 |
|||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||
A Mirror Shattered #187-188 - "Repairs, Both Technical and Emotional-=On=- After splitting up the various repair issues and taking her own list, Lt. Black found her first burned relay inside a console at the gym. "I haven't ever even been here..." she mused, stepping inside and looking around. She spotted the console and hurried over to it, shutting it down. She'd been tempted to set Evans on the same jobs as hers... but there were just too many little things to do.. she'd see him later, she reasoned. When she finally finished her list and went off-duty. Maybe she could get another hug. They seemed to fuel her day. Hannah stormed in, her eyes streaming with tears. She was going to beat seven shades of stuffing out of that punchbag if it killed her. She was so intent on her goal that she didn't even see the engineer, and tripped over her, sailing through the air, and coming to an abrupt halt as she hit the adjacent wall. Kitty was so intent on her work that she didn't realize she was in danger until she was tripped over! She was already kneeling down and couldn't go sailing, so she went sprawling instead with a squeak of surprise, tools flying everywhere. Kitty rolled and half-sat, looking around in surprise, and then realizing that the 'perpetrator' was worse off than she was. "Are you alright?" she asked, surprised and concerned. "Owww..." Hannah said, rubbing her neck. She sat up. "I'm ok...i'm sorry - i didn't think anyone else would be here." "We've had relays blown all over the ship," Kitty explained, gathering up her scattered tools. "I haven't ever been in here before." She took a moment to look at the woman and try to place her, finally giving up. "I'm sorry, I don't remember your name..." A 'real' second officer would know, she chided herself silently. "I'm Hannah...Hannah O'Driscoll, Chief Tac Officer. You're Lieutenant Black, right?"" Hannah recognised her from the information docket she'd been given on her arrival onboard. "Yeah, and you're better at this than I am," Kitty freely admitted. She turned back to the console, working on prying off the cover. "I thought I'd heard that last name before, but I don't for the life of me know where. I suppose it doesn't matter." "My father was Rear Admiral O'Driscoll" she said, resignedly. "Oh, ok," Kitty said absently, trying for a moment to remember who that was and failing. She picked up the wrong tool, smiled, put it back, and picked up another. "You were going to use the gym? Don't let me stop you, please... I'm just an engineer making a repair." She looked back at Hannah with a cheerful smile. "Yeah." Hannah said, unhappily. She wiped away the remnants of her tears. "Uh...yeah. Using the gym." Kitty frowned at the sight of tears. She laid aside her tool and turned, shifting so that she was sitting cross-legged on the floor, and set her full attention on the unhappy woman she'd practically just met. "Are you alright? I don't mean to pry..." "I just...I..." Words failed Hannah, and she burst into tears. "Aw.. I'm sorry..." What she was sorry for, she had no clue, and she hadn't much practice in comforting people. Still, Kitty had to try. She went to Hannah and patted her on the shoulder. "It's ok... just go ahead, get it all out... get it all out of your stomach..." It was a silly thing her grandmother used to tell her, when she awoke from her nightmares in tears. Hannah looked up, her face a mess. "I'm sorry...I'm...It's been a long day. Do you think I could have a hug?" She asked, feeling ridiculous. Kitty smiled. "As it so happens, I have an extra one today," she said, shifting to face Hannah and reaching for a warm, comforting hug, the best she knew how to give. And when you grow up with grandparents, you get plenty of practice. A weak smile returned to Hannah's face as she buried herself in the officer's arms. She pulled back after a moment. "Thank you." She said. "It's been a rough couple of days." "Yeah, tell me about it," Kitty said casually, sitting back, still facing Hannah. "And being in a completely different dimension or reality or whatever you want to call it... Doesn't help, does it." "Not so much. I found out that, in this dimension, I'm the Starfleet version of Judas. I betrayed the whole Federation, murdered my father, and then defected. Not the greatest thing to discover, eh?" "Ouch. Not at all." Kitty's eyes were full of sympathy now. "But, as I've been reminded... You are not that other person. If this is like most mirror universes that other starships have stumbled upon, this person might be your exact opposite. That would mean that you're as far from betraying the Federation as you can get, right?" Kitty smiled encouragingly and then gave a wry, short laugh. "But it's better than not being born at all, right?" she added with a slight bitterness in her tone. "I guess." Hannah smiled, wryly. "No traces of you?" "Nothing," Kitty admitted, and it hurt to say out loud, but somehow it felt better, too, to confess it to someone else who had been having a bad day. "I guess my existence was touch-and-go from the start. I don't know absolutely.. yet.. but I think that if I was conceived in this universe that I was probably aborted. I've been told I shouldn't think about it too much." "Oh, I'm so sorry." Hannah said. She smiled again. "You know what we need? Chocolate ice-cream, and lots of it." "Oh yeah, now you're speaking my language!" Kitty smiled at that. "But I'll have to wait that for later. I've got a whole list of stuff I still have to fix, and I'm starting to 'feel it' from yesterday. It'll be extra duty for me this evening, to get it all done before something Else happens." "Ouch." Hannah said, wincing. "Bad luck. I'd offer my help, but my engineering expertise stops at tweaking the phaser banks." STR - "I have at least 43 friends!" "It's ok.." Kitty rose and stretched, wincing. "Got all my engineers out there.. well.. except... uh.. anyways... yeah... and I've got some help from Ops as well." She couldn't prevent a soft smile that looked less silly than she thought it did. "Oh, Now I remember where I've heard that last name before!" She smiled triumphantly......"We fixed your console," she said brightly. "It was just a feedback loop. A little odd, but not entirely unexpected, after what this ship went through." "Finally, a bit of good news." She stood. "Right. I'm pissed off, and I'll swear that punchbag just looked at me funny. I'm going to go give it a piece of my mind." She grinned. "It was good to meet you, and I'll let you know about the ice-cream, ok?" "Deal!" Kitty chuckled, turning back to the console and continuing her repair. "If I'm off-duty by then, I'm definitely in!" "Thanks. Now, I'm off to kick the ass of an inanimate object." Hannah grinned. "Enjoy your repairs!" OFF Lt. Kathleen Black Chief Engineer USS Pegasus The One That Lived Lieutenant Hannah O'Driscoll Chief Tactical Officer USS Pegasus
|
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||