—- Engine Room —-

“The coolant is leaking,” Young said adjusting the field around the warp core. He’d never seen it fluctuate quite like this, but then he’d never pushed an engine this hard. He’d followed the lessons of any good Starfleet engineer and underestimated that he could do and more importantly what the engines could do. But now with a Borg Cube on their six there were increasingly near a breakdown.

His Assistant Chief Engineer Ensign Vanessa Constable looked over his shoulder, “You need to stop us, tell the Captain we need a few hours.”

”But the Borg,” Young said knowing the objections already. The fact was that they were out matched and out gunned by the Borg Cube and if they stopped for a time out, they’d be assimilated and the Borg would just take the transponders. Not that anyone cared about them, but leading them further away from inhabited planets was the goal. 

“The Borg aren’t going to spill our atoms all over the sector but this warp engine will,” Constable said. The problem was that the Borg was matching their speed and while the USS Seattle was pushing itself past its own limits they seemed to be barely breaking a sweat. Most of the crew was alseep, and only the engineering team had to focus. 

Lieutenant Young fought off a yawn, not having slept for days it felt like. He needed a break, and not to be pushing the engines to the point where his most talented engineer was worried that they were going to redistribute the crews atoms around space. 

He went over to a comm panel and hailed the Captain who he could tell he’d woken up, “Sir, it’s Young. I need to drop us out of warp, three, maybe four hours or otherwise we’re going to lose it soon.”

”Commander Cruz is coming down to you, I’ll let her make the call,” Hawthorne said, there was a disatisfied groan in the background. Young had seen the pair kissing and it was common knowledge on the Seattle that they were together in a way. He realized that he’d woken up the both of them with his call.

”Yes sir,” he said and closed the channel quickly.

Constable shook her head, “I’m going to my own room that’s not a hallway and enjoying my last moments in this universe before you blow us both up to please the higher ups.”

”Be back in three hours, I’ll need your help getting us going again,” he said.

“If we’re alive in three hours I’ll be back,” she said.

Ten minutes later a tired looking Commander Cruz entered engineering. Lieutenant Young  showed her the warp engines and explained to her the situation. 

“We’re talking about catastrophic destruction. We could lose the ship or at the very least warp speed. Take them offline, we have some maintenance and then I’ll have us back up and running,” Young explained.

”That easy?” Cruz asked.

”No it’s not easy, I’m simplifying it for non-engineers but the maintenance is pretty simple,” he said.

”Good, then have Delta shift do it. Take the next few hours off, sleep, drink. Then get us going, you have four hours,” Cruz said, “And then the Cube will be in visual range.”

Young nodded, “I get the urgency ma’am, it’s just how do we want to die. Exploding or assimilation.”

”How about we leave dying off the table for now,” Cruz said, “shut it down.“

She tapped her comm badge, “Medical, this is Commander Cruz I need someone to ensure that Lieutenant Young takes at least three hours of downtime now. Please releve him of duty.”

”This is Doctor T’Rala, I’d be happy to,” came the voice from the comm badge.

Cruz nodded at the Chief Engineering Officer, “Take us out of warp. Do what you need to do then hand off the easy stuff. I don’t want you falling asleep when turning these engines back on.”

With that she left, probably back to the comfort of a bed. 

Young had just taken the  engines offline when the blue clad Doctor T’Rala entered engineering. Either bored or following Commander Cruz’s orders. Young swore he could feel the ship slow, but knew that should be impossible. It dropped out of warp and he watched it slow and then hold steady.

”Let’s go to bed Lieutenant,” the Doctor said.

“I can make it to me room on my own,” he protested as the Romulan woman guided him towards the corridor.

”Sure, but I’ve been tasked, nay ordered to take your mind off work and that’s what I’m going to do,” she said.

Not wanting to back down from a challenge, even if it was to remain thinking about work when he had been specifically ordered not to, he said definitely, “Then you’ll have to sedate me.”

T’Rala rolled her eyes, “Or I could just…”

She whispered what she was going to do in his ear causing him to blush as they went down the corridor to his room.

”How about you and Jara? I thought you and her did… that,” he protested.

”That’s the medically wonderful thing about being single and bi-sexual. Now stop being a prude or jealous, and come with me,” she said, refusing to play down her physical moment weeks ago with the Strategic Operations Lieutenant, “Or I will sedate you and you’ll wake up in sick bay strapped to a bed.”

”Don’t you have patients, or work,” he said.

”Yes, you, now you kissed me remember,” she pointed out, “so make up your mind, are we just friends or what?”

They had taken a turbolift and reached his quarter. He was tired, but she was alluring in her way. Vulcan like, but also so human. Why did she seem to like him, that was a question he could not answer and had the feeling he was not tonight. He could smell her, clean and yet a hint of vanilla which must be a trait she’d taken from her adopted family. Shampoo or soap or something.

The door to his room opened.

”Come in,“ he said and they stepped in, and kissed again. 

With his eyes closed her almost missed the distinactive hiss of the hypospray. She’d tricked him! He felt tired, more than he had and then blackness claimed him.

James Young woke up naked except for his boxers. T’Rala was watching him from a chair. He was in his bed under the covers. He sat up, “You undressed me that’s a violation.”

”Is it, it was medically needed,” she said, “maybe even vital. Besides you agreed to a lot more than that.”

Young yawned, three hours sleep had not been enough to catch up on the amount that he missed out on, but it was something. He suppose as unconventional as the doctor’s approach was it had gotten him the rest that the Commander ordered. Going to his closet he got out a crisp and clean uniform and began to put it on as T’Rala watched. 

She then got out of the chair and crossed the room to him putting her hands on his chest she leaned in to kiss him without warning. Smiling once the kiss had ended the made a promise laden with innuendo, “I can administer more attention to you once you get that warp core online and save us all from certain assimilation.”

The doctor winked and exited his bedroom, leaving him to finish dressing and then make his way to engineering where his team was reassembling the warp core after taking it offline. New isolinear chips had been slotted into the controls, and things were ready to go.

Ensign Constable was already slotting in dilIthium crystals. 

”How was Doctor T’Rala?” Constable asked coming over to him as the crew worked.

”Good I guess, it’s hard to tell with her,” Young confessed.

”I like her, she gives you crap which you deserve. One of the most fun people on this ship,” Constable said.

Young grunted, not wanting to talk about the situation with anyone but certainly not with the person second most likely to ‘give him crap’ Ensign Constable. Once everything was back in place he began the activation code, waiting for the computer to reboot the engine and bring it online.

Instead all that happened was the ship fell dark.

”Oh that’s not good,” Constable said helpfully.