A little humour never killed nobody

Posted on 08 Apr 2018 @ 7:24pm by Lieutenant Junior Grade Eira Cortez & Lieutenant Commander Rafe Cassidy (Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War)

Mission: Ne Me'e Laua Na Paio - Heroes & Villains
Location: Main Shuttle Bay
Timeline: Prior to "On Patrol"

ON:

There was something about the shuttles that fascinated Eira. Fair enough, she'd never been confident enough to learn how to fly them, but the way they worked just amused her to no end. She knew of this one guy who actually spent more time with his own shuttles than his wife and it ended up in divorce, but that was ages ago, and Eira smiled at the memory of it. Walking through the shuttles, she failed to see someone working on one of them and was caught by surprise at the voice.

"I'm not here to screw with your maintenance schedule," Cassidy assured a beleaguered mechanic. "I'm just inspecting them myself. I'm sure they're up to spec. Look, it makes me feel better and I'll talk to your Chief later, right? I won't be underfoot." This looked to be a lie, as he returned with his toolkit to the examination of the shuttle's manoeuvring thrusters the moment the mechanic was gone.

Or he would have, had the movement of a passerby not caught his eye, and he glanced up to spot and recognise Cortez. At once he raised his hands, still holding an isolinear spanner, wearing a lopsided smirk. "Uh oh. Wasn't me, I didn't do it."

Eira looked blankly at him and tilted her head to the side, "I know you from somewhere. Where do I know you from?" She quickly racked her brain to think of where she knew him from, but to no avail. "Keep your hands up and someone might think you're guilty of something too." The sarcasm was layered on thick.

"Me? Guilty? Never." The response was more sardonic than sarcastic. "And you don't recognise me; I'm hurt, I truly am, I thought I had one of those faces." Cassidy sighed and lowered his hands, not that this was any indication he was taking their run-in more seriously. "Beta Antares Shipyards? I was the dashing test pilot on the Zenith Impulse Development project? You were... well, I'm not sure what you were doing, but it's usually a good idea to keep track of an officer in a grey shirt prowling around your posting, Lieutenant Costa." The error sounded like an oblivious mistake, not a tease, as it was delivered with a hint of smugness that he'd remembered her name. Even if he hadn't.

"Costa. Well that's a new one.. I remember that project but I don't remember who was on it." Eira leaned back on one of the shuttles, the cold steel sending a small shiver down her spine. "As for remembering you from just your face? No clue. How do you remember me?"

"Some sort of briefing." Cassidy shrugged, and tossed his tool from hand to hand. "Project security, that sort of ridiculous paperwork of keeping secure information private, etc, etc. I'm Cassidy, by the way, Rafe Cassidy, and that's funny, me as the pilot having the better memory -" He stopped himself short, and squinted at her, visibly deflating as realisation sank in. "Your name's not 'Costa', is it."

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner!" Eira responded sarcastically with a smile. "It's similar, but not quite.. it's Cortez, Eira Cortez. I'm on board as the Chief of Intelligence now."

"I get half a point for one syllable correct, right?" While he didn't sound indifferent to his error, he hardly looked mortified as he shifted the isolinear to his left hand and extended his right to her. "Chief CONN. I just like to make sure I know our shuttles inside and out, because it's me they'll call on to fly them into something really dangerous."

"Haha, maybe a full point." Pushing herself off the shuttle, she reaches out and shook his hand, letting it linger for just a moment too long. He actually had a decent grip, she liked it. "Just how dangerous are we talking about, hmmm?"

His grin went lopsided. "If we're trekking towards Gorn space, we're going to need to play hide-and-seek to not bring the whole fleet down on our heads. So I think any nebula or gas giant might look like a good hole to fly into, for starters. We'll see what it comes to." Cassidy shrugged. "So what does a spook do on a ship like this? Or is it far less exciting than I'm imagining, with a lot more paperwork?"

"I would tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." Eira hid the discomfort she felt at the mention of the Gorn with a dead straight face before laughing and smiling. "I've only been on board a short time myself, and most of that has been in confinement for an incident between myself and one of the security guys. So I wouldn't know?"

His expression suggested he'd been at least a little fooled by the gag, but then his eyebrows raised. "Incident with security, huh? Already making friends and influencing people in leaps and bounds, I see. What happened?" If he'd picked up on her discomfort, it wasn't clear.

"Simply put: I don't get along with Klingons... He was human but raised in a Klingon family. I called him out on the human side and he didn't like it." Eira shifted weight from one foot to the other. "So what's your story then?"

The crooked grin returned. "I grew up on mining stations; I get antsy if I'm not in space. Oh, being a test pilot's all well and good for flying, but you're not going anywhere, you know? It got old after a few years, and even if piloting a fat old Sovereign isn't my idea of a challenge, at least we're headed someplace." His expression flickered. "Someplace with a war didn't used to be the plan, but the Gorn aren't just going to pack up and go home without someone making them."

"I'm honestly a little bit apprehensive about this whole mission. I've got a bad feeling about it..." Eira grimaced at the thought of it. Changing topics, "Maybe you could take me up in one of these one day? I've never been the most confident person when up in the air."

He watched her at the topic shift, eyebrow quirking briefly - but he didn't push it. "Space and atmosphere are very different. Atmosphere's got everything fighting to make you fall out the sky, space has got everything fighting to make you drift off forever. Though I get that's not a whole load of reassurance as a distinction, huh?" Cassidy's grin turned apologetic. "Sure, when we're out of enemy space, or at least once there's something interesting to see out there, I'll take you for a spin in one of these buckets." His hand slapped affectionately on the hull of the shuttle.

Eira smiled a genuine smile for the first time in ages. "That sounds like a pretty good plan to me. But as for now, I'll let you get back to work and I'm going to go maybe get something to eat. You know where I'm located, both during and outside of work, so I'll see you around."

The grin returned. "Yeah. I'll be around - here, the bridge, anyplace interesting. It's not like there's an easy time dodging people when we're all cramped in on one ship. So, bad luck there." Cassidy hefted the isolinear spanner and jerked a thumb at the shuttles. "I'll get back to these little ladies. See you around, Costa." But he winked, obviously joking about his earlier gaffe, and turned away to go back to crawling up the underbelly of the smallcraft.

Eira bit her tongue in an attempt to not retaliate and narrowed her eyes and spun around the walk off in a bit of a huff. She liked him already, what the hell.

OFF:

Lieutenant Rafe Cassidy
Chief Flight Control Officer

Lieutenant (JG) Eira Cortez
Chief Intelligence Officer