Calming the Pilot Down

Posted on Tue Aug 5th, 2025 @ 5:40pm by Lieutenant Xavier & Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii

1,756 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Preservation Instinct
Location: Turbolift | USS Ontario
Timeline: Pre arrival on the colony. During Journey

ON:

Turbo lifts. They are designed to get people from point A to point B on a ship. They are just another part of everyone's day and if one wants to avoid it, then one has to leave extra early from home to get to shift on time. Normally this would be great and doable but the night had been long, the alarm had never screamed and Xavier now had no choice but to ride the demon carriage to the bridge.

He stood there staring at the beast until a familiar voice reached his ears.

'Lieutenant, everything alright?' Yiv asked cautiously as he approached the turbolift closest to the Senior Officers Quarters to begin his own shift. He had noticed that Xavier had been standing in front of the open turbolift door the entire time he had been trotting down the corridor.

Xavier snapped out of his glare and turned around. "Commander. Yes...I'm fine. Running...slightly behind schedule." He cleared his throat. Taking a deep breath entered the turbolift his fists clenched.

'Aren't we all,' Yiv replied with a smile, noticing that the typically-on-edge Conn Officer was more typically-on-edge than usual. He glanced at the clenched fists and the determined set of his jaw.

'Are you sure you're alright, Lieutenant?'

The door closed and a momentary panic flitted through his eyes before he blinked it away. Here he was standing in a turbolift...one of his greatest fears, one he avoided by leaving super early so he could J tube his way anywhere. Normally he could suppress the fear when needed but a sleepless night where he fell asleep minutes before the alarm went off and then slept through it. The broken shower where he had to use the public sonic and a message from Ops saying it may be a day before it's working again. The log that was sent to Kerberos by a malicious computer he was convinced was trying to ruin him and the fact that his replicator was broken enough to only serve decaf. All of this worked against him. "F..Fine." He said.

Raising an eyebrow, Yiv regarded him with a critical eye. Was he reading too much into things? He would bet his whiskers this Vulcan was uncomfortable with something at the very least. The stuttering one word answer was also not encouraging.

He put a hand gently on the Lieutenant's shoulder. 'Alright. If you say so.' Yiv looked around, 'it won't take more than a few minutes to reach the Bridge provided we're not queued up. Happens from time to time.'

Just as the words left his mouth the lift shook. A large book was heard above and the lift dropped quickly only to stop after five seconds. Xavier's Vulcan composure, thread bear at the best of times, unraveled. He wasn't sure if he was the one who made the scream. He hoped not. His mind was trapped between fear and looking bad in front of his XO. The universe was against him today. Suddenly he flashed back to the tarot card pull he did last night...The Tower, destruction, sudden change. His life had been a series of towers.

HIs body shook his eyes blinking. He was half Romulan, half Vulcan. His Romulan side was jumping out his Vulcan side fighting for calm. At all times, remain calm. Nothing you do in the moment will change things. Those words floated through his mind.

Surprised at the drop, and even more at the fearful yelp that accompanied it, Yiv threw a look in Xavier's direction. Growing concerned at the now-obvious distress his young charge was under, Yiv clapped a hand on the half-Vulcan. 'Lieutenant, play it straight. Do turbolifts cause you anxiety?' He was hoping the younger man wouldn't attempt another lie.

Sweat beaded on his lip. "Anxiety...perhaps...blinding fear....always. Usually I c...can control it." Today he could not. His hands squeezed the holding bar.

"Turbo lift 3. Please stand by," The calm voice of the computer called. "Power down, engineering is on the way."

Xavier pressed his lips together. "There is a five percent chance that this lift will fall before they arrive. Chances of surviving a lift fall....are oddly, the same." He blinked. "I'm s...sorry sir. I ..." He blinked as sweat dropped into his eyes. He tried to focus his mind. What was it the previous counselors had said. Name a few things you can see? Lift Panel, commander pips, blue carpet. Engage the senses that was a way to stave off the anxiety attack that was trying to home out. He needed to push it back. If something happened he had to protect the XO from injury.

Squeezing the Vulcan's shoulder, Yiv smiled sympathetically. 'Deep breaths,' he said in a reassuring voice, 'the pull on the diaphragm, and the heart help ease anxious symptoms.' He paused, then added quizzically, 'if Vulcans even have diaphragms? I assume your pulmonary system works the same as humans and other humanoids do ...'

Keeping up his idle prattle, Yiv kept talking in the same measured tones, 'you know you have nothing to apologise for. Everyone has a fear or an anxiety trigger which would make little sense to someone else.' He looked the Vulcan in the eyes, 'for some it's an insect, for others it's open cupboard doors. They're not always a logical response to learned experience either, just a throwback to our primitive lizard brains.' Yiv paused, 'although I think Efrosians are an off-shoot of Klingons, and I don't think they evolved from lizards.' His lips quirked, 'and alas, we only got the cranial ridges, not the duplicated organs.'

Xavier's lip twitched. "I...know the feeling. I'm half Romulan so... things are a little moved around on the inside. While Vulcans and Romulans are similar there are some differences." He paused. "The ridges are distinguished...the double organs, while useful could be a pain." He sank to the floor pulling his knees to his chest. "I...wasn't always afraid. Started when I was in school on Vulcan."

Sitting himself down on the turbolift carpet, Yiv was absentmindedly glad that Starfleet-issue carpet was self cleaning. 'Fears often start in childhood,' he said neutrally. 'They embed themselves deep, become a part of us and are ... hard to shake. This isn't about turbolifts, exactly, is it?'

"When I was in high school, the kids in the school trapped me in a rarely used turbo lift at the school for three days. Eventually I got out. After that I just reflected on how trapped I've felt all my life how...isolated so I couldn't go into these things anymore. Shuttles? Fine, rooms fine, but lifts...there was something about...about them. They scared me. It makes no sense." He shrugged. "A pilot that's a coward...not the best way to present myself to my XO."

'Being afraid isn't the same as being a coward. You prove that every day in your service. A natural aversion to being trapped in a 'lift is to be expected after a frankly horrifying experience,' Yiv said in a measured voice. 'It's easy for me to sit here and tell you though, I'm sure the experience of it is much different for you though.'

"My friend said the same thing. To be honest since I was young I was used to solitude but being trapped in that lift back then...I do not understand why it has affected me this much. I am Vulcan I should...not let my emotions rule me. But then my parents always said I picked up the worst of my Romulan side...so perhaps it's, as my parents liked to say, the tainted Romulan blood."

'Blood can't be tainted,' Yiv replied tartly, pulling a face, 'and I'm surprised that anyone in the twenty-fourth century could think that way. Your parents, like any Vulcan who still thinks that way, is incorrect.'

The Engineering voice rang through, =/\= Engineering here. Problem is fixed. We're restarting the lift. =/\=

'Well, thanks for small mercies,' Yiv clambered ungainly to his feet, extending his hand to the Vulcan. 'Looks like our problems are at an end for a moment. If I may be bold, I would recommend you talk to the ship's Counsellor about these ... horrendous notions your parents have put in you.'

Xavier looked at the commander's hand and took it to help him stand. The shaking didn't stop but the lift hummed and then drifted to the nearest deck. "The counselor...yes." The woman he avoided like the plague.

The moment the doors opened a familiar voice greeted them. "HEY! Commander Hotstuff and Flyboy!" Tox's eyes narrowed. He took in the grey hint to the Vulcan's skin. That ain't right. "Commander?" He looked over the XO. "Everything okay?" He turned to Xavier. "Hey Flyboy you alright?" His every present tricorder was in his hand.

Yiv smiled wanly at Tox. His exuberance was permanent, but he wished for the moment that it was toned down. 'Lieutenant Xavier had a ... funny turn,' he explained, catching Xavier's eye. 'The turbolift stopping mid-journey was rough on both of us.'

Looking between them both, he had a sudden notion, 'please take Lieutenant Xavier to the Sickbay, he can explain the extent of his malady. And Nurse Tox, please do not clear the lieutenant for duty until you are certain that he is alright.'

Tox gave a salute. "Sounds good!"

"I'm fine." Xavier said.

Tox snorted. "Yeah that's why you're 1000 shades of green. Doesn't go with your mysterious vampire Vulcan Goth look that usually screams I'm gonna bite you."

Xavier rolled his eyes. "Are you always like this?"

Tox shrugged. "Only since I could talk!" He turned to the XO. "I'll take it from here Commander! We've got the holodeck booked for trying new things! Betazoid free flying on the list tonight! See you there."

Xavier turned to the XO. "Apologies Sir. I did not mean to fall apart."

Smiling kindly, Yiv shook his head, 'Lieutenant, you have nothing to apologise for - none of us are fully in control one-hundred per cent of the time.'

He patted the Vulcan on the shoulder, and gave Tox a nod. 'I'll let you two get to it.'

============

Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii
Executive Officer
USS Ontario

&

Lieutenant Xavier
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Ontario

&

Lieutenant Endymion Tox (NPC)
Head Nurse
USS Ontario

 

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