Good as New

Posted on 09 Dec 2012 @ 8:47am by Chief Petty Officer Juliet Finch
Edited on on 09 Dec 2012 @ 9:14am

2,915 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo, Deck 6 - Stellar Cartography
Timeline: MD14, 1330 hours

[ON]

For probably the sixth or seventh time in a row, Maenad rang through the final movement of Saint-Saens' Septet in E flat Major, Gavotte. Ever since she had rediscovered old Camille earlier that week, she had been trying to perfect some of her favourites of his. So, playing in concert with the computer and her still-new piano, she had spent nearly all of the previous day and all morning devoted to Saint-Saens' brilliantly simple Opus 65. Thankfully, the walls were soundproof; her neighbouring senior staff might have come knocking otherwise. Once or twice she considered how soundproofed the door was; if anyone had a problem, well, they would just have to come knocking and square her off. As yet, that hadn't happened, so she had long-stopped entertaining the idea.

As she neared the final measures of the piece, her commbadge sounded. "Chief Juliet Finch to Lieutenant Panne," came the subdued woman's voice. Maenad heard her, but she was now playing at her best and couldn't stop now. She kept playing, her eyes closed and her body moving as she pounded the keys under her long fingers. The comm repeated itself with the same amount of patience as it had at first. But, there was still at least another minute before the end, a distant part of Maenad's mind told her. And this part was her favourite. She couldn't stop now. The trumpet began after its several bars' rest, and a pleasurable smile began to form on the corners of her lips. Chief Finch had, just like that, completely gone from her mind. Her fingers glided over the keys as they hadn't yet that morning and Maenad got that rush of not just playing the part, but of being the part, of being the music. In her mind, she imagined herself and her fellow studious-looking musicians completely immersed in what they were doing. No conductor, just the seven of them performing together, their faces grave, their hair carelessly falling out of place, their fingers burning, sweat collecting on their brows and beneath their chins. She reached the trumpet's final arpeggio, her fingers in perfect time, and as he hit the final high note so did she (she thought all trumpets were men), Maenad then paused with him, the final two notes burst out and together they all finished. There was a deafening applause in her imagination and Maenad was actually smiling her funny white teeth, before she slowly reopened her eyes. She pressed her lips, as though she were truly being modest in front of a hundred or so people and then actually quietly laughed in joy, proud of herself.

"Finch to Lieutenant Panne, please respond," the voice sounded more concerned than frustrated, and Maenad was unfortunately pulled back to the reality of her life.

She reached for the commbadge she had placed on top of the piano. "My apologies, chief, what can I do for you?" her voice couldn't hide her happiness.

"The materials you've been waiting for have just beamed aboard, I thought you'd want to know,"

Maenad smiled doubly now. The holo-emitters that she had been waiting for forever had finally arrived. Stellar cartgography would operational in a matter of hours, now. "Yes!" she exclaimed. "Yes, of course, thank you chief." Maenad stood up. "Could you have them brought to stellar cartography, deck six?"

"Aye, sir," came the reply.

"Excellent, thank you," Maenad said again. "Panne out." Maenad stood up and pushed the bench back from the piano, giving a curtsy to a fantasy audience. She was wearing a navy, almost black, top and white skirt with black polka dots. She skipped to her bedroom and went to the bathroom to pee, she had been holding it in for hours, forgetting that she had to go while she was determined to get the music right. She then looked herself over in the mirror, her hair was unkempt and falling down her shoulders, but she really didn't care. She was on holiday, afterall. Maenad did, however, contemplate getting into her uniform while she worked in stellar cartography and, in the end, she thought she ought to. So, she changed, into her duty outfit - the one with the tunic and knee-length skirt, and hurried down to deck six.

In the corridor she sung Gavotte, which would be stuck in her head for quite some time, by way of 'ba ba bas' and 'ta ta tas.' She stepped out of the turbolift and then into stellar cartography, seeing that this Chief Juliet Finch was standing there waiting for her, leaning against a console as she thumbed through a PADD.

The first thing that ran across Finch's mind was oh my god when the tall and bookish chief science officer burst into the room. She was two heads taller than Finch was, at least she felt that she was. She pushed herself out of her casual lean against the primary console and began to approach the slender woman walking toward her. As she neared, she saw that her eyes were dark and raccoon-like with purplish bags beneath them. Finch thought that this officer looked decidedly unhealthy, but studious people usually did. She smirked somewhat at the sight of the lieutenant's skirt; yes, this one was definitely destined to do one of two things: a nerd or a librarian. Her smirk grew as she thought why not both?

Maenad was smiling, though awkwardly and still mostly at herself, for her sublime interpretation of Opus 65, not that she was gloating or anything. But, it was absolutely phenomenal. The shorter, smaller, tiny red-haired woman (girl?) held out the PADD that she had been playing with as she neared.

"Good afternoon, sir," Finch said, quickly looking away from the science chief's darkened eyes. "This PADD contains a full inventory of the supplies you ordered,"

Maenad accepted the PADD, but was glancing around for the supplies. She didn't see them anywhere. Just an empty holomatrix. Before she could ask any questions, Finch went on.

"I was waiting for you to get here to, uh, for you to tell me where you want them, sir," Finch said somewhat shakily.

Maenad frowned. "All right," she said. It made no difference to her where they went, but she didn't say that. That would be rude. "Put them right there," Maenad nodded to just in front of the holomatix. She then began fingering the PADD, making sure that everything she had requested had arrived.

"Aye, sir," Finch said. She tapped her commbadge and gave the necessary orders. Seconds later, there were two crates standing side-by-side right where Maenad had wanted them.

"Will there be, another -- I mean," Finch smiled nervously. "I'm sorry," she half-laughed, "Will there be anything else, sir?"

Maenad lowered the PADD and she looked at the chief petty officer, her face critical. "I thought you could help me with the installation," she said pointedly.

Finch froze. She wanted her help? The chief science officer wanted her help? She could, but that wasn't exactly what she wanted to do. There had to be a way out. "Sir, I think you will find Ensign Cho more, more suited to the job. She is an expert as this sort of thing, sir,"

"Lieutenant Cho," Maenad's correction was absentminded and careless, almost no inflection whatsoever in her voice. She thought of Kiri, and tingle of sadness sunk through from her shoulders right down to the balls of her heels. While Kiri was a specialist in sensors, not hologrids, Maenad thought it unnecessary to correct the chief twice in the same sentence. "I'm giving Miss Cho a break," she said, not wanting to get into the details of her being overworked.

"Sir, with all due respect, hologrids are not my speciality," Finch persisted. She felt completely inadequate beside this woman. There were rumours among some of the recent academy graduates that she had heard that Doctor Panne was one of the smartest professors the academy had ever had. She paid little attention to them because rumours were almost always wrong and blown many, many, times out of proportion. People were asking why she was even on the ship to begin with, being as smart as she was. She had heard both that she was mean and condescending, and that she was pleasant and accommodating. So far, she could not tell which the lieutenant fell under, but she did know that she looked smart. Her hair was a mess, she looked sickly exhausted, and she wore the skirt with her uniform in a way that carried intellect, rather than seductiveness like some women did.

Not that she was an expert, either, Maenad only gave the other woman a little smirk. She rolled up her sleeves to her pointy elbows, undoing the cuffs of the teal tunic beneath the heavier top. She opened the nearer crate and removed a single new holo-emitter, then walked onto the hologrid. Several of them were visibly fried, and Maenad found the nearest one. She knelt down, removed it after a bit of a struggle, and attached the new emitter. There was a total of three dozen blown emitters; this was going to take a while.

Finch watched the lieutenant with curiosity for a moment. For such a menial task, she was surprised to see a chief do arduous work on her own when most would have assigned someone like herself to do it - not that she ever complained, it was just rare to see an officer do the work of the lower decks. As the officer went back to the crate and returned to the grid with a handful of new emitters, Finch went to the primary console. "Just a moment, sir; I'm going to bring the grid online to see if the replacements are functioning," she told her. "I would step back a bit, some of the dead emitters may spark as the current runs through them." Maenad did as she recommended. Finch brought the grid online and, as predicted, as few of the emitters shot a string of sparks. A few seconds later, the grid was deactivated and the air smelt rich of ozone. "Success," she smiled, as she came around toward the crate to assist.

Maenad smiled haphazardly and returned to displacing the dead emitters. "I will remove the fried ones, you put in the new ones. We will save more time that way," she instructed.

Finch did as she was told. As the lieutenant gave her the broken pieces from the old holomatrix, she stored them in a smaller box at her side. She watched Maenad's hands skilfully removing emitter after emitter, seeing that she had developed a rhythm to what she was doing. They were blackened, she saw, and noticed that the lieutenant had also scratched a knuckle. At first, working in such close proximity to the professor-turned-department-head, Finch was nervous and finicky; twice, she dropped the damaged emitters she was being passed, but now she was finding working with her pleasant. She was patient, learned in what she was doing, and even oddly gentle while being efficient. She even looked younger than she thought her to be, Finch thought, which somehow made her more relatable. Academics were always stereotyped as being older, but Finch thought now that it was possible Doctor Panne was her age. She even smelt nice, thought Finch. And it was subtle; some kind of flowery perfume, maybe it wasn't perfume at all, maybe it was just Panne's natural scent. She dared not ask as she accepted another emitter and replaced it with a fresh one.

"Juliet," Maenad said as she thought aloud to herself. "Juliet, are you French?" she barely mumbled the question.

"Sir?" Finch asked, a little confused, and startled after the long silence that had passed between them.

Maenad fought with an emitter for a brief moment. When it pulled free, she scratched one of fingers. She curled her lips inward, but didn't acknowledge the stinging. "Finch is not French, but Juliet is," Maenad said, taking a break, her voice just above a whisper.

"No, sir," Finch looked puzzled. "I don't speak French,"

Maenad nodded once, then raised her eyebrows in acknowledgement. "Do you spell it with an E-T-T-E, or just an E-T?"

Finch smiled somewhat, uncertain what they were talking about. "Just an E-T, sir,"

"In French," the science chief began, "Miss Finch, your name would pronounced like Julie-ay. It is a lovely name, I think," she passed Finch the damaged emitter, who had no response to that other than silent surprise. Maenad turned around and began with another emitter. Once it was removed, she added, "My mother's name is said the same as yours, but is spelt E-T-T-E,"

Finch took the emitter and placed it in the box with the others. She pushed her red hair behind one ear and then replaced the empty slot with a new emitter. "Oh, I see," she said with a smile. She had no idea what the relevance was to anything that Lieutenant Panne was saying, but she appreciated it nonetheless. She was a strange person, she thought, and her pedantry was painfully obvious, but she was totally harmless. If Finch weren't so easy-going, she thought that she would have found Maenad uncomfortably awkward. The fact that she was trying to relate to her like a friend, or like an enlisted crewmember would - she just appreciated it was all, and she found herself smiling for the rest of the time as they worked instead of second-guessing herself the way most officers made her do.

"What are you humming, sir?" Finch asked from down on her knees as they reached the final emitter. Panne had been humming off and on for the past few minutes, since they had talked about the spelling of her name. Nothing complicated, and barely a whisper at times, but she was humming something. Normally, Finch wouldn't have asked, but something about Doctor Panne made her feel comfortable enough to ask such a personal question for a chief to ask a lieutenant.

Maenad didn't answer right away. She removed the final emitter and passed it down to Miss Finch, who was on her knees by the now-filled box of blown holo-emitters. Maenad replaced the final emitter herself instead of allowing Finch to do it like she had all the others and she stepped away from her to the primary control console. "Come down here," she told Finch, who immediately stood up with the box of wasted emitters. She set it down next to the console and took her spot next to the lieutenant with her hands behind her back, looking up at her from the side.

"Let us see what we have done," Maenad said, an anticipatory smile on her lips. She tapped in a few commands, observing first that all the emitters were functioning properly. "Computer, display sector grid for Vega IX," the computer responded and within a second the grid appeared in full 3D. Stellar cartography was now fully online. "Good as new," Maenad turned to face Chief Finch. "Thank you,"

For what would have been a rather tediously boring job, Finch found that she had enjoyed herself. She returned the lieutenant's smile, and turned to look at their holographic victory.

"Chamber music, as Goethe once said, is the sound of rational people in conversation with each other," Maenad said, staring at the slowly rotating sector grid before them. It was absolutely gorgeous.

"Sir?" Finch had no idea who Goethe was or what the lieutenant was talking about, but she gave an earnest smile anyway.

"I was humming Saint-Saens Opus 65," she finally answered the chief's question. "He was a classical composer," Maenad grinned and looked at Finch by her said once again, "A French composer of course, who created many pieces of chamber music. A type of music which eighteenth and nineteenth century philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described as the sound of rational people in conversation." She looked back to the sector grid in front of them, zooming in on the Vegan system. "Naturally, I agree,"

Finch shook her head and restrained a quiet laugh. She loved this bookworm, even if she had no idea what in the hell she was talking about. She was glad to have had this chance encounter with her, and even more she was glad to put some of the negative rumours about her to rest. She both liked her and somehow felt badly for her too; either way, Juliet Finch was smiling and she loved to smile. "Will that be all, sir?" she asked a moment later.

Maenad was now thinking of Kiri again and how she would be pleased to know that stellar cartography was online and fully operational. A bit of good news like that might do her some good, and Maenad decided that that was the next thing on her agenda for the day. "Yes, Miss Finch," Maenad muttered as she deactivated the grid and brought the lights to normal. "That will be all,"

Little Juliet Finch picked up the box of dead emitters and walked out of stellar cartography without another word, feeling pleased with herself.

[OFF]

Chief Petty Officer Juliet Finch
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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