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Post by Hector J. Romilly on Mar 28, 2011 14:58:13 GMT -5
"Computer: Locate Lieutenant Commander Romilly," Hector said.
"Lieutenant Commander Romilly is in the hydroponics bay." the computer returned flatly. It was almost deadpan. Romilly liked to think that the ship knew perfectly well he was in the shuttle bay, and that he had planted [quite literally planted] his comm badge in the hydroponics bay so that nobody would be able to find him.
He had insisted on taking a leave of 'absence'at first, which meant he was aboard ship but not taking an active duty; the Alpha Quadrant was not what he had signed up for. He had been supposed to start his first shift as Chief Engineer that morning. He had started, technically: he had gotten up six hours early and left an obnoxious list of finely detailed, pedantic instructions for his staff to undertake.
By the time they were finished the engines would be spic and span and like new, and Hector Romilly would have been nowhere near the core at all. He was delegating. It was what great leaders did.
Romilly made his own excitement. The thought of managing the crew on a dreary day like this one did nothing to entice him. He had begun to work on upgrading one of the shuttles almost the minute he'd come aboard, mostly at night or when the duty roster was away from the shuttle bay; he had all but gutted one of the little ships and had begun to modify the engine so that it would go faster.
Of course, the hull would break apart and everyone inside would suffocate, but reinforcements on that score would come later. He would rig it so it could be controlled remotely for the first test.
Launching a shuttle without the captain's permission would be another feat entirely. He had already decided she wouldn't be interested in the project and elected not to ask permission. She would deny him, undoubtedly, in a callous show of petty authority. He considered any effort that the captain undertook to counter his unpleasant view of her to be a tactic, an act... a lie.
Ruthlessness and command went hand in hand, after all. With an unaffected shrug he seized a pair of very small tweezers, that were plainly not meant for this sort of work in the least, and began to coax the two wires together. He liked to work the old fashioned way with old fashioned tools. All the fun went out of it if you could just zap things back into place.
Perhaps this post wasn't going to be so bad after all.
Hector pulled two cables out from under the shuttle and peered at them, mystified. One, he wasn't sure what they were connecting to, and two, he didn't know how he had managed to slice it in two. Clearly thinking about the captain was a hazardous pass-time.
Tag: Anyone!
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Post by Shawn O'Conner on Mar 29, 2011 1:54:55 GMT -5
He had promised to try and stay out of trouble, but it was just one of those promises that hardly ever could be made good on. And it wasn't exactly his fault! After a bit of wandering around Shawn wound up in the shuttlebay. All those shuttles about, stepping inside...it didn't seem like a bad idea at the time; then again that is how most everything started.
Shawn, his typical self saw an officer and tip toed behind one of the shuttles, and just watched for a moment. What was he doing? If pranking it was not going to work. And what were those itty bitty tools? The officer didn't exactly look in a good mood. Shawn thought something over. He then went to a control panel and decreased the gravity in the shuttlebay, making everything lighter to the point where a person floated about an inch off the ground.
Lifting off always put him in a better mood.
Tag: Hector
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Post by Hector J. Romilly on Mar 29, 2011 13:09:26 GMT -5
The tiniest scuff of a foot made Hector pause in his task and listen intently, but the boy was silent after that, and he didn't bother to look up. He was just lowering his tweezers back into position when his stomach felt suddenly ill at ease, and then everything began to rise slowly.
It wasn't enough to render him helpless, nor did he go soaring off to the ceiling -- just a good inch from the ground. Subtle. Hector appreciated the delicate hand. Most people would have overshot the trick and raised everything from the floor, this was just enough to be irritating, but not so far as to be cataclysmic. Stylish.
His appreciation was short-lived when he spotted that his tormentor was a small boy, though. Hector was flummoxed by children. He rather imagined the universal translator excluded them. He soured.
"And what are you, the first officer?" he asked snidely, folding his arms. He made no attempt to re-engage the gravity or otherwise move at all.
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Post by Shawn O'Conner on Mar 29, 2011 14:05:13 GMT -5
One inch off the ground. Not exactly blast off, but enough to start out an adult on. Adults were very delicate. Don't want to provoke more wrath than needed. Just enough to keep steady. But... Oh, he don't look any more happy than before.
"And what are you, the first officer?"
"Not yet." Shawn grinned. "That question kind of stings though. I thought by now everyone would know me!" The security teams certainly did. "Are you new? Or sick?" Shawn floated himself over.
"What cha workin' on? Maybe I can help. I re-programed enough things on the ship; mostly replicators, and holodeck programs. Nothing like a Vulcan coming out of the temple in Human PJs singing Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter."
Tag: Hector
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Post by Hector J. Romilly on Mar 29, 2011 15:14:16 GMT -5
Are you new? Or sick?"
"If I'm ill I might be highly contagious," Hector pointed out, making a vague effort to keep the distance between them constant. He was not so well practised at moving in low gravity, however, and it was a wasted attempt -- the boy was more dexterous.
"What cha workin' on? Maybe I can help. I re-programed enough things on the ship; mostly replicators, and holodeck programs. Nothing like a Vulcan coming out of the temple in Human PJs singing Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter."
Hector couldn't twist his mouth quickly enough to hide his smirk. "I hope you reserved that for Counsellor Suroc," he suggested mildly, eyeing the console where the gravity could be reinstated hesitantly. Torn between turning the gravity on and preventing the little worm from meddling with his things he had to struggle after him more quickly than he would have liked.
He floated awkwardly past the point where he meant to be, and had to turn, bouncing on his tiptoes.
"And if you must know -- and I suppose you're going to insist, I've never met a child who wouldn't -- I'm making some adjustments to the engine of this shuttle. I'm making it faster."
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Post by Shawn O'Conner on Mar 29, 2011 18:51:52 GMT -5
"If I'm ill I might be highly contagious,"
"Wonderful! If you are then you won't have to work, and if I get sick then I don't have to school, which means I could help you." Shawn wasn't a fool. This officer might have said that to keep him away. It wouldn't be the first time that kind of saying had been used to keep the boy at bay; well try and keep him at bay would be more accurate. And yes, Shawn caught the smirk.
"I hope you reserved that for Counsellor Suroc,"
"Actually I had something different in mind. First I have to find a new way around Lieutenant Mishtak's security," Shawn paused only a moment as he floated over to what the man in gold was working on. He started to study it. "He has bound to have uped the security systems. Either him or Lieutenant Xena. They both seriously need to relax more."
"And if you must know -- and I suppose you're going to insist, I've never met a child who wouldn't -- I'm making some adjustments to the engine of this shuttle. I'm making it faster."
"It looks like you're doing it the hard way." Shawn commented without a second thought.
Tag: Hector
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Post by suroc on Mar 30, 2011 14:13:51 GMT -5
Suddenly the gravity was reinstated in the room and they both landed to the ground. The doors of the shuttle bay parted and in came a Vulcan. He looked around and saw a young human boy, and an older human male. The latter working on a shuttle. He slowly made his way to the Lieutenant Commander Hector Romilly and paused exactly an with in arms reach of him
"Pardon my intrusion gentleman. Mr. Romilly, I believe you dropped this in hydroponics. The logical thing to do would be to return it to you as you may not have known it was missing." He then turned towards Shawn. "Hello young man." He acknowledged his presence as to make sure the boy did not seemed slighted, then once more turned to Hector Romilly.
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Post by Hector J. Romilly on Mar 31, 2011 18:20:43 GMT -5
Hector couldn't help but admire the boy's somewhat cavalier attitude toward's ship's security: there was a definite degree of camaraderie between them because Hector frequently acted like he was still eleven years old. Unfortunately it meant he had no patience for 'other' eleven year olds, and so his mild interest in Shawn was likely to be short-lived at best.
"If everything was easy life would be dull," he pointed out brusquely, and sighed. "You can take a holo-photo far more easily than you can paint a portrait, I don't see you telling painters there's an easier way to do things."
He folded his arms and arched an eyebrow, looking down at Shawn with an inscrutable expression on his face. He was about to ask why anybody in their right mind would bring him along for this mission when the gravity re-engaged unexpectedly.
He looked up and was ultimately dismayed to find Counsellor Suroc wielding his planted comm-badge. Drat.
"Pardon my intrusion gentleman. Mr. Romilly, I believe you dropped this in hydroponics. The logical thing to do would be to return it to you as you may not have known it was missing."
"Logic dictates that I might have dropped it in hydroponics?" Hector looked down his nose scornfully. "Perhaps, if it was lying on the floor. I think you'll find I poked it several inches into the soil. Logic should have dictated that I was giving it a proper burial."
He seemed to ponder this for a long moment.
"Or else that I was consumed and subsequently replaced by a man-eating plant hybrid, leaving only my communications badge wedged in the dirt as proof."
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Post by Shawn O'Conner on Mar 31, 2011 18:32:19 GMT -5
"You can take a holo-photo far more easily than you can paint a portrait, I don't see you telling painters there's an easier way to do things."
"How do you know I don't?" If Shawn saw someone doing something and he knew of a better way or thought of a better easier way, he'd tell them. Not out of being rude or anything. Just, well...come to think of it there never really was a reason. He just did. Perhaps that was one of the reasons some people compaired him to Dennis The Menace?
Just then the gravity was back in full swing, and Shawn was back on the floor again. It was easier to run that way.
Then the Vulcan and the man in gold exchanged words. Why was he smarting off to Suroc? It was strange and very interesting. They had Shawn's full attention...at the moment.
Tag: Both
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Post by suroc on Mar 31, 2011 18:46:19 GMT -5
Suroc listened as Romilly gave his absurd tale of what could of happened, though more than likely it was the prior and he simply abandoned his comm-badge. He looked at the officer with a very blank stare. No emotion evident on his face. He clasped his hands in each other and waited the the Chief Engineer was finished speaking. He cracked his knuckles, not realizing he had done so.
"Perhaps, if it was lying on the floor. I think you'll find I poked it several inches into the soil. Logic should have dictated that I was giving it a proper burial."
"So what you are telling me Mr.Romilly, is that you deliberately concealed your comm-badge as to not be found. Some would say that is suspicious and criminal Mr.Romilly. Lieutenant Mishtak would call it dereliction of duty." He reached for his datapadd and started pressing a few buttons. He then placed it back on his waist.
"That is as I believed. You started duty this morning, which would indicate that you are still on duty if I have made a proper assessment of crew shifts. Which means Mr.Romilly that you are on duty and are breaking Starfleet regulations by removing your comm-badge." Suroc reached up pinned it back on him. He took another look at the boy standing not to far off from him and Hector. Then once more looked back at Hector.
"As a Commander in Starfleet I am required to report this, however. Reason would have it that stress from entering the Delta Quadrant so violently has addled your mind, and you were not logically thinking Commander Romilly and in a fit of hysterics brought on by excessive work, and stress you discarded your comm-badge with out thinking, that is a more logical report is it not Mr.Romilly?"
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Post by Hector J. Romilly on Mar 31, 2011 19:29:27 GMT -5
"That depends on your definition of duty," Hector said, remaining outwardly unfazed, although inwardly he had an all-too familiar sense of impending doom. "After all, Mr. Suroc, if we were all to carry out our duty to letter of Starfleet's instructions would it not be more efficient to man the crew with androids? I know it's difficult, but let's pretend you do have an imagination."
Hector adjusted his uniform self-importantly, and glanced down at Shawn before he continued.
"First and foremost, my duty is to ensure the well-being and the smooth running of the engines aboard ship. Correct? Well. Have we stopped? I can feel the tiniest tic in the warp core, Mr. Suroc, and that's with the inertial dampeners at maximum. I could be curled up in bed and I'd still cotton on faster than most."
He drew a long breath. Honestly, from what he had seen the engineering team here were very capable, he was just avoiding meeting them deliberately now.
"Second, I manage the engineering team. I presume you won't disagree on that score. So you will find -- per my duty -- I have delegated the tasks in engineering accordingly. Now I am carrying out delicate, experimental modifications on a small scale in order to scope out advancements for the main core. One does not need to stand in engineering in order to perform one's duty."
His lungs were beginning to hurt, but he wasn't finished yet: "And as for removing my comm badge -- " he faltered a tiny bit, because he hadn't come up with a feasible lie to cover himself, "-- I am merely encouraging my team to think for themselves."
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Post by suroc on Mar 31, 2011 20:16:28 GMT -5
"First and foremost, my duty is to ensure the well-being and the smooth running of the engines aboard ship. Correct? Well. Have we stopped? I can feel the tiniest tic in the warp core, Mr. Suroc, and that's with the inertial dampeners at maximum. I could be curled up in bed and I'd still cotton on faster than most."
"Your skills are not in question here Mr.Romilly. So your protestations of such things is illogical and irrelevant. You highly skilled. That is not what I am trying to convey to you Mr.Romilly. As for managing the ship with Androids that would not be possible to do as Noonian-Soong was the only developer of Androids Data and Lore. Both of them are deactivated or destroyed. Noomian-Soongs work has so far been unsuccessful in duplicating. Pretending Mr.Romilly is illogical unless of course you are a child like Shawn here. Correct me if I am mistaken Commander, but I had assumed you were an adult." Suroc addressed Romilly in his usual emotionless voice.
"Second, I manage the engineering team. I presume you won't disagree on that score. So you will find -- per my duty -- I have delegated the tasks in engineering accordingly. Now I am carrying out delicate, experimental modifications on a small scale in order to scope out advancements for the main core. One does not need to stand in engineering in order to perform one's duty."
"Yes Mr.Romilly you do manage the Engineering team. I am sure that you are quite efficient. you can dole out delegations to your hearts content Mr.Romilly. I have to say it does not seem logical for you to be doing computations and hands on work for the warp core on a shuttle. One does not need to stand in Engineering to perform ones duty but one does need to be able to be reached."
"And as for removing my comm badge -- I am merely encouraging my team to think for themselves."
"Your team like you Mr.Romilly is efficient. You are required while on duty to at all times or until death takes you wear your comm-badge. I will entrust that you shall abide by on duty regulations from here on out Mr.Romilly. When you off duty, "feel" free and do whatever you wish to it. On duty wear it in case Engineering needs you are the Captain requires something of you. As a Senior officer I would not have expected me to have to remind you of this. Now if you gentleman will excuse me. My duty requires me else where. Mr.Romilly, Mr.Conner Live Long and Prosper." He parted his fingers in the typical Vulcan manner and took his leave walking out of the shuttle bay. They started to float again as he reinstated the gravity.
END:Suroc
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Post by Shawn O'Conner on Apr 1, 2011 15:08:51 GMT -5
This whole exchange of words might have been more interesting if Commander Suroc were Human like Romilly there. Sure enough Romilly would have started a few sparks with a person that was not taught to purge of emotions. Then there would have been more eye darting back an forth for Shawn. Not to mention he might have been able to grab a bag of popcorn while the show of sparks flew. Oh well. At least it had not been Lieutenant Mishtak or Xena.
Romilly might have been on the recieving end of a fist. Both officers were fighters. Though the whole eaten by a plant thing was very funny. When Suroc left and the gravity left, and went like before, Shawn looked at Lieutenant Commander Romilly.
"I am merely encouraging my team to think for themselves? If that's the best you can do, you need to attend 'Shawn O' Conner's school for shading the truth'."
Tag: Hector/Any
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Post by Hector J. Romilly on Apr 1, 2011 15:39:41 GMT -5
Romilly watched sourly as Suroc exited, and ground his teeth together. It wasn't like him to back down or to flake on a lie so readily, but if truth were to be told, Commander Suroc was an enigma. He didn't like Vulcans anyway -- any race that could read minds in any capacity was to be held at more than arm's length -- but their unflappable logic meant that Hector's best armada of tricks didn't work.
Adding to each of those things the fact that Suroc was a psychologist only made him a more formidable enemy. He folded his arms tightly across his chest, and then rolled his eyes as Suroc put the gravity back off.
Anyone who said Vulcans weren't capable of sarcasm wasn't capable of understanding sarcasm.
"I am merely encouraging my team to think for themselves? If that's the best you can do, you need to attend 'Shawn O' Conner's school for shading the truth'."
"I'm sure it is much easier for you," Hector said. "You can do things for no reason whatsoever and they'll only assume you need a special school."
He waited a beat, then cleared his throat irritably. "And if you're so smart, what would you have said?"
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Post by Shawn O'Conner on Apr 1, 2011 23:32:33 GMT -5
"That comment happens to be flawed in my case." Shawn replied in a Vulcan tone of voice. Hey! It was fun! Besides, he couldn't help but wonder what it took to get under this mans skin. From what he saw; not a whole lot, however, Shawn enjoyed testing his limits. How far could he go without Lieutenant Commander Romilly wanting to reach out and snap his neck? What ares should be treaded on lightly? What made this officer tick? Or get ticked off...
"Adults simply think I require more challenges." Shawn continued on in the Vulcan voice as he started to fiddle with the work Hector had started. Very interesting... Shawn very carefully starting making some changes that would help.
"What I would say depends on the person, and the species they happen to be." Shawn looked at Hector. "Don't you know how much that matters when you are trying to get away with something?"
Tag: Hector
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