My World of 1x1s discussion
Science Fiction
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Sarah & Tessa
Name: Delyla SokodiNickname: Dee
Age: 20
Appearance:
Species Human
Occupation: Star Fleet Apprentice Engineer, they hired her after she decided to hijack one of the smaller ships for fun, she almost flunked the classes in the academy but she passed the exams with flying colours.
Dee was not happy about being recruited for this stupid program. She liked working on warp-cores and engines and things, but she didn't like having some jerk leaning over her shoulder critiquing everything she did. She took the Sparklr out of her mouth and frowned, technically she wasn't aloud to have the substance on the ship but she really couldn't care less, and so of course she had hidden some away in her bag when she had come aboard. Putting the blue light at the end out with two fingers she stuffed the white bud into her pocket before walking out of her room, though the smell of fireworks still clung to her clothing and hair. She looked down the long metallic hallway while she listened to the gears pushing her bedroom door closed. Silently she fixed her headphones and hat and headed down the hall, the tail end of her belt banging metal-on-metal as she wandered down the hall, they said she needed to be there at six, but they didn't say she had to actually be on time.Once Dee had made it to the main engine room she sighed waited a few seconds for the system to recognize her and open the sliding door. She was about thirty minutes late, but they weren't even in the air yet she was sure it didn't matter. Striding into the room frown still firmly in place she crossed her arms and looked over the four people that were already in the room, all working on different things, she had no idea which one she was apprenticing under, just that he was the head honcho of the group.
Lying on his back underneath one of the engine's bellies, Anton studied the wires with his robotic eye as he thought about which screw he needed to open in order to fix the tear that he could see in the copper wiring. He knew that it was a small, insignificant tear, but with time it would get worse. He needed to fix it before something bad happened while they were in the air. The room was silent save for the clicking an whirring of engines and so when the doors slid open, Anton knew right away that someone else had walked in--the sound of the person's boots were loud in the echoing room. It must be the new apprentice who was over half an hour late. Nice, he thought to himself as he quickly scooted himself out from underneath the metal belly with his feet on the floor and the board on wheels gliding on the polished ground. Sitting up, Anton surveyed the woman in front of him and asked in his warm, articulate voice, "Apprentice Sokodi?" as he mentally closed up his robotic arm, shifting the tools and plates back in place to cover the innards of his machinery. He hoped he had the name right.
"Dee. Just Dee." She said flatly as she crossed her arms and looked at the man in front of her, he looked calm, a little too calm according to her standards. Then she noticed the robotics around his face, that's why he seemed so calm, he was an android with a brain stuck inside his head. She stared at him looking slightly annoyed, he was probably programmed with all the fancy high-tech knowledge of the mechanics on The Enterprise, when she had to actually work to learn everything she knew about the engines and things. The academy head said that he would seal her file so that she wouldn't be known as a criminal, but she wasn't sure if he had been telling the truth, so she didn't know if her superiors knew she had stolen a fleet ship and crashed it into Star Fleet's number one office, on accident of course. Her denim jacket covered most of the required uniform for the low ranking people, though the bottom of the stupid gold shirt still stuck out since it was way too big for her, they hadn't realized she was quite so tiny when they had given her the uniform, standing only at five foot she was probably the shortest of the few humans on board. Popping her fingers she slid her chunky headphones down around her neck, they hadn't been playing anything but for some odd reason she felt like they shouldn't be on while she met her new boss, she had no idea why since she never felt the need to show any kind of respect to anyone else.
Anton arched a dark brow into his messy black hair at the apprentice's comment. "You may be 'Dee' on your own free time, but I'm afraid protocol dictates that I call you 'Apprentice Sokodi,'" he told her gently, but authoritatively. His voice was strong, deep and emotive and although he understood the woman's desire to be referred to by her first name, Starfleet Academy had strict regulations and rules that needed to be followed. "This way please," he said to her as he led her towards a desk where he had her file laid out on the white, gleaming surface. "I am Engineer Vatteri," he said, introducing himself as they walked, his long, lean frame deceptively frail despite his superhuman strength. "Welcome abroad the U.S.S. Enterprise, Apprentice Sokodi," he said to her, giving her a brief, but very faint smile then.
Protocol, she would probably be hearing that word a lot, just like at the academy. "I'm Dee all the time." She rolled her eyes and turned away from him, compared to his stature she was short, stocky, and was slightly reminiscent of a tiny dwarf, sans the beard. In the split second she had swept her eyes over his desk she saw her own picture, though it obviously wasn't a very good one. "You don't have to read that, I can tell you everything that they probably said about me in a few words." She glanced at Vatteri out of the corner of her eye and shrugged "Most find me irritating, I don't listen well, I don't show up on time,I don't follow protocol, I'm ridiculously smart, a little bit cocky, and devastatingly gorgeous." her accent had a little southern flair that most humans didn't have anymore, being raised in a quiet sector of the universe where she only had contact with her parents, brothers, and a few other human adults did have its perks there. She had added the last bit just to throw him off, except now that she had said it she wasn't sure if it work work on robo-boy here. She kept her eyes foreword now, his mechanical eye was kind of creepy and he probably had creepy abilities to pile onto the overall creepiness he had going on, she still wasn't sure if she liked all these other things that she had met since she had been forced to join Star Fleet
Anton listened carefully as Dee spoke, his dark eyebrows raising into his black hair that fell along his forehead again at her last remark. "If that is the case, Apprentice Sokodi, why are you here?" he queried, placing his robotic arm over his human one. "Surely there must be many other places in the colonies for you to do as you please?" he commented, glancing down at her file again, remembering that he had read all of those things about her personality. Anton had never considered it a problem to be apprenticing one with a volatile nature, having never believed it was his place to discipline an individual. He would follow his required protocol; what she chose to do with the advice he gave to her was, in fact, her decision. The hood of his cloak had fallen off of his head from when he had been lying underneath the engine's belly and the black hair that it revealed was thick, wavy and black--quite uncharacteristic of a Starfleet cyborg, but it had been one that the scientists thought made him look like he had more character. His golden robotic eye studied her face as it rifled through the emotions she was feeling and he wondered why she felt the need to prove herself so.
Technically if she were to do as she pleased as he said she would be stealing another fleet ship, but out of prison or the academy Dee knew exactly which would be more fun. "Didn't have much of a choice in the matter." she said, a note of annoyance in her voice. "Can you stop that, you eye thing is weirding me out." The sentence fell out of her mouth before she could stop it, she really had no filter and when she was slightly nervous it always became worse. She had to slam her mouth shut to keep from laughing, making her cough loudly, greenish sparks flew out of her mouth as she did so, the air around her have the now having the faint smell of a bonfire. She turned farther away from him, now she couldn't see him at all. Hopefully Vaterri he was still looking down at the papers on his desk since the sparks were a sure sign she had brought the chemical on board, it wasn't that they were overly dangerous to her health is was more that if she lit them in the wrong place things might explode.
Her cough made him look up and although she had requested that he "stop that", Anton used his cyborg eye to review her body, scanning her to see what substance she had on her to make her cough such a bright color. "Apprentice Sokodi, I believe you are well aware that unapproved chemicals such as the one you have on you are not permitted aboard the Enterprise," he told her calmly, placing his arms behind his back as he gave her a stern look, drawing his eyebrows together. "I must ask that you report to the medical facilities to have it cleaned out of your system and I will have to inform you to dispose of the rest that you must have in your quarters."
"I have no clue what you're talking about." Dee muttered, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, it burned slightly as the sparks touched her skin. She took a deep breath and rubbed her hand on her black jeans, which she had thankfully been permitted to wear instead of the ridiculous looking uniform pants, really only because she had had to roll them up four times to keep them from dragging the floor. "So, I'm assuming I'm not just be here for you to criticize my not-really-a-problem drug problem, so what am I here for." She took her ball cap off and set it on the desk, her pixie cut chocolate brown hair falling into her eyes, tucking the spiky hair back behind her ears her green eyes shown brightly, the green of her iris also making a circle in the center of her pupil from the chemical she had been smoking for the past few years.
"Of course you do, but if you choose not to go, I cannot force you," Anton replied. He turned his attention back to her file and then said, "I suppose the first thing I will need to do is rate your skills. We'll start with the basics." He held out his arm and pointed to the engine that he had been working on before. "Let's have you take a look at its belly; I'd like you to tell me what's wrong with it and what needs to be repaired." He gave her a "shall we?" glance as he waited for her to take a step towards the engine, his other hand holding the plastic clipboard that he would use to type notes in on the touch screen.
"Finally, something interesting." Dee grinned and grabbed a Swiss army knife about five inches long out of her pocket. She looked at the engine happily and put her right hand on the screen on the front and listened to the soft hum. Closing her eyes she stood there for a few seconds, listening and feeling carefully as she got to know the engine. Her eyes popped open and she climbed up to the very top of the large cylindrical device, she ignored the step stool that would have made the move easier and opened a hatch on side, nothing really seemed to be very wrong the the beautiful mechanism but she would make sure it was running even better once she was done. A purple light shown out of the hole as she smiled down into it, she laid across the smooth top of the engine and swung her feet up into the air as if she was lying on the floor reading a book. She stared into the hatch, quickly calculating how far down her short arm would reach, she shook her head and pressed a side button on the pocket knife, a list of tools were projected into the air and she picked one without even reading them. "This is way too easy." she mumbled as she put her arm down the hole, warm air wafted through the denim of her jacket. She felt around with the device, which almost looked like a foot-long metal knitting needle, she found the button she had been searching for and pushed it, pulling her arm out as quickly as she could. "Hello." she grinned to a two-foot high tower that was slowly raising out of the hole. She put her ear to it, hearing a slight whirring sound that she knew wasn't supposed to be there. Instead of doing some technical thing on the gears and pipes that line the tower she stood up on top of engine, placed one hand on the ceiling for balance and kicked the tower as hard as she could. The engine whined loudly, then settled to a gentle purr, the purple light changing to gold as the tower lowered back into its hole. She pushed the lid closed with her toe and clicked her tool closed, the needle sinking back into the the handle as she sat back down on the engine, she felt more comfortable lounging on top of the hard metal of the machine than standing in front her new supervisor. "Anything else?" she asked, tucking the tool back into the same pocket as her half burnt Sparklr.
Anton had been watching her closely, taking notes, and spending the same amount of time both arching a brow and nodding. She certainly knew her engines even though her style of operation was not recognized Starfleet training. When she was finished, Anton gave her a small smile and replied, "Well, I had said the engine's 'belly' originally, and so I'd still like you to take a look at it. But good job on the top, Apprentice Sokodi," he added, giving her a nod of his head.
"It came from the inside, you look down that hole and you have a better view then you could ever get from the bottom." Dee said, not bothering to correct the annoying title he was referring to her by. She slid down behind the engine and under it, in one fluid movement. The space beneath the engine was small, if you were much bigger than Vatteri than you wouldn't fit in the cramped space at all, but Dee's tiny figure fit like hand in glove. A screen lit up on the underside of the purring machine, something that she hadn't seen before on normal engines. "Stupid high-tech crap." she muttered to herself as completely ignored the information on the screen. The gold light filtered down through the inner parts and illuminated the floor beside her. She pressed three plates by the screen and a wheel came down to meet her hands, she spun it easily, opening what looked like a black hole into right into the belly of the beast. She forgot her bracelet light in her room, but she had something that was better anyway, she grabbed the sparklr out of her pocket and scraped it across the metal quickly, it lit up with the bright blue light and she stuck it in her mouth. Now that she could see the series of wires inside, in a rainbow of colours that were all tinted slightly green with the light she was using. Her eyes ran over the wires, she had no clue what most of them did and she was very curious to find out exactly where each ran, when Vatteri was breathing down her neck, in the meantime they seemed a little off to her. She reached into the hole and ran her fingers over one of the wires, it was nicked in a few places, but nothing bad, it wasn't until she reached all the way to where it plugged into the side of the hole that she felt something actually wrong, the rubber had completely worn off and the thin copper wires were hot, she took her hand off the hot wired quickly, they would've left a wicked burn if she wasn't careful. She inhaled the sweet smell of fireworks before getting her tool back out of her pocket, this time choosing something that would melt the metals of the separate wires together, making a thin film of protective substance on the outside so they wouldn't run the risk of overheating again, the rubber would have to be replaced later but she didn't have that at the moment, and she sure wasn't asking for anything. She a unplugged few of the wires, ones that she actually knew where they went, and bent the head to where they would twist into each other of stay out of the way easier, she stuck them back into their socket, switching a couple to where she thought they would do better. Putting the sparklr out as she shut the door and put the wheel up back away she didn't particularly want to move out of under the engine, strangely enough is was fairly comforting to be in the small space listening to the soft noises of the gorgeous machine. She poked her head out, her pupil almost completely invisible from just smoking the sparklr for a few minutes, even though she wasn't even smoking it just using it as a light.
Anton frowned in disapproval when he saw her smoke or whatever it was--he had never used such a substance before--sticking out of her mouth and he told her in a stern tone, "If you would have carried that into a room that contained more explosive materials, you could have lost your eyebrows." It was meant to be a joke but the way he said it seemed more like a lecture. Offering her his hand then, he pulled Dee to her feet as she slide her own small body out from under the engine's belly. "Where did you learn about engines?" he asked. "It wasn't Starfleet, I know," he added, stating the obvious, his finger poised to jot down notes as she spoke.
She put the sparklr back into her pocket and shrugged "I know where and where not to light one." She said blankly, then in a slightly happier tone "I taught myself, I had a little accident with one of the engines I modified and the fleet decided to stick me in the academy. I like my methods better but I can't say that the free lessons weren't helpful." she shrugged and dusted herself off, the gold shirttail looking ridiculous as she knotted it back at her side, it had came loose when she was crawling around.
Anton nodded as he noted her response in her file. "We will need to go over the names of the engine parts as well as the different parts inside an engine," he told her. "This is in case during an emergency--if we are crashing for instance--should someone yell out a command, you'll need to know what the parts are called so that you know to choose the right one." Something told him that a self-taught mechanic usually referred to parts as "that thingy over there" or perhaps "that bright blue wire--no, not that blue one!" Glancing down at her, Anton asked, "If I were to give you a series of pictures would you be able to name them properly, or should I give you the names and have you point them out here in this room?" he inquired.
Dee had to stop herself from laughing again at his words, though this time she didn't stark choking. "Of course I can name them!" she said, thinking of her names for things, they mostly referred to the noise they made, or the thing that she thought they did.
"Name their correct names," Anton reiterated, arching a black brow into his messy black waves. Raising his hand, he began to tap in the air on the translucent screen that appeared, pulling up a blueprint of a standard engine. The diagram had letters and numbers that corresponded with the picture and turning to face Dee, Anton said, "Now, Apprentice Sokodi, I'd like you to write your answers down next to the blank spaces for the names that correspond to the right parts." He took a step back after swinging the screen over to her, pushing it down slightly so match her height.
Dee grinned and looked at the engine, she proceeded to name the parts things like 'it goes ding when there's stuff' and 'The thing that buzzes if it isn't straight'. She spun the screen air around to face him again with a smirk and said "Purely scientific." crossing her arms she looked at Vatteri, more like looked up at him with the substantial height difference.
"I figured these might be your answers," Anton remarked dryly, not bothering to hide the smirk that had crawled up his lips. "Now, do you actually know the names or do you really need to learn them?" he inquired. "Keep in mind that every wrong answer is two extra hours of homework," he told her. This wasn't entirely true, but clearly Dee responded better to unconventional methods and the cyborg was nothing if not adaptive to human behavior. It's what made him such a wonderful creation after all. He was able to change his methods according to need.
Dee chuckled inwardly as she noticed the slight smirk that played across his face, it definitely looked better on him than a the blank look he had had earlier. "I don't really need to learn their names do I? I can make sure it's running perfectly without actually knowing what this lever and that screw are called." She knew even if he gave her homework she wouldn't do it, and most likely he knew that too.
"You do, Apprentice Sokodi," Anton told her with a soft sigh in his voice. "It's important because you might need it to save another engineer's life one day," he said to her, hoping that she would understand the importance of Starfleet protocol. Rules weren't put in place just so they could be broken; they were created to ensure that nothing happened to the Enterprise's crew and other ships like it. "What if we start off slowly?" he suggested. "I can even see if I can turn it into a game," he mentioned thoughtfully.
"A game? I'm not twelve." Dee retorted with a frown, though she did look about fifteen. "And I don't plan on having to save anyone's life. They won't have to worry about me so why should I them?" She asked, in a completely serious voice. She was dead set on not needing help on the Enterprise, and she would do whatever it took to make sure it stayed that way.
Anton frowned. "Then why do you act like one?" he asked her simply, clasping his hands behind his back as he gave her the full effect of his unnerving glare.
Dee glared back, no matter how creepy she thought his gaze was. "I don't act like one, now I will learn the names of the stupid parts if you keep your creepy eye off me." She frowned, looking even younger now, no matter who was what at the academy things that weren't human still bothered her slightly. She tried to keep both her eyes on his normal eye, but it was kind of hard since the mechanical one had a light shining out of it.
Anton smiled inwardly, thinking that his tactic had worked, but outwardly he only gave he the slightest nod and murmured, "Very well. Right this way, Apprentice Sokodi," as he led her back to his desk. He pulled out good old fashioned paper and handed it to her. "I find that studying is done best with old school methods. Let me know if you have any questions," he told her as he clasped his hands behind his back. "You are dismissed for today."
"Old school huh?" Dee said with a small eye roll, "How long have you been alive anyway? Were you some experiment in a lab last year or are you like immortal or something." she asked, not really caring whether the question was appropriate or not, she honestly didn't even know if people got offended if you asked their race or age or anything else, so many things she had met in the universe that she didn't even know existed before she had ran away from her home planet. She held the paper between her right forefinger and thumb, as if it was covered in a something disgusting, she folded it multiple times until it was a tiny square that was about an inch tall, sticking it in her pocket without even reading what was printed on it. "I'll see you tomorrow then." Dee said with a smirk, she wiggled her fingers at him over her shoulder as she left the room through the big metal sliding door. Almost running right into someone she didn't recognize as he entered the room. Without saying anything she went past him and wandered lazily down the hall, scraping her sparklr against the silver wall once she was out of sight.
Anton had been ready to reply when Dee walked away. He followed her tiny body with his eyes all the way to the door, watched her almost collide with someone and then light her illegal substance with his x-ray vision, shaking his head inwardly. Well, he'd never turned down a challenge before, nor would he now. They would just have to learn to work together--if water and oil could ever mix.
***
After feeling the lift off the day before Dee was still slightly off-center, she had never been on such a huge vessel like the Enterprise. Dressed in black jeans, another too-big gold fleet shirt with a knot tied in the side, and her normal denim jacket that partially hid the ridiculous looking uniform top, she left her room at about the time she was supposed to meet with Vatteri again that morning, she was sure he realized by now she was never going to be on time. The door to the engine room opened for her and she wandered in, her iris and pupil were exactly the same colour, as they usually were this early since her breakfast normally consisted of lighting a sparklr before she even rolled out of bed, she always felt better during the day after she smoked one in the morning. "Morning." She said with a cocky smirk when she saw Vatteri.
Anton had been waiting over half an hour for his apprentice to show up and when she finally did, he glanced up at her with his bionic eye and regular one with a piercing glare. "Good morning, Apprentice Sokodi," he replied, not bothering to tell her that she was late. Instead, he simply logged it into her performance sheet and motioned for her to sit down on the opposite side of his desk. "I trust you have some good news for me?" he asked her, noticing the way she stumbled slightly now that the ship was in the air. She was clearly a first time flyer.
Dee nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment, she had been in the air before, but she had been the one flying the ship and it had been about a tenth of the size of the Enterprise. She snatched the see through screen from him and navigated to the blueprint he had shown her yesterday of the engine, she labeled every part perfectly, and detailed it even more than the sheet she had been given yesterday.
"Congratulations, Dee," Anton replied, rewarding her by using the name she preferred. "I am very impressed." Who knew she had a brain underneath all of that attitude.
"You really think I didn't know that yesterday?" Dee asked, her breath smelling like fresh-lit fireworks again. She handed the paper from yesterday to him, which was folded exactly how it had been when she had stuck it in her pocket the night before.
"I really do," Anton replied, calling her bluff as he kept his golden gaze on her. He glanced the paper and arched an eyebrow. "So you can fold. Congratulations." Wait. Why was he being snippy? Was he... learning sarcasm? Odd... he would have to note that in his logs for his creators.
Dee almost answered nicely, then she decided that he really didn't deserve it. "Yes, don't you? Did you not get programmed with that the art of origami?" she asked, perching on the side of his desk and looking at him dramatically surprised. She unfolded the paper and folded it into a paper airplane.
"I can make the crane," Anton told her smoothly. "The most elusive of all origami creations--with the gold piece too," he added. Yes, he would definitely have to add this new form of... sarcasm to his developing traits. "Now then, Apprentice Sokodi, today you'll show me how well you can work on a moving ship."
"Assumed, since we aren't exactly stopped." Dee smirked at his new antics, she liked this Vatteri much more than the annoyingly serious one from the day before. "Did they change out your brain while I was asleep?" she asked folding her arms, the paper airplane lay now on his desk ignored.
"No, they did not," Anton replied calmly. "But my abilities develop the same way a child's does. When I am exposed to newer kinds of human behavior, I tend to mimic it. It's a new development that I must report to my creators," he answered. "Your turn. Time to show me how well you can work on a moving ship."
"Maybe you should hang out with me more often then" Dee laughed and rubbed her hands together, excited to work on the engine today. She pushed herself off the desk and crossed her arms, waiting for Vatteri to give her her assignment for the day.
Anton wasn't sure that was a good idea, but said nothing to disagree with it, finding her attitude somewhat better than the day before--he wanted to keep it that way. Standing up, he clasped his mechanical hand with his human one and replied, "Let's start with something simple: why don't you change the engine on that piece over there," he told her, nodding towards one that clearly was out of commission.
Dee shrugged inwardly, there so many other more interesting jobs that he could've given her, and she was stuck with replacing junk parts, though she was surprised such a thing was on such a prestigious ship as the Enterprise, it had been with Star Fleet since the famous Captain Kirk and even though it was still the best ship in the fleet it had seen its better days. Dee grabbed her pocket knife out of her jacket and opened up the holographic list, the sparkle she had slipped in her pocket this morning fell out too, she didn't even notice as it landed silently on the floor and rolled towards Vatteri.
Seeing the illegal substance pause at his feet, Anton sighed inwardly, as he bent over to pick it up with his bionic hand. He glanced over at one of the robots on cleaning duty and held it open for the machine, who then swallowed it up to disintegrate it. "Please use the ship's regular tools, Apprentice Sokodi," he said then to Dee when she proceeded to use her pocket knife.
"Why? They're the same things." Dee said, she sounded like her mind was miles away as she scrolled through the projected list. She selected a few different things and glanced back at what she was supposed to be replacing each time, muttering no and sounding annoyed each time she changed tools.
Anton said nothing more, simply watching her curiously, wondering where she had picked up her skills--actually picked them up--yet again. Furthermore, he was beginning to see why Starfleet had opted to give her a chance, yet he couldn't understand why he had been the engineer paired to train her.
Dee was glad he was finely silent, she still wasn't used to anyone else being there when she was working. She finally settled on a wrench like tool with a strangely shaped head. She tilted the new engine that wasn't attached to the main machine and looked at the bottom, it was almost as tall as she was but didn't seem too heavy. She loosened some screws on the side and laid it longways on the ground and rolled it closer to the machine. She banged her wrench against the old engine and it immediately loosened and she pulled it out, but instead of just putting the new on on she actually crawled in the whole that it left and up into the running engine.
"Apprentice Sokodi, what are you doing?" Anton couldn't help but ask as he moved towards where she had disappeared, squatting down to peer inside the hole she was in with his robotic eye. Did she never follow protocol?
"Getting to know my job." Dee said, though it all sounded muffled since she was holding her pocket knife in her mouth. She held on with one hand and messed with some of the levers and screw with the other, figuring out what exactly what each of them did.
Anton sighed inwardly at her response and instead of saying anything--which he realized would be wasted words--he simply remained in his squatting position as he watched her work, finding himself curious to see how she "got the job done."
Age: 24
Species: Cyborg
Occupation: Engineer (Star Fleet Academy graduate) aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise
Special Abilities: superhuman strength; robotic right arm and eye (arm contains gadgets and concealed weapons; eye has x-ray, magnetic and infrared vision)
Appearance: