"You Can Promote A Shillian, But You Cannot Change Their Spots"
(Previous Post: "Home Sweet Home, At Least That Is What They Say")
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Stardate: 60328.1000
After his conversation with Lieutenant Commander
Serenna, and still having the words of the Klingoness
ringing in his head, the Enaran Marine had wanted some
time to get place in perspective. Without thinking
Pravat had headed back to the ANUBIS and to the
Astrometrics Lab on deck 12 and even without having
consulted the computer the leader of the Marine Corps
knew that she would be there.
As suspected Pravat found the Shillian Scientist
working at the primary consol with what appeared to be
a very complex flight path being displayed on the
large screen ahead of the Chief Science Officer. With
a level of stealth normally reserved for cat-burglars
or legendary assassins the Marine silently approached
the woman who would hold the role of Executive Officer
for their upcoming mission.
So enthralled in her research of the areas of space in
which the HATHOR would be travelling through, the
Shillian scientist had not heard the doors to the lab
open or close and even less the light-footed approach
of the Enaran man. As far as the Chief Science
Officer had been concerned, she had been the only
living entity in the room, sharing the laboratory with
nothing more than star charts, reports on the latest
astronomical phenomenon and the names of a few dozen
star systems and the planets that could be found
there.
"You look busy," Prav whispered, placing his head only
centimetres above the shoulder of the Shillian
scientist in order to see what she had been working
on. So startled by the unexpected presence of anyone
so close to her sent the Chief Science Officer
crashing to the floor in a less than glamorous fashion
which caused the Enaran to laugh out loud if only for
a few seconds before offering the scientist a helping
hand. "You never reacted that strongly before, even
when you were busy researching something that was of
the utmost importance."
"I was not the Executive Officer then," the Shillian
woman said, accepting the hand of the Enaran which had
been offered to help her return to her feet. Once
back to a more acceptable posture, the Chief Science
officer glanced at the Cebuella monkey which had been
offered to her as a gift by the Marine. The primate
from ENARA PRIME immediately looked away when his eyes
met those of the scientist as if trying to hide the
guilty grin that was on his face from having seen the
arrival of Pravat and not having warned his mistress
of the upcoming assault to her tranquility.
Hoping to save the miniature creature from becoming
the target for the anger of the Shillian Scientist,
the Enaran Marine pointed to the large map being
displayed on the large screen. 'Is that the flight
plan the HATHOR will be following?"
Never having been the type to hold a grudge, or even
be remotely angry at anyone or anything, the Chief
Science Officer returned to her seat and called up a
close-up view of the curving path that stretched into
multiple sectors of Federation space.
"Lieutenant Commander Serenna gave me a general flight
plan and a list of the tests that she wants the HATHOR
to undergo," the Shillian said making the Marine
inwardly grin as he suspected that the scientist had
not been informed of *all* the tests their acting
Commanding Officer had in store for them. "I have
tried to create a flight plan that will enable us to
efficiently test every system onboard the HATHOR while
giving us some time in between each test to analyse
the results and make whatever adjustments may be
needed before we have to face the next set of tests,"
the Chief Science Officer said clearing thinking more
as a scientist than a command level officer.
"In real-life situations, things tend to happen
outside of what has been planned," Prav said in order
to warn in a roundabout way the Shillian about the
task that he had been given by the acting Commanding
Officer of the USS HATHOR.
"This is a simple shake-down cruise," the Shillian
woman said as if describing an absolute constant such
as the molecular structure of water. "I have taken
great care to plot the course of the ship away from
anything that might disrupt the testing of the systems
so that our final results will be as accurate as
possible. I mean I know that under normal
circumstances the ship may be called upon to deal with
more than one situation at the same time, but this is
only a test run after all, so why make our jobs any
more difficult than they need to be? Also this way I
will be able to carefully evaluate the performance of
each system individually so that any suggestion made
about upgrades or changes will be exactly what the
ship needs."
The Enaran sighed while shaking his head. Maybe that
had been the exact reason why Lieutenant Commander
Serenna had asked him to prepare an unscheduled test
for both the ship and crew, knowing that the Shillian
scientist would have planned everything to the
millimetre. Pravat found it even more amusing to see
the animal that he had given to the scientist act in a
way that echoed his own disbelief in the way the Chief
Science Officer went about things.
"Looks like you thought of everything," Pravat said in
a quasi-sarcastic tone, knowing that her scientific
approach to their mission would actually prove to be a
source of problems for the rest of the crew.
"I tried to," the Chief Science Officer said not
having picked up on the second hint given to her by
the Enaran man. "I figured that we could first head
to the KARRABY CLUSTER which would permit us to test
the warp engines to get there and the tactical systems
once we have arrived. The asteroid cluster is perfect
for a test of the pulse cannons of the HATHOR,
including both the firing and targeting mechanism, not
to mention that the debris from the explosions will be
perfect to test the shields. After that we would set
a course for S-7331, a T-Tauri star around which a
great deal of gravimetric activity has been recorded
over the last several years. This should provide the
HATHOR with a solid testing ground for the structural
integrity field, the inertial dampeners as well as the
primary frame of the ship. From there we will head to
SENMAAR II, an uninhabited and barren F-Class world to
use the sensors to get as much information on the
comet that is schedule to crash on that world in just
over 12 days. We will be able to get preliminary
sensor readings of the comet before we move on to our
next testing grounds which will take us all the way
back to SENMAAR II just in time to witness the
crashing of the comet and allow us to get invaluable
sensor data on this rare occurrence. I mean it is not
every day that we get to see a full size comet crash
into a planet and I am convinced that this will prove
to be the highlight of our mission."
"If you say so," the Marine Commanding Officer said,
looking at the full flight plan and committing it to
memory in order to be able to use it to see where the
best time would be for him to perform the task that
had been required of him by the acting Commanding
Officer of the HATHOR. "I will let you get back to
your work, but be sure to keep in mind that the
universe is filled with unexpected surprises," the
Enaran added, giving the Chief Science Officer the
third and last hint about what would happen at one
point during their *routine* mission.
---
"To see the world in a grain of sand, 2005 post #488
Setting: USS ANUBIS, Deck 12, Astrometrics Lab
Jessica Solarik { maya_992003@yahoo.com }
Lieutenant Commander Maya
Chief Science Officer
USS ANUBIS
and a heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour."
- William Blake (British, 1757-1827)
