A Stellar Solution

Posted on Thu Jan 22nd, 2015 @ 9:55am by Lieutenant JG Ronnie Wolfe

543 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Falling Star
Location: Aboard the Night Star

ON

Ronnie woke to find Damion gone. He'd been gone a lot lately, leaving early and coming in late. Most nights the only way she knew he'd been there was the indentation on the pillow beside her and the lingering scent of his cologne in the air. She knew he did it to protect her, to keep her from Stryfe and his crew, but she wanted -- needed -- to do something to help.

With Stryfe's encouragement, she'd spent time in his science labs. They hadn't been used in years and for the first few days she cleaned and organized. It was partly because she hated a cluttered lab, and party so she could see exactly what the ship had to offer and how she could use it.

She was an entomologist, preferring to study insects and their peculiarities, but she'd learned enough general science to get around a lab as well as anyone.

Today, she quickly dressed in a pair of replicated jeans and a t-shirt with a tarantula on the front, and a pair of tennis shoes. There was no need to wear a uniform as she was supposed to be a rogue science officer on the run with her boyfriend. It was much easier to play the role with Damion beside her, but with no one else in the labs, she didn't have to worry about it. Fortunately.

Today, she made her way to stellar cartography. It was one of a dozen places on the ship where information came in and out without anyone paying particular notice. If she could do the same here, there was a very real chance she could get a message to the Calypso and let them know she and Damion were close.

Thanks to Sam and her time as Chief Science Officer, Ronnie had a good idea of how to tweak the computer to piggyback a signal that wouldn't be noticed unless someone knew just what to look for.

She sat at a console and ran a diagnostic to see how long it had been since the system had updated. A slow smile spread across her face. Two years. The stellar maps were well out of date. A quick check confirmed that the system to automatically retrieve data had been disabled.

She routed the air filtration system and the waste reclamation system so that no one would notice the power being diverted back to stellar cartography and began an update. While she did that, she piggybacked an outgoing message encrypted for Sam.

When it was away, she sighed in relief. Chances were slim, but it was something. She backtracked out of the system, covering her trail, and then began to look through the holographic files to see which maps could be used with the holo-emitters for three-dimensional maps. They were nice to have when one was looking at planets in a system and their resources. To pass the time, she loaded a few of her favorites into the holo program and to the emitters in the lab so she could walk through the holo images and tap a planet or two to see the data available while she waited for Damion to come looking for her.

____
OFF

Lieutenant JG Ronnie Lancaster
Science Officer

 

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