"All We Need Is A Little Time To Think and Rest"
(Previous Post: "Counselling")
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Stardate: 60304.0730
Setting: USS ANUBIS, Deck 15, 'Black Hole' Crew Lounge, Upper Level
To say that the last three days had been quiet would have been a grave understatement, at least for anyone looking at the crew of the ANUBIS from a distance, but when observing the trials and tribulations of each individual that made up the senior staff, the truth of this false tranquility became unavoidable. Because they had returned to their base of operation, the crew as a single functioning unit had been granted time to rest, but as separate entities the members of the senior staff had made use of this time in as different ways as there had been people.
Ensign Susan Mei, the newest addition to the staff of the mighty USS ANUBIS had welcomed these few days which had permitted her to become more acquainted with the ship she would serve on and learn more about the officers that had been assigned to it. Over the span of the last seventy hours the Counsellor had done nothing else but read the information available on each and every member of the senior staff, and after all that reading Susan had been the first to admit that she had been ready for a change of pace.
Ready for a break and breakfast away from the PADDs that she had been reading Ensign Mei stepped into the crew lounge only to find the Chief Science Officer sitting alone at a table with more PADDs in front of her than the Counsellor had used over the last seventy hours.
"Lieutenant," the Ensign said, approaching the enthralled scientist who looked like she had discovered that the universe had not been as she had expected it to be. "Is everything all right? You look like you have misplaced the centre of the galaxy."
The Chief Science Officer raised her eyes to meet those of the Counsellor only to show a facial expression that confirmed what the Ensign had suspected. Something had troubled the Shillian down to her core and given the target of some of the research Susan had known the scientist had been involved with, namely the understanding of the condition of the Chief Engineering Officer, Ensign Mei immediately assumed the worst. "Has the condition of Lieutenant Dawson deteriorated?"
A faint grin appeared on the lips of the Shillian woman confirming in a single instant that the reason for the depressed look of the Chief Science Officer had nothing to do with the medical condition of the Chief Engineer. "David is fine," the scientist said, "after I turned over all of the data I had collected on his condition to Doctor Wallin and Ensign Summers, I turned my attention to the Mind Stone."
The name of the artefact that had been at the core of the last mission of the ANUBIS immediately peeked the interest of the Counsellor who had read several mention of the legendary item without actually having been able to gather that much information about it. Although she had been more than willing and able to change the focus of her research, Susan had believed that understanding the senior staff had been a higher priority than understanding what the item that had been mentioned in numerous logs had been all about.
"Am I to understand by your demeanour that you have found something negative about the artefact that you had not expected," Susan said, inviting herself to the table where the Shillian had been sitting certain that the Chief Science Officer had not been the type to refuse the chance to talk things out.
"If only it was that," the Chief Science Officer replied shuffling through the PADDs on the table until the Shillian produce the one that she had been searching form. "What I found is more so disturbing as it indicates that the artefact that we thought was the Mind Stone turned out to be nothing more than a forgery. Do not get me wrong, I found out a great deal about the item and the interaction of the three pieces to one another, and for that I am very happy, but as my research began to dwell deeper into the alleged powers of the item I found out that it was not real. I mean the stone was *real*, but it was not the item that we had hoped it would be and it seems that we might have done all that we did for nothing. Well, saying that it was nothing is not entirely accurate either as it was during that mission that we were able to rescue Ensign Summers and Lieutenant Onison, so I guess I should not feel the way I do," the Shillian scientist said in what had seemed to be a single breath confirming some of the notes about the Chief Science Officer that Susan had come across.
"Hope Maya is not talking your ears off," the Enaran Marine Command Officer said, pulling out a chair and joining the two women without a second thought. It was only after Pravat had sat down that he noticed the expression on the face of the Shillian scientist which of course lead him to believe the same thing that the Counsellor had when she had stepped in. "Is everything OK with David?"
"David is fine," the Shillian woman said smiling at the thought that the absence of the large man had not gone unmissed by his fellow shipmates. "Actually the last time I heard Lea speak of him she said that he was doing a lot better. I mean we still have no idea as to what caused the changes in his brainwave patterns, but from what she told me the situation seems to have stabilized enough that she will be recommending to Captain Simmons that David be returned to the ship. Lea said something about the homey environment of the ANUBIS being more productive to a speedy recovery, but I think that she just wants to have him closer by. Actually that might not all that accurate either since I am sure that Ensign Summers has been spending all of her time at the Infirmary finding every possible excuse to stay there."
"That might explain why Lieutenant Onison has seemed so *edgy* for the past few days," the Marine said to no one in particular."
"Sorry," the Counsellor said, not having heard what the Enaran had said because she had been concentrating on the accounts of the Chief Science Officer, Susan having found that the longwinded explanations of anything and everything offered by the Shillian required her complete attention.
"Nothing," Pravat said shaking his head before shooting a warm smile in the direction of the Chief Sciecne Officer. "So if everything is fine with David, why the long face? You look like one of those experiments you have going in the biology lab grew legs and left the ship on its own," the Enaran added, his concerns having shifted from the Chief Engineering Officer to instead be directed onto the Chief Science Officer.
"Remember that stone that Lieutenant Onison gave me?" The scientist said, the shortness of her reply only adding to the understanding shared by the Counsellor and Marine Commanding Officer that this had been something of great importance to the Shillian.
"Yeah, I remember," Pravat said, nodding his head already anticipating what the head of the science department had been ready to say next. "Let me guess, it was not the mind stone but a fake."
"How did you know?" The Shillian scientist asked with wide opened eyes, genuinely surprised by what the Marine had said, not having entertained the possibility that Pravat could have figured it out based on his increasing knowledge of the Chief Science Officer, her interest and her insatiable and unending devotion to her work.
**Because I do not trust that man,** the Enaran thought ready to let the two women know how he felt about Luke. In the time of a single heartbeat though Pravat had figured that making such an open accusation would not serve any purpose and that it would likely not endear the Counsellor to him by painting him as an untrusting man, something that he had never been. "Call it a lucky guess Maya," the Marine replied. "Since we came back to NEW ALEXANDRIA you have been working on one of two projects. Since you openly said that it was not the first, it was easy to determine that the reason for your long face had to be the other."
The Shillian tried her best to hide the blushing of her cheeks, not entirely certain as to how to react to the admission that the Marine Commanding Officer knew her so well.
"How about breakfast?" Susan said, changing the focus of the discussion, "I'm famished."
--- 2005 post #084
Jessica Solarik { maya_992003@yahoo.com }
Lieutenant Maya
Chief Science Officer
USS ANUBIS
