Malfunctions galore.

Posted on Wed Mar 15th, 2023 @ 4:34pm by Lieutenant Acacia Thomas

839 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Ethics, Morals & The Prime Directive.
Location: CMO's quarters

Acacia grumbled and kicked the small antigrav unit that she'd been leading to her new quarters. It held the fragile items and the personal items that she didn't trust in transport. Aldean technology tended to be damaged in transport, due to their unique nature. It shuddered and jerked as it went forward and each jerk quickened the pulse of the doctor who was trying to get it to go.

It was maybe 20 meters from her door when the unit failed entirely and thudded to the ground with the unpleasant screech of metal on metal. There was the tinkle of glass and Acacia raked her hand through her newly minted quick-silver curls. The snarled curse words were in a liquid beautiful language the computer couldn't yet translate, but their tone was clear enough.

"Do you need assistance ma'am?" A tall, dark haired Lieutenant in engineering yellow peeked out of the computer room that was on this deck where he'd been doing some minor repairs.

"It was working fine until I got to this deck!" Acacia muttered darkly, then winced pressing her fingers to her hip. Stupid joint was just slightly misaligned again and it was blindingly painful at times. "And yes, I would very much appreciate some assistance."

"You should get that looked at" he commented as he took out a scanner and a multi functional tool to see what the problem was with the anti-gravity system that had come to a literal screeching halt in front of him.

"Hm? What?"

"Your hip flexor."

Acacia looked startled and raised bright blue eyes to the man who was helping her with the malfunctioning antigravity unit. "I'm sorry?"

"You're limping. My late wife had that problem when she was near done with her pregnancies. It was always the hip flexors." the man smiled fondly at the memory, though a sadness touched his eyes.

"Oh, I'm doing a lot more than limping, but I appreciate the advice. The spa caretakers and I are on a first name basis." Acacia didn't know if she should comment on the late wife portion of the statement "You're right though, it's always the hip flexors."

The engineer snorted with laughter and muttered something under his breath that sounded faintly like 'show your secrets'. He tapped one thing, then tugged out another and was rewarded by the sound of sand falling to the deck. "Aha."

"Aha sounds good."

"This model, it tends to have a malfunction in the power supply coupling. The points have a sort of coating, and it starts to corrode after a time, and when they're fully covered or degraded...Bang, useless hunk of junk where a anti-grav lift is supposed to be."

"So what does that mean for me?"

"Not a thing, I'll have it fixed in a jiffy. Just got to do a quick ultrasonic clean of the coupling connector points." He pulled the thing apart further and tapped it on the deck plating. A small flake of blackened something fell from the port. The hum of the ultrasonic device set her teeth on edge but she ignored it in favor of getting her things to her quarters in the most expedient way possible.

"Thank you Lieutenant?"

"Urvashi ma'am, and you're all set." He patted the lift gently, powered it back up and handed the controls back to her. "She's all yours. Let me know if you need anything else tinkered with."

Acacia giggled despite herself. "I will make sure to look you up."

It took all of 15 minutes to get the lift into her quarters and for her to start unloading into the space that she'd been newly assigned. It was big, and it had thanks to the new Captain a full sized nursery attached. She would have to make it into a playroom as well, but now she could set up for the imminent child.

That child, wanted to play as well, clearly. For the very moment she thought of the babe in her belly, the muscles tightened their grip in a spasm that she was unfortunately becoming accustomed to. This one was fiercer than she was used to, and she whimpered chewing her lower lip with the discomfort of it's initial grasp. Her fingertips traced the contraction across her belly with a hiss of pain and frustration as it finally eased itself. It had very effectively taken her mind off of the hip issue. Mentally she calculated if she had enough time before she had to sleep to have a soak in the hot pools at Nautalis. If she did that, she'd have to hoist herself into a bathing suit.

I'll just have a bath, and pretend Jack is here

"You either get busy coming out, or knock it off. I have working to do, and sleeping I should like to enjoy. I can do neither of those things with you keeping me up with all this kicking and these contractions that do nothing. You'll have more space if you decide to leave your cozy accommodations you know..."

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