JP - Lt. Nathan Richards & Lt. Cmdr Robin Hopper: Discoveries (Part 2)

[Travis St. John]

((Next Day – Section Gamma, Shuttlebay, Amity Outpost))

The Chief Science Officer nodded her head absentmindedly as she read through the checklist on her PADD. It wasn’t every day you personally oversaw the first Federation survey of a hitherto uncharted star system. Her expectations were high — but she felt distracted, and had convinced herself that  they were going to forget some crucial piece of equipment. 

Nathan sat at the helm console of the Type 17 shuttlecraft as the collection of probes were loaded into the rear cargo hold. He was maybe halfway through the pre-flight checklist, when he heard footsteps coming closer behind him. He turned his head slightly and offered Robin a warm smile as she approached.

Richards: Welcome aboard, Commander. Is our cargo nice and secure?

Hopper chewed her lower lip nervously. 

Hopper: Yes. I double checked that it was all there. And I triple checked it…  ::Taking a seat, rolling her eyes at herself::  I think if I’d checked it again the deck gang might’ve thrown me in there with the probes. 

She set the PADD down gingerly on top of the console in front of her, breathing a sigh of relief. 

Hopper: It's secure. 

She left it unstated that she felt far from secure. 

Richards: Perfect. ::Tapping at the console:: =/\= Shuttle…::Reading the name of the craft on the screen:: Karakoram…to Amity Ops. Requesting permission for lift off.=/\=

The voice of the shuttlebay ops officer came back over the comm line. 

Ch’urro: =/\= Affirmative, Karakoram, you are cleared for lift off. Traffic lanes are clear. =/\=

Hopper: ::To Richards, squinting::  Did you need to double check that?

Nathan turned to look at her, leaning back in the pilot’s seat.

Richards: I feel like just naming this thing K2 would have been easier.

Hopper: Hah. Yeah, good luck getting that registry cleared. If anything it’d be K-A.  ::Pause::  Is there a K1 in this scenario?

Richards: ::Chuckling:: Just say K1 never existed? ::Shrugging:: I dunno.

Robin rolled her eyes, but smiled despite herself. This was the kind of dumb, meaningless, yet somehow deeply engrossing conversation that had her wondering just what was going on in her head lately. She felt… charmed. 

Hopper: ::Smirking::  Just fly the ship.

She turned back to the front of the shuttle, focusing on her console as she began confirming the baseline readings from their collection of probes. But she couldn’t help shooting him another sideways glance and smiling as he replied. 

Richards: ::Exaggerated salute:: Aye, Commander.

As the shuttle rose and sailed out towards the purple nebula beyond, they both busied themselves with routine checks and necessary preparations for the warp journey ahead. Gramineae was not far away, but reaching it would require more complex navigational planning than usual, as – according to the Hawlat’s records – there was a dense oort cloud surrounding the system which would complicate their arrival.

Nathan looked at Robin from the corner of his eye as he made slight adjustments to their course based on recent sensor readings. Nothing necessarily critical, but he didn't want his glance to go noticed. There was a tension between them, and he was sure she felt it too.

Hopper: Alright, let’s hope those records are accurate. I’ve charted a course that should take us to within several hundred thousand kilometers of the cloud’s outer edge… After that, we’ll be relying on you…

Richards: ::Turning towards her:: Ready for some more of that "fancy flying", huh?

Nathan gave her a cheeky smile before he engaged the warp engines. As the Karakoram entered warp, the viewscreen was filled with the sight of thousands of distant stars appearing to streak past them, surrounding them, and almost guiding them towards their eventual destination like a corridor through the heavens.

Hopper: That’s a sight I never get tired of.  ::Fondly::  You know, the first time I traveled on a ship at warp was when I was five years old; A family trip back to Velestus – um, Alpha Centauri.  ::Shaking her head::  I didn’t know it at the time, but they were going to have my sister, and… Well, that’s not the point… I remember standing at the viewport of that star liner and just being in awe, having so many questions, and wanting the answers so badly.

Robin sighed wistfully, leaning back in her seat and curling a loop of chestnut hair around her finger. Nathan watched the motion, leaning back in his own seat.

Hopper: Now I know a lot of those answers. The warp bubble enhances the doppler effect, elongating the visible spectrum of starlight, and the temporal compression factor accelerates their apparent relative motion…  ::Gesturing to the stars beyond the shuttle::  Somehow knowing all that doesn’t make it any less beautiful.

Richards: ::Quietly:: It sure is.

She turned to face him, her cheeks growing slightly red. He realized he had been staring at her the entire time she spoke, and turned back towards the viewscreen.

Hopper: I… don’t know why I said all that just now. It just came out.

Richards: ::Shrugging, looking out the viewport:: It is beautiful. If I'm completely honest, the first time I ever experienced warp travel…was at the academy. 

He crossed his arms, still looking out the front viewscreen.

Richards: At first the thought of traveling at warp was…kind of scary. I spent my whole life with my feet on solid ground. ::Chuckling, shaking his head:: Imagine. An engineer being scared of warp.

He turned to look at her, a half smile on his face – she looked back, amused and nostalgic.

Richards: But that first trip…I don't know. It was like it made something click. ::Turning his head back towards the viewscreen:: It was like I finally found where I was supposed to be. Everything made sense. 

Hopper: ::Chuckling::  And you’ve never slowed down since, huh?

Nathan laughed and shook his head. She was feeling like she was over sharing or something, but here he was doing about the same thing. Why did it feel so strange? They had spent plenty of time together, just talking. Talking about their lives, their dreams…why did this conversation feel so different?

Richards: There have been moments that I've…questioned what I'm doing here since then. ::Looking at Robin from the corner of his eye again:: But things just keep making sense all over again.

Hopper: Oh?

Richards: I’m not making a lot of sense now, am I? ::Chuckling:: But the point is there.

Robin turned back to her instrument panel, tried to make heads or tails of what she was feeling, and came up blank. Unfortunately, she only had a doctorate in physics. Matters of the heart were less… ‘textbook’ – and she didn’t have any of the answers.

Hopper: No. It makes sense. I think. We’re all just trying to figure things out, aren’t we? All the time. And every time you start to think you’ve ‘got it’...  ::Glancing to Nathan::  The universe throws something new at you.

There was a pause, and the air was filled with an unanswered tension which neither of them seemed eager to break. For the moment, at least, they both lived in that unspoken moment, waiting to see how things would fall… simultaneously reassured and terrified by its indefiniteness.

Hopper: Nate… About what happened on Idrus–  ::Realizing she didn’t need to ‘speak in code’::  I mean, during our last mission... I know we haven’t had much time to… talk about it.  ::Turning back, facing out the front viewscreen::  Things have been busy since we’ve been back and, um, well, you know we both received promotions, new responsibilities…

She trailed off, hoping desperately that he would pick up where she left off.

Richards: ::Sighing:: New priorities and less free time?

Hopper: Right. Maybe this isn’t the best time to– 

The console in front of them chimed as the shuttle approached the edge of the oort cloud. A moment later and the shuttle dropped out of warp, slowing down to an impulse crawl and giving them their first view of the oort cloud. The still-distant, yet much closer, field of dense space debris was visible – even without magnification. Ice crystals and rock fragments drifted in the distance, some appeared to be as large as a Defiant-class starship, while others were substantially smaller than the shuttle they came in. 

Immediately, the ship’s sensors began providing information to them on their displays about the cloud. 

Hopper: Looks like we’ve dropped out of warp right on target.  ::Relieved sigh::  I guess the telemetry the Hawlat provided was accurate. Now it’s just a matter of navigating that field.

Nathan looked at the readings and nodded. Robin's previous words were left to the air within the cabin as they moved closer to the cloud.

Richards: Time for that fancy flying.

TBC in Part 3…

Lt. Commander Robin Hopper

Chief Science Officer,

Amity Outpost

V239806K11

&

Lieutenant Nathan Richards   

Engineering Officer,

Amity Outpost

A239905NR1