Illicit Team-Building
Posted on 16 Sep 2015 @ 3:00am by Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant JG Lenaris Marika
2,364 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Episode 09 - Empires
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Multi-purpose Laboratory 5
Timeline: MD 03 - 1050 hours
[ON]
"Ah-- Marika, hullo," declared Andreus Kohl within two-point-four seconds of entering the laboratory. He waved at the young Bajoran woman when he did so. Kohl rushed in from the passageway and made his rounds to each of the workstations in the compartment. He offered brief pleasantries to all of the officers working there, and finally stopped moving when he approached the Bajoran. "Remind me," Kohl asked, "Is it Ensign Marika or Ensign Lenaris?"
“That would be Lenaris. If you want to be all formal like and stuff… which makes sense if you’re adding Ensign before it. But really I’m fine with Marika. Many Bajorans restrict the use of their personal name to immediate family and friends, and let others use the surname. But I’ve always been of a mind that unless you work hard not to be, you are my friend.”
Seemingly about to continue, Marika looked up from her work to see to whom she was talking. Recognising him, she beam a smile, energy levels spiked, as she jumped up from her seat. Just as it seemed she was about to start yammering once again, her face changed into a conspirational one, she eased in closer so only her could hear and whispered very quickly: “Do we have any other illicit team bonding experiences lined up? Because if we do, I have a list of the most tricky people in the department … just in case. And if not, then it’s ok and you should just forget what I just said. Unless you change your mind at some point and want to. Oh and Theta B cluster of the main computer is pretty slow which can and will probably slow down internal sensor readings by point three four seconds.” She waited in place, face half an inch from his. She smelled of cinnamon.
While he considered Marika's words, Kohl had nodded at each of her statements. As he was quickly learning about her, Kohl would need to disregard some of it --would need to simply jettison some of what she said from his short-term memory-- for fear of losing track of what she had said when she had first started speaking. He didn't respond right away, while he considered what to remember and what to jettison. Illicit team bonding, huh?
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Chief Science Officer's Office
Timeline: MD 01 - 1537 hours
When the door chime rang through his office, Andreus Kohl was rounding his desk and tugging down the front of his uniform jacket. For a moment, he briefly considered composing himself and returning to the chair behind his desk. But only for a moment. The Nautilus awaited him, and sitting down would only invite his visitor to sit down as well. As far as Kohl was concerned, there wasn't exactly much time for pleasantries. "Enter," Kohl said to activate the doors, as he continued to approach them on foot.
Entering with a near jump, Marika beamed a smile at the man before her. Her eyes darted all over him, taking in as much detail as they could, letting themselves being led to look beyond him a few times. She exuded excited happiness, the kind that crept up on others and infected them if they didn’t take measures to prevent it. “Hiiee!” That was it. She stared at him and waited for a reply.
"Hiya," Kohl said, and he mirrored Marika's energy level in his reply. When Marika had first pounced into his office, Kohl was only a handful of paces away from the doors. He had lurched backwards to avoid colliding with her and then he'd held his ground. He didn't say anything more right away, supposing he would allow this young Bajoran a chance to introduce herself. When she didn't say anything more immediately, Kohl didn't step back to welcome Marika in. He just stood there, standing beside her, staring back at her.
"I'm Marika!" She offered her hand, all smiles and happiness. "Your new Archaeology and Anthropology specialist. You must be Lieutenant Commander Kohl. Which of course would make sense, since this is your office." Peering at him in suspicion she continued. "This is your office right? Because if it's not it would be rather rude to be in someone else's office without their permission."
Suspicion left her as quickly as it had come as she kept at it, still not having taken a breath. That or she could breath and talk at the same time. "But if you have permission then it's A- O.K!" She breathed in quickly. "You working on anything interesting? Anything I can help you with? Do you know when Lieutenant Commander Kohl will be back? I'm supposed to report in. Guess I should have started with that. Especially if you are Lieutenant Commander Kohl. At which point I'm pretty much rambling for nothing. "She rolled her eyes at the 'possibility' of her rambling.
"In any case, whether you are, or are not Lieutenant Commander Kohl I'd greatly appreciate if you'd let me know, so I can report in, or know if I need to wait 'till later. Because if that's the case I'll go and let the chef know I'm allergic to mustard and mint. Not that it's really all that dangerous, I do take medication for it, but it can be really uncomfortable." She paused, taking a quick break and was about to continue her tirade when--
"If I'm entirely honest about it," Kohl interjected in a level manner, "I am Andreus Kohl, but, I suppose, this isn't my office at all. You and I have just committed burglary together." Kohl's business-like demeanour was quickly replaced by something far more high-energy. "Isn't this an exciting team-building experience??"
“Well, unless we stole something, it isn’t so much burglary as it is breaking and entering. But then again, I rang and you permitted me entrance, which I could easily offer as evidence of my unknowing and unexpected participation. But then, I guess you could always say otherwise. But seeing as how you just admitted to me this is not your office, but that you are the person I’m looking for, perhaps we should keep this between us, leave this office and continue this exciting discussion elsewhere.” Punctuating her words by pointing everywhere, she finished eyebrows raised in question, beaming one of her trademark smiles at the man before her.
Even Kohl couldn't match that level of intensity. In a measured and thoughtful manner, Kohl explained, "This was my office --the office of the Chief Research Officer-- until very recently. But in the time since I walked into the office, I have been promoted to Chief Science Officer, and so I've only burgled my way into someone else's office retrospectively. (It's like a locked room murder mystery almost?) Now, as your department head, as of this very moment, please do consider yourself entirely reported in, Ensign."
Marika squealed, slapping her hands together, she actually jumped in place. “Awesome! Happy to have met you, but I get the sense you were about to leave and that I’m intruding, so I’ll leave you to leave… can you really say that? Isn’t that grammatically incorrect? Although it is not technically the same meaning of the word. I’ll have to check that or it’ll bug me all day. So congratulations on your promotion, hope we have more exciting team building experiences like this one!” With that she turned around, barely giving the doors time to open and strolled out, nearly ramming into a passing crewman.
Perhaps it was unkind of him, but the Nautilus really was waiting for Lieutenant Commander Kohl. Marika was correct in her assumptions about Kohl's intentions, even if it took her several paragraphs to get it all out. And so it was with all of that in mind that Kohl stood back, and allowed the doors to close between him and the young Bajoran. He stood there, in the office, and hoped Marika didn't hurt herself too badly, and he waited for her to move on. He dearly hoped he could make it to the transporter room without too much more interruption -- with little idea of the terribly long turoblift ride that was awaiting him.
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Multi-purpose Laboratory 5
Timeline: MD 03 - 1055 hours
While he considered Marika's words, Kohl had nodded at each of her statements. As he was quickly learning about her, Kohl would need to disregard some of it --would need to simply jettison some of what she said from his short-term memory-- for fear of losing track of what she had said when she had first started speaking. He didn't respond right away, while he considered what to remember and what to jettison. Then, he sniffed once, and Kohl said, "The only team-bonding experience I'm preparing is along the lines of bombastic and self-congratulatory. I think illicit activities will need to wait until the ship has restored full power." Glibly, Kohl added, "I would hate waste valuable life support resources, and have the Captain feel the need to execute me."
Marika nodded gravely. “Agreed. Having my superior officer executed so quickly after his promotion to department head, would impact negatively upon the department as a whole. We would be under scrutiny, then morale would drop considerably. Not to mention the captain would need to replace both a department head and his second officer. It all makes sense. I shall align my efforts with yours, and attempt to let you keep your head.” All this was said with a seriousness one might not expect from such a person. All words seemed grave and thought out. Even the pace of the words had been brought down with considerable effort.
Kohl responded with a grave nod of his own. "I muchly appreciate your consideration, Marika," he said. "My dearest hope is that our science team meeting today will function as a tiny lifeboat of team-building in the ocean of misery that has been trying to repair Galileo. Since we're going to be discussing the asteroid belt, have you prepared a recommendation for which asteroid we should set down on for repairs?"
Taking a step back, and reverting to a higher voice level, Marika smiled at her superior. “I do believe Ensign Xanth and Petty Officer Myrddin have found something. Their intense squirming immediately followed by agitation, somewhat akin to headless poultry, seem to be indications towards that end. Then again, it could always simply be that they really need to go to the restroom, but for some reason won't. Or perhaps they simply have an excess of energy to expend. Of course, it could always be the Tamarian flu, and if that's the case,then we should seal off this deck before it spreads any further.” She nodded a few times in quick succession. “Anything else I can help you with?”
"Just the opposite," Kohl said. He dropped himself into an empty chair beside Marika's workstation. He lay his hands on his knees, and he said, "I wanted to know how you were settling in. I can't imagine two steps away from self-destruction is how you imagined your first starship posting, huh?"
“Not in a million years.” She shook her head to punctuate her words. “But isn’t it awesome?! Of course I’m glad we didn’t blow up, and the whole thing about people getting injured sucks pretty bad, and I’m also a sad Galileo got hurt, but it made for a very exciting experience. Learned a lot. And I now know what to do to make myself useful in a crisis. Which in itself is awesome because I never knew what I was supposed to do. They cover the basics at the academy, but mostly they drill you to listen to the boatswain and make him your master and commander in a time of crisis. Which I learned first hand is exactly what one should do, and it was a very enriching experience. So I guess I’m settling in just fine. People are nice, ship is gorgeous and the labs are to die for. The processing power on these things makes me want to squeal in delight.” Her arms shot up in the air as she uttered the last sentence, beaming a smile to her superior that could only serve to confirm her happiness.
Nodding back at Marika, Kohl offered a smile in return, but it wasn't quite so excited. Galileo had become home to him. He'd been aboard her through her first tour and even a refit. Perhaps Kohl had started to take the certainty of Galileo for granted, because he couldn't quite experience this tough little ship with the same excitement Marika displayed. Regarding the processing power Marika enthused about, Kohl remarked, "Such is the beauty of bio-neural circuitry." --He shrugged-- "What can I do for you, Marika? Apart from your enjoyment and your serving your duty, what can I do to make your time aboard Galileo more fulfilling?"
"Bah! you'll find I'm rather low maintenance." The young Bajoran replied with a smirk and a wink. "Or as humans say, I'm a cheap date. Slap me in front of a computer and I'll entertain myself. But if you don't mind sending a few lost civilizations my way, I'd be thrilled." She did a little mock dance on her chair to punctuate her words. "Or you know, if your bored, you can always bring me out for dinner."
"You can consider it a cheap date," Kohl said, expressing excitement at the prospect. Even after an especially tiresome day, he suspected a meal in Marika's company could reinvigorate anyone. "I like to eat. We can share a meal anytime."
"Awesome!" Marika beamed happiness across the room. This ship was incredible!
[OFF]
Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo
Ensign Lenaris Marika
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo
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