Not Judging (but...)

Posted on 13 Feb 2022 @ 5:30pm by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Lieutenant Aria Rice

4,194 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 3, Auxiliary Shuttlebay
Timeline: MD 06, 1704 hrs

[ON]

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius's work day was almost over. His gamma shift bridge duties had ended eight hours ago but were proceeded by an additional shift of auxiliary craft maintenance and shuttlebay cleaning. Such was the daily routine for the former Marine-turned-Fleet specialist. The monotony and grind of it had become habitual by now but it didn't stop him from checking the chronometer every afternoon when he sensed 1700 hours approaching.

This particular day had been slightly different from the rest. Instead of working in the main shuttlebay on Deck 4, he was performing a series of systems checks within the auxiliary shuttlebay on Deck 3. The Nova-class secondary hangar doubled as both a cargo bay and housing complex for Galileo's Brunel-class workbee and Type 15 shuttlepod. The two were the smallest of the vessel's support craft and tended not to receive as much flight time compared to the larger Type 6 personnel shuttles. Nevertheless, they still needed to be serviced and maintained even if a small layer of dust had manifested atop their hulls.

Aria Rice, in her uniform, gave a small smile as she walked into the shuttlebay. It had been a bit of a turn of events, in her eyes at least. Her body had gotten that ache from the morning exercise that she fond oddly comforting. She stopped as she looked around the shuttlebay, taking in the spitshine and polish of it. They may have had to leave quickly, but the crew of the Galileo were not amateurs. She watched Lamar for a long moment, studying the man's movements before she walked over. "Chief!" she called out, to get his attention. She didn't want to frighten him anyway. Never underestimate the combat reflexes of a former Marine.

Lamar's attention was focused on a large diagnostic PADD which was manually connected by a thick cable to the workbee's maintenance port. His head swiveled when his ears registered a familiar woman's voice from within the hangar. He'd been so consumed with his tasks that he hadn't heard the cargo bay doors open. "Who's that?" he called out, then squinted to observe the new arrival. "Aria..?"

"Just coming to see how you are doing," Aria said as she walked over, giving him an easy smile. "You know, with everything going on, I had hoped we'd catch up after our night out before we were thrown right into the action again." Especially considering some how the announcements that had come during the day.

"Oh. Yeah. A few more days on the station would have been good." He shared her sentiment. A lot had happened in the last 24 hours. "I don't think Lieutenant Shizn was too happy that we left Regula One without our new Waverider. I've been doing some extra checks on our support craft to make sure they're all ready to sortie if we need them. Hate being a down a shuttle."

"I know the feeling, I was hoping for some upgrades in the armoury that did not happen," Aria admitted before she gave a small shrug, thoughtful. "But at least my new chair made it on the ship before we set off. It's ever so comfortable. And not cursed."

He eyed her with faux consternation. "It better not be. Don't bring that bad Luna juju up in here," he teased. Large PADD still in hand, he gestured it towards the yellow workbee's black-tinted cockpit hatch. "Do me a quick favor? Can you hop in Celeste there and power up the primary thrusters? Need to get some final readings while they're at idle."

Aria gave a quick nod and walked to it, opening it and pulling herself in. She settled in the seat, looking over the controls. "You do realise my pilot's license was just scraped together, right?" she called out before she powered it up, humming to herself.

The two microfusion primary reactors came online and the workbee began to emit a barely-audible hum. Cockpit instrumentation across its LCARS consoles brightened inside the pilot's cabin. Outside of the support craft, Lamar monitored the power outputs on his PADD which appeared normal while at a low power state. "Looking good...!" He tapped on his display then swiped his hand across it to start a new set of diagnostic sequences. "Now bring the RCS thrusters online and to idle..."

Aria took a deeper breath, looking at the various buttons before she moved her fingers. "RCS thrusters are online and idle," she called out, sitting back in the seat.

Lamar looked back down to his PADD which now detailed the outputs from each of Celeste's sixteen DeBe 3453 hot gas thrusters. All were idling within parameters except one, positioned along the workbee's ventral aft quarter. He frowned then looked up and walked around the rear-side of the shuttle to visually inspect the thruster port. It appeared normal at first glance with no signs of discernible damage or blockage to the naked eye. "Number eight isn't throttling properly," he called to Aria through the open cockpit hatch. "Give it a small boost. Small," he emphasized.

"Your funeral," Aria murmured, frowning as she moved her finger, hesitating before she gave it a small boost, hoping that her idea of small and Lamar's idea of small were the same. Because...well, if not, she might be in trouble.

He looked at the thruster and waited for it to activate. And waited. Eventually he looked down his PADD. Nothing, not a single change in energy output. Lamar frowned then glanced back at the thruster port, then to Aria. "Did you juice it?!" he called out with confusion.

"Yes!" she called out before she shook her head, double checking and yes, indeed, she had done it. "I can run a diagnostic up on this side, but I did boost it..."

Lamar double-checked his own readings then scratched the back of his short curly hair. The thruster input had been recognized by the workbee's flight control system but the desired output wasn't matching the command. "No," he conceded with a sigh, "power it down for now." He didn't want to risk an accident in the shuttlebay while the thruster was still engaged. Especially not with a multitude of cargo containers nearby. "I'll have to check the power storage cells. Shit." That would be at least another hour of maintenance following a 16-hour work day.

She did as told, shutting it all out before swinging herself out of the workbee and landing on her feet. She watched Lemar, glancing at the time. "No you won't. Next shift can deal with it," she said firmly, walking over to him. "Put it in the PADD to be picked up."

The lieutenant's sudden authoritative voice caught him off guard. He was well aware she was one of the ship's senior officers but had never experienced her professional demeanor first-hand. He glanced from side to side a bit nervously. "Sylver's not gonna like that..." The other, third member of Galileo's conn officers worked Beta shift and was probably just finishing his bridge duties. That meant he would soon be doing his rounds in the shuttlebays.

"Does Sylver have anything better to do?" she countered as she watched Lemar, raising an eyebrow in query with a small, patient smile she usually reserved to the less experienced in her department. "If so, I'd love to hear it..."

"I..." Lamar frowned then shrugged. "Probably not," he admitted. Her directive now seemed like a good idea. "Fine, it's his problem now. And I'm hungry. Let me update the logs then we can get out of here." Darius looked back to Celeste, still feeling regret that he hadn't been able to fix her during his duty shift. "I'll be back for you, babe." He kissed two fingers then extended them to the workbee before entering the final maintenance log into his thick PADD.

Aria allowed herself a pleased smile as she waited for him to finish. Sometimes, it was good to remind herself that the years at the Academy, plus her Bridge Officer Accreditation, countered for something. And this time it had counted for persuading Lemar to stop working. "We should go to the Mess and grab something to eat."

"Yes, sir." Darius finished his report then corralled the long cable extending from the workbee's maintenance port to his PADD with his hands. He coiled the cord over his forearm in order to leave it in good condition for Sylver, then placed it back in the service locker on the far wall of the auxiliary shuttlebay. He looked back to Rice and spread his hands. "As you ordered," he winked.

"Well done," she said and walked to him, patting his shoulder. "Off we go...I am hungry too. And you should not have to work any more hours than your shift. Whatever happens if it all goes insane and you are already burned out?"

He gave her a wry look as he returned to her. "I guess we'll all die."

Aria rolled her eyes and led him with her. "Yes, we do. In fire and twisted metal and big explosions," she said, almost in a sing-song voice. "We're going more by the book now, so...by the book for the duty shifts, Chief..." she winked before she nudged him. The mess wasn't too full at this time, but it would be filling with people coming off their shift. "Let's get some food..." she reached to undo and remove her uniform jacket. She would want to be less Lieutenant Rice and more Aria now talking with him.

Lamar followed suit, taking her lead while following her out of the small cargo bay and into the corridor. He unzipped his own uniform jacket to reveal the tight red turtleneck he wore beneath. "Is it wing night today?" he asked with hopefulness. "Not wing slugs. I mean real wings. With chicken."

Aria looked around for a moment before she smiled weakly. "No such luck, but we can see what our new galley chef has cooked up," she said, her eyes going over him for a moment. "If not we can replicate you some."

He shook his head rather adamantly at the idea of replicated food in the mess hall. If he wanted a protein substitute, he could get that in his quarters. "I'll test my fate. I heard the new cook is the old captain's sister. Nersh? Ness?" He could never remember Orion names.

"Nesh," Aria corrected, patiently, as she walked with him to stand in line. She shifted to look at what was on offer. "We have...Kohlanese stew or Earth Nasi Goreng..." she considered it for a moment before she smiled to Nesh. The Orion was wearing a scarf she had tied in an intricate manner to cover her hair, seemingly in control. She hadn't expected it. "What do you recommend, Nesh?"

Nesh looked at her and then at Lamar, giving them a quick smile that did not quite reach her eyes. "Depends. Stew's warming and mild, rice is spicy."

"Rice for me then...and with an egg on top as well," Aria said as she motioned to the beautifully looking fried eggs with soft yokes.

Nesh served her up and looked at Lamar, watching the man closely. "What about you?" she asked, managing to project enough care into her voice to make it sound less like she was demanding and more like she gave a damn.

"Uhh..." The conn officer observed Aria's demeanor then looked at the plate she'd been served. He really wanted chicken wings. Yet eggs on rice somehow looked more tempting. Besides, he didn't want to accidentally insult the young green Orion. When he looked at Nesh's face, he could instantly see the family resemblance between her and their former CO. "I'll have what she had," he decided with a small smile.

Nesh gave a nod and dished up before she motioned down the line. "Condiments down that way and cutlery," she said lightly.

Aria was helping herself to a spoonful of the chilli paste, plopping it on the rice before drizzling some of the sauce on it. She looked at Lamar as he came up beside her. "Not wings I know, but right now I am loving the carbs."

He couldn't complain with her choice of food. "Carbs are my lifeblood," he agreed, mimicking her selection of extra sauce and toppings. He wasn't quite sure what all of it was but it didn't really matter. Lamar would eat anything if he was hungry enough. There hadn't been any room for picky eaters in the Marine Corps during his service. "..So Captain Saalm's sister is now a cook?" he casually gossiped, keeping his voice low. "I thought she was an Academy cadet..."

"Oh, you missed the part where she stopped being a cadet, then snuck onto the ship and now here she is..." Aria said as she led them to a table, taking a seat. She met his eyes and picked up her chopsticks. "Scuttlebutt says she just showed up in the galley and that Saalm had orders for her to be the new chef."

Sitting down in a chair across from her, Lamar set his tray down then grabbed his own pair of chopsticks. He fiddled with them, looking at Aria's grip to try to figure out how to use them. "I knew she was on board. Didn't know anything about smuggling herself." He frowned and tilted his head with confusion. "Why would she do that if she's the captain's sister? Not like she couldn't just pull some strings, you know?"

Aria watched him and reached out, taking his hand and positioning his fingers before she smiled and moved his fingers to show him how he needed to do that. She took her own and used them to split the egg and mix the yoke in with the rice and the sambal. "Not sure how well you know the Saalm sisters, but no one can make Lirha pull strings she doesn't want to pull. Nesh got herself into this. If she is smart, she will do the best she can with it and grow from it."

Lamar's face expressed a rare eureka expression when she positioned the chopsticks correctly for him. Sometimes the finer things in life had passed him by over the years. But then he watched her break her egg, with thick yellow protein spilling into her rice. Nah, he quickly decided. That was too exotic for his tastes. Instead, he popped the entire egg into his mouth by itself. "..Sisters, am I right...?" he grin-mumbled in between chews. "...Glad I don't...have any.."

"Same, only child and grateful," Aria said and started eating, her chopsticks moving with quick, almost stabbing motions. She sighed contently at eating, breathing in at the spice. "So the ship changed quickly..." she remarked. It was why she had made a point of removing her uniform jacket. She didn't want rank involved as she had a chat with Lamar about how she felt about the changes. She'd be sensible (because the bulkheads had ears), but she did want to just...air her feelings at the suddenness of the change.

"..Mmhm.." He wasn't nearly as proficient with his stick utensils as his yellow-shirted friend. The best he could manage was to slowly mix the sauces and spice with the rice then retrieve child-sized bites of the small gooey seeds. He looked from side to side across the mess hall to make sure the coast was clear then spoke in a low voice. "What do you think about the new captain?"

"Acting Captain," Aria said, but with that wry smile someone got when they knew they were being pedantic. "Different than what we are used to. More spit and polish, following things to the letter. I'd same almost military in her approach. It's very different from Saalm. Not necessarily bad, but different. It has been a sharp learning curve for me. Just wish it had been after I had a bit longer under my belt as the Chief. Although if she stays, I'd be unsurprised if she didn't get me replaced with someone a bit more...grr...maybe a half-Klingon or a Vulcan or someone who can shook phasers from their eyeballs."

He chopsticked more rice into his mouth, looking up at her. "Replace you...why?" Lamar had seen the new CO at the early morning muster call just like everyone else. His opinion echoed that of Aria's for the most part. "I looked at her public service record...." He chewed again. "She's tough but that's normal for someone from New York City."

"Bet she's got stereotypes to live up to too," she said with a soft sigh, picking up some egg. "And because I'm new in the role and she might have worked with someone she prefers. I didn't look at her public service record. Didn't have the time but also...I don't know. After her speech I sort of felt I had the info I needed. The rest comes down to getting used to her."

"One thing I learned in Starfleet over the years," he took more sauce-coated rice, "is we don't get to pick our crew mates. Same thing with captains." Lamar looked up from his dish and glanced around the room again, observing some of the new arrivals who'd recently entered following the end of Beta shift. "She was on Earth at the Academy when the war broke out. When the Breen attacked Starfleet HQ and destroyed half of San Fransisco. That kind of thing changes a person." He looked back down at his food then poked at it. "I know it did for me..."

Aria nodded, although a bit distractingly. Yes, it had changed the alpha quadrate. But it was a shared experience, closer to some than others. And what Aria objected to was the sudden change. Like the Captain (Acting. Acting...) was putting her stamp on them all. "I suppose. And I will deal. It's interesting though..." she said and and smiled to Lamar. "We're doing Physical Exercise together, which is...different. I usually work out alone, or with my department. Physical fitness is a bit deal in Security."

He regarded her more closely, not completely sure what she meant and who 'we' referred to. "Physical exercise? Like PT drills?" He chewed again. "You and the new captain?"

"Oh, not just us. We got loads of Senior Officers," Aria said and took some more to eat, thinking it over. "I have to admit, I'm used to it with my Department, but it is a shock for a lot of people I think."

"Physical exercise is a shock? In Starfleet?" Now he was the one slightly shocked. The conn officer raised his eyebrows to himself then rolled his eyes. "So are you keeping up with her?" he wondered. "You know what they say about first impressions with new captains."

"I can hold my own when it comes to exercise," Aria assured him and for a moment she almost looked as if even the possibility of him doubting that offended her. "Although I am not sure I know what she makes out of me."

Lamar thought back to his days in the Corps then to his time served on Galileo to the present. "It ain't easy dealing with new COs," he conceded. "Seems like just when you get a good thing going...all that rapport, a new asshole steps in to mess it up. Or asslady. Best thing we can do is just take care of our duties. Act competent even if you aren't. How else do you think they let let me behind the conn of a starship?" He shoveled more rice into his mouth and looked into Aria's pale blue eyes with a grin.

"Oh please, you're a brilliant pilot," Aria said and considered it, tapping one of her chopsticks against her lips. "Asshat. I think that covers any gender the universe can throw at us. Sorted." Satisfied she had sorted out one part of the language and labelling of Standard, she took more to eat, tipping her bowl and lifting it. "I know what I am doing. And it will be fine, but the problem this ship's complicated. Lirha knew exactly what to expect from us all. We had her back and she had ours, not because of her rank but because she inspired that in us. In many ways, she is what Starfleet is all about. A harsh shift like this, including the emergency aspects of us breaking off shoreleave early? Some might crack. And if they do, that means things go south and then Security has to get involved, and I haven't tested out the forcefield in the brig yet."

He chewed again then swallowed while listening to her deduction. After a short pause, Lamar shook his head with mild disbelief. "Never imagined we'd trust an Orion to command a Starfleet ship more than a Human from Earth." Maybe that was a testament to the true principals of the Federation.

"Don't look at me, Terran," she said with shining eyes, smiling playfully. "Us Luna folk, we don't trust people from Earth as a matter of principle..." she took a deeper breath and looked at her now empty bowl. "But in truth? Lirha took the time to get to know us past the uniform and service record. She knew what we were capable of. I think Tarin either does not care, or lacks the confidence. And that doesn't fit well with this ship."

Finishing up his bowl of rice, he cast a couple curious glances to the security chief. "I noticed you keep calling her Lirha..." his words trailed off while he averted eye contact. "Did you two know each other? Personally?" It wasn't common for crew members to refer to their superiors on a first name basis. Especially captains.

Aria smiled gently before she let out a breath. "Yes, we know each other," she said, leaving it mostly at that. "Not that there was any favouritism. We just got on well socially. Besides...with her sister here, I sort of want to keep the Saalms separate."

"...Mhmm.." The explanation was plausible. If Lamar had been a fresh cadet out of the Academy, he probably would have bought it. He didn't say anything, but instead gave Aria a knowing look and a light kick to her lower leg beneath the table.

She smiled, her eyes shining. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. It is what it is and right now...we're stuck with what we got. I just hope it doesn't break us."

"If you don't break, the ship won't break. I sure as hell won't." He pushed his now-empty bowl away from him on the table then leaned back to stretch out his arms and belly. "My pops used to say 'same shit, different day'. He was old school but I think it was his way of giving me and my brother advice for the future."

"Sound advice," Aria agreed before she met her eyes, just holding them for a long moment. His eyes were so dark, but in this light it was easier to see they were brown. "I am not worried about my department. Worried about the scientists more than anything. Their brains are so full, I bet they have a stiff neck from how heavy their heads are."

Lamar chuckled. He didn't have any rebuttal to her concern which he also shared. But there was one redeeming factor the ship's scientists possessed. "The eggheads keep their heads down in their consoles. Give them enough toys to play with and they probably won't know the difference between landing on Risa versus Qo'noS."

"I don't know...I think they'd notice Qo'noS. They'd find it fascinating," she made a face at that, almost to make her point about the gap professionally between her and Science. "But they've saved our lives as much as we have saved theirs. And we have a smart, tough little ship who deserves our respect."

He procured his napkin then wiped his mouth and fingers clean before dropping it in the empty rice bowl. "Tough little ship," he repeated with a nod. "Tough crew, too." Lamar took a long breath then looked to Aria. "So...what now? I have to be on duty again in seven hours.."

"You've eaten," she said and smiled gently, nodding. "And I have seen you so I know you are okay. I wanted to check in on you, see if you were okay. But you also need to sleep so...I suppose you go to your quarters and rest."

"Bed time. Yes sir," he saluted in jest. He rose from the table. "What are you gonna do without me, now? Check phaser rifle batteries in the armory?"

"I'll find something," she said playfully, standing as well. "Get some proper rest, Lamar."

[OFF]

--

Lt. Aria Rice
Chief of Security
USS Galileo-A

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

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