the saddle.
After Murphy climbed back in the saddle to make peace with Zeta, Robinson took his place. He tended to be heavy on the reins, a habit he had acquired with Oural. Zeta protested by constantly contracting and relaxing the space around the reins. Each time she crushed Robinson's hands, he stopped pulling on the reins, but he nevertheless came back to it sooner or later. Aside from that and the fact that he rounded his back too much, he managed well. However, because of his round back, his seat suffered; so, when a mechanical vessel suddenly dropped from warp speed right next to them, Zeta turned brusquely and Robinson emptied the stirrups. He went back in the saddle with good humour and peacefully finished his flying lesson.
Since an hour remained to the half shift the pilots dedicated to Merrrshika's training, she decided to go for a short venture with the real shuttles, and brought the pilots with her. She began with Epsilon and made him jump from impulse to warp a few times, fighting against him every time, but at least he began to get the hang of it. After that, she directed Zeta through a complex series of changes of trajectories at impulse to work on her cartographic capabilities and her synthesis images of sensor data.
Once Zeta docked and the shuttle bay pressurized, they exited the hall to find Harry waiting for them besides the turbolift.
"Too bad we won't be there to see how our operations officer is doing piloting that dear Zeta simulation," Murphy mocked while going past him.
"Tuvok's the only one that did not fall," Robinson informed him in turn.
"Good luck, Ensign," Tuvok concluded while going into the turbolift.
Merrrshika smiled at him and said, following the three others, "Rready?"
He nodded and joined them in the turbolift. The three others exited at the bridge, but Merrrshika and Harry stayed in the turbolift a few more decks. After a few seconds of embarrassed silence, Merrrshika spoke up.
"Harry… I'm shorry about thish, it'sh kind of canchelling ourr dinerr."
"I know," Harry sighed. "It's not your fault if there's been a mistake in shift assignations."
"No, but… I could have jusht canchelled the shimulation in yourr case," she added hesitantly, wondering what the humans' attitude was towards absences.
"Computer, halt turbolift," Harry ordered.
He turned to Merrrshika and she took a hasty step back, suddenly afraid to have angered him. Harry took a step towards her, coming uncomfortably close to her, and then he lightly touched her arm.
"Don't worry about that, I understand perfectly. It would have been stupid to cancel it, I would just have been dead weight at the next training. And fairly, it's ok, with all this extra training I'm going to be the best pilot of the bunch," he finished with a sly smile.
She smiled back and ordered the computer to resume. Just when they arrived at the holodeck, Merrrshika held Harry back by his arm and pushed him against the door.
"Jusht one thing beforre we go in therre and rrecorrd the shesshion."
"What is it?", Harry asked with a game smile.
She stepped closer, took his face in her hands and kissed him. After that, she opened the holodeck's doors and launched her program.
Harry flew for an hour and a half, which was slightly longer than the others, but neither he nor Zeta seemed tired. He did not fall off either. He kept his legs, hands and head in the good spots, held his torso upright. In fact, the only fault Merrrshika spotted in his technique was that he lacked flexibility. He tended to ask the manoeuvres with separated and discrete moves of the hands and feet, instead of a global change of posture involving everything from foot to hand, including hips and shoulders. However, at the end, he started losing precision of movement and his concentration lost some sharpness, so Merrrshika pulled him out of the simulation. After closing the program, she congratulated him – though she carefully shut down the recording before personally showing him her appreciation of his performance…
"Well," Harry said after that, with the tone of someone who's about to step out of a room, "if you don't have anything else you want to make me do around the shuttles, I will go back to the bridge and see what I can do for the rest of the shift."
Merrrshika was about to approve when an idea struck her.
"How would you feel about a tesht flight in hyperrshpeed warrp?" she asked.
"Sounds exiting. With Zeta and Epsilon?"
"Jusht Zeta, I alrready know what Epshilon is capable of… But it would rrequirre morre than the rresht of yourr shift, you know, we will go verry fasht, verry farr, sho Zeta will be tirred and will need to rresht forr a while beforre we can come back…"
He watched fondly her triangular sunglasses over her impish smile.
"Oh, that sounds right with me. We will need something to eat and I must ask my first officer first," Harry objected with a falsely Starfleet-protocol look.
"I'm coming with you to ashk the captain." Merrrshika took his arm and followed him to the turbolift.
ooooo
"This was a great idea," Harry approved in a lazy voice, running a hand down her "hair".
The only dormitory onboard Zeta was located at the back of the cockpit. Lacking any permanent inhabitants, there were no cushions upon the hard surface which would have served as bed, but Harry and Merrrshika nevertheless did not mind lying down on it. Merrrshika comfortably leaned against Harry and periodically stretched a hand to a control panel embedded in the wall to her left to check how the gas and dust collection progressed.
"Yeah. Too bad we jusht have about ten minutesh left."
"Never mind, we could do it again tomorrow. With Epsilon, this time? After all, we do have to give the two shuttles the same training."
She laughed and lay back down.
"We'll bring some cushion next time, though," he added.
After that, they went back to Voyager at warp 9.997, slower than on their outward journey because of Zeta's fatigue. They brought back enough gas and dust to feed the two shuttles for many weeks and their snooping around had revealed the location of an asteroid containing dilithium. And they had had a very nice evening. Merrrshika felt happy, but tired. The day had been long by Mirrresh standards.
When they docked, Harry gallantly offered to deliver a report with their new sensor data, and Merrrshika let him. He nevertheless took the time to walk her to her room before he went and acquitted himself of his duties.