A Desire To Fly

Posted on 05 Apr 2021 @ 11:12pm by Ensign Kelly Khan & Lieutenant Commander Gemma Alexander

1,164 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Extinction
Location: Gym
Timeline: Mission Day 10 at 1430

"Gonna work off those hours as a desk jockey?" Joked one of Gemma's pilots as she entered the gym after dinner, "Ha ha Cowboy, you wanna join me keep talking..." She shot back, Cowboy held up his hands briefly in surrender but said no more as, with a grin, he headed for one of the weight machines. It was semi busy but starting to clear out a bit as Gemma, hair tied back and in her workout gear, set one of the running machines to get started.

The day was over but the afternoon was just commencing as Kelly bounced into the gym area wearing a pair of yoga pants with pineapple print, a black crop top shirt, her brunette hair pulled back in a ponytail and a towel in her right hand.

She paused and looked around, then smiled and gave a nod to Commander Alexander as she headed for arm and shoulder machine. "Commander," she said in passing, but her conversation with Quinn popped up about getting more fighter flight time. She wanted to ask her, but at the same time, she didn't want to interrupt the woman's workout.

"Ensign" Alexander replied with a smile and a nod before picking up the pace. A bow at full draw with an arrow knocked easily seen on her right upper arm above a black knight's helmet as a rattlesnake sat coiled on the other arm. She continued ramping up her jog. Still she wasn't yet moving fast enough to prevent talk, "How's the inventor of the Khan Boom?"

Now Kelly stopped in place, one leg in the process of lifting to take another step and turned her head towards Gemma. "The Khan Boom.....you mean Rocco actually logged that?!" she asked, excitement building with every word.

Gemma, who was keeping her pace slow enough to talk, grinned. "Yep under 'in case of emergency break glass' type of thing. Me? I'm always up for more and better ways to blow up the bad guys." Her eyes twinkled as she enjoyed that thought.

"In case of..." The petite brunette looked offended. "Well, okay, then."

Gemma caught the look and stopped the treadmill, "It's not that it's a bad tactic, he just occasionally doesn't want us to blow everything up. Which generally is my preferred path so maybe that warning was more for me." She shrugged and smiled, "So you shouldn't feel as though your tactic has a flaw, more like Rocco wanted to make sure we'd use it properly."

"I just didn't hear anything about and then my unofficial fighter training got sidelined when Commander Walsh got promoted and...." Kelly trailed off. "It gets a bit disappointing and I get very little bridge time now."

“A pilot grounded is a sad thing indeed.” Alexander replied completely understanding that point of view. She leaned her arms on the paused treadmill, her expression thoughtful as she considered options, “I think we got the space to schedule some extra flight time, and I’d be happy to help if you’d like to pick up where you left off.” She offered.

"I wouldn't say that I'm grounded, but there hasn't been much to do and you know Chiefs get first dibs," Kelly said. "But I'd be more than happy to pick up some extra training on the Gryphons. They handle like vectorboards on antimatter."

Gemma nodded in agreement, "With the isolinear twin-core design computer system it knows what I want to do almost before I do with matching agility, damned thing can dance on a dime." Now she was considering trying to get some flight time in tonight as she considered her own schedule when then reminded her, "Before I distract myself with shop talk, if you'll get me your schedule sometime, we'll get something on the books."

"I'm Alpha Shift, but I could probably get away with doing some training during it," Kelly said. "It isn't like the Chief pays any attention to me, but we did get off on a bad start."

"I can coordinate that sort of schedule through channels so everyone who needs to know where you are while on the clock does so. There is always after hours option as well which can be a bit more flexible." She replied always happy to try to help a fellow pilot. "If it helps to know, bad starts can be overcome sometimes. I have several to my credit and a few foot-ectomies." she continued in an attempt to be supportive.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," the petite brunette said. "I'm good whenever you can slot me in. I do appreciate it. I just want to fly more."

Gemma nodded letting it go, "I know that need to fly." She agreed. "Then if you've a mind I'll be doing some time in the sims after I'm done torturing myself here tonight. Beyond that we'll get some sort of stable schedule come tomorrow. Besides." She said with a smile, "Bit interested to see the creator of the Khan Boom in action."

"I should warn you, I have a lot of hours in simulators for a lot of different types of craft," Kelly said.

"Fair enough, what do you have time in?" Alexander asked curiously.

"Do you want them by species or by type first?" the brunette asked. "I've done Federation civilian and Starfleet, Klingon, Romulan..well, what we know of their ships, Cardassian, a number of fighters, Ferengi, Vulcan and a scattering of others."

Gemma gave a 'was not expecting that answer but nice' look, "That's some serious range." She said with a grin. Trying to get inside the cockpit of anything meant to fly, and sometimes not meant, was a grand hobby not uncommon with pilots. In one so young though, she didn't think she'd seen many with that breath of experience. "We'll start with Gryphons though and see where the space winds take us first, maybe change it up later."

"That's what I was using when I came up with that maneuver," Kelly said.

"That was part of the report, dove tailed well with gryphon abilities." Gemma replied approvingly. Then glanced at the still treadmill who seemed to be glaring at her and back to Kelly, "You know what screw it, I can always work out later. You up for some flight time?" She asked unable to resist the siren call of the cockpit.

"Are you sure?" the petite brunette asked, but definitely looked excited.

Gemma nodded with a grin, "I can always adult later." She said stepping off the treadmill, "I happen to know one of the simulators is free for at least the next two hours..."

"Then let's go and thank you again. Commander," Kelly said as she took her towel and shoved it in her bag. "Let's rock. First person to pull away buys a meal at Talon's."

"Deal." Archer said with a grin as she headed for the door.

With a smile, the petite pilot got her stuff and headed out after her.

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