Science and Understanding

Posted on 19 Jan 2013 @ 2:38am by Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton
Edited on on 19 Jan 2013 @ 7:37am

2,188 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo, Deck 4 - M. Panne's Office
Timeline: MD 16, 1935 hours

[ON]

Jacob had left Lt. Stone's office and headed for the Science wing of the ship. His mind filled with many thoughts and replays of the last couple days on the Colony.

He soon reached the main door of the Science department and walked in. He looked around a bit taking in the department and all the nifty gadgets and instruments. He asked the nearest person for the Chief Science Officer's room; they pointed him in the correct direction and he went to the door.

Jacob straightened his uniform and rang the chime. He hoped his day would soon get better.

Being in her office this late was unusual for Maenad Panne, considering she was on leave and her department was prepared for departure. But, she had been avoiding her quarters because that would have brought her closer to Stone, who had lost the mister prefix in her thoughts. In fact, he was now entirely without a title because a title denoted respect, and he had entirely lost the little that he'd had. The way he had treated her that morning was reprehensible. She knew that if she went home, she would be nervous, and she would be self-conscious about playing her piano for him to hear. She hated everything right now.

The sound of the chime returned her to reality. Who could it have been? "Come in," she said with an unconscious irritability.

Jacob's huge frame entered the office. "Lieutenant and Doctor Panne? I am Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton, the new Chief Research Officer reporting as protocol demands." His voice was deep and gentle as he stood at perfect attention; his dark eyes focused on the far wall but shone brightly, full of readiness to get to work.

Maenad looked up from her screen with only her eyes at the giant hulk of a man. So not only was she supposed to be mentally intimidated by him, but they brought in the largest human being that they, and she, had probably ever seen. Was this some kind of joke? She wanted to laugh, but she remained steely. "Mister Pendleton," she repeated, then stood. She didn't round her desk, but offered him a hand over it instead. "Welcome," she said indifferently. "Would you like to sit down? Perhaps some tea? Coffee?"

Jacob smiled, handed her his PADD and replied, "Why thank you Doctor Panne. It is appreciated. He took a seat and continued, "a cold Nehi Grape Soda would be great if the replicators are online." He looked around the office taking everything in and commented, "You have a nice and comfortable place here Doctor Panne."

"Thank you," Maenad took the PADD without looking at it and set it on her desk. She turned around and replicated herself a cup of Earl Grey and a grape soda for Pendleton. She gave an awkward frown at that, then returned to her seat and sat down, pushing Pendleton's drink across her desk for him. She set her tea on a coaster to wait for it to cool, then sat back in her chair, crossing her legs. "Did you just arrive?" she asked, reaching for the PADD.

"No Ma'am. I was unfortunately detained by an incident on the colony." He gave her a raise of the glass to her and drank a bit of the soda. He smiled at that and then continued, "I have to admit Doctor Panne that I am excited in working with you. In my opinion, we could forge a great team here and find out some great stuff to be sure! So much to do, so much to seek, so many questions and answers to find!"

Maenad looked up from the PADD she held in front of her. She was still indifferent, still icy-looking. But now her eyebrows met and her lips curled only the slightest. He wore lieutenant junior grade but his enthusiasm shouted just-graduated ensign, and the grape pop didn't help his case either. "You were detained because of an incident?" she asked. "What incident?" she was still frowning.

"I am sorry Dr. Panne, I am not at liberty to discuss the issue at this time. Any information you may want or need will have come through Chief of Security Stone. Once again, I apologize for not being able to give details at this time." Jacob took another drink of his soda and changed the subject, "I have to say that your Doctoral Thesis: 'The Origins of Life in Our Galaxy: Evolution over 4.5 Billion Years and Beyond.' was just great. I really liked your insight and your findings. In my opinion, those who thought some of your research was controversial were not looking at your work as a whole or were perhaps jealous of your findings. Either way, you made some great points and I wanted you to know that I really enjoyed your thesis." His mind went back to his Academy days and his reading of her thesis and knowing he had so much more to learn.

Maenad slowly set down the PADD, not looking at him. She took a long sip of tea, which she then set down next to the PADD after a good while. "Mister Pendleton, I appreciate all of that and I would be happy to discuss my work, but if you will not even tell me the nature of this incident, I am afraid that we will get off to a bad start." She said to him, actually looking at him. "Trust is the most important element in a working relationship, with which I am sure you can agree. I am not asking for the details of whatever pending case you might have on your shoulders, but only of what you've been accused," she licked her lips. "I don't know if you're a petty thief, a murderer, a rapist, a conman, or what. Frankly, I don't care, You will find that I am not a judgemental person, but if you're going to tell me you're under investigation for something done within the past few days, I need to know of what you have been accused if you expect to be working in my department with my staff, and with my resources," she narrowed her eyes. She wasn't being rude, she was being honest; how could she let a potential thief lurk through the labs, or an abuser of his size alone with her staff? She would be negligent otherwise. "I hope you understand me," she said sympathetically.

Jacob sighed, "Doctor Panne," he began slowly, "The details are what are part of the accusations charged against me. So, in the interest of trust and good relations, let me just say that I defended a woman's honor and things became misconstrued. I cannot say more. Once again, I sincerely apologize if this causes a rift between us."

Jacob stared down at his glass for a moment before returning his eyes to her.

Maenad sighed. The rift Pendleton was talking about was already there, but she didn't tell him that. The rift was not of his making, but her own; she knew that to make it obvious would be her own character flaw, her problem, and most of all unfair to him. He seemed like a friendly enough fellow, she thought without expression. If she could describe him, she would probably call him a giant teddy bear. Not one that she want in her bed, of course, but a teddy bear nonetheless.

"No," she said finally, giving him a half-smile for the first time since he'd sat down. "Thank you for telling me; that's all I needed to hear." Maenad took a quick sip of her tea, feeling guilty for how she had treated him so far. "Since you're a chief too, I don't mean to sound like I'm babying you, but I would like for you to maybe tell me a bit about yourself," she said to him.

Jacob took another drink of his soda and began, "Well, I was born on a farm in southwest Wisconsin, North America," He held up the back of his left hand, extending his thumb, basically making a rudimentary map of his home state. He pointed to the bottom left corner of his hand, "Right about there. Grant County, right next to the Mississippi River bordering Iowa and Illinois." He smiled with pride. "My father was a farmer, my mother was an accountant, and I am an only child." He changed positions in his seat as the chair, like so many other chairs, was not quite adequate for his immense body frame.

"I realized at an early age that I had a mind for learning, wanting to learn, wanting to know things. I did well in my schooling but had always been really interested in Space and Science and Science Fiction etc, so I joined Starfleet and graduated from the Science side of things. Joined on two different Science Ships, participated in an awesome planetary dig and helped with several big time Science conferences." Jacob paused to take another drink of his soda,

"As for me personally, I love music including that I love playing piano and saxophone, love history, government, philosophy..." he paused and then added, "and of course Research amongst many other things."

Maenad watched him with as neutral an expression as she could muster. "Well," she said, "Research is implied in all of those things. You can't love history without also loving research, because without research there would be no history. And the same is for science, because that's all that science is: research. As the chief science officer, research is exactly what I..." she stopped, realising that she might get onto a tangent that she would regret. "I too play the piano." She took a long sip of tea, staring at the bottom of the cup through the surface. Oh my god. It was the easiest thing she could come up with to change the subject without it being too obvious.

Jacob replied, "That is awesome Doctor! Music is the thing which hold this universe together I feel." He smiled at her, "I hope to hear one of your performances sometime. As for me, well, I think I might bring my portable keyboard or sax to the observation deck sometimes and become part of the dinner 'ambiance' as it were." He chuckled a bit then continued, "Or write yet another Holodeck program based on Musical get togethers."

Maenad gave a nervous smile. Saying that she played piano put her at risk for invitation to do something other than work. "Well, that would certainly add to the atmosphere. I hate to be curt, Mister Pendleton, but I have work to do; is there anything on your mind that you'd like to ask before you leave?"

He nodded, "Just let me know what areas of research you'd like me to tackle and that would free you up for whatever projects or research you want to work on. I think we will make a superior team."

Her nervous smile persisted. "Yes, well, I am sure you are correct, Mister Pendleton. The nature of our research varies with our missions. You may take up whatever personal projects you have until our orders come through." Maenad sipped at her tea. Her entire job was research, she thought. And she couldn't just tell him to do her job. "I look forward to working with you," she said because she felt she had to, then felt guilty for thinking so harshly.

Jacob nodded again, "Very good then Doctor Panne. We are a team and I can't wait to work with you on projects, ideas, mysteries to solve, what have you. I am excited to get started." He sighed and continued, "Well, I guess I better get to looking at the Lab for a bit to get used to where everything is and then go work out at the gym for a bit, or maybe work on a holodeck program, I don't know, its all good." He smiled and stood up extending his hand to her.

"Yes," Maenad's smile was still uncomfortable as she rose to a half-stand, or perhaps she lurched, to shake Pendleton's hand. "Quite," she released his grip, which was much firmer than hers, and remained at her feet until he was gone and she was alone.

After sitting down, for a long while she stared at the chair he'd been sitting in. Silent and wide-eyed, Maenad was both furious and contrite. Pendleton carried a benign innocence about him that made her regret that she'd been so hostile to his reassignment, and toward the idea of him as a person. It would have been so much easier if he were a hateable man, but he wasn't. There was nothing she could hate about him; the man drank grape pop, and smiled like a little kid for god's sake. She sighed, slouched forward, and put her chin in her hand as she returned to reading particle data.

[OFF]


Lt. JG Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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