Why not another Victory?

Posted on Sat Apr 25th, 2015 @ 12:06am by Captain Elijah Michaels & Lieutenant

Mission: Now Boarding.......
Location: Starbase 109
Timeline: 2390

The affair on Galtros VII had come and gone, and with it so too was Rain Lexington. Liviana McCray had buried her grief with her love, and now it was time to move on. To get on with her life. To go make something of herself while she continued to hide out from her pursuers.

Of course, her pursuers never seemed to grasp just exactly how audacious the time-travelling temptress tended to be, so it wasn't that hard staying one step ahead of them.

2390 sounded like a good year. It was a few years after Kaylen finally retired and gave up the big chair, though Livi still had to change her Starfleet records to wipe out that court martial she'd been thrown under the bus for in absentia. And of course there was still the matter of her existing in two places at the same time, but that was minor, all things considered. Tapping away at what appeared to be an ordinary pdd, no one would see what she was really doing, and she doubted most would believe it. After all, why would they? She just looked like another Starfleet specialty officer sitting on the promenade watching the starships slide by.

Which was when a Sovereign class slowly eased into view in the starbase orbit, and looking out the wide open viewports of the Andorian cafe in which she was seated Liviana happened to notice the name and registry. Which of course caused her to laugh musically for a good twelve seconds. Wouldn't Grandmama be pleased... another Victory, this one with no letters behind her name, just registry. And the very same top of the line late 24th century starship that her old girl NCC 1967 had managed to outwit and outmaneuver once upon a time.

And in that moment Liviana went to work fabricating orders. Time to get herself assigned to a starship, she mused. She'd had enough of making the engines hum and thrum and effecting jury-rigged repairs with a pioneer attitude and know-how that spanned centuries. Just science would so... heck, she would even play it straight a bit and sign on as a helioseismology specialist. Why not... it had been a long time since anyone actually expected her to study the stars.

Rising, she stretched in a long body stretch, hands over her head, turning and twisting slightly to get all of the kinks out. The local foot traffic slowed suddenly as the statuesque scientist's sensational curves were quite suddenly on display, and as she released the stretch and turned to leave she ran straight into a commander apparently trying to avoid a gawking Bolian who had become rooted to the spot blinking rapidly at the sight of the pointy-eared vixen working the kinks out of her muscles.

Or rather, he ran straight into her. Which was somewhat comical given their height difference.

“Oh my goodness are you alright?” Elijah asked noticing he had collided with somebody, not noticing her. He had been in a rush himself and wasn’t paying much attention at all. After all, the collision had been a rather soft one for him, given that he had colleded almost eye-level with the woman’s rather prodigious and abundant bosom.

“No harm done,” the victim laughed musically, brushing herself off as if somehow she would have become dirtier in the collision. “Likely my fault, I imagine I was a bit lost in thought.”

Looking up at his suddenly conversant encounter, Elijah took in rather a sight. Pale, pale blue eyes, nearly silver they were so light caught his eye first, but that was only because they stood out in such stark contrast to the deeply tanned skin of the human woman. No, perhaps not, he corrected himself- tapering up alongside the light auburn hair were pointed ears, marking her as a Vulcan, perhaps a Romulan... but whoever heard of a redhead from either of those races? And the million-watt smile definitely did not scream ‘Vulcan’.

“Then there was the rather lush body that rather reminded him of a rollercoaster- all dangerous curves and thrills, that likely were not safe yet seemed particularly tempting. The woman was tall- his own five feet left her an easy foot taller than him if not more, and as she quirked an eyebrow, noticing his scrutiny, she shifted her weight to one generous hip, placed her hand on it at her narrow wasp waist and offered him an indulgent smile.

“Let me know when you regain rational thought and we can finish this little encounter, Commander,” she teased with a twinkle in her eye. It could have been a cold and aloof statement designed to embarrass him, but instead she managed to make it sound almost like a come-on.

“I’m sorry Lieutenant... forgive me.” Elijah then extended her his hand. “I’m Commander Michaels, the Commanding Officer, and you are?” He asked not recognising her, despite the obvious identifiable features that would set her apart from many others.

“Commander of the starbase? Nice place you’ve got here. I’m McCray, Liviana McCray. Just passing through I’m afraid... I’ve got a date with a private joke,” she replied, taking and shaking the hand, which produced some rather seismic reactions in her anatomy that, given the degree of ‘out of uniform’ that her bodysuit was unzipped made it remarkably difficult to ignore.

“No I mean, Commander of the USS Victory.” He commented to the lady he had met by bumping into.in the hallway.

“Oh... well, isn’t that a coincidence, then? I’m your chief science officer I believe, unless you have someone better qualified,” she offered with a smile, adding under her breath, “though I somehow doubt that’s possible.”

“Well hello, Lieutenant.” Elijah smiled at her and then nodded. “Yes, your record is very good and I can’t find a more knowledgeable individual than yourself.” Which is true from what he had read from her files.

That got him an upraised eyebrow and a small close-lipped smirk that gave him the distinct impression that she was enjoying a private joke, possibly at his expense. “Of course. Well, they say helioseismologists are a dime a dozen these days, but I dabble in plenty of other fields to keep myself busy. So the Victory, eh? Is she right off the line or has she been in service for a tick?” Liviana fell to familiar patterns, asking questions to which she already knew the answers, designed to stimulate conversation by turning the subject toward anything but herself.

“She has been around the last couple of years doing a few Alpha Quadrant explorations, but this is her first major venture into the unknown.” The Commander commented, happy to answer any questions that were thrown towards him.

Moving back toward the transparent aluminum walls that comprised one side of the cafe, the woman practically swivelled when she moved, as if her hips were on a ball joint to her spine. “She’s a beauty, all right,” McCray remarked as the Victory slowly slid past on her orbital path about the starbase. “Have you been in command of her all this time?”

“This is my first time in Command of her, I was asked to take charge of her recently.” Eli said honestly. “I’ve served on a Sovereign Class before so it’s still fresh in my head.”

“Well, that will put you one up on me. I haven’t served on a Soveriegn in... a while,” the statuesque scientist mused. “They’ve been active for what, twenty years now, but there still are not that many of them serving in the fleet as I recall. They decided they were too big and expensive and the Excalibur had more classic lines,” she mused as if it were ancient history instead of current events, with the new Excalibur starship design not having been launched as yet.

Elijah nodded. “That is true, but with the success of the Galaxy line which are still around it wouldn’t surprise me to see a few more of these Ships launched in the next couple of decades.” The Commander was optimistic about such things. “They are that well built after all.”

“Mmmm, I wouldn’t bet the farm on that,” the science officer mused under her breath. There were five Sovereign class starships in Starfleet at current, and that was all there were ever going to be. While Commander Michaels was unaware, his would be the last of the Sovereign class to roll off the line from the San Francisco fleetyards.

“We shall have to see won’t we?” Elijah smiled at her. “Anyway Lieutenant I hope that you are ready to get to work and move into your new home.”

“Brought my quarters with me and I am certain that the Victory and I will get along like old relatives,” the hottie helioseismologist quipped, offering a wink to the vessel outside. “She comes from a long lineage of daring and greatness... I’ll do my part to help her live up to that. How about you, all settled in and ready to start tilting at windmills across the cosmos?” Turning slightly McCray regarded the commander’s reflection in the polished surface as she folded her hands behind her back.

“That I am, I’ve been here for a few days.” Elijah responded to her enquiry. “When I got there, there was just myself and the Engineering team doing initial checks.” The Ship had been completely emptied out bar a few Enlisted Crew.

“Mmmm,” the sly seductress murmured noncommittally. “Not much of a talker, are you?” she ventured, turning to regard the shorter man beside her.

“Is this just a rank thing, an exhaustion thing or is this your usual setting?” For someone whom had just met her commanding officer, she seemed remarkably casual in both her air and attitude, as if somehow all of this were just a passing fancy to her.

“Sorry, it’s a habit I have from time to time and it is nothing personal.” Elijah smiled at her. “Though I am mightily intrigued because I haven’t met anybody like you before……..” The Commander smirked.

“And I genuinely doubt ye ivvir will,” McCray quipped back, a sudden Scottish brogue slipping easily into her voice. Which was once again nothing that one would expect from a tanned pointy-eared redhead, who was turning out to be nothing like any officer the Commander had ever encountered indeed.

“Do you always dress like that?” He chuckled at her. “Because some may raise an eyebrow…...Though me? I am easily impressed by unique ‘ability’.”

“Funny story. I had a commanding officer once who was more concerned with where me zipper was than what I was doing on the bridge. Eventually I left her ship when she was in the middle of destroying a first contact mission with her pigheadedness, and then she dinna have ta worry aboot me zipper any more.” The amazonian astronaut turned to regard him quizzically. “I suspect ye’ve more common sense than that, aye?”

“I think as long as you do your job…….Then the zipper and your attire are none of my concern at all……..” The Commander grinned at her.

That got him a wide and bright grin as she leaned her forearm on his shoulder, emphasizing their height difference. “Depending on how you define ‘my job’, that shouldn’t be a problem. Answer the impossible questions, know half of everything and be able to figure out the rest and work the sensors like a conductor for the Philharmonic? Then aye, ye and me will get along jooost fine.” That brogue slipped in and out of her speech like a ghost, sometimes there, sometimes not

“Well then…...I think we shall get on swimmingly……..” Elijah grinned, realising what was at his eye level at the moment. “Hopefully we can make it as interesting as possible.”

“Interesting is the problem,” she sighed wistfully. “My greatest enemy is boredom. When you’ve been and seen and done, it gets harder and harder to not just pull up stakes and move on to somewhere more interesting, more exciting, more appealing. The grass is always greener, so they say...”

“That I can understand, it can be harder to... cope.” He said to her, still in the eye level of her rather abundant assets. “With us being in the Gamma Quadrant anything is possible in the abyss of Space. We have much to discover out here.”

“Good and bad, I suspect. What are your expectations for this mission, then?” The woman asked the questions casually, s one might ask of a peer rather than of a commanding officer. If she had a clue as to the assignment, she wasn’t letting on. Instead she asked deliberately leading questions to see what responses she would get. After all, she had learned psychoanalysis from Freud and personality typing from Jung and Briggs. So while on the surface it may have seemed like light conversation, instead she was taking advantage of the opportunity to build a fast cross-reference of the starship commander, to see what sort of man he was, how much he would be willing to volunteer, how he would react to certain stimuli and just who the man was at his core.

These things were important to know when choosing a starship upon which to spend her time and talents, after all.

“Well the Gamma Expeditionary Fleet has just been set up. We are here to take part in the Expedition once we get our Crew all present and accounted for, which could take time since the Fleet has just been assembled.” Elijah said to the Science Officer, it was true things could be better organised from Command but right now it was a case of deal with it until then.

“Hrm... guess I showed up a little early,” she muttered to herself.

“It gives us all time to settle in and get to know one another.” Elijah commented. “In your case it would good to familiarise yourself with your new Position.”

That got him a burst of laughter which settled into a steady giggle as she leaned on him, trying to catch her breath. The activity was decidedly distracting when she did so, and as she wiped a few tears from her eyes she sighed merrily. “Ohhhh, sorry. That wasnae supposed to sound quite like that, it just caught me off guard a tetch is all. I, ah, think I’m quite intimately familiar with me position, Commander. I think ye’ll find I’m perhaps better acquainted withh most positions than the majority of yuir crew.” While it sounded like arrogant bragging, it also sounded like sexual innuendo, and it was quite unclear just which she was aiming for with her statement.

“That I can imagine you are reasonably acceptable for anything.” Elijah commented, though trying his hardest not to snigger at the way in which it was put across to him. But of course versatility was a key skill in any position not that it was a problem. “Well I can see you would be useful in a variety of situations should they occur on a Starship on or off duty.” He smirked. “Which I have no objections to, frankly I am all for it.”

“Oh do tell...?” the sultry scientist took her forearm off his shoulder and turned, leaning her back against the clear portal to space to look him in the eye. Her hands were still folded behind her back, thus pulling her shoulders back and causing her prodigious breasts to protrude that much more prominently. “What sort of positions did you have in mind, Commander?” she asked softly, her half-lidded eyes twinkling with a hint of mischief. He could almost swear there were literally motes of light twinkling in there.

“Well that you will have to wait and see Lieutenant…..” Elijah chuckled. “Ideally a good Officer can adapt to anything that is put in there way.” He said, hoping gauge a response from her and see how she would react herself to certain things.

“If it’s in my way,” McCray levered herself off the transparent wall and leaned in toward the commander, until their noses were nearly touching. “I either go through it, find a way around it... or I remove it with surgical precision,” she offered sweetly. “Though I prefer challenges that are not just obstacles, but instead... opportunities.”