Meeting Your Heroes, Part 1 (backpost)

Posted on Wed Mar 27th, 2024 @ 3:47am by Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair & Lieutenant Alisha Reno

2,229 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Junichi Koyama
Location: Mess Hall, USS Akina
Timeline: Moments after "Alert Statuses", before “The Call Before the Storm”; before leaving Beta Antares

Previously on USS Myogi:

**

Minna nodded and moved to take her leave, but before she did, she leaned in towards the Ensign. "She's all yours, Ensign:" She whispered to the Ensign before leaving the mess hall.

Anise's eyes went wide as the Captain left her alone with her idol without so much as an introduction. She opened her mouth as she tried to say something, then clamped it shut again as nothing came out and went a bright red again. After several seconds, she cleared her throat and tried to talk again, "Hi, I'm um..." She reached out a hand to shake Jane's, but it stopped a few inches out as her other arm went wide as if to give her a hug, then she just froze in horror.

Jane couldn't help but giggle. She decided to pull the girl into a hug. "Let's chat a bit, yeah?"

Relief flooded Anise, as did excitement as her hero, her honest to god HERO gave her a hug. She nodded quickly, her voice still betraying her for the moment, “Ok.”

**

And now the continuation...


Jane pried herself out of the hug and sat back down at the table where moments earlier she had been enjoying a tea with the Akina's Captain. It still happened sometimes -- though increasingly rarely -- that someone was a fan from her racing days. She thought maybe it might get a boost after her recent re-entry into the public light. But this might be a new level of fan. And she seemed so damn familiar.

"So what's your name, Ensign?" Jane asked, trying to keep things light and make the girl comfortable. "Come, sit down with me. I take it you're a fan."

“You have no idea.” Anise began, her eyes bright and eager to please, “YouseeIamoneofyourbiggestfanandhavefollowedyourracingcareersinceIwasakidandwellyouwereyoungthentoonotthatyou’reoldoranythingeventhoughyouresevenyearsolderthanmeandIwaselevenwhenyouwereeighteen,” She paused only long enough to suck in a quick breathe, “AndIwasthePresidentoftheJaneSinclairFanClubinhighschooleventhoughwewerefollowingthrentiretyoftheshuttleracesandyouweremyfavoriteandweretheinspirationformetojoinStarfleetasanengineer” Another quick breathe, “ReallyIwantedtobeyourChiefMechanicbutbythetimeIwasgettingreadytogetajobasamechaniconashuttleracingteamyoudecidedtogototheAcademysoIfiguredthatitwoulfdbeagoodideatojointhefleetsothatmaybeIcouldmeetyousomedayandnowyou’rehereandohmygodthisissoexciting!” This time she paused for a moment and blinked,”OhmygodyouaskedmynameandInevertoldyou! I’m Anise Halaat!” This time she did stick her hand out fully.

Jane giggled and took her hand. “Nice to meet you, Anise. Don’t forget to breathe. Sit!” She gestured to the seat across from her. Jane had heard that she had inspired people to fly, or race, or be mechanics, or join Starfleet, but she had never heard of someone switching career paths to follow her. It was flattering, if a bit strange to her, but she kept only the flattery at the surface. “So you were the President of the Jane Sinclair fan club and followed the races? I always debated crashing fan club meetings but never did. What did you do there?”

Anise sat down on the very edge of the seat, still holding onto her PADD and she reached up to brush her hair back over her shoulder, "Mostly it was me and three others that were interested in shuttle racing and the like, but you were our favorite out of the group. Bobby liked Filip Corave more, but there really was a general consensus that you were the absolute best. We did arrange some travel to some of the race venues that were relatively local to Trillius, but aside from one time when we were really lucky to get some standing room only at the back of the Winner's landing zone. I was able to wiggle my way to the front of the rope line, that was at the Vongen Classic, so I got to see you land and it was awesome to see you get out of your ship! I did notice that you had a micrometeorite impact your left wing in that race, but I'm not sure if you even felt it, after all, you'd already gone through the atmospheric portion of the race and it was on the way back to the finish line, at least that's what I kinda figured, but after the race I was looking over lots of the footage and I think it was caused by a deflector malfunction rather than just the bad luck of a strike. I wanted to tell you that if your mechanics had thought to use a hardened tritanium alloy just for that leading edge rather than the softer reinforced alloy, you wouldn't lose any of your speed or maneuverability, but you were hustled off before you made it over to me. God I really must sound like a stalker, don't I?"

“Vongen Classic…” Jane thought back to her race history and given their age difference figured out what year she was talking about and grinned. “I remember that one. The micrometeorite was barely a blip on my system screen but I did feel it. We feel every vibration, so even a minor one registers, at least a little bit. I knew it wouldn’t compromise me. Like you said, it was after the atmo portion was done, so aerodynamics didn’t matter, and I knew I was in no danger of structural failure. And you’re right. You have a good eye, it was a deflector malfunction. Some faulty components, which we replaced before the Vega Five-Hundred. I made podium on that one,” she remembered fondly. “They didn’t think of an alloy change until the end of the season.” She grinned at Anise. “You’re no stalker, you’re a genius. Next time I race I’ll not be dragged off. Turns out I missed an incredible opportunity to get good technical advice.” She decided to lean in conspiratorially and gestured for Anise to lean closer. “And there will be a next time I race,” she whispered. “After that car race against Tyli I got a taste for it. But that’s a secret for now.” She held her finger to her lips in a silent shush gesture.

Anise's eyes opened wide for more than one reason. Her idol was giving her a compliment for something she'd thought any maintenance crew would have seen in a heartbeat. Then as she leaned in, she felt the breath on her cheek and her heartrate sped up even before the words came out. She wanted to turn her face to kiss Jane, both in excitement about that she was going back to racing and because now that she was face to face with her, she found herself extremely attracted to her. She started to turn her head, licking her lips to moisten them but missed her chance. "You HAVE to have me there for your team... I'm a small-craft specialist and I improved the performance on Akina's shuttles by a solid five point two percent over the last year! I can help!" She kept her voice in a whisper, but she had to get it out.

Jane leaned back. “I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll put in a good word. You know I’m still on the roster with Proxima Renault? One of their people was in touch last week, reconnecting after both the car race and the tabloid article about me and Alexis.”

Anise's expression fell at the admittance that even Jane was at the mercy of her sponsor, but she rallied hard with her smile, "Maybe I can convince them by showing what I did with our shuttles? Or at least as an audition? I'll have to make sure that I don't violate any of the regulations we have." She glanced down at the table, "You know, no one is going to believe that I got to meet you. No one at all."

“Well we can’t have that,” said Jane. “Do you have a holo camera? We can take a few shots together. And I’m happy to give an autograph or two.” Her smile widened. “I’ve not gotten to do that in years.”

"Ohmygodyoureallydon'tmind?" Anise blurted out, "I've got one in my quarters, a really good model and we can set it up with no problem!" She virtually bounced to her feet and waited for Jane to do the same, resisting the urge to take Jane's hand to drag her along before she could change her mind, "I'm not sure what your shuttles are like on your ship, but if no one's looked at it yet, have them look at the aspect ratios between buzzard collectors and the deuterium feeds. You need to inject the freshly collected hydrogen to the secondary reaction, it reacts with the remnant antimatter particles."

Jane made a mental note of that tip. A couple of percentage points were always useful. "I run a pretty good shuttle pool but any advice helps. Lead the way." Her eyes scanned over the Trill as she bounced with glee. Really pretty. Infectious smile. A bit of a nasally voice. A bit obsessive but everyone has their thing. She just seemed so familiar though too...

The trip down several levels and into the junior officer area went by rapidly, Anise chattering here and there about races she’d watched, some of the maneuvers that Jane had pulled and describing some of the best finishes as if she’d been there. It was obvious she was a fan of rare quality. The name plaque had a second name aside from Anise’s, “Jasmine is on leave right now, she headed home to Betazed two days ago and won’t be back for a couple weeks.” It was an offhanded comment and Anise made a beeline for her own bedroom, poster of Jane’s racing shuttle plastered on it. As this door opened, it may as well have been to a shrine. Oh certainly there were some other current racers on the wall, but the pride of place was a full sized poster of Jane Sinclair herself in her racing outfit. Commemorative ‘81’ memorabilia was scattered around as well as smaller posters of her, including recreations of her swimsuit and Maxim shoots. Anise dove into one drawer of her dresser for the holocamera, having to push some clothes aside in her effort to find it.

Oh my, Jane thought as she looked around the bedroom that was a shrine to her racing career. She had never seen quite that much of her memorabilia crammed into so small a space, aside from marketing kiosks meant to sell merchandise. She knew about posters on walls -- apparently Commander Misono's roommate had one -- but she had never been in a room with posters up before. But here they were. The 2381 one of her in a flight suit lying on the dorsal hull. The 2385 one of her standing tall and proud, her first time in the Proxima-Renault flight suit. And of course the best shots from her 2382 Maxim and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition shoots, in an extremely revealing black dress and a tiny red bikini, respectively.

She thought that maybe she should feel strange about this level of obsession toward her. But it actually felt nice to be on the receiving end. It had been so long since she had had someone asking for a picture or an autograph. She remembered fondly the days where she was met by crowds after a race. Signing autographs, taking pictures, occasionally taking one or two of the prettiest racing groupies back to her hotel room.

As Anise made small talk while looking for the camera and the recognition finally clicked. Jane hadn't met Anise after a race or anything like that. No. It was something else...

**

“So… Wanna hear a secret?” Alisha asked Jane, “It’s one that I’m really not supposed to tell, but it was at the Academy and does involve you.” She shrugged as they rolled their shoulders backwards and then forward, “I’ve probably taken this whole ‘Intelligence secrets’ thing a bit too seriously…”

"I like secrets," Jane said as she finished her stretching. "But it involves me? How?" She picked up, lay down on the mat, and began doing press ups.

Alisha made a face, she hated press ups, just slightly less than pull ups, but dutifully she followed suit, slower than Jane, “Do you remember an engineering cadet named Anise Halaat? Trill girl, was a cheerleader who idolized you and said you were her reason for joining the Fleet?” Alisha remembered that girl herself, “I thought she was cute, cuter than myself.”

Jane stopped what she was doing and looked Alisha in the eye. She squinted, looking at Alisha’s face very closely. It was the eyes that gave it away. The wrong colour, but it was the same eyes. “No….” She said, incredulously.

Batting her eyelids, then opening them wide in astonished surprise, Alisha had dropped from the last press up onto her side, “You, you’re Jane Sinclair?” She said in a nasally, incredulous voice, “The Jane Sinclair? Number 81?” She pressed one hand to her chest, remembering that the ‘Trill’ had had far larger ones there, then sighed, “No one will believe me back home… But I was your biggest fan! If you ever need anything done to whatever you’re flying, you’re going to be flying shuttles or something I’m sure, just let me know. Anything at all.”

Jane couldn’t help but laugh and hang her head. “I can’t believe it.” Part of her felt tricked, but she knew it was part of Alisha’s training.

**

(To be continued)

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