Between Duty and Grilled Cheese

Posted on Tue Oct 22nd, 2024 @ 5:28pm by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Lieutenant Owen Woodhouse & Ensign Emilynn Dove

2,073 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Prelude to Rebirth
Location: USS Firebird, Mess Hall

[ON]

Having finished in sickbay, Emilynn walked towards the lift; and at long last her quarters on deck 5. The captain had answered the question she had about her quarters; she would in fact be sharing space with others. Apparently, an Ensign Gleason and a Lieutenant JG Kooba. Although slightly disappointed in the finality of that question, she wasn’t surprised. After all she was only an ensign and had not yet earned the right to private quarters. She prayed the living situation wouldn’t be as unbearable as it had been for her at the academy. She had been notified while in sickbay her belongings had already been delivered. She walked the corridor looking for cabin 522. Finding it she entered to see what awaited her.

Entering the room, she found it empty. Apparently, her cabin mates were elsewhere at the moment. A little disappointed she wouldn’t meet them now, she thought it was probably for the best given she had other, more pressing things she must do before she could socialize. She noticed her belongings had been deposited near one of the beds, some on one of the bunks which she assumed was meant for her. She unpacked a few of her belongings and moved the rest so they were out of the way of the others. She would return later to finish the organizing of what little she had.

Emilynn decided the next best thing for her to do before she heard from Lieutenant Woodhouse was to become more familiar with the layout of the ship. She thought learning routes to key areas would be a benefit. Even though she had studied the schematics of the ship before arriving, she thought a quick tour to some key areas would imprint them better in her mind and improve her response time when asked to report. The last thing she wanted to do was to look bad in the eyes of her fellow officers. She knew being in operations she would eventually touch nearly every part of the ship. Having already been to the bridge, sickbay, and her quarters, she decided other key area's she needed to set eyes upon were main engineering, the operations lab, main communications, the science lab, and astrometrics. All very high activity areas she believed. She had already been to the main transporter room upon her arrival and passed by the main cargo bay when making her way to the captain’s ready room.

‘Okay let's see, I should first go to Deck 4 and find main engineering, then I’ll head to deck 3 for the operations lab, main communications and astrometrics, and finally deck 2 to find the science lab.’ she thought to herself as she set off in the direction of the turbolift. It sounded like the best order, given the location of each. On the way, her stomach began protesting. ‘I guess I should also find the mess to grab something to eat.’ she thought, amending her early mental checklist. She hadn’t realized she was even hungry, a bad habit of hers. Several times, while at the academy, she had gone an entire day without eating anything of value. Instead, she would often eat Reddrop bites. A snack her mother used to make her as a child and which was one of her favorites. They were small bite-sized snacks made from finely ground oats, pepitas, honey and Vulcan reddrop spice. They were a quick convenient snack, not overly sweet, and small enough to fit in her pocket without making a mess.

Emilynn concluded her tour at the mess hall. Entering the room, she made her way over to the replicator. “Computer: Half a grilled cheese sandwich – swiss, one Uttaberry tart - warm and one glass of water with lime - cold”. The order materialized in front of her and she took the tray to an empty nearby table where she quietly ate and reviewed her personal messages on her PADD.

A short while after Emilynn sat down, a man who was also wearing the mustard-yellow uniform that denoted him as either security or operations approached Emilynn's table carrying his own tray. "Mind if I join you?" he asked, already moving to set the tray of fruit, what looked like a bowl of green soup, and a glass of a rust-colored carbonated beverage, in the spot across from the ensign.

With a simple smile, Emilynn gestured to the chair, swallowed the food in her mouth, and then politely replied. “It’s all yours”. She looked across the table at the tray of food he had sat down. “What... is that?” she asked with a grimace on her face. She pointed to the bowl of green goo with disgusted curiosity.

Owen slid into the chair and chuckled. "Tralithian moss stew. It's a bit of a, uh... acquired taste and the replicators don't do it any favors either." He picked up a fork and poked at the contents of the bowl. It jiggled. "Highly nutritious, though." He glanced across the ensign's partially consumed food selection and nodded approvingly. "The grilled cheese is a personal favorite, too."

“Uh I think I’ll stick to my sandwich.” She laughed still half grimacing. “Besides you can’t really go wrong with a grilled cheese” she continued as she eyed the remainder of the crust. “I don’t think my eyes would even allow my stomach to digest that concoction no matter how nutritious it is.” She laughed pointing to the bowl again. She watched him moving the fork around.

“I’m Emilynn, but you can call me Emi” she said casually taking a berry from her tart and popping it into her mouth to savor it.

"Ensign Emilynn Dove, recent Academy graduate. First assignment, USS Firebird, first meal aboard: grilled cheese and... a pastry," He smirked, clearly amused as he picked up his beverage. "Sorry, I'm Lieutenant Woodhouse. It's a small ship and I tracked you down to say hello." He chuckled, "Your anonymity was gone before you even stepped foot in the airlock."

Emi hasn’t even thought about who she might be talking to. She hadn’t even looked at his rank. She sat up straighter in her chair and tugged her uniform top back into place. With a deer in the headlight’s expression, she tried to act nonchalant as she spoke again. “Oh, very good to meet you, Lieutenant.” She swallowed hard and looked at him. “I would have checked in with you first before sitting down to eat, but the captain had indicated you would reach out to me,” she said apologetically. At the moment she was rethinking her actions of criticizing his food choice. And who in their right mind would tell their superior to call them Emi! She sighed and waited, not sure what else to do.

Owen found it all highly amusing as evident by the lighthearted smirk on his lips, and he dismissed her apology with a light wave. "And here I am, reaching out. It's actually good that you've been acclimating yourself. It's the people who check-in and go hide in their quarters until their first shift that I worry the most about." He forked a piece of moss and lifted it to his lips, chewing thoughtfully as he watched the new officer.

Yes, here he was indeed. she thought. The Lieutenant appeared to be enjoying her discomfort. Maybe a little too much. "Yes, well, I do try to be prepared," she said flatly. She thought it was good he had noticed her preparedness but wondered how he had known she hadn't been in her quarters this entire time.

Emi studied him as he took the final bite of the green goo, thankful it was gone. The smell was beginning to make her a little nauseous. He looked up at her, and their eyes met. Neither spoke or looked away for what felt like a full minute. It felt like he was challenging her to look away or speak first. A test of will she wondered? She tried to hold out but was unsuccessful.

She diverted her gaze momentarily and spoke. "So besides your" she paused for emphasis "adventurous culinary tastes, what does one do in their free time on a ship this size? "

Owen swallowed down his bite, shrugging a bit. "This is hardly adventurous, just different." He thought for a moment, "Well, there's the holodeck, of course, and there's always something going on. There are groups that get together to play games, sports, and running. I think last week someone had a murder mystery dinner." He took a quick sip of the drink and then looked at her with a counter question, "You've lived on earth your whole life, right? Is this your first extended stint on a starship?"

"When I was a baby, we lived aboard a ship my father was stationed on. I was too young to really remember anything about it. My father got promoted and transferred to a deep space vessel and so my mother, brother and I moved to San Francisco where my mom started working at the Starfleet Command center. She tends the grounds there. She enjoys it." Emilynn paused thinking how it had been forever since she shared anything about her family to anyone. "So yes, to answer your question, this is really my first time living aboard a vessel."

Owen nodded along at the answer as he chewed a bit of fruit. "Well, I'm sure you'll get along fine," he replied after swallowing down the bite. "But if you ever feel like you need to talk to someone, I'm here. Firebird is the third ship I've served on and, while now I think the smallness of the ship is mostly a positive, it can feel a little too small sometimes."

He put down his fork and folded his arms together as he leaned forward against the table a bit. "So, as far as an orientation schedule for Operations, I'd like for you to do a shift with the quartermaster and come up to speed on how he does things, spend a few days in the operations center, then maybe a few minutes with the transporter chief --- then we start rotating you into the bridge schedule on gamma shift. Within a few weeks, we can start cross training with other departments, but I need you up to speed on Ops first."

Emilynn couldn't imagine ever needing to talk to anyone. Talking to socialize, yes, but needing to? No. She had made it through academy life with no issues aside from the four roommates with whom she had very little in common. She had only ever really talked to them in passing. And during times of high stress, she had just done what her father had said: 'Emi, regroup and focus on your work.' She could literally hear the words as if he were standing right next to her. She had to admit, it had worked, she made it through the academy and landed her first post.

Emilynn stirred from her internal thoughts to see Owen waiting for her response. "Yes. Very good Lieutenant. I'll be ready." she finally replied.

She found Lieutenant Owen Woodhouse to be way different than she thought he would be. She had pictured someone more like her father: older, stuffy, and hard. But he wasn't anything like that, or so it seemed anyway. He appeared much more laid-back and friendly. It was a different dynamic than what she was used to and it created an uneasy feeling deep within her.

"Well," Owen said, drawing a breath and looking down at his now mostly empty tray. "I'll get all that on your schedule so you'll be able to see when and where you should be. Any questions or concerns for me before I go?"

"No, I think that about covers it. I should probably get going myself. I still have to unpack. Thanks for tracking me down." she replied.

Owen stood up and extended a hand, "Welcome to the team, Ensign Dove."

Emilynn followed suit and stood up. Tugging at her uniform top again before extending her hand to return the hand shake. "Thank you, Sir."

[OFF]

Lieutenant Owen Woodhouse
Chief Operations Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Ensign Emilynn Dove
Operations Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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