Out in the Open

Posted on Mon Jul 4th, 2022 @ 1:59am by Lieutenant Alexis Ryan & Lieutenant Didrea Zade

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Science Offices
Timeline: SOMEWHERE BEFORE THE END OF THE UNIVERSE
1789 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

One of the many things Zade found herself doing was going through personnel files to make sure any requests were properly filed. Maybe this was why Karav always looked so fed up with people, because this was the more monotonous work and sometimes the requests, while it made sense to keep track of them, felt silly at times. Zade was about to take a break when her computer beeped, and she read the alert. The face was that of the new science chief, and there was an alert about an open carry request that carried over from her previous posting. It expired though, which meant she couldn't just ask the science chief to fill out a renewal request.

"Computer, locate Lieutenant Alexis Ryan." The computer indicated that she was in the science offices on deck 4, so Zade grabbed a PaDD and put the required forms on it before standing and making her way to deck 4. It took her a couple minutes, but she soon found herself standing inside a room full of lab equipment and other science stuff. Being on a science vessel for some time gave her an advantage when it came to identifying equipment, but there was still a lot she didn't know. Looking around the sea of blue shirts, she identified something that looked like a chief's office and walked over, and when she got closer she identified the redhead from the personnel file. "Lieutenant Ryan?" she asked, gently tapping on the door with two knuckles. "You have a free moment?"

Alexis, for her part, was knee-deep in 'should have been done last week' priorities. Inheriting another person's department always came with a few quirks and hiccups but there were potholes within potholes that had slowly eroded over time to reveal missed opportunities for due process and, whilst the entire division was more or less perfectly functional, there were spots of tarnish everywhere. The Chief was faced with the prospect of building a database for all the loose ends just to keep them from snapping free and slapping her in the face. She stood behind her desk, hands on her hips, surveying a veritable battalion of PADDs, and only briefly looked up at the intrusion.

"Not for a month of Sundays." It wasn't meant as a dismissal however, and so Ryan glanced upwards and allowed her gaze to linger. "What can I do for you, Lieutenant?"

"I know the feeling," Zade said with an understanding nod. She then gave the PaDD in her hand a little wave. "Lieutenant Zade, chief of security. I got an alert that your open carry permit expired. If you want to open carry, we'll have to do the whole process again, not just a renewal request. It's not urgent, but it does take time to process on my end." The Trill's eyes wandered to the mess of PaDDs on the desk, picking up keywords but otherwise noting just how much work the science chief had, then looked back at the woman. "I can work around your schedule, of course."

There was a moment of genuine, palpable confusion before the furrow of Ryan's brow permitted relaxation enough for her eyebrows to arch. "Well, there's a blast from the past."

One mission turned completely upside down, an entire crew tipped on its head without warning. They'd been up against a threat from within that had drawn out to such an extent that even Alex had been tempted to view her personal perceptions as the hallucinations of a decaying mind.

"No pun intended." A wry smile accompanied a circumspect shrug. "I maintained all my other certifications, there just wasn't a lot of need to remain armed these past couple of years. That was very circumstantial, Lieutenant. My commanding officer at the time fast-tracked the paperwork to meet a growing need. The conversation now should probably be more along the lines of whether you need me to open-carry." There had been a time in her life where being unarmed had left Alex feeling far too vulnerable. These days, she found ways to manage the sensation of being naked without a means to protect herself and others. "I'm happy to fall in with whatever Athena's policies are."

"Given the events of the last mission, having senior officers be armed might not be a bad idea," Zade shrugged. "The Athena doesn't really have policies enforcing open carry, at least none that I've come across yet in the paperwork." One of the things she did take the time to learn, however, was where emergency phasers were throughout the ship. Something she saw in the schematics was a series of access panels scattered throughout the ship that housed some basic weapons, usually used in case the ship was boarded. From what she recalled, there was one in the science lab, and it wouldn't hurt to check it out while she was there. She gave Lieutenant Ryan a smile, "so per my current knowledge of policy, I suppose I don't need you to, but I think it's a good idea. I know some people have other weapons registered, mostly swords, so I'm certainly not opposed to it."

Hunching a shoulder, Ryan consented to the logic without fuss. "Fine by me. What's my timeline?" Regarding the scattered PADDs on her desk, Alexis puffed her cheeks into a resigned exhalation and stated the absolute bleeding obvious. "I'm a little busy but I can prioritise it if you need me to."

Zade glanced at the chaos on the woman's desk again, sympathizing with the new chief. Her desk looked similar the other day, but the Trill had the advantage in that when there wasn't something to do, she didn't have as much work. From her experience on the Colossal, a scientist's work is never done. "It can wait until you're more caught up... or if you need a break to go shoot something."

That earned a wry smile. "Certainly worse ways to unwind. Still, you're technically on shoreleave, right?" Alexis, for her part, didn't really feel like the break applied to her. She'd had her fill of the place waiting for the ship to turn up. "If it can wait until we leave spacedock, I don't need to interrupt your downtime."

Zade gave a slight smile in return. "If I were on shore leave, Lieutenant, I wouldn't be here." It hadn't been that long since Zade had joined the ship, only about a week before Alexis, so she didn't really feel like she needed the shore leave. She did still take advantage of the opportunity by visiting the surface, but after dodging persistent locals with that Myra girl and the social interaction at the pool, she had her fill. "Just let me know when you're ready." Taking in a breath, Zade added, "I did want to check the emergency weapons locker while I was here. I know you are busy, but would you like a couple extra seconds of break from that mountain of work to see where it is?"

"Let's hope it's not buried under something."

Ryan obliged, however, setting aside the PADD in her hand to follow the Security Chief. "Do you have much experience with the Prometheus model?," she asked, curious if for no other reason that it interested her personally to know how much the crew understood of the ship they were serving on.

"Admittedly, not a lot, but it's one of my priorities to gain experience," Zade replied, leading the way. The locker was inside the offices, fortunately, and it was about halfway from the chief's office and the main doors. "It's been a hell of a learning curve, but I'm a quick study." Approaching a panel nested neatly into the wall, she entered in her access code into the control pad, and a moment later the latch popped with an audible click. "You enter in your standard access code to open the panel. It sends an alert to the security offices that the locker was accessed, and who accessed it. It's mainly to keep track of which lockers may need to be inventoried..." when the panel was fully removed, Zade saw that only three phaser rifles were in the locker, when it should have more than that. "Well, that's embarrassing," she muttered to herself.

Much though the sight didn't impress Alex either, she felt more of a pang of frustrated empathy than any sense of recrimination. "Welcome to the Science Department," she offered dryly and then permitted a soft huff of tired laughter. "As far as I've been able to figure out so far, this place has functioned but possibly been a little short-staffed. It happens, these warships don't attract a majority of those motivated by the exploration potential they signed up for. Which is a shame, because Athena has a lot under her bonnet already and more on the horizon if things go to plan."

Alex crouched to pick up one of the rifles and held it up for Zade to inspect. "If you let me know the service tags of what should be in this locker, I can follow it up on my end. Hopefully they're just sitting in the armoury unprocessed."

"Hopefully," Zade replied, accepting the rifle in two hands to inspect it. A moment passed before she said something in Trill, in a tone that implied an unfriendly gesture. "Wow, these aren't even in good condition." There was a pause as Zade pulled out a tricorder and scanned the weapon. "Yeah, these things have been neglected, for who knows how long." Looking up from the rifle, she gave a half-smile to Alex, "on the plus side, it looks like you're getting a locker full of brand new phaser rifles." Zade returned the rifle to the locker and tapped something into the control pad. A moment later, the three rifles disappeared in a shimmer of light that anyone would recognize as a transporter beam. "I sent them to my department. You should have new ones by the end of the day."

"Let's hope I don't ever have cause to use them," Ryan quipped, and watched the other woman straighten. "I appreciate your time, Lieutenant, but I really should get back to what I was doing." Backing up, Alex added in her retreat, "Schedule my recertification whenever it suits," and then flipped a friendly mock salute before disappearing back into her office. If nothing else, she mused, staring at the piles of PADDs on her desk, she had a wealth of target practise cluttering her office currently. Picking up one of the devices, Alex hefted it and cocked a finger at it.

It was one way to deal with other people's messes.