Threshold

Posted on 29 Sep 2018 @ 7:33am by Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant
Edited on on 29 Sep 2018 @ 11:11am

3,143 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: USS Galileo-A, Deck 2, Section 08, Room 05
Timeline: MD 144 - 1900 hours

[ON]

Luke stepped forward and just like before the doors to his quarters slammed shut in his face. "Oh Come on!" He pleaded to take yet another defeated step back, the doors opening again. As if thinking to catch them by surprise he launched himself forward hitting the cold hard metal face first in one fluid motion. "Urgh" he groaned peeling his face away from its surface he hadn't even noticed the Romulan walking down the corridor when he started hurling abuse at the ships computer system.

Pouncing around a corner, Lake's unnoticed arrival was heightened by the way he was literally dodging the eyeline of one of his crewmembers/patients. It was for the best that Luke hadn't noticed Lake ir-Lantrisant: a grown Romulan in hiding wasn't a particularly dignified look, especially not in a Starfleet uniform with lieutenant's pips. Lake dashed down a cross-corridor that, actually, headed him away from his desired destination: the Callisto Lounge. His stomach was nearly cramping from hunger and, on this night, he simply didn't have the patience to listen to any of his patient's family drama or self-destructive tendencies. If he was honest with himself, Lake often didn't have the patience needed, but it was especially acute when he was hangry.

Still, it wasn't every day Lake saw a grown man intentionally bash his face into a closed door and then verbally abuse that self-same door.

That... perhaps that was a self-destructive tendency Lake couldn't ignore... even when he was hangry.

"Commander?" Lake ir-Llantrisant called out with mounting concern. Approaching the large security office, Lake held his palms out ahead of him, as if he might have to catch Luke Wyatt, if he happened to fall. "Are you... uh... injured, Commander?"

Luke turned around, his back rolling so it pressed against the bulkhead wall next to the door and sighed, "No, not yet at least. My door has a mind of its own, it opens when I'm in front of it but as soon as I go to enter? BAM! it closes in my face." Pushing of off the wall, Maybe if we both pry it open I can slip in?"

Bobbing his head from side to side as he considered the possibilities, Lake pondered aloud, "Might the malfunction lie in the door sensors, rather than the mechanisms?" Despite his opposing diagnosis of the problem, Lake still moved into position on the opposite side of the door from Luke. Lake pressed his palm against the smooth door panel; he could feel each letter etched into the identifier plate.

Luke too got in position "Ok, on the count of three we'll push the door apart and ill slip inside." He reaffirmed his grip and positioned his feet "Three, two one... GO!" Luke said pushing with all his might as the door slowly began to open whining in protest as it did. The gap began to open just wide enough for someone to slip through but as if once again the door pushed back Luke wasn't sure if it was his sheer annoyance that made him lose train of thought and stumbled over Lakes legs or clumsiness but when he opened his eyes again he found himself staring up at the roof of his quarters and Lake next to him.

It wasn't Luke's fault. Not 100%. Maybe 80%, 85%, but not 100%. When the two officers had pulled the door panels in opposite directions until a noticeable gap appeared, Lake had made an extra effort to widen that gap. Compared to the majesty of a starship, Lake was well aware that his hands were small and fragile and liable to go crunch. Once there had been enough of a gap, Lake had wedged his shoulder in between the doors and pushed harder on his designated door with all the strength of his back and hips. This movement wasn't as successful as he planned, because Lake had put himself in Luke's path of travel, which was what resulted in Lake laying on the deck of Luke's quarters.

"Jackpot?" Lake said, without getting up.

"Thanks" Luke said laying there for a moment longer before slowly getting to his feet, it was only then did Luke realise the room was on emergency lighting and had not responded to their presence "I think we should see if you can get out, the room is responding to us being here" He said moving to the door, this time the door didn't budge. "Oh."

Moving more slowly than the agile security officer, Lake braced his elbows against the deck and started to sit up. "Oh?" Lake asked. There was hesitancy in his voice, and in the way he scraped his teeth across his lower lip. "When you say oh, do you mean...?"

Luke held his hand on the door and sighed "Oh as in I think we must have jammed the mechanism when we forced it open, I don't think it's going to budge." He tried manually turning on the lights to his quarters but there was no such luck "Lights are out" He wandered through the quarters, "Nothing working" Luke said finally stopping the opposite side of the room from Lake. "I guess its time we ask the professionals for help?"

Although Lake had managed to find his way to his feet, he didn't move around as much as Luke had done. He wasn't familiar with the layout of these quarters yet, and there was only starlight to see by. Huffing at the suggestion, Lake replied, "Now let's ask for help?" Sweeping his arms open wide, he asked, "How can we be trapped aboard such a little starship?"

Luke chuckled "Its a new ship its bound to have some teething problems." Luke tried his comms badge but the thing didn't even chirp "Try yours" he said pointing at Lakes starfleet insignia communications badge.

Tapping his combadge with the pads of his fingertips, Lake said, "ir-Llantrisant to Operations Office..." and when no reply came, he said, "ir-Llantirsant to Bridge..." Again, his combadge made no sound but the dull feedback tone that was common when it lacked connectivity. Between his thumb and forefinger, Lake gripped the rectangular backing of the arrowhead emblem and yanked the combadge from his chest.

"By default, they defer to Galileo's internal communications systems when we're aboard a starship," Lake said. In no way did he think this was something Luke didn't know, but he felt a need to explain why he was using his fingernail to pop open the outer casing of his combadge. "Your local communications node must be powered down like all the other systems in your quarters," Lake supposed, "So the combadge has nothing to connect to, and it doesn't know to switch to its own subspace transmitter, because it thinks it's aboard a perfect starship."

"Hardly perfect" Luke joked looking around the room for some source of light, fortunately, there were three hand-powered lights that he'd borrowed from an engineering officer on his camping trip. Cranking the turning paddle the lamp emitted a low but useful hue of orange. Placing them around Luke charged all three and stood hands on hips.

"Well, maybe we should see if we can get the communicators to transmit on their own?" he suggested pulling up a chair next to his dining table. "Might as well make yourself comfortable. Id offer you a drink but... well you know."

"I can't say I carry any alcohol on me either," Lake said, and he had a frown when he said it. He sounded supremely disappointed by said admission. Slowly, Lake sat himself down at the dining table and he placed the splayed-open body of his combadge on the tabletop. Lake looked down at the mechanisms within the combadge, and then he looked at Luke, and then he looked down at the combadge. "...I can't say I carry engineering tools either," Lake said with a shrug.

Luke nodded and remembered he had a small emergency kit for when he went camping which had some very basic tools if any of the equipment broke or needed a simple repair. "I think I have something that may help, but I'm no engineer," He said retreating to his room before returning with the small kit. Placing it on the table he took a seat before opening it up. "Hmmm, I don't know if any of this would actually help us."

Reaching out for the tools, Lake's hand hovered vaguely over the tool kit. He swirled his hand around and around, demonstrating little confidence about which one would be most the successful at manipulating the innards of a combadge. Looking over at Luke, Lake said dryly: "I spend my days digging into brains. I don't suppose a combadge has much of an opinion about its ego reflection..."

"It's probably more experience than I have with tinkering unless of course its a phase rifle or a photon torpedo. Maybe try using that one" Luke suggested pointing to what he could vaguely remember being something used for precise and small repairs.

Nodding at Luke's suggestion, Lake plucked up the suggested tool between his thumb and index finger. He visually scanned the components within the combadge and gently poked each one of them with the business-end of the tool, in an experimental and methodical manner. "I don't imagine we'll have much need for defense, while we're in transit through Federation space," Lake supposed aloud, as he continued his engineering exploration. Looking up briefly, Lake asked, "How do you expect to fill the next several months with no stops, no strange new worlds?"

"Oh that's easy, I've already spoken to Chief Ghoc the new boatswain and we are currently devising emergency simulations for the crew in the holodeck. That will fill up some of the time, and im sure the captain, XO and second in command will have a few ideas" Luke replied watching Lake carefully.

"Truly, this is going to be my first... prolonged... starship posting," Lake said to provide more context for his earlier question. "I've always had a starbase or planetside posting to return to after missions aboard starships," Lake said, hesitantly. Admitting such a thing made him feel like a wisp of an ensign again. "I've been asking around, but I can't entire put it together in my head," he said. "What do you actually do aboard a starship? At night? Six months until we reach the edge of the Federation is a long time. That's a lot of drinks in Calypso and a lot of games of holodeck velocity..."

"Well..." Luke started having to pause to actually think about his response, "There's plenty of things to do such as training, arranged activities, holodecks, extra duties, sleeping, physical exercise and well there's no short of things really. Yes were smaller, much smaller than a space station but it doesn't mean there's nothing to do. And between all that there's the calypso bar" He joked.

"I guess I'm afraid of cabin fever," Lake admitted, with a bashful shrug. Those words, and those words only, he said with a diffident tone. "I grew up in orchards. The stars only came out at night... I suppose you've never felt constrained aboard a starship?

"I have seen it where members of a starship especially as one as small as the Galileo become Cabin sick, they're usually the first to offer themselves up for an away team" He spoke thinking carefully about the questions. "I have, but it was when I was first starting out. I try and find ways to entertain myself"

"It's an adjustment. I'm sure I'll only need an acclimation period," Lake said. Clearly, he was trying to convince himself of this fact more than he was trying to convince Luke. Clearly. The shifting of his eyes and a crack in his voice gave it away. As he prodded and poked at the combadge experimentally, Lake said, "It's just... a six month transit... it's... that's a long time without away missions. What's been your longest time spent rolled up in a tin can?"

"It would have been during the dominion war." Luke started to say as he thought about the question and his previous experiences. "I was still in the Marines and it was a military transport vessel so we had none of the luxuries like a normal starship usually have, but we did make up our own entertainment. Most of us took cards, balls or even liquer to pass the time. I think it was only 3 months but felt like a lift time."

"If you don't mind my asking," Lake said in a conspiratorial tone, "which one kept you from self-destructive behaviours? Cards, balls or liquor?" At that, Lake set the engineering probe down, momentarily, focusing his full attention on Luke and his reaction to the, admittedly, personal question.

Luke chuckled "None, we were always getting into petty fights and well as you put it self-destructing but I don't think it was the time cooped up. Well yes maybe that had something to do with it but it was more because of the nature of our training, our jobs and what we were being sent to do. Everyone was, well, they were highly strung. After all, many of us knew we might not be coming home, at least not alive anyway. It was the nature of the beast, to be honest, you shouldn't really compare my experience to this, because they're a lot different." Luke explained.

Nodding at Luke's words, Lake could appreciate how the tensions and stresses of serving as a marine during the Dominion War would feel differently in the body -- even though he had still been a student through the war. He plucked up the engineering probe and set about poking at his combadge again, watching for the flickering of running lights or the telltales of electronic responses. "Having been there," Lake said, referring to the War, "and having been here, do you ever miss it?" Lake looked up, to ask, "Being a marine?"

"Of course I do. Its funny, you're the second person to ask me that in just a few days," He said laughing. "But the Marines is really for the young minded and grumpy old drill sergeants I am neither therefor I transferred to Starfleet, they're both two different kettles of fish each having good and bad days."

Continuing his clicking of the fine-tipped probe into the interior of his combadge, the rhythmic feedback tones began shifting to a higher frequency with each tap. "Really, though," Lake said, the incredulity in his timbre increasing, "Your bad days as a Starfleet officer can't be half as challenging as your bad days as a marine, no?"

"That's a strode misconception, as Marines we had it bad but most of our roles were ground based the only thing we had to worry about was air attack or a ground attack, it was up close and personal and you knew who you was fighting and why. In space its a whole new style of fighting, I have suffered more grievous harm and more loss serving in starfleet than I think I ever would in the Marines." Luke paused a moment.

"Look at it this way, in a battle within the Marines its mostly all little skirmishes resulting in a few killed, many injured but when two fleets go against each other hundreds and thousands of people can be killed, missing in action or injured. Starfleet as peaceful the intention is, can be the deadliest way to live"

Wide-eyed, the Romulan Lake had been entranced by Luke's story and the way he told it. Lake's expression was open, and Luke's words were clearly evoking astonishing images in Lake's mind's-eye. That same vivid imagination what what made it sting, when Luke's tale ended with an affirmation of how Starfleet an be the deadliest way to live. In a heartbeat, Lake's expression went dead-eyed. His nods went still, and his "mmhmm"s went quiet.

Lake didn't say anything; he didn't even breathe.

Finally, Lake filled the silence hanging between them with a stark, "Yes. Yes, it can be." The combadge buzzed beneath Lake's prodding, but it still wasn't the satisfying chirping sound that signified the opening of a communication channel. Lake stopped what he was doing to avoid calibrating his combadge any worse than he had already done.

"Well it's not ideal but I think I know a way to get some help, its something used back in the 21st century. Its called Morse code, a serious of dots and dashes maybe someone out there will be able to decipher it." Luke explained holding his hand out to the man.

Handing over the engineering tool, Lake affirmed, "This crew knows morse code. The ones who served aboard Schofield, they know it intimately." Lake cleared his throat and his gaze danced away from Luke in a diffident manner. Soberly, Lake admitted, "Morse code saved my life. I would have been buried in an unmarked grave, back on Pleione, if the away team hadn't tracked me down from my morse code signal..."

He took the device and began tapping out the usual distress code of SOS. Three dots-Three Dashes-Three Dots, for a moment the commander didn't think it was working until a voice came over the rooms internal communications system and the lights to his quarters began to power on.

"Sorry Commander" The voice repeated, "We've been experiencing some teething issues with the ships internal powers systems and it seems power had been rerouted away from your quarters, the problems been dealt with. It was lucky you managed to contact us, we weren't even aware of the problem."

"No Problem crewman, Wyatt out." He said placing the communicator on the table "Well, it seems our luck has turned thanks your handy work lieutenant, Thankyou," He said standing up and walking the door, as he approached they opened as they should. "Perfect."

Reading the cues and the microexpressions, Lake bounced to his feet. He lingered by the dining table long enough to snap his combadge closed and affix it to his chest. "Like magic," Lake agreed.

"Thank you again, Lieutenant, it was a pleasure meeting you. Perhaps next time we will be able to meet under less unfortunate circumstances" The security chief stuck out his hand and shook the lieutenant. "Farewell."

Clasping Lukes hand between both of his own, Lake said, "May your day be filled with peace," before he stepped out into the hall. This time, he didn't have to charge the doors with his shoulders. Rather, he made his way at a languid pace.


[OFF]

Lieutenant Commander Luke Wyatt
Chief of Security
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

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