Meeting the New Flyboy

Posted on 27 Jul 2018 @ 10:53pm by Ensign Kelly Khan & Lieutenant Danth

2,666 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: The Search Begins
Location: Flight Office
Timeline: MD 3 || 0800 Backpost

Kelly checked the roster as she was coming off duty at the end of Delta Shift and rubbed her eyes. "Who's Lieutenant Danth?" she asked one of the other Ensigns coming off shift with her.

The Bolian Flight officer looked at the PADD and shrugged. "No idea. Sorry I couldn't help you."

"It's okay," she said as she looked through the roster again. She didn't see Lieutenant Langston on it anywhere. Was he wounded and in Sickbay or reassigned? She frowned as she had yet to do her race with Felix 'Red Squad' Langston and that made her unhappy. It had been a friendly bit of competition with the Flight Chief, but now she had to face that Langston may have gone a different way when she was on the station getting tattooed.

With a sigh that spoke volumes about how much she wanted to go to sleep, the young Ensign made her way to the Flight Control office and pressed the chime on the Chief's door.

The room was spartan when he arrived but Danth quickly turned that around with gold and bronze models of the various Federation Flagships, Dreadnoughts and Cruisers through out Starfleet history. The walls had ornamental, colorful framed artwork of Federation auxiliary craft at high speeds across vivid space scenes.

Danth sat relaxed in his chair, with his legs stretched and his feet propped on the edge of his desk while holding a PADD and watching a tutorial on the flight crew management system for the Black Hawk's 5.2 LCARS build when he heard the alert at his door, "It's open!" he called out to whomever was outside his door, hoping it wasn't a defective panel or his imagination.

After she checked her uniform, which after being worn for an entire shift still looked somewhat decent, Kelly entered the room. Her hazel eyes swept over the man sitting in the Chief of Flight's chair and made a mental note of the fact that he also had hazel eyes, she took in the framed artwork and models of ships.

"Ensign Khan, reporting for end of shift report," she said as a way of introduction. The report could have been put into the LCARS and delivered, but it gave her a reason to find out about this new Lieutenant.

Danth kept his relaxed pose and put the PADD he was working on the desk. He crossed his clasped his hands together across his mid-section as he sized-up the Ensign. He'd happened to see her rostered hours just a moment ago as he was learning the officer management system.

"Report noted Ensign Khan," he gestured with an open hand to the chair across his desk, "Would you like a seat?" he offered with the knowledge her shift just ended.

What report noted? went through Kelly's mind. "Uh, thank you, but I haven't made my report yet, Lieutenant...."

The Lieutenant gasped, "Ah, there's more?" he said with mock surprise for a moment before giving a sheepish smile and saying, "Please continue."

It irked her that the officer had yet to identify himself despite her prompting, but she mentally shrugged it off. "Nothing to report, Sir," she said as the Black Hawk-A had remained at Deep Space Fifteen for a number of days already. "The runabouts and shuttles are all cleaned and shined again, too."

Danth leaned back in his seat, "Excellent," he said as he kept what he perceived a impressive pose but his seat rolled back, and his head and torso sunk sharply under the table as he hyper-extended his legs which he now struggled to keep on the desk while balancing and trying not to fall. After a few moments of not being visible a quiet "help." could be heard from behind the desk.

Kelly didn't need a tricorder to see what needed to be done, but she did need to call on every bit of her officer training not to bust a gut laughing. She brought a hand up to cover the smile on her face and adopted a thoughtful look while visions of him hitting the floor less than gracefully danced through her head. She quickly went around behind him and put her hands on the back of his chair lightly. "Tense your upper body, Sir," she said. "When I count to three, I'm going to pull the chair back and you slam your legs on the floor when I put forward again. Okay?"

Danth followed her instructions and tensed his back, "Okay," was all he could muster in such a precarious situation.

"One...two....three!" she pulled the chair back so his legs came off the desk, then pushed forward again and hoped to use his braced legs to push him back into the chair.

Danth slammed his feet down as directed but his boots failed to grip the floor and as his center of gravity shifted forward rapidly, he was launched from his chair with his feet sliding while he remained in a limbo pose for exactly .134 seconds before his bottom hit the ground sliding with the rest of him a short distance from the desk.

Instead of pushing the chair up under the Lieutenant as she had planned, Kelly now found herself pushing the chair over the man instead. She quickly stopped when she felt the bumps of the wheels going over his arms and looked down. "Uh...sorry?" she said with a helpless grin.

Danth lay with his back on the floor and his knees up. He let his head drop backward onto the floor with a dull thud, "Lieutenant Danth, Chief Flight Control Officer. Reporting." he said with a half salute as he looked up over at her from upside down.

Kelly's mouth opened and closed for a moment, then she tipped the chair sideways so she wouldn't run over him again, then offered a hand. "Pleased to meet you, Lieutenant Danth," she said.

The beleaguered officer took her offered hand and pulled.

It didn't take a mathematician or an engineer to know what was about to happen. When the burly Flight Chief pulled, mass and gravity ruled against the tiny Ensign and she landed sideways across him. "Oomph," she grunted. "This...is getting embarrassing, Sir."

Danth dropped his head back again, this time a bit more forceful than before, "Yup..." he said and while it was embarrassing, it wasn't entirely uncomfortable. The Lieutenant smelled something curiously sweet, the scent surprised him and he wondered if it were coming from the Ensign until he felt the cold on the back of his head, "That's right," he said realising their tumbling must have knocked over his large cup of Root Beer. Pushing his mind's rambling aside and waited for Kelly to make the first move so as not to further embarrass either of them.

The young Ensign promptly scrambled back off of him and came to her feet. "Sir, my apologies, Sir," she said.

Danth lay still on the floor, unwilling to show the mass of hair his soft drink was covering, "Not at all Ensign, my pleasure." he said jokingly, "Why don't you have a seat and tell me a little about yourself?" he asked from down on the floor.

Kelly couldn't help but notice the pool of whatever he had been drinking was spread out further than his hair could effectively hide, but she chose to ignore it while filing it under Senior Officer: Funny Moments in her mind. She took one of the offered seats and turned to face him. "I passed my entrance exam on my first try, but I can't say that I made the top ten percent of my class, though. My primary was Flight, but I took a minor in Engineering. After that, I took Command School as well, sir, while entering Nova Squad. I've been stationed with Captain Geisler since I was on my senior tour on the original Black Hawk."

Clasping his hands together across his midsection Danth continued to try and pretend the cold soda wasn't bothering his as it now rolled down passed his neck and to his upper back, "A belated congratulations, on making it on your frist try. It took me two to get in." he wondered what kind of impression he was making, "So what was the first Black Hawk like?" he asked out of curiosity.

"She was...something special, Sir," the young brunette said after a thoughtful moment. "From the moment that I set foot on her until the last moments when we were abandoning ship, she never gave up. We went through a lot together. It was on one of her shuttles that I even got promoted." She reached up and affectionately touched a tarnished looking single pip on her collar. Her hazel eyes flashed with memories that a Ensign shouldn't have so soon in their career.

Danth continued to lay on the floor as he listened to her talk about herself but when she went quiet he sat up on the floor and rested his arm on his knee. He was trying to figure out what was going through her mind, Is that it? he asked himself pondering if her expression was what they called the 'Billion Kilometer stare'. Not wanting to put the woman in some kind of traumatic stupor he began rambling about himself, "Well I haven't had to abandon anything other than a Valkyrie with a faulty thruster. Emergency transported back to the training facility. I have been charged by Polar Bear. I have also ridden in a torpedo, I'm the first El-Aurian to ever do it." he paused to look at her to see how she responded.

"I have have a feeling that Grandpa is going to like you," Kelly said just as cryptically. "Although, I'd suggest a change of uniform first and maybe a shower."

Danth looked at her in surprise, "Grandpa?" he asked her with a dumbfounded expression while in the back of his mind he was wondering if he was going to meet the Ensign's paternal or maternal forefather.

"Sorry, Ensign Crehan," she clarified. "He's El-Aurian, too. We used to call him Grandpa at the Academy because he's like, over two hundred years old."

The Lieutenant shook his head slowly, "I don't think he will like me. I'm too young..." he trailed off thinking about his past run ins with elder Els.

"May I ask how young, Sir?" Kelly asked when he trailed off.

"Twenty Eight," he replied.

That wasn't much older than she was and she realized that he had to be second generation of El-Aurians from those 'saved' from the Nexxus. "You earned your pips fast for a young officer," she said to change the subject. "Then again, I was field promoted to Ensign while I was still a Fourth Year Cadet."

Danth cocked an eyebrow, something his early education teacher had done in surprise and had now been instilled in him. "Promoted to Ensign during your Senior Cruise?" he asked trying to evoke more detail as he hadn't yet gone through her full service jacket.

"Yes, Sir," Kelly said, not willing to elaborate unless he asked. She still woke up to bad nightmares about that time and had no desire to relive those memories again. "Captain Geisler gave me one of his own pips when he promoted me."

Now Danth really was curious but he recalled a moment ago where he was afraid he had broken her and thought better of making his new charge delve deeper into whatever that was. He began to ramble again, "I spent my cadet cruise performing in the Tomcats, we did stunt flying for special ceremonies and multi-vector war games against capital ships. I have a combat success rate on Ninety-Six percent. Four percent was lost for the aforementioned loss of a Valkyrie. Funny enough I recall the sensation of overwhelming heat but almost as soon as I felt it I lost all sensation as the transporter activated. Can we strip the impulse engines of their magnetohydrodynamic assembly on this ship and install a ion thrust initiator from a scrap Dominion Battleship?"

"I was busy commanding a busted Intrepid class ship while going up against a Romulan Valdore that had a Thalaron cannon on it," she responded. "Then someone detonated a tricobalt device in the singularity core of the Valdore and blew my ship, the Black Hawk and another ship into an alternate universe. Ya know, little stuff. War games must have been really fun, though."

Danth's mouth fell open, What? he thought, Did she just say... Thalaron, Tricobalt and alternate universe? he broke himself, for a moment. Those are three bad words in Starfleet, everyone knows that to say them means you've had a unique experience, but all three from one person? he stared at her in disbelief. "What kind of ship were you on?" he asked having only his own boring experiences aboard a ship as a comparison.

"One that we formerly had to attack because it was in control of the Consortium," Kelly said. "The Command team was either dead, fled or captured and I was the only one available with Command training to be given control of it. The old Chief of Flight had control of the other Intrepid."

Danth got to his feet and walked over to his desk, there he retrieved a padd and thumbed through Kelly's dossier for the event she was talking about, "Ensign, you were in Command of a Federation starship as an Academy cadet?" he asked while reading, the reports on her file had corroberated her story. Danth slowly sat in his seat not even caring it was covered in spilled root beer as he looked at his Flight Staffer with new eyes. What the hell have I gotten myself into? he thought as he gave Kelly an intense stare.

"I believe that's what I said, Sir," she responded. "We just didn't have the personnel that we needed and I'm on the Command track. Just one of the many services that the Academy offered and I took them up on it. Time well spent, Lieutenant."

"So it seems." Danth trailed off in thought. "Well Ensign Khan. I've kept you for a while, I'm sure you would like to retire after coming off your shift." he said as he tried to rise from his seat, somehow the sugary beverage had congealed on the material on the seat of his chair and as he attempted to rise he felt the chair pull on his pants. He sat back down and turned away from Kelly so he could use the table to help lift himself. The result was not as bad as it could have been but certainly not ideal, as the pants freed but the beverage was clearly smeared all over his lower backside, more embarrassing still, his back was facing Kelly.

Kelly muffled a laugh behind one hand before she got control of herself, but it was still clearly a laugh. "Thank you, Lieutenant Danth," she said. "And may I suggest getting a new uniform soon? It's been a pleasure." With a smile that she made no attempt to hide, the Ensign turned and headed out. When the others hear about this... went through her mind as she turned towards the nearest turbolift and burst out laughing. What a first meeting!.

Danth nodded to her as she left, "Likewise." he said with his level best to not allow himself to show his current discomfort. When the Ensign had made her exit, Danth sat back at his computer, his need to learn more about the history behind the Black Hawk both this vessel and her predecessor was too great and his drive to understand the events Kelly was talking about made him oblivious to the fact he was a grown man sitting in small pool of carbonated sugar water.

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