You Owe Me One...

Posted on 04 Feb 2016 @ 6:02pm by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Petty Officer 1st Class Rebecca Williams

2,824 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1 - Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD84 0607hours

[ON]

Juggling the stack of PADDs in one hand and a coffee in the other, Rebecca used her elbow to open the office door before moving forward. "One coffee, as black as you can get, and one stack...enormous stack, of work to be done."

Moving over to the desk, she placed both infront of her boss before moving to take a seat to one side. The evidence of her exploits the night before were very carefully covered both under her uniform and the light makeup applied to her face. Although there had been very little she'd been able to do with her hair in the short time she'd had to get from her lovers room to her own and then onto work. She'd pulled it back into a bun but frizzy strands still escaped at her temple. "We also need to talk about shore leave...."

"We need to talk about a great many things Mis Williams." Holliday replied as he gratefully picked up the coffee and took a deep swig from the cup. He had initially been against the idea of having a yeoman but the more that this carried on, the more he realised that actually it could be useful to have a spare pair of hands.

"Such as to why your hair isn't to it's usual appearance? Not often you arrive for duty with your hair up in such a manner?"

Jonathan looked up and raised an eyebrow. He was by no means an expert on female fashion or cosmetics, but he knew how he usually observed his crew and a rough approximation of their standard appearance.

"Burning the midnight oil perhaps Petty Officer?"

Rebecca looked over at Holiday in surprise as she lowered herself to her seat, carefully folding one leg over the other and biting back against the pain. She could have seriously done with a second shower but she'd had to make do with what she could manage.

Placing her own PADD against her knee, Rebecca tried to feign innocence. "I never realised that you took such an interest in my appearance Sir. I over anticipated a run this morning on the station and the end result was not having enough time to tame the mess into it's usual style. Everybody should try something different every once in while."

"I take note of people's individual standards Petty Officer. They are a good indication of a persons state of mind - if they are feeling quite themselves then they usually will appear that way. Deviation usually has a purpose."

Jonathan took another sip of coffee before realising he was starting to sound positively Vulcan in his definitions behind his observations.

"See that it doesn't happen again. If you are expected on duty then time your activities accordingly. Now, you mentioned shore leave?"

Rebecca was abit startled at holiday's reply as she looked up at him from her PADD. Her hair was in way way against regulations, that was one thing she had managed, sure it was different from how she would normally present it but still...surely everyone was entitled to a change every once in awhile.

"I will try my best Sir...shore leave. It's been brought to the Admiral's attention that you haven't made proper use of the shore leave time. Although you've taken a day here or there you see to be working more often than not."

"I'm the Captain of a starship." He replied matter-of-factly, thinking that surely this simple fact would be enough to explain quite why he was spending so much of his time working.

"Unlike the Admiral I have to worry about things other than polishing flag officer pips. Surely she remembers quite how much was involved in sitting in that chair?"

Rebecca mimicked a cough in order to cover her laugh, , she wasn't quite certain how the Admiral would take that reference. "Yes you're a Captain of a ship but you also have an executive officer and several department heads to look after the place while we are skeleton crew rotations for the shore leave. Every starfleet officer has days off allowed to them and yours are being unused Sir."

"Tell the Admiral that when I find time to undertake some shore leave, I will do exactly that. Now if she wishes to relieve me of command then that is her prerogative, but other than making it a direct order, she will have to accept my choice of duty schedule."

Holliday finalised the discussion before signing off on a PADD which ironically contained the shore leave shift requests for his junior officers. He was more than happy to allow others to take time off as long as they did not get in the way of him doing what he felt was right.

"As it so happens I will be taking some time off duty over the coming days anyway. I have an engagement to attend to on the station that will require me to vacate the ship. I have entered it in the ship's log as personal time."

Rebecca blinked as she tried to figure out if she had actually heard right. "You are willing taking personal time? Sorry...Sir." It was typically like pulling teeth trying to get the officer to take down time, even while on missions. This news was an almost shock. "I assume command will defer to Lieutenant Commander Kohl while you are away? I will ensure that he is notified."

"Indeed." Holliday replied, acknowledging the presence of their new second officer. It meant that at least even with the reassignment of Commander Stace, there would still be a steady pair of hands whilst the ship made its final preparations for departure the following week.

"I trust that will satisfy the Admiral that I am taking my shore leave where appropriate?" He quipped, passing another padd that he had signed off on, this time containing requisition orders from the Engineering department.

Accepting the offered PADD, Rebecca held out two more for the one her boss had managed to complete. "I trust that the Admiral will find another reason in which to express her dissatisfaction with how you are handing your role as Captain Sir...I get the feeling that perhaps she's missing being in the center chair."

"Indeed..." John replied, taking yet another sip from the coffee that had now come down to a more drinkable temperature. He made a note to amend the preferences on the Ready Room replicator before he finished for the day.

"Admiral Saalm was never content behind a desk as far as I know...I find it remarkable that she allowed them to promote her away from Captain, let alone from Commodore."

Rebecca glanced at the PADD Holiday had left a note on but found she couldn't read it easily upside down. She may have been fluent in a number of languages and dabbled in others but upside writing was still her one vice that she just couldn't manage. "Of course, all of that will probably change once the baby arrives. It won't be an easy task to juggle a fleet, and ship and a child."

"The what?" Holliday replied, dropping the PADD in his hand onto the desk. He was sure that he had just heard his Yeoman refer to the Orion as expecting a child, but surely an Admiral didn't have time for distractions such as family?

"Petty Officer Williams did you just say what I thought you said?"

Rebecca looked up in surprise as confusion swam in her eyes. She studied Holiday closely, beginning to see a vein throb in his neck which normally signaled trouble on the horizon. "What do you mean Sir?"

"I'm sure I just heard reference to the Admiral being somewhat...incbuatory." He replied, clearing his throat as he tried to work around a subject he found rather awkward.

"I wasn't aware the Admiral had decided to pursue that part of her life?"

Incbuatory...Rebecca had to admit that that was a new word on even her. "You mean how the Admiral is pregnant? I can't say I know the circumstances surrounding it but it's abit hard to miss Sir. I'd easily say she's at least four to five months along, have you not noticed that her uniforms have become a little more tight than usual?"

"Yes...pregnant...that's the word I was looking for..." Holliday muttered almost incoherently as he wiped his brow and tried to digest the matter a little further. He hadn't actively been paying attention to the Admiral's attire, he knew that she always enjoyed being rather well fitted into her clothing both on and off duty, and as such he had become used to seeing her silhouette in quite some detail.

"I..er...I hadn't noticed Miss Williams. It isn't the sort of thing that a Captain should bring up with an Admiral out of the blue like that - professional conduct forbids such discussions without it being critical to the mission."

Having set aside her PADDs, Rebecca studied Holiday more closely as she sat back into her chair. He seemed to have become somewhat a little pale since this conversation started and it was starting to concern her, "Sir are you ok? Is it your blood pressure again. You know that Doctor Mott has you under orders not to be getting yourself wound up."

"I'm fine!" Holliday retorted, trying to gesture with his hand but instead catching his mug of coffee and very nearly launching it across the Ready Room. Regaining his composure he quickly picked up the nearest PADD and focused on its content intently.

"I was just deliberating the complexities of this report here on....on the effectiveness of our waste management systems! Apparently we are only running at 96% efficiency - tell our new Chief Engineer to look into this!"

Rebecca had jumped from her seat but not in enough time to stop the contents of the mug spilling onto her uniform. Swearing as she tried to brush it off, instead she seemed to make the mess even worse. "Perhaps I should book you into sickbay for a checkup..." As she said the words, the yeoman unzipped her jacket to try prevent the liquid soaking into her umdershirt. "It'd do you no harm to take the free time you have to look after yourself."

"Perhaps I will take that time off..." Jonathan replied as he hastily tried to save the rest of the PADDs from their fate.

"Yeoman, you return to your quarters and get a fresh uniform and I'll....I will clean up this mess. In fact take the rest of this shift off - as an apology for this mishap. I can manage the last few reports by myself I believe."

Rebecca stalled for a moment, as she studied Holiday a little more closer. It was highly unlike him to be so nice...now she was serious seriously worried. "Sir...Jonathan...are you sure that you are ok?"

"Captain Holliday. And yes Miss Williams I'm quite alright. Nothing that a fresh coffee and security in the knowledge Engineering are correcting those efficiency issues won't sort."

Holliday replied whilst reminding his Yeoman of the importance of rank. In truth he would be fine once he had something stronger than coffee, but that would be after he came off duty. Soon.

Hesitating for a moment more, Rebecca wouldn't deny that the time off would give her chance to catch up on sleep. Still though...she wasn't sure about leaving Holiday on his own in this state.

"Ok...if you are sure...Sir..." Leangin over, Rebecca went to grab one of her PADDs which Holiday had mistakenly taken, the stretch causing the material of her undershirt to move up her arm and reveal a bruise around her wrist. "I won't be going off ship so if you need me...just call."

"Yeoman Williams. I may not be able to notice a pregnant Orion, but I can notice a bruised Terran. That looks awfully like a combat injury." Holliday replied as he put the now empty coffee cup into the replicator for recycling.

Puzzlement moved across Rebecca's face until she looked in the direction Holiday look and realised what she had just unveiled. As her face went white, she realised that his words gave her a get out of jail free card. "I was catching up on my hand to hand training Sir...guess things got a little too vigerous. You know how it can be...." Internally she winced as she wondered if Holiday knew what wild, unbridled sex was like.

"Ahh - indeed. I find myself needing to use the dermal regenerator often enough after a sparring session. Well as long as you managed to learn something these injuries are worth it in the end. Your partner - I hope they were a suitable match?" He replied as he thought back to his academy teaching days and the hand to hand combat classes he once taught.

It was a particular passion of his and the Captain was glad to see someone else sharing that enthusiasm.

"My partner?" Rebecca looked at her commanding officer with bewilderment in her eyes. "A suitable match? I suppose you could say that he was..."

"Sir....I have an unusual question to ask for you..." As her hands fidgeted with the bottom of her loosened jacket, Rebecca looked at the floor before looking back at Holiday, "If you needed to find somebody? Somebody you have very little information on...where might you start?"

Jonathan looked a little confused, and raised an eyebrow as he so often did when things did not seem to make sense on face value. It was a strange question for a young lady to be asking of their Captain, but nevertheless, as he had just catapulted coffee across her uniform, a straight answer was the least he could do as an apology.

"That depends Miss Williams. My first thoughts would be if they are a member of Starfleet or part of the Federation, they would likely be recorded in the Citizen Database. Something which as the Captain of a starship I have unfettered access to. Is this person...bothering you?"

Rebecca had to smile as she shook her head. Uncharacteristicly, she chewed on her lower lip before replying further. "They aren't bothering me in the nuisance sense...." Realizing that perhaps she'd said too much and was in danger of making a fool of herself, the yeoman straightened her back as she tried to recover. "The person is a friend...an old friend whom I've lost contact with....You know, I can't even remember his surname which isn't going to help! I don't even know why I'm bothered to try find him all of a sudden."

"Well what do you know? Are they in Starfleet?" Holliday asked, walking back to his desk as he let the probing question slip from his lips. Reaching his chair he settled back down and tapped a few commands on the console beside him.

"If so some physical paramaters or a rank and stardate will help with your search. I did ruin your uniform - it would be an appropriate gesture of apology."

Chewing on her lower lip, Rebecca realised her conundrum, she didn't want to tell Holiday about last night but his input in finding Wilhelm would be invaluable. "Ah...his first name is Wilhelm. He's about...five eleven. Jet black hair...blue eyes that on first inspection seem grey until you look a little deeper..."

Rebecca looked down sat the floor as the memories came flooding back. Unconsciously her hand rubbed at her bruised wrist as the reality of this fruitless search dawned on her. "I'm sorry...The only other thing I know is he originates from the Luna Colony....New Berlin."

"Well...I will certainly take a look into this for you. Now...you need a new uniform....on your way Petty Officer."

Holliday replied with an extremely rare hint of a smile before turning back to his work, leaving the database screen open beside him as a reminder to see what digging he could do.

Rebecca chewed again on her lower lip before smiling as she saw the hint of a smile on Holiday's lips. "Aye aye Sir." Coming to attention, Rebecca gave a formal nod of her head before gathering up her own PADDs.

Moving towards the door, ah hesitated for a second before looking back, "And Sir...having a baby around the place isn't that bad of a thing. It might help soften you and the Admiral up a bit." With those words, the yeoman headed off for home. Sleep, food and a change of clothes and then she could get started on her own investigation.

[OFF]

Petty Officer 2nd Class Rebecca Williams
Yeoman to the Commanding Officer
USS Galileo


CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

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