The science ensign walked into Edie's office and plopped down onto a
chair. He didn't bother knocking; the door was open anyway, she looked
busy with some sort of work, and he didn't mind waiting until she was
finished. If she didn't take too long, at least.
Edie had been humming some insignificant tune to herself, as she
tended one of the many houseplants which had overrun her office. One
of her department assistants had once mentioned the difficulty of
focusing within the space, given its resemblance to a world's
rainforest. Behind her, the desk was overrun with PADDs and various
spent equipment. The Chief Engineer had a problem in letting go of an
old tool, instead she hoarded them with the intent of fixing them and
giving them new life. A task which had yet to move past the
'collection' phase. The disheveled appearing Commander had been too
distracted to even take notice in the arrival of Ensign Burgundy - it
had been when she turned around and saw his presence that she gasped
and dropped her rusty watering can.
"Oh….. Ensign Burgundy…. I didn't hear you come in." Edie looked at
the man blankly for a moment. She had yet to take a particular liking
to the Ensign - often finding his comments and abrasive attitude most
unbecoming. "Is there something I can do for you?" She raised a brow
and slowly picked up her misplaced item, hardly worried about the
water which was now soaking in the carpet below. She then took a seat
adjacent to the man but could not see him over the pile of equipment.
Within a moment, she had waved some of the pile to the left which had
facilitated an acceptable view.
The man sighed at her reaction. He was sooo tired of this ship. The
Captain. His annoying Yeoman. This old-and-probably-senile Chief
Engineer. Not to mention the gelatinous head of his own department… A
metallic snickering inside his head reminded him that Perdita Animo
was listening in on his thoughts, even at this distance from the
Science Department. He rubbed his temples absently and tried to return
to the moment. The small container in his hand helped with that, and
he promptly set it on a small uncluttered spot on Edie's desk.
"I finally caught the bug that's been bothering us. I was planning to
go to the Captain with it, but I know his first comment will be that
he wants a full report on all the shenanigans it may have caused. We
already know a few of those, of course." He shook the container a bit,
but the creature didn't stir, suspended as it was in a forcefield.
"I've run a thorough diagnostic on it and can fairly accurately
pinpoint if it's been present somewhere when something's gone wrong.
At least present in any dimension our sensors can reach." He produced
a pad in his other hand and offered it over a lower section of the
trash pile on Edie's desk. "Here's all the technical glitches and
other, uhm, weirdness that I've been able to tie to this little
creature so far. Can you read through it and check your reports to see
if you find anything similar that's been happening lately?" Of course,
'similar' was a bit of a misnomer considering all the hilariously
different effects a dimension-shifting, radiation-surfing,
energy-eating beetle could have on starship life and systems, but he
gladly put the onus of guessing on someone else.
"Well.. Well… Wellllll…" Edie's eyes lit up at the sight of the
creature, contained within the prison Burgundy had constructed. "Isn't
it just cute?" She leaned forward with a big grin on her face. Sure -
the little bastard had caused quite a stir within her own department,
and had truly tripled their work load since it had started running
amuck among the Lone Star. The estranged elderly woman tapped the side
of the container with one of her long and multicoloured nails - yes,
they were certainly against Starfleet regulations but she was simply
far too beyond caring about such things.
"Lonie. Run a level ten multi spectrum analysis. Allocate all
available sensor power, whatever you need. Compare to all diagnostic
and engineering reports available from the past several days." The
computer responded in due turn after Edie moved some more junk off her
desk and matched the container with a micro-densed scanner which was
built into her work station.
An array of data began to display behind the birds nest hair of the
Lone Star's Chief Engineer, she turned around to take some of it and
could quickly be heard making several different pitched "hmmmmmms" and
"ahasssss" - she was sure it would only continue to aggravate Burgundy
further, alas she had been motivated to toss in a few extra ones for
him. "There certainly appears to be some correlation with this little
friend of ours. However - not everything is matching up." She flailed
herself back around to look at Burgundy.
"Personally. I think what has not matched up has just been Lonie -
throwing a bit of a tantrum. He isn't happy that we have been out here
so long." The woman shrugged. She knew despite her best efforts, that
Lonie was in desperate need of a deep cleaning and refit at a formal
Starfleet port. The ship had grown tired in their time out in very
deep space.
Burgundy let out a long sigh of relief. Just being in the presence of
Commander Freelove was annoying; having to actually listen to her was
even worse. But it paid off this time. "Thank you, Commander," he said
as he rose and - a little too enthusiastically - snatched the little
container with the bug back. "That was truly helpful of you." The
ensign tapped some commands into his pad, attaching all the relevant
incidents to his report on the beetle.
Edie raised her brow inquisitively for a moment, then shrugged off the
feeling that Burgundy was being sarcastic. She was rather impressed
that the man had been able to capture such an elusive creature - it
truly was cute though. Part of her had been tempted to take it out of
the container and pet it.
The science officer smirked, possibly for the first time in months. He
felt like he was on the verge of finishing a grand project.
Before he exited the office he was struck by a thought, or rather a
hunch. Something was just a little too good about it all. He
half-turned back to the engineer. "Commander? Could you do me a favour
and send all the data you have on Lonie's, uhm, 'tantrums' to the
Science Department? Maybe we can be of assistance with them, in lieu
of proper shipyards."
"Oh…. Yes….. I think I can make that happen Mr. Burgundy." Edie smiled
awkwardly and looked around at the pile of PADDs on her desk. She had
a terrible habit of writing her reports offline and forgetting to sync
up with Lonie's databases. It was her way of not hurting the ship's
feelings had something been reported in less than stellar condition.
She was certain the requested information was compiled among the
mess…. Somewheres…
"Good work on the bug catching by the way." She deflected anymore
exploration of the requested information and returned to tending her
plant-children after the Ensign's departure from her office.
---
Commander Edith Freelove
Chief of Engineering
Ensign Burgundy
Science Officer