Two in Science

Posted on 05 Oct 2013 @ 3:51pm by Lieutenant JG Victoria Crawley & Petty Officer 2nd Class Jeroen Adlar

1,070 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Lab
Timeline: MD 01 - 1300

ON

Jeroen usually kept himself to himself within science. It was more instinct than anything else. Besides, he was less about actual lab work now and more about applying it to a grand scale. Planet scale, really. He liked his toys big. But he had still gone into the lab to take advantage of the tech they had here. And in his case, it was analysing the samples that the science teams had gathered. Not the main samples, no. He left those to the people who actually worked with it. Smaller things, fragments of it. He wasn't a geologist, but he wanted to see the asteroid samplings that had been taken. And those were in the lab. He walked in with a small smile, glancing around for a moment before seeing an empty station. He moved to it and logged on, taking a breath as he looked for the mineral readouts that the department had analysed so far.

Walking quickly back into the lab, Victoria's hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor. Her eyes were locked on the PADD in her right hand and she was holding another under her arm. She unconsciously muttered the words she was reading under her breath as she walked, completely absorbed. Okay, so I should probably check on those slides and I still need to write up my findings from the last experiment. Oh, and there's a bunch of stuff I need to read up on from the last mission. Hey, maybe afterwards I can get some Bajoran translations finished from a week ago. God knows I could use some more time on those...

Her thoughts were still a jumbled mess by the time she got to the lab. As she walked in, still reading and thinking, she failed to notice the man sitting at her station until she had to look away to put her stuff down. Seeing him sitting there, she jumped and let out a loud "Oh my God!"

Jeroen looked up, his body tense at the outburst...before he relaxed when he saw it was just a woman. "Sorry...sorry, I...is someone using this station? I was just going to look through some of the results..." he stood, holding his eyes for a moment. "You okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry for freaking out. I don't usually do that." She offered a sheepish and apologetic grin. "I'm Victoria, by the way."

"Jeroen," he said and smiled as he watched her, his eyes gentle. He got up and offered his hand to her. "Planetary Science department."

"Hi, Jeroen," she replied, taking his hand and shaking it. "So what are you working on? Anything I can help with?"

"I was just looking at the results from the surveys," he admitted as he held her eyes, letting go of her hand. "If I am in the way, just say so and I will leave. I don't often sneak into the lab here..."

"Don't worry about it," she said, her accent getting just the slightest bit stronger. You're agitated, she scolded herself. What is that all about? It was true, she was a bit flustered. That wasn't a good thing; she'd have to watch herself carefully for the rest of the day. Crap. She carefully placed her things over at the next station. "I'll just steal this one. It's no big deal."

"Sure?" he asked, watching her for a long moment, smiling gently. "I mean...I am the one in your space."

She stared at him for a second, studying him. He seemed like a nice guy, very eager to please and make other people happy. He seemed like someone who would be devastated if something he did even slightly inconvenienced someone else. And his hair is fantastic...

He chuckled, watching her closely before looking over at the consol. "So, what is it you do here?" he asked, to get some conversation going. Rather than her just watching him.

Victoria shook her head to wake herself up, her cheeks gradually turning crimson. That's a great first impression. You're a creepy weirdo. Nice.

"Xenopsychology. I'm mostly doing research right now." She smiled and made a point of not staring again.

"Study of the minds of different species," he said and shook his head. "I doubt Freud applies to Vulcans then? or maybe he does and that explains a hell of a lot about them."

Victoria laughed. "Yeah, I suppose it does." She typed something into her PADD quick, a note to herself to look at a few of the Vulcan brain scans again, and turned back to Jeroen. "So what's your job here? If you don't mind my asking. I haven't seen you around here before."

"I'm a geoengineer," he said easily, with a warm smile. "So not always a lot for me to do here."

"Are there any special projects you have going on right now?" she asked.

"I wish there was," he admitted and shrugged, holding her eyes. "I just try and pull my weight. What about you?"

She nodded. "Just one right now. It's a study I was helping with back home on Vulcan neurology."

"That's pretty interesting," he said, with a small smile. And it was, genuinely, an interesting field. "Are you working on your conclusion of the research?"

Victoria shook her head. "No, I wish, though. I'm just getting started."

"That is a good place to be in life in general," Jeroen said with a grin, unable to hide the smile. He liked her. She had a good vibe.

She smiled back at him. She kind of liked this guy; he was nice. Of course, so was almost everyone she'd met so far. Excusing herself for a moment, Victoria got up and walked over to the replicator for some tea. "Do you want anything?" she called out over he shoulder at Jeroen.

"No...thank you though," he said and chuckled warmly. "I am going to go back to my office. I've...done my little spying," he winked playfully, his eyes shining. "It has been a pleasure...and I hope to see you very soon."

Victoria turned around to face him and smiled. "It was nice to meet you, too. See you around."

OFF:

Lt. JG Victoria Crawley
Psychologist
USS Galileo

Petty Officer 2nd Class Jeroen Adlar
Geoengineer
USS Galileo

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