The Science of Deception

Posted on Sat Jun 11th, 2022 @ 2:48am by Lieutenant Ashlesha 4827/A & Lieutenant JG Avarak

Mission: *CD*
Location: Avarak's quarters

"Commander, I filled out those requisitions days ago and I assure you the paperwork was properly prepared."

The Commander's smile was so condescending Ashlesha wished she had mental powers so she could punch him through the screen. The superior (in rank only) officer replied, "Of course, lieutenant! No one is faulting your flawless handling of requisition protocol. Except...we really do need to have someone here in person to sign off on it."

"In person?" Ashlesha glanced over at the chief standing off to the side, who sighed and nodded. In the corner Ashlesha Grey Violet rolled her eyes while Violet hid her face in her palm. Green turned back to the screen, "I have to walk a PADD over to your office to release much needed emergency rations and spare parts?" Gods, when was Sunfire due to leave dock? The thought of part of her not being on board...!

"I am afraid so, lieutenant. These requisition orders are very extensive, far, far higher than normal. The sooner the better; we go off to lunch in ten minutes."

"I see. Sir," Ashlesha forced a smile, "I will be over in five minutes, then," it took all her willpower to say, "Thank you" before she signed off.

The chief took a step back when he heard Green's growl, he said, "Sir, perhaps lieutenant Haldeman could-"

"What, force a woman suffering from a debilitating illness to do this? Do I look like a monster, chief?"

"Illness?" the chief echoed, "Sir, the lieutenant is pregnant."

All three of Ashlesha made a face, Grey replied, "Precisely. Is transporter one working?"

"Yes, lieutenant."

Ashlesha's eyes narrowed, "You are quite certain? You don't want more of me accidentally sprouting up. Or one less," Ashlesha hated using the transporter on just one of her but she had only a few minutes to catch the officious moron.

The chief's expression was studiously neutral, "Yes, sir."

All three heads nodded, Gray said, "All right. I'm heading over to the station. I'm also going to help Haldeman with that mountain of PADDwork. And..." she frowned as she checked a PADD of her own, "I...am apparently scheduled to fix a sonic shower..."

Avarak sat behind the desk in his quarters. His intention was to take a sonic shower after his duty shift had completed but, much to his chagrin, the requisition that he had put in what must have been days ago still had yet to be repaired. One of the downsides to packing light is that when one needs busy work to kill time, there's very little busy work to be had.

At long last the door to his quarters hissed open and in walked what looked like a crewman from the operations department, judging by the mustard yellow colour of her coveralls. "Good day, crewman, I assume you are here to finally attend to my maintenance requisition?" To people unfamiliar with Vulcans, they sometimes seemed to come across as passive aggressive and, if one didn't know any better, one might think that Avarak's tone betrayed a sense of annoyance.

Ashlesha Violet was about to correct the man...but instead she just smiled.

"Why, yes, sir!" she replied as she entered his quarters while towing a grav cart holding a new shower assembly, "Sorry it's taken so long to get around to you."

She paused to take in the quarters and she let out a low whistle, "So this is how the officers live! You sure must be someone important, sir!"

"Having not seen many other quarters, I have no point of comparison." Responded Avarak, cocking an eyebrow. "However, I am the *Chief* Science Officer." He added, placing emphasis on the word 'chief', as he well and truly and no idea to whom he was speaking.

"Oh, a department head!" Violet replied, sounding suitably impressed, "Well, sir, I do apologize for not getting your named placed right at the top of the list. I promise we won't make that mistake again! Ah, fresher's that way, right?"

She guided the cart and came dangerously close to "accidentally" smacking the desk with it. She pulled out her tricorder from a leg pouch and popped it open, then scanned the wall.

"I see the problem, lieutenant," Violet replied as she replaced the tricorder and opened up a tool kit on the cart, "I'll have your shower up and running in no time! You just keep on doing whatever it was you were doing," she winked, "You'll hardly know I'm here!"

Avarak stood at a distance watching what he thought was a crewman working on his shower. The attitude with which she addressed him had piqued his interest and he had started to get the impression that she knew something he didn't. Either way, her cart had come dangerously close to nicking his desk and he thought it prudent to observe her working, lest her cart become the catalyst for another maintenance requisition.

Ashlesha quickly dismantled the wall, setting aside the panels as she examined the "guts" of the sonic shower.

"Yeah," she said absently, "Looks like whatever hit the ship back in the Gamma Quadrant caused a series of nasty feedbacks through random parts of the ship; we've been seeing catastrophic glitches like this all over the place. And it's completely random."

She paused, then added, "Okay, it appears to be random but for all I know there might be a pattern; we've been too busy fixing 'em to take notice."

She glanced at the Chief Science Officer and smiled, "Fastest thing to do is to just tear the whole thing out and replace it and then we can refurbish your old one. It'll go a lot more quickly if you give me a hand, but if you're too busy I understand."

She bent down and opened up her tool kit and began to sing an old country song one of her old crew mates drove her nuts with:

"I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line..."

Avarak, who had been watching her the whole time, took a step forward. “Certainly, how may I be of assistance?” He cocked an eyebrow at her singing a tune; breaking into song wasn’t something that he had witnessed very often in his life, especially not in Starfleet.

"Oh, that would be great, lieutenant!" Ashlesha exclaimed with a broad smile. She handed him a duonetic coupler and said, "With your help we'll have this done in half the time, guaranteed!"

Once the actual work was under way Ashlesha focused on getting the job done. Fun was fun but there was a whole ship to fix and Sunfire was due to leave dock pretty soon...

The two of them worked diligently, Avarak simply doing whatever Ashlesha told him. After all, maintenance and ‘handy work’ was far from Avarak’s strong suit.

Only a few short minutes had passed and it seemed that they had finally fixed his sonic shower. “Have we completed?” He asked.

Ashlesha stood back from the wall and regarded their work. After a moment she nodded and said, "Wait, let me adjust it for Vulcan ears," a joke was a joke but she wasn't going to accidentally send somebody to sickbay because she got careless. She pulled out her tricorder and adjusted down the shower, then motioning for the lieutenant to step out turned it on.

"Okay!" she said with grin as the results came back positive, "Next time something breaks," she winked, "You'll know who to call, right?"

“Certainly,” responded Avarak. “You have my gratitude.” He said, bowing his head respectfully.

"Good to know, lieutenant," Ashlesha replied as she pointed both fingers at him, "'Till next time!"

For the rest of the day her people and the engineers working with her wondered why she kept giggling...