November 2005 - Post Selection (2)
ON: Rendezvous in a Locker - JP
Day 11 - Time: 14.00 - Scene: Outside Lt. Hadley’s office
~Now, try and remember Samantia, Hadley is a ‘colleague’ and a you’ve already played your round of ‘don’t look at me like I’m little just because I am’. There’s no need for posturing now~
Sam sighed as she thumbed the chime on Hadley’s door, _There you go again. I do not 'posture' and I do not play... oh go stuff yourself_ she hissed, _You always make me sound as though I’m some childish hot-head_
~I value my life too much to risk you shoving a knife into your belly if I were to respond to that comment~
Sam cursed fluently in Trillian just as the doors opened.
She really hoped Hadley wasn’t a linguist.
Hadley looked up and grinned. "The thing you'll find about me, Sam, is that while I can't speak any non-Terran language to save my life, I somehow picked up a surprisingly large collection of swear words. You lost me a bit on your last invective. I wasn't aware that you could do that with a plasma torch."
Sam didn’t blush. She rarely ever blushed. But her grin did turn decidedly sheepish. “Yeah well, sorry about that. I was just ah...” she considered how best to explain... realized there was no way to do so, and merely said, “Well, in any case, you’d be amazed the things you can do with a plasma torch and an imagination.” She winked.
Hadley grinned. It had been a good day so far. Nobody was shooting at his ship and he hadn't had a single reported complaint all day. "So, I hear that you're also a techie on top of being a hot shot pilot. What can we do for the ship's latest celebrity?"
She grinned and moved forward to lean against one of the chairs. “Oh you know, between the paparazzi and the interviews it’s nothing but work work work all the time.” She smiled and then shook her head, “Actually I’m here on business. Dr. N’we informed me yesterday that she’d found a leak of MIS, Magnesium Iron Silicate which seemed to have begun filtering into the ship during the alien probe. It’s been contaminating the air supply ever since the probe came in and we’re only just now getting it removed from the system. The air itself should be fine and we’ll be pumping an inoculant into the air here shortly, but I want to take a look at the origination of the leak as well. We tracked it down and it looks like the contamination began on Deck 14 near the small arms locker and phaser maintenance areas. I want to check out the filtration systems in both and see what’s going on.”
Robert frowned. "So we're all being slowly poisoned? I haven't felt a thing yet. But I'll take your word for it. Unless, of course, you're just using this as an excuse to get at a phaser." Hadley stood up from his seat. "All right. We can go take a look. I don't need my crew getting sick."
As they stepped a few meters down the hall to the main security offices, Hadley whistled. Ensign Munro (npc) stuck his head around the corner. "Something wrong, Chief?"
Hadley shook his head. "Just have to make sure our new Chief Engineer doesn't decide to shoot up the place. Come along and help me keep an eye on her."
Sam raised a tilted brow at that and grinned slightly, “What’s the matter Lieutenant, afraid I might over-power you in the small arms locker and stage a coup of the ship?” she teased.
Robert shook his head. "Just the rules. We're supposed to have two security officers on site whenever any weapon locker is opened. The main armory... don't even get me started about the regulations concerning that little room." They reached a small, sealed door. Robert activated the security panel and unlocked the door, standing aside as the door opened up. "After you, Lieutenant."
Sam smiled and proceeded the two inside and then blinked when she realized that Munro was staring. She glanced down at herself and damned near gave one of those rare blushes. Her once pristine gold uniform was covered in smudges of grease and she’d managed to rip the sleeve on a conduit. Her little hands were also smudged and she had a feeling her face wasn’t a whole lot better.
Perfect. Her XO from the Carlyle, who’d so loved to call her Titania, Queen of the Faeries, would be having a field day with this. Now she was a grease-monkey-elf.
Oh well, at least she was enjoying herself.
She moved immediately toward the air filtration system and pulled out her tricorder. She barely spared a glance for the weapons lining the room as she checked and re-checked to make certain where the problem was.
Hadley looked around the room. “So… what exactly went wrong?”
Sam didn’t even glance back at him, “I’m not certain what happened, but the entire filtration system in here seems to have blown. It’s almost like a weapons discharge though the sensors would have registered that.” She nibbled on her lower lip as she continued to move in a slow circuit of the room, scanning from different directions and speaking more to herself than to either of them. “Probably a blown conduit when the probe overloaded a couple of systems and set a chain reaction of some kind.” She set down her tricorder and handed her toolkit to Munro. She looked around for a chair or something to boost herself into the ventilation system and then looked at Hadley. Normally she’d have rather slit her throat than ask for help, but he wasn’t so bad. “Gimme a leg up will ya?”
Hadley fought the urge to smile. “You sure I won’t strain anything? To be frank, you’re a pretty large person. And I don’t have time for another trip down to sickbay.”
She grinned, “Stow it Robert,” she said. She held out one little hand and then sighed when she caught sight of it and stopped to wipe it on her uniform pants. Didn’t help much, but at least she wouldn’t wind up getting him filthy.
~Why... be-still my heart. Asking for help and being courteous. Have I wound up in the head of a new woman?~
_Shove it_
~Ah, there’s the Samantia I know and I love~ Vaelx said dryly.
Hadley bent his knees, kept his eye on the vent above them, and then lifted as gently and steadily as he could manage. His real concern-- although he knew better than to voice it aloud-- was that if he lifted to quickly he might send Vaelx flying across the room. Robert grinned to himself as he realized that this was how Gol’Khar must feel all the time.
Sam grabbed hold of the edge of the vent shaft when he lifted her and gave an agile swing up into the ceiling unit. It could be reached by climbing through Jeffries tubes from above or below, but it was easier to get in from this angle.
At least for her.
She began to crawl through the system and then sighed and said in a bored voice, “Hey Hadley, you mind calling for these nice sensors and security beams to be called off? We don’t relish having my hands seared off.”
Hadley called back. “Right you are. Wouldn’t want to give you or the team you apparently smuggled up there any trouble.” Robert moved over to the control panel on the wall of the small locker. He wasn’t sure if Trill usually spoke in the plural, but he didn’t think it was normal. On the Melbourne, Robert thought he remembered Lieutenant Enan always using the singular when he referred to himself. Enan had, as Hadley remembered it, been on the bridge when the first Borg volley had ripped most of the saucer section away from the rest of the ship’s hull. Robert shuddered a bit, but made himself focus on deactivating the security systems in the crawlspaces around this weapons locker. Do your job and the rest faded away.
Sam blinked at his words and stilled in the process of pulling out a scanner. Hell. She liked Hadley, he amused her. Which unfortunately seemed to lead to her letting down her guard around him. She normally kept her mistakes to a minimum.
She swallowed hard and decided to play it off and hope he wouldn’t know enough about Trills to ask uncomfortable questions as she quipped, “Well ya know, if I’m going to stage a proper coup then I need co-conspirators. But don’t worry, we aim to maim, not kill... for now at least.”
Robert hit the final confirmation button and called up, “Should be all clear, Sam. Except for the mines, but those are scattered. It’s not all that likely you’ll hit one. If you hear a beeping, it’s too late.” Hadley winked at Munro and waited for a response.
Her dark, curly ponytail swung over the side of the vent and she winked, “Well, let’s hope that they’ve got a good range so I can take a few friends along for the ride.” She wiggled her pointed brows and then slid back into the tube and began to move forward along the ventilation system.
Hadley grinned as he heard Vaelx make her way further down the tube. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, how are you finding the Dark Matter so far?”
“Well I think that there is an excellent sense of staff value,” she said with a grin as she slithered down along the confined spaces until she neared the beginning of the damage. “Wonderful taste in their Chiefs... things along those lines.” She began scanning and then called, “Ok, one of you big tall males get yourselves close enough to the edge of the vent to hand me my tools when I ask for them.”
“You know,” Hadley said as shifted over a little closer to the vent opening, “they always told us during training that the modern security officer had to be intelligent and courteous. The main idea being that Starfleet frowns on the whole grunting, lifting heavy objects thing now. You’re certainly not helping us reform our image, asking us to haul your stuff around.”
She laughed and began to pry absently at the scorched conduits, scanning beneath them. “Well what good are you guys if not for heavy lifting huh?” She shook her head and then said more seriously, “Actually though, I’m enjoying my post here. The Carlyle and the Mac were both good ships but they stuck to the Alpha mainly. I crave a bit more excitement than they offered.” She turned and gave him a grin, “I’m sure you hadn’t noticed.”
Robert laughed. “You know, I hadn’t realized you were into the whole excitement thing. I had you pegged for a desk officer. My bad.”
“Hand me a palm beacon will you? The lighting in this area is out. And the magna-spanner,” she reached out a hand without really turning from her work. She took the tools and went on without pause, “So what about you? How long have you been on board? Damn, I’m going to have to get a micro-optic drill up here. Some of this has fused itself completely to the surrounding duranium alloy.”
Hadley gave Munro a meaningful glare and the man quickly went about grabbing the drill. Hadley turned back to the vent. “I came on board just before the last mission actually. Given how far out we are, a mission can last a bit longer than you’d think, but it really hasn’t been all that long. I’ve basically got to know some of the command staff pretty well and get my department running the way I like it to.”
Munro tapped Robert on the shoulder. “Er, Lieutenant…” Munro looked down at the exceedingly fragile-looking drill in his hands.
Hadley knelt down and cupped his hands and helped boost Munro up to the vent, holding the sensitive piece of equipment. He handed it over almost face to face with Vaelx and then Hadley let him down again.
Sam took drill with an absent nod of acknowledgement and began to carefully remove the damaged sections of the unit, “Yeah, Lt. Orthis seemed to be competent but I’m still working the staff to get them together the way that I like them so I can understand what you mean. I think we’re both… well we have excellent command capabilities I believe is the polite way to phrase it.”
~Controlling… you mean…?~
_I said ‘polite’, do you know the meaning of that word_
~Extremely well, but given that my host rarely acknowledges the meaning I try to play along~
_Don’t call me ‘host’ and hush up if you can’t be positive_
“So how do you like it here? Enjoy being on a smaller ship or do you long for the big time?” she asked with a grin as she pried up the last of the damaged conduit and called down for the replacement isolinear chips and housing that she’d brought along.
Hadley chuckled. “A smaller ship like this is actually something of a relief to me, I have to admit. I was actually retired for awhile before I came back. It’s nice to be able to edge back into things.”
Sam raised a brow at that as she popped her head back out again in order to take the larger pieces of conduit, “Retired? You don’t look old enough for that.” She glanced at him, her silver-grey eyes searching before she slid back into the ventilation system and away from him. “What were you up to while you were away?”
Robert shrugged, and then realized that Sam couldn’t see him. “Oh this and that. There was nothing particularly exciting. Just… retirement. Starfleet is far more interesting.” Hadley was aware that he sounded evasive, so he decided to change the subject. “How we coming?”
Sam glanced back over her shoulder and considered asking what exactly had gotten him out of Starfleet in the first place then, but somehow she had a feeling that this was a touchy subject. Considering all the things that were ‘touchy subjects’ for her, she respected his privacy.
“Almost through, just need to finish installing the new circuitry.” She grinned slightly and said, “Hand me the plasma torch.”
Hadley grunted. “I’m not sure. Sure, you might be up there, but I don’t know if Munro and I could take you down before you got close enough to enact your own special brand of engineering on one of us with that thing.
She laughed, “I promise, I just need to weld in the last of the circuits. I’m not out to maim anyone… for now.”
Robert handed the tool up. “I’ve got my eye on you, and one hand on my phaser. Don’t try anything funny.”
She grinned and took the tool before turning back to her work. She was silent for a few moments while she welded the new plating into place and then pulled out her scanner again and checked the systems several times. Finally, satisfied she nodded and said, “Alright, that should get it. I want to take these fragments of burn alloy to Engineering to run a few more tests though. If it wasn’t a blown conduit that caused this I want to know exactly what it was.”
When he’d handed her the last of the tools she needed she said, “Alright, time for another display of those ‘manly muscles’ for my ‘overly large person’,” she teased.
Hadley grinned. He reached up and couched his hands to offer Sam a hand in getting down. “If only Starfleet uniforms were more flattering, I’d flex a bit.”
She laughed as she was settled easily back on the floor of the weapons locker and then ran a few more scans. Finally she nodded and said, “Alright, that should do it.” She gathered up her tools and said over her shoulder, “Fancy a bite to eat later?”
~Oh Samantia… n-no… no you’re not going to start flirting with the Chief of Security on your new post are you?~
_Oh come on, don’t be a spoilsport_
~Do you have no regard for the chain of command?~
_Not really… no_
She glanced back at Hadley with a raised brow. She hadn’t really meant to ask quite so bluntly, and certainly not with an audience, but there you were. Subtlety had never been her strong suit.
Robert raised his own eyebrow in response. Ensign Munro was almost gaping. No way to help that now. Best to pretend the young man wasn’t even there. “I never say no to a bite to eat. The lounge at 19.00 hours? Casual attire I hope?”
Sam winked in response. “See you there then.”
Hadley laughed as Vaelx walked off and then laughed harder as he looked at Ensign Munro’s stunned expression. Looks like the rumor mill would be getting a little something more to work over in the next couple of days. He set about reactivating the security measures that protected the weapons locker.
OFF:
Lieutenant Robert Hadley
Chief of Security
USS Dark Matter
~and~
Lieutenant Sam Vaelx
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Dark Matter
Day 11 - Time: 14.00 - Scene: Outside Lt. Hadley’s office
~Now, try and remember Samantia, Hadley is a ‘colleague’ and a you’ve already played your round of ‘don’t look at me like I’m little just because I am’. There’s no need for posturing now~
Sam sighed as she thumbed the chime on Hadley’s door, _There you go again. I do not 'posture' and I do not play... oh go stuff yourself_ she hissed, _You always make me sound as though I’m some childish hot-head_
~I value my life too much to risk you shoving a knife into your belly if I were to respond to that comment~
Sam cursed fluently in Trillian just as the doors opened.
She really hoped Hadley wasn’t a linguist.
Hadley looked up and grinned. "The thing you'll find about me, Sam, is that while I can't speak any non-Terran language to save my life, I somehow picked up a surprisingly large collection of swear words. You lost me a bit on your last invective. I wasn't aware that you could do that with a plasma torch."
Sam didn’t blush. She rarely ever blushed. But her grin did turn decidedly sheepish. “Yeah well, sorry about that. I was just ah...” she considered how best to explain... realized there was no way to do so, and merely said, “Well, in any case, you’d be amazed the things you can do with a plasma torch and an imagination.” She winked.
Hadley grinned. It had been a good day so far. Nobody was shooting at his ship and he hadn't had a single reported complaint all day. "So, I hear that you're also a techie on top of being a hot shot pilot. What can we do for the ship's latest celebrity?"
She grinned and moved forward to lean against one of the chairs. “Oh you know, between the paparazzi and the interviews it’s nothing but work work work all the time.” She smiled and then shook her head, “Actually I’m here on business. Dr. N’we informed me yesterday that she’d found a leak of MIS, Magnesium Iron Silicate which seemed to have begun filtering into the ship during the alien probe. It’s been contaminating the air supply ever since the probe came in and we’re only just now getting it removed from the system. The air itself should be fine and we’ll be pumping an inoculant into the air here shortly, but I want to take a look at the origination of the leak as well. We tracked it down and it looks like the contamination began on Deck 14 near the small arms locker and phaser maintenance areas. I want to check out the filtration systems in both and see what’s going on.”
Robert frowned. "So we're all being slowly poisoned? I haven't felt a thing yet. But I'll take your word for it. Unless, of course, you're just using this as an excuse to get at a phaser." Hadley stood up from his seat. "All right. We can go take a look. I don't need my crew getting sick."
As they stepped a few meters down the hall to the main security offices, Hadley whistled. Ensign Munro (npc) stuck his head around the corner. "Something wrong, Chief?"
Hadley shook his head. "Just have to make sure our new Chief Engineer doesn't decide to shoot up the place. Come along and help me keep an eye on her."
Sam raised a tilted brow at that and grinned slightly, “What’s the matter Lieutenant, afraid I might over-power you in the small arms locker and stage a coup of the ship?” she teased.
Robert shook his head. "Just the rules. We're supposed to have two security officers on site whenever any weapon locker is opened. The main armory... don't even get me started about the regulations concerning that little room." They reached a small, sealed door. Robert activated the security panel and unlocked the door, standing aside as the door opened up. "After you, Lieutenant."
Sam smiled and proceeded the two inside and then blinked when she realized that Munro was staring. She glanced down at herself and damned near gave one of those rare blushes. Her once pristine gold uniform was covered in smudges of grease and she’d managed to rip the sleeve on a conduit. Her little hands were also smudged and she had a feeling her face wasn’t a whole lot better.
Perfect. Her XO from the Carlyle, who’d so loved to call her Titania, Queen of the Faeries, would be having a field day with this. Now she was a grease-monkey-elf.
Oh well, at least she was enjoying herself.
She moved immediately toward the air filtration system and pulled out her tricorder. She barely spared a glance for the weapons lining the room as she checked and re-checked to make certain where the problem was.
Hadley looked around the room. “So… what exactly went wrong?”
Sam didn’t even glance back at him, “I’m not certain what happened, but the entire filtration system in here seems to have blown. It’s almost like a weapons discharge though the sensors would have registered that.” She nibbled on her lower lip as she continued to move in a slow circuit of the room, scanning from different directions and speaking more to herself than to either of them. “Probably a blown conduit when the probe overloaded a couple of systems and set a chain reaction of some kind.” She set down her tricorder and handed her toolkit to Munro. She looked around for a chair or something to boost herself into the ventilation system and then looked at Hadley. Normally she’d have rather slit her throat than ask for help, but he wasn’t so bad. “Gimme a leg up will ya?”
Hadley fought the urge to smile. “You sure I won’t strain anything? To be frank, you’re a pretty large person. And I don’t have time for another trip down to sickbay.”
She grinned, “Stow it Robert,” she said. She held out one little hand and then sighed when she caught sight of it and stopped to wipe it on her uniform pants. Didn’t help much, but at least she wouldn’t wind up getting him filthy.
~Why... be-still my heart. Asking for help and being courteous. Have I wound up in the head of a new woman?~
_Shove it_
~Ah, there’s the Samantia I know and I love~ Vaelx said dryly.
Hadley bent his knees, kept his eye on the vent above them, and then lifted as gently and steadily as he could manage. His real concern-- although he knew better than to voice it aloud-- was that if he lifted to quickly he might send Vaelx flying across the room. Robert grinned to himself as he realized that this was how Gol’Khar must feel all the time.
Sam grabbed hold of the edge of the vent shaft when he lifted her and gave an agile swing up into the ceiling unit. It could be reached by climbing through Jeffries tubes from above or below, but it was easier to get in from this angle.
At least for her.
She began to crawl through the system and then sighed and said in a bored voice, “Hey Hadley, you mind calling for these nice sensors and security beams to be called off? We don’t relish having my hands seared off.”
Hadley called back. “Right you are. Wouldn’t want to give you or the team you apparently smuggled up there any trouble.” Robert moved over to the control panel on the wall of the small locker. He wasn’t sure if Trill usually spoke in the plural, but he didn’t think it was normal. On the Melbourne, Robert thought he remembered Lieutenant Enan always using the singular when he referred to himself. Enan had, as Hadley remembered it, been on the bridge when the first Borg volley had ripped most of the saucer section away from the rest of the ship’s hull. Robert shuddered a bit, but made himself focus on deactivating the security systems in the crawlspaces around this weapons locker. Do your job and the rest faded away.
Sam blinked at his words and stilled in the process of pulling out a scanner. Hell. She liked Hadley, he amused her. Which unfortunately seemed to lead to her letting down her guard around him. She normally kept her mistakes to a minimum.
She swallowed hard and decided to play it off and hope he wouldn’t know enough about Trills to ask uncomfortable questions as she quipped, “Well ya know, if I’m going to stage a proper coup then I need co-conspirators. But don’t worry, we aim to maim, not kill... for now at least.”
Robert hit the final confirmation button and called up, “Should be all clear, Sam. Except for the mines, but those are scattered. It’s not all that likely you’ll hit one. If you hear a beeping, it’s too late.” Hadley winked at Munro and waited for a response.
Her dark, curly ponytail swung over the side of the vent and she winked, “Well, let’s hope that they’ve got a good range so I can take a few friends along for the ride.” She wiggled her pointed brows and then slid back into the tube and began to move forward along the ventilation system.
Hadley grinned as he heard Vaelx make her way further down the tube. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, how are you finding the Dark Matter so far?”
“Well I think that there is an excellent sense of staff value,” she said with a grin as she slithered down along the confined spaces until she neared the beginning of the damage. “Wonderful taste in their Chiefs... things along those lines.” She began scanning and then called, “Ok, one of you big tall males get yourselves close enough to the edge of the vent to hand me my tools when I ask for them.”
“You know,” Hadley said as shifted over a little closer to the vent opening, “they always told us during training that the modern security officer had to be intelligent and courteous. The main idea being that Starfleet frowns on the whole grunting, lifting heavy objects thing now. You’re certainly not helping us reform our image, asking us to haul your stuff around.”
She laughed and began to pry absently at the scorched conduits, scanning beneath them. “Well what good are you guys if not for heavy lifting huh?” She shook her head and then said more seriously, “Actually though, I’m enjoying my post here. The Carlyle and the Mac were both good ships but they stuck to the Alpha mainly. I crave a bit more excitement than they offered.” She turned and gave him a grin, “I’m sure you hadn’t noticed.”
Robert laughed. “You know, I hadn’t realized you were into the whole excitement thing. I had you pegged for a desk officer. My bad.”
“Hand me a palm beacon will you? The lighting in this area is out. And the magna-spanner,” she reached out a hand without really turning from her work. She took the tools and went on without pause, “So what about you? How long have you been on board? Damn, I’m going to have to get a micro-optic drill up here. Some of this has fused itself completely to the surrounding duranium alloy.”
Hadley gave Munro a meaningful glare and the man quickly went about grabbing the drill. Hadley turned back to the vent. “I came on board just before the last mission actually. Given how far out we are, a mission can last a bit longer than you’d think, but it really hasn’t been all that long. I’ve basically got to know some of the command staff pretty well and get my department running the way I like it to.”
Munro tapped Robert on the shoulder. “Er, Lieutenant…” Munro looked down at the exceedingly fragile-looking drill in his hands.
Hadley knelt down and cupped his hands and helped boost Munro up to the vent, holding the sensitive piece of equipment. He handed it over almost face to face with Vaelx and then Hadley let him down again.
Sam took drill with an absent nod of acknowledgement and began to carefully remove the damaged sections of the unit, “Yeah, Lt. Orthis seemed to be competent but I’m still working the staff to get them together the way that I like them so I can understand what you mean. I think we’re both… well we have excellent command capabilities I believe is the polite way to phrase it.”
~Controlling… you mean…?~
_I said ‘polite’, do you know the meaning of that word_
~Extremely well, but given that my host rarely acknowledges the meaning I try to play along~
_Don’t call me ‘host’ and hush up if you can’t be positive_
“So how do you like it here? Enjoy being on a smaller ship or do you long for the big time?” she asked with a grin as she pried up the last of the damaged conduit and called down for the replacement isolinear chips and housing that she’d brought along.
Hadley chuckled. “A smaller ship like this is actually something of a relief to me, I have to admit. I was actually retired for awhile before I came back. It’s nice to be able to edge back into things.”
Sam raised a brow at that as she popped her head back out again in order to take the larger pieces of conduit, “Retired? You don’t look old enough for that.” She glanced at him, her silver-grey eyes searching before she slid back into the ventilation system and away from him. “What were you up to while you were away?”
Robert shrugged, and then realized that Sam couldn’t see him. “Oh this and that. There was nothing particularly exciting. Just… retirement. Starfleet is far more interesting.” Hadley was aware that he sounded evasive, so he decided to change the subject. “How we coming?”
Sam glanced back over her shoulder and considered asking what exactly had gotten him out of Starfleet in the first place then, but somehow she had a feeling that this was a touchy subject. Considering all the things that were ‘touchy subjects’ for her, she respected his privacy.
“Almost through, just need to finish installing the new circuitry.” She grinned slightly and said, “Hand me the plasma torch.”
Hadley grunted. “I’m not sure. Sure, you might be up there, but I don’t know if Munro and I could take you down before you got close enough to enact your own special brand of engineering on one of us with that thing.
She laughed, “I promise, I just need to weld in the last of the circuits. I’m not out to maim anyone… for now.”
Robert handed the tool up. “I’ve got my eye on you, and one hand on my phaser. Don’t try anything funny.”
She grinned and took the tool before turning back to her work. She was silent for a few moments while she welded the new plating into place and then pulled out her scanner again and checked the systems several times. Finally, satisfied she nodded and said, “Alright, that should get it. I want to take these fragments of burn alloy to Engineering to run a few more tests though. If it wasn’t a blown conduit that caused this I want to know exactly what it was.”
When he’d handed her the last of the tools she needed she said, “Alright, time for another display of those ‘manly muscles’ for my ‘overly large person’,” she teased.
Hadley grinned. He reached up and couched his hands to offer Sam a hand in getting down. “If only Starfleet uniforms were more flattering, I’d flex a bit.”
She laughed as she was settled easily back on the floor of the weapons locker and then ran a few more scans. Finally she nodded and said, “Alright, that should do it.” She gathered up her tools and said over her shoulder, “Fancy a bite to eat later?”
~Oh Samantia… n-no… no you’re not going to start flirting with the Chief of Security on your new post are you?~
_Oh come on, don’t be a spoilsport_
~Do you have no regard for the chain of command?~
_Not really… no_
She glanced back at Hadley with a raised brow. She hadn’t really meant to ask quite so bluntly, and certainly not with an audience, but there you were. Subtlety had never been her strong suit.
Robert raised his own eyebrow in response. Ensign Munro was almost gaping. No way to help that now. Best to pretend the young man wasn’t even there. “I never say no to a bite to eat. The lounge at 19.00 hours? Casual attire I hope?”
Sam winked in response. “See you there then.”
Hadley laughed as Vaelx walked off and then laughed harder as he looked at Ensign Munro’s stunned expression. Looks like the rumor mill would be getting a little something more to work over in the next couple of days. He set about reactivating the security measures that protected the weapons locker.
OFF:
Lieutenant Robert Hadley
Chief of Security
USS Dark Matter
~and~
Lieutenant Sam Vaelx
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Dark Matter