Ship visit part 1

Posted on Thursday, 10 December 2020 - 4:40pm by Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt

Mission: Operation: Ouroboros

The Standing Bear had been delayed because of a mission on Earth. Starfleet had a new toy that Rogers had been working on and it was being rolled out to ships to help exborg. She put her name down to go to the Standing Bear herself, to drop it off and set it up. She hadn't been off Earth and was a little nervous, but here she was, carrying a box with the parts she needed. She made her way to the Med Bay and saw the top of a head so asked, "excuse me, I need someone to sign for this upgrade."

There was a grumble and a point towards an open door. Which after just a moment Ryan poked his head out of. He caught sight of Scarlet and smiled. “Hey.” He greeted, then walked quickly over to her. He spotted her bag and chuckled briefly. “Did you come bearing gifts?”

"Depends," she smiled, "are you going to sign for them?"

Ryan offered his thumb for verification. “I probably should have checked before signing off on that.” He commented lightly. “I hope you didn’t bring me anything explosive.”

"It's only explosive if I don't put it together right," she chuckled, popping the box down on a nearby biobed. "You have one of these, this one has just been tweaked for more accurate functionality and even a few more. It's for exborg, though has applications for other bionic implants." The engineer opened the box for Ryan to take a look. "Even has a left hander set-up."

“Nice.” Ryan commented. “This would have come in handy a bit earlier. But I’ll take it.” He thought of T’Lanna and Talarn. He could definitely use something like this here on the Standing Bear.

Scarlet smiled, "I'll set it up and then maybe we can get some dinner? I tried to make this one close to evening in the hopes you weren't busy." The woman blushed tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

“Absolutely.” Ryan smiled back. “I’ll give you a tour, it’s not a very large ship, but there are some things worth seeing.”

"I'd like that," she replied, she went to kiss his cheek but stopped herself. He was at work and she wasn't sure if he would be OK with a display of affection so publicly.

Ryan was tempted to lean in, having noticed the aborted kiss to his cheek, but he certainly didn’t need to start any gossip fodder. He just nodded to her. “Let me know if you need any help with that. I’m just finishing up some paperwork but then I’ll be free for that tour and dinner.”

"This will probably take me about an hour, so no rush," Scarlet commented, trying to rid her cheeks of a blush.

True to her word, fifty eight minutes later, she knocked on the doorframe of Ryan's office, "it's ready for you to take a look over Doctor Rose." There was a hint of game to her voice, but she was trying to be professional for him, it was his workplace after all.

Ryan looked up from his paperwork. “Great.” He smiled and stood from his desk, coming around to meet her by the door. He briefly took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Let’s see your work in action.”

Scarlet chuckled teasing, "was the upgrade I gave you before you left not enough?" Her blue eyes looked to their hands together and couldn't help but blush, gawd this man made her weak. She showed him to the biobed and let him test it out, "if you get any problems, your old one is in the cupboard."

“I’m sure it will be fine.” Ryan played for a bit, but only long enough to satisfy his basic curiosity, he’d have time to dive into the details later. “I believe I owe you a tour.” He led her out of the small sickbay, and once in the corridor, immediately took her hand. “Anything you particularly want to see first?” He asked.

Scarlet smiled and looked to their hands and then to him, kissing his cheek, "I wouldn't know where to begin."

“Well, how about the mess hall? We can get some dinner at the same time.” Ryan suggested.

Scarlet nodded, "lead the way. I'm hungry."

Ryan kept hold of Scarlet’s hand and led her to the mess hall. It wasn’t a long journey, and with the semi shoreleave semi mission going on, there were very few people inside. It allowed them to get a table near one of the viewports, with a stunning view of Jupiter.

Scarlet's blue eyes darted about a little, taking it all in. It was she was mapping something out or reading at a million miles an hour. "It looks better than the pictures," she commented after a while and after she came back into focus.

“It does.” Ryan easily agreed. Once they’d ordered, he asked her what she was currently working on. He always enjoyed hearing where her mind wandered off to, more often than not it came up with legitimate improvements to current hardware.

"I've just finished that upgrade, so I'm looking for new ideas and inspiration," Scarlet replied as she looked around, her eyes darting about again. She turned back to Ryan, "sorry, so, yes, looking for inspiration. What do you need? I can find a way of making it."

“No no, I wasn’t hinting at anything.” Ryan waved off the thought. “I just like hearing about what you are doing. In between projects is fine too, the mind needs a rest.”

"Mine goes to overdrive between projects," she sighed, "I haven't slept in days and my brain is running circles."

Ryan frowned. “Well, do you have to be back on Earth right away?”

Scarlet shook her head, "The CMO has given me a week because of all the installs."

Ryan nodded his understanding. “Well, you could stay with me. I can make gallons of chamomile tea.” He offered.

Scarlet blinked, "uhh."

The sudden ‘oh shit’ look was clear on Ryan’s face. “I cansleeponthecouch.” He got out as if most of the sentence was one word.

Scarlet offered a relieved look, "I can stay on the station, I wouldn't want to impose."

Ryan deflated a bit, but offered a smile. “Of course. Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

Scarlet saw the disappointment. The was assumed Ryan didn't mean anything like 'that' but she was unsure. That said, she had an opportunity to learn more about him. Maybe she should stay. "I mean, if you don't mind," she shrugged subtly, "means I could see you more. Since you're working and all. Breakfast and dinner. I just hope your sofa is comfy."

“It is, and I’d love to have you stay.” He took a drink of water, steadying his emotions. She seemed to realize he’d stuck his foot in his mouth with not making his offer clearly non-sexual. “If you’d like, I can see if there are free quarters nearby though.” He felt obliged to make the offer.

"The option is there, and that is what matters," she sipped her drink, trying to mask her burning cheeks. "I'd love to stay a little while. We can really get to know each other for longer than planned."

Ryan finally relaxed. “Yes, that will be great.”

Scarlet looked him over, "geez relax. It's not as if I'm planning on stealing your crocodile or delete DC from your archives and replace with Marvel… Although that is a good idea."

Ryan laughed. “There is room for both, but Doctor Sexy Alligator is off limits.” He teased, knowing she’d said crocodile just to get him to say the full name.

A smirk crossed her lips,"never considered a name change. Maybe call him Wolverine or Brutus? Also, how come he's a doctor? I'm still working on my thesis."

Ryan blushed. “I’ll tell you the full story later. If you truly want to embarrass me, I’ll even pull out the photos.”

Scarlet's eyes lit up, "seriously? Oh yes, please! And I promise I'll give you the name of my Teddy as collateral along with an explanation."

Ryan grinned in anticipation. They finished eating, and the rest of the tour was rather short lived. There honestly wasn’t much to see.

Scarlet looked to Ryan,"I must say, I don't envy you. How do you not get claustrophobic? I mean, your quarters are big, but you know."

“Stuffed to the gills, especially with the piano.” He added helpfully. “It wasn’t so bad without the piano, I at least had a kitchen table, but.” He shrugged. “I don’t need much space. I’m not actually here that much anyway.”

Scarlet nodded in understanding, "it's cosy, I like these quarters. Bigger than my apartment."

She’d seen the place, in a vague sort of way from the holo camera on his console, but it wasn’t quite the same as standing in the room and seeing how much space his stuff took up. He led her to the bookshelf, and while it held a few real books, it was mostly filled with knick knacks. Several old style 2D photos, as well as some 3D holographic cubes. Mostly of him as his sister as older teens. “I spared you meeting her in person.” He grinned. “But that’s Amanda.”

"Your sister, right?" she confirmed, picking up a picture and admiring it a moment before her blue eyes started twitching again. She put it down very quickly though, closing her eyes and taking a breath. She opened them and smiled, "look happy. You must be close."

Ryan knew Scarlet had lost her parents, though he didn’t really know any more than that. He hoped talking about his own family didn’t bring her down. But he was happy to share. “We are. Not as close as we used to be, simply because we don’t get to see each other nearly as much. Before I went to the Academy and she moved across the country for University, we basically lived in each others pockets. He reached down to one of the low drawers and pulled out an actual bound photo album. “I did not do the scrap booking on this.” He announced, playfully defensive, as he handed the album to her.

Scarlet chuckled inspecting the book. It was adorable. She then put it on the coffee table, "I'm sorry, my brain is in overdrive. It does this weird thing when I see things I've not seen before. There's a lot of weird things that my brain does that most people don't know about. I think I'm crazy sometimes."

“It’s ok.” Ryan said easily, clearly not offended. “I think the word is quirky, and it’s wonderful.” He sat beside her on the couch and put his arm around her, just letting the silence fall between them, if she needed a moment, or 10, or an hour, he was happy to just sit and be with her.

"Quirky may be right," she blushed, smiling, "it's bad enough that this year I found out that there is no such thing and elevator music in the lifts in the hospital. It's only in my head." She teased at her own expense, though it was true.

Ryan grinned. “I’m sure you could find a way to install elevator music in the lifts. In fact, you should do it here on the Standing Bear, and see how long it takes the Command Team to call a meeting about it.”

Scarlet chuckled, "Don't tempt me. I get stuff a lot. My head plays theme music. It narrates my day. Never silent."

“You’re your own best company.” Ryan lowered his voice and overexaggerated it, as if narrating. “Here stands Ensign Rogers in front of the console, will she be able to find the right tool. Let’s look inside her bag and see.”

He was charming and funny. He put her at ease, with ease. Scarlet looked to Ryan, "exactly! Too many movies, I think."

“That and maybe not enough sleep. I went through a span of medical school where Doctor Sexy Alligator actually started talking to me.”

"What accent did he have?" she asked genuinely curious, "I kind of picture British. Also, if it is lack of sleep, then I need sleeping pills, Doctor. And if you can do anything for an overworked brain to stop it showing stuff that isn't there that would be great-- wait… That does make me sound crazy. I swear it's not as bad as an EMH would diagnose."

“He didn’t have an accent persay, just sounded like he’d swallowed a couple of pounds of rocks.” He gave a soft chuckle at the memory. “What do you see?” He turned the question around to her. Normally somebody admitted to hallucinations would have him running scans, but he knew any real hallucinations were driven from sleep deprivation. He was coming to learn that Scarlet simply had a very vivid imagination to go along with the apparent not completely uncommon sleep deprivation.

Scarlet blushed, "the first time I see something, or someone, I picture a full blown schematic. So the schematic I drew for you of the corn-dog thing, that was what I saw in my hand."

Ryan bust out laughing, but immediately tried to control it, not wanting her to think he was making fun of her. Between guffaws he managed to get out “And not at all phallic”

TBC......