Chapter Text
1: Ensign Code
She sighed as she stepped off the corridor into the belly of the starbase. As wonderful as the Enterprise was, a change of scenery was nice too.
“Got it!” She turned around and a blur of yellow ran into her, causing her to throw her arms around the blur and stumble slightly. “Sorry, I did not mean to run into you so hard.”
“It’s okay, Chekov,” she said, getting her feet back under her and releasing him, “I know you didn’t mean to. Did you find where the exhibition is?”
Chekov’s face lost its look of worry and lit up. “Da! It is in the center across the base. I think it starts in an hour.”
“Yay! That means we’ll have just enough time to get over there and make sure we’re near the front. I can’t believe they got the new prototypes all the way out here!” She clapped her hands and jumped up and down a few times. Sulu smirked at them as he exited the tunnel.
“You two look like five-year-olds who get to go to a toy store,” he teased, ruffling Chekov’s hair.
“What’s that difference?” Uhura smiled at them. “Let the kids be kids. C’mon, Scotty said he found the bar.”
“Oh right, these two aren’t old enough to drink, are they?”
“Please, ‘Karu,” Chekov shook him off, “you know I can drink you under the table no problem.”
“True.” Sulu and Uhura left, leaving the two to scamper across the floor to the turbo-lift in the opposite column. They were panting lightly as the lift stopped on the next floor, exchanging a glance before breaking out into a run again. They dodged and swerved around other people, including a very disgruntled Admiral who hollered at them as they dashed by.
“This isn’t a theme park! Have some respect!”
They had to slow down because they were laughing so hard.
Eventually, they managed to reach the facility, only because they’d gone the wrong way and decided to race all the way around before they reached the door, out of breath and red-faced, but grins still fixed firmly in place.
“I’m so excited! They finally got these things ready for testing!”
“Da! It shouldn’t bee too long before they are on the Enterprise.”
They continued whispering back and forth until the precession they’d joined made its way inside. Chekov bounced on the balls of his feet, peering over the heads of the others until they wriggled their way to the front. “Look!”
A shining mass of metal sat in the middle of a large glass container, light glinting off the curves and surfaces. The round caps sat above the main thrusters, and the cabin was covered with transparent silicate. A holo-message flickered to life on the four sides of the glass.
“The new and improved traveler,” Chekov read, squinting slightly to read the faint lettering, “now equipped with new thruster technology.”
She tugged on his sleeve. “Look, they’ve got the components laid out over there.” She scampered over to smaller glass cases containing metal bits and pieces meticulously labeled. “Computer's been wanting a look at these specs ever since he found the records in the database.”
“Did you bring it?”
“Yeah,” she said, pulling out her phone and setting flat in the palm of her hand. The blue orb flickered to life on the screen.
“Oh, great! Can you get me in front of the full thing?”
“Not while there are so many people around,” she muttered, glancing back, “I’ll try later.”
“I may not know much about Engineering, but at least I don’t pretend!” A loud voice came from behind them. They turned and saw a large crowd of people surrounding another two Starfleet officers. One of them snorted at them. “Come on, everyone knows people under twenty-five shouldn’t be here, they’re not smart enough to know what this stuff is.”
Chekov squinted. “Some people have no manners,” he muttered.
“Everyone knows people that young just sleep their way onto starships!”
Chekov stiffened, shaking her off when she bumped his shoulder. Turning around, he made his way over to the officer, who had turned his nose up at the ensign.
“Excuse me, sir, but I was wondering if you had heard about the Starfleet meeting in the offices across the base. They are supposed to be announcing the new thruster assignments.”
“Well then, I should probably get over there.” The man’s voice dripped with condescension. “Thank you, ensign.”
“You are welcome, sir.” The officer made his way out, puffing his chest out as he walked. Smirking, Chekov walked back over to the glass case.
“So what’s actually happening across the base?”
“A large gazering of incredibly religious Andorians that will not take kindly to an interruption.”
Alex muffled her laugh with her hand. “Oh my god that’s genius. But…”
Chekov frowned. “But…what?”
“Just,” she shrugged, “didn’t peg you for the pranking type.”
“Apparently, you did not know me during my time at the Academy. You should ask ‘Karu.” Chekov bumped her shoulder. “And there is the ensign code. Stand up for each other.”
“I’m not an ensign, anymore,” she smiled.
“True, but you still count.”
“I’m not bragging, I swear, but did Bones tell you what my actual rank would be after I got promoted?”
He smiled. “A commander, I know, but you came up the same way we did. And you didn’t hold it over our heads.” He inclined his head towards the door. “Like he did. So you count.”
She looked back down at the part. “Thanks.”
“We should have Mister Scott look at this. Remember what happened when he saw the new phaser?”
“Oh my god, yes. Computer, you good?”
“If I had a view of the full thing, I would be,” the AI muttered. She rolled her eyes and quickly went over to the full display case. “Okay, got it.”
“Great.” She turned around. “Race you back?”
“Just don’t cry when I beat you!”
They took off across the plaza.