A Cadet and an Enlisted Meet [Part One]

Posted on Sun Sep 25th, 2022 @ 9:52am by Petty Officer 1st Class Tia Smithy(Kosugi) & Cadet First Class Pallas

Mission: The Goddess
Location: Gladiator
1889 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Tia was hauling some scrap down the hall towards the maintenance lift, utilizing an antigrav unit. She turned her back towards the corridor making certain the unit made its way around the corner in order to not crash into something. It worked mostly until she felt her backside bump into something or was it someone.

"Gah! " Tia exclaimed falling forward and catching herself on the edge of the cargo area with her hand.

“Yikes!” Cadet Pallas called out as she jumped backwards after the impact. She worrie that she had just, again, run directly into someone. The fact that it had actually been Tia who ran into her didn’t fully process. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry for running into you.” Not yet having seen Tia’s face or collar, she didn’t know whether she was a senior officer or how to address her.

Tia managed to get herself upright, then slowly turned around. There was a flash of irritation in her eyes, more directed towards herself but could even be mistaken as glowering at the person nearby. "I am okay..." she grumped slightly feeling all kinds of embarrassed.

Pallas walked over to check to see if any of the scrap had fallen off the cart. “I’m Cadet First Class Pallas,” she introduced herself as she looked around the unit. “Glad you are alright, sorry for getting in your way…” she paused as she saw the way Tia was looking at her. “You sure you okay?”

Tia stiffened slightly, when she noticed who she had almost run over. It may have been a cadet but, the cadet was Star Fleet. . Her face paled slightly. "Er sorry sir, I hadn't seen you. Are you okay?" Standing to attention. "I didn't have my eyes in the back of my head opened, sir." for some reason making an awkward joke. Tia also saluted the Cadet. "You didn't, er weren't in my way."

Tia could feel her heart beating rapidly, "I am Petty Officer First class Tia Smithy, I'm in engineering."

Ugh, there it is, Pallas thought to herself. The moment she had been dreading had finally arrived: when an enlisted officer addressed her as 'sir' despite the fact that she still hadn't graduated. It was, in her view, an antiquated practice. Passing an entrance exam and three years of schooling didn't make her worthy of anyone calling her sir. "I did notice that about you, the absence of an extra pair of eyes, Petty Officer Smithy. It's nice to run into you," she said, hoping the bad jokes would cut through some of the tension. "If you can do me a favor of making this situation less awkward for me and relax, I would appreciate it. You didn't do anything wrong, except your job, which is apparently lugging scrap around. So on that front, we seem to have very similar jobs right now, and it would be pretty lousy of me to try to hold myself above you."

"Also, if you can do me another favor: instead of calling me 'sir,' can you say, 'Cadet'?" Pallas added on. "Everyone else does it, so it feels less awkward coming from someone who is actually a member of the crew, versus me, here on a Training Cruise. Oh, it will also help if, when you say it, try to say 'Cadet' like the senior officers do, so it sounds like you recognize that I am brand new and probably have no idea what I'm doing."

Tia looked even more perplexed. "Okay, I can call you Cadet. This just feels so weird." rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm actually a bit new to this crew too, and I am just trying to pull my weight around here. You see, I am on probation." Tia leaned down to pick up a couple of pieces that had fallen off the cart. "I've already gotten tossed into the brig for getting into a fight." looking towards Pallas, then placing the scraps back into the cart. "You know you could just call me Smithy okay? If that is okay S-" she huffled just a bit. She almost called the Cadet, sir.

Pallas laughed, and then looked at Tia. "Sorry, I'm not laughing at you, I promise. It's just that I also had a habit of getting into trouble at the Academy. I think maybe the senior officers who haven't read my personnel file might be surprised to hear that now, because I am trying to be very by-the-book and a good officer candidate. But when I was in San Francisco, I wasn't shy about getting into it with other cadets who were being jerks or harassing my friends. Earned more than my fair share of demerits and stays in the brig. So, I get being on probation." She helped pick up some of the pieces and restack them. "And I can call you Smithy. So, Smithy... who pissed you off enough to get into a fight? Let me help you with this." Pallas positioned herself on the other side of the hover cart, so that Smithy didn't have to look over her shoulder.

Once the pieces were back into the cart, and Pallas was in place, Tia began to move the cart once more. As they proceeded down the corridor, Tia gave a slight chuckle. "It was a marine who took a bottle I was drinking from, interrupting my conversation with Colonel Hayter. In fact the drink spilled down the front of me, which pissed me off. What started it was someone decided they wanted to pull me away from Colonel Hayter, guess they thought I was you know, making a move on him. Bad thing, the person grabbed my elbow. Without my permission. I just don't like it when someone gets all, handsy and I didn't give my say so. Next was when that marine took away my drink, I was already spoiling for a fight. These Trinity people just.. they just got my back up."

A rather thunderous expression clouded Tia's features, she pulled the cart a bit more harder, a she was beginning to feel the anger build up inside. A mutter mostly to herself, Tia quietly said, "Okay Spitfire, take it down a notch, you'll get your revenge."

"Yeah, if someone put hands on me without permission, they would likely get knocked out, too." She paused upon hearing the word 'Trinity.' "So... were you here on the Gladiator when the zealots attacked? That sounds horrible; I saw the Bridge when I first got aboard, it looked like it was in pretty terrible shape."

The cart paused in it's progress, Tia taking a moment to catch her breath, the breath that flew away at the question about the zealots. She turned to look at Pallas, "I wasn't here, I was on a ship that they had infiltrated. The USS T'sul." She rubbed her eyes fiercely with the back of her uniform sleeve, in order to chase the tears away. Tia resumed the movement of the cart, the two of them nearing the turbolift where the cart needed to go onto. "I watched the death of my comrades in Engineering, from a safe point, in a jefferies tube. It was sheer luck I wasn't there where they were bled dry." her voice becoming rather gruff. "Then-not being there when they set a bomb to destroy the evidence in Engineering."

The turbo lift door opened and Tia started maneuvering the cart inside.

Pallas reflected on what Tia was saying as they finished getting the cart inside. She stepped in after it. "Commander Kosugi had mentioned that the Trinity Zealots had taken over some other Starfleet ships, used false distress signals to lure others in. "It sounds... I've seen some stuff, where I grew up, but nothing like that. Torture, or something worse. Explosions, though, I know about those," she shook her head in disgust. "I am glad you weren't there, Smithy. I know, personally, that it can be hard to be a survivor. I wonder sometimes why I made it and not my...." She changed the subject. "So, you're an engineer? I think that might be where I want to end up. At least, that's what got me interested in Starfleet in the first place."

"They were draining the -"Tia stopped and went to the other subject and path that Pallas had offered. "I love engineering, taking things apart, putting them back together. I love jigsaw puzzles." Tia giving the command for the lift to take them down to where things could be salvaged. "It is very satisfying to work with my hands."

The lift dropping down, "So you said you are looking into going into Engineering, that would be fantastic. " Tia giving a genuine smile.

Pallas saw the way Tia's eyes lit up talking about her work. She felt hers do the same. "I'm the exact same way," she enthused. "Have been since I could crawl. Used to take apart abandoned viewscreens and washing machines--things we had before we got replicators, they, well, washed other things." She laughed at the idea, now, of washing things other than one's body, when everything could just be thrown into a replicator and reclaimed. "And then figuring out how they worked, fixing them, putting them together again. Yeah. Exactly. Nothing more satisfying than that. If you have a chance, you should swing by the fighter bay. Lots of things there to fix, since the attack apparently decimated the whole fighter wing. I'm sure Captain Verra would welcome the help." The turbolift opened, and the cadet stepped out first as they now pulled the unit out in reverse. "It's the first thing I learned about Starfleet. It was a Corps of Engineers ship that assisted us, in those early years when I was growing up. My faculty advisor at the Academy told me I should keep an open mind, though, so I am. Trying out all the departments. My first rotation is in Medical. There's some similarities there, putting people back together... they are not as happy if you try to take them apart, though," she grinned.

Tia giggled, "Yup, I don't see a person being willing to be taken apart and put back together." The doors to where the salvage area was at, opened, "Oh washing machines those are great and washing natural made clothing, the scent of clean laundry in the air being dried by the sun. On a warm summer day. That is simplicity in and of itself. Sure we can just toss things into the replicator but, it doesn't have the same sense of doing things by hand. Like weaving for instance, or sewing. Just, oh I don't know, just doing things by hand."

She moved the cart to the huge recycler in order to start putting the things into it. "Oh, Calissi, er Captain Verra. She was one of the people who inspired me to escape from the ship i was on. She spoke to me only for a moment when I was on that other ship, her and Doctor Svidi. I wanted to be on the ship they were from, so.." Tia looked rather furtively around, "I went awol from my other ship." giving a rather wry smile, and placing her finger against her lips.

TBC