I Don't Watch The News

Posted on 13 Feb 2013 @ 7:58am by Benjamin Dale Ph.D. & Petty Officer 3rd Class Thanis Rothgra & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Sergei Petrov
Edited on on 13 Feb 2013 @ 6:48pm

3,315 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2, Mess Hall
Timeline: MD03: 0930 hrs
Tags: press, rumor

[ON]

"And I'm not one of your trelk boys so the next time you want to proposition someone, throw a bit of cash at them for more rented love."

Thanis kept filming with his PADD as the female reporter stalked out of the mess hall. The dude with the eye just sat there, eating, then got up cool as a cucumber, and wandered off towards the reclamator. "What the-" the crewman apprentice muttered under his breath, then turned to look at the man at the table. "Tell me I wasn't the only one listening to that."

Benjamin Dale shook his head, smirking. "Trelk."

Thanis scrolled backwards through the recording on his PADD, grinning manically. "Chief is going to love this."

Sergei Petrov had just loaded his tray with one of everything on the breakfast menu. When the chef gave him the jellied gree worms, though, he couldn't help but curl his lips. He tried his best not to think about them as he made his way toward the table with the most familiar faces. "Gentlemen," he smiled as he set down his tray and slid into a seat.

"You missed it!" Thanis gasped, and pushed the PADD towards the warrant officer.

"I heard some woman screaming," Petrov said, glancing absently at the PADD. He didn't want to watch a video right now and gave it back. "Who was she? What was her problem?" He began cutting his sausages into slices.

The young Trill gathered his PADD back to him with a small shake of his head, "She just laid into him. Out of nowhere."

"The reporter. Fenta," Dale piped around a mouthful of eggs with a waggle of his brows. "Big stuff back home."

"Anyway, the other reporter - Zaren, she called him - was just sitting here eating and she just - whoosh. Like a monsoon."

Petrov nodded, starting to get impatient. He got that this Fenta was yelling, he'd heard her. "Yes, yes," she smiled, wanting them to get to the point, "But what was she saying?"

"Right, well first she said he looked like something someone scraped off their shoe. And then she said he looked down his nose at other people and made them feel bad. And then she played this clip of her reporting - I didn't get the video on my PADD, wrong angle, but the audio came through pretty good. Something about Romulan refugees-"

"Blah, blah, blah," Dale rolled his eyes. "Nobody cares."

Thanis glanced at the doctor, "He asked! So then," he turned back to Petrov. "She's sitting there, right, and he says good morning. Like she didn't just call him a pile of-" he cut himself off before he could swear in front of his superior officer. "And then-"

"Shouldn't you be in school?" Petrov cut him off, with a quiet laugh.

"I'm on Gamma shift," Thanis shrugged. "So anyway, then she said," he continued, forwarding the video to Nesh. "That she was personally responsible for billions of dollars in charity work just last year and how he thought he was so awesome just because he made a few people cry."

Dale uttered a disgruntled sigh and ate his sausage in a pointed manner.

"She kept saying that - that he liked to make people cry. And this weird looking guy is just eating his breakfast. Oh! And apparently the reporter - Fenta - she's like - single-handedly responsible for a whole bunch of grants and jobs for people on Bajor."

"I doubt that," Petrov shook his head, like he didn't believe it. "I guess it is a good thing, then, that I don't watch FNN." He broke up his scrambled eggs and stabbed some onto his fork.

"And while she's telling him all this, this weird guy is just sitting there eating still. And then- they just stared at each other. For ages."

Dale groaned. "This is what modern education teaches our children. Hyperbole."

"But then finally she - Miss Fenta - she said that this guy was a liberal with a guilty conscience 'cause he was some rich kid or something? And then he said she was making stories up about him. And then she said she didn't grow up rich so she isn't self-absorbed. And then she said he slept with prostitutes!"

"Ugh," Petrov droned. "No more; I am sorry that I asked." He squirted some ketchup onto his hashbrowns, looking up at Thanis with a joking grin.

It was about then that Lieutenant Panne emerged through the mess hall doors. She stopped a little way in and looked around as though she were looking for someone, didn't see who she was looking for, and then approached the buffet with an apparent nervousness. She slowly and very carefully picked from all the different foods available, looking at the plates of others as they browsed the different combinations available to them.

Dale lifted a hand, waving once to the Chief. Maybe she would turn the conversation to something more interesting than reiterating the annoying scene he'd just witnessed.

Thanis shook his head, replaying the video on his PADD. "Who else can I send this to?" he wondered as Jool's voice began again, "Do you know what your problem is, Zaren?" she asked. "Other than looking like something scraped off someone's shoe somewhere? You have this nasty belief that making people feel bad about themselves will get them to make the galaxy a better place. I wonder, does your slug wake up every day and weep for the loser it got this lifetime?"

Petrov didn't notice Dale's wave as he forked some more eggs while watching the video on Thanis' PADD. He didn't want to watch it, but video had a weird effect on people that made eyes stare even when they weren't meant to."Wow," he muttered after swallowing.

Like Petrov, Maenad missed Dale's waving hand as well. After several long arduous minutes of getting breakfast, she turned away from the buffet with her modestly filled tray and looked for a place to sit. She didn't see the table with Dale or Petrov. She saw an empty table, though, for two by the window. When she saw it, she started walking toward it. But because of the hall's bustling morning, she had to take a longer route; having to pass between Dale's and a table with people in gold collars in order to get there.

Dale gave up the whole waving thing when he saw the Chief wasn't seeing him. Not worth the effort. Maybe he'd just finish his breakfast somewhere without the reporter's irritated vocalizations. Somewhere peaceful. Like his labs. Viruses didn't squawk. "Right. See you lads."

"Yep-" Thanis waved absently, pointing to the screen, "Okay, here, look-" he told Petrov as the woman's report on the Romulans concluded. "Good morning to you, too, Jool," the weird looking guy said in the video, drinking something from a mug. "That was.... really lovely reporting there. I'm glad you've taken such an interest in my work."

The reporter on the screen snorted. "Your work? As if you have some sort of monopoly on the story of the fall of Romulus. So, what was all your heart bleeding able to accomplish? A few phone calls and I get a company back in the game. Do you know how much I'm personally responsible for raising for various galactic charities last year alone? Fifteen billion credits. That's a billion with a BILLION. Yet here you sit thinking you're so great because you get a few people to weep. I make a few phone calls and manipulate stock prices. Why? Because I understand the way the galaxy works far better than you ever will. People don't care about feeling good about themselves. They care about what's in it for them. Ferelex stock is expected to end today up twenty seven points, at least. Why? Because people will see that report and all they'll hear is "stock down - rally - stock rising" and they'll want in. Ferelex makes money, investors make money and sobstories like you get to feel as if the galaxy is a decent place again. And Ferelex is now locked into aid to MS1 or risk a downward turn which will ruin them. Remember that as you keep thinking you're somehow some great hero of the downtrodden. You make a few people weep, I've made it possible for Bajorans to attend university with secured grants and guaranteed offers of jobs, on Bajor. You remember Bajor right? I know it's no longer the cause celeb but they're still recovering - not from their centuries of killing people but their decades of oppression. When was the last time you cared about them?" "This morning," the man replied blandly. "I mean- seriously!" Thanis crowed.

"That's enough," Petrov said as patiently as he could. He'd really heard enough about the reporters fighting as they had. Thanis didn't seem to understand that he'd heard the woman shouting already. "No, sit down, Dale," he insisted to the scientist. "Thanis, here, is done his gossiping." He gave the young man a glare and then gestured to the seat Dale had left. "Sit," he told him.

When Dale stood, he caught Maenad's attention as she was passing by. She gave him a smile and said "Hello," but with Petrov's back to her and her lack of interest in the others sitting there, she didn't say anything to him or Thanis. Her skin was unusually pale, and her eyes abnormally purplish, but she was acting otherwise fine.

"Hey," Dale nodded to Maenad. "You can have my seat."

"But-" Thanis started.

"Really," the chemist said with a strained, slightly insane looking smile. "I insist." He looked at Petrov, "I'll see you later on, shall I? Yes." Dale gathered his tray and strode purpAosefully away.

Thanis looked at Petrov dolefully. "Not my fault."

Petrov looked up from his seat. Lieutenant Panne looked shattered, he thought, but wasn't sure if it was Dale's haste getaway or just a bad morning. "Lieutenant," he began to get up when Maenad closed her eyes and inclined her head to stop him.

"I didn't mean to ruin your breakfast," she muttered, her discomfort was easy to see. She had only said hello, she thought.

"No, you're not ruining anything, sir; Doctor Dale was leaving anyway," he said. "Please, join us."

Maenad clenched her jaw before reluctantly sitting where Dale had stood from. "Did either of you try the worms?" she eventually smiled.

"Blech!" was Thanis' answer to the question as he swigged coffee. He'd been up for hours and hours and there was at least a plate of pastries and sausages to go before he slept.

Petrov shrugged. He didn't want to seem weak in front of his chief, even though they both knew that he wasn't. He prodded the worms for a second and ate them all as fast as he could. Maenad only blinked, almost ready to throw up. She didn't, though. She ate some eggs instead.

"Where was Dale heading?" asked Maenad quietly.

Thanis shrugged, eyeing his PADD's screen, glancing at Petrov, eyeing the screen again. "He's always doing something in his lab- I think it has to do with pathogens or... c'mon! You really don't think this is hilarious? The Chief was all 'don't talk to them, keep your head down,' but they're squabbling like kids!" He tapped the screen, turning it towards Petrov as the reporter sneered on the screen. "Do you know what your problem is, Zaren? Other than looking like something scraped off someone's shoe somewhere? You have this nasty belief that making people feel bad about themselves will get them to make the galaxy a better place. I wonder, does your slug wake up every day and weep for the loser it got this lifetime?" Thanis laughed, "I mean- come on! We're supposed to be afraid of these people? One of them's giving jobs to Bajorans and the other one's just sitting there like a coward letting her walk all over him?"

"What is that?" Maenad asked, a little curious. She was sitting across from them so she had perch herself up a bit to see the PADD more clearly.

At least someone else found it interesting, Thanis thought. "We saw the press," he explained, turning the screen more towards the lieutenant.

Maenad reached for the PADD and watched the playback of an irate woman yelling and screaming indignantly at Raifi, making her cheeks flush. "What prompted that?" she asked, handing the PADD back to the crewman in gold once it had finished.

Thanis grinned, "That's just it! He was sitting there eating, and she just up and whaled on him out of nowhere. They're crazy people." He laughed. "How can we have anything to worry about when they're so busy fighting amongst themselves, right?"

"That sort of behaviour is unacceptable," she mumbled, eating some more eggs. "Next time something like that happens, contact security or a senior officer." She was talking to herself more than she was to to them, as though it were a thought inadvertently spoken. Then she looked up, surprise on her features. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" she asked Petrov.

Petrov exchanged a glance with Thanis. "Oh," he sat up. "I'm sorry, lieutenant; this is Crewman Apprentice Thanis Rothgra. He's an engineer."

Maenad smiled. "Is that so?" she extended her hand to his, her wrist limp and fingers up.

Unacceptable? Thanis wondered. Why? It wasn't like they'd gotten into a fist fight. Fenta had just handed the other reporter his manhood on a proverbial platter. Having grown up in a house with six older siblings, this was common practice to the young engineer. Then he was even more perplexed by the hand being extended. What was he supposed to do? Weigh it? "Yes, ma'am," Thanis agreed, sort of mimicking her gesture beside it. He'd never had a Terran make that particular move at him and he wasn't entirely sure what the proper response was.

Maenad frowned, slowly withdrawing her hand. She didn't know what the young man's problem was. She was perfectly clean, she thought - why he didn't take her hand, she didn't know. She said nothing, however, and prodded one of her sausages with her fork. She thought of Raifi being yelled at by this madwoman, wondering whether he would tell her about, wondering whether she should ask. "Did he do anything that might have asked for it?" she wondered, looking up from her plate.

Thanis shrugged. "This is the first time I've seen either of them. But according to her, he's a liberal sympathizer who likes to make people feel bad for kicks, so... probably. Yes."

She raised her eyebrows. "That doesn't sound true," she said pointedly, as though were taking up his defense. Then she sighed. "I don't watch the news for a reason."

"Me neither," Petrov gave her an appreciative like-minded smile that she didn't notice.

"I never watch FNN from anywhere off-Trill before. It didn't seem to have anything to do with me. But now... I don't know. I mean, I didn't realize reporters did so much good stuff for people. Like donating to scholarships and helping companies and stuff. Maybe they're not so bad."

Maenad tilted her head. "I doubt that she really did."

"How do you know?" he asked. "I mean, respectfully, ma'am, she had that whole recording - you saw it - about how she was helping refugees. They wouldn't put that on the network if it weren't true."

"Helping refugees and raising billions are two different things," Maenad pointed a finger at him. "And considering we don't pay for education, I don't know what she's talking about."

"Well... really? You don't pay for education?" Thanis inquired. "I mean, sure everyone gets it, but... there's levels. And to have access to certain levels, you need certain recommendations that come from having connections. That's a kind of payment, isn't it?"

"Not the kind she's talking about," Maenad grumbled. She felt like she had this conversation too often. Nobody ever understood. Petrov meanwhile ate his breakfast in silence, not wanting to get involved in this. But watching her become visibly annoyed without trying to show it amused him.

"I don't see why she'd lie," the young engineer repeated naively. "I mean... it wasn't like he was arguing with her. She was just saying things on her own."

"Because, crewman," Maenad had guiltily forgotten his name, "Some people have inferiority complexes that can only be mended by exaggerating their own importance." She set her fork down. "And the man she was talking to is a bit of a pushover, and she knows that she can get away with it." There was a steely quality to her voice now. Raifi was kind, gentle, and passionate. He didn't deserve that kind of treatment. As the seconds went by, Maenad wished more and more that she hadn't missed her tantrum; she would have loved to come to Raifi's defense.

"What does she have to have an inferiority complex about?" Thanis wondered aloud. "She's so pretty. In a... weird way. But that's everyone who isn't Trill really."

"Pretty?" Maenad near shrieked. The woman looked more pretend than a mannequin, she thought. "The way she was going on, it's her intellect that she was threatened by."

Thanis looked up curiously. "He didn't seem very intelligent. I mean... all he talked about was breakfast."

As soon as she had picked up her fork she was forced to put it back down. "I am sure that he is quite intelligent," Maenad insisted. "Sometimes the most intelligent people are also the most mannered; perhaps he was being modest or thought her unworthy of argument or incapable of understanding," she told him. "They work together, don't they? He probably knows she's not worth his time."

If Thanis found it strange that the Chief Science Officer was coming to the defense of a clearly spineless reporter (he did), he said nothing. She was his superior officer and he couldn't outright argue with her. In Trill culture, disagreement with false statements was just part of the norm and the man had been Trill... somewhere around his tattoos, anyway. If he'd had a spine, he would have at least pointed out her incorrect statements. If they had been. Then again, maybe they weren't. Where Lieutenant Panne had gleaned her opinions, he couldn't guess. "Yes, ma'am," he subsided.

Petrov had finished his food while Thanis and Panne quibbled over the reporters. He made a quiet sigh to himself. "So, lieutenant, have you put any more thought into the K class environment I want to make?"

One again, Maenad set down her fork. She gave Petrov a piercing glare as she sat perfectly still. Then, sharply, her hands gripped the sides of her tray and she rose to full stand. "I will leave you two to your meal," she said, then walked away to the empty table by the window. Petrov sighed again and turned to Thanis beside him with disappointment.

"My fault again?" the crewman apprentice asked with a worried quirk of his brows.

Petrov leaned back to look past Thanis' shoulders; for a moment, he watched Maenad sitting tall against the passing stars. He shook his head, then sat normally. "Who can ever tell?" he breathed.

tag?

[OFF]

SWO Sergei Petrov
Science Officer/Geologist
USS Galileo
(PNPC M. Panne)

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Crewman Apprentice Thanis Rothgra
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
(pNPC Lilou Peers)

Benjamin Dale, Ph.D.
Chemical Engineer
USS Galileo
(pNPC Lilou Peers)

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