Prestidigymnastics

Posted on Sun May 10th, 2026 @ 10:47pm by Lieutenant Zachary Addams & Petty Officer 1st Class Alexis Aenera

1,329 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Flight Of The Valkyries
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: Early Morning

Once again Engineering was empty aside from Alexis, the early morning starts being one of the few things she actually enjoyed, because it left her free to do what what she wanted, so long as there wasn't anything critical. As it was, she was perched again on the railing with her toes gripping the beveled railing as best they could through the thin fabric of the stockings, her arms out to her side for balance. Her eyes were briefly on the main console in the middle as she finally made her move, a walkover in which she twisted as her hand gripped the railing and pushed off and landed with her legs tucked up into a ball and she rolled to push herself off the ground with both hands and twisted half around again to throw herself in the air and landed in a crouch onto the inactive console, feet sliding a few inches before she was able to get enough friction to stop.

She let out her breath as she realized she had made it, uncertain that it would have been the case when she started the move. From here, there was much less danger for her next move, because clearly she couldn't be up here when everyone else was coming in and Alexis threw herself into a fast reverse walkover, pushing off as soon as her feet hit the console again before tucking into a pike position and landing on her feet facing it with a brief bounce, only needing to use her arms slightly to keep to them as the dismount was nearly perfect.

"Out of curiosity," a voice said behind her, "what was the excuse you were going to give Sickbay if you hadn't made it?"

Her head snapped around to the figure that had basically appeared out of nowhere to her vision, eyes widening for a moment as she brushed the skirt down, "I don't think I'd have gone down there, unless I'd really hurt myself, sir." She caught a glimpse of his pips, then reached up to brush her hair behind her ears, the silver hairpiece still firmly affixed.

Zach was leaning against the Master Situation Monitor, having appeared out of thin air. His arms were folded and his expression was more amused than angry.

"I could handle a few bumps and bruises," Alexis continued on when there was no response incoming, "But what's a little risk? If I'd sprained something, or broken something, then I'd have come up with something, maybe even told them the truth, but I'm perfectly fine, see?" She twirled on one foot, the skirt lifting slightly from the centrifugal force.

"Mm," Zach said. "I'd heard rumors of an engineering gymnast, so I decided to see it for myself." He gave a small shrug. "I can't argue with your outcome this time, just as long as what gets broken can be repaired." He pushed off the wall and walked over, extending a hand. "Zachary Addams. Call me Zach, if you like. I'm the new Chief Engineer."

"Alexis Aenera, one of your senior NCOs." Alexis took his hand and shook it firmly, "Technically I'm also on of your power-systems specialists, but I can sing the song and dance the dance with whatever's needed, mostly." She smiled at him, "Plus, as you can see, I've got an excellent sense of balance, comes from when I was a competitive gymnast, but never could get on the podium in the all-around."

Zach smiled. "I come from a specialized background as well," he said. "And I also tend to indulge my past life while I'm working." He reached up behind her ear and 'pulled out' a silver coin. He held it up to show her, then flicked his wrist and the coin vanished.

Automatically, Alexis reached up to her ear and blushed when she realized what she'd done, bringing her hands together in front of her consciously, "I see, now, if you can make certain things vanish while you're working, then we may find that we've got some issues. Of course, if you can make a bioneural interface connector appear out of thin air, then we'll get along quite swimmingly, because that's going to be one of my first tasks of the day, sir."

Zach pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and placed it over his hand. He waggled his fingers over it and gripped it, pulling it away in a dramatic reveal.

Lexi's eyes opened wide as she watched raptly while his fingers made their motions, then held her breath when he pulled it away and left... Nothing. She finally exhaled as her eyes went back to normal.

Zach grinned. "Had you going for a second there, didn't I?" he said, chuckling. "An interface would take a bit more setup." He put his handkerchief back in his pocket. "I've got a honey-do list a mile long. A fine first day, hm?"

"Well, you also have an entire engineering section to help you with that list, including yours truly." She gave him a smile, "If it puts you more at ease, I did actually graduate from the Imperial Academy, but when I was offered a spot in our exchange program, I didn't want to go through the whole Starfleet Academy process, so I came over as an instant Third-Class PO instead. You can delegate things to me if you need, even snot-nosed junior officers that need someone to watch over them."

"I'll keep that in mind," he said. "Some of the list is things I need to take care of as Chief Engineer, and I know you all already have duty assignments for this week. I'll worry about delegating later." He took a breath and looked at her, trying not to get distracted. "Well," he said, clearing his throat, "I suppose I should let you get back to work. He gave a small, wry grin. "You are working, yes? You're not just here to show off your gymnastic skills, right?"

"Only in my spare time, sir." Alexis meandered over to the console by the railing and toed her shoes on, "Ensign Kirimi, the former Acting Chief, typically was pretty hands-off with the scheduling, left it to the senior NCOs, so myself and PO's Vestal and Amarachi have been getting together for the last three weeks to make most of the scheduling. I'm the delegate for coming in an hour or so before Alpha to make any last minute adjustments, but Amarachi has seniority over me by a couple years, technically, so I guess he's your senior NCO? PO-1 is the highest enlisted in Engineering. But, really at this point I'm just waiting for everyone to come in."

"Well, if you want to get that connector fixed up, I'll start the morning diagnostics, and when everyone responds to my assembly call in an hour or so, we'll return here. Sound good?"

Alexis smiled as she walked back over to the main console and keyed it to life once more, the results from diagnostics run half an hour before flickering to life in the holographics and screens of the console. "Tell you what, sir, go ahead and review the morning diagnostics while I go get that connector repaired, and I'll see you back in an hour."

He raised an eyebrow at the monitor and nodded. "Good idea; glad you thought of it," he said, dryly.

She walked past him and patted him on the shoulder as she did, "I do try to stay ahead of the curve. My colleagues call me Alexis, my friends call me Lexi. Take your pick."

He nodded. "Thanks, Lexi," he said, smiling. See you in an hour." He sat down at the terminal and looked through the first diagnostic, glancing after her as she walked away.

Alexis smiled where he couldn't see it, putting a slight flounce into her step while she left through the exit. Good Chiefs were hard to find, besides... He was actually pretty cute.

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