Teacher Und Pilot

Posted on Sunday June 11th, 2023 @ 4:18pm by Lieutenant Karina Sakaguchi & Lieutenant Commander Erika Itsumi

942 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Deep Space, somewhere near Risa
Timeline: During the events of "Shore Leave"
Tags: Shore Leave, 2395, Introduction

Having sorted out her reassignment to the Poseidon with her bosses, Erika had boarded a transport headed in the direction of Risa. Unfortunately, the transport could not take her all the way there, as it was running a tight schedule, and they were instead going to drop Erika off at a scheduled Rendezvous point, where a pilot from the Poseidon would meet her and bring her the rest of the way there. Commodore Paladin promised Erika that the pilot he was selecting for the assignment was one of the best.

However, as the transport neared the rendezvous point, Erika had received word from the captain that the pilot was running late. When Erika asked if there was any chance that the transport could wait at the rendezvous, she was told there was no chance, as doing so would throw off the transport's schedule, and Erika would be dropped off at the rendezvous to wait for the pilot in a shuttlepod.

Once the shuttlepod was clear, Erika watched the transport go to warp and sigh. As the minutes ticked into hours, Erika periodically checked her chronometer to see how much time had elapsed, as she would be making a note about the delay to the Poseidon's flight control department.

"Whoever this pilot is, they're clearly no expert on time..." Erika grumbled following one such time check.

A Danube Class Runabout dropped out of warp. It had clearly run into some sort of trouble, that was evident from the scorch marks along the hull, the flickering nacelle pylons and a few minor plasma leaks from the impulse reactors. Frankly the little Danube looked like it had been flown through the upper atmosphere of a gas giant or had been attacked by something en route.

At the helm of the Runabout sat a young Lieutenant. Slowly the runabout began to turn and head towards the rendevous point. "Runabout Sumida calling Lieutenant Commander Itsumi. Come in Itsumi"

"Itsumi here." Erika responded. "You're late."

"Sorry about that..." came the response. "I hit an Ion Storm en route. I've been having trouble with the engines. Standby for transport..."

"Well, better late than never..." Erika mutter to herself as she disappeared in a transporter beam.

When Erika rematerialized, she was on board the runabout, having gone from a seated position in the shuttlepod to a standing position on the runabout's transporter pad. Stepping off, Erika made her way to the cockpit to find a young looking officer with short brown hair at the controls.

"And you must be Lieutenant Sakaguchi." She said, announcing her presence on board. "Must have been some ion storm you hit back there..."

"Class Six" Karina said with a smile. "Took a beating, but I got out of there alright."

"Is that a bad thing?" Erika asked as she assumed a seat. "Forgive me, I was Security before I started teaching, and if I'm going to be this 'mobile commandant' that Commodore Paladin wants me to be, I'm going to have to broaden my knowledge of other fields."

"For a starship, a class six would be a minor inconvenience. For a runabout, its much more dangerous" Karina explained as her hands glided over the smooth control panels. "Oh and yes, I'm Lieutenant Sakaguchi" she introduced herself finally.

"Lieutenant Commander Itsumi." Erika responded. "Though you probably already knew that, given how you were the one tasked with picking me up."

Karina nodded. "Well make yourself comfortable. Its a twenty eight warp flight to Risa from here. We're stuck at warp three until I can get the engines fully repaired" Karina told her. The runabout turned in space, and jumped to warp. The controls showed the runabout to be progressing at a steady warp two point three.

"So, twenty eight hours with not much ways to pass the time..." Erika muttered. "You play card games, Lieutenant?"

"Not really..." Karina admitted. "Plus, I've got repairs to do. You can help if you know anything about engineering?" she asked.

"I would, but I'm no engineer." Erika said. "So, I suppose that means I'm finding ways to pass the time by myself. Unless you want to show me how to conduct repairs?"

Erika knew the irony of her proposal, what with a Lieutenant teaching a Lieutenant Commander repair work. But, if she was going to be dealing with Engineering cadets, it might not be a bad thing to know some of what these kids were learning.

"You don't know how to conduct basic repairs?" Karina asked raising an eyebrow.

"I worked security before teaching at the Academy." Erika responded. "The only basic repairs I know are on phasers and brig forcefields."

Karina simply smirked at the Commander. "Well, you can cook dinner whilst I sort out the runabout systems" she said. Karina then unzipped her red tunic stripping down to her crop top undershirt and shorts. "Its easier to get into the crawlspaces like this, I'm really small so my uniform is baggy and catches on things," she explained.

"So long as the replicators are functioning, that shouldn't be an issue." Erika said. "Any particular food you fancy? Or allergies that I should know about?"

"Not that I know of..." came the muffled response from the young pilot.

"Well, I hope you like wiener schnitzel and sauerkraut then." Erika smirked. "Because I am in a mood for German food tonight!"

"Sounds OK..." Karina replied. "As long as its tasty I'm down!"

"Alright, I'll go ahead and let you know when the food's ready." Erika said before heading to the replicator to order dinner.

Posting by

Lieutenant Commander Erika Itsumi
Chief Cultural Officer

Lieutenant Karina Sakaguchi
Assistant Chief Flight Control Officer

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