Home Fires and Such

Posted on Sat May 11th, 2024 @ 6:16pm by Ensign Mercy Mourne & Ensign David Kipling

Mission: Contagion
Location: Corridors of Atlantis
Timeline: Day 369
2485 words - 5 OF Standard Post Measure

“But…this one should be there…and that one should be here,” David explained to the Engineering crewmember who was working with him.

“I don’t get it either, sir,” the crewmember confirmed. “The GNDN lines are supposed to be down there in the floor section and the polarity lines should be up here…in the bulkheads,” he went on, gesturing at the open sections of the bulkhead and deck.

David nodded and looked at the work order on the PADD again. He had confirmed that they were in the right area at least a dozen times; another glance at the location on the work order reconfirmed it.

“Either way…we have to adjust the polarity lines. The Armory guys are telling us that the hull plates are polarizing as quickly or efficiently as they should,” David reasoned.
He was about to go on when he looked up and noticed Mercy coming around the corridor.

Mercy blinked and then let out an embarrassed laugh as she stumbled to a stop. “Oh sorry! Didn’t mean to disturb you all. I uh…” She glanced down at the PADD in her hand, which had a schematic of the ship’s layout on it.

“I was just looking for a window.” She glanced back up and then for the first time seemed to register who exactly was in the corridor. “Oh! Hey Kip! How’s your day going?”

“Hi, Merc... uhm... it’s been a bit confusing, to be honest,” David said, his voice tinged with a hint of frustration. He waved his hand at the open deck plate and bulkhead, as if to illustrate his point.

“But, that doesn’t matter now - which window are you looking for,” he asked, peering over the edge of her PADD.

“Maybe I could help,” he offered.

Mercy looked at all the exposed wiring and shook her head, a bemused look on her face. “Confusing? Yeah it looks… well no offense but that looks like a real mess.” She rubbed the back of her neck then held out the PADD so he could see it more clearly, pointing to one of the windows towards the front of the ship.

“I’m looking for this window here. My calculations tell me that in about 20 minutes, on our current trajectory, it will have the most direct line towards home. I… ah it’s a bit silly.” She rubs her nose, trying to hide her blushing face from the other engineers she didn’t know as well as Kip. “I think it’s supposed to be on this deck, but the schematics are really basic, and I’m not sure I’m reading them right.”

“Oh - Merc…give yourself some credit! You’re almost there,” David said with a smile. He stepped around a pile of tools and looked over her shoulder at the PADD.

“We’re here,” he started and then pulled his hand back. He quickly wiped it down the side of his leg, just in case, and then pointed at a junction on the map.

“You just have to follow this corridor along to here,” he explained, tracing his finger along the route but just above the surface of the PADD, “until you come to this four-way junction here.”

“Take a left, follow that to the next junction, and then take a right, and voila, you’re there,” he said with a smile. He glanced over at Mercy to make sure she understood.

Mercy gave Kip a grateful smile, she chuckled when she noticed him wipe his hands. “Trust me this PADD has seen worse than a little grease, you should see some of the gunk and oozes we get in the labs.” She then looked in the direction that Kip pointed, and back to the schematic.

“Wait lemme write that down, I was with you up to the end of the corridor and the four way junction. Did you say take a right there?”

David chuckled and started to correct Mercy’s retelling of the directions. Then, he got another idea.

“Hey, guys—I’m going to take Ensign Mourne here to her observation window. Can you handle things for a bit?” he asked. Each crewmember looked up from their various tasks and nodded or waved their compliance. Seeing this, David turned to Mercy.

“Easier to take you there, if you don’t mind me encroaching, that is,” David explained sheepishly. He felt the color rising in his neck and face. He nervously looked around and busied himself with putting some tools back into a case, hoping the menial task would get his mind off of blushing.

“Oh! Really? That would be great actually. You wouldn’t be encroaching at all, really. Thank you, sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt your task.” She sends an apologetic wave to the other crew for holding things down. Once David had gathered all his tools she gestures in the direction he had indicated before. When they had taken a few steps away from the others she looked over to him. “You sure I’m not going to get you in trouble?”

“Oh - they’re a good group. I can come back in a little bit and keep going,” David explained. He glanced over at the PADD Mercy was holding, making sure they were headed the right way. He had a knack for directing others but had gotten lost by himself already.

“So, if you don’t mind the question: why this window and not, say, the observation deck,” he asked as they walked along. As they walked along, they passed the odd crewmember but for the most part they had the deck to themselves.

Mercy relaxed a little knowing she wouldn’t be getting her new friend in trouble. “That’s good. And I don’t mind any questions really. It has to be this one, because it will be facing the right direction at the right time.” She then reached into her pocket and pulled out a bulky item. I laser pointer attached to a spindly, telescopic tripod, usually used for taking exact measurements in the field.

“It’s Crater Day, the anniversary of the day that Tycho City was first established. It probably doesn’t mean much to most people. On Earth I doubt it is more than a passing annotation in the history books. But my family has a tradition. In about…” She checked her watch as they walked. “In 15 minutes time, my family will be sitting down to share a meal together. They will start by sending a thought to all those who worked hard to make the Moon a home. Then as they eat, they go round the table and…” She paused as they came to a small window. Looking down at her pad and then back to David with a grin.

“This looks like it, yes?”

“See? You didn’t need me, after all,” David said, smiling. “Found it all on your own!”
David looked out the window at the star field. The ship was moving at warp, so the stars were little more than streaks of light, but the view through the small window was still amazing.

“Never gets old, does it,” he asked, not taking his eyes off the stars.

“They what?” David asked after several silent moments. He turned and saw Mercy’s face flash with confusion.

“Oh…your family tradition…you were at the part where they have the meal,” he gently exclaimed, hoping the cue would jog his friend’s memory. “I love hearing about other people’s family traditions!”

Mercy laughed, clear and bright. “Not at all, you saved me wandering around for hours. Thanks Kip.” She then got to work, which involved setting up the tripod and measuring laser pointer. She aimed it at the window and then checked something on her PADD before adjusting the angle slightly, when it was done she took a step back and shot Kip a smile.

“It’s pretty spectacular, no matter how fast or slow we go.” She looked out at the window, in particular the direction the little beam of light was going. There was a small reflection of the red dot on the window. She cleared her throat a little, trying to get rid of the sudden lump of emotion.

“We take turns, go around the table and share a hope for the year.” She reached up and placed her hand over the dot. The laser simply transferred to the back of her hand. “My grandmother would always have something to do with her garden, my mother with her work. The boys, Simon and Wooly, would try and pick something to outdo each other, my youngest sister Vicki would always surprise us, and I would always say the same thing and make everyone groan about how boring I am.” Instead of seeming annoyed she had a fond smile on her face, reflected in the glass of the window.

Mercy drops her hand and then quickly pulls up a complicated formula on her PADD. “Where are you from Kip? Do you have any family traditions?”

“I come from Idaho…Hailey, to be specific. Just south of the Sawtooth National Forest,” he explained.

“We…uh…have,” he started and then broke off unexpectedly. He suddenly seemed very interested in his boots on the deck plating. He tried to go on but instantly regretted it; he knew he couldn’t trust his voice. It was a lot, not knowing. He had a family…but they were in a whole other universe.

“Sorry,” he mumbled after several moments.

He cleared his throat and sniffled quietly…

“We had this tradition, around the holidays, of having a huge family meal. Everybody brought or made something. Tons of food…all homemade…and when we were old enough, Dad would break out a batch of mead that he’d made. We’d spend the night remembering how fortunate we were..” David said, pushing through the raw emotions.

“I don’t know anymore, though…” he said, trailing off.

Mercy took a moment to check something, and then adjusted first her calculation and then the laser. The movement was infinitesimal to the human eye, but to Mercy the accuracy mattered.

“There you go, this universe’s Idaho, or thereabouts. With us traveling so fast I am probably off by a micro millimetre this end, which with the distances we are dealing with could have landed me in Ohio.” She then steps back so Kip could step closer to the window if he wanted to. She then looks at Kip a moment, before leaning towards him and giving his shoulder a quick squeeze.

“Some days the distance feels like a physical pain you know?” She said quietly. “I’m sorry if I prodded a bit of an open wound. Must be worse considering…” She trailed off, not sure what she could say that would soothe the ache for him. There was no way to resolve it that she could think of, so she just squeezed his shoulder a little tighter. After a few moments she dropped her hand and broke the silence.

“If you were there now, with all that food and maybe a few cups of mead in you, what do you think you would be grateful for?”

David smiled and nodded at the squeeze. He looked out the window for a moment, gathering his thoughts and quelling his emotions.

“I’m thankful for Atlantis, both of them,” he said, chuckling.

“I know it sounds trite, but I am,” he continued, looking back at Mercy.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever see my family again. I wrestle with the notion of researching if this universe even has a David Kipling. I’ve come to the conclusion that finding them and introducing myself, if they exist, wouldn’t be fair to either of us. So, for now, I’m thankful for this little nucleus of a family right here,” he said, spreading his arms out to encompass the ship’s bulkheads.

“Thanks, by the way,” he said.

“I didn’t know I needed this,” he said, pointing at the laser pointer and tripod. He smiled and then replicated his new friend’s action - placing his hand between the beam and the window so that a small dot showed up on his hand.

Mercy gave a sympathetic hum. “You’re welcome.” She smiled softly and looked out the window, she tucked some of her messy hair behind one ear, although it fell back into place almost immediately.

“Thank you for coming with me. I was half worried this would make me feel even more lonely, but it’s better with company. Maybe we should start some new traditions on board? We could have a crew dinner or something? Bring a taste of home all the way out here?” Mercy let out a small laugh.

“Could even see if the cook would let us use the kitchen, although… not sure I know how to make mead. Might be hard without the honey.” She grins at Kip and shrugs.

“Yeah…we could do that,” David said slowly. He took his hand away from the laser beam and promptly jammed it into one of the pockets of his uniform.

“We don’t have to have mead…that was my dad’s thing,” he explained, brightening to the idea.
“I don’t know if I could find the ingredients for my world-famous noodle salad,” he said, smiling. He started mumbling to himself and ticking off ingredients on his fingers.

“Do you know if the cook carries soy sauce or rice wine vinegar,” he asked, stopping mid-recipe. Before getting a response, David continued to recite the ingredients from memory.

“Radishes…gotta have those too,” he said, mostly to himself.

“Thanks, by the way,” he said, suddenly stopping the recitation. “Thanks for making it a little easier.”

Mercy was just happy to see David get excited about the idea. Whether or not they had the ingredients, they would make do. What they ate didn’t really matter, it was the act of bringing people together and cooking for each other that would have impact.

“No idea, but I am sure we can figure it out. I’m sure we have substitutes if not the real thing. Will be fun, maybe we can be each others guinea pigs if need be. Not just so I get food cooked for me.” She wiggled her eyebrows teasingly and then quickly packed away her tripod.

“Of course, and same.” She nodded at him, folding up the telescope. “Thanks for just… you know, marking it with me.” She shoves the compact device into her deep pockets and then grabs her PADD. She then walked him back to his dismantled panels and chaotic wiring before ducking her head and heading towards the labs to return her borrowed laser.