Figure NX-O1

A Tale from Below Decks
By: Emberchyld (cib7088@njit.edu)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Trek (although, if I did, I wouldn’t have cancelled Enterprise. Hmph.) Paramount, undeserving as they may be at times, owns Trek, Enterprise, and *sigh* Trip. Sonya, Sebastien, and other non-cannon characters are mine when stripped of their Paramount-owned locations, clothing, and life history. I own naked, homeless, and uneducated characters (double hmph).

Summary: A moment in the life of some non-senior officers.
Rating: PG. involves some mild, innocent lip-locks.
Can be archived.

Growing up in Winnipeg, the one thing that Sonya Callahan could always count on for her birthday was ice. From before she could remember, her family would bundle up and hike down to the lake by their home, mom carrying thermal containers full of cocoa, dad with her birthday cake. They’d spend the afternoon skating together, playing pick-up hockey or playing in the snow, and then would toast to her birthday with mugs full of steaming cocoa as the sun set. Some years required dad to go to the lake the night before to put up a tarp because of falling snow…. And one particularly warm year, the lake needed a little nudge from some chillers to properly freeze over, but she always had ice. Even through her rebellious teen years. Even through Starfleet Academy and her first few years in the ‘fleet.

But this year was different – they were too far out for her to transport home and back with her limited leave. And although her family promised they’d celebrate her birthday when she next came on leave, it just wasn’t the same.

At this moment, sunset would be starting in Winnipeg.

“Happy Birthday to me,” she murmured with a sigh as she purged the coolant out of the warp coils for the fiftieth time.

“How’re the repairs goin’, Ensign?” A lightly accented voice came from behind her. Sonya jumped slightly, looking up to see Commander Tucker standing over her.

She frowned and stood, pushing a stray blonde hair out of her face with a grimy hand. “It’s going, Sir. Most of the leaks have been plugged, but I have to run the coolant flow equations again to see if I can pinpoint where that last leak is.”

Tucker nodded, then looked over at one of the other engineers, signaling him over. “Martinez can handle that. I need you in Cargo Bay one right now – one of the control panels is shot and I need you to get it back online.”

“With all due respect, sir,” she tried to keep her tone level and free of the dismay rising up in her, “fluid flow is my specialty. I’m the best one for this job, not… panel repair.” The last two words were tinged with distain.

“That’s all good and fine, Sonya, but I want you to get some experience with,” he held up his hands to make air quotes, “’Panel repair’. Enterprise needs well-rounded engineers. Understood?”

Sonya bit off a sigh. “Got it, Commander. Cargo Bay one is good.”

“Great,” Tucker grinned before turning away. “Who knows, maybe you’ll actually enjoy a change of pace.”

Sonya sighed and grabbed her tool kit. “Sure,” she said sarcastically under her breath, then headed towards Cargo Bay one.

Ensign Sebastian Hudry was standing at the door to the Cargo bay when Sonya arrived. After a surreptitious glance down the hallway, the tall tactical officer grabbed Sonya’s arm and pulled her close for a quick kiss. “Happy Birthday, love,” he intoned in a heavy French accent.

“Bastien,” Sonya pulled away quickly and straightened her uniform. “Don’t do that… what if someone sees? What are you doing here, anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be in the Armory today?”

His dark blue eyes smiled at her.” Keeping track of my schedule now, are we?” The smile touched his lips when she playfully whacked his arm. “Actually, Lieutenant Reed sent me down here to keep anyone but Engineering out of here. Something about a dangerously malfunctioning panel.”

Sonya rolled her eyes. “That’s me, Ms. Fix-it.” She held up her toolkit. “But it looks like Commander Tucker conveniently left out the dangerous part.”

Bastien frowned. “Well, be careful and don’t take too long with that. Remember, romantic dinner, twenty hundred hours.” He then gave her a small wink. “Louie has third shift tonight, so we have the quarters all to ourselves.”

She threw him a coy glance. “Mmm, wouldn’t miss it for the world. But now,” She reached past him to push the door controls, “I’d better get to work before both our butts get busted for fraternization.” She froze and her voice trailed off as the doors opened to reveal a skating rink in the middle of cargo bay one. “What the hell?”

She stepped inside the considerably cooler bay and stared around herself in wonder. Someone had made a makeshift rink barrier out of tubing and cooling cells had been jury-rigged to freeze the gallons and gallons of water that now coated the floor. A cake ever sat perched on one of the cargo containers “ How?...“

Bastien came up behind hoard slipped his arms around her waist. “I know it’s not Winnipeg, but I thought that you might need a little bit of home today.”

He then released her and pulled two pair of skates from behind the stairs. “Turns out Commander Tucker is a bit of a romantic. I didn’t need to beg… much… for his help in making this happen. He got permission from the captain for me and the engineering team made it a reality. Didn’t even say much about fraternization, although he did remind me that, in Starfleet’s eyes, this is just a party for a friend.” He gave a uniquely Gallic ‘pfft’. “We’ve got one hour before everyone else shows up for your ‘skating party’ .”

“I… “Sonya gently hugged her skates—he must have snuck them out of her quarters, where she kept them for random shore-leaves. “You’re amazing.” She stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her free arm around his neck, pulling his head down for a kiss.

After a few seconds, she pulled away and sat down on a cargo container to lace up her skates. “So where did those,” she inclined her head towards the black skates that he was also donning, “come from?”

“You’d be surprised what you can do with a pair of regulation boots, a laser scalpel and an on-staff metallurgist who’s dabbled in blacksmithing.” He stood, wobbling slightly in his hockey-style skates. “In fact, when Commander Tucker pitched the idea to the captain, they both agreed that keeping the rink up and running for the rest of the month might even be good for crew morale. So we made quite a few extra loaner pairs for anyone who might want to. . . as the Commander put it ,’take a spin’.”

“I still can’t believe that you actually went to my boss for help,” she said as she stepped onto the ice and happily did a little turn.

Bastien gingerly joined her on the ice. “ He was happy to help. Besides, I think that he had an ulterior motive to getting this project up and running.” He grinned. “The Commander appeared very excited about the thought of seeing Commander T’Pol on the ice.”

Sonya giggled at the thought and began laughing even harder when Bastien lost his balance and landed unceremoniously on his rear.

It looked like it was going to be a great birthday, after all.