A Walk to the Lab

Posted on 09 Jul 2012 @ 12:59pm by Lieutenant Commander Chauncey Remington III (KIA) & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren

2,002 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: Starbase 152
Timeline: MD 07 - 1832 hours

[ON]

Will entered Project Sienna's area on the starbase and headed towards the office area where he hoped to find some of his team. By now, the manifold must have been packed onto a shuttle, and he meant to check on the progress the operations team from the starbase was making packing the delicate equipment from the small lab he'd left them in earlier.

Lilou ducked into the room and leaned against the wall, peering out into the corridor nervously and almost yelping as she noticed Will there. She pressed a hand to her side, exhaling in relief. "Thought you were him." She shook her head, "All set on your end?"

Will turned to look at Peers when she spoke. "I'm sorry about him," the operations officer offered, "just ignore him. He is probably only trying to get under our skin because he's angry, like these other scientists." He shook his head, to show what he thought of all of them.

Lilou shrugged, ducking her head. "Not your responsibility. It's mine, really," she added, frowning slightly, "to not let him or the others get to me, I-" She linked he hands behind her back. "I'll work on it. We brought the core down to the shuttlebay. Chief's overseeing the final load in down there. Did you need a hand with anything?"

"Ah, well, you can join me on the way to the science lab. They're loading some delicate equipment, I'm told." He walked on with her in silence for a moment before asking, "did anything... suspicious happen while you were working with the manifold?"

"Suspicious?" Lilou inquired. "No... I mean, we played a little cat and mouse with Hardaway to get him to tell us how to break it down safely, but once he did, it was pretty smooth sailing. Why?"

"Someone sabotaged the power grid in one of the labs and there was an explosion when we tried to disconnect the equipment." He spoke so calmly he might just as well have been talking about a recent thunderstorm back on Earth. "It's by pure chance none of us are grievously wounded."

She stared at him, silently aghast at the prospect of his being harmed at all, let alone in some grievous accident. Sabotage. "Why?" she asked, perplexed, slipping back from the door to speak quietly to him. "The researchers aren't happy to be moving, I see that, although I don't understand why, but... why destroy their own invention? There's no sense in it."

Will slowed to a stop in the hall and turned his grey eyes down on her. "We don't know if it was them. There may be an operative of any enemy of the Federation on this station." He offered her a reassuring smile, "But no need to dwell on something that might have happened, hmm? I meant to ask you if you enjoyed the holodeck."

She couldn't shake her concerns away so easily, but she could fake it. Maybe there was a reason he wanted to drop it; whoever had rigged the power grid explosion could be nearby, listening. She took a quick breath and thought about their trip to Trill, bringing a mostly true smile to her face. "You have to ask?"

"It's only polite," he assured her, pleased to see she had. "I am glad you did, all the same."

"It was very kind of you. In thought and deed," she told him honestly, glancing up at him, then cleared her throat. "Sir." She bit her lip. "Did you take the remains of the grid down to the shuttlebay or leave them where they were?" She winced, "Sorry, I can't help it. I don't like that you were almost... that the equipment was damaged. I'd like to take a look, figure out what happened if I can."

Will laughed softly. "I appreciate the concern, Lil," he told her, "But really, I'm all right. Just an occupational hazard." They all had those, right? He reached out a hand to squeeze her shoulder and then turned towards the lab once more.

"Power grids don't just explode," she argued quietly, jogging to catch up to him. "They're built to withstand an enormous number of situations. You know that as well as I. And if this one was for the project... you saw Hardaway. He treats this equipment like it's his child. Extremely carefully, with kid gloves. He wouldn't allow them to use a faulty grid that might cause an energy surge to destroy everything."

The operations officer paused again, turning to look at the Trill woman. "There's a saboteur on the station," Will said as if he was commenting on a bit of rain, "I would not know who to suspect. Not the scientists, they're all obsessed with Sienna." He did not appear half as concerned as he should be.

"And we're okay with that?" she asked, looking up at him worriedly. "After what happened on the ship..." she trailed off with a frown, "you don't think it's one of us, do you?"

Will raised an eyebrow at the idea. He hadn't thought of that. "Maybe... yes, it's possible. Of course I'm not okay with it, but what am I to do? My job is to get Project Sienna to the Galileo. I'll be more careful."

"How?" she almost whispered. "How can you be more careful when you don't know who did it, or why, or if they'll follow us to the ship? How can we protect the Galileo if we're bringing someone aboard who does things like that? What if they got into the Core? Or the impulse engine? And if it was one of us, if they're the reason the Armory was tampered with, spirits only know what they're up to or why." She bit her lip, straightenening as a blue collared scientist strode down the corridor towards and then past them. "All I'm saying is: I want to help."

"What would you propose?" Will asked, as if he did not think there was more to be done besides reporting the explosion to the captain.

"I..." she wrinkled her nose, a little deflated. "Well, I don't know exactly. I'm not a tactician. But I'd like to see what made that frame work fritz. That might be a clue. At least it would be some kind of evidence to bring with the report?"

"If there's time," he assured her, then gave a sigh, "unfortunately time is a commodity in short supply right now. But the starbase personnel have already been alerted, maybe they will find something."

Scuffing her heel dejectedly, she followed along. "Maybe so," she agreed quietly, not really sure she trusted the capabilities of the people who had let the problem happen in the first place. As they reached the science lab, she slipped behind him, glancing around a little nervously. Anderson was nowhere in sight. Small miracles.

Will turned at the lab door before going inside, looking at her. He studied her for several long seconds, his cool grey eyes drifting over her pretty features. Then the intensity of his gaze lessened and he smiled at her. "Everything will be fine, Lil," he assured her once again, seeming like he might say more, but then apparently deciding against it.

She hoped he was right. For the last few years, she'd rather given up on the idea that anything would be fine, let alone everything. Still, something about the way he said it made her think it might be true. She nodded slightly, unsure, and followed him inside. In the lab, people with blue collars and white coats were muttering to themselves and stalking from workbench to crate packing things away. "What I wouldn't give to have a few days alone with some of these things, just to figure them out," she muttered, watching the gadgets greedily.

Will laughed as he stepped inside with her and the doors closed behind them with a hermetic hiss. "We'll get to have them aboard for several days. Maybe the Hardaways will allow you access to their equipment." There was a catch in his voice, being none too hopeful the scientists would cooperate so readily.

"Sure," Lilou said wryly, thinking of the way Hardaway had responded to the Chief's manipulations. She doubted he'd be letting anyone in the Engineering department get in spitting distance of their gear once they were ensconced on the ship. "I did manage to download about three percent of the specs before they stopped me. Maybe the Chief and I can pick it apart." She glanced at Will sideways, "For educational purposes." She cleared her throat, "He enrolled me in the Advanced Starship Propulsion and Design course. I start next week via subspace."

Will raised an eyebrow at Lil. "Really?" he asked, "Well, congratulations. This mission must count for something towards that, right?" He stopped suddenly and laughed, "Except that you can't tell anyone about it." That made him wonder how much the girl knew about the project. He looked at her questioningly.

Lilou pressed her lips together over a smile, glancing at him mischievously out of the corner of her eye. "Oh, I don't think anyone needs to hear how the Galileo's first real mission was a common supply run any cargo ship could have made. It might dampen our exciting, ground-breaking reputation. Don't you think?" she asked innocently, at complete odds with the very obvious transfer of high tech components happening directly in front of them and all the events of the day. "Better that folks are left to come up with their own theories. But working with the Chief. That counts for something. Since it's the only way I'm in the course to begin with. But also because listening to him is almost like taking a propulsion course all on its own. He's brilliant." She rocked back on her heels slightly, looking ahead again. No one seemed to need them.

Will laughed softly and patted her shoulder. "Yes, best let people assume something interesting happened on this voyage rather than bore them with the truth." He glanced over at the cargo bay, then pulled out a PADD to check their progress. "Make sure those quantum spectrometers are first things loaded on the shuttle," he called to the officers working at a table. Then he refocused his attention on Peers. "You enjoy working under Quinn?"

"Honestly?" she asked, tapping her toes together lightly. "I'd have taken a position as a rudder grunt on a tin can if it would have taken me away from my last ship. Getting to work on the Galileo... meeting the legendary Markum Quinn and actually having access to his brain? Not only having access, but I get the impression he actually likes talking to me. And I feel like I get smarter just by listening..." She studied a selection of lenses being wrapped and bundled carefully away. "I'm still waiting to wake up."

Will laughed once more, his eyes twinkling with amusement at her excitement. "It's real," he assured her. "What was your other ship like?"

"You know. Same old, same old," Lilou shook her head, trying to hide the sudden dampening of her mood with a little roll of her shoulders. She had enough trouble keeping herself in the present without actively thinking about the past. It had been stupid. Stupid. Stupid to mention it at all. "What do you think that's for?" she asked, unsubtly trying to change the subject by nodding towards an array of motorized, revolving crystals. "Refraction of some sort?"

Will allowed her to change the path of their conversation without complaint. "Perhaps," he replied dubiously to her words, "I know nothing about science equipment, except the standard stuff on a Starship. C'mon, you can help me get those microscopes in their cases." He gestured towards the back of the room and started towards the instruments in question.

[OFF]
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Lt. Cmdr. Chauncey William Remington III
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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