Switching Gears

Posted on Thu Feb 11th, 2021 @ 10:16pm by Lieutenant Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Commander Chire
Edited on on Tue Mar 9th, 2021 @ 11:07am

2,303 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Short Treks

Chire went straight to Dylan's quarters with the intention of discussing why he had not answered her in the arboretum but when he answered the door she blurted out. "I am leaving my position as Chief Operations Officer." Then she stood there for a moment before clarifying. "But I'm not leaving the ship, not yet. I have too much at stake here. Including you I . . . " but she wasn't able to continue without some sort of response from him.

"Whoa Chire," Blake was startled at her sudden arrival. He stepped aside to allow her inside the small shared quarters. Luckily his counterpart was on duty. "Slow down a bit," he said. "Why don't you start at the beginning?"

She took a deep breath but was unable to get it out. "Come flying with me? It will calm me down and I can explain." She asked, hopeful he would agree to it.

He'd never seen Chire so worked up before, even in the stress of battle she was calm and collected. Something had her rattled, something bad enough to make her want to quit and toss away everything she'd worked for. Hearing her out was the least he could do, maybe then perhaps he could convince her to reconsider and stay. "Of course," he nodded agreeing to go with her to the holodeck to clear the air and hopefully root out her concerns. He'd hate to see her leave, not only was he his mentor she was more importantly his friend.

Once they were on the holodeck she flapped her wings and hovered above him, the drift from her wings making his hair ruffle a bit. "I am unhappy." she said simply. "I believe a different job would be better for me and I would no longer be your supervisor. That's the first step. The second is . . . I tried to tell you how I felt in the arboretum, I suggested we have dinner and you never answered me."

He stared at her as she flapped effortlessly above with a dumb open mouthed expression. "Is this what his is all about?" he asked surprised and hurt. "Because I didn't answer your question? Chire, that was days ago, you should have said something soon!"

He turned away saddened their friendship had soured over a miscommunication. He thought foolishly tugging at the straps of the wings she'd created to teach him to fly that he understood her, they'll banter was nothing more than that, an easy going friendship blossomed... then again there was the incident in the lounge when intoxicated she called him her mate.

Did she really see him as that?

Was that the reason she made these wings? So they could share the skies together?

With a pout and dismissive shake of his head Dylan shook away the thought and broke into a run before arcing his body and arms into a semi practised lift off routine.

"I'm sorry Chire," he called pounding his arms to draw closer to her the wind caressing his face. "I'm sorry I didn't give you an answer at the time I was sneezing so hard I didn't hear you."

"Oh," she said, embarrassed about both her just blurting things out and the fact that Dylan hadn't even heard her question. She dropped rather suddenly to the ground, catching herself. "I guess it is I who must apologize. I'm acting like a teenager apparently." She was most upset that he seemed to be very emotional about her decision. It dawned on her that he might think she was leaving. "I'm not leaving the ship," she clarified. "Just positions possibly. I've been thinking about it a while. Would it upset you if I was no longer Chief Operations Officer?"

Her sudden change of altitude surprised him, the whole episode had been one giant bumpy rollercoaster in all honestly. Dylan tried to copy her and land gracefully but wasn't so fortunate, he skidded clumsily to a halt having rolled over a couple of times. So far in their lessons he hadn't managed to land successful but the programme had been adapted to absorb the impact resulting in no injuries.

"You don't need to apologize for anything," Dylan replied finally making it to her side. "It was just a misunderstanding, though I'm very glad you're not leaving. That would have been...horrible, I might have even shed a tear or several," he tried to smile but it failed to fully form. "I'll miss you if you took on a new role, as long as we can still hang out I'll be happy with that. And yes, I'd love to have dinner with you."

Chire was actually in shock. Of course it was the answer she wanted but for some reason she had not expected him to say yes. She had been interested in several men over the course of her life but Dylan was the only one who seemed to notice she actually existed and who had actually started a friendship with her. "You are my first friend, I would not abandon you, no matter what happens."

"Not even for a vat of jobril juice?" Dylan teased again feeling relieved she wasn't actually leaving the ship. She understood his humour and was able to return it just as easily. Chire had also been fundamental in calming his nerves when Dylan arrived aboard a few months ago. He'd found himself swept up in the magnitude of his posting - coming face to face with the Federation President on his first day had put him in a spin not to mention the whole brass that were also in attendance. She'd helped him scrape his jaw off the floor and find some level of inner peace he desperately needed. When the Spock came under attack and he feared for his life Dylan wished he'd taken time to add another recipient to his messages that would have been dispatched to friends and family in the event of his death. He wanted to add Chire to it and thank her for everything she'd done. Consequently he hadn't wasted the opportunity when they were finally rescued and ensured the list and messages were updated.

"No, I can get that any old time with the replicator. It's not quite as good, but I guess you're more important to me than that." She wasn't sure what else to say but her wings relaxed and draped themselves on the ground behind her. "I feel silly, I think that's the human expression" she said, not quite looking at him which was unusual.

Her confession that he was important to her was touching and warmed him. He tugged again at the wings strapped to his arms to slacken the tension and freed himself. Stepping closer he smiled softly: "Don't worry its only me, and I've made plenty of silly mistake to be embarrassed about. You saw my early flying experiences and those awful crash landings."

Dylan bowed slightly ensuring he stepped into her cast down eyeline. "Need a hug?" he asked cautiously. "It normally makes me feel better."

Without thinking too much about it she stepped toward him and enveloped him in her wings, resting her head on his shoulder. This was how the Creoli hugged, one person tucked safely into another. Suddenly she found herself overcome with emotions, her body began to shake slightly. And though they didn't have tear ducts it was easy to see she was letting out years of pent up emotion.

Dylan hadn't expected her to take up the offer, but judging by how her frame trembled she needed comforting. He pressed himself closer wrapping his arms around her torso comforting her as best he could. Her fiery orange plumage was soft and warm against him as he held her without comment or judgement until she felt brave enough to stand straighter again.

Gently he stroked her feathers sharing her in sorrow and despair. "It's alright," he said softly as she remained still. "Let you it all out."

Determined not to let herself get embarrassed again she finally straightened up and unfolded him from her wings with a breath. It had comforted her though, to just let go for a moment. She'd been holding that in for a long time. But at the moment she really didn't want to talk about it. "Thanks. Do you want to fly some more? We can work on your landings," there was a little bit of a twinkle in her eye.

He studied her momentarily, assessing her emotional state. It wasn't easy, at least humans, though nosier cries with their blotched faces were grating at times it was very apparent when they needed some support. Others of course like himself bottled up their feelings till they positively exploded from them forcefully. Chire however, his very non human friend was harder to read as he'd discovered already today. Despite that it was clear to him she wanted to move on and pretend her moment of vulnerability was forgotten.

He nodded slowly, "Anytime," he recognised the door she'd closed on the subject and let it rest. He scooped up the wings checking them over for damage before affixing them back onto his arms. "That would be good, be nice to land more swan like less stone like for a change."

"It would be so fun to take you to my planet just so you could watch the little ones learn to fly. They are only this tall," she made a gesture with her hand to indicate the height of about a a two year old human child. But they learn quickly enough, of course they are born with those body parts. I could always change your wings too, if we decide it's needed."

"They'd run rings around me," Dylan scoffed, "Though, they'd teach me a few things too." He lifted this winged arms: "I'm not sure what adjustment we'd need to make, humans weren't made to fly we're simply too heavy."

"You've been doing very well." Chire encouraged. "It takes time for a body to adjust to such a change. Do you not feel stronger?" Before he could answer Chire spoke again. "Computer, begin Bairl program one." The landscape changed to a series of high cliffs which they appeared to be standing on and a vast canopy of muted green trees stretching out below them with fields in the distance. "Don't go jumping off the cliffs."

Dylan twisted round to take in the new surrounds. He eyed the cliff and the vast drop below, unconsciously he took a step back from the edge. "This based on your home word?" he asked recalling her talk about the lush tree canopy and craggy rock faces.

"Yes. I've been working on it for a while. I thought about putting holographic representations of my people in but it just didn't seem right. I can however show you images of them if you like?"

"Yes, I'd like that very much."

Chire brought up the images she'd collected of the different colors that her species usually were born to. There was everything from a very creamy white to black and every shade of gold and brown inbetween but Chire's feathers definitely stood out as the only orange in the bunch. "Our heights very of course. I am considered average there."

"I can see why you felt a bit alienated," Dylan nodded at the collection before them. "Your feathers certainly put you apart from the others," he continued to study the line up with fasciation. Each induvial was unique in they're own way, height, weight, girth, shape of their eyes, the curve of their beaks right down to the colour of their feet. "Is there much difference between the genders?" he asked trying to assess the static images.

"Not a lot visually. Of course I can see the difference clearly but you may not be able to as easily. The females are shorter, tend to be lighter, smaller wingspan, smaller beaks." She smiled at him studying them. His curiosity made her feel better about being a Creoli, he had always treated her fairly and did not seem to be afraid or disgusted by her species at all.

Again Dylan nodded still eyeing them with curiosity. "I'd love to meet them one day, do you think they'd welcome me?"

"They are not isolationists, though we don't get a lot of visitors. I think they would. They would certainly be curious about you. I guess that would depend on what our relationship status was when we visited. In some ways it might be easier for me to bring a mate that was not Creoli as they don't approve of the gene that makes my feathers this color."

"Uh huh," Dylan replied noting her talk about their relationship and the topic of him being her mate. One day, soon he wanted to clarify how she preceded him and if she was thinking along the lines of romance or just mutual friendship. However this wasn't the moment to do so given her delicate emotional state.

"Couldn't that make it worse?" he asked turning back to face her. "I wouldn't want to bring further shame to you or your family."

Her eyes seemed to widen at this. "You could never do that Dylan. No matter what happens. Do not worry about it at all." She nudged him with one wing and sat down to overlook the view, patting the spot next to her. "I want to make myself understood. I think we should have a serious conversion."

"OK," Dylan gulped uncertain what she was about to propose. He sat down beside her his mouth suddenly dry and raspy, he felt nervous too which was ridiculous. Chewing his bottom lip slightly Dylan glanced sideways through his lashes as Chire hesitated probably looking for the right words just like himself.

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