Welcome Wagon

Posted on 18 Jan 2014 @ 1:59pm by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ellsworth Hudson & Ensign K'os Beaumont

2,553 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 05 - Solstice
Location: Starfleet HQ, Earth
Timeline: MD 16 - 1125 hrs

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The interminable beeping of the computer terminal was slowly driving Ellsworth crazy. He often imagined interrogation techniques widely used in the intelligence community might involve a computer terminal beeping with notifications that one couldn't access.

With a sigh bordering on adolescent irritation, he flopped down in front of the terminal and pulled up the latest slew of messages. Since being assigned as the ship's quartermaster, the dockmaster at fleet yards seemed hell bent on forwarding absolutely every piece of information regarding the ship to him and half a dozen other crew members.

For once, however, the message seemed relevant: it was from Starfleet Personnel alerting him about the reassignment of a new petty officer. Ordinarily, he could have filed all the paperwork at the terminal right in front of him to move the young man's belongings, assign him a bunk, and see if he had any special needs or requests. But that seemed so impersonal, especially for someone who might feel just as lost as Ellsworth did after coming out of training.

Quickly he shimmied out of his civilian clothing, tossed on the uniform that was beginning to feel like a second skin, and pulled up PO3 K'os Beaumont's personnel file.

Oh, look at him, another cute one, Ellsworth thought, grinning a little. Must be his lucky day - welcome someone aboard and flirt with them.

He sent off a brief message to ask Beaumont to wait for him in the public use area just outside the Office of Personnel, where he felt certain he'd still be filling out paperwork anyway, and then set off himself for the destination. By the time he crossed the Presidio from the Galileo crew's temporary housing to the building on the sprawling Starfleet HQ campus, he felt like he should almost be out of breath.

At least I'm getting my exercise, Ellsworth thought as he accessed the building's directory and took the turbolift up to the appropriate floor. When he arrived, he smoothed down his uniform before ducking into the public-use area and scanned for Beaumont. Spotting him, he gave a friendly wave and trotted over.

K'os saw the young man wave and he turned slightly to covertly look over his shoulder to see who he was waving at. Since he was obviously waiting for someone older and meaner, well all the Quartermaster's he'd seen thus far were always mean, he was obviously looking for someone else.

Ellsworth could sense his confusion, so he stopped waving and kept on a straight course for him. Odd, that he could sense the emotion so well... Vulcans weren't immune to telepathy and empathy, but they did have highly disciplined minds that just felt different.

"Hi," he said once he was within earshot, sticking his hand out to shake once he'd closed the distance. "I'm Ellsworth Hudson, the ship's quartermaster. You can call me just Ells, though."

K'os' eyebrows rose in unison, making him look more surprised than he was. The shorter man looked to be about his age, but humans aged so quickly it was hard to tell. Without a second thought, he shook the offered hand firmly being careful with his strength, but dropped it right away as if it were hot. "You're Betazoid." He stated, looking into his black eyes as if for the first time. He chastised himself for mistaking him for human at first. He pushed the embarrassment aside as best he could, but he was thrown off now. "I'm sorry, that was rude." He apologized with warmth. "I'm K'os." He pronounced it like coast with out the 't". His control over his touch telepathy was erratic at best. His mother once said K'os possessed the necessary skill, but no ability to direct it. It had never been developed since, and it had always just been something else for K'os to compensate for. Still vibrating from the hand shake he smiled his best smile. "I'm sensitive to telepaths." He offered lamely, but truthfully.

"Handsome and sensitive, I bet you're a popular one," Ellsworth said, briefly inspecting his own hand and then offering a reassuring smile. He lowered his voice to a whisper, as if they were sharing a secret with one another. "I'm not very good with my telepathy, either. I'm pretty clumsy an' heavy-handed with it; lack of training an' all that. Anyway, nice to meetcha K'os."

His cheeks flared red at the compliment and when the Quartermaster's voice lowered, K'os leaned in slightly, smiling at his admission.

"You wanna grab a bite?" Ellsworth asked, turning to look in the direction of the commissary.

It was sort of refreshing to meet someone not only his own age, but someone who might be just as new as he was. He'd only had one posting before Galileo and even then he had only served three years on the Mississippi. While he was no means a fresh recruit anymore, his last posting was pretty much all done for him. Come here. Stand here. Wait here. Sign this. Get your stuff and put it here. He was sort of glad that Ellsworth had met him in person.

"Yes, I would like that very much." He said genuinely. Having wrestled control of his mind again he dashed the feelings of embarrassment away with laser precision. While his concentration had lapsed other feelings were beginning to swirl around in his mind all demanding to take president over the other. He was used to this and as they started to walk, one by one, he allowed each emotion to rise to the surface and then dissolve under his minds scrutiny. Frustration over the lack of control, jealousy of the way Ellsworth's hair laid down perfectly, anxiety over making first impressions and finally lustful thoughts. He took a moment before eliminating those last feelings. It had been so long since he'd felt that before and he liked how it made his skin sweat a little and his heart pump faster. In the end he let that one go to, and instead allowed feelings of contentedness, and conviviality to swell over. It had the effect of placing a rather goofy looking smile on his face, but there wasn't anything he could do about that. He snuck a peak at Ellsworth again as they walked. He was fascinated by the Betazoids eyes.

For his part, Ellsworth was both amused and panicked; amused at the thoughts of his companion, and panicked at trying to turn his empathy off. Of course it never really went off, per se, but he could at least bring it to a level where he could ignore it. Usually. Sometimes. Occasionally...

"Uh, so, are you fresh out of trainin'? Or did you have a posting before this?" Ellsworth asked, cutting his eyes to the side to look at K'os for a brief moment. "They just kinda assigned me to the Galileo right after trainin', so if I seem like I don't know what I'm doin'...it's probably cuz I don't."

He gave the other young man a lopsided grin and motioned up ahead to a set of doors on the right, obviously the building's commissary from the stream of people going in and out.

K'os held the door open for him and after walking in they scanned for a place to eat. "Three year posting on the Mississippi." He stated simply. He didn't elaborate. Being an introvert he naturally found himself inclined to find the least busy place, but he deferred the decision to Ellsworth. "And you, Ells? How long have you served on the Galileo?"

"Oh, like, no time at all," he answered distractedly, also looking for the least busy place to eat. All those chattering people sometimes drove him crazy. He motioned questioningly to a table in the far corner abutting the window overlooking the empty courtyard. Once he'd gotten a nod from K'os he set off for the nearest set of replicators and queued up in the quick moving line.

"Altairian sandwich, jestral tea and a jumja stick," he replied to the computer's prompt, looking a bit embarrassed about the last item but nonetheless having an intense craving for it. Once the food had materialized, he took the tray and stepped to the side, waiting on K'os.

When it was his turn he manually entered his meal in rather than use the voice prompt. Mostly because he only sets macronutrient ranges and allows the computer to select the appropriate food. Usually meant something different every time, and then K'os didn't have to battle the anxiety that rises naturally when people are faced with decisions. Being hyper emotional was exhausting sometimes, and a short cut was a short cut. Today, the computer gave him a portion of rice with butter, a small side of what could have been any cow like mammal, and oily vegetables. Mostly native to Earth, but he spotted some odd looking ones as well. He frowned at the fact they were still using the TX 9 model of replicator and he resisted the urge to check the date on their UI interface. It looked decidedly from the early '80s and never prompted him to add a beverage which was a design option added in 2385 for this model. He ordered a water with a frown.

Ellsworth made the short distance to their table in silence, thinking about how to best frame his question. It wouldn't necessarily be an unusual one, but he didn't want to be heavy-handed about it either. In fact, he justified, he needed to know in order to assign quarters.

"So, are you married?" he blurted. Smooth.

K'os let out a hearty, infectious laugh. He always teared a little when he laughed. He wasn't sure why the idea of marriage made him feel silly and absurd, but he accepted it and his laugh ended with him clearing his throat awkwardly. "No, I'm not married." He replied quietly.

"That's good. Makes assigning quarters easier for you, I mean," Ellsworth said, taking a large bite from his sandwich. He spared a glance at K'os' plate and thought it was quite the...amalgamation. Must be the Vulcan side. "Do you have any preferences for a roommate?"

"I have many." K'os deadpanned, giving his best Vulcan impression. Not being able to hold it for long he giggled like a small boy. "But since we can't replicate the perfect roommate, I can adapt to whomever I'm with."

Ellsworth gave him a long look and then broke into a grin himself.

"You had me there for a minute. There was a Vulcan guy in my training group, an' he sounded just like that," he said, laughing. He turned his attention back to his food for a moment, but cut his eyes upward more than a few times to observe K'os. He seemed decidedly un-Vulcan, which only made him cuter. "I'd offer to room with you, but I'm already bunked up. I'll make sure to stick you with somebody who's not crazy, though."

Like smacking a mosquito with a snap he squashed the glimmer of disappointment from his mind before he could even fully analyze it. He had experience with those feelings and it was best to be ruthless when dealing with them. He ran his hand through his hair making it obvious to everyone but him why it always looked somewhat messy. He then dug into his meal.

"So, what're you gonna do on leave? You picked a good time to get an assignment; show up, do the paperwork an' then go on leave for a few weeks."

"It was very serendipitous." He agreed. He hadn't thought about what he was going to do with his time. It would most likely involve beaches, alcohol and pretty people but he didn't want to admit that to him so he settled with, "I don't have any set plans."

"Yeah, me either," Ellsworth admitted, surprising even himself. He usually had half a dozen activities lined up...but that was on Risa. Where he knew people. Not Earth, where he felt perpetually lost. "I don't know a lot about Earth. I went to Florence, and I trained in Kyoto. But I haven't seen a lot. You wanna hang out sometime? Hey, d'you know how to surf? Or, I mean, even if you don't then maybe we can just hang out on the beach. Or somethin'."

Ellsworth tried to concentrate on his sandwich. He was never embarrassed flirting with guys or inviting them along anywhere he went, but the fact that he was so lost on Earth was starting to make him feel a little self-conscious. He thought he'd sounded shamefully desperate for companionship (maybe I am, he hesitantly admitted). And Vulcans had always put him on edge - so erudite, so well-spoken, so stoic. "Serendipitous" was nowhere near his daily vocabulary, though he at least knew what it meant.

K'os was oblivious to any flirting, but he did sense a change in Ellsworth. For a moment he thought he was projecting his own insecurities, but the mans words conjured feelings of being lonely, and those feelings always soured into sadness which was usually just another word for pain. Sometimes, emotions were just too complex for words. He snapped back to the present moment at the mention of surfing and beaches and his face lit up with joy.

He wasn't sure how to hangout or what that was, but he certainly knew what surfing was. The only thing that made visits to Vulcan bearable were the waves. "Yes, let's do that." He agreed.

"Okay, great!" Ellsworth said, perking up a bit himself and grinning. He tried not to let his grin turn lecherous thinking about swim suits. "Uh. I don't know where to catch waves here, but I'll look around an' let you know. Some place warm - this town's been cold an' dreary since I got here, y'know? You wanna go day after tomorrow? If the weather's good...wherever...I mean."

"Absolutely." He agreed enthusiastically. He allowed himself to get caught up in the feelings of excitement, careful to keep the feeling muted. The last thing he needed was to show everyone his happy dance. The embarrassment alone would be the death of him. He suddenly remembered that he didn't have a swimsuit. He made a mental note to go shopping for one.

"I'll let you know tomorrow where we're goin'," Ellsworth said, standing up and cramming the last bit of sandwich into his mouth. His mind was already so far ahead - thinking what he'd wear, what he'd eat, how hard it would be to flirt with a Vulcan - that he almost forgot he was with another person. He was two steps away from the table before he remembered his jumja stick. He grabbed it off the table, gave it an experimental lick and then nodded his satisfaction.

He stepped away again, belatedly remembering to say goodbye. Turning, the light from the courtyard made his black eyes sparkle. "Oh, and welcome to the ship, K'os!"


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PO3 K'os Beaumont
Matter/Energy Systems Specialist
USS Galileo

&

PO3 Ellsworth Hudson
Quartermaster
USS Galileo

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