Post #76: Of Pranks, Surprises and Homecomings?
Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 3:19pm by Lieutenant JG Yujas Ritt & Ruby Starling
Edited on on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 3:20pm
1,498 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission: Obsidian
Ruby had taken to being the mail girl, carrying various reports, PADD's, food and drinks to departments and personnel, with the focus being on getting the base, or as her adopted mother called it a giant paperweight, operational it was pretty much all she could do to help out at the moment. She'd just gotten finished delivering the latest round of coffee's to an engineering team and was on her way to pick up the next PADD when she found herself walking past a Cardassian in a Starfleet uniform, an oddity for sure, not that it bothered her she'd seen plenty of surprises wearing that uniform. "Engineering, operations or security?" she asked.
“Security,” Yujas replied with a smirk. “Aren’t you a little young to be in this area?”
"Want me to wear a hard hat or something?" Ruby giggled "Ruby Starling, currently the general fetch and carry, messenger girl, jack of all trades."
“No hard hat needed,” Yujas said with a grin. “But I will walk with you to your destination, you know just in case.”
"Fair enough." Ruby said, as they walked she kept glancing out of the window the Arcadia was visible from where they were, sat there pristine in the dock "She's a beauty, class put into service twenty eight years ago, the latest humble science vessel type, has an ancestry going back to the Intrepid class, fast, versatile, sleek..." she trailed off "Sorry bit of a starship geek."
“Nothing wrong with that,” Yujas chuckled. “You going for navigation or engineering?”
"Haven't really thought about it, my adopted mom's intelligence, my adopted grandfather is all science, my adopted grandmother has the interesting accolade of being one of the last Romulan senators..." Ruby said "Maybe I'll figure it out."
“Plenty of time to do it,” Yujas said with a nod. “There’s always multiple departments as well.”
"True." Ruby said with a slight smile, her eyes were drawn to something new in the window "Oh wow... that's a classic." she pointed it out "It's a Nimitz class, that thing's almost two hundred years old, there aren't any left in service, four nacelles it's like a compact constellation class."
“Yeah,” Yujas said absently as he looked at the ship. “Where the hell did it come from,” he said looking at Ruby. “I got to go check on something,” he said heading down the corridor at practically a trot.
"Hey you're my escort." Ruby said almost at a run right behind him.
“Well, c’mon then,” he said letting Ruby catch up.
"Don't make me outrun you." Ruby said
Yujas grinned. “I bet you could,” he said getting into the lift as Ruby got inside behind him. “Docking bay,” he said as the lift started to move.
No sooner had the turbolift started to move than for some reason the speakers started to blurt out Klingon opera "Oh come on..." Ruby said almost bending double with laughter "Who's the practical joker?"
“Have no idea,” Yujas said covering his ears. “I’ve heard worse but not much worse.”
"Where'd you hear that?" Ruby asked
“When I was a shuttle pilot,” he said. “Had to ferry a singer around, he said the shuttle was perfect for practicing in,” Yujas’s said with a groan as he left the lift on the docking bay level. “Let’s see who’s in that ship!”
"I'm guessing the singer wasn't that good?" Ruby said as she followed Yujas towards the docking bay
“Nope,” Yujas said with a smirk. “It was akin to killing a cat.”
"So procedure is you contact that ship right?" Ruby said "Read the manual, you'd be amazed at the lack of reading material around here."
“That’s the procedure,” he said nodding. “And since I’m in security, it comes along with the territory,” he said as they arrived in the Docking Bay.
"Ok then." Ruby said
Yujas went into the docking bay and headed for the nearest station. Activating the comm unit, he asked for the ship to identify itself.
"This is the Yi Sun-sin." came the voice over the comm unit when Yujas asked for identification "Carrying a passenger to these coordinates, requesting permission to dock and unload, transporters are currently being repaired."
“Who is the passenger?” Yujas asked calmly.
"An expert requested by your Chief Intelligence Officer." came the response, Ruby tapped Yujas on the arm and nodded giving confirmation that V'Lar had requested that.
“Permission to dock granted,” Yujas said shutting off the communication. “Guess we’ll be the welcoming committee,” he said waiting for the ship.
It took a few moments but once the docking was complete, it all happened fast, were it not for the laws of physics it would have been reasonable to say Yujas never saw what hit him and floored him, in truth it was a human female with raven coloured hair. Then came the sound of footsteps, very familiar boots and a very familiar leather jacket.
"Oh for the love of the Prophets." a very familiar voice, female said "You couldn't even wait five minutes Hannah?" as Ruby watched a second woman crouched down next to Yujas "Miss me Yujas?"
“Miss you!” Yujas said laughing. “I couldn’t miss a targ half as much as I missed you!” he said hugging her hard. “How!”
"Who the heck are you two?" Ruby asked
"Name's Charlotte Thrace." the woman crouched next to Yujas said "This one." she pulled the woman who floored Yujas off of the Cardassian "Is my sisterd Hannah." she looked at Yujas as she helped him to his feet "They can take away our Starfleet commissions but they can't take away Hannah's credentials as an archaeologist, historian, scientist and all that."
"Your the expert my mother requested?" Ruby asked
"Well that's luck for us." Charlotte said
"I'll take you to her." Ruby said, leading Hannah away while Charlotte just smiled at Yujas.
"So how's my favourite Cardassian been?" Charlotte asked
“It’s been rough,” he said brushing himself off before wrapping an arm around Charlotte. “But I got a feeling things are going to pick up around here real quick!”
"Any other familiar faces around?" Charlotte said
“Oh I don’t know,” Yujas said with a shrug. “Unless your counting, Jordan and Pontmercy.”
Charlotte smiled "Glad to know those two are still around." she said "If you hadn't said those names I'd have hopped back on that ship, hunted them down and dragged them back kicking and screaming if necessary. Oh and do not tell Jordan I'm here, I don't want to miss the look on his face."
“Your secret is safe with me,” Yujas said chuckling. “I still can’t believe you’re really here!”
"Nor can I." Charlotte said "I get kicked out of Starfleet, and rightly so to be fair I mean you don't get to break the Omega Directive and walk away like nothing happened, the last place I ever expected to be was on a starbase like this."
“Same,” Yujas said with a nod. “I was black listed for the longest time you know on account of all the tension with the Cardassian’s. I had wondered what happened to you.”
"Not much of a story." Charlotte said "Starfleet kicked a load of us out after the Zaj affair, I made sure things were easy for some involved, made sure some were protected. Those of us that were left in the firing line - me, Hannah, Rhyth, Bailey, Jonew, Maddy, Okan... we found something else to do after we kicked out. Found the Yi Sun-sin in an old scrapyard, Rhyth and Jonew did her up, she's a two hundred year old antique but she flies good and she flies fast. We've spent all the time since running supplies to former Romulan worlds trying to fill the gap left by the conflict breaking out. Not helped by the Klingon claims on a fair few of those worlds."
“I bet,” Yujas said shaking his head. “If I had known, I would have been right there with you, hell I might even had run into you a time or two and didn’t even know it,” he said with a chuckle. “But we’re here now, maybe Pontmercy can get you back in or something, have you thought about it?”
"Let me adjust to the fact that it would appear that those I made sure to protect managed to stay protected first." Charlotte said "I half expected Jordan to quit after I got booted." she ran her hands through her hair "That crate of Kanar I owe you from Ghost is in the cargo hold someone will point you to it. Guess I go find Jordan." she patted Yujas on the shoulder "Big sister's back in town."
“Have fun with that,” Yujas said with a snicker. “Let me know how he takes it!”
"Oh I will don't you worry about that." Charlotte said
***********
Ruby Starling
Starbase Obsidian
Lt. JG Yujas Ritt
Security Officer
Starbase Obsidian
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