USS Enterprise, Space, Wednesday FT

[solarhippie]

It had taken some wrangling to make this happen: you couldn't really just up and visit someone on a spaceship whenever you decided you wanted to. Even if that someone happened to be the captain. But, Karolina was persistant! And Jim had leverage!

And so, today, Karolina Dean found herself aboard the Enterprise. There was a backpack filled with Earthside treats over her shoulder, and a look of poorly-concealed wonder on her face as she looked around where she'd been received. Everyone looked so official in their uniforms, it made her feel like she should be introducing herself as 'Counselor Dean' or something. Or at the very least wear something that wasn't a yellow hoodie with some light blue jeans.

She was as much in awe as she was feeling out of place. But, there was someone else on this ship who'd make her feel more at home. So, now she just needed to find Jim! Easy!

... She probably shouldn't go looking for Jim on her own, huh?

[ooc: NFB, and for that guy!]

Comments

[solarhippie]

Her eyebrows climbed up. "I can?" she asked, thrilled like the nerd she was. "I thought maybe it was strictly captains only."

She also figured she was a special case, though.

[pursuedthestars]

"Well, it should be but if I'm the captain and I say it's okay, I'm overriding that," Jim decided. "Besides, it's not gonna do anything if you aren't a captain. It's not like hardwired to detect captains."

[solarhippie]

"Well, it'd be embarrassing for you if it thought I was a captain and preferred me," Karolina teased him, as she stepped up to the chair.

A second's hesitation, and she took a seat. Another second, and she actually leaned back instead of sitting with her back unnaturally stiff.

"Feels captainly."

[pursuedthestars]

"Pretty cool, right?" Jim asked, grinning. Jim thought so. "Feels like you own the world. Imagine sitting here while we're hitting warp."

[solarhippie]

"It must be amazing."

She was pretty impressed, yes. This wasn't the kind of life she'd ever wanted for herself, but still, she had to admit that there was a pull to it.

And that it felt like Earth wasn't the limit.

She looked up. "I'm so proud of you, Jim."

[pursuedthestars]

"Oh stop," Jim said, making a face. "Anyone can get where I am. Just gotta be stubborn and hard headed. And I'm that in spades."

[solarhippie]

"But not everyone's as stubborn and hard headed."

You couldn't stop her pride, Jim!

[pursuedthestars]

"True," Jim said after pretending to think about it for a second. He smirked and buffed his nails on his shirt. "You can pretty much control the ship from here. Give orders, direct ships, anything."

[solarhippie]

Karolina snickered and shook her head.

"Yeah, that's more like the Jim I know," she teased. "For a second, I thought you'd suddenly grown modest! Or that maybe you were a pod person or something."

She'd thought no such thing.

"Possibly a cyborg."

[pursuedthestars]

"No, but we have a few of those," Jim told her, shrugging. "Not, like here, but they're around. I've met a few. You wanna go see engineering? Where they beam us up and stuff?"

He could be technical and formal when it was needed but it wasn't right now.

[solarhippie]

Karolina definitely didn't need him to be formal and stuffy with terminology for her sake. For one, she liked having something of a grasp on what he was saying to her. She wasn't very up on the Starfleet lingo.

"Ooh," she said (again, yes, she knew), as she pushed herself up from his chair, after one last pat on the arm rest, "yes, please. Generally, I don't think engineering would be my thing --"

She was as liberal arts as they came, really.

"-- but that sounds actually interesting."

[pursuedthestars]

"What would be your thing?" Jim asked, already leading her out of the command center. "Just so I know where to go after engineering. "Wouldn't wanna take you somewhere and bore you."

[solarhippie]

"Well, do you have anything with flowers?"

She was joking. Probably.

[pursuedthestars]

"Uh, we might have something like that but I'd have to ask," Jim said thoughtfully. "We do collect samples of flora and fauna when we're planetside so I bet they go somewhere."

[solarhippie]

"Wait, really?" Karolina asked, eyebrows going up. "Because I was kiiiind of joking, but if you actually do have flowers..."

Then she was probably going to be interested.

[pursuedthestars]

"I can't guarantee anything but we've gotta have something," Jim told her, nodding. "I'll take a look at the layout of the ship or ask someone. Let's go to engineering and then I'll see what's the what."

[solarhippie]

"After the boring engineering," Karolina replied, and the exaggerated tone and the snicker made it pretty obvious she wasn't serious with her disparaging remarks. "Thank you. I've never seen too much of off-Earth flowers and things."

Things with her trip with Xavin hadn't really shaken out that way.

[pursuedthestars]

"I think we have a botany lab if anything," Jim said as he led them down a winding corridor. "If there's not plants and flowers in there, I don't know where else they'd be. I don't think we have any hoarders on board. I'd know if we did."

[solarhippie]

"Do you know everything that happens on the ship?" Karolina asked, her gaze once more hopping around their surroundings, taking in details, curious. "Apart from whether you have flowers or not."

[pursuedthestars]

"Not everything," Jim said, shaking his head. "I want the people to have some independence. If there's something that's gonna affect a lot of people, then I want to know or if they need authorization for some things, I'll know but other than that..."

He trailed and shrugged. "I let them do their thing. Keeps them happy."

[solarhippie]

"Good," Karolina said. And smiled. Funnily enough, leaders who liked to micro-manage weren't anything she favored.

So she was pleased to see he was in the clear. "Means you trust them. That's good."

[pursuedthestars]

"Yeah. Gotta trust them to get them to trust me," Jim said, stopping at another door and holding his hand up to open it for them. Engineering was busy as well with people fixing things, improving things and a few people working on their transporters.

"And here we are," he said, gesturing. "Not much when there aren't any active missions but pretty cool otherwise."

[solarhippie]

Yup, Karolina was going to peer in looking impressed here, too.

"Vic and Chase would love this," she said, quietly, mostly to herself. There was something faintly... not sad, but something more in that direction, about her tone.

Then she seemed to shake it off. Louder, she said, attempting a joke, "I probably shouldn't lean on any buttons here, either, right?"

[pursuedthestars]

"Probably not," Jim said, examining some of the buttons and frowning. "I don't even know what some of these things do. If we were near a planet, I'd let you use the transporter but I don't know where you'd if we sent you somewhere right now."

[solarhippie]

Karolina snorted, and smiled a little wryly. "That's okay, I think being here with you is enough of an adventure. I don't want to test my survival skills somewhere random."