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Day 04 [1324 hrs] - A Simple Turbolift Pitch

[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Mess Hall | Deck 13 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @EllenFitz
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Already her fourth day on the Theurgy and Via had seen more action than anything she had witnessed since she joined Starfleet. Baring the incident that put her on board the ship, the young pilot considered taking out a Klingon Battlecruiser with a fighter loaded out for a training flight to be the absolute highlight of her rather short career thus far. As a result, she celebrated herself by going into the mess and replicating a sweet treat, a milkshake, but not just any milkshake, Mr. Gozrop's famous triple hyperpacked, vanilla, strawberry, choco, coffee, milkshake with 5 times more milkshake, sugar, caffeine, per large cup than the double hyperpacked. It was something she shared with her friends back home. When she arrived on Earth she was saddened to see that none of the Mr. Gozorp's food products were in any of the replicator systems, probably due to the various Federation Drug Administration (FDA) warnings and disclaimers about the nutritionally them. It took her a good few months and dealings with latinum to get the replicator program and she had kept it with her ever since.

When she entered the mess hall it was packed. Too many people, not enough seats, and there was a line stretching as far as the entrance to use the replicator. After 20 painstaking minutes, Via managed to replicate her drink and leave with the intent to head back to her room to enjoy her cold drink without anyone bothering her.

|Turbolift|

She walked into the turbolift. "Deck uh...fuckin' whatever, you know my room." the machine chirped in acceptance and started moving. In the meantime, Via placed in some AUDOPODs (Earbuds) and started playing some music. In fact, she was so into it she didn't notice the turbolift shuttering with its lights flickering on and off briefly. It would stop a minute after on another deck seemingly to pick up someone else.

OOC: So I kinda added the turbolift stopping to pick someone up part as an opportunity to Cross to come in but I can change it if you have another idea :)

Re: Day 04 [1324 hrs] - A Simple Turbolift Pitch

Reply #1 –
[ Lt. Cmdr. Cross  | Corridor | Deck 10 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

His eyes darted back and forth as Cross studied the intel on the PADD held loosely in his hands. While his mind was on the task at hand, duty rosters and strategic planning, at the same time, it was wandering. Into the realm of reminiscing with Kai and Elro the night before and growing to know Cal more. The painful realm of missing Blue. And the distracting realm of Hathev’s breasts. Well, more than her breasts. More along the lines of the fact that he’d seen them, touched them, tasted them. Cross shifted his stance as he waited for the turbolift, hoping the physical shift would also work for his mind.

He was saved from further mental dwellings on his newfound sex life with the lift’s arrival. When it opened to reveal a lone woman listening to unheard music, dancing subtly to the beat, Cross contemplated waiting for another lift. He recognized her only from reading her file as he read every transfer’s file. Wix, Via. Ensign. Pilot. Nonstandard Starfleet behavior trends. These facts surfaced in Cross’ mind as he gave up trying to wait and moved to join the woman. The lift resumed its course moments later, and aside from the echo of her loud music playing over her earpods, the lift was silent.

Only when the lift shuddered to a stop, and an apologetic voice from engineering came over the com system explaining a reroute of power in the process due to some experiments gone awry, did the woman even seem to notice someone else was in the lift with her. Cross nodded toward her as he held the PADD by his hip.

“Seems we’ll be here for a bit. Hope those pods are charged.”

Re: Day 04 [1324 hrs] - A Simple Turbolift Pitch

Reply #2 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Mess Hall | Deck 13 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @EllenFitz
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As the lift stalled Via continued jamming away listening to her music. It was Lazpop, an iteration of various forms of pop that had developed from Earth and spread across the galaxy since humanity left its cradle. It was a rather popular form of music on her homeworld among the gangs and lower class. Sung in Federation standard and translated into thousands of other languages the music artists often retell stories (whether personal or not depending on the artist) of individuals who lived in the slums and fought in the gangs getting in trouble with the law and doing other illicit activities often using vulgar language and or describing scandalous implications. Some artists take stances against giant organizations such as Starfleet or Planetary governments, while others tell stories of how they got out of the criminal life and made something for themselves. Via was particularly partial to the latter but she enjoyed all of the genres for the most part. The beat and the use of synth sounds resonated with her the most if the words didn't

The young woman sang out loud.

"Yeah

Flyin' high as a Vulcan, hopped up on trillium, man look at that bitch fuckin' move

I got bars like latinum, richer than any Captain, ain't their nothin' you can do.

Cause I'm the top. Yeah, I won't never stop. Yeah.

Fuck Starf- wha- suddenly the connection cut out.

"What in the fuck? Stupid-ass headphones..." she took them out and started fiddling with them. She had them since she left her homeworld meaning they were about 6 years old. The only reason why she hadn't replaced them was because she used her own latinum to purchase the warranty which allowed her a free pair as long as she redeemed it. The only problem was that due to the Theurgy's disavowed status, Via never had the opportunity to send them, and even if she did the Theurgy seldom stayed in one place for long. Out of pride, she refused to use the replicator to just replicate a new one since she didn't want to waste her money. "Ugh...fuckin'...shoulda bought the GEN IXs. Fuckin'...cheap ass...huh?"

Via noticed that she wasn't on her floor yet...and she couldn't hear the subtle hum of an active turbolift. This meant two things...this was all a dream and she never actually took down a Klingon battle cruiser, or she was now trapped in a turbolift...ruining her plan to relax and enjoy her milkshake. When she turned around she jumped and lifted up her hands in a fighting stance in addition to nearly dropping her drink after not noticing Cross, a Lieutenant Commander, was in the Turbolfit with her. She could've sworn she was by herself. Maybe this was a dream.

"Shitballs! Why you be scarin' me like that! I was about to knock your ass back through the bulkhead. Who the fuck are yo-...ooohh...fuck." she noticed his pips. Not wanting to seem like she was a shrink she still affirmed herself. "Uh...well I still woulda...sir. Ahem..." she looked around for an escape route that didn't exist. "So...why is the dumbass turbolift takin' so long? It usually be takin' like 10 seconds or somethin...wait..." Via remembered watching an old holovid about a Starfleet ship being murdered by shapeshifting aliens and remembered a particular scene where a man was murdered in a turbolift in the exact same situation. Just to make sure it wasn't a dream or a shape-shifting alien Via walked over to Cross and gave him a fast and hard punch in the shoulder. The punch didn't go through him so he wasn't a dream or a shape-shifting alien according to Via. "Just checkin' if you were an alien or somethin'...or not real. I ain't remember seein' you walk in here...and we are in Starfleet." Via extended out a hand. "Dixiebee...or Via...my ass is kinda new so I ain't know many names yet. What yours?"

Re: Day 04 [1324 hrs] - A Simple Turbolift Pitch

Reply #3 –
[ Lt. Cmdr. Cross  | Turbolift | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

Cross couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows as the lyrics to the woman’s song echoed in the turbolift, the lilt of her singing dramatically shifting into an expletive. She’d apparently had the volume turned up loud enough to have not heard him enter and, when she turned and finally spied him standing across from her, her hands came up in a pathetic fighting stance—pathetic by his standards, at least. He knew next to nothing about her so she could prove more capable in a fight than her stature led him to believe.

Cross snorted at her claim to have knocked his ass into the bulkhead but kept his strong doubt at her capability to do that very thing to himself. At least for the time being. Her quick backtracking, awkward as it was, at seeing his pips only solicited another smirk and chuckle from the former hybrid.

“Good assumption,” Cross commented dryly, eyes moving from the place where she’d punched his shoulder back to her face, “But I’m very much real and as much as you may want the floor to open up and swallow you after that sort of introduction,” Cross observed her quick assessment of their lift, as if she were looking for the escape hatch, “I’m afraid we’re going to be here for a bit. There was a power surge from some experiments on the core and power was rerouted temporarily. While you were enjoying your song, a crewman informed me we had about twenty minutes to kill in here before things got moving again.” His eyes darted to the headphones, “It’s a shame the headphones are dead. I wanted to hear more of the song.”

Despite the amused sarcasm in his voice as he spoke, Cross was sincere in his curiosity, though he doubted the Ensign would believe him. He accepted her hand with a firm shake of his own.

“Cross. Tactical officer. How did you come by Dixiebee as your callsign?”

Re: Day 04 [1324 hrs] - A Simple Turbolift Pitch

Reply #4 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Mess Hall | Deck 13 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @EllenFitz
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"Huh? I know your ass didn't just ask me that." Via retracted her hand as her expression changed to one of caution. She like most pilots didn't pick her callsign. In fact, she was given it by people who playfully teased her for a situation she had got herself in during a training incident back during flight school. It was embarrassing at the time and still embarrassing now. She had no intention of telling anyone, especially non-pilots about how she got it. If they really wanted to know they could look into her rather long training record after scrolling past the huge list of reprimands and disciplinary actions first.

"Man we just met and you be askin' people about there who life and shit damn. Just suggestin', don't be askin' wolves there callsign's, that shit personal ok? Like shit, you gotta like get me really really really drunk...and pay me like 500 bars of Latinum to get my ass to tell that shit damn..." After her rant was over Via looked at the drink in her hand and groaned. "Fuck fuck fuck...what did my ass ever do? Why now? I am just tryin' to chill and drink my milkshakkke." the young woman wined and walked back until she hit the wall of the turbolift. She would collapse essentially onto the floor in despair, tucking in her legs and placing her face into her knees.

She lifted her head back up "Who's ass is experimentin' with the stupid ass warp core? Couldn't their asses...I dunno, pick another day or somethin'? I am tryin' to enjoy my break! I straight up took out a whole ass Klingon Dreadnaught! and Dreadnaught!! This mornin'!! You tellin' me I can't get one second to enjoy my milkshake, listen to some lazpop, and relax a bit? Ugh...I hate it here. I mean the Oneida was some shit but damn, I don't get a break here. Fuckin' paperwork and trainin' and paperwork and trainin'.  Fuck them paperwork. Just let me fly you know?" She sighed and sat there for a bit looking at her small audio devices in her other hand. "Man I was gonna have some fun...do you be listenin' to music? Ah, nevermind I know your ass don't. There is like no one cool here..."

Re: Day 04 [1324 hrs] - A Simple Turbolift Pitch

Reply #5 –
[ Lt. Cmdr. Cross  | Turbolift | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @ob2lander961

His eyebrows rose to nearly where his hairline would have been, had Cross had hair, at the pilot’s response to his question. He’d had to work with pilots before, and while they were often eccentric, never had any of them been quite THIS eccentric. Or belligerent to a higher rank. At least not outside a disagreement on how to fly a ship or achieve a mission goal. Making a mental note to read up on Ensign Wix later that day to see if she was really just THAT GOOD to excuse this type of behavior or if she was just THAT CONNECTED. For the first, Cross would be willing to allow some of the attitude to slide, though cautioning the fuck out of her to tone it down to an officer—especially one she didn’t know. For the second, Cross had his ways of making people regret their idiocy and cared not one fuck-nut for political connections. Especially not when it came to successfully running a ship like Theurgy in the midst of the fuckery they were dealing with and were likely to be dealing with for a very long time.

Cross chose not to respond to the pilot, verbally or physically, as she continued on her tirade, even going so far as to sulk in the corner. In a vague sense, her behavior reminded him of BaB, but it was very vague, and Cross doubted his lab “sister” would have given over to these types of emotional tantrums if she’d lived to this age. Between the two of them, Cross had been the more volatile one, with BaB being the more calculating and decisive. In truth, Cross had come to realize that much of his career path and demeanor now resulted from his sister’s sacrifice in the lab and his own sense of guilt at having frozen in the face of violence instead of acting like she had.

Turning to the control panel, Cross keyed in the necessary code to open a smaller panel just below the larger one. Cross had another code keyed in, resulting in the retraction of an overhead panel and an alert sent to engineering to cease turbolift movement on this line until he keyed in the safety code from another console within moments. The pilot continued to sulk behind him as he worked, commenting on the ship's lack of ‘cool’ people. Rolling his eyes at her immaturity only as he faced the console, Cross turned to stare at her after taking a steadying breath.

He opened his mouth to invite her to join him in the escape but then stopped. If she was going to continue to act like a bitch ass baby, that made him come across as the most emotionally intelligent creature around, Cross wasn’t certain he wanted her to join him. Shaking his head, Cross reached up and gave a jump, his hands grasping the edge of the open panel, his muscles contracting easily to hoist his weight up and through the hole. Hathev would undoubtedly find it amusing that there was someone with even less emotional intelligence than he, and if she’d never met Ensign Wix after his report, she would make a point to. Anyone “worse off” with emotional intelligence than Cross was always an intriguing find for the counselor.

From his crouched position atop the turbolift, Cross spied the entrance to a Jeffries tube approximately five yards above their present position. It wouldn’t be too difficult to climb the embedded ladder that ran the length of the lift route to the tube and crawl inside. He could see the number above the tube entrance, and after a quick mental check of the ship’s map stored in his memory, Cross noted that the tube would drop them on Deck 7, either near the junior officer quarters or the security center. Either way, it would potentially be a faster way out of the predicament than waiting on temperamental technology and cranky engineers—as they had sounded very cranky on the comm system.

Cross lowered his head back into the turbolift and finally spoke to Ensign Wix, “I’ve told engineering not to reactivate this lift route until I key in the safety code from another console elsewhere. A Jeffries tube five yards above us will take us to a hatch on Deck 7. I will go this route instead of waiting for the turbolift to resume. You are welcome to join me, or you may remain here lamenting the lack of cool people and choose to see the isolation as the much-needed break you’re complaining about not getting.” Cross remained crouched over the opening, waiting for her response. She’d likely need help up through the panel if she wanted to join, since she was shorter. But she could also be just as stubborn as he suspected she was and would try to insist on crawling out herself, in which case he’d let her. He was all for equality, even in stubbornness.

Re: Day 04 [1324 hrs] - A Simple Turbolift Pitch

Reply #6 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix | Turbolift| Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @EllenFitz
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"What?! Wai- Hey where are you goin'?" Via called after Cross as he climbed up through the turbolift external access hatch. She stood back up and went to investigate what he was doing up there, walking towards the opening and looking upwards. Cross poking his head back out caused her to jolt back and raise her hands for a fight mirroring their first interaction a few minutes earlier. "Shitballs! Why you keep doin' that?" She crossed her arms unamused. 

Cross took the liberty to explain what he was doing but after the young pilot took a whole second to process the Lieutenant Commander's words she still was quite confuddled with everything he stated.

"That ain- hey!" Via called after him again when his head left the turbolift access threshold. "Your ass really goin' to leave me here? I can't even..." The young woman tried jumping to reach the rim but kept falling short. If she had been in her exosuit she probably would've reached it but unfortunately, her shoes didn't have that much of a clearance.

She called out again, this time a tiny bit more open with her feelings. "Ughh! I ain't be complainin'! I'm sorry alright?! I am just fuckin' tired, sir! My ass got like no rest since I came here! I wasn't even sayin' your ass ain't cool...I be meanin' like...other people." 

Via truly didn't know what she said to make the Commander act all like that. True be told she was just guessing she let something slip out that made him upset, that tended to happen with a lot of senior leadership in the academy that didn't know her. She was genuine in her apology, however. She was indeed tired, needed a break, and didn't intend to call Cross 'uncool', but she also didn't want to be left alone in a broken turbolfit by herself.

She took a second to think about what else she could say to get him to come back

"Commander!! I think your bald head be lookin' cool!! Like I ain't seen no one that bald-headed in my life and so...uh good looking; I guess. Except maybe Picard, but your ass be lookin' cooler than him anyway! His ass is like old or somethin' and you be lookin' like uh... Well...my ass ain't know any good lookin' young bald people so... guessin' you're the first!" she said confidently.

"See! Super Cool!" She said with a smile
 

Re: Day 04 [1324 hrs] - A Simple Turbolift Pitch

Reply #7 –
[ Lt. Cmdr. Cross  | Turbolift | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @oblander

The abrupt change in demeanor and words had Cross inwardly laughing. How in the hell had this woman gotten this far in the Fleet? He supposed she just had to be that good because in all his years in the service, he’d never come across someone this…eccentric who didn’t have the skills to justify it. Settling himself on his hands and knees over the opening back into the turbolift, Cross watched as she seemed to war with herself before deciding on complimenting his bald head of all things.

Cross raised a single eyebrow, “Flattery will get you fuck-all with me, Dixiebee.” Hooking his legs against the edge of the turbolift, Cross lowered his arms through the opening, dangling his hands within arm’s reach of Via. “I know the people on shift right now, and if you’re tired, you’re going to want to come with me through the Jeffries tube. They’re diligent and effective, but quick is not a word I’d use to describe their efforts.” Wiggling his fingers, Cross raised both eyebrows, “You’ll have something else to complain about, at least. Change of scenery. It'll take us about ten min total to make it out on Deck 7, have a bit of a climb here, then crawl. If you stay here, I can guarantee at least thirty minutes of waiting.”


Much cursing, on both their parts, a few misunderstandings and awkward moments, and eventual acceptance (on Cross's part at least) later, and they were safely back in the ship's corridors moving in their separate directions.

FIN
 
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