Stumbling for Words

Posted on Wed Dec 18th, 2013 @ 12:05pm by Lieutenant JG Allison Price

Mission: Picking Up the Pieces
Location: Engine Room [Deck 2], USS Jackal

[ON]

The young trill adjusted his uniform and instantly forgot his name. "I..."

"Spit it out, kid. I don't have all day." The gruff customs officer had a queue of four hundred transport passengers to process and thanks to the bomb, was the only one on duty. "Name, rank, posting. Now."

"A- Darzen Ev- no, wait. Darzen Arion. Cadet Senior Grade. Departmental trainee."

The Customs officer found his name and his orders and shoved them into his hands. "Get going, you weird little bastard."

The Cadet hurried on his way, eventually realising that he had no idea where he was going. The transport crew would see to it that his bags would be delivered to his quarters but he had to report to his superior first. His first posting was to be under Commander Gunning in the Strategic Operations department but his orders carried a different name, that of an Ensign, one Allison Price.

Ensign price watched the cadet from across the customs office. It wasn't that long ago that she was going through the same thing, though at least then was under a better state of affairs. Still, she was lost and confused like a lost puppy the first time she came aboard the station, and she didn't want her first intern to feel the same way if she could help it. She stood up from the bulkhead she was leaning against and waved to him. "Cadet Arion?"

"Uhh... yes? Yes." Arion suddenly straightened up and realised he had been slouching against the bulkhead. The astounding Ensign standing before him would usually have launched Darzen, or at least Darzen Evis, into a string of ever-poorer chat up lines. As it was; he could barely remember who he was. "Sorry, Sir. I'll move along, Sir."

The redheaded ensign grinned and laughed. "That's not the problem, Cadet. I'm Ensign Price. You're supposed to be reporting to me for your first rotation."

"Oh... oh!" Darzen managed to smile as he tried not to make too much eye contact with his superior. "Thank you, Ensign. That's very kind of you. I'm Darzen, sir. Darzen Arion. Thank you again."

"No problem, Darzen. It wasn't that long ago that I was in your shoes. I did my cadet internship right here too. Just try not to be so nervous. I won't bite."

Oh, I'm not nervous." Darzen stammered. It was true. Darzen wasn't nervous at all but the maelstrom of emotions and experiences from Arion's previous host was conflicting his ability to control his nerves. "It is. Well. Dian is. It's all quite confusing. Sorry."

Price gestured towards the corridor so that they could get away from the noisy customs office. "How long have you been joined?"

"About three months," Darzen replied, slowly getting on top of the nerves as they walked. "I didn't have the whole 'Initiate' thing so the Symbiont can sometimes get on top of me. It seems to be fine for the Commission to shove me back into service and give me loads of advice."

"Well, I wish I could say that I knew what you were going through, but I don't. I've just got the one voice in my head, even if it does argue with me sometimes." She gave the cadet a smile to let him know that it was a joke.

"I suppose you get used to it." Arion said quietly, citing the argumentative voice in the Ensign's head and chastising his own. "Might take a while but I'll get there."

Allison nodded. She really wanted to offer him some sort of advice, but in this situation she had none to give. Instead, she figured that she should get to know what he was capable of. "So, Cadet. You're on a general rotation, correct? Do you have a department that you're really wanting to get into?"

"Back when I was an Evis I was called a born tactician. I used to move furniture around my parents' house like the individual pieces were wings of fighters and starships but since I became Arion? Hell, I don't know. My first tour has me on Strategic Operations- I suppose they're trying to see if I still fit in."

"Is that why you're cycling through departments? I may be able to teach you how to rebuild a plasma manifold, but I don't know the first thing about tactics."

Arion found himself following the Ensign through the winding corridors of the station, trying to keep up with her confident strides. "I don't have the first clue about plasma manifolds but I could tell you the best way to take out a wing of Jem'Hadar attack fighters."

Ensign Price giggled at that thought. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that, Cadet. But I think you'll really enjoy working in some of the other departments. The station's command staff are all very good at what they do, and we have a lot of tactical experts for you to learn from. But first, we're going to rebuild a plasma manifold. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Darzen opened his mouth to make a snide remark but found the path of the words blocked by the more measured thinking of the symbiont. Suddenly he could feel his desire to impress the Ensign wane in favour of respecting her rank and her position of authority. "Yes, Sir."

[OFF]

Ensign Allison Price [NPC: Capt. Von]
Engineering Officer

Cadet Senior Grade Darzen Arion
Multi-disciplinary intern
Starbase 332