[Fin][Open] A Personal Project

[Hector J. Romilly]

Hector watched the boy for a long moment. What he was doing wasn't anything inspired, but it was highly advanced for a -- what was he, six years old? Hector had no idea. The gestational phases of children weren't something he had studied much. Either way, he wasn't breaking it, which was at least to his credit.

"Look -- don't --" he began gruffly, and swatted in the direction of Shawn's hands. "There's a reason I've not done that yet," he said, flexing his long fingers. It was one thing to understand individual functions, it was another to understand the complex combination of them to build something or improve it. Only age and experience could give him that. Often Hector made connections just by virtue of the mistakes he'd made in his youth. Sometimes it was just a hunch.

In any case, making those connections now, whilst not technically incorrect, would make it awkward to re-access elements behind them later.

"Let me guess," Hector ventured. "Child genius, over-protective parents, instead of sending you to a proper school they take a joint-mission together and can't bear the thought of leaving you to your own devices -- so they bring you along, and then leave you to your own devices."

Hector had been a similarly gifted child. It wasn't sympathy he was offering, or even commiseration -- just a blunt observation. This kid was playing by himself in the shuttlebay. If someone was supposed to be looking after him they were doing a terrible job of it.

[Shawn O'Conner]

"Look -- don't --"

Swatting hands. "Mister Grumpy, would it make you chill out if I told you I built a miniature shuttle? I don't mean a toy either." Shawn said as he looked up at Romilly. "Just ask the replicator, after reprogramming it, to produce shuttle parts in itty bitty sizes."

"Let me guess," "Child genius, over-protective parents, instead of sending you to a proper school they take a joint-mission together and can't bear the thought of leaving you to your own devices -- so they bring you along, and then leave you to your own devices."

"Well..." Shawn raised a finger. "half right Mister Grumpy. Dad is not over protective. Often he tells mom that she can't keep my attached to her apron strings. Mom is actually a civilian...kind of. Dad's post is operations."

"The person who tends to keep an eye on me the most is Lieutenant Xena, assistant chief of security, but she's on an away mission."

Tag: Hector

[Hector J. Romilly]

"Well I'm not building a shuttle, am I? I'm making highly dangerous modifications to a shuttle. Untested ones, but you're right, the lives of the people aboard this ship are less important than your desire to irritate me."

Hector fiddled with his comm badge. Despite his obvious youth and inexperience, he was beginning to like the boy. In an unconventional sort of way, anyway. Hector didn't display affection like normal people did -- you either had his respect or you didn't, and even if you had it he was still a challenging, difficult sort of person. He picked opponents, not friends.

An idea was forming, though. Maybe he would apprentice the kid, add him to the engineering team. It would definitely stir things up in the way he likes to see it stirred -- he didn't doubt the rest of the team would object to being babysitters, for a start. And it was dangerous, unprecedented, and against no less than fifty strict Starfleet regulations. He was beginning to like it more and more.

"Do you honestly just drift around the ship like a poltergeist causing trouble all day?" he asked suddenly, eyeing Shawn from the side. "Did you ever want to do something useful instead?"

[Shawn O'Conner]

"Those seem to be the best!" Shawn remarked about the untested modifications. "If people don't experiment, then we don't progress forward with new things. There was the wheel, then bikes, then cars, then hover cars, and shuttle-crafts, and so forth and so on; ya know?" Shawn grinned. Logic was there about those things and progress. You couldn't argue too much with that.

"I don't cause trouble all day Mister Grumpy. Sometimes I cause trouble in the evening." The question though; that got Shawn thinking. "I would like to work in operations. And who says my pranks aren't useful? I think they help keep people on their toes."

...

"I'll show you sometime." What was Shawn planning? Well that was for him to know...right now.

Tag: Hector

[Hector J. Romilly]

"Cute. Very cute," Hector muttered. "Computer, re-engage the gravity in shuttlebay one."

Everything dropped back into its rightful place, and Hector scratched his ear thoughtfully. "Well, if you're interested in making more than replicated miniature shuttles, report for duty tomorrow afternoon in engineering," he said, with a smirk. "I've been thinking about hiring an apprentice. You'll do just as well as any other cadet on the ship, I imagine."

Any other cadet on the ship would have been by far a less controversial choice, too.

"14:00. Skip afternoon classes, this is better."

Tag: Shawn

[Shawn O'Conner]

"Well, if you're interested in making more than replicated miniature shuttles, report for duty tomorrow afternoon in engineering,"

Shawn Looked up at Hector with a bit of disbelief. Report for duty? Was he serious? They didn't allow children in engineering. At least not to Shawn's knowledge, which was much (depending how you looked at it) for his age. Mr. Grumpy had to be pranking him!

"I've been thinking about hiring an apprentice. You'll do just as well as any other cadet on the ship, I imagine."
"14:00. Skip afternoon classes, this is better."

Skip classes? Five seconds later...after the 'ding!' went off. Shawn simply said; "Okay."

The computer then spoke. Lieutenant Xena is back on board the Orion.

"Gotta go Mister Grumpy. Duty calls!" Shawn made with the haste to the doors. "See ya later!"

Tag: Hector - End Shawn

[Mishtak]

The turbo lift stopped on the proper deck and opened to allow Mishtak access to the hallway,he headed cautiously towards the shuttle bay entrance to investigate what was going on inside. He stopped at the door and typed a command into the computer panel next to it, telling the doors to the bay to seal as well as prevent the bay doors to open. He then disabled the rooms ability to depressurize. He then entered one final command, which turned the terminal into a playback device of sorts,recording all conversations inside and playing them back to the audience in the hallway mere seconds later. It was a feature only he could access, mainly so no one would start spying on anyone else.

He listened to the conversation while he waited for his assistant chief and their cadet to arrive. He was planning to put Xena in charge when she arrived and he wanted to see what the cadet could do, almost as if this was a trial by fire for both of them in a way...

TAG: Xena/S'Louk

[Xena]

"Sir." Xena acknowledged Mishtak as she approached his location. "Any change?" Xena inquired since any changes would not be on a report as of yet. It'd have to be filled out. She was still ready to do her job, and follow orders though. Whatever orders they might be. Well... Suspense was kind of killing her.

Tag: Mishtak/Any

[securitycadet]

S'Louk was ment to be off duty when he was called down to the shuttld bay. If he had been human he might of grumbled under his breath and acted unhappy at the lack of rest he was going to get. But being Vulcan he showed no such emotion. And as for the lack if rest. As a Vulcan he could go two weeks before he needed rest. So one quick Turbolift ride later here he was. Standing outside the Shuttlebay with his chief and assistant chief. "Sirs" he said in his usual, emotionless voice, whilst giving the traditional, split hand, Vulcan salute.

[Hector J. Romilly]

Meanwhile, inside the shuttlebay, Hector was wrapping up. He reconnected the shuttle so that it was functioning normally, and swept his modifications, safely disabled, to one side, and then re-closed the hatch. He wasn't reckless enough to leave it unsafe. He spent another few moments carefully replacing his tools in a little pouch he used especially for keeping vintage and atypical equipment.

It wasn't until he tried to leave the bay that he realised anything was going on outside.

"Computer, open the door to shuttlebay one," Hector said.

"Unable to comply."

Hector frowned. His first suspicion was that Shawn had sealed him in, as one of his pranks. He didn't even bother to try to force the door open. Instead he found an access hatch and opened it, and crawled comfortably into a Jefferies' Tube.

[Mishtak]

"Sir"

Xena had arrived and looked like she was waiting for orders and an update, he figured she'd listen to what had been occurring inside as the computer relayed the information...

"Sirs"

As the cadet arrived he knew it was time for orders...

"Lt. Xena, as you started this investigation I'm giving you the lead, I want our cadet here to assist so I may critique his performance. Nothing personal cadet, but I have not had the proper time to evaluate you or your test scores. Whenever the two of you are ready you may proceed."

He knew they were both armed, duty required them to be, he was also supposed to be armed with a phaser but given that he is in fact a Klingon, he always considered himself armed even if he had no weapon. It was now time to watch his deputy and new cadet shine in their duties, he would be there merely as an observer and only step in if the situation called for some major intimidation tactics...



TAG: Xena/S'Louk

[Xena]

"Sirs."

Xena gave a slight nod of her head to the cadet just to acknowledge his presence. She then listened to Lieutenant Mishtak. She be lead? No problem with that, it was just sort of a little surprise. First for everything... Xena gave Mishtak a nod, and open tricorder in one hand, ready phaser in another, Xena led the way in. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to the naked eye...at first. As she continued walking Xena noticed an open hatch. She looked to S'Louk. Normally she would have said to stay there, but that would not give him any experience.

Tag: S'Louk/Mishtak/Anyone

[Hector J. Romilly]

^{((OOC: With the Captain's permission... moving this thread forward}

Typical. The moment you got all the way down on your hands and knees (which were protesting all the more lately, Hector thought. Especially the knees) and the shuttle-bay door hissed open as if it had been waiting for it.

Turning around inside a Jefferies tube was no easy feat. Hector thought that Jefferies was a man who liked things to operate one a one-way system, because there was no bloody way for a man of his height to about face without curling himself up like a dead spider.

This was entirely the reason that it was his rear end that greeted the security officers first. He climbed out backwards, and straightened up with a grunt of protest. He jumped a little, as he hadn't expected to see the Amazon-like security officer nor her little Vulcan sidekick. He then tried to play it off as though it hadn't happened.

"If you're looking for that boy, he's two steps ahead of you as usual," he said casually, still adamant he had done nothing wrong, "he left about five minutes ago."

[Xena]

A humanoid life form. Xena silently made her way to the open hatch, ready for anything. Keeping her phaser at the ready Xena closed her tricorder and put it away. She was going to order S'Louk to take the other hatch so they could catch whomever in the middle with no way to escape. That didn't go over so well as the life form that was inside came out. Apparently it was one of theirs by way of rank and uniform. No doubt a tad rattled by her height as Xena did notice the slight jump, and reaction. It didn't bother her any. She was quite used to it by now.

"If you're looking for that boy, he's two steps ahead of you as usual," "he left about five minutes ago."

Xena just stared the officer in gold down with that steely gaze of hers. From what he said, he had meet Shawn O' Conner. Xena lightly smirked. "I know Shawn O' Conner just about as well as I know to keep my elbow up during archery. He's not the one I'm after, for once." That boy.

"Step back." Xena instructed as she closed up the hatch. "Care to tell me what you are doing in here? Or what you were doing? Something tells me it doesn't involve sunshine, lollipops or rainbows." Especially if Shawn had been here. It was trouble. This officer was bound to be trouble. Xena could feel it.

Tag: Hector/Any

[Hector J. Romilly]

Suddenly it clicked. Hector realised that they had locked the door. He folded his arms across his chest and smirked, raising an eyebrow.

"What was I doing in here? I was working, until I was babysitting. And then apparently someone decided to send a security team all the way down here to lock me in, inexplicably. What are you doing here, except wasting your time?"

It wasn't Xena's height that bothered him, particularly. He was taller (although also thinner, he didn't doubt that she was physically stronger than he was). In fact, he thought she was startlingly attractive, it was just that his only method of declaring so was playground antics. He was going to needle her and say rude things to her just like a little boy in a school yard might have ran up to her and pulled her hair.

"Here's an idea!" Hector took to pantomiming his gestures exaggeratedly, and he mimed touching his comm badge and said in an overly bright tone of voice: "Bridge to the shuttle-bay. What's going on down there? Well! Nothing out of the ordinary, Lieutenant, I certainly wouldn't mobilise a security team over it. Shuttle-bay out!" Hector narrowed his eyes. "Go on. Whose idea was it to send in the cavalry? Did he have a wrinkly forehead?"