Rainbow Dash was waiting impatiently in the turbolift as she was on her way to the bridge. She was audibly tapping her foot as Tuvok stood next to her, showing no emotion whatsoever. She had been told that this display of emotions, or lack thereof, was typical of almost all Vulcans, this unnerved her and the rest of her friends, especially when they first met. Pinkie Pie was the one most uncomfortable with this and spent several weeks trying to get him and the other Vulcan in engineering to crack a smile but to no avail. She only stopped when Twilight pulled her aside, and they did some reading up on Vulcan culture, satisfied with the explanation that they actually suppress their emotions instead of eliminating them entirely, Pinkie concluded that he must have been smiling on the inside.
The turbolift doors opened, revealing the bridge, and Rarity chasing Captain Janeway around the deck with a tailor’s measuring tape in her hands. Both were only “running” at a brisk walking pace, the captain had a full cup of coffee in one hand, while Rarity was wearing high heels.
“For the last time, Miss Rarity, I do not need a dress.”
“Of course you don’t NEED a dress, captain, darling, but you would look wonderful in one...”
“Look, Rarity, I’m not that kind of woman who wants to wear a dress for the sake of wearing a dress.”
Rainbow walks over to Harry Kim at the operations console. “Hey,” she said, leaning against the console, “How long have they been going at this?”
Harry glances at Rainbow, shrugs, and sighs, “They’ve been at this ever since the Captain walked out of her ready room with her morning coffee.”
Rarity was about to retort the captain’s last comment when she passed by Tuvok, and he firmly grabbed her by the shoulder with one hand, stopping her in her tracks, nearly flinging her red-framed glasses off her face.
“Ow~.” Rarity complained.
“If you continue this course of action,” Tuvok said in typical, emotionless, Vulcan fashion. “I will have no choice but to detain you and confine you to the brig for disrupting bridge function.”
Rarity looked back at Tuvok with a wince in pain and a bit of fear in her eyes.
Captain Janeway had stopped her “running” shortly after Tuvok had stopped Rarity. She took a moment to catch her breath and take a sip of her coffee before she waved a hand at Tuvok and said, “Thank you, Tuvok, that won’t be necessary.”
Tuvok let go of Rarity’s shoulder and, like an energetic child who didn’t learn her lesson, she immediately went back to chasing down Captain Janeway, but this time the captain held up a hand with her index finger pointing upward as she took a much larger sip of her coffee.
Captain Janeway then held her coffee mug between both of her hands, faced Rarity, and said, “I’ll make you a deal. Wait until after we’re done analyzing this star cluster, AND when I’ve had my morning coffee, then I’ll come to your quarters, and you can take my measurements then. Deal?” she held out a hand towards Rarity.
Rarity looked back and forth between the captain and her hand, then she beamed and shook the captain’s hand vigorously, sloshing a couple of drops of coffee out of the mug and onto the back of the captain’s hand.
“Deal! Trust me, captain, you are going to look STUNNING in one of my dresses.”
Janeway smiled. “I’m looking forward to it, and Miss Pie’s party. Oh, and do tell her, no cannons this time, please.”
Rainbow Dash inhaled sharply, making a hissing noise as she crossed her arms. “She’s not gonna like that~.”
With a straight face, Janeway stared at Rainbow Dash and said, “Captain’s orders.” then smirked, looking back to Rarity, taking a sip from her mug.
“Don’t worry,” Rarity assured, “I’ll make sure she knows.” she turns to Rainbow, “She’ll be fine.” and she walks into the turbolift.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow Dash could see Harry Kim staring at Rarity as she passed by. He lurched forward an inch before he returned to his previous position.
“Cafeteria.” Rarity commanded the turbolift.
The computer gave an error noise. “Unknown request. Please try again.”
“Mess hall.” Janeway shouted to Rarity.
“Mess hall.” Rarity said dejectedly, the computer beeped, and she was on her way.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and thought to herself, Three months on board and Rarity still doesn’t know her way around the ship very well. To be fair, neither do I. Twilight, and Pinkie Pie are the only ones who figured their way around the ship real fast, I haven’t had time to explore it all. And what’s with Harry? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he-
“Ensign Dash?” Captain Janeway said aloud, snapping Rainbow out of her thoughts.
“Yes, sir- er- ma’am- er-!” Rainbow stammered.
Janeway held up a hand to stop Rainbow’s stammering. “Either will do fine. Now, about your bridge assignment.”
Rainbow beamed. “Am I going to pilot the ship?!”
The captain chuckled. “Not today. Mister Paris is doing a fine job as it is.”
A man in a red uniform and dirty blonde hair at helm control gave a friendly shout-out to the captain. “Thank you, captain. I do my best.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Pfft. I bet I'm just as good as a pilot as you are by now, Tom.”
Tom Paris had been giving Rainbow Dash piloting lessons ever since she and her friends decided to stay on board Voyager. According to Tom, if she were in the academy, Rainbow Dash would have passed several flight tests with flying colors. She just could never be able to beat Tom in a racing simulation on the holodeck.
Tom spun around in his chair and gave the multicolor haired girl a mischievous smirk. “Is that so? Care to explain why our racing score O for 20?”
“Just you wait. Next time we race, I'll beat you so bad the score will be 3 to 20!”
Tom gave a small laugh and said in a tone a wise old man would give to a younger student as he turned back around to his console, “You still have a way to go young padawan.”
Rainbow gave a jesting sneer before she returned her attention to the captain.
Captain Janeway returned her gaze to Rainbow Dash after their playful banter was over, smiling.
“While you may not be piloting the ship, you will be stationed at tactical.”
Rainbow saluted, “Yes, ma’am.”
An hour later, Rainbow was standing at the tactical console, her head hanging, eyes half-open, hands lazily hanging onto the edge of the console by the tips of her fingers.
Ugh! I’m so bored! This is the worst.
Eventually, the captain got out of her seat and went out through the turbolift, all the while Rainbow tracked her with her eyes until Janeway passed by Harry, then her eyes locked onto Harry, and she perked up, remembering something she started thinking about an hour earlier.
When she figured that the captain was now out of earshot, Rainbow spoke, “So, Harry, how do think Rarity’s dress for Captain Janeway is going to look?”
Harry snapped his head up from his console to look at Rainbow as his mouth opened and shut like a fish a couple times. “Uh-well,” he began, “If Rarity is designing it I’m sure she’ll look great.” Harry gave a nervous smile.
Rainbow’s question got Tom to start listening passively, but the beginning of Harry’s response is when he turned around in his chair and face Harry with a sideways look. “You like her, don’t you?”
“N-no! W-well, not like that-”
Rainbow was leaning against the console. She had her elbow on the console, and her chin in her hand, as she was giving a sly smile to Harry. “Uh-huh. Sure. I’ve seen plenty of guys stare at her, and I know why you’re staring at her the way you are.” This made Harry’s cheeks turn a slight shade of red.
Rainbow leaped over her console and walked up in front of Harry. “Listen, most of those other guys didn’t have a chance at getting her,” Harry’s face softened as he looked away, “and even more guys didn’t even have the guts to go up and ask her out. They probably would have been able to go on a date if only they asked.” Harry looked back at Rainbow in confusion. “I saw you an hour ago, you looked poised to ask her out, but you let her go. Don’t let that happen too often or you’ll get content, and it will never happen. I’ve learned that patience is good and all, but sometimes you just shouldn’t wait.”
Harry’s face brightened up, and he walked around the console and hugged Rainbow. “Thank you, Rainbow. I’ll go ask her now.”
“And abandon your post?” Tom interjected.
“I’ll be back quickly.” Harry retorted, and he walked into the turbolift and requested for the mess hall.
“Good luck.” Rainbow said as the turbolift doors closed.
Rainbow could feel a bit of heat build-up in her cheeks. Then she saw Tom giving her a curious look.
“What are you looking at?” she said.
“Nothing.” he said, grinning, turning around as if nothing had happened. “Nothing at all.”