Distractions Part 2

Posted on Tue Jul 19th, 2022 @ 5:29am by Lieutenant Commander Timia Svidi & Lieutenant Obav th’Villos
Edited on on Tue Jul 19th, 2022 @ 5:30am

Mission: The Goddess
Location: Star base
4046 words - 8.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Timia looked in to her nearly empty coffee cup, before she downed the last of it, “Ready.” she said with a grin. “Hope you’re ready to make good on the promise of excitement.” she reminded him as she stood up from the table and cleared her trash.

Obav finished off the last of his Katheka, before he followed her lead and tossed his own cup after getting up from the table. The two of them started heading for the lift cluster, so they could make the trip down.


~~~~

“It’s in one of the civilian bays, I’ll double check to make sure we can use it once we’re down there but it’s the ship I’ve been using in the last couple of amature heats I’ve raced in. We can run one of those courses, but the real thrill is when the race is on. If you like it, maybe you could join me later this week for another heat I’m running.”

Timia raised her brows as she followed Obav, “Don’t you need an experienced copilot for such a thing?” she asked him. “I’m not exactly useful in that aspect, and I’d be added weight to your ship in a race that matters.” she pointed out. “And then there is the whole Pit bunny thing.” she teased, although her mind drifted to one of crew members on Gladiator, an actual bunny, and the thought made her smirk.

“Pit bunnies don’t fly the ships, they’re the ones that hang around and are never dirty but always seem to be there trying to get in on the action. Considering where you grew up, I’d be willing to bet you have a solid idea of ship operations,” Obav explained his reasoning. “Most of what a co-pilot's job is monitoring systems and power usage. If this were a pro race, I’d want a pro co-pilot but it’s just an amature run.”

“I’ll think about it. It might be fun.” TImia said warming to the idea. She left the ship when she was 16, and had spent most of her time in the medical bay, however the ship's Captain had insisted any one 8 years and older were enrolled in classes with different departments to understand basic functions and how to handle emergencies if adults were in trouble. The classes had proven useful a few times, despite being difficult. The ship's XO had conducted these classes for the small handful of children, and he had been a tough and challenging man. He had little mercy on children, which proved to be a good thing. He always said that pirates wouldn’t have mercy on them, so why should he? He would do them a disservice by taking it easy.

She leaned against the lift wall once they entered a pod and watched the Andorian. “I can’t promise I’m great with the co pilot monitoring stuff, but I’m sure a brief refresher will help.” she admitted.

“We can run through a lot of it as we’re flying the ship today. If you don’t like it, or don’t want to do it there’s no pressure,” Obav’s antenna turned inward again. “Although I’ll have to have my friend co-pilot and he’s not as fun to look at.”

Timia smirked while she rolled her eyes, “I’m not even dressed well. Just jeans and a tee, boots, and my hair is a mess.” she scoffed. “I clean up better than this. I’m not a great thing to look at right now. At least you being blue is fascinating to me.” she chuckled.

“I wasn’t talking about just looks,” Obav said with a grin. “You have a certain attitude I am liking so far. There is an intensity to you that I’m trying to get a handle on. I also hope I don’t disappoint you, I’d like to think I’m more interesting then just being blue.”

“We’ll see.” she shrugged, not giving anything away for sure. It remained to be seen if she actually liked this guy in truth, but she was having a good time so far. This encounter had been far more interesting than her wandering around the station stewing about her career and ambitions being derailed by Hawkins. “You hold up your end of the bargain and I’d say that you’re likely at least a LITTLE more interesting than being blue. Maybe its not a great thing to think, but I do find non human looking races fascinating, always have, even if I claimed other wise earlier.” she said her mind drifting back to Gladiator again. A rabbit, a dog, and even a pair of what… weasels? Her ship was turning in to a damn zoo, but at least it kept the medical department interesting.

Obav nodded and half smiled at her as he crossed his arms across his chest as he tried to get a handle on that. She liked exotic, which didn’t bother him. He’d made plenty of dates banked on the curiosity of the one he was with. Use what you’ve got after all. “If I’m so fascinating, where do you keep going? You keep thinking about something that’s bothering you. Let me help you forget about, gorgeous.”

She brought her eyes back to Obav, his little pet name was certainly a flirtation, and for a moment she debated if she should rail against it, or engage in it. She decided that it would be better to let it go and engage in it. “The reason I’m on the station is to try and forget about it.” she said. “Work sucks right now, not because of the work, but because of the people involved. You know how it is…” she said.

“I do, I tend to shoot my mouth off and get myself into trouble. If I wasn’t as good of a pilot as I am I’d probably find myself in a lot more trouble. That’s probably why I can’t get promoted,” Obav’s antenna turned inwards towards each other. “So yes, I understand. It’s one of the reasons why I do all of the thrill seeking.”

Timia watched him with some new appreciation. “I feel like if I don’t shoot my mouth off no one listens to me. And of course they don’t listen even when I do. Stubborn assholes.” she shook her head. “But enough about that, otherwise I’m going to start ranting and the idea of going to see a fight will get more appealing, except that I’d want to be the one fighting.” she laughed.

Obav laughed softly as he watched her for a moment, “Let’s save the fight for our next date, we could do a little betting and some drinking. I always have a lot of fun when I go. I’m not sure I want to fight with you, but I’m sure there is some physical activity we can get up to that will help us work out our frustrations.”

Timia’s eyes got wide at the word date, and then even more so at his last words. “Going for a run? Fencing?” she asked playing dumb. “Who says you’re getting a date… let alone, next date. This isn’t a date is it?” she smirked at him.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Obav said coyly, giving her a playful grin. “I guess we’re just two new friends who had coffee and are heading on a shuttle ride together. Like I said, my mouth can get me into all kinds of trouble.”

“I wonder just how much….” she said before she closed her lips and looked at the door, blushing a bit red. Her own mouth getting her in trouble, but the truth was she was getting curious. Maybe a station fling would be good for her, it had been a while since she’d had one.

Obav couldn't help but laugh, it was enduring the way she cut herself off. “I guess you will just have to play your cards right to satisfy that curiosity.” The lift finally came to a stop and he motioned for her to follow him. “Come on, the shuttle bay isn’t far.”

As Timia followed Obav out she pressed her nail into the fatty part of her hand, it was a trick she used sometimes to shake herself out of moods and help her think more clearly, but as she followed the Andorian she found it wasn’t really working. Her curiosity was strong, much like how it was that ladies night she had with Liala, on Acadia a few months ago where she had flirted heavily with the bartender, which had turned into a few interesting nights. She was about to board a shuttle with this man, she needed to let loose and just enjoy it, this was the type of last minute adventure she’d needed.

As they entered the bay she let her eyes wander around, since it was a civilian bay it looked a little different than the starfleet ones she was used to. Honestly it was a bit reminiscent to her childhood and the times she had seen shuttle bays and docks.

Obav started heading through the bay, he said hello to a couple of people who he knew before they got to the bay with the racing shuttle. It wasn’t as bulky as most shuttles, the lines of the ship curving. It was painted orange and light blue, had a small set of wings and a pair of big engines. The cockpit had just enough room for the control panels and a pair of chairs next to each other. It was a bit of a tight fit, but he didn’t mind that.

The work area was kept clean, all the tools in their place. On the work bench there were some parts, but they didn’t look like were recently pulled form the ship. He glanced around to see if he could find his friend when he caught some movement in the back.

“Isal? That you?”

A tool clattered and someone spoke loudly in Andorii. An andorian in coveralls came out from where he had been working, he was a little dirty and he gave Obav a look as he approached, “What?”

“Mind if I take Thizi out for a spin?” Obav asked in Andorii. “She’s hoping for a spin around the system.”

“You can’t use my ship just for your dates Obav,” Isal responded in Andorii. “But fine, as long as you get third or better in the race this week. I need the latinum.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll get at least third,” Obav chuckled. “You ready?” he asked Timia in english.

Timia glanced over the other Andorian, their body language and verbal language was interesting, and she wasn’t certain she was able to follow what they were saying, but clear in the end Obav got permission. “Yeah!” she said getting excited as she turned her attention to the ship. She wasn’t used to anything but shuttles where you could get up and walk around. This was a lot tighter, she was certain space would feel so much closer than normal. “Do we need any suits or anything?”

“No, we won’t be running with internal dampers reduced like we would if it was a race. That’s what the suits are meant to protect against, keep all your blood and organs where they’re supposed to be,” Obav headed over to the side of the ship where there were a couple of steps built right into it that could be climbed. “Head up first, the cockpit should be open. Take the second seat.”

Timia smirked, “Oh so you can just stare at my ass?” she asked. She decided to mess with him, and climbed up in front of him, making a bit of a show of it. He wanted to tease at the idea this was a date and she was content to mess with the man for now. Why not? She climbed in to the cockpit and slid in to the seat as she peered over the edge towards him.

“You think I would do such a thing?” Obav played insulted as he climbed up behind her. He dropped into the pilot’s seat and tapped a couple of commands as the cockpit came to life. A transparent aluminum hood slid around them and sealed. There was a little console between them and a little bit of storage behind the chair. “There are emergency supplies and breathing helmets if something goes wrong. Your console is set to monitor the impulse drive and several key systems. In a normal race, we’d get to the starting line and drop inertial dampeners down to twenty five percent with the suit absorbing the rest.”

“25% Damn.” she said, “Do you find that your Andorian physiology helps above people who don’t have exoskeletons?” she wondered. 25% was very low! You’d feel a lot of the pressure and it might make ones insides feel like liquid.

“You do feel a lot more,” Obav took a hold of the control yoke and activated the repulser lifts as the ship started to lift up off of the deck. There were two physical throttle levers next to him and he started to power up the one closer to her and the ship started to move forward. “The suit is a pressure suit and helps hold all of it in. It compensates very nicely for the drop.”

“Thats good to know.” TImia said as she looked over the displays trying to get familiar with them. She could see the power displayed that he had mentioned, and she watched how they shifted as Obav moved the ship around. She looked through the canopy and felt her heart in her throat, everything felt so close.

Obav started to increase power to the thrusters as they pulled out of the station and into space. Once they’d reached far enough away, he throttled up the thrusters and started to head for the course he wanted to run. As soon as they’d gotten far enough away from the station, he shut down the forward thrusters and powered up the impulse engines as the ship really started to pick up speed.

“I won’t be able to hit this course as fast or as hard as I’d like,” Obav explained. “How are you feeling about watching the readouts?”

Timia let out a breath and grinned as she looked over at him, “Doing good so far. It’s coming back to me.” she added as she motioned to the readouts. “Its like looking at a body's energy readings, just a different machine hmm?” she said. “It might be a good thing you can hit the course as hard and fast as you’d like, I may need a bit to adjust to the speed. I’ve been in shuttles, but this is crazy, space is so close.”

“This is a little close, but it’s not that crazy,” Obav chuckled, before shaking his head. “I’ll hit it fast, but not as fast as I’m used to. I don’t want you to freak out too badly. Most of flying this course is making quick adjustments and not losing your nerve.”

As he finished speaking, they passed a couple of blinking buoys and he came around to the start of the track and bringing the ship to a stop. He sent a signal that they wanted to run the course and a light shifted from red to green, before he punched up the impulse engines and started to sly down the straight away before hitting a hard turn where he had to drop speed and use thrusters to cut around it before punching up the speed again.

Timia felt pressed back in to her seat and she quickly gripped the consoles around her as she gritted her teeth. As he took the turn she let out a gasp and then a laugh. “Tell me, do you always try and thrill women with such danger?” she asked.

“That really does depend on the woman,” Obav laughed as they flew towards the first big obstacle on the track. It was a part of an astroid field that was always changing and made a challenging part of the track. “You seemed like one that would have fun with this.”

She spotted the obstacle and it made her mouth go dry, “I am, but I am nervous still. Are we heading for those damn asteroids?” she demanded. “Why the hell would they make something so unpredictable part of the course?”

“Because it’s a challenge,” Obav grinned and pushed up the impulse engines and headed very quickly towards the obstacle. “Why wouldn’t you want something like that to navigate through?”

Obav dropped their speed once they were close enough, to give him more maneuverability as he skirted past the first rock and increased speed as he started to head for a bigger rock. He made a face, before he flew close to the big asteroid with a grin. He darted around a couple more before they were out of the field and he started to head to the next part of the course.

Timia felt her head twisting and turning as each of the rocks flew by, she did her best to keep from gasping with nerves. Once they were through she let out a breath, “Obav? How many races have you lost due to obstacles?” she asked.

“Obstacles specifically? One or two maybe, it’s all about navigating them the best. When to cut speed and when to accelerate,” Obav glanced over at her and then forward again while taking in the heads-up display and the next few turns. “You can usually make up ground on other parts of the course.”

“I really meant more like… crashing.” she asked as she tried to pay attention to the readouts again. He seemed to know how to use the ship well enough that she didn’t need to give him much feedback. “I mean I know part of racing is the thrill of the danger, but I’m wondering how often that's happened.” she said.

“Crashes happen, they’re usually bad,” Obav laughed softly. “And I have never crashed my ship before. Bumped, scraped, dented, ripped off haul pieces and a broken cockpit, sure, but never ever crashed.”

“Same thing.” Timia grunted. She watched the screen wondering what could be coming next, “Not all pilots are into such things, why did you get into racing?” she asked.

“I grew up flying, fell in love with it. I took after my mother in that,” Obav said with a grin. “She worked for the local mining company flying different sorts of ships, every year we had a huge festival and we always raced. I helped work on the ship, even flew a second chair when I was old enough.”

She looked over and caught his grin. Clearly he was enjoying himself, and that helped her relax a little. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy this, but she didn’t do thrill seeking things that often, because she was always nervous in the middle of it, however she always loved it in hindsight. “I can understand that… I grew up raised by two doctors.” she chuckled, “Somethings come naturally.”

“You come from a long line of Doctors? That sometimes runs in families,” Obav replied, his antenna twitching a little as they came around another bend and started to head for the next obstacle. There were set of buoys close together scattered about and one had to fly through them and adjust for the next set.

The ship wasn’t going as fast as he normally would, he cut through the first set and went hard to port to hit the next set. There were ten total, set in different spots, some where higher and lower and the ship moved under his expert control as he moved through every set of buoys and managed to only almost hit one of them. They flew down a straight away and hit another hard curve, the inertial dampeners compensating for what they would feel.

She gritted her teeth and held on, watching the power fluxing as she felt a bit tossed around. The dampeners didn’t keep all of the force from her. After a few twists and turns she started to laugh again, even thought she was still holding on. “How fast do you normally do this?” she asked loudly.

Obav glanced over at her for a second before he looked forward again. They were nearly done with the lap, and he was honestly ready to head back to the station and get a few drinks. “Honestly, as fast as I can. I usually have a lot more power in the engines and run as hard as I can. Meaning second seat has a lot more to do to make sure we don’t die. A standard race is also thirty laps, so it takes quite a bit more management the longer the race goes.”

“It must take a lot of focus.” she commented. “I feel like that was thrilling, and yet I totally held you back.” she said. TImia looked at him, “If its safe… finish the lap as fast as you want to, I promise I can handle it.” she said with a challenging grin.

Obav just smirked as he looked over at her and then back at the controls, he dropped the internal dampers down to ninety percent power, lowered life support and put all the power he could into the engines before kicking it up to a speed he was a little more used to. The change was evident as the ship moved that much faster.

It didn’t take him long to run the last few curves of the course, before crossing over the finish line. He slowed down and signaled that they were leaving the track and started heading for the station at a slower speed. He could tell she had a good time, but was also not quite expecting how fast he took the rest of it.

Timia had felt the pressure, and it had made her light headed. She tried her best to breath evenly, but couldn’t make any more noise but a slight whimper. As he slowed down she breathed a little more easily but her body was certainly arguing with her. “Damn.” she gasped as she ran a slightly trembling hand over her hair and looked over at him, “How the hell do you get used to this?” she wondered.

“It’s an interesting system, when it runs at the lower powers you feel a little more because instead of running all the time at full power it charges up essentially a capacitor, that discharges to keep you from feeing the sudden acceleration or deceleration. More slips through, but I like it because I feel what the ship is doing,” Obav smirked. “At lower power levels it can get a little rough.”
.
“No kidding.” she said, “That was fun though. I’m not sure I could handle a full race. Just a few seconds like that was intense, 30 laps?” she let out a breath, “This was enough of an adventure.” she laughed. “I’m glad I didn’t eat more than I had earlier.” she admitted.

“You’d have a special suit, which does help,” Obav smirked. The ship was starting to taxi towards the shuttle bay they’d need to park in. “So, you still want to hang around me once we land? Maybe grab drinks?”

“Oh I think you owe me a drink after that.” she said with a smirk, “And you said you’d show me around, that includes showing me the good spots to get smashed in.” Timia said as she watched the stations shuttle bay get closer and closer.

“I supposed I did,” Obav nodded.


~~ TBC ~~