Ohmygodohmygodohmygod…

The refrain rolled through Tav’s mind on a loop as he followed the captain across the engineering back toward one of the access hatches to the jefferies tubes. He scurried to keep up, unable to believe he was actually on a mission, a combat mission, with the captain himself. 

Several engineers eyed him and the captain up as they passed. Immediately Tav pulled himself up to his full height and puffed his chest out, holding the big rifle in an approximation of the easy way the captain held his just in case Nyla was watching. 

He tried to look around to see if she was, only to nearly run into the captain’s back. 

“You’re going to need to keep your wits about you when we’re out there, Rennox,” the captain rumbled as he squatted down to trigger the hatch release. “We’re going to be moving fast, in close quarters. If it comes to a fight in here, it’s going to be brutal.” 

Looking up, he speared Tav with a piercing look. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”

“Does a bear shit in the woods?” 

What other answer could he give, especially when he’d just spotted Nyla on the upper level, watching him as she worked. That was his girl up there… there was no way he was backing out of a combat mission and prove to both her and the captain that he was a coward. 

Mason blinked. “I’m not sure what the defecation habits of terran ursines have to do with possible close-quarters combat in the jefferies tubes.” 

Oh… shit. 

He’d just gone and put his foot in it, right up to the ankle. In his attempt to imitate the banter between the Chief Engineer and the captain he’d completely forgotten that neither were human. 

“Err… it’s, like…” he scrubbed at the back of his head, his face hot enough to fry eggs on. “Well… it’s a saying? You know?”

Mason’s face broke into a broad grin, the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkling and his eyes glinting with amusement. 

“I’m having you on, kid,” he chuckled as he hauled the hatch open. “I know what it means. Come on, let’s move.”

Relief washed through Tav, and his arms felt like wet noodles. Clutching his rifle as close to his chest as he dared, he followed Mason into the jefferies tubes. The bigger man only had to duck his head. For now. Some of the proposed route was much tighter. Much, much tighter. 

“Stick close,” Mason ordered, moving fast. Tav hurried to keep up. “Note areas of cover as you move. If we get hit, fall back to the last intersection. If we get split up, get yourself back to engineering, understand?”

Tav nodded, then realised the captain couldn’t see him. 

“Yes sir,” he said to Mason’s broad back. “What will you do if we get split up?”

Mason held his hand up for silence as they approached the first intersection. Tav stayed out of the way as Mason checked the way was clear, watching every movement the captain made with his rifle. He’d been taught the basics of combat, but it was easy to see Commander Mason had way more than his standard combat proficiency badge. 

“If we get split up, chances are I’ll be leading these assholes on a merry chase around the ship,” he said as they began moving again. “So don’t you worry about me, okay? I tell you to run, you run.”

Tav set his jaw. He didn’t want to run, he wanted to be helpful. 

Mason looked over his shoulder. “I didn’t catch that. I tell you to run, you run. Are we clear?”

“Yessir.” 

Like hell he was running. He could help. Otherwise the captain wouldn’t have brought him along. 

Mason eyeballed him for a few seconds longer, and Tav sweated under the collar of his fancy shirt. He wished he was wearing his uniform. The red shirt would just make him a target. 

“Heroes get dead fast, kid,” Mason rumbled. “Remember that. Now, come on, before any of those pirates get into sickbay and Micheals guts them before we can question them.”

Tav’s eyes bugged out of his head at that. He’d had his routine medical before he’d arrived on the Resolute at its last pitstop at SB86, but he’d met the ship’s chief medical officer a few times. She seemed nice. A little blunt and acerbic, and she didn’t seem to ever smile, but she seemed nice. 

He eyed the captain ahead of him. But he supposed that was a matter of perspective. Compared to gruff, former soldiers like Commander Mason, the chief engineer, and whatever the hell their chief helm officer was, the relatively normal chief medical officer seemed… nice. 

“Mason to the bridge. Can I get an update on what our unwelcome guests are up to?” 

The captain frowned as there was no reply, setting his back against the wall as he nodded ahead of them. “This is the chokepoint,” he said in a low voice

Tav looked around the corner. This was the section he’d been surprised about earlier. The jefferies tubes didn’t go all the way to engineering as they normally would. Probably because of the changes made for the expanded lounge on the Resolute, the maintenance tube cut off, leaving just a small crawlspace to get from this section to the next. It looked even smaller than it had on the schematics. 

“It’s going to be a tight squeeze. For me anyway,” the captain said as they moved forward. “You can probably just slither through there easy as pie. You good in tight spaces?

“Absolutely, sir.” Tav nodded. He’d already sized up the gap and knew he could make it. “Me and Soren grew up on the USS Armitage, running around the jefferies tubes.”

“Soren?” The commander raised an eyebrow in question. 

“Oh, sorry. My twin brother, Soren Rennox,” Tav explained. “He’s a yeoman too. Assigned to Captain Barrington.” 

Mason nodded. “Friends in high places, then.” 

“Yeah, you could say that.”

Tav wasn’t jealous at all that Soren had lucked out and gotten the better assignment, with the Taskforce’s CO himself. From what Soren said, it was mostly meetings—endless meetings—and boring as hell. Soren had complained his boss was so organized that he’d been forced to organize the paperclips on his desk by size order and batch requisitioned. 

Tav would much rather be crawling around on a combat mission with his captain. 

“Okay… well, up at at ‘em then.” Mason rumbled, taking a guard position to watch the corridor behind them as he yerked his head toward the crawlspace. “Once you get the other side, take position and cover the corridor ahead.”

“Yessir.” 

Tav was in the crawlspace in a heartbeat, pushing the rifle ahead of him until he was on the other side. Crouching behind a support strut as he’d seen the captain do, he called back over his shoulder. 

“Err… move?” 

“Moving.” The captain chuckled behind him, but his voice was tighter than normal. There were clunks and bangs behind him, then some soft swearing. 

Tav risked a look over his shoulder, then looked front again quickly. Yeah, that was a hell of a tight fit for someone as big as Commander Mason. 

“Err… are you okay, sir?” he asked after another thirty seconds of huffing and what sounded like tearing cloth. But before the captain answered him, there was a chirp from the computer. 

“Long range call for Commander Mason,” the computer announced. 

“What? Now?” The commander all but snarled. “In the middle of a red alert? Who the hell from?” 

“Long range call for Commander Mason from Captain Hale,” the computer repeated. “Visual and audio.”

“Freaking great.” The commander sighed. “Okay, give me the audio only. Ilona, I’m kind of busy at the moment. What do you want?” 

“You’ve been ignoring my calls for weeks, Raan Lynn Mason.” A woman’s voice filled the air, clipped and sharp. A voice used to command. “I need those bloody divorce papers signed and sent back. Don’t make me come hunt you down to get them, because I will. Are we clear?” 

The call cut off, leaving Tav sitting there, his own breath rasping in his ears. Holy shit… had he just eavesdropped on the captain’s personal call? And holy shit, the captain was married… well, almost. Kind of. 

Mason dropped out of the crawl space into the corridor next to him with little grace. He grunted as he rolled and Tav tried not to notice his jacket was ripped. 

“Uhmm…”

Mason cut him a side look and Tav shut his mouth with a click. He was not asking. So not asking.

“Moving,” Mason announced, and then they were off down the corridor again.