A family send-off.
Posted on Sat Oct 18th, 2014 @ 3:37pm by Lieutenant S'kott Schmidt The Third
643 words; about a 3 minute read
Mission:
Deadly Diplomacy
Location: starbase 17/Shuttlecraft "Jefferson".
Lieutenant Schmidt nodded to an Admiral, on the shuttle flight deck of Starbase 17.
"Nice to see you again, ma'am." He said, with a smile only one ex-wife every brought out.
"And you, S'Kott. I'd offer you a hug, but I've got a full bladder." The Admiral said, her head obscured by a hood. "I'm not abandoning you without help. An Ensign Alyssa Flores will be your Assistant Chief. She might be fresh out of the academy, but she's bloody brilliant, and shrewd."
"That's a good thing?" S'kott asked the secretive Admiral.
She nodded. "It is when you're being assigned to a ship where Starfleet Intelligence has notations of possible..." she froze, mid-word, in a way that most people wouldn't understand. "Damn you. You know-"
"I'll be careful, Lauren." He said, with a nod.
She smiled at him. "Let's just say there's interference on this ship, and your transfer to it is not my work. Flores is, because I owe you, and York, the favor." She paused, and then handed him an isolinear chip. "If you ever need help with something outside the chain of command, I didn't give you that comm code. Don't discuss it with anyone. Hide it in your boot."
"Who-?"
The Admiral cut him off, shaking her head. "Just a woman. She's married."
S'kott nodded, then looked to the shuttle, containing two engineering officers, and the shuttle's pilot. "Who's the other one?"
The Admiral smiled. "A quiet young lady who is particularly skilled with warp manifolds, and other propulsion techniques. Ensign T'Rea is someone you will be able to trust, though I can't tell you why. One last piece of advice. Be yourself. Your new Commanding Officer isn't going to trust you."
S'kott smiled, and spread his fingers in the Vulcan salute. Something she taught him. "Love long, and prosper, Laura."
The Admiral shook her head. "I'll leave that to you." She said, with a quiet smile. "If you'll excuse me, I'm off to the little girl's room."
------
"Ensign Flores, is it?" Her new section chief asked her.
"Yes, sir." Alyssa replied, trying not to bite her tongue off, at the manner in which he was staring at her.
"You remind me of someone." He said, thoughtfully.
"I should." She said, gambling him replying with something she could abuse to dissuade his interest.
"Wait. You mean?" The man asked.
"Yes." Florez said, patiently.
"You're my daughter?" he asked, confused.
The Vulcan ensign's eyebrow twitched slightly at this.
"Yes." Alyssa said, inwardly shaking her head at the man.
"Oh. Good." The man said, setting his focus on the shuttle's window, as it hit full warp. He very shortly fell asleep.
-----
T'Rea sat, quietly, knitting her eyebrows at the sleeping man, and the conversation he had had with the young woman sitting next to her. Her mother had not been joking, not that this was typically in her behavior.
Once the Lieutenant fell asleep, she politely tapped the shoulder of the woman next to him.
"Are you really his daughter?" She whispered, not wanting to wake him.
"Heck no." Flores replied. "Easiest way I could think of to get him to quit gawking."
T'Rea nodded, understanding at once. A lie.
"Ah." T'Rea said, quietly.
"Why? Are you?" Flores asked.
"No." T'Rea replied, still focusing her attention on the man she had never met before.
Another lie. she thought, as Flores nodded, and drifted off to sleep. He's probably the only bluntly honest one on this shuttle.
She closed her eyes, to meditate.
The Calypso was just hours away, yet T'Rea quietly wondered how long the lies would hold with their new section chief, once they began active duty.
-----
Introducing
Lieutenant S'kott Schmidt III
Chief Engineering Officer
&
Ensign Alyssa Flores
Acting Assistant Chief Engineer
&
Ensign T'Rea
Propulsion specialist.
RSS Feed