Hot Wings: Fire and Rescue

Help is on the Way

Keldes-Class Ark Vessel.
Time: 1622
Destination: Tera

Sylvan stretched her arm as far as she could underneath the boiler. Her earpiece rested just barely out of reach, still buzzing around as an incoming transmission continued to notify on it.

"Damn I'm like-really really sorry. Can you reach it?" Came the somewhat nasally voice of Private Gill from his hunched over position behind her.

"Just give a minute." Sylvan grumbled in response as she let out all the air in her chest so she could flatten better to try to reach her earpiece which had been so unceremoniously knocked straight out of her ear by the surprise pillow-assault from Private Gill when she entered the storage area. Whenever Gill had paged her down to the boiler she should have known he was setting up an ambush.
Their ongoing pillow-smack war had been an endless battle for most of the long voyage to Tera. It was bad enough that the cargo couldn't just go through one of the inter-planetary gateways and actually had to be manually transported, but Sylvan got to be the lucky overseer of it. She had to make the best of her time somehow and a covert pillow war kept some of the more immature of the crew-including herself-mostly entertained. But now that the voyage was coming to an end and Planet Tera was only a few ways out, many of the crew dropped their fun little game to focus on arrival prep. Only she and Gill were really doing it anymore. And this was probably going to be the last time as her earpiece had been smacked right out of her head and went skittering all the way under the boiler... and it was ringing off the hook.

"Son of a-!" She almost had it in her grasp when the P.A. system crackled over the ship's loudspeakers.

"Lieutenant McLean report to the bridge. Lieutenant McLean report to the bridge, immediately."

Sylvan went to get up, but some turbulence caused her to hit her head along a pipe on the way. She hissed at the pain and rubbed her head while getting to her feet.

"Oop, guess that's you." Gill stated helpfully. Sylvan shot him a glare and fixed her bun while turning and making her way to the bridge, the whole time cursing Gill and his stupid pillow guerrilla warfare.
Silently, Sylvan was hoping that not answering a bridge call on one's communicator wasn't a punishable offense. After all, it was just her first incursion on the trip. Which was saying a lot considering all the mischief she could have gotten and wanted to get in during the 8 month-long flight. Despite their impressive size on the outside, Keldes-class Ark Vessels only had so many places to go before you got pretty familiar with their layout. Especially for someone as easily-bored as Sylvan McLean, this trip had been particularly grating. Another wave of turbulence shook the ship, causing her to stumble a bit. She the stepped aside as a group of technicians passed her in the hallway. Supply shipments were always a drag, however this supply shipment was anything but mundane for Sylvan.
Before walking aboard, she made sure to dust the dirt off of her uniform before presenting herself to the Captain. Your care for your uniform represents your care for your duty. Those words had been drilled into her head since before the academy—mostly by her older brother, who had been her biggest inspiration to join the Interstellar Navy.

"Oh so she's not dead." Came the gravely voice of Captain Ewit from the command station as soon as Sylvan walked in and snapped off a quick salute. "Report, Lt. McLean. Why didn't you answer your cp?"

"I... was uhm..separated from it. Sir." she offered, not meeting his eyes just yet. "It had slid under the boiler."

"What in Trek's Jeck were you doing in the boiler, Lieutenant?" He demanded, his greying mustache curled downward on each side like it always did when he frowned.

"I was—" Sylvan started but was cut off as the Captain groaned and rubbed his eyes under his glasses.

"Were you and Gill slapping each other with pillows while on duty again?"