Part 2: Trouble in Science Paradise

Posted on 23 Sep 2016 @ 2:39am by Lieutenant JG Braxton MacKenzie & Lieutenant JG Lenaris Marika & Lieutenant JG Rahl Tyton Ph.D. & Petty Officer 2nd Class Nemo Bardasi & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin & Crewman Apprentice Sigrid Thelin & Alethea Coleman Ph.D
Edited on on 23 Sep 2016 @ 2:41am

1,560 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Science Office
Timeline: MD -01 1120Hours

OLD

Braxton stood up in the end. "Well I'm Lieutenant Braxton MacKenzie, while we are here in the science department I don't stand on formality I stand on equality. Call me Brax or Mac or Braxton. By way of hobbies I play a few instruments and I am known as the King of Trapeze." He smiled. "So I wanted to do a few things this meeting. One is I wanted to establish some rules, some regulations, departmental of course. I wanted everyone to meet and I have a project I will be presenting to the Admiral that we are all going to be a part of."

"I would be most curious what that project might be...Braxton," T'Lin said with about as much emotion as it got betrayed by her voice going from monotone to something with some timbre to it.

And now the continuation…

[ON]

He grinned. "Well to answer your questions the project..." He was interrupted by Coleman.

Coleman shifted in her chair uncomfortably. "And what about our own projects? Will this new project be optional?"

"Right well let's deal with the project first and then we'll go to rules. Okay so the project would not be optional. It's meant to expose the crew to science and to let us as a department have some fun in our chosen fields. I'm not sure if you all know," he said. "Science people are thought of as boring and we are anything but." He smiled at Coleman. "Now the project will also serve the purpose of letting us become more comfortable with the crew. So Alethea I'll do this. I'll say that for some of us this project might be a trial but in the end it will have benefits all around."

Coleman stared at the CSO with a blank expression. She resisted the urge to throw a piece of fruit at him. If he makes them hold hands, the civilian ecologist was sure she was going to simply leave. She said nothing back to Braxton.

He laughed. "Okay, Okay. I'll explain the project. So we each have a preference and a speciality and this project will help the crew get to know what our specialties are." He looked at Sigrid. "You, Sigrid, will be my astrometrics go to on this."

"Yay!" Sigrid clapped her hands in excitment making Coleman flinch.

"Now here is what I propose. The Galileo has something called the Group Activity Rota or something like that. They offer crew bonding activities from sing along nights to a book club, to theatre. I want to add science to that. I want each of you to lead an activity once every two weeks. So for Marika it would be archeology related, for Sigrid astrometrics, for Rahl, research, for Alethea ecology and so forth, if the project gets approved I'll post a full list. The gist of it is that you all would come up with some fun activities for staff to do. For example Marika would take them on a dig, we'll replicate artefacts hide them she can teach techniques and then they all get to keep what they find. Something like that. What do you all think?" He clapped his hands and smiled with actual glee for the first time.

Coleman looked from the glee filled expression on the CSO to the Starfleet officers in the room in a slow turn of her head. She wanted to assess everyone's reactions but also test whether this meeting, was in fact, real and that she wasn't dreaming. Coleman then stood, leaned over the table and grabbed a glass and the Aldebaran whiskey that Rahl brought. She sat, poured herself a drink, and then sent a nod in Rahl's direction before taking a large swig without flinching.

T'Lin listened quietly to the proposal. There were about six ideas that sprang to her mind that might prove interesting. The one called Coleman seemed overly excited, a display of emotion that was frankly too overt but it seemed that was the way some species did things. How such beings ever managed to have a calm enough mind to get anything done was beyound her understanding.

Rahl shook his head. "I'm afraid I won't be able to commit to something like that. I can't even begin to say what research or what stage in the research I may be at, at any point in time. It could be something in a critical stage that I cannot take my attention away from. With regret, the research department will have to decline the offer."

"Well, I'm certainly not afraid of a little facetime with the crew," Nemo asserted, giving Rahl a dismissive look while maintaining a smug yet charming expression. "It sounds like a great way to break up the routine, and help our peers gain a bit of insight and experience. We are primarily a science vessel, right?"

Braxton smiled. "Right Nemo!" He looked over at Rahl. "I completely understand Rahl. You are a DH and you have your projects. I know how difficult it is to leave experiments." He tuned to the rest of the staff. "I'll let you all know what the Admiral says."

He clapped his hands. "Now! To the white board." He picked up a dry erase marker and began to write. Rules He turned back to the team. "We're going to work these out together." He sighed. "Okay so firstly before we go on I want you all to know that I am here for you. If you are struggling, if you need to talk, I'm not a counselor but I will listen and try to help any way I can. We have a difficult job as we are, as Nemo said, a science ship so a lot of it falls on us. I want you all to know that you are all valuable an you are all appreciated. Anything you need let me know. My office is always open and you can feel free to use the computers there and the replicator. Now, to the rules!"

He wrote, 1. "What should our first one be?"

Rahl saw the look. Normally such things he would let slide. However now was not one of those times. He pushed himself off the wall and looked directly at Nemo. "If you have something to say petty officer then say it. However, if you wish to keep on with the disrespectful comments towards a superior officer then I will see you in the brig."

The Bajoran turned to face Rahl, not at all impressed with the difference in rank, and was about to say plenty. "You know..."

Braxton stepped in between the two. His eyes were on Rahl, he'd heard the comment Nemo made but hadn't see the look. "Enough! Now I'm sure Nemo meant no disrespect. Perhaps the comment was not interpreted correctly and it would have been sufficient to ask what he meant." He didn't want to call out the Research head in front of the staff. He motioned to the door and made it clear for Rahl to follow him. "A moment outside. Everyone stay here eat drink I"ll be back." He tossed the dry erase marker to Marika. "Continue with the rules. Respect should be the first one."

The young Bajoran jumped from her seat with a bounce, catching the eraser with a joyous sound. Quickly, she grabbed a marker and wrote the word respect, and promptly started adding fancy ribbons and arrows around the word.

Sigrid's eyes grew big when Marika got tossed the marker. It was probably a mistake to have done so. Her hand shot up in the air, "Rule two, we all have to wear teal socks on tuesday!"

"Rule 3, we ban tuesdays," Coleman took another sip of her whiskey.

Braxton laughed. "Remember I will look those over when I get back. But I love the enthusiasm.... and maybe we can work in the sillies as rewards so have fun and I will be back in two minutes." Braxton continued towards the door. Happy to see Coleman was relaxing a bit as well.

"Participation in group work is mandatory," Nemo called out once Braxton was out of range, but not necessarily Rahl. He resisted the urge to turn and wink as he made the suggestion and kept his eyes fixed straight on the whiteboard. It seemed he had found a new hobby.

Rahl might have let Nemo's small outburst go that Braxton had stopped. However, the last one was indeed the last one. "Well petty officer since you can't seem to understand when to keep your mouth shut. It would appear you need to be educated." He hit his comm badge. "This is Lieutenant Tyton to Security. I need a Security officer in the science offices for an arrest."

To Be Continued....


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Lieutenant Junior Grade Braxton MacKenzie
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

&

Lieutenant Junior Grade Rahl Tyton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

&

Lieutenant Junior Grade Lenaris Marika
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

&

Petty Officer 2nd Class Nemo Bardasi
Astrophysicist/Cosmologist
USS Galileo

&

Petty Officer 2nd Class T'Lin
Science Officer
USS Galileo

&

Crewman Apprentice Sigrid Thelin
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo

&

Alethea Coleman Ph.D
Ecologist
USS Galileo

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