Three's a Crowd.

Posted on Mon May 23rd, 2022 @ 4:27am by Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D & Petty Officer 3rd Class Sam Saghir & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: Character Development
Location: Athena Corridors
Timeline: En Route to Rondac; After Unwelcome Visits
1919 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

The halls were less congested than usual as Finn left engineering. It was a full half-hour after her shift was supposed to have ended so it was no surprise that a smaller number of people were meandering towards the mess hall. Not that she minded. As far as Finn was concerned, the less traffic the better. That is until a familiar face was spotted ahead, roaming the corridor like a lost puppy.

"Sam?" Finn smiled as she called out. It had been some time since she'd seen the cute, anxiety ridden petty officer. "Are you ok? You look kind of lost. You know you can pull a map up, right?"

Tapping frantically at a PADD, Sam looked up to see the gorgeous chief engineer floating down the corridor toward him, carried on a golden flow of light as stunning as the woman's face - or perhaps he was imagining things, and was caught up in her unanticipated arrival. "She doesn't show up on the map...." he replied, confused, as he gave up on the PADD with an exasperated sigh.

"What's wrong? Who isn't showing up on the map?" Finn furrowed a brow, concerned about Sam. It wasn't unusual for him to be flustered in her presence, but it wasn't like this. This was true frustration, not infatuation. "Maybe I can help?"

“Uhhh…” he handed her the PADD. “Lieutenant “ he coughed, as if he were somehow developing an allergy to P’rels name. An allergy or a nervous tick anyway, “Lieutenant P’rel. I tried to drop a file in her ops folder, but the computer keeps knocking it back to me…” he stood side on to Keating to share the PADD, the arms of their uniform tunics barely bristled against each other and Sam’s stomach dropped a light year as his arm tingled…

Finn's mind instantly focused on the problem. Was there an issue with the file system? No. Perhaps Sam's file was corrupt? No. Everything checked out with the system, the addresses, the file. "What the hell is going on her...wait," Finn squinted at the text showing up before her. Had the non-existent fairy godmother she prayed to a few months ago finally come to life and granted her a wish? A wide grin crept onto her giddy face as the text was fully processed. "It says here that Lt.P'rel has been temporarily relieved of duty!"

“W - whaaa howwwhy…?” Stammered Sam, stuck somewhere between processing the news itself and the guilty elation ne was experiencing.

"It doesn't list a reason here," she stated. Finn's expression remained joyous as her mind wondered what on earth the ice queen had done to deserve such a sentence. "I would've loved to have been a fly on the wall when that happened though," she chuckled and handed the padd back to Sam. "What were you trying to send her anyway? Must be urgent for you to get all agitated at not finding her?"

“Oh uhhmm…” Sam replied, taking the PADD back to recall the file he had been trying to send. It was only a relay of comms traffic reports, mostly detailing the movements of the Cardassian warships that had been en route to Metis. Since Athena departed they seem to have slowed their speed. Catching up with the information as it sunk in, Sam felt a knot in his stomach from anxiety - “w what will happen to her? Does that mean she’s fired…?”

"I doubt she's fired. She either screwed something up or pissed someone off. At least, that's my best guess." Finn shrugged, but her mind wandered. What did happen? She pondered as to who had taken her off duty. Whoever it was, Finn felt as though she'd want to become friends with them. "Who is in the next ranking officer in your department with P'rel, uh, removed?" She asked.

Sam winced as the familiar cool, matter of fact and deadpan voice came over his shoulder from around the corner; "Still myself, Lieutenant Keating". How Sam wished for a massive hull breach to rapidly blast him into space right at that moment.

Looking between Keating and the back Mr Saghir's head and reddening neck, P'rel clasped her hands behind her back and stood silently.

"Oh, how nice of you to join us Lieutenant P'rel," Finn flashed an almost taunting smile. "Perhaps you can answer my question. Who is the head of the intelligence department while you're relieved of duty?" She asked, soaking in every ounce of pleasure that came with the fact that P'rel had been, at least temporarily, dethroned.

Sam felt his shoulders hunch as his stomach knotted tighter, with Keating in front of him and the dark spectre of Lieutenant P'rel looming behind him fifteen feet tall, he felt as though he may well be in an actual phaser crossfire. He took a slow and anxious sliding step back to his right, as the PADD in his hand was yanked from it.

Snapping up the PADD from Petty Officer Saghir and looking over it for a second, P'rel could see he was trying to send her a file. Changing the destination to her personal database, she thumbed the transfer button and it made a satisfying chirp. Handing it back to Saghir, though more like a thrust into his still open hand - seemingly frozen in fear - she folder her arms. "Me" she responded, raising her voice slightly at the end, as if to challenge the irritating engineer.

"Oh so you aren't relieved of duty then? Because if you are relieved of duty then you can't be the department head, or part of the department really since you can't technically work. Are you even still cleared to read whatever is on that PADD?" Finn asked. She spoke with a slight restraint, not wanting to cross the lines of professionalism but all the while enjoying every second of the confrontation.

"Yes" P'rel practically spat. Realising the breach in her composure, she adjusted her crossed arms and shifted her weight to the other leg. "As you know Lieutenant -" she paused and met Keating's eyes with a derisory brow raising; "Correction - as you should know, the security systems would not allow Petty Officer Saghir to have transferred an operational file to me if I were not cleared to have it. Therefore, even you can only logically surmise that....?" she asked provocatively.

"Oh, I guess you didn't realize that Sam was trying to send you the file to your official account, but couldn't get it to go through. That is until you snatched the PADD away and took matters into your own hands, which to me seems like quite the breach in protocol." Finn's posture remained confident and unmoved as she calmly retorted.

Momentarily balancing how best to proceed - she had after all obscenely violated protocol - P'rel ultimately decided to double down on the bluff. "As I said, were my clearance insufficient to receive the file, I would not have received it. Yes?" she finished with a deathly taunting question, almost daring the Lieutenant to carry on.

Sam, for his part, felt the back of his neck going brilliantly hot. His eyes only met his shoes, and there was seemingly a great graviton wave preventing him from looking up at either the beautiful engineer or the intimidating intelligence officer.

"Without outside influence? Yes, but I have no idea what you typed in on that PADD. I would assume any good intelligence officer knows how to hack a system." Finn baited the Vulcan. "Are you telling me you did nothing more than take the file that Sam had and send it to your official account? The exact same thing he was doing yet somehow it worked for you?"

P'rel had no idea what it was with the people on this ship. Usually people were content to simply take her hostility leave her alone, but everyone here seemed to have such a determination that she was unused to. "Lieutenant Keating. Would you care to call either Lieutenants Zade or Dash and accuse me of something preposterous, or are you content to simply embarrass yourself in front of your...." she eyed Saghir up and down, "...fans..?".

Finn looked at Sam. She almost felt bad for the young man, having been caught in the crossfire for one but also for the sheer fact that the unyielding Vulcan was technically his boss when she wasn't relieved of duty. She looked back to P'rel, a fire still aflame in her eyes. She finally had the ice queen boxed into a corner and she wasn't about to back down. "I'd be content if you answered my question instead of deflecting it. So, did you do nothing more than take that file and send it to your official account?" Finn asked once more.

P'rel glared at Keating, almost wishing she was back in the room with Counsellor Savin. She couldn't very well lie, but she also wasn't about to admin to Lieutenant Keating that she'd manipulated the clearance levels on the ship's file administration protocols. "I'm sure you would, however I answer to Captain Kane...." she took a step past the pair, looking to extract herself from the situation as quickly as possible. "Don't you have a plasma conduit to scrub or....something....?" she asked, overly feigning disgust.

"Nothing is more important than the ship's security and by the looks of it, a breach has just been made by none other than our own intelligence officer. Mind if I take a look at that PADD?" Finn asked, knowing she could retract the file that was sent since it hadn't been opened yet on the other side. There was no need to report P'rel, as much as she might want to, but the least she could do is prevent her from getting what she wanted.

Sensing there probably wasn't a way out of this where she could best Keating and still not get in some serious trouble the Kane, P'rel reluctantly handed the PADD to Keating who looked far too thrilled at the prospect. "Mister Saghir, return to the suite, I shall deal with you later..." she dryly ordered. At least Keating wouldn't have an audience to gloat to.

"Uhhh y y yes ma'am" Sam verbally fumbled, only too happy to escape the situation. As he left, he chanced a brief connection of eye contact with Finnley, and flash a momentary grin.

It had been a long time since she had felt this giddy, Finn thought as she took the PADD. Luckily the file hadn't been opened on the other end yet, so with a few clicks of a button, she was able to retract the send and add encryption to the file which blocked it from getting sent to personal accounts in the future. She then looked back to P'rel. "I'll return this to the intelligence department," she held up the PADD as if to tantalize the Vulcan. "I hope you enjoy your time off," Finn flashed the nicest smile she could muster and left without waiting for a response.

If Vulcans could turn red as humans did, P'rel would have become as bright as a red alert klaxon. Instead, she felt the hotness in her cheeks as they turned a prickled green grey. "Sometimes Kohlinar seems an attractive option..." she muttered to herself, having now battled both Savin and Keating. Perhaps she would turn a corner and find yet another smug officer who wanted to irritate her....