by Commanders Blane and Lair
81113.13
-=Soundtrack: Talk by Coldplay=-
Following I'll Take What's in the Box, Monty
-=USS Serendipity=-
81113.13
-=Soundtrack: Talk by Coldplay=-
Following I'll Take What's in the Box, Monty
-=USS Serendipity=-
Lair Kellyn grumbled as she trudged dutifully through the halls.
She had left Rada Dengar and Dabin Reece in her lab, and that worried her. Not because of the Angosian.
Because of the Trill.
The Trill was easily distractible under even the very best and most boring of circumstances. The fact that he'd recently learned he was going to become a father, in addition to the medical complications his wife was coping with as part of that process would surely alter Reece's attention span from that of a fruit fly into one of a gnat.
"Just don't let him touch THAT." Kellyn had gestured to a table, covered in a tarp, at the far corner of the laboratory.
"Anything else?"
"Not that really worries me. If he touches anything else, it won't be the end of the world."
"Funny thing about that phrase." Rada Dengar volunteered, thinking aloud to Lair as Reece sang about something called the "Safety Dance" and bounced jauntily across the room.
Dabin spun around and bumped into one of Kellyn's spare toolboxes, knocking it from the worktable to the deck with eardrum-shattering results.
"My bad!"
He resumed singing the happy little tune he'd been hearing in his head all morning and that Kellyn was now certain would haunt her dreams, sleeping and waking, for days to come.
"What about the phrase, Rada?" She asked, shaking her head to try to physically dislodge Reece's musical accompaniment from it.
Rada thoughts were already well ahead of Kellyn's question, but he was too distracted by them to give them a voice.
*That phrase, 'It's not the end of the world.'* He thought, *Someday whatever the 'it' is that phrase is spoken about will bring about the actual end of the world, only seconds after somewhere, someone says that whatever it is, indeed, was not the end of the world.
*How ironic it will be for the person who said it to realize, just before their life and the life of all as known in the Universe comes to a sudden and definite and definitely terminal end that actually, they were quite wrong. It was the end of the world after all.*
Kellyn opened her mouth to repeat the question but stopped, thinking better of it after assessing the look upon Dengar's face.
"Right. Well. Okay. Just keep him away from that experiment and all should be well." Kellyn moved for the exit. "And by the way, we did win the bet."
"No you didn't."
This type of banter between them had replaced the usual pleasantries of hello and goodbye at the beginning and end of their normal everyday interactions; ever since the fireworks display project for the Captain's wedding.
Kellyn grinned at him as she departed, thinking it was the first time today that she'd smiled.
"Did so."
"Did no-." The door closed before he could finish, and she laughed.
Then, she sighed, thinking about Salvek.
She realized that after she was finished talking with Blane she had another stop she needed to make, and an apology to offer.
She found Blane on the bridge and they stepped into the Captain's ready room to speak privately for a moment.
"Here you go, Commander. The schematics you asked for. The crew is already working on the modifications. I have something else for you too, though. I came upon it quite by accident and you may want to take it into account before you finish." She indicated for him to scroll down a bit, and Blane rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"How did you come up with that idea?"
"I didn't. Reece did. I saw that he was jotting down ideas for the nursery earlier and I lifted the designs from the PADD while he was adjusting the string of Christmas lights over his desk."
"...Christmas...lights?"
"Don't..." She waved her hand. Some things in life just defied explanation.
TC smiled. “OK I won’t ask.”
"Anyway, I thought that you might want to incorporate his ideas in, make the surprise even more surprising."
"Great. Thanks." Blane was concerned about having to ask her for her design talents again, but he sadly had no choice. He knew she was in a pretty bad mood today, so that made asking her even more hazardous to his health.
Be that as it may, the fact remained he had no alternative. Dengar was entirely tied up on the Hugreti situation and TC needed to get this work underway if he was going to have it done before the Captain returned.
"One other thing?"
Kellyn frowned.
"O'Sullivan,"
"By the Prophets...why is it every time I hear that man's name I know I'm about to be drafted into doing something very tiring and probably extremely frustrating?"
"O'Sullivan..." he began again, "...requested that you look at this personally and see if you think the design is plausible. He'd like us to annex the smallest unit of guest quarters directly above to create a loft bedroom of sorts."
Kellyn snatched the PADD that TC held out toward her and sighed. Suddenly, her posture changed, and she actually smiled.
"Clever. Quite clever. Yes, actually it can be done pretty easily. You sure this man was never an engineer?"
TC shrugged. “Maybe, who knows, he has lived several lives.”
"True. Seems all we have to do is cut through the ceiling into the space above his quarters and install a simple staircase. Those quarters are, as he notes here, already vacant. This is not a big deal. Environmental controls and all are already in place, should take no more than two days to get it done."
Blane smiled. "Would you make sure that the proper crew is assigned to the task?"
"Of course."
TC paused for a moment before continuing. “Commander.” He started and then thought better of how he wanted to start the next part of the conversation. He did not want it to be seen as a lecture.
“Kellyn,” He pulled her to the side. “I wanted to ask you something. I understand your misgivings about this mission.” He started softly. “Do you have any specific reason for your concerns?” He asked cautiously. “If so would you share them with me? Zander and I have to make sure that we are ready for any perceivable threats.”
Lair looked up at Blane with a mixture of irritation and relief. She had wanted to talk to him about what happened earlier, and why she had reacted the way she had, but she didn't know how to bring it up.
She hadn't gotten to know the Sera's second officer that well yet, and she was beginning to think that was a situation she needed to correct. Not only was he someone who was right hand to her husband every day on duty, but he was someone that everyone around her trusted implicitly.
Perhaps it was time she made the attempt to trust him too.
Old habits died hard in Lair, and knowing Blane had a history with Special Operations had put her off at the beginning. Since then Blane had proven his loyalties time and again, but still, for some reason she had not allowed herself to venture beyond the point of professional politeness with the man.
*Time for change.*
"The Hugreti." Kellyn shook her head and her tone of voice became ominous. "Well, you are a man with an interest in history. You learned the legend in the Academy same as the rest of us. They were so far beyond what we can do, even today, and that was centuries ago." Kellyn began pacing slowly back and forth before Zanh's desk.
She hadn't really spent more than a few seconds at a time in the ready room before, managing to avoid it wherever possible because even after all the years they'd known each other, the honest truth was that the Captain still made Kellyn nervous.
Being nervous made her extremely irritable.
Therefore the best course of action for the sake of everyone was for her to steer clear of Zanh whenever she could.
"They destroyed their own civilization in their quest for advancement. Sometimes, Commander, I swear maybe we have a little too much in common with them when it comes to their insistence on rushing things."
"How do you mean, exactly?"
"Look at what happened with the Alchemy recently." Lair focused her attention on him fully, holding his steady gaze. "We broke the time barrier. Next thing I know, we're in the middle of a conflict with some other advanced race of aliens that is holding a Federation ship hostage that has future versions of our technology." She stopped walking and lowered her voice so far that TC had to lean closer in order to hear her.
"I heard the talk. The Perseids wasn't ready for the mission they sent her on, that much is a foregone conclusion. But the one thing that no one seems to want to explain to me is how the hell that ship was even built when we are still in the absolute first stages of our work here."
She watched him react and she came to the conclusion that she needed someone in the top three of the command chain that she could confide in and express her concerns to; someone she wasn't married to, and someone who was not the captain. "Commander Blane, I,"
"TC." Blane offered.
"TC." She continued. "When Lassiter was here, she told me that we'd achieved their goal for us. We thought our goal was achieving stable and ever more efficient means of transwarp travel. But do you know what she said 'their' goal was? Breaching the time barrier."
Blane brought his hand back to his chin, stroking it thoughtfully once again.
"So my concern over what has gone on here and continues to go on here hit critical mass when I was faced with the idea of this Hugreti...thing, whatever the hell it is. It could be the only remaining example of the very piece of technology that destroyed them. What if we put into motion something by opening it that can't be stopped? Why are they sending us to do this and not another crew? Something about this whole thing just isn't right, but I can't figure out what it is."
"Are you really this worried about the dangers of ancient Hugreti technology, Lair Kellyn, or are you more worried about us turning into the modern version?"
"I wish I knew which one posed the greatest threat, Commander. Them to us, or us to ourselves."
------------
Commander TC Blane
Second Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Commander Lair Kellyn
Engineering Research
and Development
The Alchemy Project
NRPG: I wish I could take credit for the 'end of the world' thought process, Rada, but I can't.
We were watching tv the other night and our XO saw something, I forget what, and made the remark that'someday someone will say that phrase but it really will be the end of the world' and I immediately turned to him and said, "Rada Dengar."
He laughed, and so there it is.
I love this post, Mister Blane... ~ZL
Commander TC Blane
Second Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Commander Lair Kellyn
Engineering Research
and Development
The Alchemy Project
NRPG: I wish I could take credit for the 'end of the world' thought process, Rada, but I can't.
We were watching tv the other night and our XO saw something, I forget what, and made the remark that'someday someone will say that phrase but it really will be the end of the world' and I immediately turned to him and said, "Rada Dengar."
He laughed, and so there it is.
I love this post, Mister Blane... ~ZL