Conversations in the Corridors

Posted on 27 Feb 2016 @ 1:03am by Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant JG Noah Khoroushi & Ensign Calvin Henderson & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Anthony Duval
Edited on on 27 Feb 2016 @ 1:04am

2,149 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: Jupiter Station - Various locations
Timeline: MD 87 - Various times

[ON]

Taking strides out of Jupiter Station’s Infirmary, Andreus Kohl was examining the palm of his hand closely, trying to remember if it looked the same way it had always looked. Five minutes earlier, Kohl’s palm had been a bloody mess due to the sharp edge on a broken PADD. After a short trip to the infirmary, there was no sign there had ever been an injury, but Kohl wasn't immediately convinced that the texture of his skin looked the same as it had done before. Given his own practiced skill with a dermal regenerator, Kohl was fairly critical of these things. So lost in his reverie, was Kohl, that he literally walked into the next passing person.

In what was to become a recurring theme for Calvin, he was knocked to the ground. The young astrometrics officer was not ten minutes off his transport to the station before he was knocked over. Not that he minded being run into by attractive men.

"Oof," Kohl grunted with too much annoyance for someone who wasn't looking where he was going. As if suddenly realizing that fact, Kohl exclaimed, "Ohgod, I'm sorry. Are you-- how are you feeling?"

"Dazed, confused...are you twins?" Calvin stuttered out as a joke before giving a smile. It was the most confident he had been in some time. "I'm o-ok. Just kidding," he began to pick up his small bags that moments ago were strewn around his body and were now strewn across the floor. "Are you ok?" he asked without looking much past the man's eyes.

"I'm... unharmed," Kohl replied after a heartbeat's consideration. The apologetic cringe remained on his features, but it broadened into a self-depreciating smile. "I'm foolish, but I'm unharmed. ...You on the other hand, you're Ensign Henderson, aren't you? I want to say... your work has something to do with stars?"

"I am, about to be assigned to the USS Galileo as an astrometrics officer. I take it you must be one of my new commanding officers then, sir?" Calvin added a sir and instantly began to feel shy and anxious all over again.

“I’m Commander Kohl. I serve Galileo as her Second Officer," Kohl said, by way of introduction. Crouching down, Kohl picked up the last of Calvin's bags and handed it over. "I do apologize for meeting you like this... How did you end up assigned to our tough little ship? Tell me a jot about your journey."

"Not much of a journey, sir," Calvin began, "I just got off my cadet cruise from the Academy. This is my first posting since. There was a little mix up when I was meant to meet the ship after the Wargames and was sent to the wrong station. Command extended my shore leave time and gave me a date to officially report in, which will be tomorrow. "

"Since you've had so much time to ponder it," Kohl said, "are you pleased with your assignment to Galileo? With your assignment as an Astrometrics Officer?" His sapphire eyes bore into Calvin, watching for every sign of a micro-expression. He supposed there was a high probability a newly minted Ensign wasn't going to open up, entirely, to the rando Lieutenant Commander who knocked him down in the hall. Kohl asked, "Was there anyone else you would have preferred to be?"

"Of course sir. There is no job I'd rather do or anywhere I would rather be. It is all very exciting," Calvin beamed with joy. "Getting to visit the stars I have long looked up to. Visit some I have never even been able to see yet."

Grinning back at Calvin, Kohl asked, "Are there any stars in particular you-- I mean, Don’t tell anyone I asked you this, but I have a bit of clout with the command staff." Kohl took a whole step closer to Calvin and he lowered his voice to a whisper. He asked, "Where would you like Galileo to take you?"

The rather innocent and naive Ensign was drawn in by the senior officer's charisma and perceived charm. Calvin was totally drawn in and enamored by him. "I want to to go to a type of star no one has seen before. Not an actual specific place. I want to pick up the signs of a new classification of star, report to the ship and have us go there," his passion was clear as he himself took a step closer and grinned like a child on Christmas morning. "Something I get to name, something I get to say, 'I found that, I did that, that was me'. I want Galileo to be the place I call home as we race across the stars. To build a life. Find someone and have them share in this excitement."

"...How ...about ...the next time we find ourselves drifting into uncharted territory," Kohl proposed, "I'll arrange for the Chief Science Officer to take a mysterious meeting on the lower decks, and you can take the science station on the bridge?"

Feeling totally seduced by the man before him, the idea of being on the bridge...or a mixture of both, Calvin could only respond one way, "If the opportunity came up I would love that Sir." He bit his tongue at adding only if the Commander was on the bridge as well at the same time.

---

Rubbing his hands together vigorously, as if he were at a scrub station, Andreus Kohl swung his hands backwards and forth through the steri-field. The familiar green glow was projecting from and indenture from the bulkhead in one of Jupiter Station’s public lavatories. Only once Kohl was certain his hands were clean did he trek out of the compartment, re-joining the hustle and bustle in the corridor outside one of the auditorium’s in use for the symposium. Briefly, Kohl began to debate if he was going to head back into the auditorium, but his choice was delayed when he saw a familiar face. Well, not a familiar face, but a face that was likely soon-to-become familiar.

"Well, hullo," Kohl declared. "You're Lieutenant Khoroushi, aren't you?" he asked.

Noah had taken just as much as he could manage of the Symposium - not that it was distasteful or upsetting ... he simply didn't have the interest to sit through hours-long discussions on topics he would likely never pursue. He trusted to himself that Yasmin would find her way back to the ship without his holding her hand. Making his departure, he paused at the exit, flexing his knee a bit to work out the stiffness before he made to take a walk along the Promenade.

He'd not made it far before he was intercepted by another officer - one who apparently knew his name. Offering a cautious smile, Noah inclined his head. "That is correct, sir. And you are?"

“I’m Commander Kohl, " Kohl said. He reached out a freshly-clean hand to commit the Starfleet custom of a handshake. "I serve Galileo as her Second Officer. I’m so pleased to meet you.”

"Ah!" The smile brightened to a more comfortable expression as Noah accepted the hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Commander. I'm assigned to the Galileo as well - I will be the new Assistant Operations Chief."

“Now how did you end up assigned to our tough little ship?" asked Kohl. He asked the question enthusiastically, only releasing Noah's hand so he could emphasize his question with hand gestures. "Share a hint of your journey with me.”

The man was engaging - Noah could certainly give him that. "Ah ... curiosity, I suppose. And opportunity. I was ready to join a ship again, and this one had an open position that suited me. That, and I've always found Science-oriented ships more to my liking." Generally, they stayed out of danger, but it wasn't a guarantee.

Although he nodded at what Noah said, Kohl's sapphire gaze drifted over Noah's shoulder. Given the furrows across his brow, Kohl looked to be completing mathematical calculations in his head. As soon as he reached his solution, he smiled to Noah slyly. "A curious Operations Officer," Kohl said. "Yes. Yes, a science ship would always benefit from an Operations officer with a mind full of questions. ...Although, if you weren't an Operations Officer, what do you think you would have become?'

"Ah ..." He'd never really thought of it before, as his mind had always been set to the task. "I'm not sure ... Diplomatic Corps ... Intelligence perhaps."

Nodding mischievously, Kohl muttered, "Something to keep in mind." Kohl leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner, when he said, "Don’t tell anyone I asked you this, but I have a bit of clout with the command staff." --He dropped his voice to a whisper-- “Where would you like Galileo to take you?”

Noah was uncertain what he was asking. "Wherever she is headed, Commander. Unless you mean career-wise - and to that, I am simply content to put my effort in and see where that takes me. I'm not interested in competition towards what I can gain for myself."

---

Andreus Kohl tilted his head to the left when he noticed the telltale hum behind the doorway. He made sure to take two steps backwards before the grey doors receded into the bulkheads. Though, when Kohl saw there was no one exiting the turbolift, he took four steps forward to enter the turbolift car. After Kohl requested his location, he turned his head from side to side to fully appreciate the wider, spacious turbolift cars aboard Jupiter Station. He supposed he could get in a few lunges or star jumps in the time it would take to travel between decks. Despite that thought, he didn’t give it a try. He began to wonder if the turbolift cars aboard Galileo would start to feel claustrophobic when the ‘lift slowed to a halt, and the doors opened.

"Well, hullo," Kohl said to the Chief Warrant Officer who joined him in the turbolift. He asked, "Are you Mister Duval, by any chance?"

Duval raised an eyebrow as he regarded the stranger wearing command red with a rather dubious look on his face. "Indeed. I am he." he responded

By way of his own introductions, Andreus Kohl said, “I’m Commander Kohl. I serve Galileo as her Second Officer. How fortuitous to meet you like this."

"Now I'm somewhat frightened." Duval answered in a rather dry tone.
"Have you come to ally my fears?" he inquired of the stranger in the turbolift.

"Your fears?" Kohl asked, caught off-guard by this line of questioning. His echo of Duval's words was strangled slightly by the tightening of Kohl's throat. Kohl cleared his throat and then he asked more clearly, "And what fears might those be?"

Duval regarded the other man. "Yes... My fears of the unknown, fears of meeting new people and my fears of finding out that lie is but a joke.."

"Hmm," was the only way Kohl knew to respond to that, at first. He stared back at Duval. Stared right at him. "No, in that case, I'm simply making my way to the symposium. Meeting you was happenstance. Since I am your captive audience for the next two minutes, tell me a bit about how you made your way to Galileo. What has your journey been like?"

"A long and strange one." Duval answered in a dry tone. "I was aboard the Tempest when we recovered you, floating in space and adrift... and two months later. here I am."

"Huh," Kohl intoned, as he folded his arms across his abdomen. With far more of a flare for the romantic than Duval had expressed, Kohl questioned, "You saw Galileo in her battered state, and you thought: I have to fix her?"

Duval raised an eyebrow. "Actually no. I was hoping to go on shore leave but my leave was canceled and I was... sent here to fix 'her' up as you put it."

"And we'll be shipping out soon enough," Kohl remarked, a tinge of regret in his voice. He swayed slightly when the turbolift car changed direction. "In lieu of going somewhere for shore leave," Kohl asked, "Where do you hope Galileo will take you on her mission?"

Duval paused. "I honestly have no idea." he responded. "Hopefully to some peace... which I have never had since the end of the war.."



[OFF]


Ensign Calvin Henderson
Astrometrics Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Noah Khoroushi
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Warrant Officer 2nd Class Anthony Duval
Engineer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl
Second Officer
USS Galileo

 

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