Puzzling

Posted on 07 Apr 2016 @ 2:08am by Ensign James Langley & Ensign Lia Circe

1,651 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: USS Galileo; Deck 5; Intelligence Office
Timeline: MD01 - 1601 Hours

[ON]

It was the end of James' shift and damn if it didn't feel good. Another dull day poking at this and looking at that. There wasn't much to do, really, at least for the moment, and so for the most part his mind had been occupied with something most puzzling. Literally. He was thinking of puzzles.

A specific type of puzzle, to be exact. He was thinking of impossible puzzles. They were cute he supposed, but largely useless other than to prove that some things couldn't be done. It all seemed so silly. I mean, if you wanted to make an impossible puzzle you could have just told a person to start with a cup right side up and make it right side up with exactly one flip. No more. No less. Silly!

He got up and walked towards the door, closing out his station for the day and taking his thoughts with him. He couldn't have left them behind even if he wanted. ...Well sweet Jesus I think the most puzzling thing is why someone would create an impossible puzzle! An exercise in futility, I say. Seriously! Just tip the cups up and pour me a damn drink, his thoughts pulsed most loudly as if his mind was arguing with an imaginary person who just had to be proven wrong.

Lia was glancing at her colleague as he started packing up. His thoughts were partially fascinating and Lia couldn't help but be intrigued. "I have one." she spoke up. "Numbers are my fancy; that information is key.
If it's pairs of letters you need, there is a straight three with me. What am I?"

“Oo, that's a,” James started before interrupting himself. Another mind reader, his thoughts shouted instinctively. She must have known he was not a telepath. He hadn't spoken about any of her thoughts at any time before. Maybe as an intelligence officer she thought she had the upper hand, but James had a way with these things. He could carry on two conversations with her while she could only carry on one without sounding disjointed. Silly really, but fun.

His thoughts began to take on a more composed and deliberate nature as he directed them in a different direction to the words he would speak. Can't you mind readers just buck stereotypes and do something other than intelligence gathering or mental therapy? “A riddle, huh? I'm going to have to think on that one.” He decided to keep his thoughts open. This could be fun. “But before I do I have to ask, do you always look into other people's minds, or just the ones with good looking shells?”

Lia looked him over, before replying, "I apologize. I hear everyone's thoughts at once...I was getting slightly overwhelmed by the ship's that I focused on yours to keep my balance.... I don't have the ability to tune people out like most telepaths." Lia replied.

“I'm sorry.” It was strange that James was apologizing to a telepath, especially when he liked to goof with them so much, but this one had no choice apparently? It must have been devastating. Curious that she would choose to keep focus on his mind out of all of them, though there probably wasn't many others in the vicinity. He chose to take that as a compliment.

I can talk like this if it makes you feel better, but do be kind and not poke around too much. I'm not the best at blocking and talking at the same time and there are things best left unseen in here, he thought with a comforting smile.

Lia frowned and shook her head, "Please, speak normally. Last thing I need is more voices in my head."

Muahahaha was the last thing the teasing ensign would think before reverting back to speaking in his more natural 'voice.' “So, in the interest of speeding up our discussion to a more introductory tone, I suppose I should break down and ask you the answer to your riddle. I'm thinking it's some sort of number maybe? But the only doubles I know of off the top of my head are three, two oone, five eight. Google... and googleplex... You know what? Forget it. I can think of a lot. But none with three double letters in a row. So give it to me!”

Lia smirked, "Bookkeeper."

“Dewey decimal,” James shouted in defeat. “Of course those bookworms love numbers. A clever question if there ever was one. But now I need to get to know you. So answer me the greatest riddle of all,” he began as he moved away from the exit and towards the otherwise unnoticed coworker of his. “Who are you?”

"Lost Infant Abandoned." Lia replied with a smirk.

“That's not another riddle is it,” James questioned back in mock frustration. The curve of the smirk and the tone of the voice seemed to indicate at least some sort of sincerity, but without a polygraph, detailed biography, or tools of the interrogatorial trades he was left with nothing more than the hopes that the person he was talking to was just plain ol' honest.

“Left at a doorstep? Forgotten at a hospital nursery?”

Lia leaned forward and her golden eyes pierced into his brown ones. "According to the police report, I was found on an alleyway by the dumpsters. I was brought to the local hospital where the LIA designation was issued to me. I was in psychotic coma due to my abilities and was transferred to a medical institution on Betazed that specializes in people like me."

It wouldn't have taken an empath to feel the sinking feeling that went through James' emotional being. Fortunately Lia at least seemed to be being a good sport with his quick tongued sarcasm. “I'm sorry,” he said in a muted tone, turning a bit red. He was at a loss of words, which didn't happen often.

"No need to be." She replied with a grin, "You ask me, who I am...I'm the greatest conundrum you'll find. I was in that coma until I was about 10. The closest thing I had to a home was destroyed when the Dominion conquered Betazed and during my time as a field operative for Starfleet Intel, I was captured and experimented on. And to top it all off, my hybrid nature left me with certain medical issues." She looked at him with a slight twinkle in her eye, "Now here's the conundrum...with a dark past like that...I'm an optimist. Explain that."

Challenge accepted. James began to think probably longer than would have been expected as a silence began to fill the room between them and then, just as perhaps maybe Lia was about to say something, James finally interjected with a thought. “Because despite your hardships you saw the good in all people. Maybe not consciously, but at least subconsciously. For the first ten years of your life it would have taken but a simple pull of the proverbial and literal plug to end your life, yet for everyone involved they sought to do everything but, to keep you alive so you could see the world around you at some point.

“You were then awakened, yet then shortly after settling into a spot where your powers where truly appreciated you were taken, for some reason or another obviously, for the uniqueness of your abilities. Your abductors destroyed everything you knew and stood for and yet they sought to preserve you. Whether it was envy or fear or something else those who took you knew that you had something that they didn't. They picked you apart bit by bit to try and learn all that they could,” he winced a little as he spoke, yet still trying to analyze her in just the way she had requested.

“But you were saved, and now here you are before me, displaying your ability to talk through the mind as though you were conversing with a long lost friend via speech for the fist time in decades. You talk with thoughts more naturally than you could ever talk with words.”

So tell me, he thought, why don't you speak like this all the time? If it is in your nature than I will not deny you who you really are. I am right, aren't I not? So talk to me as you feel you should and not as you have been told you should.

Lia looked at him, You're wrong.. She pulled away and continued, "I'm an optimist because I'm alive. By every measurable sense, with the past I have...being alive means something, at least to me. I want to be the example. No matter how unfair life has been; if I can make it, so can anyone else."

“Well... I like my interpretation a little better,” he said with a bit of a sarcastic smile. “But I submit. You've won this round madame.” He didn't like being wrong, but that didn't mean he had to be a sore loser. “You're very forthcoming with your personal history. I admire that kind of confidence. You're a good example, indeed.”

Lia smiled wide, "I'm really beginning to like you, James. Hopefully this is a start of a long lasting friendship."

“I hope so, too, because as you know people in intelligence make very dangerous enemies. So, friends it is, and the longer the better,” James concluded with reaching his hand out to formally greet his newest acquaintance.

Lia took his hand and shook it firmly. "Agreed."

[OFF]

Ensign Lia Circe
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer

Ensign James Langley
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

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