506: The Easiest Kind of Prey

By Jamie Halliday
80909.2130
Following Welcome Home

--=Main Engineering; USS Serendipity=--


The three diplomats scanned the room from engineer to engineer.

Green whispered his evaluation of their chances with each of them to his associates “Too old … too experienced … too smart,” then a young man passed before him and he declared “perfect!”

He clasped a hand on Jamie Halliday’s shoulder and the young man span around cheerfully “Yes, Sir. How can I help you?”

“I need to see the Chief Engineer," demanded Green.

“Well, I’m afraid that Rada’s off duty at the moment,” replied Halliday then asked enthusiastically, “Is there something that I can help you with?”

Seeing the innocent smile on Halliday’s face Green smiled smugly to himself, he’d picked the easiest kind of prey. The three diplomats began to surround Halliday who just looked, bright eyed, from one to the other.

“Oh, well you see we really need to talk to the Chief Engineer before we reach Galador,” replied Green trying to look like he was genuinely befuddled by the situation he found himself in, the other two copied his movements exactly.

“That is a bit of a problem,” said Halliday putting his hands on his hips and trying to think of a way to fix things. “You see, Rada’s busy showing his family around the ship. He recently visited Betazed and seems to have picked them up somewhere along the way. He’s really happy about it. Well, why wouldn’t you be? I once picked up a goldfish from the neighbour’s pond and couldn’t get the smile off my face for a week…” he said innocently before Green cut in.

“That definitely is a problem, you see we need to take a closer look at an asteroid so that we know what we’re dealing with before the next bidding session and your second officer Commander Salvek…”

“First Officer” Halliday corrected, he didn’t like correcting people but also didn’t think it was right to let someone go on believing something you knew was wrong

“I’m sorry?” Green asked.

“Commander Salvek is Second in Command but he’s our First Officer. Commander Blane’s our Second Officer.” Jamie elaborated.

“Really?” asked Green trying to sound like he wanted an answer but at the same time wanting to get back to the topic at hand “I always thought that the Captain was an officer.”

“She is,” replied Jamie clapping his hands together for no apparent reason, “She’s just not one of her own officers”

“Thank you for clarifying that,” replied Green trying to sound as genuinely grateful for Jamie’s explanation as possible but not doing a very good job “As I…”

Halliday cut in. “No problem at all. I get confused by stuff like that all of the time.”

Looking at him, Green could believe that.

“As I was saying Commander Salvek the FIRST Officer,” Halliday smiled at the fact that he’d passed on some knowledge, “...told us that your Chief Engineer was the one to go to for this matter but if we wait until he’s on duty then it’ll be too late.”

“Hmm,” said Halliday thoughtfully “that is a sticky wicket. I’m really sorry but…”

“Come on,”

“Please?”

“You’d really be helping us out.”

The three diplomats all spoke at once. It was clear from Jamie’s eyes that he really wanted to help them, but he couldn’t do it.

“Under any other circumstances I’d be happy to oblige but I’m on strict orders not to contact Rada unless ordered to do so.” He glanced around the room and once satisfied he lent in and said quietly, “Apparently there’s a trio of jabbering diplomats onboard who are trying to get to him.” He then bit his lip as he realised who he was talking to and added “Not that I’m suggesting all diplomats jabber.”

Green decided that he’d better hurry things along as if he was right about Halliday then he might just figure out that they were the diplomats he’d been warned against any hour now “No, of course you’re not,” said Green in an irritated tone.

The other two diplomats exchanged glances; they were finding this crewman to be quite unbelievable. Green has lost patience by now and just said “Surely, there’s something you can do.”

“I’m afraid there’s not,”said Jamie bluntly. He realised now that they were trying to manipulate him and didn’t like it one bit. He escaped the circle through a temporary opening that had been created between Blake and Brandish. He extended an arm and indicated the door. “I’ll have you contacted as soon as he gets back in.”

Green was clearly angry to have not gotten what he’d wanted. “Very well,” he mumbled. Realizing that he had no more reason to talk to this man, he abruptly turned around and began looking again for someone else he could find Rada through.

“You have to leave now,” said Jamie, much more assertively than he ever liked to speak.

Green didn’t like this and locked eyes on Jamie looking for a sign of weakness. He looked and he looked. Not finding it he snapped back around and stormed out the door with his two associates in tow. Jamie hated having to do that.

Crewman Jamie Halliday
Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012