About That Shuttle...

Posted on Thu Nov 7th, 2019 @ 2:29am by Lieutenant JG Liliane Olivier & Captain Kelly O'Connor

1,085 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 7 - Aenerth for an Earth
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: 2296/02/20 - 1430

"He wanted a proposal," Liliane grumbled. "Well, I got one for him." So she had nicely typed out on a rectangular-shaped PADD with a stylus. She carried it under one arm as she marched to straight from her quarters to the captain's ready room. As she pushed the chime, her confidence that she carried up to now suddenly failed her. Liliane paled. "What if I say the wrong thing?" Oh gods, or whatever deity cares to listen. She began to fidget, moving from one foot to the other as she waited. She wondered if Captain O'Connor would think any less of her if she opened the door and she took off..somewhere.

O'Connor called through the door, "Come in!" She hoped that whoever was there had a good reason for disturbing her playing with her latest gadget that did not seem to be performing as she suspected it should.

"Uh, Lieutenant Olivier," Liliane said as the door opened and she stepped through. She breathed a somewhat audible sigh of relief that yes, she had said the right thing. She paused and tilted her head quizzically at whatever the Captain was playing with. "Having trouble?" Damn it.

Hurriedly, O'Connor pushed the contraption to the side where some of the metal tipped over and gave a chiming ring on her desk. She scowled at it before looking at Liliane and replied, "It is nothing. Just something that I picked up before we left. Is there something that I can do for you, Lieutenant?"

Liliane cleared her throat. "Right. The reason I'm here," she said and produced the PADD from under her arm and dropped it rather ungracefully on the desk, "I have a proposal. Apparently Maggie...err, Commander Grey." She blushed when she realized the nickname slipped but she continued on, "Commander Grey said I need your approval for the name our shuttlecraft. This here is a proposal for one."

O'Connor furrowed her eyebrows at Liliane. "Maggie? Are you involved in a relationship with the Commander?" She took the PADD but did not look down at it.

At the question, Liliane scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Gods no. Just a little nickname he earned."The uptight bastard. "Besides, Captain, I'm presumably still married. Though-" she added with a shrug of her shoulders,"-that hasn't stopped me before. But seriously, no."

"Earned?" O'Connor raised her eyebrows and a crooked smile started to cross her face. "Do tell. And what do you mean presumably married and hasn't stopped you before? Are you in an open relationship?"

"Why? You interested?" Liliane said, the first words coming to mind slipped out of her mouth with no second thought. It was only after a brief pause that she realized what she had said. And to her commanding officer. Face pale, she cleared her throat. "I mean, ma'am, that according to a signed document I am still legally married. Divorce is a bitch and I haven't decided if I'm going to take him for all he's worth. I mean, he's still taking care of my boy so I should leave him something." She was rambling. Again. With a sigh, a rather loud one, she continued. "I didn't come here to talk about my marriage. If you don't mind."

Clearing her throat yet again, she went on, "Well, I figured Commander Grey needed to...relax a bit, so I just started calling him Maggie to get a reaction out of him." She shrugged and gave the other woman a sheepish smile. "Just kinda stuck, I suppose."

"Not interested," O'Connor replied with a smirk. "Flattered, perhaps but you're not my type. And what you do or don't do with a marriage is your own business. Just make sure it doesn't interfere with business." She gave Liliane a nod of approval. "However, I very much enjoy the nickname that you have given our XO." She gave Liliane a wide smirk. "I just might have to use that. Captain's prerogative, of course."

"Of course. And I'm very much counting on it," she grinned. It seemed for the moment that she had gained an ally, granted she didn't cross another line. She always had a bad habit of pushing boundaries.

"As for that proposal, uh, ma'am," Liliane said, gesturing to the PADD that red-haired woman now held. "I had a proposition for changing the shuttle name. Invictus is a little boring, don't you think? So I changed it to Maggie, " she colored slightly in embarrassment. She had changed it to prove a point. It seemed silly now, but she was stubborn and was too late to back out of it now. "But apparently, there are all sorts of channels to go through for that so here we are."

"Bah!" O'Connor scoffed. "On this rust bucket, I'm the only channel that matters. Maggie, that shuttle shall be. Have my yeoman document the changes and repaint it. He's always looking for something to do, anyways." She shook her head. "I swear, he can be more underfoot than a puppy."

Liliane nodded excitedly, a grin on her face. She was glad someone on the ship at least had the same sense of humor as her. "Thank you! I'd probably help him repaint it myself." Since she had never expected to come this far, so she hesitated, unsure of what to do next. She shifted from one foot to the next, as the silence dragged on somewhat. Finally, she cleared her throat. "If you don't need anything else from me..."

"You came to me, Lieutenant," O'Connor replied simply.

"Oh, that's right, I did," she said and after a pause, added, "Permission to be dismissed, Captain?"

"Permission granted."

"Thanks," she quipped and gave the Captain a brief nod of her head. Her legs were starting to fidget again, having had to stand still for nearly the length of the meeting but she did her best to contain herself. She maintained an outward calm demeanor up until the door closed behind her. Inside, she was brimming with excitement. Then, it was all she could do to not sprint for the nearest lift. Her over-exuberance though, nearly cost her a collision with a crewman stepping off the lift. "My apologies," she said, sincerely but flashed a wide smile as the lift door closed behind her. She would definitely enjoy repainting the shuttle and seeing the look on Commander Grey's face when the name and the paint job was official.

 

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