Belated Apologies, Part II
Posted on Sun Mar 29th, 2026 @ 10:49pm by Ensign Tenzi Sh'reyva & Josef Forstinger
1,638 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Peril at the Unification Accords
Location: Shuttle Engineering / Mechanics Lab, Deck 28
Timeline: MD012, 1015 Hours
Continued From: Belated Apologies, Part I
Returning to the impromptu lesson, Tenzi held her hands about a meter apart.
"Now. If you fly a normal rocket from Earth to Vulcan..." She began slowly walking her fingers across the deck like tiny legs strutting over a stage. "You go this way."
Step. Step. Step. Her fingers crawled forward.
"This takes..." she squinted, trying to make the math work in her head, "... about a hundred years. Give or take."
She looked up to see if Josef was following.
"Which is inconvenient. Especially if you packed a lunch."
"Yeah. Which is why Khan and his cronies froze themselves when they tucked their tails between their legs and ran. It's how I ended up in this time. Got stuck on one of those ships and had to freeze myself when the oxygen ran out. Though you needed to be genetically modified to normally survive it so it was a coin-throw for me. Wasn't pleasant. But lemme guess--this warp thing makes it so you don't have to climb into a freezer?"
Tenzi flashed him a warm smile. "You're finally getting it, Sergeant Yesterday." Her antennae twitched slightly at the mention of Khan Noonien Singh.
"How do you know about Khan?"
"That bastard? At the end of the war he was one of the most wanted men alive. I was part of a detachment sent to stop his little fleet of ships from taking off into space. Managed to stop most, but got stuck on one myself... and that's how I'm here," he finished.
She suddenly wondered at the information she'd been given about Josef. Up to now, the rumour mill aboard Astrea had been working overtime since their departure from Freecloud two weeks ago. She was now seeing this man from the past in a different light: a more sympathetic figure who--through happenstance and duty--was now hundreds of years into the future with a past that he was still carrying. It was probably a difficult adjustment for him, she thought.
He chuckled at the nickname. "So, its an engine then? What, makes you go super fast?"
She grinned and it was entirely lopsided. "Well, that's one of the more simplistic ways to put it. It's probably better if you frame it less about velocity and more about distance."
Tenzi wiped her hands on a rag that sat next to her open toolkit, then flattened her palms on the deck plating, crouching lower with her impossibly long legs. "Warp drive cheats."
She snatched the rag off the floor and grabbed the edge of it, dragging it across the deck toward the circle.
"Instead of moving the ship through space and having it take a hundred-odd years..."
The rag slid closer.
"... you move space itself."
She pinched the rag so the circle and the far point folded closer together.
Her antennae lifted.
"Like this."
Tap.
Suddenly, the two points were almost touching.
"Now Earth and Vulcan are neighbours. Ship goes whoosh--" she flicked a long, blue finger through the gap "--and you're there in a few days."
As soon as she framed it about distance and velocity, his brow furrowed. Trying to absorb the information she was giving him to the best of his abilities--well it wasn't too much information. It was just...weird.
"I mean, does sound like cheating. Very confusing, sciency cheating that I don't have the necessary degree for. But sounds a lot better than what we had. Even if we had to apparently nuke each other to near extinction to discover it," he joked, but finally giving a nod. "Thanks for the impromptu tutoring, Miss Professor Andoria.. Maybe its gonna help me with the Captain ordering me back to school."
Tenzi smiled. "Anytime you need anything about this century explained, I'm your gal."
"Careful now. That's a broad promise. The kind that makes someone call at three am to explain how to make the shower stop screaming at you." he joked, pausing after her question.
She began to reorganize her tools and had another thought.
"Why were you looking for me in the first place?" Tenzi asked, looking up.
For but a second, he had forgotten why he had come here in the first place.
"Well, Tenzi. I wanted to uh, apologize. I guess. About what happened with the whole Ball--and the Kni--Vulcans. And getting you thrown into a cell alongside me for hours."
She straightened as she stood, one hand resting on the shuttle's cool duranium hull.
"Well," she said, "that explains your long and drawn-out search." She bent and picked up a stray microspanner from the floor, dropping it in a utility pocket.
Tenzi's face turned neutral and her antennae seemed to go slightly limp, bending forward as she considered her words.
"You showed up to a diplomatic event carrying a weapon from three centuries ago. Then you tried to play bodyguard in a room full of friendly Vulcan security officers who very much did not ask you to." She pointed a powder-blue finger at him accusingly. "And as a bonus, I got a lovely guided tour of the bowels of the conference center--a makeshift jail cell. All because I happened to be standing next to you."
Josef didn't even try to defend himself. His head slowly getting a bit lower in shame as Tenzi spoke and pointed a finger at him. "Yeah--uh, that sums it up pretty much--and, well. I know I screwed up, massively. I mean, I was just trying to protect you and--ugh, okay. Sorry." He stumbled over his words a little, before finally just cutting himself off, and asking. "Okay, I'm sorry Tenzi. About all that idiotic stuff I pulled. Is there any way to make it up to you?"
Tenzi could feel a slight smirk tugging at the sides of her mouth.
"We're fine, Josef," she said softly. "But I think once you give yourself some time to acclimate to this century, you'll realize you don't need to be armed."
Kneeling down, she grabbed the rag off the deck plating and wiped one the grip of her plasma torch.
"This century runs a little different than the one you came from, Sergeant Yesterday."
Well, that was easier than he had expected. Not that he was displeased about this-much the opposite. He was glad that Tenzi wasn't mad at him. "You're right--it's just difficult to let go of past habits. The last four years I've spent in a state of constant war. Always had to be armed in some way. And technically I was right and something did happen..." he said the last part quietly under his breath. But seemingly not against her but moreso to himself.
"Yeah. I've seen that too many times now. Still hard. Sometimes I even forget that you or the counselor are aliens--well, you're blue but you look--ah, you know what I mean." He was stumbling over his words now.
Tenzi raised an eyebrow, fixing Josef with an inquisitive look.
"Aliens, huh?" She repeated. "If you visited Andoria, you would be the alien." She turned knelt down and began returning her tools into the kit, one by one.
"In a lot of ways, Josef," she said matter-of-factly, "you are the only alien here. You're a temporal alien. A being from another time. How does that hit you?"
"Like a Garbage truck going above the speed limit," he replied with a little attempt at humour, but it was also easy to tell that he meant it quite seriously.
"Reminded of it every day. Guess that's why the Captain's decided to sent me back to school. Or well, classes more like. Thought me and the guys had that stuff behind us when the war started. Most of us had graduated by then anyway."
He paused for a second as if deliberating whether to say something else. Eventually he just asked her a question as she packed up her tools. "Whats Andoria like, anyhow?"
She snapped the toolkit closed and stood, her long legs extending beneath her.
"It's cold," she replied with a shrug, "well, cold for humans. But it's the perfect climate for keeping Vulcans away."
Tenzi turned to face him with a big grin. "Why? Are you planning to ask Captain Johansen for a runabout to explore the galaxy on your own?"
"Ah, so you're like an Alien Canadian--or Swede... okay sorry that sounded better in my head." He waved off the quip having imagined Tenzi in a "Mountie" uniform for some reason.
"I mean, it sounds slightly appealing. 'Sergeant Yesterday's Galactic Odyssey'. Though, I'm afraid I'd need a trusty guide to make it anywhere, how's bout it, 'Lady Long Legs'. He said with a matching big grin.
Tenzi smiled at him again. He was certainly making a case for being charming but he spoke in such antiquated ways about things she didn't know. What the hell is a Canadian?, she wondered.
"Josef dear," she said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for coming all the way down here to apologize. It was very sweet. But unless you know how to disassemble a thruster assembly and recalibrate an ODN line, we'll have to talk later."
She offered him a pleading expression while her antennae seemed to wave slightly, hoping he would take the hint.
Ensign Tenzi Sh'reyva
Engineering Officer
USS Astrea
(NPC of JB Dorsainvil)
Josef Forstinger
Civillian
USS Astrea
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