The Flower...

Posted on 15 Dec 2012 @ 8:15pm by
Edited on on 17 Dec 2012 @ 11:02pm

3,237 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo - Various
Timeline: MD 14 1030

[ON]

"It was just a bowl of soup and it got spilled because of him! I mean, really, can you imagine Athlen actually hurting anyone?"

"Yeah, and he fired Kiwosk. Can you imagine that? Firing Kiwosk from security? Has there ever been anyone more suited for security?"

Tiffany glared while she put her diagnostic tool away. Her coworkers had been going on all morning about what happened yesterday. She'd been listening to rumors and half truths about the several incidents involving the new security chief.

"I heard he accused Athlen of cannabilism! Cannabilism! Said that Rigelians were going to be the ruination of the Federation. What a bigot!"

She slammed the lid of her toolbox closed. She was starting to get upset. After all, she was friends with the new security chief and he didn't seem like the type of person who would do what they were saying. She was a very good judge of character and Lieutenant Stone was a Good Person. But Athlen was so nice as well. But it wasn't Stone that threatened to fight the diplomat.

"Yeah, and he's still complaining about the doors. I've looked at them already. There's nothing wrong with them. I tell you, the guy's just certifiable. You know he just came here from the looney farm right?"

Tiffany stood, having had enough. "Alright, I've had enough! You all talk about someone you've not even met! I bet you haven't even laid eyes on him and you talk all this nonsense about someone you don't even know! Well, I tell you I do know him, it just so happens that he's my friend and I know all of you are wrong! None of you were there yesterday morning to see what happened! How do you know that Athlen didn't threaten Lieutenant Liyar? You know he comes from a very violent part of his world and Lieutenant Stone wasn't the only security person there was he!? No! You don't know what happened but you just want to make up stuff about people because you're just so unhappy about yourselves!

"And you both talk about Chief Kiwosk like he's some kind of hero, but you forget that he's just a pig! Remember how badly Tabby felt after he used her like that? Do you? Well you don't know the half of it because I was the one with her all night while she cried about what happened! Well, that's how Chief I Can Be a Meanie Cause I'm So Ruggedly Handsome treats everyone, like he's just some great big good guy that everyone should love while he's being very mean to them. Well, he's not. He's a pig! And he's got his own problems and really, I don't trust him to be a security officer because I think he likes to pick on people just a little too much. But you guys all forget how he's all like 'Oh, look at me, ain't I such a stud and doesn't everyone just love me!'. Well, I was in the mess when he was picking on Lieutenant Maenad and she's like, super smart and has written books on stuff, really, really, really smart stuff that all of you are just too dumb to understand and he just treated her like she was just some other dumb girl. And if he's so infatuated with the doctor, why's he having lunch with other girls anyway? Because he doesn't care who he hurts because he's just a big, mean, roidhead pig!" She snatched her toolbox and glared at the others, wanting to stomp her foot but that just wouldn't do, not while she was On Duty.

"Well, you're all just a bunch of gossips, nothing but sucky, turdy gossips. I hope you feel really big and brave about yourselves, talking about people behind their backs like you are. Not a single one of you is brave enough to say anything to Lieutenant Stone's face, because you know that he's more than twice the man you'll ever be! And he's Done Stuff and you haven't. You're just Ops crew on a small science vessel and the most important thing you'll do here is fix the little things and you're not even good at that. And Lieutenant Stone has Gone Through Stuff. Stuff that made him into a better person. Stuff that would have all of you curled in a ball and hiding in your closets crying for your mommies, but he's here on duty and protecting all of us even though none of you deserve it! I bet he wouldn't care that you're being such...such..." now her foot did stomp "...poohpooh heads he'd still save your lives because he's a Good Guy and not a Sucky Gossip. And he's a senior officer so your gossip is insubordination or disrespect or some other bad thing!"

She glared at her coworkers. "Well, don't worry about trying to fix the doors, I'll take care of it. I'll let Amril know that I'll go ahead and do the job for you because you're too much of a crybaby, mommy wanting Sucky Poohpooh Head Gossip to do your job and just want to make people miserable behind their backs!"

Tiffany grabbed her toolbox to her chest and turned, storming out of the cargo bay where they'd been working. Just outside the door and into the corridor, she stopped and leaned against the wall, holding the toolbox to her chest. Tears threatened to brim over her eyes because she didn't like being so harsh with people, but they made her so Angry because they were so mean and wrong.

Biting her lip she thought about all she heard about her new friend. Well, she hoped for it to be more than just her friend. How was she going to tell Kell though that she wasn't going to return his affections toward her. But she felt that she could have a real connection with Lieutenant Stone. But oh poor Kell, just when he was really getting attached to her and trying to be a Good and Proper Boyfriend. Well, she didn't think they had to stop being friends and she could still help him be a better boyfriend, just to someone else.

She pushed away from the wall and started for the turbolift, feeling better now that she resolved the Kell problem. Well, partially resolved it. She still needed to tell him that she could never let him be her boyfriend and that she liked his friend more. She entered the turbolift and realized she didn't know where she was going.

She would have to find Stone to determine what was the problem with the doors. She wasn't going to go back and ask Mr. I'm Just Completely Miserable So I'm Going to Talk About People Behind Their Backs what the complaint was. Nor would she ask Mr. I'm a Sucky Poohpoo Head. Besides, it gave her a chance to see him again because she had to miss breakfast this morning, arriving after he already left. Put, poor Kell, he'd been practically all over her. She would just have to be gentle about letting him down.

Then as the turbolift chirped, waiting for a destination, she realized she didn't know where Stone was and he had to be at his quarters for her to go in and fix the doors. But fortunately she could just ask the turbolift to take her to the deck where Stone was. Because the computer was nice like that and was never, ever, ever, never, ever a PoohPooh Head about stuff.

Loading Ramp

"Senior Davis," Jeremy said, looking past the Senior Petty Officer who clearly didn't want to be on duty while the ship was in 'port'. He clearly wanted to be off on shoreleave. If it were up to Jeremy, his entire staff could take shoreleave, but they still had a ship to maintain.

Jeremy closed his eyes for a moment and tried to think what Chief Alexander would say or do in this situation.

"Chief, I'm just going by what I was told."

Jeremy's hands twitched behind his back. The thing in the basket moved. "Senior," he said, wanting to bring out the PADD and look at his notes, but he needed to do these things on his own. He was the chief now and didn't have the luxury of relying on his PADD. If he was going to prove he could do this, he needed to do it. "I understand your position. I understand that you had orders that conflicted with-"

He stopped as he heard someone calling his name for down the corridor. He glanced at the redheaded Ops crewmember and frowned as he turned back to Davis, not sure why the Senior was smiling. "But regulations are specific on this issue for a reason. Living things are not brought back aboard the ship without first getting a clearance! I'm sorry that...that..."

He looked to the casually dressed crewmember who was trying to bring the basket with the...living thing...inside of it back aboard. "Justin Smoak," the crewman said. "We've met! I'm security? Gamma shift?" Smoak looked to Senior Davis, as if to ask what the hell was wrong with this guy.

"Then-" Jeremy stopped as the Ops crewmember called his name again, enthusiastically waving. She was much closer. "Then you should be aware of the regulations and abiding by them." Jeremy said, clearly distracted now. Smoak rolled his eyes again, silently pleading to Davis to help him out. Davis, however, knew he dodged a bullet by narrowly escaping a righteous Commander Holliday smackdown on Stone just the day before. Then, as if having Stone show up for a 'pop inspection' regarding the returning crew and what they were bringing aboard wasn't enough, here came Petty Officer Motormouth.

Davis and Smoak groaned at the same time but were very happy she made a beeline to Stone. Maybe the one problem would take care of the other. "Senior," Jeremy said, "Make sure that thing goes into quarantine outside the ship until it's cleared or make sure it doesn't come aboard. Send the contraband report to me at the end of shift."

"Yes, Lieutenant," Davis muttered, not willing to call this guy Chief because it would probably violate five different regulations, all of which he'd find himself on report for violating.

Tiffany waited a few steps away for Stone to finish giving instructions, but did wave at Smoak. She briefly thought of letting him be her boyfriend, but he was just so young. Too young for the cute to overcome. Poor boy, though, must have taken it hard.

"Officer Smoak," Jeremy said, glancing back at the woman who'd been calling his name. There was something familiar about her that wasn't coming to mind. "We'll talk later about the importance of a standard of conduct for security officers."

"Yes, sir," Smoak said, sounding unpleased with the notion of being called to the Chief's office. First off all, the Chief worked Alpha shift and that meant Justin would have to stay over just to be yelled at. And put on report no less. Just cause he bought a souvenir at the bazaar.

"This isn't fair," he said to Davis as Lt. Stone went to deal with the loudmouthed Ops crewman.

"Don't worry," Davis said, "way that guy's going, Holliday's gonna boot his ass off the ship any minute now."

"What? Commander Straight Lace? You'd think he'd want ten more of him around here," Smoak groaned.

"Not when you consider that Stone up there doesn't know how to concede to Holliday's authority when it comes to things. He's so by the book regulations that he doesn't seem to understand that a commander will outrank and outmanuever a junior lieutenant everyday. Just give Stone one more screwup, and he's gone."

Smoak had a combination of frown and smirk listening to that. Maybe then, at least, Kiwosk would come back and things in the department could finally run the way a security department should run.

"How can I help you, Petty Officer?" Stone asked, trying not to scowl. She looked familiar, but then again it was a small ship and he'd been over much of it from early this morning til now. He was sure that he'd run into her several times.

She smacked Jeremy on the arm, "Okay, Mr. I Don't Remember Your Name! That's funny, you're really funny! Okay, I'll play along." She stiffened and saluted. "Petty Officer Second Class Tiffany Darwisch, Ops division!" She couldn't help but giggle. How funny was he? Pretending that they weren't friends! Then she bit her lip, maybe it was because of the other two officers and he was the Chief of Security and he couldn't let them think that he would play favorites with anyone on the crew, because he was like the Big Boss of Security and had to do an impartial job. Like Kell couldn't go around telling her about all the intelligence briefs he got? Maybe it was just like how Security was?

Not like that womanizing pig Kiwosk all 'hey, look at me, I'm a Marine ~flex~ and security ~flex~ look at how much I can lift weights and then put them down again Aren't I Cool!'. Just thinking of Kiwosk made her upset again. What he did to Tabby and then people being mad at Lt. Stone because he fired Kiwosk for being such a big jerk! He was a jerk and he deserved to be fired! Stone was a Good Guy for doing that. It made the ship better!

"Petty Officer," Stone replied, taking out his PADD and checking his schedule. Time was running down and had much left to on the reports for Holliday. Unfortunately these little interruptions were taking up too much of his time. He frowned as Darwisch smacked his arm again. Then sighed. This was the person from breakfast the other morning. The girlfriend of the intelligence officer. But, relationship with the Warrant Officer would not absolve her of criminal action. "Petty Officer, you have struck me twice now. I am going to warn you that battery upon a security officer is a serious charge and to continue to engage in this behavior will result in your placement in the brig. Am I clear?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," Tiffany said, trying to supress the giggles. He's so funny! She thought, Pretending to be all upset and stern and uptight about these thing!. She grabbed her toolcase with both hands to 'keep the appearance' of being intimidated by him. "Anyway, Lieutenant Stone, I'm told that you're having some problems with the doors on your quarters and office and that you are not happy with the services previously supplied. I'm here to take care of those problems and make sure you're satisfied in every way! With the services of Operations department I mean! Oh, am I blushing, I can't believe I said it that way! Thank you for being such a gentleman about that slip of the tongue! See I told others that you were a Good Guy and a Gentleman but they're all PoohPooh Head Gossips and just want to talk badly about people behind their backs but I knew you were a Good Guy and Did Real Stuff. Anyway, if you'd just let me finish, I've been tasked to resolve these door problems once and for all and I'm ready to go do that."

Jeremy stared at the ungodly stream of babble having been lost, completely, in her ranting. All he caught was Operations, door, fix. The rest was just so much irrelevance that he thought he would have to take some of his medication - and remembered he was still out. He glanced over his shoulder, wondering briefly, if he should forego the conversation with Smoak and assign this petty officer to him for the duration of her need to 'fix' things as an alternative means of getting his attention and paying better attention to detail. He sighed, knowing that Holliday would sustain that complaint of official misconduct. "Thank you, Mister Darwisch. I'll appreciate it if you can have it fixed by the time I'm off duty." He began to walk away, back to the mess to gather information to finish his report.

"Oh, no!" Tiffany said as she caught up to him. "Regulations state that the occupant of the quarters must be present when Operations are working in their quarters. It's a regulation and you wouldn't want me to violate a regulation would you? Then you might have to arrest me and throw me in that awful brig and that would just be terrible!"

"I am not aware of any such regulation," Jeremy said, bringing up his PADD and beginning a search.

"Oh, well, it's a department regulation. Do you know all the Operations department regulations?" She asked, awed. "I mean, I can understand like all the laws and stuff, you must know all those because that's your job but to be able to know all the department regulations? That's totally impressive."

"No," Jeremy said, glaring at her, "I am not aware of all the Operations department regulations." He again looked toward Davis and Smoak who were not looking at him at all but very interested in what was being brought aboard by another crewmember. Though her information indicated they would be unable to take this assignment anyway. She talked so much. Why did she talk so much? "What is the quickest way to finish this task of yours so that I may get back to work?"

"Oh, well, we'll just go to your quarters and I'll see what the problem is and then we'll fix it."

Jeremy sighed. More time taken away from completing his assignments for Holliday. This was becoming frustrating and he still hadn't refilled his meds. He again glanced at his officers who were still checking the contents of a single beach bag being brought back aboard. He wondered if he should go see what was so occupying their attention, but he had a shudder feeling that PO Darwisch would only accompany him. It was bad enough that she was joining his morning breakfasts with Warrant Kell - he had to remember to make a note to seek a fraternization waiver from Lt. Coleman regarding a friendship between an officer and enlisted - now she was intruding on his work day.

"Very well," he said, sighing deeply. "Let's get this over with." Tiffany gave him a large smile, causing him to look puzzled. However, he did appreciate anyone that enjoyed doing their job.

"Well, would you look at that," Smoak said, smirking, "The Motormouth and the Stone. Who would have figured. And tsk tsk tsk...taking the young lady back to his quarters during a duty shift. Someone might have to remind him of regulations." He chuckled as he picked up his basket and headed into the ship.

[OFF]

Ltjg Jeremy Stone
Chief of Security Tactical,
USS Galileo

Senior Chief Petty Officer Davis
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

Petty Officer 2nd Class Tiffany Darwisch
Operations
USS Galileo

Crewman Justin Smoak
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

RSS Feed