Just...hit it a few times...

Posted on Sun Sep 28th, 2025 @ 2:20pm by Lieutenant JG Elen Rell & Major Jesse Moriarty

2,601 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Prologue
Location: USS Guinevere
Timeline: Early 2389

The corridor to the Federation Ground Forces quarters had a different feel to it, like walking into someone else’s rhythm, or trying to dance to a song everyone except you could hear. The walls seemed a touch more utilitarian here, the lighting a fraction sharper, as if efficiency itself had set the tone. Of course, that wasn't true, it looked the same as the rest of the Guinevere, but hey it was part of the impression she had. Elen’s boots clicked softly against the deck, in uniform...sort of. Mostly. The cuffs she had crocheted weren't regulations, neither was the knitted scarf she used to tie her hair back. It swung with her curls as she moved.

She had never really ventured this far into their territory before. It felt a little like crossing into another department’s workshop uninvited. She knew the ship was one crew, but the subtle shift in atmosphere made her aware she was somewhere with its own heartbeat, one she did not quite know the measure of yet.

The repair request in her hand was simple enough: sonic shower not working as expected. In her mind, that translated to sparks, because why else would someone call an engineer? Sparks, maybe a strange smell, possibly a noise that made you question your life choices. The sort of job that could be quick or could eat an entire afternoon depending on what she found.

And there was the extra factor. This was for the XO of the FGF Detachment, a man she had yet to meet. Which meant she was about to walk into someone’s home space, toolkit in hand, and try to fix something while hopefully not tripping over their personal habits.

She hummed to herself, slightly off key, her hand tapping her leg as she made her way to the right set of quarters. She rang the chime and shifted her grip on her toolkit.

The door opened, Jesse Moriarty standing on the other side having opened it himself. His dark, slightly curled hair was tied back, but had the appearance of being damp. He wore climbing pants and a grey vest that stuck to his torso with the same dampness. "Engineer?" he nodded, and suddenly realised how close he was in his sweaty state. He backed up, motioning for her to come inside. "The sonic shower is playing up. With terrible timing, of course."

She looked at him with an easy smile, nodding. "Yep," she said and stepped in. If she was reacting to how he looked, she didn't show it. Actually, the fact he had clearly worked out was secondary to how does he get away with his hair like that followed by I wonder what he was doing. Gym stuff? FGF stuff? Aerobics? "Elen Rell, chaos goblin of Engineering, creator of wearable fashion and lucky for you...Sonic Shower Whisperer. Sierra Sierra Whisky," she winked, her eyes shining with it.

Jesse just blinked as he watched her in silence for a long moment. Chaos...what? Wearable fashion...how? He cleared his throat, folding his arms across his chest as he took a deep breath to bide his time. "I need you to fix it, not serenade it."

"I can do both, Major," she laughed, catching the blink and tilting her head. "Right, come with me and tell me exactly what the problem is.....unless I can guess." She was already walking towards the bathroom, toolkit in hand, curls swaying against the scarf at the back of her neck. "Sparks? Funny smell? Noise that makes you question your life choices? Or is it doing that thing where it feels like a small herd of tribbles is stampeding over your skin? I had that once...sonic shower that felt like that, not actually a small herd of tribbles." She glanced back with a quick grin, clearly expecting him to follow.

He did, falling in step behind her without realising he was doing it. "It's not doing anything," he corrected firmly, sighing with exasperation, tugging his vest away from his skin, but it stuck back to him the moment he let go.

"Ah, that one," she said with a knowing little hum. "Well, it not doing anything at least tells me something." She crossed to the unit and set her toolkit down with a soft clink, fingertips brushing the wall as she studied the panel. "Could be the Harmonic Emitter Grid. Or maybe the power relay’s sulking." She crouched smoothly, flipping the latches with a flick of her fingers. "Honestly, Major, sometimes these things get a feel for their users. Maybe it’s staging a protest." She looked up at him with a flash of a grin, her hazel eyes more green in the light. "What did you do? Talk sternly at it? Scowl in its general direction?"

"I just tried to get in it..." Jesse replied firmly...before considering it for a moment, tilting his head before looking down at the sweaty state he was in. "Did it gain sentience and point blank refuse?"

"I mean..." Elen looked at him, then shook her head with mock seriousness. "I think we're okay. If the Guinevere had gained sentience, she’d tell me. She knows I love her..." She shot him a wink, already leaning in as she popped the panel open. "Okay, let’s see here..." She hummed lightly, fingers hovering over the internal grid before selecting a tool from the kit and easing it into place. "So..." she said, half distracted by the work, half focused on him. "You like it here so far? Despite the shower’s behaviour? Maybe it is an FGF model. You should’ve ordered it sternly to behave." She glanced at him then, reaching out just slightly with that quiet part of herself, the not-quite-Betazoid sense that drifted more by instinct than design.

Armour made of flint, not just for sparking, but for creating fire.

She eased back from it gently, folding the sensation away into the part of her that knew not to press. Her smile softened, as did the light behind her eyes.

"I'm...not sure I should tell you," Jesse replied honestly, trying to relax but finding it difficult when he knew he looked such a mess. He awkwardly folded his arms across his chest, as if that could disguise it.

"Okay, not asking you to dish dirt..." she said, her voice light as she looked back at what she was doing. Her hands kept moving, fingers steady and sure, the small clink of metal against casing offering a kind of rhythm to her thoughts. "Just...how you’re finding life here. And you can say you hate it."

She leaned in slightly, adjusting a tool before continuing, "I had this friend, hated being on ships. She'd always want to be planet-side...and I mean like real planets. She didn't like colonies either..." she paused, frowning faintly in memory. "She always said it was space sickness, but truthfully? She liked comfortable things. Colonies? Apparently we don't do comfort, we do utilitarian survival and, if we're lucky...industrialism in the name of the Federation..." she glanced his way then, a quiet chuckle escaping her. "I'm from Mars. I can say that."

"I'm not sure you can," he replied lightly, but with no rebuke, clearly not bothered despite his words. "No, I mean...to be honest? All ships are kind of the same to me. Which seems like a bad idea to say to an operations officer," he clarified, so she didn't get the wrong end of the stick.

"Excuse me, I’m an Engineer," Elen laughed, turning her head to look at him with shining eyes and a beaming smile. "But I know what you mean. You, Major, need a walk to Engineering. Look at the warp core, get to know the quiet spaces on the ship, and the loud ones..." She winked and looked back at the panel. "Ah, I think..." she finished and closed the panel. She reached up, fingertips brushing the control with the same wariness you gave a sleeping targ, then hit the switch.

She grimaced a split second later at a sound both haunting and deafening. "Off!" She rubbed her ears. "Sorry...give me five minutes, it’s created a loop...just need to hit it a few times, change a part and it should be running."

"Hit it a few times?" Jesse arched an eyebrow as he settled himself awkwardly on the arm of a chair, watching with frustration as he motioned towards the blasted contraption. "Well I could have done that..."

"Oh, it's a specific way of hitting it," Elen said playfully, as she dug through her kit. "They train us at the Academy to do it, alongside the tutting...and the 'oh Captain, can't do that'..." she laughed and started working again, shifting to lie down so she could get a better angle. "So...can I call you Moriarty or Jesse? Or will I just be saying Major a lot in the future?"

"I...have a feeling you're going to call me whatever you want," Jesse replied knowingly, knowing her exuberant type. "You can use Jesse if you want. Moriarty feels...like it belongs to the rifle."

"Fair... besides, Jesse suits you," Elen said, her smile curving into something just a little knowing as she glanced at him. She hummed lightly while finishing up, this time running a quick scan with the tricorder before declaring, "Okay, I’ve got it..." She stood and hit the shower controls. No haunting screech this time, just the clean hum of the unit at work. Holding one hand under the field, she kept her eyes on the tricorder. "Sonic’s taking care of the dirt, force field’s holding it, boom on the breaking apart and beaming out..." She flicked it off again and looked up at him, her eyes catching his.

"You, Jesse," she said, the name landing with deliberate warmth. "...now have a fully functional sonic shower. Courtesy of Elen." Her grin tipped into a wink as she closed the tricorder and gave the side of his arm a light, companionable tap. "Payment accepted in coffee or scandalous gossip. Your choice."

"Payment? Isn't it literally your job?" Jesse replied lightly, but there was a lilt to his voice that suggested a touch of humour rather than harshness.

"Sure it is. As is finding an excuse for us to talk again," Elen said, tilting her head with a quick smile. "Want to make sure you don’t feel too...sectioned off from the rest of the ship." Her fingers tapped lightly against the side of her tricorder as she spoke. "I know some of your people and...well, put it this way, this is the first time I’ve been to your deck, your section. Which is weird, since the FGF is acting like Security, so you’d think we’d be even more integrated than most. But like my Dad would say...'you might bunk on a ship, doesn’t mean you’re part of it.'" She looked at him then, the smile returning, softer now. "And I don’t like that idea on the Guinevere."

"Your Dad...?" Moriarty asked, despite his better judgement, and against instincts to get involved. This was clearly an exuberant young officer, the kind he would usually remove himself from at a function. But there were curious little threads in her chatter.

"He's Ground Forces," she said and looked at him, meeting his eyes. She gave him an almost gentle smile, her voice softening as she talked about her father. Fondly, the sort that held a twinge of something else. "Retired, but you never really leave, do you? Anyway, he was the medical route within it. Didn't like the idea of being a Starfleet doctor, says he liked being stuck where troopers actually needed him. Not sure he is quite enjoying being a civilian, but my step-mum's happy he is more at home."

Moriarty fell silent at that, his mind drawn to what life would be like if he retired. Trying to imagine himself as a civilian. He suppressed a shudder. "What does he think about you coming out here?"

Elen tapped her thigh for a moment as she stood there, considering it for a moment. What did he think? She tried to remember what he thought of her in Starfleet, and what it meant. And then she smiled, because she remembered, "That we all defend what the Federation stands for in different ways. I fix the ship."

"And I defend it," Moriarty nodded firmly in agreement, the words bringing the steel back to his posture. "And it must mean something, or they'd just send these ships out with a computer to run it and leave us all behind."

"Now that is a depressing though," she said as she grinned, seeing how he...not tensed up. Changed his stance as if there was a flag there to salute. She liked it. But this place, his place, needed something. Maybe some plant life, although that wasn't her specialty. No, something...knitted. Warm. Comfortable. "Imagine, a ship without people. Now that isn't what Starfleet's about...we're all about people. Well...meeting new people, protecting people...we're people people. Just sometimes, there's difficult people or people who made bad decisions...or places where they need help. And that's...sort of where you come in. Our defenders."

"It would be quieter though," Moriarty indulged in the reverie for just a moment as he folded his strong arms across his vest. "More peaceful. No surprise monsters in bushes. No dull contraband searches. No confiscating moonshine that's been made in power cell cooling units..."

Elen laughed at that, her eyes shining with it. "Hey, everyone knows the best moonshine is made out of the biogel packs on replicators..." she said teasingly. Not that she knew how to...except she did She knew how to make moonshine, show her a Mars brat that didn't at least know the theory behind it. "And besides, Jesse...too peaceful and you'd be bored. So! Maybe next time I am hitting the Green Kiss, you can join?"

"Hm..." he contemplated it for a long moment, or at least gave the impression that he was. "I suppose my diary isn't exactly full," he gave a half shrug. "You can tell me what's good and what to avoid."

"Depends how you feel about handsome tall dark-haired strangers," she said with an easy wink. "Because the bartender is...well, actually, you can find out yourself. Tomorrow work for you, after shift?" she didn't ask as much as tell, eyes shining with it. She knew the type and she wasn't going to have him sneak off and not take her up on the offer of drinks.

Moriarty sighed softly, realising there was no way out of this corner. Sometimes, it was just easier to rip the plaster. "Sure, sure..." he pulled his damp vest off, eager to clean up.

She chuckled and picked her tools up. "And that is my cue to leave before it gets weird. See you around, Jesse, enjoy the shower!" she moved to the door, grinning to herself.

"If it blows up, I'm blaming you!" Jesses called after her, but hurried to strip the rest of his clothes off, sighing with relief as he started it up and stepped inside.

OFF:

Major Jesse Moriarty
Detachment Executive Officer

&

Lt. jg Elen Rell
Acting Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Guinevere

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