All Wired Up

Posted on Wed Aug 2nd, 2023 @ 12:51pm by Petty Officer 3rd Class Nakata Akira & Petty Officer 1st Class Mina Kar

1,394 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The devil wears tripolymer
Location: Bar

[ON]

The Quartermaster groaned as she sat down in the mess, holding her cup close to her chest. For a moment she just focused on the heat of it against the palm of her hand before she rubbed her free hand over her eyebrow ridges. She was tired, but only because she had just taken stock. Every commbadge, blanket, pillow, uniform shirt...anything your average member of Starfleet needed passed across her desk. And once a month she got to double check it all and account for it. Of course, the joke was that there was always something missing. Her predecessor had always joked that at the end of service of a ship class, everything was added up and balanced out by a bunch of NCOs whilst they consumed large quantities of alcohol. Not synthahol, but the real thing.

And Mina Kar believed it. So she didn't fret too much about the nine missing pillows, one missing commbadge now deactivated and replaced, and the spare pair of boots she had found in a Jeffries tube.

"Is this a bad time to tell you I found a box of padds in an abandoned storage unit?" Nakata Akira asked from behind her, moving around to sit next to his colleague. His words had a distinct Japanese accent to them, and he had a small, playful smile as he set a bowl of tea on the table.

"Argh!" she threw her hands in the air and put her forehead on the table, smiling. "I give up, I am just going to beam everything into space. Everything. And then people can go 'oh, I need this' and I tell them all to go and swallow a tribble."

"It is certainly a plan," he nodded with feigned thoughtfulness, sipping his tea carefully. "And then we just replicate new things as they are needed. I cannot see what could go wrong with it."

She lifted her head and turned her face to watch him, a small smile coming to her. "Or they could learn to do without," she said and sighed, calming down. "I wish they could just be patient. Everyone will get their turn in the end."

"Federation life is anything but patient," he chuckled softly, shaking his head as he looked into his tea bowl. "It is now, now, now...instant gratification."

She sighed again, nodding in agreement of the words. "They don't know how easy they have it. And how much they take for granted," she said lightly, before watching him. "You however...are different. I like that about you, Akira."

"Me?" Akira looked startled for a moment before laughing it off, shaking his head. "I did not grow up with this. Maybe it is still a novelty."

"Ah, novelties..." she laughed as well, but with a clear throaty warmth. "I remember when things were a novelty. Or when I was one. But this is a good ship, just wish we didn't have to account for everything for the reports."

Akira chuckled softly, sitting back as he sipped his tea. But he watched her with curiosity, building up his courage to ask. "Why were you a novelty?" he was almost certain she meant her heritage, but he didn't want to assume.

She looked at him, her eyes gentle at the way he hadn't just said it. "I was one of the first half-Cardassians in Starfleet. Especially one brought up by a Cardassian mother, not a Bajoran one."

"I didn't know that," he replied lightly, and there was an innocence to the way he spoke, that came from genuine interest on the subject. "I hear they can be brilliant scientists..." he wondered if it was where she got her leaning to Ops from.

"My mother is one," she said with a warm chuckle, watching him with a small smile. "She is a brilliant scientist in her own right."

Akira positively grinned at that, leaning in closer to her as he wrapped his hands around his tea bowl. "Did she want you to follow her footsteps?"

"She...I think so, until I was eight and ruined her experiment because I opened the widows to let the butterflies fly..." she said, laughing at herself. "She saw I did not have the mind for it. I liked...technology. I liked lists. I liked order. I liked...things that made sense. Science makes sense but is a fickle mistress who is harsh on those whose mind wander."

"Ah, maybe that is why I didn't follow that path then," Akira chuckled softly as he looked down, shaking his head. "There are still things to learn and create with circuits and power."

"A lot, you'll find. And it is always evolving, another living thing," Mina said firmly, but with a gentle expression. "And you learn a ship."

"Living thing," he rested his chin in his hand, getting a far away look in his eyes for a moment. "It's why I like robotics. It's so...is the word...counter tuative?"

"Something like that," Mina nodded as she watched him. "Robotics is fascinating. Although I have to admit, I am more a software person than a hardware person."

"Cyber friends are more software than hardware," he assured with a soft chuckle. "Creating algorithms to act and react is far more challenging than moving fingers and toes."

"I don't know..." she watched him, looking thoughtful. "I sometimes find it difficult just to navigate the social structures of Starfleet and the Federation. I'd do better if I had an algorithm that would assist in that."

"Let me know when you've worked that one out," he chuckled softly, watching her with gentle eyes as he sipped his tea. "Trial and error until then?"

"Trial and error," Mina said and meant it, her eyes gentle before she looked away. "It is all we can do, as mere mortals."

"Until I become a cyborg master," he laughed softly, shaking his head at the idea. "Half man, half machine, animated in the most epic way..."

She laughed, covering her mouth with her hand as she shook her head. "Bringer of chaos and binary code..." she added, in a dramatic voice. "Everyone could benefit from a metal limb..."

Akira laughed with her, his eyes shining with warmth as he shook his head. It wasn't often people would play along. More like arch an eyebrow at the nerd in the corner. "Or just load yourself entirely into a computer."

"I bet someone can do that...I bet there's a species out there..." Mina said before she shook her head, almost wistfully. "And if we are lucky, we'll one day find them. And it will be nice and peaceful."

"It's really not that farfetched," he shook his head thoughtfully, absently rubbing over his black hair. "Our mind is just electrical pulses running through an organic computer brain."

"True enough," she said as she looked at him, before she reached out to touch his hand. "Although I would miss being able to reach out and touch a person. Wouldn't you, Akira?"

His smiled softened at that, his hand giving hers a gentle squeeze. "I can't say that I have too much of that as it is," he admitted.

She looked at him, her eyes gentle as she smiled gently back. "You're good at keeping your distance from people without appearing to," she said gently.

He looked to her with mild surprise, at her noticing. Most didn't. "Real life is...a difficult thing to navigate."

"I do not disagree," Mina said quietly, before she nodded. "But I am here, whenever you need me. I've been here long enough to...know...how to navigate."

He laughed softly, almost with embarrassment as he looked into his bowl, with a conceding nod. "I shall have to think of something I can help you with in return."

"I am sure you can think of something, with time," she said lightly before she rubbed her neck, slowly, closing her eyes. "At least I do not need to take stock for a while."

"Don't say that too loud...rumour has it that saying that three times into a mirror summons up fifty crates..." Akira whispered dramatically.

Her eyes widened before she reached to poke his chest, quickly, and not to hurt. "Don't even joke about that! Can you imagine? It would be my doom..."

[OFF]

PO1 Mina Kar
Quartermaster

&

PO3 Nakata Akira
Operations

 

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