Just Dropping In
Posted on Fri May 31st, 2024 @ 9:13am by Rear Admiral Yoshi Minawara & Lieutenant Commander Asahi Kita
Edited on on Fri May 31st, 2024 @ 9:18am
Mission:
Shakedown Shake-Up
Location: Admiral Minawara's Office, Esquimalt
2015 words - 4 OF Standard Post Measure
The sound of a POP!, followed by the ZOOP! of energy crackling in the air were Yoshi's only warnings. That, and the sound of a yelp and a series of swears as a figure came crashing down into the Admiral's desk. PaDDs and other odds and ends went flying as the desk gave way to the sudden impact, cracking under the pressure and collapsing in front of him. Atop the desk, lying in a mess of his own design, was Asahi Kita, surprised expression pointed at the ceiling. It took a beat, but his eyes snapped to his senior, and another beat later a sheepish smile appeared on his features.
"Hey there, Sir."
Yoshi was in a mood. Between a PR officer, set to make a positive impact on everything, and the Oversight Committee feeling it was their singular goal in life to get under his skin, he had been set in a mood. He'd been quietly enjoying a cup of rooibos tea he'd made, in some vain effort to control his annoyance, watching ships pull into the dockyard and leave, and in a moment he found himself enjoying a touch of peace. He'd just placed the teapot, a gift from his sister, down on his desk and turned back to the stars when the noise had caught his attention. In the crash of it all he turned around and fixed his eyes on the pot, or more so what remained of it, on the ground. Then his eyes turned to Asahi, and a small, almost unperceivable eye twitch poked through the mask of annoyance he brought forward.
"Lieutenant Commander," he said, flatly. "I was under the impression you were aboard the USS Nelson. Why are you lying in the remains of my desk?"
"I'm sure that was some weird miscalculation on someone's part," Asahi said dismissively, as if that answered all the questions. Despite his haphazard entrance, the Intel Chief was slow and deliberate in his movements getting up, trying not to cause more damage to the desk and it's contents. As he stood, a pang of realization had him flinch. "Sorry, the Nelson? What happened to the Vesta?" Then came the big, alarmed look in his eyes. "Wait, what did you call me?"
It took another half second before he stamped his foot and waved a fist at the ceiling, "Come back, you put me in the wrong damn reality!"
There was a good long pause that followed, as if the Admiral was taking in all that information and considering where to start. Almost as if he had momentarily given up on his own sanity he dropped the cup - the only piece left of the set now - and allowed it to smash against the floor somewhat unceremoniously. He had already turned and headed for the wall to where his private cabinet held collections of gifts. Most of them were wines and spirits from across member nations of the Federation, with a bottle of unlabeled Romulan Ale tucked away out of sight, a pre-collapse piece. While the alcohol was a temptation he felt the strong pull of, it was the tricorder he retrieved instead, squirrelled away out of sight behind the hidden doors of the cabinet, where one might not think to look. He turned back to the officer laying on the ground, an flipped the device open, reading the results as they came.
"Ah." He said, as if it had answered all his questions, and instead he left the phaser also tucked in the space alone, returning the tricorder and giving another moments thought to the bottles within. Deciding against it, though surely tonight he'd share something with his wife, he headed for the coffee bar. "Coffee?" he asked, his tone flat and steady, no different than one might expect to hear from an officer offering it to a friend. A loud sound filled the room, and he waited for the grinder to finish before prepping the pot and letting it brew. As the aroma filled the room, he stood there and regarded the intelligence officer, picking over his words carefully.
"So, where were you?" he landed on.
Despite the fact that Asahi (still) felt like he was far away from home, he cringed at the crashing of fine ceramics. His eyes rested on the cup, then to the now-dilapidated remains of the desk and - unfortunately - the rest of the tea set. "I can fix that," he stated hastily. He rolled off the desk and sat upright, meticulously plucking pieces of the set out of the chaos and setting them aside. "I think my Grandma has ceramicists in her line - ceramicists? Is that even a word?"
The babble ceased. But only for a moment. "Uh, coffee? I should be good without it. Don't wanna find out that I got an issue with caffeine between one century and anoOOOTHE- you know what, hold on."
He stood up, equally as careful to not step all over the gathered bits of ceramics, as if he truly thought he was going to make things better by the magic of his bloodline. There was a squint to his gaze as he looked Yoshi up and down and a mental checklist was started. Finally, he landed on "Admiral. You're an Admiral here. Okay. We can work with that. I can tell you things now that you're an Admiral. I think. You know what, I probably should tell you huh? That's probably a good idea regardless of whether you've got clearance or not."
The eye twitch threatened to return and Yoshi poured two cup anyways. For a moment he stared at the pile of splinters on the ground, the realization that he had in fact liked the desk washing over him. He sighed and instead chose the sofas in the corner off to the side mentally and handed the cup to Lieutenant Commander before sitting himself.
"... RIGHT!" Asahi went to sit in the nearest open - and thankfully not broken - seat. "31st century." The pause was to wait for a reaction. "... But someone else's 31st century. Last I checked, we had just gotten ourselves off a ship that was full of real dead Tholians and someone had the mind to blow it up. I'm pretty sure blowing it up caused some sort of reaction that had some weird wonky shit going on - and I ended up in the 31st century. Some other Asahi's 31st century. And now I'm in probably some other Asahi's 24th century maybe. Because last I checked, you were a Commodore, we were on the Vesta - which by the way sounds way cooler than the Nelson, and I was very much a Lieutenant. Who told you it was a bad idea - boy I hope I get to tell my Commanding Officer how absolutely awful an idea that was because now there's some Asahi on some Vesta somewhere probably wrecking havoc."
Pause. "... Ssssiir...."
Sipping from the cup, Yoshi nodded along and listened, his eyes following the other man's with a cautious gaze. Still, there was something that was slowly reassuring of a member of his crew - Ewan's Crew he mentally chided - sitting here and rambling about a mission that had gone far from well. As the story wound down, the harshness of Yoshi's face softened slightly, and he almost smiled. "Well then, I suppose I should fill you in on what you have missed. First, this is your timeline, we got real good at nailing down correct realities sometime around when you probably got shunted over. Though it appears we missed one somehow, which is impressive in of itself." He sipped from his cup, a mental mystery to unravel. "I was a Commodore when you left, I got promoted against my better judgement. So did you, in case you are wondering. The journey home to Esquimalt was... troublesome. The Vesta is in bad shape, currently in refit behind us actually."
He turned to look, and on the facilities beyond he could just make out the familiar lines, and the armoured shell still in place over certain sections to prevent decompression. "As for the Neslson the crew is borrowing it to do a break in test run of its Quantum Slipstream Systems while the Vesta underwent repairs. And you did get to tell your Commanding Officer your opinions on the matter at hand at the time. "
Asahi nodded along, head bobbing as he sipped from the earlier offered coffee. Then came the 'mmm...' and a 'oh.' before his face transformed at the horrifying realization. "... Oh. OH!....." Sip. "oh. They must've... Okay. So I guess there's more explaining I gotta do there." Looking to Yoshi, he gave the man a trademark lopsided grin. "I mean ... Are we sure? We're sure we're sure I'm where I'm supposed to be? Not three realities over? I don't happen to have a sixth toe on one foot or something?"
The grin faded, and his shoulders relaxed. Despite the immense amount of trouble he assumed he was in, he was simply happy to be out of wherever he was prior. "It's not that I don't believe you or the tricorder you just scanned me with - I wanna. This kinda shit just keeps happening." And, in another half a beat, ".... I'm sorry, did you say I was promoted? Ew, why?"
"Well, you can report to the science team here, and they can confirm you're in the right reality," Yoshi said, placing his cup on the coffee table and crossing a leg over his knee. "Though they'll tell you the same as I did. I promise, you're back in your correct timeline and reality, so don't worry too much. As for the promotion," he paused as he offered a shrug. "Well I can say that many of the promotions of the crew of the Vesta were delayed, mostly from a series of delays and timeline issues. So I have simply corrected them - yours included."
Whatever thought had momentarily short circuited Asahi had his lips pursed and his eyes wide. "Delayed? I guess..." He shook his head, mouth catching up with the rest of him. "I guess that makes sense. Who'd have thought? The guy who lived two years in the future ends up assigned to the ship who jumped three years ahead. I keep forgetting weird shit's happened to all of us - it's just kinda normal now." He let the thought hang, before perking right back up. "Well, I should probably get myself back to work then, huh?"
"I'd appreciate if you did. The Nelson should be back shortly, and we'll have our ship back," Yoshi said, a polite smile crossing his face as he did. "Esquimalt Station is short on Intelligence personnel, so they would appreciate some assistance, though I'd recommend starting with Medical to make sure you're all okay from the transition." Standing the man placed his coffee cub down, and regarded the remains of his desk. "Do you suppose that it would be too ostentatious to use Kintsugi inspiration to repair my desk?" he asked, less to the other man, and more to the world at large. "A gold based resin, perhaps?"
The thought that went through Asahi's head was not, as his grandmother would have wanted, 'oh maybe a red-resin would blend better with the desk,' but was instead the 'oh shit' that tended to scamper through. "I mean, maybe. But it's a station and you're an admiral. Luka's got one of those surfboards he uses. Why not add a little character?" He asked, before his eyes rested on the remains of teapot. "Could uh- theme the repairs of that the same way too. Then people would think it's all on brand and not because someone dropped in to visit."
"Maybe..." Yoshi said, his thoughts trailing off. "Anyways, to medical with you for the moment, make sure you are fine. Then to your duties Mister Kita."
