Secret Admirer (Part 1)

Posted on Thu Sep 16th, 2021 @ 4:22am by Lieutenant Amu Hinamori M.D. & Petty Officer 1st Class Yoshika Miyafuji & Lieutenant JG Nozomi Kusuda 'Gemini' & Ensign Lynette Bishop 'Highlander'
Edited on on Thu Sep 16th, 2021 @ 4:22am

1,297 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Operation Romulus Return
Location: USS Tokyo (NCC-91101), Shuttle/Fighter Workshop, Deck 18
Timeline: About 1 day after "Training Begins"; T-Minus 5 days to Romulan Neutral Zone

Though Nozomi was usually rather good about her sleeping habits, three straight days of intensive training in the Holodeck finally caught up with her, and she wound up sleeping in three hours later than she usually did. By the time she'd finally gotten suited up and had a bite to eat, Lieutenant Riverside had already beaten her to the punch; and seeing as the Marines were utilizing the other Holodeck for their own training, she decided that she was going to have to find something else to do in order to keep herself at least somewhat useful around here. She decided a good place to start would be calibrating her bird to make sure it was combat ready, so after quickly ducking back into her quarters to grab both her PaDD and one of her many workshop manuals pertaining to the domestic upkeep of the Valkyrie-Class, she took the turbolift down to Deck 18 and made her way over to the Fighter Workshop.

"Oh, Bollocks..."

The sound of someone crumpling paper catching her attention, Nozomi rounded the corner to find a lone pilot-- another Ensign, from the looks of it-- hunched over a dimly-lit workbench, seemingly lost in her own private world. Scattered haphazardly around her feet were several scraps of wadded-up paper-- likely several fruitless endeavors that pertained to whatever it was working on.

"Oh, that's just dreadful; I'd rather gouge my eyes out than use that pickup line..."

The opportunity had all but presented itself for Nozomi to butt her nose in where it didn't belong; with a mischievous smirk, she carefully tiptoed over to where the Ensign was working, waiting until she was almost directly behind her before making her presence apparent.

"Might I be of assistance, Ensign?"

With a startled yelp, the Ensign quickly spun around to face the newcomer, her elbow coming within centimeters of knocking the wind out of Nozomi.

"I... Forgive me if I startled you," she expressed once she'd regained her composure. "You gave me quite the start there."

"No worries; I'm just having a little bit of fun," Nozomi chuckled. "But jokes aside, you seemed to be having a little trouble with something, so I was wondering if I might be able to render assistance?"

The Ensign's face went as red as a beet.

"Nope! Don't mind me!" she replied, squatting down and frantically stuffing the scraps of paper into her pockets. "Nothing important to see here! Nothing at all!"

"You sure?"

"Dead certain!"

Nozomi shrugged. "Alright, then; seeing as it's nothing I can help you with, I'll just leave you to work out your boy problems on your own..."

"W-wait!" The Ensign called out as Nozomi turned to leave. "How much did you hear?!"

"Oh, enough to get the basic gist," Nozomi admitted, her back still turned to the Ensign. "But it's alright; you're clearly young and have a boy you're crazy for, so it's nothing to be ashamed of..."

...

"...It's a girl," the Ensign confessed reluctantly.

Got her.

"Oh?" Nozomi responded, feigning surprise as she turned back around to face the pilot.

"Promise you won't tell?" the Ensign pleaded, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "Promise this stays between the two of us?"

"Then say no more," Nozomi replied, offering her outstretched hand with a wink and a salesman smile. "Your secret's safe with me for as long as you intend to keep it that way."

The pilot stole a nervous glance at Nozomi's hand before eventually caving in and allowing the taller girl to help her to her feet.

"What's your name, pilot?" Nozomi asked, only now getting a better look at the Ensign's face and realizing that there was something strikingly familiar about it. Perhaps she had been on the transport shuttle with her?

"O-Oh! Where are my manners?" The Ensign fumbled, quickly snapping to attention. "Ensign Lynette Bishop, Ducati Squadron, call sign Highlander, at your service, Si- Ma'am!"

Nozomi laughed. "Relax; I'm an Ensign as well, so we're one and the same. Nozomi Kusuda, Triumph Squadron, call sign Gemini- but I go by a ton of nicknames, so anything that's fine with you is fine with me."

"S-sorry," The pilot, Lynette, apologized, twiddling her thumbs nervously.

"So, Lynette- do you mind if I call you Lyn, by the way? It rolls off the tongue easier," Nozomi continued as she stooped down and picked up one of the scraps of paper that Lynette had missed. "Anyways, if I may be of assistance; who's the lucky lady?"

Lynette's eyes nervously darted about the workshop as she weighed on whether or not she was at liberty to share that.

"Promise me you won't tell?" she asked again.

"I already promised that, didn't I?" Nozomi winked. "Though, if it's a certain someone I know, I may be able to offer some tips into winning them over."

Lynette reluctantly sucked in her breath.

"Well.... there's this Petty Officer in Medical..." she began, shuffling her foot nervously.

Nozomi leaned in. She was beginning to suspect she knew who Lynette was talking about, but she needed to be sure. "What does she look like?"

"U-um, she's... short..."

"Mm-hm..."

"She's... I think she's Japanese?"

"Mm-hm..."

"She has brown, shoulder-length hair..."

"Keep going..."

"And she has these... these... these cute hazel eyes that look like a puppydog..."

Okay, Nozomi definitely knew who she was talking about.

"You mean Petty Officer Yoshika Miyafuji?" she surmised.

"I... yeah, I think that's the one," Lynette nodded. "D-do you know if she...?"

Nozomi shook her head. "I'm afraid I'm not all close to Petty Officer Miyafuji to say whether or not she's into girls," she admitted, before an idea suddenly popped into her head. "But ask, and you shall receive!"

Before Lynette had time to raise an objection, Nozomi was already scurrying off in the direction of Sick Bay.
____________________________________________________________

[Flight Deck Sickbay]

The flight deck sickbay was unusually quiet, most of the medical drills had been finished for the day. Dcotor Amu Hinamori and Petty Officer Miyafuji were finishing cleaning up and taking inventory when the young pilot walked in.

"Hope I'm not intruding on anything, Doctors," Nozomi sighed as she stumbled into the room. "But I've been experiencing this dull pain in my wrist, and I was wondering if you could take a look...?"

Amu smiled as she approached the ensign. "Sure not a problem" she said as she approached and flicked open the tricoder which she removed from her belt. She scanned the ensigns wrist. "Looks like a minor strain, seems you've been working a little hard with the pilot controls" she smiled.

"Nurse Miyafuji can help you get it back in working order" Amu said. "Nurse Miyafuji?" she called out.

Yoshika emerged almost instantly from the side office carrying a tray of hyposprays. "Yes doctor?" she asked enthuiastically.

"Can you care for the Ensigns wrist please? Minor muscle strain, I still have a few things to finish up here" she said with a smile.

"Yes Doctor" Yoshika smiled. She placed the tray of hyposprays down on the side table where they hyposprays were usually kept and walked over to the Doctor and Ensign. She smiled poliliety at the Ensign.

"I'm Nurse Yoshika Miyafuji, shall we have a look at that wrist?" she asked Lyn. "Biobed three is free, if you'd come with me"

"Sure thing, Doc," Nozomi smiled as she followed Yoshika over to the biobed. So far, so good...

To be continued...

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