Prospects

Posted on 06 Feb 2013 @ 12:45am by Amril
Edited on on 06 Feb 2013 @ 12:51am

1,401 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 1, Bridge
Timeline: MD1, 1100 hours

[ON]

At her bridge station, Maenad was sitting cross-legged with a PADD in her lap. Apparently Mister Petrov had some delusions of grandeur; he wanted to convert the arboretum into a full-scale replica of a K class environment. There were so many problems with that that she had no idea where to begin, and the biggest also happened to be the simplest: she liked the arboretum. She made some notes something to that effect, but then looked up at her console to see if it had changed. Of course it hadn't.

Plagued with bordem, she was. Unbeknownst to her, it was a good thing that she always looked bored - that way nobody ever yelled at her to get with the program. But, there was little she could do as a science officer at high warp. Anything of interest was there and gone within a matter of minutes. 99% of phenomena on course was already extensively mapped and charted. Maenad returned to the PADD.

At 1500, though, she could leave the bridge an hour early. She had the briefing to conduct, and someone else was coming to relieve her. Which somehow reminded her of the problem with Kiri's office. Kiri had been using the 'spare' office that Pendleton had taken over when he arrived, and Maenad had promised that she would see about getting her a new one. She looked across at Amril sitting at his station.

Slowly, Maenad rose and walked across the bridge. "Mister Amril," she said, "I was wondering about the availability of offices on the ship."

Amril looked up from the operations console. "Hm?" he said, "Oh, yes, offices. There are a few that are not in use I believe. Did you submit a resource request?"

Her eyebrows met. "No," she said, "It just occurred to me to ask you. Lieutenant Cho needs one; I told her that I would look into it, so that is what I am doing." Amril, she knew, was a defector. The only known Vorta defector in history, actually. Not in Starfleet for a month, he was suspiciously the chief operations officer on the fleet's foremost science vessel. And, the Federation considered him more valuable than her. Asking a man who'd spent his entire life sworn to the Federation's destruction if she could have an office on a Federation ship irritated her, but she kept her voice and demeanor level.

He seemed oblivious to her emotions. Quite the contrary, however, he knew that almost all the officers on board distrusted him, perhaps more so considering his sudden 'rise to power.' Until convinced otherwise, he was wary of everyone, though this fact did nothing to dampen his spirits, such as they were. "Well, that's quite all right with me. Let's see..." His fingers moved swiftly, pulling up the proper interface. He spoke in a pleasant, lulling sort of tone, "What does she need? Most science officers are assigned lab spaces, and I have nothing to do that, but this is a science vessel, so I suppose if she needs an office I can make some adjustments."

Maenad held the stature of a Vulcan. Her hands were behind her back and her face neutral as she looked down at his screen without losing any posture. "Please," she replied, "An empty office will be fine. It does not matter where so long as she can use it and make it her own."

He reviewed the ops console for a short while before responding. "I can put her in a small office next to sickbay," he offered, looking up at the scientist.

"That is agreeable," Maenad inclined her head. "What sort of specifications does it have?"

"Oh, it's just a small space," he said, "with standard basic LCARS access. No replicator or anything like that. It's not made for science, but I might be able to have some modifications made if you submit a request for what you need."

Maenad pursed her lips for a moment. She looked up at the viewscreen to watch the stars for a moment. "I think a replicator would be desirable. And a terminal with the access and tools of a science station," she said while she stared ahead. "Can you do that?" she looked back down at him.

"Ah, hm..." he pulled up another readout. "You want a science office independent of a lab?" Even though it was a science vessel, space was tight. "There's an office next to yours that has science equipment. It's being used for administrative work, but I'm sure that can be reassigned."

She clenched her jaw. A hint of frustration was stirring inside her; how difficult was this supposed to be? She held her composure. "It doesn't matter. Any space that will allow the assistant science chief to work privately will be just fine."

"Then consider the office hers," Amril said obliviously, punching in a few more commands, "I will have everything cleared out for you by 1400 hours today."

"Next to mine?" she asked. Maenad wasn't sure if she wanted that. It was a matter of personal pride more than anything else. It took her a long time to get a nice office like the one she had; Kiri seemed to have everything handed to her on a golden platter without much work. She would be in for a serious wake-up call someday if things continued as they were. Maenad had never noticed an empty office next to hers, either. "Are you sure that's the only one?"

He glanced up at her, noted the expression and the odd catch in her tone. He hesitated, then gave her a knowing smile and glanced down at his console again. "Why no, I believe there is another one that would also be suitable. It's next to the crew quarters on deck four."

"And it can be ready by fourteen hundred?" she repeated what he'd said earlier. She was looking ahead at the viewscreen, unaware that he was looking up at her.

"Yes, by fourteen hundred."

She looked back down at him. "Thank you," she nodded with barely a smile. Maenad turned to walked back to her console but was stopped.

"You're welcome. Ah, one more thing, Lieutenant, if we find any sub-warp cultures and you study them, I should like to join your team. I believe I may be interested in anthropology."

She faced him once more, a curious frown on her eyes. He was higher ranked than she was, giving her little choice but to accept. "I will do my best," she said quietly. "There are a lot of rules involved with studying pre-warp societies," she reminded him. "Literally volumes of textbooks detailing procedure and protocol." While that was true, the gist could be explained to any idiot in just a few minutes - don't present yourself and stay hidden basically summed it up. "If you have not already, I can give you the guidelines on duck-blind cultural studies." It was a subject with which Maenad was intimately acquainted. She tilted her head, a stirring thought racking her mind, "You can sit in on the science briefing this afternoon, if you can find someone to take the last hour of your shift. I will cover this very subject," her offer was genuine.

"Ah, that would be most excellent," Amril declared, sounding eager. "I spent an evening last week studying the methods your anthropologists use. I also familiarized myself with much of the technology commonly used and I am sure I could provide assistance in that regards. I would not be just an observer, I have something to offer your team, but of course I still need to learn your methods from someone who has experience. I have none."

"Be in the observation lounge at fourteen fifty, then," she told him. "We start at fifteen hundred."

"Excellent."

Maenad inclined her head in her strange way of acknowledgement, then returned to her station. She sat down, wondering whether she had made a mistake. He seemed nice enough; he didn't seem like he was about to start bombing San Francisco from orbit, at least. Her console showed nothing new. Surprise. Crossing her legs while suppressing a yawn, Maenad looked at her fingernails and wished she'd had a file.

[OFF]

Lieutenant Amril
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo
played by Psylus Anon

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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