161: Must Be Nice

By Ensign Rada Dengar
80224.16
Concurrent with Not So Fast



-=Bridge; USS Serendipity=-

Rada thought that perhaps he had some good news to tell the Captain. After what he had seen in the Alchemy’s Engineering it was quite possible that Special Ops wouldn’t have hold of the Alchemy for long because if there were any of the faulty EPS Conduits left then it was possible that ordering a cup of coffee could cause it to self destruct.

Rada quickly repressed this thought as it immediately led to thoughts of Lair. Rada definitely thought it best that Commander Blane be the one to pass that news on. Rada’s eyes quickly flew open as he realised that the Sera had also recently had some conduits replaced.

He wanted to immediately ask for permission to run a full diagnostic on all EPS Conduits replaced within the last fortnight, actually he wanted to plead for it.

He realised however then that the Captain would ask “Do you suspect there may be a problem, Mr. Dengar?” her voice undoubtedly still showing frustration over what had just happened to the Alchemy and that in all probability the Captain’s eyes would not be the only ones fixed upon him. This would mean that he would not have a chance to tell her whilst avoiding creating a panic.

Rada knew that if there were a problem onboard the Sera that until he could locate it that a change in the behaviour of those operating the ship would be most likely to cause a catastrophe. He and Lieutenant Breaux had both already agreed that it would be best to keep as few people knowing about the problem as possible.

Rada was glad to look over and see that Lieutenant Breaux was busy showing the Captain what he’d saved from the Alchemy. It was a relief that all was not lost. He was also glad that Zanh Liis looked less frustrated now.

He was also glad to see that he would not have to pass on the news about Kellyn. It seemed as though with he exception of the ship being potentially about to blow up things were going exactly as Rada had hoped.

Rada knew that he would require some help. Lieutenant Breaux was the obvious choice but Rada couldn’t risk arousing suspicion among the Engineering crew, especially during an evacuation, by having the both of them working on ‘routine maintenance’. He considered one of the less senior Engineers but could not risk them figuring out what they were doing and spreading the word. He would need someone with little Engineering experience and someone who wouldn’t pay too much attention to what they were doing, someone whose absence wouldn’t be too missed, someone like…

“Ensign Cristiane, your help would be appreciated,” Dane turned around, surprised “I could…use some assistance carrying equipment.”

*Great,* thought Dane sarcastically *First a lackey, then a gofer and now I’m supposed to be a camel. *

At least, he thought, working with an Ensign might mean that he wouldn’t be getting told what to do all the time.

He decided that he didn’t have to ask the Captain for permission, as she’d said ‘at this point I consider the kitchen staff to be superior to you in the chain of command of the USS Serendipity. . .’

*If that's the case,* he thought smugly *then it would be disrespectful to a superior not to immediately follow this guy.*

“Yeah, sure,” he muttered, hiding the fact that he was looking forward to abusing the situation, and then stood up to follow Rada into the Turbolift.

Rada observed that Dane couldn’t even seem to be bothered looking at him, this was exactly what he was looking for.

“Main Engineering” Rada ordered the lift. “We’ll have to pick up the equipment first” he explained to Dane.

Dane just replied with a disinterested “Yeah, I figured. So, what are we going to do? Go and grind some coffee beans and set out the china for the Captain's afternoon break?"

"Something just a little more important than that." Rada answered, wondering how long it was going to take the lift to get them where they needed to go.

"Milking a cow to get fresh cream for her coffee, then. Got it." Dane smirked. "You seem to be one of her favorites on this boat." Rada couldn't help but note the venom in the words "you" and "her" which were each spoken with an equal dose of loathing. "Must be nice to be you."

Rada held his tongue and just kept facing forward “Really?” he said with a laugh “That’s strange that you should say that.”

“Why’s that?” asked Dane curiously, thinking that this Ensign must be about to complain about how he didn’t think the Captain liked him.

“Oh, No reason, I suppose.” replied Rada.

This really irritated Dane, he couldn’t stand people starting sentences and then not finishing them.

“Are you going to tell me or not?” he asked impatiently.

“Well it’s just that I was thinking that it must be absolutely wonderful to be you.” Rada said indifferently.

“What?” Dane scoffed “Wonderful to be me? I’m assigned to do all the worst jobs on this ship. What exactly do you think could be wonderful about it?”

“It’s just that I noticed how incredibly easy things are for you” replied Rada not really looking as Dane.

“Easy?” Dane replied furiously “What the hell are you talking about easy?”

Rada turned around to Dane and took a breath, his eyes indicated that he was not joking around.

“What ‘the hell’ I’m talking about it that every single time you get into trouble there’s always someone, often our Captain, to swoop in and fix things.”

Dane just stared at Rada in disbelief and said “You can’t honestly…”

“Can’t honestly, what?” Rada asked sternly and rhetorically. “I can’t honestly believe that the one person on the ship who instead of having to work themselves half to death and then double their efforts to get to where they are simply had to have the good fortune to meet a very kind and compassionate woman at one point in their life hasn’t had things easy? Is that it?”

Rada didn’t speak with anger but more like he was lecturing a spoiled child.

“You don’t know what I’ve had to put up with in life,” snapped Dane “You have no place to judge me.”

Rada actually knew much more that Dane thought, there'd been a lot of talk about this Ensign and he'd been able to put a pretty good picture together of Dane and Zanh’s history.

“What I know…” replied Rada calmly “Is that pretty much everyone on this ship has had things tough. Our captain was a Bajoran war orphan. Our Senior Flight Control Officer recently almost died due to manipulation by her own government to her Symbiont, our Chaplain had his voice…”

“You’ve made your point.” Dane sharply cut him off.

“No, I don’t think I have,” replied Rada “My point is that the rest of us accept what’s happened and deal with it. We accept when we’ve had some good luck and we don’t take what happened to us out on the one person who helped us out of the dark. It’s something I’d recommend you try one day.”

“Whatever.” Mumbled Dane, looking at the floor as the two of them stepped off the lift.

It was going to be a long night.

Ensign Rada Dengar
Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012