Making Short Work of a Panel Issue

Posted on Mon Aug 5th, 2024 @ 12:53pm by Lieutenant JG Katie Kellerman & Lieutenant Rebecca McMillen

Mission: Doing What We Do Best
Location: Helm Station

The newest cartographic charts were compiled and ready for mass distribution throughout the ship's systems. Well, they at least reported readiness but for some reason they weren't updated in some stations... and one of those stations was Helm Station 2. Rebecca pinched the bridge of her nose, this was going to be a hassle. Nevermind the long long walk up to the bridge. Updates like this had to be done in person, otherwise you'd just waste time doing it remote and wind up having to go in person anyway...

She tapped the miniature combadge she wore, "This is Rebecca McMillen to any available Engineer. I need assistance with a system update on Helm Bravo. The newest charts and system information from Cartography are ready for install but I'm getting a fault on that terminal." she stated, waiting for a reply from an available engineer.

Lt. Jade popped her head into the computer lab and knocked on the frame. "Katie? We've had a request from Lieutenant McMillen the science department about a system update. Ah would be very grateful if you could handle it."

"Of course!" Katie said, brightly. "I'd be happy to!" She jumped out of her chair and grabbed an engineering kit. She grinned at Jenna excitedly and rushed out of the computer lab, heading for the turbolift. "Stellar Cartography, please," she said, excitedly. She was almost bouncing on her toes the whole ride up.

She stepped out of the turbolift and walked down the corridor quickly. She was moving so fast she almost passed the right set of doors, but caught herself and pulled back. She walked in front of the sensor and as the doors opened stepped inside. "Hello! Someone call for an Engineer?"

Standing on the control panel for Stellar Cartography was Rebecca. A slight shine of a simple exoframe graced her form, but the Fleet's smallest officer stood there before Katie. "Hi. I don't think we've had a chance to properly meet. My name's Rebecca." It felt weird pulling rank on someone twenty something times her size. Manners trumped everything, so no harm in being nice. Also, it never hurt to be nice to someone so pretty. "I called in for an Engineer, but I need a favor. Could you, give me a lift to the Helm station? I'd walk, but it'd take forever." she admitted. The transit around the ship was still her biggest issue, and audible after audible were 'possible' but nothing really stuck as 'optimal'. So, in lieu of a plan, she'd have to ask for help. And she was getting good at asking.

Katie zeroed in on the voice as she walked in and stopped short. "Hi..." she said. After a moment she realized she was staring. "I'm sorry, i wasn't expecting that. I'd be happy to help....um...at the risk of sounding offensive, do you sit on my shoulder or...?

She giggled, "Well one day I expect carry cases on hips to be standard issue again, but for now yes, I think the shoulder would be the best way to do it. It'll leave your hands free, and I can just grip into the fabric." Rebecca responded with a smile, this wasn't going to go like her first interaction with the Captain, "And don't worry, I take no offense. I realize that, despite the obvious contrary, I'm a lot to consider." she giggled again. "I can assure you, it's no contagious, it's not hereditary, you're not in danger by handling me." she reassured.

"Good to know...." Katie said. She pulled a chair over and sat down next to the console, lowering her shoulders so the Lieutenant could climb on. "Nonetheless.....I have questions..."

The diminutive officer started her ascent up Mt. Katie, "Ask away. We have plenty of time to chat on the way to Helm Bravo."

"Righty-o," Katie said. "So...when? How? What? Let's cover the basics here."

Rebecca managed to make it to the shoulder cliff, and got comfy. "So a few years ago, I was part of a team studying subspace compression fields. We were looking to revolutionize space travel, because if we could understand the phenomenon of shorting distances on the subspace level, we could revolutionize star travel by literally shortening the distance between point to point transit. Everything was going smooth, and we were getting tons of data. The issue is that the location of the event was uncomfortably close to unfriendly borders. Namely, the Romulans. They wanted us to move, and we literally couldn't. They informed Starfleet of their discomfort, and were informed that the station literally couldn't move." a pause, "The official story was the station's reactor became unstable and exploded. The unofficial story was there was a conflict. We all ran to escape pods and evacuated the station, but when it exploded it threw off the trajectory of my pod. Straight through the region of the field. When I came out of my escape pod, I was standing on someone's desk. When I stopped screaming, I had to come to terms with... well, being extra petite." she giggled. "And yes, I tried to go back to the location and go back through. The detonation of the station reactor erased the field from existence. Coming across another one, of that same harmonic frequency and dilation, is literally a billion billion to one. So, I had to make do." she admitted, a little defeated, but well adjusted.

Katie wasn't sure if what she'd just heard was more fascinating or horrifying, but the half-Lilliputian on her shoulder seemed to have made peace with it, so she certainly wasn't going to get too invasive with her questions or her comments. "I see why getting a lift like this is necessary," she said. "Just getting back and forth from you quarters must take a bit of time."

"Oh it was a hassle. I made a lot of friends to help me get around. And on the last posting I had I was working on a faster means to get around, but it wasn't viable. It cut off a lot of the Jeffries Tubes. I'm looking for a way to do it and not become the biggest pain in the ass in space." she giggled. "I'm working on an exoframe to help take the pressure off the long walks, but it's still a long WALK."

Katie frowned. "Hm. Well, if I have any ideas, I'll let you know. You could just utilize the transporters, I suppose. That would make things easier for the most part, wouldn't it? And, where are your quarters? I'm on Deck Five. I'd be happy to give you a lift if we're on the same shift."

"Using the transporter for every long ordeal is going to put a strain on systems. I mean sure it could work, but I'd get pudgy if I didn't get my steps in," she joked. "I'm on Deck Six, so that works out wonderfully, that'd be great thank you so much!"

Katie held up a finger. "High one," she joked, grinning as they stepped into the turbolift. "Bridge," she said.

Rebecca giggled and slapped the offered finger in celebration. "High one!" she giggled.

As they rode up Katie's mind was working overtime trying to think of other ways to help Rebecca work around her situation. She put it to the back of her mind though as she didn't want to appear rude. She looked at the reflection in the control panel and saw Rebecca, then saw where she was staring. "Is there something on my uniform?" she said, looking down.

"Oh, oh ummm, sorry just..." the diminutive woman shifted a bit. "You're very very pretty, and well, there's a LOT of you to admire." Rebecca admitted. "I was looking at... well, looking at YOU."

"Oh!" Katie blushed a bit and bit her lip. "Well...thank you," she said. "I appreciate the compliment. Evidently they're a very telling feature of mine," she joked, trying to lighten things up. "Once met a guy at Academy orientation who claimed he could tell what planet I was from, even what region, by how they felt."

"Telling? They're huge." Rebecca offered, glad her glance was taken as a compliment. "Wait, someone really said that?" now she was interested...

"Well...it was a party, I was a bit tipsy, he was a handsome and rather tall Kelpian and I stupidly bet him a week's transporter credits that he couldn't do it. So I took off my top, we sat on a bed and he let his hands "read" me for several minutes. Imagine my shock when he correctly said I was from the Southern Peninsula region of Gault! I transferred the transporter credits and we fooled around a bit more before heading back to the party where I was telling friends about his amazing little parlor trick. Didn't find out till later the reason he knew was that he'd already met my sister." She rolled her eyes. "Still, no hard feelings. I was kinda impressed with his creative trickery." She gave a slight chuckle.

"Okay so that's a hell of a technique, but wait you have a sister? That's so awesome. I've got two sisters but, well, I don't really get to see them much. I just talk to my folks through filtered comms. Edited to make it look like I'm not, you know, travel size." she offered, before peering back over the ridge of Katie to look at the rise of her top a little more directly, "Geez... " she breathed, then looked back up, "Sorry! Sorry..."

Katie couldn't help but laugh. "It's all right. No worse than most, at least you're honest about it. And from your vantage, what choice do you have. Sorry I suggested shoulder, could've given you a cushier ride." She paused as she realized what she'd said. "Anyway, game face on." The doors opened and deposited them on the bridge.

She stepped out and headed down to the helm station. "All right, what are we looking for?"

"Cushy ride later." Rebecca said softly, pat pat patting her shoulder, before switching on to game face. "The closer of the two helm stations is giving me an error on updating the sensor maps. Gotta fix it, otherwise the two help stations won't be plotting the same course. Shouldn't be too much of an issue for the two of us!" she offered with enthusiasm.

"Just bring me over to the station and help me establish a data link. Might need to delete the data in there and hard push the data in." god that flustered Rebecca just saying it.

"Roger that," Katie said. She knelt down by the helm, smiling at the officers on duty and opening a panel on the side, plugging her portable terminal into it. "All right, let's have a looksie," she said, tapping the controls. "Yeah, looks like the terminal isn't receiving. We can get it pushed through here though," she said. "I'm sorry I haven't gotten to this station yet. It was on my to-do list for tomorrow."

"Oh hush, I'm not about to criticize that it took someone longer than expected to do anything." Rebecca reassured. "Truth be told, I figured something like this would happen, so I made sure the update needed was readily available on the computer. Package seven baker charlie two two, should be everything in one nice tight package." a giggle. "You shouldn't NEED my authentication but if you do, I'm right here."

"Well, as my sister Kally would say, who doesn't love a nice tight package?" Katie said, grinning, and accessing the files. Her left hand worked the helm console while her right hand worked her tablet, interfacing it with the helm. A moment later, the tablet beeped as the program began to transfer. "Package being delivered," she said, happily. "I'll make sure bridge stations are getting updates correctly today," she said. "Definitely don't want to put you through this again."

"Great, now I have to think of actual excuses to hang out with you. How about after this we grab lunch, if you're free," Rebecca offered, probably half a flirt and half an actual offer for food. "Though I do appreciate the effort. A little goes a long way with me." Pause "I mean, okay you know exactly what I meant, so let's just get this little speed bump resolved," she giggled.

Katie smiled at the joke and tried not to look odd giggling at the voice of the devil on her shoulder. "Actually lunch sounds great. I'm about due anyway." She checked the program had been correctly uploaded, logged the issue, opened a note for later to fix the underlying issues, then logged her lunch with Lieutenant Jade.

She stood up carefully, doing her best to keep her shoulders steady and headed back to the turbolift. "Deck three," she said. "How do you handle using replicators?" she said. "I'd imagine getting to the replicator and the table would be a bit of a journey."

"I depend on people for a lot of my day to day, but in my quarters I have an access ramp, and spend a lot of time on counters. Otherwise I handle replicators rather well. I just yell at them until they make my food." she giggled. "I had updated the replicator on my last post to replicate my order at my location. Had to be careful, though, because if someone else ordered at it, it would send it to my location at my scale. If they wanted something to their liking it was a special order. I mean it was either that or I'd wind up in a bowl of someone else's ice cream." she offered.

"Fascinating," Katie said. "You've adapted rather well to your situation." She walked into the mess hall and over to the replicator station. "What am I in the mood for," she said. "Maybe shrimp." She winced and looked at Becky. "Sorry," she said. "I could do shortribs--" She paused again, biting her lip. "Double order of blinis," she said. "With sides of Sackmanov jam, honey and caviar, and a mug of ice cold cider." The replicator produced a tray with the plate and three small bows, along with a frosted mug. "You're welcome to share, or if there's something else you'd like?" Katie said, looking at Becky.

Rebecca giggled, "There's not a short joke in the universe that I haven't already heard, so go ahead." besides, hard to get mad at someone that tall and, well, curved. "I promise I won't be short with you if you tell me a joke I haven't heard. THAT, I assure you, is a short list." a giggle. "Okay okay, that one was bad, but just a little." another giggle. "You know, that all sounds delicious. Maybe just a bit of utensils and a mug scaled down for me. Otherwise, as stated, you have me scampering around your plate."

"Computer, mug of my cider and place settings appropriate for Lieutenant McMillen's specifications as well." They appeared on the tray next to hers. "Oh! And half a dozen mini chocolate-chip muffins." She smiled at Rebecca. "I love mini muffins."

As the last plate materialized, she picked up the tray and carried it to an empty table off to the side, sitting down in a chair. "Need a hand down?"

"Good cause I love muffins half as tall as me." and then Rebecca pondered. "Well, I could accept the hand down. I could run down your arm, or.." and with a bit of a hop she took a jump down off Katie's shoulder, sliding down the front of her uniform along the massive swell of her chest. Airborne for a moment, before sticking the landing and taking a few steps to bleed off her momentum. "Oh wow, yeah geez those things are..." and she turned around to face Katie, and that's really when the enormity of the situation showed itself. ".... big."

Katie stared in open-mouthed shock for a moment, turned as red as her mother's borscht, then burst out laughing, covering her mouth to avoid it echoing around the room. "Okay....I did not expect that..." she said, tears in her eyes. "Well played."

"Well I missed my first chance, wasn't about to let a chance to see them up close go again. Besides, we've essentially been flirting the whole trip." Rebecca mentioned with a smile. "They're very soft."

Katie blushed again. "I'm sorry," she said. "Sometimes...I don't realize I am. I used to get that a lot at the Academy, and back home. I just get familiar and friendly, and it comes across flirty." She shrugged. "Not that you aren't cute as a button, don't get me wrong. I just don't want you to feel I'm leading you on or anything, or making offers that can't be fulfilled."

Rebecca gave a bit of a nod, "No worries, I'm not going to pressure you or anything. I mean, I could push all day and you literally wouldn't budge." a pause, "I might sink in depending on where I push, but you get the idea." she giggled. "If nothing else, I think we're good friends. Who knows where that might lead, and if it leads anywhere then, well, we'll see."

"So let's eat!"

"Great idea," Katie said, smiling, holding up a mug in salute to her new friend.