Work Text:
Hour 0530
Starship and engineering, are the best combo ever to be created in your opinion. Just graduated a year earlier, this was your first experience being on a flagship due to the Enterprise having such long and far-distanced missions delaying your arrival upon the ship. After waiting several months on Starbase One, you are excited to get your hands on an actual ship instead of repairing ones that came to the base for routine checkups.
As a new cadet on the starship Enterprise, it wasn't uncommon to be given the worst tasks on the ship. Luckily for you, that meant your favorite focus, unlike most, engineering. With your red shirt uniform on, you take the turbo-lift to your first official work day.
Entering the room, the area was darker than most places on the ship due to many different tubes, wiring, and containers blocking the main ceiling lights. At the center of the room near a console, working on two screens at once is a pale Aenar man dressed in red. Approaching him casually, trying to stop your nervous first-day sweats, you casually dip your head at the man and greet him.
"Hello sir, L/N, Y/N reporting for duty." Your voice echoes off of the walls of the room and all the other devices creating a strange noise like a hum in the distance.
"Hello cadet L/N, I am the Enterprise's Chief Engineer. You may call me Hemmer. You have interrupted my work, you are early for your shift. Being punctual will not receive you any bonuses, however." He paused for several minutes before looking in your direction then back to the screen to resume his previous work. "Now, for your first assignment, tell me what I am currently doing." He waves toward the screens as he continues his work with speed and accuracy though appearing blind.
Even though it is 530 instead of 600, you shake off the early work and look at what he is doing. After scrutinizing the screen for a minute, you notice him shifting from each energy core and checking its stability and contents while pretending to do another assignment with his left. "Sir, you are doing a routine inspection of the energy cores to make sure that they are in their purest form from your recent installation of them at Starbase One. I put them on the ship myself while the crew was offshore during leave, they are in top shape." With a nod from him, you continue with your hands behind your back politely, "Your left hand is simply moving and clicking on documents pretending to be occupied in an attempt to fool me."
With a small expression of curiosity, he raises a brow and nods with some respect toward you.
"Correct."
Closing out of the console and heading towards one of the lubrication systems for the ship, you silently await your next assignment from the handsome man and follow in suit.
"Today, you shall make sure to check the pressure on the lubrication systems and coolant for the electrical and warp terminals. Once done, I will resume the system and use the emergency release valve to prevent harm from the blades of the lubricant chamber coming in contact with you. Do you understand?"
“Yes sir. I will do my best.”
“I want more than your best, I want full attention. We are the cogs that keep this ship together, remember that cadet.”
With a nod, you ask for the location of the engineering wet suits and masks and go change in a small cramped white locker room with several people chatting whilst changing. While changing, thoughts kept coming back to the man awaiting you and his reasons for being enlisted in Star Fleet. Having met an Aenar or two while stationed at Starbase One, you got to learn from the ambassadors of their culture and thoughts while you worked maintenance on their ships. They often watched you and chatted softly with one another in the cold and empty engineering area compared to what they deemed as the 'desert-like conditions and temperatures of their guest rooms given by Starfleet.
Returning to the room, you find him still in place with the hatch to a nearby tube open with the system moving slower than usual for safety. Sensing your arrival, he guides you to the small extended ladder at the left side of the tube for easy access.
As you step into the clear glass tube with the casual movement of resistance against your legs from blocking the lubricant's flow, you give him a thumbs up and a smile. You get to work quickly and use the limited supply oxygen mask to go through the piping and swap corners and purification systems. After many slow-moving minutes, the task is completed and you communicate through the engineering radio channel to be let out and to move onto the coolant tubing. As prepared as one can be, you suddenly feel the surge of movement and the feeling of gravity as you land on the hard floor with a wet slop of noise breaking the somewhat quiet atmosphere. An occasional laugh can be heard from fellow crewmates nearby as you gather yourself trying to still look presentable while covered in slime and face towards Hemmer.
Coughing and taking off your mask, you stand up and attempt to brush off the extra slime and look towards Hemmer trying to ignore your new aching side from where you landed. "Everything is in working order, chief."
Casually typing into his datapad, the antenna moved around sensing him. "And the particle levels?"
"99.9%. Since I got in the tubing system at a slower speed and the opening of the emergency escape hatch, we let in ship-created oxygen that will disperse over the next couple of hours with no damage to the systems." With a shake of your head like a dog, more extra slime fell to the ground looking like a jello monster exploded on you.
"Correct and correct. Go to the hypersonic shower near the entrance of the locker rooms and then we shall get you to your second destination.” Pointing to the location, you stepped in and felt a cool breeze as air and water hit you making the jelly-like slime disappear but still leaving you feeling unclean.
Similar to the early task, you put your mask on once more and step carefully into the coolant chambers and repeat the same actions, and painfully fall onto the ground with a less audible flop. They need to add some cushioning under those emergency hatches but alas, your future bruises shall be your reminder for now.
“And?” He asks, eyes focusing still on his datapad as he tapped away without stopping.
“In perfect working condition sir. The coolant is at a lower temperature making sure they remain both in their purest form while also not becoming dangerous to the crew. Exactly 10 Celsius.” Taking off your mask, you waddle to the hypersonic shower once more and get rid of the potentially dangerous coolant for the heating and cooling system of the ship.
Returning in your earlier uniform with a small towel drying your hair, he nods in your direction acknowledging your approach. “Your first assignments are completed for today as I have looked into your claims and you did put in the energy cores. Perfectly at that, cadet. You are relieved of the remainder of your hours and go have lunch. See you tomorrow at 600 hours cadet."
"Yes sir." And with that, the first day is completed and it goes swimmingly if you say so yourself as you head out of the room towards the nearest replicator machine and take an ibuprofen for the bruises.
***
Hour 1500
Sitting in the mostly empty cafeteria, you mind your business and take up your table with your small plate of a random assortment of fruits and a biscuit drizzled with some gravy on it. Gluten heals the soul or stomach some say, but for now, it will do. Nothing can beat freshly made food but the cafeteria food replicators will have to do so for now. Using your datapad, you play some music quietly to your wireless headset and enjoy your breakfast until someone slides into the chair across from you.
Looking up you find a blonde in the chair looking at her plate and then at your own eyes with an innocent smile. “You’re new here! I would remember your face if I had to hypo-spray you before, so how are you liking the ship?”
Taking off your headset to be polite, you raise a brow but shrug. “As good as being a new cadet can be. The ship is truly more beautiful in person than I expected.” You shrug as you eat some fruit and shake her outstretched hand.
“I am Christine Chapel, or Nurse Chapel to you.” She smiles with something glittering in her eye you cannot understand, “And your name, newbie?”
“Cadet L/N at your service nurse.” You two eat in comfortable silence for a while until she suddenly sees the time on your datapad and begins to make a beeline for the turbo lifts. “Nice to meet you L/N!” She waves, “See you later!” Her voice calls out from down the hall causing you to shake your head till you are interrupted by a small voice clearing.
Several feet away, stood Hemmer with a plate filled with some kind of orange vegetable dish in a salad. “Nurse Chapel may be odd but she is a vital crewmember to the cogs of the Enterprise. I will tell you advice I hope you heed, cadet.”
“Which is?” Your eyes are wide as saucers as you lift the biscuit to your mouth chewing it with curiosity.
“Do not let your guard around her. She is keen with her hypo sprays.” He ominously says as he walks away with a small hidden smile on his face leaving you alone to process his advice. Suddenly her kind eyes with mysterious intent seem more intimidating than before...
***
Hour 2000
Later on in your shared quarters, you claim your new bed and settle in early with the door down for privacy. Not in the mood to meet any more people for today, you start to nod off when someone taps your door. Grumpily turning over, you press a button and it opens with a swish greeting you with a friendly face.
"Hello! You can call me Uhura, I'm in the bunk right next to you. You look exhausted, how did your ship hazing go?" The woman is cheerful and warm with her smile, letting her sudden intrusion less harsh on your tired brain.
"Wonderful as hazing can be." You yawn, "Checked on the lubrication and coolant systems."
"Oh really? That's interesting! When I had to do my rounds around the ship, he never had me complete that task." She tapped on her chin and looked with pity at you and pats your shoulder softly. "Maybe it means something."
"Like what? He felt like me becoming a jello monster for his hazing amusement? I know he already checked the levels, as he would have already known due to his senses without me getting in the tubing completely. I could have drawn a sample to check while remaining dry of.. the jello textures." You groan at her and sigh, though you enjoy engineering something like texture just can't be overlooked.
"I didn't say it had to mean anything! I heard from rumors you inspected and put in the energy cores while at the base without anyone's help too. Maybe he was testing you and wanted to make sure you were the real deal and not just a ladder climber."
"I guess you could be right, Uhura. It would make sense because that task would be easy to route out a narcissist." Sitting up, you swing your legs out of your small bed doorway and look at her. Extending your hand, she shakes it softly with warmth radiating off of her.
“You do not know how much I am glad to have someone newer here than me, cadet..?” She awaits your name and you respond with a yawn. “L/N Y/N.”
“Well L/N, it is great to meet you. You have been making the rounds in the gossip sphere you know.” She giggles, sitting in her cot still facing towards you.
“But why would they? Is there nothing else to talk about on a ship this big?” You let out a small gasp and look around your room with the rest of the pods either empty or closed.
“Well, it’s not just a small feat to be able to get out of your cadet training early you know! Especially Hemmer's.” She playfully nudges your leg with her foot and continues, “Hemmer and La’an security department are notoriously known to be the hardest departments and you come out of yours early and do something out of the ordinary for cadets. No wonder there’s gossip L/N.”
With a rosy blush, you nudge her leg back with your foot and shake your head. “I just have a special knack for engineering, it’s that simple Uhura. You’re just lucky you don’t know the feeling of falling out of a lubrication tube's emergency exit at full speed, I am glad I got out early before I could get more bruised.”
Pursing her lips she nodded at you then let out a large smile. “Well, we’ll see about that tomorrow then.”
While falling asleep that night, the gentle hum of the ship beneath you, you slept soundly while letting your thoughts roam as you slowly notice that your new colleagues seem strangely into the facts about you and the topic of engineering. Little did you know, it wasn’t totally unfounded as you were the talk of the town due to the normally silent Hemmer kept speaking of you to his friends.
***
One week later
Hour 0530
Finding a small routine in arriving to engineering early, lets you and Hemmer work together silently without any interruptions. With a rare smile or two shared between you both from small cheesy jokes about engineering puns, you looked up in your spare time to try and impress him, or him bringing breakfast for the two of you since you both had the habit of skipping breakfast to get to work. With often having a morning fruit salad with some Andorrian fruit you saw him eat previously, which you now know is tuber root, it became a casual routine between the two of you to work in tandem in comfortable silence.
As the whole engineering team crew began to work their morning shifts, it wasn’t uncommon for them to find you in small conversations debating on different perks and negatives with different possible upgrades to the ship at the next docking station. Though your rank is much lower, you find Hemmer truly listening to your ideas and concerns.
The next day, you find him researching the subject you mentioned previously making you smile and continue your routine checkup on the communications system server reboot as if you saw nothing but your smile revealed the truth.
Eventually, you find yourself listening to your music with your new friend and roommate, Uhura, every morning after your shift. When one casual Wednesday, you find her waving over someone and shouting as you have your headphones on blocking her out and you find yourself looking up at Hemmer sitting down across from you and beside Uhura.
With a knowing glance and a raised brow, you casually kick Uhura’s leg from underneath the table and take off your headphones, shyly smiling at the man who has his usual healthy diet of salad with tuber roots and fresh redbat mixed in.
“Good afternoon, Uhura, L/N. I hope I am not intruding on anything.” He says politely, beginning to eat his salad smug knowing the pairs squabble from underneath the table.
“Oh it’s fine, I was just finished anyways.” Uhura stands up, with her still full tray, and winks at you with a shit-eating grin. “See you later, L/N!” Oh, you are so going to kill her for this.
As the silence began to delve into the uncomfortable, Hemmer spoke up first. “Your food is becoming cold. I do not mind eating in silence if music is your preference.” Ever so polite, you smile at him and shake your head grabbing your fork once more.
“It’s fine Hemmer, I just did not expect this and that is why I am quieter than usual.” You mumble as you eat some of your food and see him doing the same. After a minute or two, you speak up, “Are you able to hear my music even with my headphones on? You mentioned it but I don’t think I have ever mentioned to you that I find music relaxing.”
“It is not that clear when the room is filled with many people as it is, but on quieter days, yes I can. Though some see my lack of vision as a problem, it lets me embrace my other senses better than many can comprehend including sound. I am not comparable to a Vulcan and their hearing but I am more keen than many think.” He lets out another small smug look on his face as he eats.
“Fascinating. Then do you wish to listen to the music with me? I can have them around my neck and turn up the volume. It’s some classical earth music.”
With a nod from him, you move to sit in the seat beside him with your plate and wrap your headphones around your neck. Turning up the volume enough that you can both hear it without bothering those around you, you find yourself touching forearm to forearm with him while you two sit contently listening with the ambient noise around you becoming drowned out.
You haven’t been this close to him before and he truly is a marvel. With his lips tilting upwards with a hint of a smile or smirk at all times, the grumpy Andorian man is peaceful at this moment. Closing his eyes and listening to your music as he chews the last of his salad. Blinking as he begins to turn to you, you face back to your lunch blushing but still keeping contact with him.
“My lunch shift is coming to an end. May we do this again, I rather enjoyed it.” Hemmer stands, hand grazing your arm softly, and with a smile and nod, “Of course. I would love to.” he walks off discarding his plate and utensils to be reused.
Leaving you with a fast-beating heart and red all over your face, you knew it was over. You had finally caught the love bug and it happened to be your boss.
***
One week later
Hour 0205
Something was off. With a sudden shake from the ship, you tumble into the door of your bunk and open it quickly to gather your surroundings. Seeing the lights all dark, the power of the ship fizzles on and off. Knocking on Uhura’s cot door, you find she doesn’t answer.
Tapping rapidly against the door panel, you find communications down and the ship on life support only. With several crew members in your quarters asking around, you find that no one knows what is happening. Before you know what you are thinking, you find yourself worrying and finding your previous uniform from today's shift.
Putting on your uniform bottoms and shirt as you run out of the door, you find the lights dim and more shaking similar to an earthquake at random intervals. Head feeling odd, you continue to the closest turbo-lift as you find heads poking out of their quarters and looking at you. ‘What was going on?’ was asked constantly but you ignored them as you skid to a stop at the turbo-lift doors and press the button taking straight down to engineering to find it in mayhem. As you descend, you find the higher levels of the ship are inaccessible through the turbo-lift making it rather an odd feeling as that is where the higher personnel quarters are.
Sirens blasting and a few crew members rushing around like headless chickens, you pull one of the older members aside to ask what was going on.
Shaking, the greying older man looks at you, “The ship is being attacked by a rouge pirate ship. They have taken out our weapons and we can’t find the password to the energy cores, energy core 3 has been corroded.” The man tears away from you to find a datapad and tries to find the answers and repeatedly contacts Hemmer.
Taking the pad from his hands, you scan the location for the internal location of the access point of the energy cores and take off running to the right entrance of the second area of engineering. “Listen up, I need two people to help me do this. We have to do this quickly before there is more damage to the ship!” You shout into the room surprising the crew and getting their attention.
“The energy cores are delicate but heavy. If energy core 3 has been corroded, there is a small chance there is enough energy locked in one of the back suppressors that it may still have enough energy to get us able to warp out of here or get the ship off of life support. Three people capable of running, leave now to communicate with the captain and the chief science officer; they are probably in their rooms or on the bridge. And finally, someone find Hemmer damn it.”
“You got it!” Some shout back while forming a huddle from your plan.
Waving at them without stopping, you hear the steps of two people following you as the others begin to deliberate on how to go forwards with the next steps. Looking over your shoulder you find a pair of men looking at you with fear but determination, you have noticed them once or twice while doing your routine checkups but they never really stood out to you.
“How do you know how to interact with the energy cores? Only the higher engineers have the access codes!” The shorter man with black hair asks while his plaid pajama shirt can be seen poking over the collar of his red uniform.
“I put them in! They had to tell me the codes while the crew on the ship were on leave!” You shout as you find a station with head protection and glasses besides some random left-out tools from the earlier crew shift.
“Do you know where Hemmer is? At least a theory to toss out?” You ask frazzled, tossing them each their own pair of protection and rushing towards the strange metal doors where the energy cores are kept.
“We thought you would know! You two are never separated.” The taller and older blonde man paled as he put on his shades shakily.
Rolling your eyes, you have the two open the heavy doors and see a screen showing the details of the energy cores and their statistics. Due to safety measures, energy cores have several barriers that if one is damaged or starts to corrode, they have walls that can try and save the leftover raw energy from being accessed by the damage. In this case, of the four safety barriers, only one remained, showing critical damage to the edge from a direct hit to the cargo bay and the ship's hull.
“Okay, I am going in there and I am going to get this ship back on track! Come get me the second Hemmer gets here.” You shout over the overhead siren and head in with heat-resistant gloves and eye protection from the bright lights that emerge from the energy cores.
Hovering your hands over each core, you gauge their status’ personally just in case the status report was faulty and quickly find energy core 3 by how much warmer it is compared to the others. Taking in a gasp from the heat through your gloves, you slowly use Starfleet-approved rotation drivers to move the heavy-duty axles of the energy cores. After close examination, Hemmer would be proud, you find that from temperature alone you discover that the axle of energy core 3 was damaged and required rotating to have the exposed side facing inside of the ship rather than the empty suction of space.
Just as you open the internal access points, the ship rocks violently causing you to scream out as your left arm lands against the scorching hot energy cores. Sucking in your breath and biting your lip to prevent further cries of pain, you begin to resume praying another shake doesn’t happen. Ignoring your arm for now, you feel the tension building with the rotation driver.
Click. Click. Click. Hiss.
With a sudden whir of motors, the axle is inside of the ship and the power begins to flicker less and the hum of the ship begins to regulate more. Slowly making your way toward the doors of the chamber, you find them closed and locked from the outside due to safety protocols if the cores needed to be ejected into space to save the crew. Slamming your good arm and hand on the door you cry out for help but only become muffled through the heavy machinery nearby wiring to life.
With another rumble of the ship, you can hear deep in the ship the warp core is beginning to heat up and be engaged, causing fear to go through the pit of your stomach. Before you can call out again, you find yourself falling onto the ground on your wounded arm as the warp core reaches full potential and suddenly hits warp without the usual preparation included in the artificial gravity dampeners that still aren’t on fully.
With muted shouts to be heard through the heavy doors, you find consciousness hard to maintain while being unable to move from the sheer force of hitting the ground and taking the breath out of you. With a moan, you see a crack of light through the doors reflect upon the floor near your head when you feel yourself being lifted.
Rolling your head towards your holder, you find a disheveled Hemmer grunting as he runs towards the turbolifts to get to medical from the special turbo-lift shaft for higher-ranking members. Faintly you hear him whisper to you, “Keep consciousness please L/N. Listen to my voice. I do not recommend taking a nap. You do not need to make Nurse Chapel feel the need to hypo spray stab you for good measure.”
The bumping of his wide steps hurt awfully but adrenaline came in clutch as you see the lights from the turbolift reflect on the man above you. Gazing up at him and his cloudy eyes, you lightly raise a tired hand to his face and fix his disheveled bangs. With a small smile, he thanks you and continues on the journey unknowingly to you, blushing.
Before you know it, you see the bright lights above your eyes and a terrible-looking Nurse Chapel apologizes as she hypo’s your neck causing you to submit to unconsciousness while reaching out for Hemmer unconciously.
***
Hour 1000
Slowly opening your eyes to the harsh artificial lighting, you find your hand heavier than usual yet comforting from how cold it is. Lazily glancing to your right, you find a sleeping Hemmer leaning back in his chair with his left hand clenching your unharmed hand. With a blush dusting your cheeks, your heart rate rises, betraying you and waking the man beside you due to the machine hooked to you peaking.
“How are you feeling?” He asks with concern still radiating off of the chief engineer, hand unmoving from yours.
“I still have an arm, that’s a start.” You chuckle, attempting to sit up. With a rush, the man lets go of your hand and helps you sit up and raise the bed cot to a sitting position, careful of your fully wrapped arm. “I didn’t expect you to be a light sleeper.” You joke, and he takes the bait with a ghost of a smile though worry still remains in his eyes.
“I am at the most inconvenient times and not when they are convenient.” He chuckles at you, filling your belly with butterflies.
Silence fills the room, only the heartbeat monitor creating noise between the two of you. Slowly bringing up your courage, you accept the future scolding for your dangerous behavior. “So..” You pause, lost for words.
“You did well.”
Well, that was unexpected, turning your head to look at him fully in shock, you find him gazing towards the direction of your face with his antennae moving around more than usual. “Let me delve more into the subject, you did well cadet L/N. You were able to get the ship out of danger while your superior officers were unable to reach the engineering room in time to do what you did. However,” He pauses, slowly reaching out and grazing his knuckles against your fingertips.
“I am proud of your bravery in the time of crisis, I am upset with your behavior as a..” He pauses once more, letting his clenched hand rest against your hand, “Friend I am upset with how careless you were.”
Letting the rare compliment soak in, you raise your fingertips to ghost over his knuckles as you speak. “I am sorry for worrying you Hemmer, I truly am. But I would do it all over again if I had to.” Raising your eyes from his hands, you find his face truly fascinating as he continues to examine you with his form of vision causing him to scrunch up his face.
“Spoken like a true hero that was carelessly brave in the face of death.”
“Says my prince charming.” You joke, fully resting your heavy hand on his hand.
“You remind me of my life's purpose, L/N.” He begins awkwardly, clearing his throat anxiously, never looking from your weakened form once as if the speech was planned ahead of time. Raising a brow at his statement you let him continue, “I am here to fix what is broken. Maybe... You are here too so I can help fix you too when you are broken.”
“That is very sweet Hemmer, what do you believe my life’s purpose is?” You ask, looking down at him shyly with a dusting of blush on your cheeks.
“Only you may truly know that. However, I may have a theory.” You feel cold fingers under your chin making you look up at the man. “You may be here to bring joy and love to those you care about.” With a smile gracing his lips, you gently nudge forwards in his grip.
“May I kiss you..?” You whisper, your breath ghosting onto his lips causing him to lick his lips unconsciously.
“You may.” He whispers as you softly land your lips onto his in a romantic chaste first kiss.
In the background standing unnoticed, there is Nurse Chapel and Doctor M’Benga silently celebrating. With a high five Doctor M’Benga and the nurse begin rapidly messaging their group chat that the ship has finally set sail and everyone is here for it.