One in Twelve Thousandth Percent

Chapter 6:

March 29, 2516

06:00 again. Damn it, I've gotta figure out something to do with this damn alarm. I get up and get dressed, same as every other day. Then, off to the kitchen I go. This time, Misaki is already sitting there, coffee in hand. She smiles and hands me my cup.

"Morning, sunshine." She sips her coffee. I smile. "Morning back at ya."

Mom walks past us behind Misaki. Her and I make eye contact and she just rolls her eyes at me as she walks past. Yeah, I know mom. Thanks for reminding me how obvious I am.

I look down at the table. There is a slice of toast and some fruit on a plate in front of me. Misaki has an empty plate in front of her. I grab a piece and start eating. "What's the occasion?" I say in between bites. She smiles and says "I want to get to work early so we can get as much of the cruiser done as possible today." I nod at her. "That makes sense."

Mom comes back. "OH, you two are working on the cruiser? That's awesome!!" I roll my eyes. "Mom, I thought you of all people would have known that by now."

"No, I don't hear everything that goes on. The only reason I knew about the promotion was because people had recorded it and the video went viral across station media within minutes." I shrug. "Well, I guess that makes sense. When someone has an opportunity to put Zintoris in his place, that's station news." I finish my coffee and grab the second piece of toast. Misaki looks at her arm. "Crap, let's go!" She bounds out of her chair, my arm in one hand and her gear in the other. "Bye, Mrs. C!"

Ok, I guess we're leaving then. "Bye mommmmm." My voice trails as we quickly move our way out the front door. I barely have enough time to grab my gear off the side table.

We fly through the door to Engineering. Mai is standing there, preparing the day's work. She looks over at us. Misaki lets go of my arm and I shove the piece of toast in my mouth. Mai laughs at us, hands us our datapads and goes back to what she was doing. I follow Misaki back out the door and off to Transport Bay 4 to get back to work.

As we catch the next lift down, we happen upon First Officer Parker. "Early start? I admire the enthusiasm." Misaki nods. "Ma'am, there is still a lot of the ship left to cover. We want to make sure we get it all done before you have to leave."

"Thank you, I appreciate that. Between you two and Annabelle, hopefully this goes off without a hitch."

The door opens and we get to work. Our first stop this morning is the cruiser's med bay. And of course, more of those bad parts. Without any words exchanged between us, we get right to work, making short work of all of these faulty parts as well as any other mechanical or software problems. Often, the people around us just stop and watch. We really are a sight to behold. Now, we're in a rhythm. We're both on terminals running down a whole row of different panels.

"Kay, you done with that welder?"

"Comin' your way, babe."

Shit, I did it again. I wasn't thinking. I'm in my zone and she's in it with me. Oh well, don't call attention to it.

I slide the welder across the floor and it hits her foot. "Do you have the gripper pliers?"

"Yeah, right here, hon."

Shit, she did notice. Wait, did she just call me "hon"? 404 Error: Thought process has crashed, reboot? Y/N?

Yes.

She slides the pliers to me, which reboots my brain when they hit my foot. Shit, what was I doing? Oh yeah. When I remember, I snap my fingers. Then I grab the pliers with my left and the part with my right. Suddenly that flash of light happens. "Really, now you decide to work?"