Blacksmith's Forge

Posted on Sunday, 3 May 2020 - 5:04pm by Commander Soral & Lieutenant Alex Kingsley

Mission: Operation: Recall
Location: USS Fontana | Deck 4 | Holodeck 1
Timeline: 2393

{ON:}

=/\=Inside the holodeck=/\=

Soral entered the holodeck. After his shift he'd run into Alex and while her questions on blacksmithing had been just that, curiosity, he'd invited her to come along for real. They had talked about a date and cemented that now was a good time. She had a few things to do but they would meet within a few hours. He had to show her what blacksmithing was about while maintaining a distance. Distance was key.

=/\=Outside the holodeck=/\=

Perhaps this was a bad idea.

Approaching the entrance to Holodeck 1, Lieutenant Kingsley hesitated for just a moment before heading inside. She was early, yet only by a few minutes. Even now, as she ran through the brief conversation in the Turbolift earlier, she couldn't quite get how mentioning if Commander Soral had found time yet to visit the holodeck had ended up with her accepting the invite to join him. Of course she was curious (a blacksmith seemed like something you'd only find in an old novel) yet it was hardly the best idea. Distance. They really should have distance.

About four decks worth of distance.

She was still pondering this, surrounded by the black and yellow grid of the holodeck, when the door opened behind her. "Are you certain I'm not intruding? I know you've been waiting to run the programme for a few days now," she was giving him an out, just in case he was being overly polite before.

"Of course not." He looked at her. "I would make a suggestion thought."

"Oh?"

"You are still in uniform. I will start the forge and you go home and change. You'll need shorts and light t-shirt."

"Oh... okay. I think I can pull that off," she nodded, already heading for the door. "Give me ten minutes."

In the end it was twelve, but she was suitably attired with a pair of black shorts and white t-shirt adorned with an ancient earth periodic table printed on the back. She suspected the choice to use a table from the 19th century was purely because there came a point when so many new additions were made that it got so big, there was no way to make them look good on a garment. It was that or a Captain Marvel T-Shirt. She needed to broaden her wardrobe selections beyond science and superheroes.

While Soral waited for Alex to come back he started the program. It fizzled and the black and blue grid was replaced instantly but a large room. The cement floors were cluttered with start and dust. The center was occupied by a round stone pit where a large red orange flames shot towards the ceiling. The room was lit by fire lanterns and a large work bench stood to one side while a large anvil stood next to the fire pit.

Soral looked around and shrugged. She hadn't returned yet so he figured he'd get started while he waited. He removed his shirt tossing it to the side on the floor and walked over to the work bench picking up a think grouping of steel. He tied it with rope so that it would burn away in the fire and used the long metal thongs to grasp the bits that were tied together.

"Ready to see some Blacksmithary magic," she declared as she entered, tugging her hair up into a ponytail just in case that would be a problem. She had no idea. As the wall of heat hit her she stopped, eyes sweeping the room. The programme, the detail, was incredible.

Thrusting it into the fire he waited for it to heat. When she arrived back he was hard at work. Holding the tongs of metal on the anvil and using his right hand to hammer the Steele. He'd been deep into it when she'd entered and spoken. Hearing her he turned to face her. "Much better." Several things were immediately obvious one of which was a black rose tattoo on his forearm that had a stem wrapping around and snaking up his arm with it's point on his right shoulder. "Ready for some work." He put the project he'd been working on to the side and wiped his forehead. Even for Vulcan the forge was hot.

When he spoke her eyes focused on him and widened momentarily. Finding your XO topless was not common place and was the exact opposite of distance, although once her eyes had adjusted to the glare of the flames, the view was absolutely nothing to complain about. And the tatoo… his question snapped her out of her staring.

"I apologise in advance if I break anything," she said as she approached, already feeling beads of sweat forming on her forehead. She was still in awe of the detail, not just visually, but the smells, the sounds. As she drew closer she asked a question, trying not to be distracted by, well, him. "Is this modelled on a real place?"

He gave a nod. "It is. My forge on Vulcan." He motioned for her to come to the work bench. "Alright. We start with design. What would you like to make? Perhaps something simple a necklace?"

Following him to the workbench which bore signs of age yet looked likely to outlive a planet, she nodded. "Simple sounds good. Definitely."

"Okay. So we'll do a pendant for a necklace. Any particular shape?"

“A star?” She said, “or anything really.”

"Perfect." He selected a bar of Steele that was silver with flake's of grey. "This is called Damascus Steele. It is one of the best material's to work with." He motioned to the fire. "There are safeties here on the holodeck so the fire will not burn you thus you will not need gloves. I usually work with the safeties off but it wise to leave them on now."

He held up a pair of black tongs. "Using these you will grasp the disk." He showed her how to place the metal between the pinchers and how to hold the instrument. "These have a bit of heft to them." He let her try.

Hearing the safeties were on brought a relieved smile. Her luck lately made anything else unwise. With a frown she carefully watched his demonstration, sure she could follow his example. Stepping forward she held the tongs, surprised by their weight and realising this was a hobby which would definitely need more muscle mass than she really had to spare. Still she managed, and had quickly snared the piece of metal between the pincers. “Who needs the gym,” she said finally. She suspected her muscles would make her pay for this tomorrow.

“So I’m holding the metal in to flames...? For how long?”

"Indeed. It will be for a few minutes to get it nice and hot. Observe." He took the tongs and thrust them into the fire. He held it there until it was nice and hot. He slowly pulled out the metal which glowed hot and placed it on the anvil. Taking up the metal hammer he reared back and struck the metal repeatedly. He stopped. "Basically you do that until you have the metal a thickness you are looking for."

She almost jumped out of her skin at the thunderous noise it made as he struck the metal, the sound echoing off the walls. “And then?”

"Then we carve." He handed her the tongs. "You try."

“We what?” Stepping around him she took the tongs. “Carve with what?”

"I will show you. Trust me. You'll do great." He pointed to the steele. "We have to thin that out a little more." He looked completely at ease here. "This," he pointed around. "This has always been my favourite place. It was the first thing I built when I built my estate."

“My mum and I had a flat where there was hardly room to swing a cat,” she confided as she adjusted her grip and struck the metal. The resultant vibration seemed to go deep into her bones but she hit it again. She was nowhere near as strong as he was but she figured he would tell her if she was doing it wrong. “I never got that saying. Why would you want to swing a cat? But it’s kind of amazing you have the real thing waiting for you back home. Doesn’t it make you miss it though?”

He watched at she worked and supressed a smile. "At times. I miss the estate, I have a good manager there taking care of it, I miss the planet, the people, the ways, my forge but...the prospect of going back is not appealing as I know what is waiting," he said honestly. "Do you miss your family?"

The question made her hit a little harder than she intended. “I speak with my mum, my adoptive mum, often. She’s a little crazy, does her own thing and the universe be damned. More so since the attack on Mars. My dad kind of, I don’t know... grounded her. They were opposites but it worked. And I keep hoping she’ll find that again. She needs a balance. But yeah, sometimes I miss her a lot.”

"What happened to your father?"

“He worked at Utopia Planitia,” she said in between hits. “He was supposed to be visiting but they had a breakthrough and he put off the trip to assist Commander McKenzie. He was really excited- he always was if he thought of some new way of doing something. So... instead of telling my mother she was going overboard with the cake and the sandwiches and the decorations for her First Contact Day party he was still on Mars. Along with our friends, my old teachers, our neighbours... it was hard. But it is what it is and life has to go on.”

He heard the pain in her voice. He also saw that her hand was shaking. He stood and walked over placing a hand on her shoulder. "I am sorry for your loss."

“Thank you. And I’m sorry. I don’t even know why I told you all of that...” she glanced up over her shoulder at him and offered an apologetic smile, “way to ruin your blacksmith mojo.”

"Not at all."

They worked well for the next while and the steele took a thin shape. They quenched the heated steele in oil and then set to work on shaping. He then produced a mold that would fit the steele disk. "Now we carve." The mold had small slits up top in the shape of a Star. "Follow the slits and use this." He gave her a small instrument that resembled a pencil. "Deltan lazer. Good for carving and cutting. I've set the beam to fine. He placed the mold on the work bench. "You will hear a clink when the shape falls onto the table from the mold."

With a determined frown she followed his directions and occasional words of guidance. In silence she worked, much calmer by the time the sound of metal falling onto the worktop filled the air. Still leaning over the mold, she grinned up at him, “that was a god sound, right?”

"Indeed." He removed the mold and there on the table was medium sized star. "Do you trust me?"

She surprised herself with the quick “yes” that passes her lips.

He sent her to sit down and set to work attaching a bale so that the pendant would hang on the necklace. Then when she didn't notice he carved her name in intricate letters on it. "Come and see," he said placing it on a black velvet cloth.

Moving to stand beside him she smiled broadly when she saw what he had done, “thank you!” Without thinking she through her arms around him before she realised what she had done.

A sudden rush of awareness slammed through him. Vulcans weren't known for liking physical contact but he did not mind this. His arms instinctively went around her. He looked down at her just as she looked up and their eyes met.

She didn’t dare speak because she couldn’t trust her voice, could barely breathe not only from the heat blasting out from the furnace but from the jolt that seemed to go right to her tip toes and the frankly embarrassing way she was sure her heart was racing. What had she been thinking about distance?!

"Your heart is racing." he said. He had to admit his was too. He'd promised himself to be professional. He'd done what he could to encourage her to go to Yolen. "This....is unwise." But not exactly unwanted.

“Possibly,” she agreed, “probably. But here we are...”

She still hadn't let go and neither had he. "Our rank difference does not bother you? The fact that I am 15 years older?"

“No and no,” she assured him. Not pointing out that at twenty-three the majority of the crew was older than her in some way. And really, none of those facts troubled her. She had to ask, even though she know the answer in part. He had made it clear that his position on the ship was some sort of reason to be distant from the rest of the crew. “Does it bother you?”

"I am attempting to make it bother me but am failing" He said honestly. "Perhaps if we kiss it will not be pleasing?" It might be the last barrier keeping them from boldly going where they wanted to go before.

“Maybe,” she agreed. “Definitely a theory that we could explore.”

And so he did. The kiss was gentle at first he'd bent down taken her lips to his. He'd expected it to be plain and simple yet it was not. It was the first taste of warm cinnamon buns, the first sip of morning coffee. It shot through him electrifying every sense he had. When their lips parted he'd leaned his forehead to hers. "Damn." he whispered.

“I think,” she breathed, locking eyes with him again, “the experiment failed. Would be only logical to repeat it, to be sure...”

It was all the prompting he needed. He lowered his lips to hers. This time when the kiss ended both were breathless. He licked his lips as they stepped away from one another. "I am done fighting this. But I want to ensure you understand fully that if we do allow ourselves this it...cannot last and I do not want to hurt you."

“I know,” she assured him as she stepped towards him. She traced the outline of his tattoo with her fingertips, vowing to learn the story behind it. She doubted it was the same drunken mistake her own had been. Her own was nowhere near as elaborate and was presently hidden, given it adorned her right hip. She rested her hands on her chest, wondering if the thundering heartbeat could be any more embarrassing but dismissing the thought as she peered up at him with a mischievous smile, “how long do you have the holodeck for?”

He'd just been about to answer when an Ensign who had just gotten on his wrong side called.

"Ensign Thompson to Commander Soral. Sir we require your assistance in tactical."

He gave a bit of a growl. "I do not like that ensign," he said. He reluctantly walked to the arch. "Soral here. Give me twenty minutes." He walked back. Picking up the pendant he dug into his bag and came out with a silver chain. He threaded the chain through the bale and walked over to Alex. He held out the chain. "May I?" He indicated wanting to place he necklace on her.

Pretty sure she was all but pouting due to the interruption she nodded. At least her hair was already tied up so wasn’t an issue.

He stepped behind her and fastened the necklace. Leaning down he kissed the back of her neck where the clasp lay. He gently turned her around. "If you are sure about being with me. Think on it and if you still decide that you are sure spend the night with me."

“I’m sure. And just so we are clear,” she all but whispered, “unless a Borg armada is about to destroy the ship, I’m not overly fond of Ensign Thompson either.”

He raised an amused eyebrow. He took her hand turned it so he could kiss the inside of her wrist. "Until tonight then?"

“Tonight,” she promised.

{OFF:}

Lieutenant Commander Soral
Executive Officer

&

Lieutenant JG Alex Kingsley
Chief Science Officer