Unexpected Connections

Posted on Thu Dec 21st, 2023 @ 2:51pm by Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Lieutenant Alexis Ryan

Mission: Character Development
1476 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

The corridors between where the Marines were staying and the engineering department seemed relatively devoid of presence as Ray made his way towards the heart of the ship. He hadn't yet been onboard too long and he knew that he'd better show up and announce his unexpected presence before his adopted niece randomly walked into him in the corridor. In some ways Ray wondered if he would've been better off just sending a message ahead of his arrival, but he never did trust subspace communications. Besides, she had surprised the hell out of him when she and Quinn had arrived at his house during the trial. Now he could return the favor.

"Here's what our power profile is going to look like," Finn stood hunched over a console with Ryan among the hustle and bustle of engineering. "We're basically creating a 'stealth mode' for the Athena. I've drawn up some initial potential impacts to your department, but I'm sure there's more that I haven't thought of so I wanted you to review as well."

A hand idly kneaded at the base of her neck, working out the kinks from several hours stooped over a console, Alex ran her eyes over the proposed adjustments and frowned slightly. Ostensibly, there was nothing to fault about the work Engineering had done with their projections, it was more the challenge of maintaining adequate sensor updates when power to the array was going to be significantly, albeit necessarily, reduced. "We'll have to rely on manual interfacing." Already, she was reshuffling the crew rotation in her head to take into account those with significant experience and expertise to run partial extrapolation without exclusive aid of the automated analytics.

Ray entered engineering and immediately noticed a blond engineer standing with a science officer across the room. He could pick out that hair up, no-nonsense engineer easily from the summers they had spent together. More than that, he could feel her presence. Not that she knew he had any telepathic abilities. Neither junior or senior Keating had been overly found of anyone knowing their thoughts or feelings so he had purposely hid that talent of his. They may not have been blood related, but she and Quinn had been the closest thing to family he'd ever had outside of a few other select Marine buddies and the closer he got, the less inclined he had been to let go of his secret.

He immediately started to walk in their direction, but paused for just a moment when he noticed that the person next to Finn also felt somehow familiar. He cocked his head in confusion. He didn't know many science officers and certainly none that were assigned to the Athena. Perhaps it was nothing, Ray shrugged and continued his approach though the knowing feeling nagged.

"Well if it isn't my favorite engineer," Ray's voice boomed just loud enough to throw Finn off guard and he smiled as she turned around with a look of shock.

"Uncle Ray? What the hell are you doing here?" Finn asked before showing an uncharacteristically soft side of herself and embracing him in a hug.

Ray's face contorted and his brow furrowed as he finally spied a good look at the science officer next to Finn. "Ryan?!" He asked, his own jaw now agape in surprise.

Alexis, who had barely afforded the exchange a glance to avoid intruding on a personal moment, blinked rapidly in an attempt to recover her wits, thrown immediately by the unprompted and clearly overtly familiar invitation to participate. She stared at the marine, not quite vacantly because it was virtually impossible to stop the whirl of her thoughts at the best of times, but with enough palpable astonishment that the pair of them resembled a pair of comically-posed statues. Age had done a number on both of them but it took the Science Chief only a split second to connect the dots.

"Doc?"

"Wait," Finn let go of her hold on Ray and stepped back to looked between the two of them. "You two know each other?"

A slightly mystified smile softened Ryan's expression. "It's been a while." It was then that the Science Chief seemed to catch herself and, with a deep inhalation of breath, rallied her composure. "A whole different lifetime ago. Doc here is the reason my only battle wound was a slightly dodgy eye." It was a different sensation than the drink with Brooke to catch up had evoked. The pair of them had aged but McClellan had been her superior back then even, and she'd got away this long avoiding inevitable eye surgery thanks to his initial treatment. What he'd have to say about the fact she was still putting off the transplant remained to be seen.

"Ah and I take it that dodgy eye has yet to be replaced. Still?" He squinted noting the slightly bleached marking on her left iris. "You're as bad as this one," Ray motioned a thumb towards Finn, noting her aversion to anything medical. "You really ought to get that transplant you know," he started but then lifted a hand, stopping himself. "I shouldn't waste any of our time trying to convince either of you that you should take a visit to sick bay. It would most certainly be just a waste of my own breath." He chuckled.

It was something Alex never really had an adequate explanation for, not one that fit in around her typical reluctance to openly share too much of what technically counted as vulnerability. Somehow, the work around had always been enough, though she was well into borrowed time by now. Something about the sudden re-emergence of the man who had dragged her from the field, kicking and screaming, rammed home just how long she'd been putting it off.

She folded her arms across her chest and attempted not to look too sheepish.

"It's nearly top of my list. Almost there."

"Uh huh, I'm sure," Ray chuckled.

Finn watched the exchange with a continuingly baffled expression. "Ok, I'm going to need to know more about this whole story. What do you say we all catch up over dinner. At my place. In an hour? That should give us enough time to finish up here."

Ray nodded. "That works for me. I wouldn't want to get in the way of your work. I know how important it is to you and how detriment it could be to my own health to keep you from it," he smirked.

Under most other circumstances, Alex might have been tempted to avoid a formal dinner invitation. It wasn't that she had a problem socialising over food, it was just typically the case that the messhall or lounge provided a less private setting, which also tended to control the direction of conversation. Ryan was reserved to a fault, particularly in regards to her private life, and had found herself with things on her mind lately that really didn't belong in casual conversation. More than that, this particular catch-up threatened to delve into aspects of her life that were very separate from her Starfleet career and she had spent some time investing in keeping things that way. A younger Alexis Ryan hadn't always opted to keep things on an even keel.

But, whether she liked it or not, there were people on board now who had been there for her at a pivotal turning point and, whatever she felt about them mingling with her new colleagues, the camaraderie was not unwelcome. Smiling warmly, she found herself agreeing with a dip of her head, though she was glad it was Keating who stood to learn the most about Athena's Science Chief's colourful past. In a crew too overly fond of gossip, the Chief of Engineering seemed to have her head screwed on right. "Sounds great."

"Good," Finn nodded. "Then we'll see you in an hour Uncle Ray. You're welcome to hang out in my quarters in the meantime if you'd like. I imagine where ever they have the Marines holed up isn't quite as comfortable."

"I may just take you up on that," he smiled, excited for the dinner that had been suggested. It was one thing to be able to spend time with his niece, but to come across an old friend as well had certainly been an unexpected, yet pleasant, surprise. "See you both in an hour."

Alex watched as the older marine wandered out and blinked several times at the closed doors before slowly turning her attention to the woman standing beside her. A belated smile, bemused, was followed by the disbelieving shake of her head. "Sometimes," the Lieutenant observed as she bent back over the console to resume her study, "the universe feels about the size of a Ferengi's standard discount."