Things Past – Changing Tides - Riptide
by Commander Chelsea Dunham & Commander Richard Dunham
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The time had come. Kim had no idea why her Aunt was so pale today. "Are you okay, Auntie Chelsea?" she had enquired thoughtfully.
"Yes sweetheart, I'm a little off colour but I'll be fine, thank you for asking." Chelsea placed a light kiss on her neice's forehead in appreciation of her caring concern.
She looked up at Rick, picked up the picnic hamper she and Kim had prepared and muttered. "Let's do this then".
"Right then" said Rick with a smile and politely taking the hamper off Chelsea, so he could carry it down to the small hanger bay where their ship was kept. Heading down to the cargo bay Rick took Chelsea's had which he squeezed affectionately, he couldn't help but notice a slight tremble in her hand.
The Chelsea sat alone in the small hanger bay, the only light came from the stars on the other side of the shuttle bay doors' force field. In the shadow it looked line an old ponderous animal that had sat down to rest after a long day. In reality it was no bigger than a runabout and the civilian vessel was cobbled together from several different ships.
"How do you like Uncle Rick's pride and joy, baby?" Chelsea asked lightly.
"She's named after a place in London. That's in England, on Earth. Have you ever been there? I was brought up in England. My grandpa and grandma live there. I love England. I would like to take you there sometime. I know you'd love London."
Kim looked at her aunt with a slight perplexed if somewhat worried look. Before she could answer Rick did. "Actually she's named after my wife" he said with a grin.
Chelsea had the grace to blush. "I knew that! ...but it was a good story right? Actually it's how *I* got the name. It's where they have a famous flower show that has been going for centuries and my mum thought I was like an exotic little flower when i was born so she named me after it." she explained.
~My *wife*~ Chelsea thought, a warmth and safe feeling infusing her from the inside out. ~I never get used to that.... I love it.... MRS Richard Dunham..... for better and for worse.... ~ she thought as she stopped trembling.
Rick's hand was still in hers and she was the luckiest woman in the universe.
"Ok my flower" said Rick sympathetically "were going to take this one step at a time ok?" he gave her another re-assuring squeeze of her hand.
"Yes please" Chelsea replied giving him a grateful, loving look. It still seemed bewildering to her that when she considered how fearless she was in her own comfort zone of an operating theatre or a sickbay trauma unit, just how difficult this was. But that was just 'it'... those words: "comfort zone"... she was well and truly out of hers but Rick was right at home in his. She leant back against him gently, taking reassurance from his easy calm and patient manner.
Fleetingly she tried to remember if she had felt like this when she had been new to her own 'comfort zone' - before it had become 'comfortable' but she honestly could never remember being this haunted by something before, not even when she had been kidnapped by a Pah-Wraith in the form of her own sister, and certainly never in a medical facility. It had to be the bad start that she and her name-sake had endured.
"Okay" she said outloud. "Let's start by clearing the air." She sat 'business-like' in the pilot's seat again and spoke to the control panel. "I apologise for pressing buttons I shouldn't have last time I was here and you apologise for not allowing me to press some sort of abort button. So now we're all forgiven and square, let's start afresh, shall we?"
Kim settled herself into the passenger seats behind them, spreading herself nonchalantly across two. She giggled when Chelsea began talking to the craft.
"It can't hear you Auntie" she chuckled.
"SHE can hear me perfectly. Can't you Chelsea." Mrs Dunham remained firm, banishing all the images in her head of the last time she was in this cockpit. "We're starting a new day and a new adventure and you may only come along if you're not cheeky, Missie!" the original Chelsea spoke to Kim now, grinning for the first time since she had set foot inside the *other* Chelsea. She was beginning to relax and regain her equilibrium.
Rick gave Chelsea an adoring look, "Ok" he said getting up from his seat an positing himself standing behind Chelsea. "How about you start her up"
"erm...." she remembered someone once saying to her "Why don't you make the first incision... " and it had felt like this.
"What do you want me to do?" She was reluctant to experiment a second time.
Rick smiled to himself and in an understanding tone said "It's not much different from the basic flight shuttle you used in the academy." he pointed to a button "this power button"
"okay" she tried the button and the craft whirred to life again. She shuddered, grappling internally with her stomach and its contents. The mechanical voice that had haunted her dreams counting down, began to issue information read-outs.
"HEYYYYYY!" A thought occured to her. "Rick.... can you change her auto-voice? What if you made her a him for when i'm 'driving'?" Chelsea wasn't good at the terminology. After all, if it had a section to recalibrate Laser-scalpels she'd have been all over it but this was a foreign language.
"If you could make *him* talk to me, especially if he talks technobabble, I'm SURE I'd get the hang of it in no time!!" she grinned.
Rick gave her a wry smile and comically rolled his eyes. He understood were she was coming from so he nodded and moved next to her where he then had to lay on his back and slide under the console she was working at. There came a series of clanks as metal was moved then sparks as wires were re-routed. "Computer" said Ricks headless body "Test voice one" the computer replied with a voice that could only be described as an old fashioned English gentlemen "test".
Chelsea grinned. "Coooooooooool!" she purred, winking at Rick as he came back out from under the console. "..... and will you have to throw yourself at my feet every time I get in here?" she teased.
Rick gave a wry smile "honey I worship you at your feet" he said with a wink at Kim. He got himself up off the floor gave her a quick kiss on the cheek then flicked his fingers dexterously across the touch screen LCARS display. "Ok sweety, take her away." he said as the atmospheric shield de-activated.
Kim made mime-actions to emulate being violently sick and they all laughed. Chelsea's smile faded quickly however as it was replaced by an expression of concentration. She tried to remember her Academy days and the course on shuttles but there was too much medical technology in the way since then.
Chelsea cleared the docking bay without to much of a hitch but the space traffic was more than she could handle. "Ok this is too much to ask of a complete beginner." she protested, unable to turn her head for fear that she might hit something. "Is this meant to be a baptism of fire?" she asked, pale and terrified as the crafted cruised out dodging other ships precariously.
When she finally scraped her way out of the traffic, Chelsea managed to relax her scrunched shoulders and remembered she was meant to breathe. She was furious with Rick for putting her in at the deep end like that.
"Perhaps Kim would like a turn now?" she offered through gritted teeth but Kim was so excited that she didn't seem to hear or feel the tension and she jumped forward enthusiastically. Chelsea got up and swapped seats with her, taking the opportunity to go to the rear of the cabin and breathe deeply.
"you did amazingly dear" said Rick coming closer and kneeling down beside her. He looked up at her beaming with pride and enthusiasm, his eyes sparkled with admiration for her. Rick was almost launched off his feet for a moment as Kim got a bit carried away with the controls. Rick frowned feeling the deck underneath him "sorry" said Kim apologetically but with a grin on her face. Rick felt the deck again "Kim did your mum teach you to fly?" said Rick thoughtfully
"yes" replied Kim
"I can tell" said Rick chuckling to himself.
Chelsea grinned. "OH! So it runs in the family... this air-lunacy?!"
She braced herself for a dig in the ribs in retaliation.
"That wasn't fair Rick - throwing me to the wolves like that..." she said seriously as the joking died down. ".....but it did clear the log-jam in my head. Thank you." She put her hand out and took his. She would do anything for him and she just had. She drew in a deep breath, exhausted but feeling so much better than she had done at any time since her ordeal.
"Ok Kim warp three" said Rick not taking his eyes of Chelsea and wrapping his arms around her in a big hug
"I thought the Captain gave the orders" said Kim mischievously "and surely the Captain is 'commander' Dunham not Lieutenant commander Dunham?"
"I said you could only come if you weren't cheeky, Miss Anderson!" Chelsea smiled. "Lt Cmdr Dunham is the pilot, that makes him the CO in this ship. If you visit my Sickbay, that's where I'm the CO." she put her niece right gently.
"Right then" said Rick with a clap of his hand and moving things one "which one of you intrepid space adventures wants to take us to warp speed?"
"ME!!" Kim bounced up and down in her seat causing another of those lurches that nearly sent Rick flying again. "Ooops"
Chelsea shook her head, smiling as she reached up and tried to assist with steadying him from the safety of her seat in the rear of the cabin.
"I think that Kim does, but if you don't mind, I think I'd prefer if you were to go back and sit with her just in case she decides to redirect us to the Gamma quadrant mid flight." she smiled affectionately at them both.
Rick nodded in agreement, getting up he gave Chelsea a reassuring gentle tap on the shoulder, then went up to take his place at the helm controls. Soon they were underway at warp three under Ricks watchful eye and Kims enthusiastic piloting.
A JP Between:
Cmdr Chelsea Dunham
CMO & 2CO
and
Lt Cdr Rick Dunham
CAG
and
NPC: Kim Anderson
by Commander Chelsea Dunham & Commander Richard Dunham
Post Details
| Title | Changing Tides - Riptide | |
| Mission | Things Past | |
| Author(s) | Commander Chelsea Dunham & Commander Richard Dunham | |
| Posted | Sun Jan 29, 2012 @ 8:38pm | |
| Location | Docking Bay 2 | |
| Timeline | Between Judgement & Incommunicado |
The time had come. Kim had no idea why her Aunt was so pale today. "Are you okay, Auntie Chelsea?" she had enquired thoughtfully.
"Yes sweetheart, I'm a little off colour but I'll be fine, thank you for asking." Chelsea placed a light kiss on her neice's forehead in appreciation of her caring concern.
She looked up at Rick, picked up the picnic hamper she and Kim had prepared and muttered. "Let's do this then".
"Right then" said Rick with a smile and politely taking the hamper off Chelsea, so he could carry it down to the small hanger bay where their ship was kept. Heading down to the cargo bay Rick took Chelsea's had which he squeezed affectionately, he couldn't help but notice a slight tremble in her hand.
The Chelsea sat alone in the small hanger bay, the only light came from the stars on the other side of the shuttle bay doors' force field. In the shadow it looked line an old ponderous animal that had sat down to rest after a long day. In reality it was no bigger than a runabout and the civilian vessel was cobbled together from several different ships.
"How do you like Uncle Rick's pride and joy, baby?" Chelsea asked lightly.
"She's named after a place in London. That's in England, on Earth. Have you ever been there? I was brought up in England. My grandpa and grandma live there. I love England. I would like to take you there sometime. I know you'd love London."
Kim looked at her aunt with a slight perplexed if somewhat worried look. Before she could answer Rick did. "Actually she's named after my wife" he said with a grin.
Chelsea had the grace to blush. "I knew that! ...but it was a good story right? Actually it's how *I* got the name. It's where they have a famous flower show that has been going for centuries and my mum thought I was like an exotic little flower when i was born so she named me after it." she explained.
~My *wife*~ Chelsea thought, a warmth and safe feeling infusing her from the inside out. ~I never get used to that.... I love it.... MRS Richard Dunham..... for better and for worse.... ~ she thought as she stopped trembling.
Rick's hand was still in hers and she was the luckiest woman in the universe.
"Ok my flower" said Rick sympathetically "were going to take this one step at a time ok?" he gave her another re-assuring squeeze of her hand.
"Yes please" Chelsea replied giving him a grateful, loving look. It still seemed bewildering to her that when she considered how fearless she was in her own comfort zone of an operating theatre or a sickbay trauma unit, just how difficult this was. But that was just 'it'... those words: "comfort zone"... she was well and truly out of hers but Rick was right at home in his. She leant back against him gently, taking reassurance from his easy calm and patient manner.
Fleetingly she tried to remember if she had felt like this when she had been new to her own 'comfort zone' - before it had become 'comfortable' but she honestly could never remember being this haunted by something before, not even when she had been kidnapped by a Pah-Wraith in the form of her own sister, and certainly never in a medical facility. It had to be the bad start that she and her name-sake had endured.
"Okay" she said outloud. "Let's start by clearing the air." She sat 'business-like' in the pilot's seat again and spoke to the control panel. "I apologise for pressing buttons I shouldn't have last time I was here and you apologise for not allowing me to press some sort of abort button. So now we're all forgiven and square, let's start afresh, shall we?"
Kim settled herself into the passenger seats behind them, spreading herself nonchalantly across two. She giggled when Chelsea began talking to the craft.
"It can't hear you Auntie" she chuckled.
"SHE can hear me perfectly. Can't you Chelsea." Mrs Dunham remained firm, banishing all the images in her head of the last time she was in this cockpit. "We're starting a new day and a new adventure and you may only come along if you're not cheeky, Missie!" the original Chelsea spoke to Kim now, grinning for the first time since she had set foot inside the *other* Chelsea. She was beginning to relax and regain her equilibrium.
Rick gave Chelsea an adoring look, "Ok" he said getting up from his seat an positing himself standing behind Chelsea. "How about you start her up"
"erm...." she remembered someone once saying to her "Why don't you make the first incision... " and it had felt like this.
"What do you want me to do?" She was reluctant to experiment a second time.
Rick smiled to himself and in an understanding tone said "It's not much different from the basic flight shuttle you used in the academy." he pointed to a button "this power button"
"okay" she tried the button and the craft whirred to life again. She shuddered, grappling internally with her stomach and its contents. The mechanical voice that had haunted her dreams counting down, began to issue information read-outs.
"HEYYYYYY!" A thought occured to her. "Rick.... can you change her auto-voice? What if you made her a him for when i'm 'driving'?" Chelsea wasn't good at the terminology. After all, if it had a section to recalibrate Laser-scalpels she'd have been all over it but this was a foreign language.
"If you could make *him* talk to me, especially if he talks technobabble, I'm SURE I'd get the hang of it in no time!!" she grinned.
Rick gave her a wry smile and comically rolled his eyes. He understood were she was coming from so he nodded and moved next to her where he then had to lay on his back and slide under the console she was working at. There came a series of clanks as metal was moved then sparks as wires were re-routed. "Computer" said Ricks headless body "Test voice one" the computer replied with a voice that could only be described as an old fashioned English gentlemen "test".
Chelsea grinned. "Coooooooooool!" she purred, winking at Rick as he came back out from under the console. "..... and will you have to throw yourself at my feet every time I get in here?" she teased.
Rick gave a wry smile "honey I worship you at your feet" he said with a wink at Kim. He got himself up off the floor gave her a quick kiss on the cheek then flicked his fingers dexterously across the touch screen LCARS display. "Ok sweety, take her away." he said as the atmospheric shield de-activated.
Kim made mime-actions to emulate being violently sick and they all laughed. Chelsea's smile faded quickly however as it was replaced by an expression of concentration. She tried to remember her Academy days and the course on shuttles but there was too much medical technology in the way since then.
Chelsea cleared the docking bay without to much of a hitch but the space traffic was more than she could handle. "Ok this is too much to ask of a complete beginner." she protested, unable to turn her head for fear that she might hit something. "Is this meant to be a baptism of fire?" she asked, pale and terrified as the crafted cruised out dodging other ships precariously.
When she finally scraped her way out of the traffic, Chelsea managed to relax her scrunched shoulders and remembered she was meant to breathe. She was furious with Rick for putting her in at the deep end like that.
"Perhaps Kim would like a turn now?" she offered through gritted teeth but Kim was so excited that she didn't seem to hear or feel the tension and she jumped forward enthusiastically. Chelsea got up and swapped seats with her, taking the opportunity to go to the rear of the cabin and breathe deeply.
"you did amazingly dear" said Rick coming closer and kneeling down beside her. He looked up at her beaming with pride and enthusiasm, his eyes sparkled with admiration for her. Rick was almost launched off his feet for a moment as Kim got a bit carried away with the controls. Rick frowned feeling the deck underneath him "sorry" said Kim apologetically but with a grin on her face. Rick felt the deck again "Kim did your mum teach you to fly?" said Rick thoughtfully
"yes" replied Kim
"I can tell" said Rick chuckling to himself.
Chelsea grinned. "OH! So it runs in the family... this air-lunacy?!"
She braced herself for a dig in the ribs in retaliation.
"That wasn't fair Rick - throwing me to the wolves like that..." she said seriously as the joking died down. ".....but it did clear the log-jam in my head. Thank you." She put her hand out and took his. She would do anything for him and she just had. She drew in a deep breath, exhausted but feeling so much better than she had done at any time since her ordeal.
"Ok Kim warp three" said Rick not taking his eyes of Chelsea and wrapping his arms around her in a big hug
"I thought the Captain gave the orders" said Kim mischievously "and surely the Captain is 'commander' Dunham not Lieutenant commander Dunham?"
"I said you could only come if you weren't cheeky, Miss Anderson!" Chelsea smiled. "Lt Cmdr Dunham is the pilot, that makes him the CO in this ship. If you visit my Sickbay, that's where I'm the CO." she put her niece right gently.
"Right then" said Rick with a clap of his hand and moving things one "which one of you intrepid space adventures wants to take us to warp speed?"
"ME!!" Kim bounced up and down in her seat causing another of those lurches that nearly sent Rick flying again. "Ooops"
Chelsea shook her head, smiling as she reached up and tried to assist with steadying him from the safety of her seat in the rear of the cabin.
"I think that Kim does, but if you don't mind, I think I'd prefer if you were to go back and sit with her just in case she decides to redirect us to the Gamma quadrant mid flight." she smiled affectionately at them both.
Rick nodded in agreement, getting up he gave Chelsea a reassuring gentle tap on the shoulder, then went up to take his place at the helm controls. Soon they were underway at warp three under Ricks watchful eye and Kims enthusiastic piloting.
A JP Between:
Cmdr Chelsea Dunham
CMO & 2CO
and
Lt Cdr Rick Dunham
CAG
and
NPC: Kim Anderson