-=On=-
[USS Pegasus]
Kitty was rather surprised to find, when she awoke again, that she was
feeling more tired and sore than when she'd gone to bed. Then again,
she'd gone to bed on an emotional high, glowing with the excitement of
that first kiss, and she'd probably overworked herself while she was
supposed to be healing up the day before.
She took a moment to think about that day. The passage into this other
universe, the radiation, waking up in Sickbay, the lost engineer, the
date, the discovery of her 'lack of other self', the kiss... The kiss
was nice, she mused, brushing out her hair and putting it up neatly. She
secretly anticipated just getting to see him again.
In Engineering, Kitty soon realized that she had a long and busy day
ahead of her. There were reports of a destroyed terminal in one crew
member's room, an alien fightercraft in one of the bays, and minor
electrical damages throughout the ship. She began assigning projects. "We won't deal with the nitpicky things, redundant light bulbs and
whatnot. We don't know how long we're going to be in here, and we don't
want to run out of parts because the secondary thermostat for the brig
burns out each time we get into combat." She took on several of the
projects for her own list. There was more than enough work for everybody.
By lunchtime, Kitty was already tired out and mildly frustrated at all
the things that weren't working. She was having bad luck with her tools,
one of the spare parts she had turned out to be already dead, and she
had fallen behind on her list. She had been eating snacks throughout the
morning and wasn't hungry yet for a proper lunch. She was feeling sore,
as if she'd by far overexercised the day before. For a moment she
considered looking for Evans, sending him a 'hi message' or.. well,
something.. but she hesitated. She didn't want to seem like she was a
stalker or anything, she reasoned. She didn't want him to wonder if
she'd 'ever leave him alone'. But then she saw where she was, near a
certain cargo bay, and she thought of something that would be nearly as
cheering for her. Not quite her boyfriend's reassuring presence... but
it belonged to him, and that did make a difference to her.
Kitty stepped into the cargo bay and wandered into the corner, where an
ancient-looking hulk had been deposited. She walked over to the front of
the car and figured out after a moment how to lift the hood. She peered
at the various parts with interest. "I'm going to learn about all of
this," she said quietly, fascinated, following with her eyes how this
big thing connected to that little thing, which connected to that thing
over there... "I'll understand how you work," she told the old car. Then
she examined the driver's side door for a moment, making sure the handle
was not in fact meant to trigger explosive bolts before trying it.
The Chief Engineer sat herself down behind the wheel of the silent hulk
and adjusted the chair until she could sit comfortably. She looked
curiously at a button on the wheel, glanced around, and then touched it.
After all, it wouldn't do anything, right? This thing wasn't "on". To
her surprise, the car horn sounded, echoing through the cargo bay,
startling her. She blinked a couple of times and glanced around
guiltily. The cargo bay seemed deserted. She relaxed and turned her
attention back to the wheel, moving it a little, remembering old movies
she'd seen. She began to picture what it would be like, zooming along so
close to the road... the roar of an ancient engine instead of the simple
hum of an modern ground vehicle. "Vroom...." she said, moving the wheel
back and forth. She giggled a little. "Vroom.. vrooooom..." Somehow, in
some inexplicable way, Kitty felt better.
"Vroom, vroom... Eeeeeeeerrrrrrrr..." The wheel made a hard right turn."Vroooooom..vroooom..... vroooooom.... Eeeerrrr" It was a left turn,
this time.
"Vrooooooooom......"
-=Off=-
Just asking to be unexpectedly caught by the owner of the car:
Lt. Kathleen Black
Chief Engineer
USS Pegasus
The One That Lived
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