A Wallflower in Marine Territory

Posted on Thu Jan 12th, 2023 @ 7:55pm by Staff Sergeant Nathanial "Nate" Cusack & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Kiyara de Vos

Mission: Sojurn
Location: Marine Barracks, Deck F
2771 words - 5.5 OF Standard Post Measure

An engine room such as the one in the Atlantis could get crowded quite quickly and with the Raeilian engineers coming in and lending a hand Kiyara definitely felt a bit overwhelmed by the number of people coming in and out of the place. So they had picked up a priority repair somewhere else on the ship, hoping to get away from some of the hustle and bustle. With their repair kit in hand they stepped into the MACO Barracks. An area normally quite off limits to most Starfleet personnel, but today they needed something fixed and since most of their engineers focused on destruction they needed the help of an experienced mechanic.

The doors closed behind them and it took a moment to adjust to the unfamiliar place. It was definitely odd to have such a place in the small vessel, especially for someone intimately familiar with the crawlspaces and maintenance tubes. They looked at the work order and tried to orient themselves. "Euhm."

"I can't decide if you look lost because you are lost, or if you normally hold things upside down when you're trying to read them."

The tone, naturally flippant and so very sure of itself, carried the lilt of genuine amusement that was likely meant as some attempt at open-handed greeting. The culprit, a tall and currently prostrate marine with the sleeves of his unzipped uniform top tied around his waist, spoke from a vantage point buried somewhere beneath the foyer's main security terminal. He peeked to the side, eyes quickly scanning the full length of the unfamiliar arrival and grinned. "Need directions?"

For a moment Kiyara was petrified at the man, embarrassed at the fact that they were looking at the directions wrong. They ascribed it to the long working hours, the short nights, and the stress, but the truth was they hadn't a single clue as to how the marine portion of the ship was built. "No. I. Ehm. I think I've got it." Looking at the PADD right way up now they turned around, then around again before realising that the thing that needed fixing seemed to be in the direction where the mocking voice had come from.

"You sure?"

With a push of a foot, Staff Sergeant Nate Cusack scooted himself free of the cables and circuitry he'd been trying to tangle with and pushed himself to stand, wiping his hands on the backside of his uniform as he approached, still clearly amused.

"Because those were a lot of circles you turned and I don't remember us opening up a dance academy down here. Not that you'd make a bad enrolment prospect if we did." He winked. "Might even be tempted to sign up myself."

"Oh no, I don't, I can't. Dancing is not my." Kiyara walked closer to the security station. "Is this the console that's giving issues?" They saw the cluster of wiring and had to take a moment to regain their composure. Why would anyone think it would be a good idea to start pulling circuitry from a malfunctioning device.

"That's the point of lessons."

Despite the relentless twinkle in his eye, Nate turned his attention towards the terminal he'd been stuck under and gestured towards it with a sweeping hand. "Meet the current bane of my existence. Up until about ten minutes ago, it was insisting on opening the doors despite an absolute lack of necessity. I fixed that," he pointed out, nodding to the explosion of circuitry. "Which is to say, I pulled out everything until it stopped."

While there was a certain logic to his thinking it ultimately meant that he probably cost Kiya a load of extra work. What was probably a small electrical issue had now become a huge electrical issue, especially if the man hadn't been careful with the removal. "Ok." They walked around the desk and squatted down next to the exposed electrical board. There was a small voice in the back of their head that wanted to tell this goon that if he didn't understand something he should perhaps refrain from touching it lest he make things worse. "I'll just fix this and get out of your hair." Not that they'd ever had the courage to tell him that.

Within the boundaries of his specific lane, Nate was exceptionally competent. Had the terminal been any of the weapons or tactical armor in storage, or combat shielding, or anything to do with his actual job, then there wouldn't have been a need to call in outside help. He had some basic engineering, as much as anyone in his position was called upon to have, but this ship had its quirks and there was a degree of security to consider when doors that were meant to be secure decided to open and close at random. It served as his justification in any case, and though he'd been very thorough in ensuring that he left no stone unturned in pursuit of a solution, he had mostly managed not to damage any of the components. Disconnect quite a few of them, but not damage.

"Consider me here to help." He spread his arms outwards as part of the offer. "I've been known to take orders well." It was probably well enough that there was nobody else around to contest that.

"Hmh" Was the barely audible response to his offer of help. With the type of help he had been providing so far he'd only made things worse and now he was also looking over their shoulder, something that made them very conscious of the way they were going about fixing the issue. When they couldn't quite remember the schematics of this particular console they sat back awkwardly losing the balance from squatting down and landing on their behind. Pretending it had been the intention, they could feel their cheeks flush. Happy with their darker complexion covering any severe blushing. They started to look up the schematics for this particular security controller on their padd.

As if imbued by an innate understanding that it only made things worse, Nate said nothing at all at first, content to watch the engineer with all the intensity of a hawk studying its prey. There was no real inclination for it to be a discomfort, he was simply a man prone to investing time in figuring others out and there were definite waves of tension radiating from what he wrongly assumed to be a very pretty woman who seemed to find it impossible to make direct eye contact. His half-grin at her clumsiness didn't help matters.

"Nope, didn't catch that. Going to have to spell it out for me, I'm afraid."

The man suddenly talking to them again broke their concentration. "Oh. Sorry. Nothing." Kiyara wondered what exactly he had responded to, not always a hundred percent aware of the sounds they made under her breath as they engrossed themselves in engineering problems. They reached into the console to reconnect one of the removed connectors, it sparked, shooting a bit of electrical current up their arm. "Au!" Waving the hand in the air to make the tingling sensation go away. It wasn't the first time that happened, and it was unlikely to be the last.

"Careful there." There was just enough concern in Nate's tone for it to pass off as momentary sincerity. Several seconds was all it took to determine no lasting damage, however, and it took only marginally longer for his amusement to resettle. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that electrocuting yourself is probably not not going to fix our door problem." He studied Kiyara's face keenly, having already noticed their complete inability to look him in the eye. "You want to talk me through what we're doing here?"

Kiyara wanted to tell him that 'we're' not doing anything, that they wanted to do it by themselves. They'd also want to add that his hovering was probably what had distracted them enough to shock themself. "Reconnecting everything so that we can start to figure out exactly what's wrong. Can you please disconnect this thing from the main power?" They pointed over towards the nearby wall console that would allow Nate to redirect power away from the broken security station they were digging around in.

Nate followed the direction of his new friend's hand and huffed a laugh that ought to have involved a lot more chagrin but utterly failed to contain even an ounce of it. "Probably should have thought of that myself, huh?" Pushing himself up from a crouch, he jogged over and, flipping open the console, tapped several keys and then turned back. "That do it?"

"Would've saved a lot of trouble." Kiyara immediately tensed up, did they actually just say that? To a marine no less? They felt cold sweat starting to form in the small of their back instantly. "I didn't mean. I don't think. Sorry." They added in a blurt of words that was more messy than the bundle of wires in front of them. They used a tool to measure the current running through the system, something they should've done before starting work. Something they figured the guy pulling all the wires from their sockets would've done before starting aforementioned pulling. "Seems like that did it." They took in a deep breath through their nose trying to recompose themselves.

Anyone who knew much about Nate at all knew that the one thing he didn't often hear was any sort of apology. Most of the time that was because he wasn't deserving of one, and that may actually have still been the case here. Indeed, the novelty of it caught him off-guard, and despite himself, despite the amusement and bafflement of a personality wholly unlike those he was surrounded by on a daily basis, the marine found himself inclined to reassure.

"I'd say it's a fair enough statement. Must be time for me to brush up on some basics."

"Probably frustrations." Kiyara knew that people that weren't like them got irritated at electronics and computers that didn't quite do what they expected them to do. they were different in that whenever that was the case they took a step back and really took it as an opportunity to examine everything, piece by piece, bit by bit, sometimes digital ones. They savoured those moments. They thrived in it. It was one of the few times in a day that they felt truly empowered. It's why Damage control had been such a natural choice. As they continued to untangle some of the mess this marine had made of it they suddenly stumbled across something. "There it is." Without too much ceremony they yanked the offending piece of circuitry from the security station. "Transistor blew, started to short out the controls. Probably some security protocol kicked in closing the door, rinse and repeat." They handed the circuit over to Nate and pointed at the offending transistor. it showed very little damage, it was just bulging at all sides from the kick it would've gotten from some sort of feedback causing the short.

Whether he realised it was disconcerting or not, the bulk of Nate's attention had been trained on the engineer's features rather than the intricate work they were performing. Kiyara was right in that he didn't really have the patience for repair work, not for something as uninspiring as door mechanisms anyway, but he was more intrigued by the presence of someone he hadn't really met yet. Was that actually possible given their current circumstances? More than a lot of his squad mates, Nate was known for mingling. His regrettably brief tryst with Calanthe had introduced him to numerous crew across the ship but he didn't remember ever speaking with this one before. It made him wonder where she'd been hiding.

"Amazing how simple a job is in the hands of the experts." And because it earned him the very briefest of glances, Nate took the opportunity to wink. "Seems an easy fix though, any idea what caused it?"

"A surge, feedback, Monday morning edition transistor." They looked back over their shoulder and gave a non-committal shrug. There was not always a satisfactory answer to those sort of questions. "If it blows up again we'll have to keep digging." They slotted in a new chip and made sure all the connections were back in place before leaning over to the side. "Mind handing me that?" They pointed at a small screwdriver that was just out of reach.

Long fingers rolled the screwdriver closer before Nate was able to pick it up and flip it around so that he handed it to the engineer handle-first. "So, business as usual then unless we need to call you back?" It sounded admittedly a lot less complicated than the mess he'd made of it. "Not that you'd need a technical emergency to pay us a visit." Once upon a time, marine territory had been just that. These days, that was only starting to make the place feel empty. "What do you get up to in your down time?"

As Kiyara replaced the chip and made sure everything else was properly reattached they paused at the question. "What?" It took them a moment to process exactly what was being asked, it wasn't something they normally discussed with strangers, especially the ones associated with the MACO detachment of the vessel. They stopped their working altogether and looked at the man. "Why do you ask?"

Nate's eyebrows raised, more impressed than anything that he'd actually registered a reaction beyond polite indifference. "Isn't it something people normally ask of others when they first meet?" His eyes conveyed amusement, far more prevalent than any actual confusion. He leaned forward and dropped his volume. "Why, is it something scandalous?"

They looked taken aback by the implication. "No." Kiyara finished up their work with the affected chip and could now get back to reconnecting all the other stuff the Marine had disconnected. "I read. I like boardgames. I fiddle with electrical appliances." They summarised what kept them busy throughout the day outside of work.

Thoroughly amused, and just a little beyond being able to relate at all to past-times that involved a lot of sitting around for hours on end, Nate achieved the impossible for a moment and actually lapsed into thoughtful silence. It provided roughly enough time for the job to be mostly finished, at which point he had more or less sat himself off to the side with forearms rested on bent knees to watch.

Board games? Well, it's nearly poker.

"Well, I guess I inadvertently provided some entertainment then." Rolling to his feet, Nate dusted his hands off on his legs and then offered the engineer a lift off the floor.

It took a moment for Kiya to connect the dots there, "Oh. No. This is work. Obviously. I meant old timey stuff." It was difficult for them to explain. Something about the simplistic electrical devices from the early 20th to late 21st were an absolute blast to pick apart and put back together. It's something that they didn't have a fresh supply of out here in the nothing. "Anyway, I think you should be sorted to keep this door closed from any nosey visitors, like me." They gave a weak smile as they slowly got up from the floor and cracked some muscles in their back. Spent way too much time sorting through consoles' innards in the past few days. They yawned, "I should really get back..." there wasn't really anything for them to get back to but they figured the marine didn't really know that.

"Time to save the ship from other clumsy attempts to rip it to pieces, huh?" Fists rested against his hips, Nate regarded the nervous engineer for a couple of seconds longer than would have actually helped and then then dipped his head to instigate a parting of the ways. "Well, thank you for your help...?" He left the question hanging, a little late in the conversation to be seeking names but curious enough to desire one.

"Just doing my job." Kiyara completely missed the social cue that would normally prompt them to share their name. For a moment they felt a bit awkward but couldn't quite place the reason as to why. They turned for a moment before exiting the room. "Nice meeting you."

Nathan watched her leave, a slow shake of his head conveying amusement before he turned back to the console and huffed a laugh. "Rusty, Cusack. You're getting rusty."

 

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