I Heard A Rumour....

Posted on Wed May 31st, 2023 @ 9:13pm by Lieutenant Xavier Leiko & Ensign Charlotte (Charlie) Washington

Mission: Wrath of the People
Location: Deflector Control Room
Timeline: MD07
1461 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Charlie checked the roster with Henry, as they always did first thing upon arrival for their shift in ops. This time, however, it was a bit different. Normally she'd have a list of tasks or she'd grab one from a master list, but instead, it just said to report to Lieutenant Leiko. She exchanged a look with her husband before walking to the COO's office.

"Lieutenant?" Charlie approached Xavier with only a slight hesitation. She wasn't one to overly worry, though she did hope that the request for her presence wasn't out of concern over something she had done.

Xavier looked up from the calculations he was currently working on. "Don't look so worried Ensign," he said, surprised at the level of anxiety he was picking up from the dark-haired human. "I'm assigning your husband to the away team which means you're my right-hand woman for the time being, up for the challenge?" He asked, a smile on his face trying to ease her a little.

Charlie's face quickly twisted into a look of defiance, with a faint smirk. "I wasn't aware I looked worried," though in truth she did feel relieved. "Then again, I guess it's no use hiding anything from you and of course I'm up for the challenge. I've been waiting for you to notice how great of an ops officer I am and decide to work with me," she chuckled. "So what are doing?"

Xavier laughed. "Yep no getting anything passed this head," he quipped as he tapped his temple with his index finger. He couldn't express how good it felt to say that again, even if he wasn't completely healed yet, he was definitely on the road to recovery. "We're going to be making some modifications to the main deflector dish, and before you say it I know... I spoil you. Grab your tool kit."

"You think the deflector dish is how you spoil someone? Sir, no offense, but we need to work on your definition of spoil." CJ picked up her tool kit and fell into step next to Xavier. "Now if you could convince some of those hot enlisted grease monkies from deck five to feed us grapes while we're making repairs, I would consider myself spoiled," she chuckled.

"Grapes?" Xavier repeated as they entered the turbolift and started moving towards their destination. "You have access to all the magnificent fruits and foods in the universe, and you choose grapes? From Earth? Surely we can do better than that Ensign?" He said with a huge grin. "And while you ponder that, I need to know who you think is hot?"

Charlie gasped in feigned horror. "I'm a married woman. I of course only meant Petty Officer Washington. Who else could I possibly be talking about?" She smirked.

"If you say so," Xavier smirked as the turbolift doors parted and he led the way to the Deflector Control Room. "Some people find a certain Trill engineer hot," he said, casually, probing for a response.

Once in the room, Charlie set down her kit and rolled her eyes. "Please don't tell me you're talking about Kateyo Fenn. Sure, he's got the looks I suppose, but man that ego brings his overall appeal down more than one notch if you know what I mean...Some people might find that attractive, but it's definitely not for me. Certainly seems like a good choice to get into some trouble with though. As friends of course. What about you? Any Trills, or otherwise, that you're into?" She raised an eyebrow in curiosity. She had heard about Xavier and Jerant but only rumors and whispers, nothing official.

Xavier snorted at her reaction, he had a very similar feeling when it came to Tey, there was no way he would even consider going there, which made her question even funnier to him. "We need to take the deflector offline while we upgrade it," he said logging into the master system control. He tactfully avoided her question. Yes, he was dating Jerant but they hadn't put a label on it yet and the truth was until now he hadn't even questioned it. "This close to an asteroid field without the deflector makes me nervous, so before we take it offline I want to send out a particle phase pulse. That should keep up protected for the time being."

"On it," she grabbed some tools, set up the particle phase pulse, and sent it out. "Particle phase pulse dispersed...shutting down the deflector now..." she punched in a couple of buttons before a familiar draining sound indicated that it had been taken offline. "Excellent avoidance technique by the way, sir," Charlie grinned.

"Avoidance techniques?" Xavier repeated as he watched the deflector readouts, waiting for the emitters to cool to a safe temperature so that they could begin the modifications. He tapped his index finger on the desk, in a semi-rhymic pattern. "Whatever do you mean?"

Charlie practically rolled her eyes but her lips were still curled in a smile that indicated amusement. "Don't try to pretend like you didn't just change the subject and completely ignore my last question. Don't worry," she waved her hand dismissively. "I won't tell anyone else about your suspicious avoidance of relationship questions. Though, it does make me curious. I've heard rumors of you spending time with the counselor's aide and since you sidestepped the question, my best guesses are that it's recently ended or that it's more than just rumors but nothing that you're willing to define yet." She gave him a quick but obviously devious look. CJ was a social butterfly and although rumors weren't always accurate, they almost always had an inkling of truth behind them. Plus, it was fun to poke around those rumors and discover new and interesting developments. "Oh, hey, look at that." Charlie pointed at the readouts. "Saved by the emitter. It's cooled down enough for us to make those modifications."

Xavier was bemused by the officer's observations but thankfully was spared any further interrogations due to the deflector dish. He patted the console fondly, he owed her a good clean after this was over, that was for sure. "We need to link the deflector to the main sensor array and the navigational array. Once we've done that we need to link the three together to make a passive focus inverter. You take the navigational array, if your talents at spreading rumours are as good as your engineering skills then this should be cake to you." He added with a smile.

The pair set to work, each focused on their own side of the task. Xavier was just brining up the sensor platform subroutines when he looked up at Charlie. "So what are these rumours you have heard then?" He couldn't help but ask.

"Not much, just that you've been seen spending a suspicious amount of time with the counselor's aide. What's his name again? Jared?" She asked with a sly look on her face.

"Jerant," Xavier corrected with a smile. If he didn't know better he would have sworn that Charlotte was Betazoid, she was clearly in the wrong department at least. "I wouldn't say it was suspicious per se," he continued as he tried for the second time to run the correct subroutine. "We've been friends for a while and then after all of the Ithaca II stuff..." He trailed off thinking of that dark time in his life. The pain of losing his telepathy and then the months of struggle after. He still wasn't back to his normal self now and he so wanted to be. "We got closer," he continued as though he hadn't paused to contemplate his own disability. "But yeah, I enjoy his company."

"There," Xavier got the correct subroutine to run and Charlie completed her portion of the setup. "I think we're ready! Anything else we need to do here? Other than find a time to go on a double date?" She smiled innocently though her eyes glittered with mischievousness.

"You looking for ways to spice up your marriage Ensign?" Xavier asked, his head snapping up to look at her. He rubbed his neck gently, massaging the muscle he injured in his sudden movement. "Henry is cute enough, I suppose," he added, pretending to contemplate it.

"Isn't he though?" Charlie chuckled. "Just a double date. Nothing more. You knew what I meant. How about tomorrow night?"

Xavier chuckled. "Let's deal with some pirates first, then we can plan our social life, agreed?"

"That's fine," Charlie shrugged, "but don't think I won't hold you to that. Your delay tactics won't make me forget."

Xavier rolled his eyes, "I'm sure you will. Now let's test this and get the hell out of here."