Needles in the Wrong Places

Posted on Sat Sep 27th, 2025 @ 11:13am by Commodore Elias McEntyre & Lieutenant JG Elen Rell

1,178 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Prologue
Location: Bridge, USS Guinevere
Timeline: 2388

Elen Rell, Engineer extraordinaire and certified chaos gremlin of knitwear, was on the bridge for once. It didn’t happen often. But when Commodore McEntyre’s little armrest console had decided to throw a sulk, she’d cheerfully volunteered to sort it. And by "sort it", that actually meant replacing five parts, swearing under her breath in two languages, and giving it a long, thoughtful stare.

She’d started the job while the Man Himself was off-duty, of course. You could nudge a bridge officer out of the chair, but never the Captain. That was a bit too much even for her.

Now she was kneeling beside said chair, the hum of a diagnostic running through the misbehaving bit of kit. She did a little heel-pivot on the floor, humming softly and just slightly out of time with herself.

There was a cheerful ping of completion. She grinned and reached over, placing the small knitting sample she’d been carrying into the chair for safekeeping, then leaned in closer.

"Oh, you’re a sneaky little thing..." she murmured, slipping into the chair and settling herself in with the sort of comfort usually reserved for big cups of tea. "But you’re working..." She assumed what she fondly called the Command Position, looking ahead, posture just so, then tested the panel with a few taps of her fingers. It was still in safe mode. No risk of launching torpedoes or triggering an emergency beam-out by accident.

"And there we go!" she said brightly, resetting the console and rising from the chair to gather her tools. "Good as new-ish. Bit of Martian repair magic, bit of Starfleet tech, and a whole lot of hopes and dreams," she added, mostly to herself, as she packed up.

The call came through her combadge before she could make it two steps.

“Lieutenant Rell, report to Engineering immediately.”

She tapped the badge and smiled. "On my way, as quick as the turbolift’ll take me," she replied, grabbing her toolkit and heading for the lift with a bounce in her step.

It wasn’t a moment later that Elias stepped off the other turbolifts as Elen was leaving. The morning shift arriving for duty. He walked over to the replicator on the one side of the bridge, ordered himself a latte and headed for his chair.

The rest of the morning shift got settled to their stations as Elias took his seat in the center chair, relaxing for a moment before the entire bridge nearly jumped out of their seats when Elias lets out a loud painful meow, nearly spilling his latte over his uniform jacket. He stands, turned around and sees it.

In his chair were a set of knitting needles sticking through a ball of yarn, half of what looked like a sock of some sort with what looked like ribs through it. The Large Caitian grumbled, picking it up, knowing exactly who left it. Sitting down, he pressed the comm circuit on his armrest with a little ding of activation.

“Lieutenant Rell, could you report to the bridge?”

"On my way, Commodore!" Elen’s voice came bright and clear through the comm, almost lost beneath the deep, rhythmic hum of the warp core. Definitely Engineering territory, and from the sound of it, somewhere far too close to the bit where things occasionally sparked without warning.

A few minutes later, she stepped onto the bridge, toolkit in hand, uniform straightened as best she could. Her scarf was wrapped securely over her hair today, a burnt gold that shimmered when it caught the light. Functional, but cheerful...the sort of thing that made her feel composed, even when her brain was running twelve different threads at once.

She approached Elias with a polite nod, glancing briefly at the chair before looking back at him with mild concern. "Sir?" she asked, voice calm but laced with just enough worry to suggest she was bracing for something. Her mind ticked over quickly. Had the fix not held? Had she triggered some internal override? Was there a new fault?

It hadn’t yet occurred to her that she’d left anything behind.

Elias just glared as he held up the bundle of yarn, socks and knitting needles in his palm.

“I found this as I was sitting. Unfortunate for you cause your needles done did poked me in my rear.” Elias said simply.

Elen froze. Properly froze. Eyes locked on the offending bundle like it had just betrayed her in public. Which, to be fair, it had. “Oh no,” she breathed, the words slipping out before she could stop them. Then, with the slow dawning of recognition...“Oh… that one.” Her lips pressed together, somewhere between a grimace and a guilty smile.

She took a cautious step closer, hands held out as if she were approaching a wounded animal. “Right...so....first off, terribly sorry about your rear, Sir. Wasn’t intentional. At least, not by me. The needles get...lively sometimes.”

Her eyes flicked to the rest of the bridge crew, clocking the fact that Alpha shift was now definitely listening. A faint flush crept into her cheeks but she managed a sheepish grin. “If it helps, you’re the first Commodore to wear one of my projects. Even if it was only for a second.” The silence stretched and she rocked on her feet, her hands itching to grab the offending item and stuff it under her uniform jacket to hide it.

Elias gave her... The Look TM .

Elen met the look. Held it. Felt like she might be better trying to burrow through the deck using the knitting needles. She swallowed, loudly. "Sorry, Commodore, won't happen in your chair again," she said instead, her heart beating hard enough she was pretty sure it was going to burst out of her chest and spray the entire bridge in crimson drops.

"Just try to keep the ship clean." He spoke like a father, a small smile on his lips.

She met his eyes and gave a nod, holding her hand out for the knitting. "Yes Sir," she said, the smile a bit sheepish. A finger twitched slightly but she kept herself still. She almost added especially if you're going to sit there but this was the bridge and a certain level of professionalism was required of Starfleet Officers. She tried to live up to it. Sometimes she failed.

Elias smiles softly before he waved his hand. "Just make sure to keep track of them, don't want any more wounded rears. Now go on, I'm sure Chief Engineer is wondering where you got off too

"Yessir!" Elen nodded and, holding her knitting to her chest like some sort of lost teddy bear, grabbed her bag and then headed out. Head held high, step even and inside....

Sort of wishing she could phase through the deck.


------
Commodore Elias McEntyre
Commanding Officer with wounded rear
U.S.S Guinevere

Lt. JG Elen Rell
Acting Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Guinevere

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