Early Bird Gets The Worm

Posted on Sun Aug 16th, 2026 @ 5:10pm by Ensign Alecx Novis & Ensign Elira Vyn

1,653 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 2: Mine of Taurus
Location: USS Scharnhorst, Engineering

"Shouldn't you be bed?" Elira asked him, as she smiled at Alecx. She had not expect him to arrive in engineering, at this early hour. She was doing a simple diagnostics, so she had a little bit of time where she could allow herself to be slightly distracted. Not to the point of not doing your duties but enough to engage with him.

“Oh sure, probably, but I couldn’t sleep.” Alecx shrugged. It was the truth, after all, and if he couldn’t sleep then he wanted to do something at least somewhat productive. If the Chief Engineer caught him in here at this hour, he’d likely get in trouble, but he wasn’t… Sooooo, “”I figured that Gamma shift might get awful boring for you, so I decided that I could come down and cheer you up a bit?”

"I see, I will admit my night has gotten a little more brighter now that you're here. But don't like I get to your head." She said, but the teasing grin on her face, as she's continued her diagnostics.

"Well, I happen to like that you get into my head, it's a rather pretty picture." He leaned his hip on the console with a smile at her, "What sort of tasks does your Chief have you doing at this time of the morning, or is it something too classified to be able to talk about?"

"I wish, that would be cool no he has me doing a simple diagnostic on the floor regulation system, something that he's going to do when he gets here in about a couple hours. It's like he's double checking my work." Elira said, she was trying to hide her annoyance in her tone.

"I can only imagine.. But, think of it this way, when he does the diagnostic and finds that you did everything perfectly, he's going to be happier with you. Keep doing things right and he'll give you more and more important tasks and then will eventually not even bother double-checking anything." He grinned, "And that'll be sooner rather than later if he sees as much in you as I do."

"I hope your right. I feel like he does not trust me. My record is spotless." Elira pointed out to him. She could not understand why Zaire had to overreach and check her work.

"You're also just an Ensign, despite being Joined, and it's his job to be paranoid to make sure the ship's running." Alecx stretched, "Me? I just have to be able to take apart my fellow sentients on a moment's notice and my own boss just got her promotion to Junior Grade Lieutenant, so she's taking it a lot easier on the rest of us. That does give me a lot more time to daydream about a particularly cute girl I met."

"I am not sure how long ago my CO was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade. I fear it will be years, before he recommends me for promotion," Elira said, knowing that Zaire did not trust her abilities, as made evident by the mundane tasks he assigned to her.

"You and I? We have years yet, I think, before we're going to be exalted high officers," He chuckled, "Never mind that you and I have an unfair advantage over the others, what with our 'prior experience' and all. Give him some time, he'll see how good you really are and before you know it," He reached out to touch her hand gently, "You'll be the one he leaves in charge when he's not around."

"Unfair advantage you say? Do you want to run this diagnostic?" Elira suggested to him, and she stepped aside the console that she was reading, while maintaining a conversation with him. She asked with a playful smile.

“Oh no, no, no, that’s all on you.” Alecx chuckled as he backed out of doing the work himself, “I’m just saying that with both of us being Joined, we have extra memories to deal with, more experience in life. But… If you’d like a bit of a shoulder massage while you’re doing all this? That much I can arrange.”

"That can be setting a dangerous precedent. Before you know it my whole crew might want a neck massage. You don't expect me to take special privileges while on duty do you? What kind of officer in charge would I be if I allowed that?" Elira said with the teasing grin on her face. Her tone was warm and playful.

“Well, the rest of your shift would just be out of luck, because these would be reserved for the person who has the pressure and responsibility of being the officer in charge at the time.” Alecx then gave a very innocent but mischievous smile, “But if you’re saying you don’t want one…” He trailed off in anticipation of an objection.

"Your trouble, thank God you're cute." Elira suggested to him, and she lately took her and it gently patted his cheek. She had a big grin on her face, and she heard a couple beeps from her station. "Surprise surprise, same results as an hour ago." She said as she started to walk away from the station and move on to the next mundane task assigned to her.

Just like a puppy, Alecx followed her. She said he was cute, that went far with him, of course it was a good sort of trouble as well, so that was another plus! As she settled behind a console with another wig, doubtlessly due to repeating the same task for the umpteenth time already, he reached out and started to rub her back gently, “I really hope you don’t mind.”

"Then I hope you don't mind giving one to the entire crew. I'm curious to see how our resident Vulcan is going to like you touching them?" Elira said with a big smile.

The Vulcan engineer simply raises eyebrow, as he went back to work. Thinking it was illogical to really get involved in their conversation. He also thought to himself that if the two of them would shut up and just actually do work they'd be more proficient.

“I think I’d be in trouble if I did that,”Alecx graduated to her shoulders, with barely a glance at the Vulcan with an apologetic glance, his fingers feeling the knots already having formed, “Oo, yeah, you really are a bit miffed right now, aren’t you? I can feel the tension in your shoulders.”

Elira shook free of his grasp. "Okay maybe a little, I just don't want to be treated any differently and if you start doing that you might undermine me. I don't think my co likes me or trust me enough and if he hears that you're going around massaging my shoulders and coming to my work site, he might give me a hard time. However, my bank is not going to be around for a while so if you kind of want to come over after my shift I wouldn't mind a massage then." Elira said to him, but then quickly followed up with. "Just a massage."

"Just a massage." Alecx confirmed as he backed off from her, "I wouldn't dare go further than that without permission." He was starting to feel like an idiot coming down here after not being able to sleep, but nothing he could do about that now. "Then perhaps I should leave you alone to finish your shift, and get ready to give you a really good massage. How does that sound?"

"You don't have to go, just don’t do anything that's going to draw unnecessary attention to us I like you being around. If you really can't sleep and you don't mind doing mundane tasks, I can put you to work. Don't worry you won't have to call me sir or ma'am." Elira suggested to him with the teasing grin on her face.

“Why, yes, ma’am,” Alecx teased her with a wink, “So long as it’s not too overly technical, can do. I wouldn’t want you or anyone else here to think that we security officers are much more than low-browed goons that don’t know a tricorder from a shuttlecraft! I’ll do whatever I can to be of assistance.”

"Be careful you ask for, I'll definitely take you up on it. Don't think I haven't forgotten about that back rub you promised me at the end of my shift." Elira said with the big grin on her face. She walked him over to a station, giving him one of her mundane tasks, she pointed out to him that he just needed to keep measuring the two metrics in the lonely stayed within a certain parameter safety wall that things will be fine. He was regulating and monitoring the warp core reactor, safety containment unit.

This was definitely out of his comfort zone, truth be told he didn't have any clue what he was actually monitoring, but if she said to make sure they stayed within the parameters, he could absolutely do that. His eyes flickered up to the one reading then to the other as he made it effectively into a game in his mind.

"Cat got your tongue, Mister?" Elira asked, as she got ready to leave the station. She grinned, as she started to walk away. Waiting to see if he would say something.

Alecx chuckled and glanced at her, smiling, "Well, ma'am, I don't want to make my boss think that I'm slacking off, I've heard that she can be a bit of a taskmaster." He teased her lightly back.

Elira just gave him a wink, as she walked away. There was not much to say, he had a valid point. The scene fades away with them both working.

 

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