Never mind the sketch artist.

Posted on Sun Mar 29th, 2015 @ 11:52pm by Ensign Corrine Steiner

Mission: Ill Tidings
Location: Warp-12 Lounge, SB332

[ON]

By mid day, Ens. Steiner was frustrated almost to the point of becoming irate. Never mind a night without sleep, the early morning Ops meeting had been largely useless. The shocking news about Lt. Deakin had been followed up with precisely nothing. No details at all had yet been provided as to how, where, when, or why. Speculation and rumors ran rampant. Accident, mission loss, and even conspiracy about not being dead at all were thrown around.

Finally, Corrine could stand no more, "ENOUGH! I have had it with this insane guessing! If you don't have solid intel, then keep it to yourself!"

Ordinarily, the few junior staff present would take offense at her outburst. The peaked stress of the moment, however, was felt by all. Different people had different ways of handling it. "Hey... easy, Ensign. We're okay."

She couldn't find words at first. "I'm sorry. If it's all right, I'd like to focus on duty redistribution. Until command unlocks things, we can't access Deakin's restricted assignments. We can, however, divvy up his routine base operations. Repairs, quartermaster, system audits, civilian liaison, defence net... If nobody minds, I'd like to take system audits. I'm new and still learning the operation. Audits would get me rolling all the faster."

"Agreed."

Once the group settled down, coordination went smoothly and efficiently. Command might well rearrange things, but junior officers taking initiative was a good thing, at the moment. Corrie took her leave as soon as she could. Being emotionally shaken to the point of being sick, she had to get away. "Please, God. No emergencies, right now! I can't handle it!"

Not the only one rattled, a couple of others coaxed her to get some food at Warp-12. She would have preferred a quick nutrition smoothie out of the replicator in her quarters. She could then lay down and begin handling sys-audits from her bed. That would be her plan.

"Ensign, are you all right?"

She lied on impulse, "I'll be fine." Corrie's run of painful luck would now hit her with a brand new shock. Just as she began to sit down at a dining table with the others, she was literally stunned at the sight of a woman milling around the serving counters. Frozen with wide eyes, she finally managed a whisper, "It's her!" She finally found her voice, "Who is that?"

"Who? Oh, that's Samanthia. She owns this establishment."

Corrie began to shake from the stress, "It must be a clone... couldn't be the same one."

The others chuckled, one exclaiming, "Hey! You find a clone of blue eyes, there, you let me know!" He then noticed, "What's that light blinking on your bracelet?"

Corrie began feeling dizzy. "A reminder. Have to conduct a random drill." Her mouth was dry. Vision beginning to gray out, she tapped her communicator, "Steiner to transporters, this is a drill. Emergency transport to sickbay. Timer's running."

Smiling, her compatriots looked at their watches. As she shimmered away, the gave a nod, "Not bad! Not bad at all!"

In Sickbay Three, Ensign Steiner floated unconscious in a suspensor field. Two orderlies ran up.

"Man, you're quick!"

"No, I programmed the computer to aim a field any time Steiner beams in." He manipulated the patient mover to carry her over to a biobed.

The other waved a tricorder wand, "Passed out cold, shock and acute mental asthenia. Why the hell hasn't she been pulled from duty? She uses transporter drills to cover up her collapses! We have to report this."

The other orderly settled her in bed. "Report it to whom?"

"Operat- Wait. She is operations."

He smiled, "Exactly."

"Okay, a senior officer."

"Can't. Standing orders. Her condition is classified."

"Classified? You're joking! Who's covering up for her? Somebody breaching regulations to protect his main squeeze?"

"I dunno. Why don't you ask Captain Von?"

"Von?" The orderly throttled back his aggressiveness. "Oh. Okay. Never mind."

"Ease up on Steiner. Black ops almost killed her a while back. Might still be after her. Captain Von wouldn't allow for this without a good reason."

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Ens. Corrine Steiner
Starbase 332
Pegasus Fleet