Fancy Meeting You Here

Posted on Mon May 6, 2024 @ 11:34am by Ensign Percival Vega & Ensign Zayde Park

871 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: One Giant Kaboom
Location: Lounge
Timeline: MD 02, 2015

Zayde had spent the last six hours crawling through the Jefferies Tubes, attempting to track down the source of not one, but two circuit burnouts and three EPS overloads. Luckily, the systems affected were nothing more than convenience; food synthizers and whatnot. Thankfully, the ship stayed at warp as they headed toward their main mission objective.

The lounge was moderately busy when Zayde walked in. He saw a few familiar faces from his time around the ship, though he hadn't yet had an extended conversation with anyone. He walked over to the bar, ordered a drink, and then waded his way through the crowd toward a high-top table near the viewport.

Percy was coming off an extended shift on the bridge, which was (a) pretty awesome and (b) also left him pretty hangry about the scheduling whoopsie that had seen him stuck theren after he should have been relieved. He decided to swing by the lounge to get a sandwich and a compensatory dessert. Looking for a seat, he spotted the back of a familiar head and remembered that he'd never mentioned his last-minute assignment change.

"Man, that was a long day," Percy said casually as he sat down across from Zayde.

Zayde was fairly sure that his eyes bugged out of his head. There was no way Percy could be sitting across from him; he wasn't even assigned to the Challenger. It took him half a second to finally pick his jaw up off the floor and form actually words.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm having a late dinner," Percy replied slowly. "The menu called it a Texas-style muffalo brisket sandwich."

Zayde resisted the urge to reach across the table and smack his best friend. "I mean what are you doing on this ship? You didn't tell me you were assigned here."

"What do you mean, on this ship? Did you hit your head? Fly a shuttle through a glowing space swirl?" Percy reached across the table and felt his forehead. "It doesn't feel like you've got the Arrakeen mumps again..."

Zayde swatted his hand away. "You were supposed to be on a different ship! I thought you were on the Atlantis or something?"

"Buddy, we are on the Atlantis."

Zayde stared at him. "You're not as funny as you think you are."

Percy smiled. "So I am funny, though."

For a brief moment, Zayde was almost annoyed that his best friend was sitting across from him. However, that thought passed as he soon realized that serving onboard the Challenger wouldn't be as lonely as he originally thought.

"I'm guessing last-minute assignment change?" Zayde asked.

"Yeah, just yesterday," Percy said. "And I nearly lost all my luggage except my carry-on bag because everything else still got sent to the Atlantis. Not that ensigns get much of a personal allowance but who knows how long my stuff would have been floating around if we'd left dock without it."

Zayde couldn’t wait any longer. He got up out of his seat and wrapped is arms around Percy in a fierce hug. “I’m so happy to see you!”

"I know, it's great, isn't it? We're on the same ship! We might get to be landing party buddies!"

“That would be so cool!” Zayde said, taking his seat again. “Where are you quarters? How do you like it so far?”

"You know, they're on the second ring of Deck Five, right next to the starboard impulse engines," Percy said, making a face. "Like, if I had a window, which I don't, it would look right at the coolant pump and the EPS transformer. Not sure how I feel about that. I'm pretty sure I can hear them buzzing in my sleep."

"You get used to it," Zayde said. "It's like white noise. I'm on the other side, right next to the port impluse engine."

"I guess if you've been there longer, you can be my canary and if you start glowing in the dark I'll request a room change."

“Thats what I like about you, your constant concern for my health.”

"Someone has to keep you from breaking your other leg."

“That’s only happened twice,” Zayde said. “And the second time was because you dared me to windsail and well, we know how well that turned out.”

"A Starfleet officer should take responsibility for his own actions and not blame peer pressure," Percy said, a direct quote of the nurse at the beach's first aid station.

“There was bone sticking out of my leg Percy,” Zayde said. “Lucky for you I no longer cave under peer pressure.”

"Hopefully your bones no longer cave easily, too. Anyways, you need to show me all the cool spots to hang out on the ship. Does it have a bowling alley? I heard they put a bowling alley on the Enterprise."

“I hadn’t heard that, doesn’t surprise me being the flagship and all,” Zayde said “But, I don’t think we have a full bowling alley, there are some lanes on the rec deck though.”

"Want to swing down there and see if one's free? Assuming I can trust you not to crush your foot or something."

“Sounds like fun.”

 

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