Distractions

Posted on Tue Jul 26th, 2022 @ 4:27pm by Petty Officer 3rd Class Sam Saghir & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: Shore Leave
3043 words - 6.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Finn stood over a console, not another soul in sight. Exactly how she wanted it. No one around to witness the kind of havoc she could cause. The clone wiggled her fingers in anticipation as she thought through all of the options. Nothing could be too obvious, but a few hidden algorithms or the perfectly placed malfunctioning chip would do just fine.

First things first, tactical. Finn took a final look around to ensure no one was close by and then dug into every memory she had stolen from the real CEO and got to work. A small line of code in the processing unit and a well-timed overload through the right EPS conduit set up the trap to rig a surge of power to some of the weapons systems the next time they got in a fight. It would look like they were just taken out by an accurate hit from the opposing side. Something like a drain from the right line of power and wouldn't ultimately leave the Athena defenseless but would hinder the ship the next time they came across a fight with the right side of Starfleet.

Her fingers moved to the coolant system. Everything was about chain reactions when it came to engineering. One small misstep in one area could lead to disaster in another and so Finn worked to find an appropriate weak spot that might allow for a coolant leak to be staged. Unfortunately, it was also one of the more fortified systems. Finn put her hand to her chin in thought until she sense movement in the area.

"Can I help you?" She asked whoever was approaching.

To Sam, Keating seemed distinctly more irritated in her voice than usual; she was almost always happy and bright and yet the voice which greeted him in engineering was certainly hers, and yet somehow it wasn't. Maybe she was just having a bad day. "Uhhh F...Finn?" he asked. He looked upwards through the inspection bay to the upper section, only seeing the back of her as she worked on something at a console. From his angle, the view through the railing of Finnley's rear was not entirely unpleasant, even though he'd only come in for an access command kit to work on the imaging sensor upgrades issued by Starfleet for the intelligence suite.

The clone rolled her eyes as she heard Sam's stutter behind her. Must play nice, she told herself before swirling around. "Oh! Hey Sam. Didn't expect to run into you here. What brings you to these parts?" Finn asked, putting on her best smile and playing the part. Perhaps she could shoo him along quickly.

Sam beamed back at Keating, from the lower engineering deck looking up it was truly as if an angel had descended from heaven itself to grant him an audience with perfection. Realising he was staring, Sam came to his somewhat mitigated senses; "I - oh - errr...." - for a moment he genuinely had no idea why he was in engineering- "pictures!" he blurted out. Composing himself a little, he deftly recovered with "imaging sensor upgrades...uhhh....I need an access command kit to err....uhhh...." he read the PADD and the issued manual from Starfleet on how to complete the upgrade. "Oh. Erm...here it is...I need to disconnect the command pathways from the optronic data network, and....erm.....run a live bypass to the access command kit until the new relay package has been installed". He really wasn't entirely sure, but the best he could tell the access command kit was some kind of small device which let the computer think something was still running in place of a deactivated system whilst it was being upgraded; sort of like an artificial heart keeping a patient alive during replacement surgery. At least, as best he could tell.

Well that's no good, Finn thought, knowing that the process he needed to follow would screw up everything she had just done. Even worse, it might just expose her. She batted her eyelashes at the young man and frowned slightly. "I'm so sorry Sam, but I'm in the middle of some updates at the moment. Do you think it could wait? Just a few days?" She asked, assuming it wouldn't take much for the petty officer to bend to her whims.

Sam looked away in something of a nervous terror. The upgrade really couldn't wait at all, it was part of a mandatory package upgrade and the station's operations department had set a clear deadline. He couldn't quite find those words for Finn though. He was far too nervous to coherently explain to her that there was no way it could possibly wait. "Oh I erm.... sorry Finnley...umm orders..." he mumbled, approaching the ladder to the upper platform to show her the PADD with the requirements on it.

"Alright, as soon as I'm done here it's all yours. Should only take me a few more minutes," the clone lied. "Oh hey, by the way, you still owe me that drink we talked about. Are you free after this?" Finn asked, the words rolling off of her tongue like a sweet song as she did her best to mesmerize Sam. She couldn't get him to wait on his updates, but perhaps she could make him forget entirely.

"With...me?" Sam replied, suddenly unsure where exactly to put his feet. He reached over to lean on one of the support braces lining the consoles, his hand missing by mere millimetres but enough for him to slip past, propelled by his body weight. Coughing and doing his best to recover nonchalantly as he stood again and straightened his uniform. "Um me?".

Finn chuckled with an innocent smile. "Yes of course you! I think it would be nice to get to know each other better. Don't you? Actually, we might as well get dinner with that drink. Why don't we just meet at the bar in say thirty minutes?"

Feeling his cheeks turning as red as the Bussard collectors, Sam sheepishly smiled; "Uhhmmm y yes, yes?". He took a step backwards and banged the back of his head into the support brace, wincing forward as he tried to, again nonchalantly, style it out. Turning to leave, he banged his knee on the bottom of the brace as well. 'Just keep walking...' he told himself, grimacing at his awkwardness.

"See you there Sam. I'm looking forward to it!" She waved with a sense of accomplishment in having distracted him for now.

======

Finn arrived at the bar thirty minutes later, as planned. She had finished up her sabotages in the cargo bay fifteen minutes after Sam had left and used the remaining fifteen to change into something more, distracting, than her uniform. Having looked around and not spotted petty officer, Finn ordered two drinks from the bar and sat at a table in the corner.

Having taken something to settle the acute stomach cramps he had been feeling as his guts knotted with anxiety, Sam stood outside the doors to the bar and took a deep breath in. “Be cool” he told himself, having waited months for the chance to be alone with Keating. He stepped forward and his frenetic anxiety carried him faster than intended, and the sliding doors hadn’t opened fast enough for his shoulders to clear them. The front of his shoulders on both slides slammed into the opening doors with enough of a noise that everyone looked over. His hopes that Finley wasn’t there yet were dashed, as she looked at him and he looked back with a meek and embarrassed smile. The few short metres over to her table felt like he was walking the length of the ship.

"Hi Sam," Finn said with the sweetest smile she could muster. As much as she didn't want to waste her time, the clone had to admit that she shared the original Finn's feelings for Sam. He was cute, but it was also entirely amusing to be in his presence and watch him fumble around. "I got you a drink from the bar to start, I hope you like it. It's a Mai Tai." She had picked the fruity drink for him thinking that he might enjoy the sweet flavor more than a drink with an overpowering taste of alcohol.

"Oh..." he replied, with an exaggerated expression of wonder as if he'd never come across a drink before. "Oh yes..." he took a sip, "well that's...yes that's lovely....". He sat with drink in hand, not having a clue what to say. He'd been waiting for this for so long, and now he was finally sat across from her, he had no idea how to manage even the most basic conversation.

"I have to admit, I don't know much about you. We've run into each other a few times, but the conversation tends to not last too long," Finn chuckled lightly. "Where are you from?" She asked, starting off with an easy topic.

Sam honestly couldn't remember where he was from for a moment. This was a date. He was on a date. With her. With Finnley. He was dating Finnley Keating. "Uhh....I d-d-don't remember where we erm...where we were. A ship. Starfleet. My family. The Ranger. I don't erm...don't remember where we were exactly....do you?" he winced and corrected himself; "and you?".

"Earth. California specifically," she said with a smile, choosing to ignore his jumbled responses. "Though like you, my family was Starfleet so we lived off and on various ships too. I didn't know we had that in common! Were both your parents in or just one? Were they in intelligence too?"

Finn was making things easier for him, she was enthusiastic and leading the conversation. If this was going to go anywhere, he had to relax a little; he took a large sip of the drink, more as a nerve steadying prop than anything. "Oh erm...no. No my dad, Sab, was something of a erm....how would you say....a Bohemian...?" He smiled, thinking of his hippy dad, a free spirit not constrained by any of the usual social norms such as work. "My mother, she was actually an engineer, and then a Captain. Still is."

"An engineer? They make the best Captains, in my opinion." Finn took another sip of her drink as well. "My dad is in Starfleet, my mom is a civilian. What made you decide to go into intelligence?"

Sam was beginning to relax, the beat of the conversation was helping to keep his mind off the actual fact that he was on a date with Finnley, and allowed him to just go with the tempo; "Oh erm, well, actually my mother wanted us all to be commissioned, but I just wanted to get out into space....I suppose I erm...well, I didn't have the patience. I'm actually a pilot...really....erm....that's where I started...." his mind wandered as he tried to remember the question in the first place. "Oh, yes, intelligence - oh well, actually that was mother's idea; she figured there was a pathway to a commission via one of the professional service branches...

"Oh interesting, I suppose that makes sense. You said all of you? I take it you have siblings?" The clone asked, keeping a sweet smile plastered onto her face as she feigned interest in the petty officer's life.

"Erm yeah, yes. Both Starfleet..." he was aware he'd only been answering questions for moment. "and y, erm....you?" he managed.

"Only child," she stated. "What do your siblings do for Starfleet?" Finn asked, purely out of curiosity. She wondered if his siblings had as hard of a time with words as Sam did.

"Oh erm. Ops and Tactical" he answered, actually not really sure what particular job roles they did anymore, only their respective fields.

"Oh, cool," Finn held her drink up as if to cheers, hoping to encourage Sam to continue drinking. "So, Sam," the clone started with a seductive grin. "Do you happen to know anything about those clones? Did you go down to the station at all? They were so creepy!" She said, starting a new line of questioning. Perhaps the date didn't have to be a total waste of time if she could gather what information Starfleet had on their operation.

Sam grimaced a little, the whole thing was rather unsettling to him. “I didn’t go, but I read the intel reports afterwards….grim…” he said, his face contorted as if he’d swallowed something sour. “Fortunately we can screen for them quite easily…the downside is that it’s an active not a passive process. Did you ever read how Starfleet routinely phaser screened rooms during the war for changelings…? I think we need something like that. Mass testing just doesn’t work all that well…” he suddenly realised he felt a lot more relaxed talking about work.

"Interesting, that makes sense though. You're so smart, Sam," Finn smiled as she complimented the young man. "How do you screen for them now? Do you think they could adapt the phaser screening? Maybe into like ship-wide screening or something. That would be pretty neat," she said hoping to squeeze any additional information from him.

He nodded vigorously. "I think so - though I don't know if phaser screens would work. We can definitely scan for the genetic patterns though..." he was eager, and relaxed, talking about work was something he could actually get excited about around her without succumbing to nerves. "Maybe an active scan whenever a door is activated...something like that...." then he had a thought. "Hey! Maybe you could calibrate it! We could install some trials here on Athena!"

"That's a fantastic idea, Sam! I'd love to work together with you on it," Finn continued to turn on the charm as much as possible, not that it was entirely needed. Pulling work-related information from the man seemed incredibly easy. "How are you not running the intelligence department by now? Clearly, you have the skill," the clone smiled and casually lifted her drink to her lips. "This whole thing is crazy, isn't it? Who do you think could have put all of this together? Must be someone powerful," she openly mused hoping that Sam would take the bait.

Sam blushed and took another drink to hide behind the raised glass. "I - I- I'm only a non-com...." he embarrassingly conceded. "Not that mother was pleased, but I just wanted to get into space...you know...?". He placed the drink down. "But yes, I mean...whoever set all this in motion..." he leaned in closer to Finn and looked at her to convey she should do the same. As she mirrored his body language, he spoke much quieter. "Lieutenant P'rel thought there was a massive conspiracy. She had a whole database dedicated to it, called it operation midnight, and it has all the names of Captains and above - and their equivalencies too - from the Breen, Cardassia, Romulans, Tzenkethi, even Starfleet...". He looked around to make sure nobody could hear them. "Personally I think she was barking up the crazy tree....but who knows....she was pretty set on the idea that there's a large movement in senior leadership across the sector..."

"Captains and above? In Starfleet?" Finn whispered back. "I think you're right, that is crazy. No one in Starfleet would do that." Good thing P'rel is dead now. I wonder if I can hack into their system and remove that data, the clone pondered. "I'm sure when she relayed that to command that they would realize that was crazy talk right?" She asked with a slight chuckle, digging to find out who else might know.

Sam shrugged. "I don't think she told anyone, other than the Captain...I only know because I was around when she was working on it, and I can access the database....but other than Captain Kane....I doubt any else even knows about it...". He smiled, glad to be able to help Finnley understand something. It was refreshing to be the confident and competent half of a conversation for a change.

Dammit, Finn internally cursed, having hoped that P'rel hadn't told anyone other than perhaps Sam or someone else in the department. If Kane knew, it complicated matters. She needed to get a message to the Admiral.

Finn finished her drink and smiled at Sam. "I hate to end the evening, but I have some reports to attend to in engineering that I swore I would get done tonight.
We should do this again sometime. I've really enjoyed my time. I hope you've had a good time as well?"

"I- oh..." Sam was taken aback by the sudden departure. He had thought it was going well, but only one drink in and she was off to do some work. "I erm...yeah, yes...yes." he struggled, not entirely sure where to look.

Finn leaned forward and gave the poor boy a kiss. She needed to break free to get a message out to the Admiral, but in some ways, she felt bad for Sam. He didn't even realize she wasn't the real Finn and not only would he eventually be disappointed, but he'd also realize that he'd given away more information than he should have. "I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer tonight, but next time I promise a full dinner," she gave Sam one last smile before walking towards the door.

"O- o- oh....sure....yes..." he said to himself, with confusing conflicts of emotions sloshing around in his tummy. Well, he thought, it was still a date and it hadn't ended with her throwing him into the warp plasma to dispose of the body. He gave himself an almost self-celebratory inward high five. Turning his confusion into a big beaming grin, he stood and left the bar as well. She said next time.... 'I'm dating Finnley Keating' he said to himself with a glowing warmth in his soul for the first time in as long as he could remember.

 

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