In Awe of a New Age

Posted on Tue Dec 6th, 2011 @ 9:18am by Lieutenant JG Allison Price & Ensign Erich Wynn & Captain Alexander Gunning

Mission: The Pak'Leth Problem
Location: Observation Area, Deck 274

[ON]

Allison lumbers into the lounge, her toolkit hanging from her shoulder. After a long day of repairs she was looking forward to some time off. This lounge was one of her favorite on the entire station. From here, she could look out and see most of the internal docking bay. It was always great to to come here and just stare at the ships, watching the traffic move in and out of the massive space dock. "Green tea, hot," she said to the replicator on her way to the window. The lounge was mostly empty tonight. The Pak'Leth seemed to be occupying everyone's time.

Skipping the chairs, the Cadet elected to head straight to the support structure in the corner of the room. Letting her kit fall to the floor, Allie took a seat with her back to the strut, gazing out the window and sipped her tea. For the last few days, she had been sitting in this very spot, staring in awe at the future of Starfleet, the USS Vesta. Allie smiled. "Some day..." she whispered to herself, taking another drink of her tea.

"Quite a ship, isn't she?" Cadet Erich Wynn said, emerging from the other side of the support structure. He had seen the girl around the Observation Area a lot recently.

He had been in his own little world for a couple of days now. Since he had returned from Mira with Wilson, he had yet to return to active duty. The man had impressed something deep in his psyche that had made him consider his career choice. Until now, he had shrugged it off but it was there, eating away at him. He figured that some interaction with a human other than that infernal Investigator.

"She is indeed," the engineering cadet replied, turning to look at the new voice. She hadn't seen this cadet before, but it was a big station, and she didn't work much with the flight academy. "I don't think we've met. I'm Allison Price, but most people call me Allie."

"Erich," the blonde cadet replied, "Erich Wynn." He didn't extend his hand to shake her's. This seemed more of an interaction among peers. He hoped it was at least. "I'm from the Flight Academy. I assume you're Interning in Engineering?"

"That's right," she replied nodding. "I've been working mostly with Chief Bones, working on various repairs and system upgrades. I did get to have my first away team mission recently on board that Pak'Leth ship. That was, shall we say, an adventure."

"Yeah?" Wynn replied, "I mean, there are rumours going around about all sorts of things on that ship but given what Wilson and I heard on Mira..." He tailed off, assuming he wasn't supposed to talking frivolously about that kind of thing.

Allie was not going to let a piece of gossip go, at least not that easily, and especially when it was about a ship. "What did you hear? Don't leave me in the dark."

"I don't know if I'm able to say, to be honest. Let's just put it this way, we heard some things and now there's a Private Detective giving a report to an admiral. Seems a bit weird, doesn't it?"

"Sure," Allie replied, not entirely sure what it all meant. It does seem a little odd that a private detective would be having discussions with an Admiral, but in the end she didn't know what any of it meant. As far as she was concerned, she was just an engineer, and an intern at that. "What did you see?"

"On the face of it, not very much," Wynn said, before realising he was beginning to divulge, "just a meeting. A shadowy meeting that could have been a drug deal or something admittedly but a meeting all the same. I'm not sure I should say anymore than that. The walls have ears, you know."

"That's true," Allison replies, glancing around the room. "I'm not around sensitive information often in engineering, so I guess I forget that I'm not supposed to ask questions."

"I'm not even sure I know what to do with the information." Wynn admitted. "Keep it to myself I suppose."

He felt himself desperate to shrug. The two cadets' eyes fell once again on the gleaming hull of the Vesta as silence fell over the small observation bay.

[OFF]