Lt. Commander Lair
80206.1
Concurrent with Separation Anxiety
-=Personal Quarters of Commander Salvek and Lt. Commander Lair=-
80206.1
Concurrent with Separation Anxiety
-=Personal Quarters of Commander Salvek and Lt. Commander Lair=-
"I do not understand. She is supposed to be in there."
"Yes, Ensign. I get that. You've said that three times. The question remains, where IS she?" Lair Kellyn tapped her toe impatiently, and stared angrily at the young man standing before her.
The fresh from the Academy, green as grass (or greener than his blood, if you preferred) Vulcan ensign stared back at Lair. Though one could not tell from observing his expression or stance, Sten was mortified.
"I sent her into the sonic shower ten minutes ago, in anticipation of your arrival to escort her to dinner." He recounted thoroughly. "I observed the sound of the sonic shower running. It continued for eight minutes and ten seconds, and then you entered the room, subsequently discovering that the child was, indeed, not in the sonic shower at all."
Kellyn pointed to the shower again to punctuate her displeasure. "Yes, that's all wonderful play by play commentary, Ensign Sten. But you're right, Arie is not in the shower."
"No." Sten concurred. "She is not."
"So we need to figure out where she is."
"Indeed, that would be the next logical step."
Kellyn closed her eyes and drew several breaths in order to try to calm herself.
She only had an hour for dinner before she had promised that she would try to get the LMH back online. Then she had to brief Avery and Rada on all they needed to know before they went out onto the Alchemy. Then she would be leaving and. . .
It now occurred to Kellyn that Arie may have heard talk in the halls about the fact that the Alchemy was going to survey the star. If she had, that might explain why the child had suddenly gone missing.
"Was she upset about something? Anything odd about her behavior that you took note of?"
"She was not at all thrilled with the idea of doing her schoolwork," Sten began. He had been assigned to the role of Care Provider for Arie as part of his teaching internship. He was to spend the next year working with this particular child before moving into an actual classroom teaching position aboard a much larger ship.
He was, at this moment, beginning to think that perhaps his parents had been correct after all. Perhaps he should have pursued a career in science instead.
"At first I was of the opinion that Lair Arie simply did not care for me as an individual," Sten continued. "However. As the day progressed, it became clear to me that Lair Arie does not care for much of anything."
"That's not true." Kellyn folded her arms defensively. "Arie is a good student and she likes most people. What were you working on for school today?"
"Literature, and Elementary pre-calculus."
"That's your problem. She did pre-calc last year. Arie has inherited her father's mathematical abilities, you have got to challenge her or she gets bored."
"She was not bored." The Ensign replied evenly. "She was distracted, disagreeable, and persistent in requesting time to spend playing with Commander Blane's dog."
Sten sniffed the air loudly, involuntarily, unable to help himself. The smell of the dog, which had traveled back into the room they were currently occupying, along with the child, still lingered.
"Once I was satisfied that Arie had made an appropriate effort to complete her work for the day, I allowed it."
"If she was asking for Sunshine, then she definitely was upset about something." Kellyn informed the clueless Vulcan as she addressed the computer.
"Computer, where is Lair Arie?"
>Lair Arie is in the quarters of Commander Salvek and Lt. Commander Lair.<
"Oh no she's not." Kellyn couldn't help but laugh once, even as angry as she was, knowing that Arie was smart and if she did not want to be found, she would not easily be found.
She moved farther into the bathroom and soon discovered the tracking pin, the one that Salvek had insisted Arie wear, sitting on the counter beside the sink.
"Too smart. Okay, computer, scan the ship for life signs with a Bajoran and Vulcan DNA signature." Kellyn smiled smugly, nodding to Sten as if telling him to wait and see, they'd find Arie momentarily.
"There should only be one of those. It should-"
>Unable to comply.< The computer droned.
Kellyn's smirk evaporated. "Explain!"
>System resource level is at critical and internal sensor use is currently restricted to emergency operations only.<
Kellyn knew she could use her clearance to override the lock-out, but she also knew that there were only so many places aboard a ship as small as Sera where an eight year old girl could hide.
"Well, it seems that my daughter is intent on making this a challenge for me," Kellyn sighed. "You're dismissed, Ensign. I recommend that you get some sleep because tomorrow, I want you to keep Arie so busy that she has no more time or energy for mischief."
"Understood. I will work on a more challenging mathematics lesson for her before retiring." Sten answered, clasping his hands behind his back and moving toward the door. He tilted his head to the side and hesitated before speaking again.
Finally, with Lair's eyes urging him to spit it out, already, he gave voice to his thoughts.
"Commander Lair, may I please extend to you my sincerest apologies for losing your child on my first day as her Care Provider."
"You didn't lose her. She lost you. Don't take it too hard, Sten. If you do, you won't last long working with children. Especially Fleet children.
"You will. . ." Sten hesitated again. "Explain the situation to Commander Salvek?"
"Don't worry. By the time he hears about this, Arie will be the one answering the questions. At least. . . at first," Lair frowned, realizing now that she really thought about it how hard Salvek would be on a fellow Vulcan who managed to lose his child on his first day as her guardian.
"On second thought, good luck with that. I'll do what I can to put in a good word for you." She saluted him, half shoo-ing him out the door as she did.
The doors closed behind Sten, and Kellyn tapped her foot once more. "Let's try this again." She thought aloud. She deactivated her combadge and tossed it onto the table beside the couch.
If there were any problems in Engineering in the next hour, her able officers were just going to have to find a fire extinguisher, or grab a blanket and beat out the flames without her.
She thought about contacting security, but knowing that the bug sweep of the ship was ongoing and had just been expanded by order of the Captain to include all non-essential areas as well, she hated to bother them.
They were scrambling to stay on top of things as it was, and since Arie was most likely in no danger -other than that which her own mother posed in disciplining her once she was tracked down- Kellyn decided to forego it.
She did not, however, have time to search the whole ship room by room. She moved to the computer console and tried contacting a few places, and people, she expected that Arie would likely seek out for comfort.
Within minutes she had crossed Fleur, Reece, Grace, and anywhere they had been recently off of her list. London and Macdougal confirmed that the girl had not gone looking for dinner in the forward lounge, either.
She resisted the urge to ask Blane if Arie had come after him following his shift to ask for more time with his dog- she didn't want to risk Salvek finding out about this until she'd had a chance to talk to Arie first.
Kellyn tried hailing anyone who may be in the arboretum, but found that the space was currently empty.
That left her with very few options remaining. Unless her child had decided to wander around in the ventilation system duct work through which she had apparently escaped her bathroom with ease, she should be pretty easy to find.
As Kellyn cast a last look at the table on her way out the door, a thought leapt to her mind. She moved to her top drawer, and saw that her spare communicator was missing.
She grit her teeth and growled.
"Computer, locate Lair Kellyn."
>Lair Kellyn is in holodeck two<
"Like hell she is." Kellyn clenched her fists and hurried out the door.
There was someone in holodeck two all right- a young lady who was going to have an awful lot of explaining to do when her mother arrived.
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Lt. CMDR Lair
Chief Engineer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Lt. CMDR Lair
Chief Engineer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012