Chain Reaction: Part 1/2

Posted on Mon Apr 27th, 2026 @ 6:57pm by Lieutenant JG Elen Rell & Lieutenant JG Electra Drake

2,100 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Prologue
Location: Deck 14
Timeline: Early 2389

Elen smiled as she sat on the bench, with a bag full of yarn and crochet hooks. She had suggested that Electra took Lucy to join her here, on deck 14, rather than the mess or quarters. Less distractions, just the view of the nacelles. And it was nice and quiet here. Which...might be good? She wasn't sure. She knew she'd get distracted in Engineering and she could hear the warp core here. She picked up a crochet hook, spinning it between her fingers.

"Hello Elen," it was Lucy Drake who greeted her as they approached, the girl keeping close to her mother though, holding onto her hand. She wore a simple blue dress, her long red hair tied neatly into a half ponytail to keep it out of her face.

"Hello Lucy," Elen said with a warm smile, giving her a small nod she watched her. "I hope you don't mind this place...it's one of my favourite ones on the ship." Her eyes went to Lex, because she was briefly worried it had seemed like a weird place to meet.

"You like views with stars, don't you," Lex assured with a warm smile, giving the girl's shoulder a squeeze before lifting her to sit on the bench with Elen.

Lucy nodded almost shyly, biting on the inside of her lowerlip, her hands tucking into the sleeves of her dress. "I like the patterns."

"This one is my favourite...because you can see the nacelle too," Elen admitted with a small, almost shy smile. She reached for the yarn, holding it up. "Got what we need to show you how to crochet..."

Lucy's eyes widened with both hope and nerves, worried she might not be able to do it well. It was something the young girl struggled with, frustration at getting things wrong. "Is it hard?"

"It's..." Elen considered it, wanting to be honest about it. "It feels weird at first. Like...it doesn't fit your hands. But it's logical and I think you'll like that."

"I can try," Lucy looked to her with a serious nod, a slight stubborn set of the jaw coming into play.

Elen smiled reassuringly before she patted the bench. "All we can do is try. And practice makes perfect, I promise," she said before she tapped her fingers to her ankle. "I also replicated some...snacks. In case we get snacky."

"I only like biscuits..." Lucy replied softly, as if it were the most natural thing in the universe.

"Lucy Drake, you like plenty of other things," Lex nudged the girl's knee with a disbelieving laugh, seeing how she pressed her lips together to suppress a smile. "Ignore her, Elen, I can assure you, her diet does not consist of only biscuits..."

"I spent a whole year living on bread," Elen said as she looked at them, with an easy smile. "I mean, it might be because it was the Academy...and it was the first time I was unsupervised. And I may or may not have regretted it..." she winked, to Lex, chuckling warmly.

Lucy looked to her with wide eyes, as if she was beholding some kind of wizard. "Wow...."

"Don't get any ideas," Lex warned Lucy with an arched eyebrow, gently tapping the tip of her finger to the end of the girl's nose.

"Yeah, it wasn't my brightest moment," Elen admitted before she took a crochet hook out, offering it over. "Here...for you."

Lucy bit her lip as she took it, her fingers carefully feeling over it, learning the shape and textures. "The....hookey bit is so tiny...." she looked at it with one eye closed, as if trying to size it up.

"Well...if you want, we can get a bigger one," Elen said with a smile, her finger tapping her own, same-sized hook. "But bigger hook means bigger yarn...and it might get too big for your hands."

"Show me," Lucy said firmly, a little frown of concentration settling on her young features as she shifted up closer to see the woman's hands.

"Okay...so we start with making a slip knot, which is just an adjustable little hoop I can make with just my hands," she showed her how to do a slip knot. "If you pull this bit, you can see it tightens? So...I put my hook through the hoop..." she did it and smiled. "So now it is on the hook."

Lucy reached for a thread, trying to make the knot. Her little fingers were slow and awkward though. Her frown deepened...Elen had made it look so easy.

"You're doing well," Elen said softly, her eyes gentle as she looked at her. "You're doing it right. It takes a few goes." She repeated it, slowly, so she could see it. She was also breathing slower with it.

Lucy tried again, more slowly this time, following along. It wasn't perfect, but it just about held and she looked to her with a wide, hopeful smile.

"That's brilliant!" Elen nodded, her eyes shining with it. She undid hers simply by sliding it off the hook and pulling the shorter thread. "And that is how you undo it. Try as well, then we make another one." A few times, until she got it in her fingers.

Lucy nodded, taking her time to pull it out and then start again. She fell quiet, becoming absorbed in the gentle motion of it, the intricate twists and turns. "Like Jace and his lines..."

Elen's smile softened and she gave a small nod. "Just like Jace and his lines," she said, encouragingly. "He started small too. And we start here, every time...with this little slip knot."

"Jace couldn't do this," Lucy looked to her with sudden confidence on that much, her blue eyes remarkably serious for a girl her age. "His fingees are too big..."

Elen laughed, eyes shining at that before she bit her lip. She liked the confidence she poured into it. "He does have big hands, doesn't he?" she said playfully before she nodded with warmth. "See, you got it now! That's a perfect slip knot."

Lucy smiled shyly but with hope that she meant it, touching it with gentle fingertips to feel the bounce in the curve. "But this....is tiny...." she looked at Elen's cuff, trying to work out how it became like that.

"I used a smaller hook," Elen said and smiled, her eyes gentle as she offered her hand over so she could look. "But I am going to teach you those stitches. And then it becomes...practice."

"So...we do lots of these?" Lucy asked, trying to figure out how a line of squiggles became those perfect loops in Elen's crochet.

"Well...no..." she said and smiled, taking her hook and the yarn. "Now, we are going to do a chain...and we do that by picking up the yarn with the hook...and pulling it through the loop." She demonstrated slowly, so she could see it.

Lucy bit her lip with concentration, committing the demonstration to memory. She took her own hook, trying it out, but she struggled to pick the wool up on the other side with the small hook, and a soft growl sounded in her throat.

"Breathe," Elen said and breathed slowly, loudly, before she nodded. "Okay, what I used to do was...a little...twist..." she held her hook so she could see, how she wound the wool and then twisted the hook, so it caught it securely, before pulling it through the hoop to make one chain stitch.

Lucy watched intently, matching her breathing, even letting it out in the same loud way before copying the slight twisting motion. She carefully caught the wool with the hook, pulling it through slowly, as if she was afraid the fish might get away. "Got it!"

Elen grinned, nodding as she looked at her. "See! Your first chain stitch! Now...we do more. I think...twelve. Let's do twelve. Nice number."

Lucy nodded with determination, going back to her wool to try again. She was painstakingly slow, her tongue coming out with concentration and her brow furrowed like an Engineer at work. It took an eternity, but finally. "...eleven...twelve...."

"Perfect," Elen said and looked at it, nodding with approval. "You got real good tension...which is how you hold the yarn. Not too tight, not too loose...see?" she let her finger touch it, going over the chain. "All even."

Lucy glanced to her face, smiling shyly as she wrinkled her nose with the praise, her shoulders hunching. "But....it takes a long time..."

"Yes...it does, at first," Elen said with a warm smile, nodding as she watched her. "And just like everything else, you get quicker. I promise. But slow and steady is best, if you ask me."

"Like the tortoise...?" Lucy looked to her mother with question, to make sure she'd understood right....and then giggled when she saw the encouraging nod, making a play at pulling her dress collar up, as if hiding her head in it like a tortoise. "Tortoises are herby-vores..." she offered the fact with warmth.

Elen smiled, watching her with awe before she let out a breath. "I've never seen a tortoise," she admitted, almost shyly. "Not for real, I mean."

"I went to a zoo," Lucy smiled softly at the memory, looking to her mother with shining blue eyes. She hadn't let them leave until she'd seen every single animal...it had been a very long day. And no need for the engine to get to sleep that night.

"I've never been to a zoo," Elen watched Lucy with awe, shaking her head. "I am very impressed." And she was. She glanced over at Lex before she looked back at Lucy. "I think you're ready to learn how to do a slip stitch!"

"A slip stitch?" Lucy repeated slowly to learn it, scratching her head with confusion as she blinked. This was getting serious, fast.

"It's...a silly name for joining the two ends," Elen said as she looked at her. And then she smiled. She could see she was reaching a certain level here. "It'll be the last thing today. And then, you can practice the three things you've learned."

"Show me," the girl said firmly, holding her hook and yarn ready, her jaw set with stubborn determination.

"Okay, so this is like...closing the airlock," Elen said and took the start of the chain. She pushed the hook through the first stitch she had done, then pulled the yarn through both that and the last loop on the hook. "There. A join...it's called a slip stitch. But to me, it looks like...it's slipping on its favourite jumper."

Lucy's frown deepened, not able to understand what she saw. She gave a soft 'hm' noise, shaking her head shortly.

"Not to worry," Electra's hand went to her daughter's hair, stroking slowly and firmly in a soothing motion, but not a hurried one. "Just watch again."

Elen nodded and undid what she had just done. She did it again, slowly, pausing at each little step, to help it sink in. She had time. She had all the time in the world to do it, again and again. She undid it and did it again. "Into the first stitch...pick up the yarn...pull yarn through...pull through again..."

Lucy nodded along with every action, almost as if learning the rhythm of it rather than the skill itself. She finally tried, needing a couple of goes at it, but finally, with patience and a lot of growling, she managed to do it.

"That's it!" Elen smiled, nodding as she watched her with shining eyes. "Now...I think that is good for today..." she glanced at Electra before she reached for the bag she had brought, opening up the snacks. "I think we deserve a snack for that. And you can practice that at home and then next time...we do it again, and then go onto the next bit."

"Okay," Lucy agreed seriously, meaning it as she carefully put it down. She reached for a cracker, trying it carefully before giving a small smile of approval. The young girl looked around thoughtfully, her legs swinging slightly with it before she reached under the cushion on the bench, pulling out the metal plaque that Jace had engraved and left there.

To Be Continued...


Lieutenant JG Electra Drake
Counsellor
USS Guinevere

Lucy Drake
Civilian Child
USS Guinevere

Lieutenant JG Elen Rell
Engineer
USS Guinevere

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