Communication Translation Part 1

Posted on Wed Jul 1st, 2020 @ 6:55am by Ensign Alexandra 'Lexi' O'Connery & Lieutenant JG Mattias Constantine

Mission: Mission 3 - 100
Location: Deck C
Timeline: Day 30, Month 2, Year 0 20:00
2314 words - 4.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Lexi looked at the stuff she was carrying and frowned as it left her no way to press the door chime. She wore civilian clothes as she wanted to relax as they working on the translation in their own time. It was only simple leggings and a tee with trainers but it meant she could not even kick the steel door to alert him. "Oyi Mattias!" She finally resorted seeing no way to let go of what she was carrying without toppling the tray.

"You again?" Matt's words dripped with the friendly sarcasm that the two communications officers had grown accustomed to using around each other. He did his best to hide the fact that her shout had startled him from the granular work of disassembling the Vrav translator. The thought of venting some frustration by snapping the finicky micro-scanner he was using for the job had begun to cross his mind more frequently, so the distraction was welcome. Doubly so because it came in the form of one of his closest friends on the ship.

"Oh, I totally get it," he nodded as he walked over to the door to take one of the boxes out of Lexi's hands. "You might relate to this - it didn't matter how much I inconvenienced myself, but I was always hellbent on getting all of the shopping into the house in one trip. It didn't even matter if two trips would be faster. It's an ego thing, right?"

"Yes, but your quarters are two decks from mine. This seemed easier and you so handily came when yelled. I and Leroux have obviously trained you so well." She said back with a grin as he took one of the boxes and set it down on the floor pulling out some tools, PADDs and more importantly the snacks she had gathered at dinner time. "How come you got a nicer quarters than me?" She wondered looking around at the exact same layout and fittings as her own contemplating.

"Cause I tidied the place. Just for you," Constantine deadpanned as she looked on. He could only imagine the expression she was using as she watched him rifle through the box. "Ooh, snacks! Lexi, where the hell did you get these? These are the real deal, not the algae replacements. Have you been holding onto these since we left Earth?"

"My quarters are tidy thank you very much, Mattias." She murmured back sitting down at his desk with a grin looking at all the bits and boss he had hanging around. "Yeah. I gave them to Leroux when it all started and I came back a few days ago from a shift and found them on my desk with a note." The woman shrugged a little. It was the little things, she had been saving them for when she needed a cheer up or something but there was no time like the present in her mind now seeing them were out there for the foreseeable future.

"Now Lex', I'm going to preface this with saying that I know it's going to sound snarky, but I don't mean it too, okay? That was genuinely very thoughtful of you to give them to her, and I'm glad the kindness was repaid," Mattias turned serious for a moment. Stories about the little acts of kindness that transpired between members of the crew struck an emotional chord with him. "Sorry for getting all melancholy on you," his usual easy-going grin returned to his face. "Shall we get to work disassembling this thing? Let's break some shit."

"It was for the crew." Lexi said simply and moved to sit down on the bed stretching out her legs as she looked at the device and notes she had. They had been asked to gather anything food like to keep them going as long as possible and that was all she had done. She appreciated the sentiments but she did not like seeing his smile turned upside down. "You break I note." She muttered trying to think on stuff properly. "I saw it working which is more frustrating." The translator had worked but it the escape it had been damaged.

"Right, then, here goes nothing..."

The headgear adorning Mattias's head was bulky and spectacular all at once. Dimmable, diffused lighting surrounded what appeared to be a set of oversized goggles equipped with a series of magnifying lenses that could be placed in front of each other by means of a manually operated mechanism. This had the effect of making his eyes look preposterously large in the frame of the lenses, and to make matters worse, he didn't do himself any favors by comically sticking his tongue out of the side of his mouth. Matt looked over to where Lexi was sitting and pulled a face to try and get a laugh before picking up a small, universal screwdriver and turning his attention back to the translator.

Lexi smiled at the comedy he was trying to being back to the room after his little series moment. She appreciated the ice he was trying to re break but she had thought nothing of it. The man was her buddy and she had seen him in the last six months at his best and worse so it did not matter, she still had his back. "Hilarous Matt." She commented before turning

Piece by piece, Constantine disassembled the Vrav designed translator as the camera built into the contraption on his head documented the process. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he recalled one of his professors at Vanderbilt telling him that certain designs were universal across all species, galaxies, and times. If something needed to roll, it invariably contained a spherical or circular component. Triangles were found in places requiring rigidity, and strength. And when the design in question was a handheld translator, something small and portable with the ability to "listen" and "speak" seemed to fit the bill.

"Ah, there we go. Look Lexi, it kinda reminds me of the solar cell power sources we used to power small electronics. There's some organic residue in what I think is the power bank. Maybe they figured out some kind of way to use photosynthesis from the algae and the light from their star to power things. Anyway, look at this thing," he held up a small, rectangular shaped apparatus with a specialized forceps. "Dollars to doughnuts this thing is the memory unit for the translator. The secret to their language is all in here, I'll bet you anything you want."

The woman clambered off the bed and walked over. "Solar cell power how quaint." She commented on before smiling at what he was betting. What was it with people and wanting to bet stuff at the moment. "Okay betting man what would you like to bet on it?" She offered to play the game he wanted. They couldn't bet much but it would be fun.

"Okay, if I win - ooh, let me think about it for a second," Matt scratched his chin, looking up towards the corner of the ceiling for show. "Oh, I've got it. If I win, you've got to write the departmental reports every day for a week, and you've got to dust the entirety of the communications station on the bridge with a paintbrush. What do you want if you win?"

"Oyi," Lexi said with a poke on his shoulder as he suggested her bets. "I have been doing the department reports most weeks anyway. Those should be yours." She laughed trying to think of her own punishment for him. "I am at a loss of what to make you do." She admitted with a shrug as she tried to think on it but she was drawing a blank. It was impossible to think of something that would be tame when she had grown up with four brothers.

Mattias feigned a serious shoulder injury, recoiling and sliding his chair back across the floor as if he had been tackled by someone or something much larger than him. He amped up the drama and flailed to the floor, taking great care to not damage the visor on his head or any of its attachments.

"Yo Lexi, you've been working out girl! You gotta warn me before you go throwing your weight around like that," Constantine grinned from the floor before slowly peeling himself off of it and plopping back into his chair. He changed subjects just as quickly as he stopped acting. "I don't know. I'm a big boy, I'll take your bet regardless," he smirked.

Lexi watched mortified for a moment as the man flailed around. She wanted to nudge home again but that almost seemed like it could have made things worse or created more acting from him. "You really need to create a drama group onboard." She commented with a roll of her eyes as she changed back to normal. She was starting to notice the flicks between emotions and wondered what caused them. she was not able to click a switch and change.

"Sorry Lexi, I was just having a bit of fun," Mattias replied sheepishly before sliding his seat back up to the table and returning to work on the translator. The device that he suspected as the memory unit had no visible fasteners, but instead appeared to have a seam running around its perimeter. Rather worryingly, there was only a single connector emerging from the nondescript box. Taking a small prying tool, he carefully split the case open, revealing the contents within.

"Really? Really?" Matt moved aside so that Lexi could see. "Who puts two batteries in a handheld device?"

"Batteries?" Lexi moved so she was closer over his left shoulder so she could see what he was doing. "It must draw so much power." She considered not at all surprised really as the energy it took them sometimes to translate would be needed for a device as well. "You sure you were not an engineer in another life?" She wondered.

"No, but my dad would thank you for saying that. He was a lawyer by trade, but his true passion was tinkering. Appliances, gadgets, robots, toys, you name it," Matt grinned as he reminisced on old memories. He removed the apparatus on his head and carefully placed it on the table before reaching for a picture frame. "I miss them all so much. That's my mom and dad, brother Peter, and my sister Natalie. I wonder if I'll ever get to see them again."

Lexi took the photo from him and touch the figures gently and looked at him smiling. "You look like your dad but you have your mother's eyes just like Harry Potter." She teased him just a little. "Your family look so happy." She added before putting it back on the desk in the same spot that he had, had it mere moments before. "I bet you miss them but just remember no matter where you are in the universe you have them right here." She put her a cross over her heart.

She was right, of course, but Mattias still had to fight back a wave of emotion as he gazed at the photo. It seemed like only a few days had passed since he had celebrated his assignment to the Atlantis over dinner with his sister in San Francisco. There was no doubt that after two months of zero contact, the missing starship had already been the focus of the media spotlight. Search and rescue efforts would have been launched in vain. Even with the Vulcan's help in the search, Starfleet would slowly arrive at the conclusion that the Atlantis was lost.

I'm right here, Nat. I'm right here! Mattias willed across the lightyears. The expenditure drained him. He genlty leaned his head over on Lexi's shoulder, an action only made possible by the fact that while seated, Matt was only a few centimeters shorter than his friend.

"You're right, Lexi," he spoke softly. "In spite of all of our technological advancements and accomplishments, only love has the capability to traverse all of time and space. I think deep down my family knows. The people you love know."

"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive." The woman said as her hand went instantly to his head and played with his hair for a moment in compassion and comfort. "They will know that Matt. You are lucky that someone out there will miss you." The woman barely spoke about her family or lack of but at the moment she felt that perhaps she was a lot luckier than everyone, it did not hurt as much.

Matt closed his eyes for a moment, savoring the feeling of having his hair played with. He resisted the urge to just melt in place, which was his natural response to the aforementioned stimulus. With his brain short circuited for a brief moment, Constantine was in a vulnerable place, but he felt more content and relaxed than he had at any other point during the last two months. He wanted to linger in the moment, but in the back of his mind, he knew that the shadow of the Vrav grew longer and longer the more he remained idle.

Finally, he pulled away from Lexi's shoulder and smiled at her. He didn't have to say anything, which was convenient because he felt as if anything he said would be an incoherent mess in his state. Constantine's sense of duty pulled his attention back to the translator, which laid on the table in its disassembled state, completely immune to the emotion in the room.

OFF::

Ensign Mattias Constantine
Communications Officer
NX-05 Atlantis

Ensign Alexandra 'Lexi' O'Connery
Comms Operator
NX-05 Atlantis
(PNPC Leroux)