Subspace Chats

Posted on Mon Sep 1st, 2025 @ 7:42pm by Lieutenant JG James Phoenix

911 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Holding Pattern Hijinks
Location: Phoenix's Quarters
Timeline: Current

All things considered, Phoenix had fared pretty well after the last mission. He had reunited with Ashlynn and most of the mirrors were locked up, but that was it. Most of the senior officers had fared much worse than him. Other officers died. Casualties were bound to happen, but they should have never happened like this. The death that hit hardest was actually Eislyn's. He had seen her only just a few weeks before her death. While it was her job, she had been a great help when it came to his recovery from the German Colony, amongst other things.

That wasn't the only reason why it hit hard. He felt responsible for her death. In fact, he felt responsible for everything. Had he not made that deal with Hela to bring mirror Ash back, Shran would not have been busted out. He felt that could have been avoided. He knew that the Terrans would have still came over from their universe, but that didn't help his feelings, not to mention his survivor guilt.

Sadly this was the best case scenario. Both ships were intact despite the losses and Ash was alive. He kept trying to tell himself that, but there was only so much he could tell himself and do to cope, especially with no counselor to see at the moment with Callie being occupied with her own scars. He could talk to Ash now but both of their jobs kept them busy enough that subspace chats were few and far between.

As such, he had reverted to some of his old coping mechanisms, as well as some of the ones Eislyn had recommended. Today it was tinkering with machines and venting to himself. He wasn't an engineer but he still had some skills in him from his mechanic days, and with a shortage of engineers there had been issues in his quarters he had to deal with himself. One of them being a malfunctioning replicator.

He found himself laying down in the bulkhead of his quarter with three different spanners, his tricorder, and a set of wire cutters. It was somewhat crude, but with a three day old request for engineering to fix is replicator, he was forced to take things into his own hands. He didn't blame Engineering since they had been through the wringer and had their hands tied.

He took one of the spanners and held it up as far as he could reach. One of the power converters was fused. He was able to shut off power to be able to work safely, but he couldn't leave it for too long. He engaged the spanner and moved his hand slowly along the converter to repair it. After a few moments it was completed. Next was the waveguide. This required the same spanner.

As he did the same process as the converted, his communicator chirped. It startled him, causing him to drop the spanner square in his face. He cursed loudly and as he tried to make a hasty exit from the bulkhead, he hit his head on the bulkhead.

"F*cking Kahless" he cursed rather loudly before throwing the spanner across the room. He tapped his communicator. "Phoenix here."

"Lieutenant, there is a subspace comm link waiting for you" a voice came from the bridge.

"Thank you. Send it down here please. Phoenix out" he said as he slid into his chair at his desk. He took a sip out of his mug that had cold coffee in it from sitting out for too long. The computer screen flicked on to reveal Ash, who appeared to be in a smaller space than he remembered.

"Hey you" he said, taking another sip. "You don't seem to be in your usual space."

Ash smiled. "That's because I'm not."

James raised an eyebrow. "You on leave?"

"Not exactly" she began. "I'm transferring."

"Still technically leave" James quipped.

Ash gave him a comical, but deadpan look. "Don't be a smartass James."

"Aww but that's my specialty" he sassed before getting more serious. "Why leave the Saber?"

"We mostly did intel operations. With my job, it was starting to take a toll on me. I wanted to take it easy for a while. That doesn't even include the fact that I want to do more with my science career" Ashlynn replied.

"Fair enough" he replied. "Where are you transferring to?"

A sly grin appeared on his best friend's face. "The Washington."

James had taken a sip of his coffee before nearly spitting out his drink.

Ash chuckled. "I wanted to be closer to you, which is the other reason I left."

A small smile appeared on James' face. "Ash, while I am ecstatic that you'll be here soon, and that is an understatement, I hope you know that you shouldn't have to make any career decisions because of me."

Ash returned the smile. "I know. I want this."

James didn't have words. He was genuinely thrilled for this, not to mention the fact that he hadn't excepted anything like this to happen so soon. He would likely find his thoughts and words in due course. For the time being, he spent the next hour chatting with her over the comm link, before they were both called away. He still missed her despite the closure of her being alive, and in a few days she'd be on the same ship has him. The past few months had been an insane whirlwind.

 

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