Idle Conversation

Posted on Wed May 25th, 2011 @ 8:13pm by Captain Benjamin Byrne & Lieutenant JG Mykel Owen

Mission: Kingdom Come
Location: USS Endeavour - Bridge
Timeline: MD07 1132hrs

It was a fairly quiet shift on the bridge. Though it was the alpha rotation, most of the senior officers were elsewhere; Jenarian was off duty for the moment for medical reasons, Lieutenant Vanders had requisitioned the shift off the bridge for other duties within the security department, and Benjamin had Ballard doing a few tasks throughout the ship. Usually this would be Ballard's shift to command, but Benjamin always did like to take command at these quiet times, just to relish in the feeling. He recalled the many times he had done it on the New York, and remembered the conversations and friendships that had begun with his old bridge crew as a result of it.

Frowning as he felt noticed an odd rumbling in the deckplates beneath his feet, and knowing that it had been there for some time unnoticed, he searched his memory for anything that might be causing it. Stepping over to stand beside the helm console, he asked Ensign Owen; "When was the last time we calibrated the inertial dampeners?"

Sitting at the helm station, Owen was entering custom evasive manoeuvre patterns into the Computer. Hearing someone speaking to him, he snapped out of the slight daze he was in, and brought up the logs for the calibration. "At the spacedock, after the Bug infestation Sir" He said, looking up at the Captain. "The rumble Sir? I've been trying to isolate it for days..." he adds, hitting the autopilot control, and spinning his chair around to face the CO.

"Something has to be out of alignment..." Benjamin mumbled, raising a hand to his chin and he raked his brain for something that they could check. "What about the gravity plates in the deck? Are they in line with the inertial dampeners?"

Mykel's eyes widened at the realization. He triggered the autopilot, as his fingers danced across the console. Running a diagnostic, and maintenance operational checks on the Grav. Plates. The results came back out of sequence, and he gestured for the Capitan to see, confirming his suspicion.

"Good," Benjamin responded, pleased to have tracked down that particular nuisance. "I have a feeling that this whole trip is going to involve quite a few of these little malfunctions, don't you?"

Owen nodded, submitting the work order to the Engineers for the Grav. plate system. "Undoubtedly Sir..." Owen said, thinking for a moment. "You know when you sit still too long Sir, and your legs fall asleep? You feel the 'pens and needles' dancing across them? That's it Sir, she's just stretching, and this is just the 'pins and needles'. She will shake it out fine." Mykel finished, patting the console gently.

"I hope you're right," Benjamin responded, looking up at the stars on the large viewscreen ahead. "I'd hate for it to be a permanent case of cramp so early in her life," he said, continuing with the metaphors that the Lieutenant had started off with.

Mykel nodded his head, looking down at the Helm controls of the ship. "Indeed, that would be a true shame. But I think some of the Crew's stubbornness has rubbed off on her, and doubt that would keep her down Sir."

"Well I hope it doesn't get that stubborn," Benjamin joked. "I'd hate for her to start warping away to Risa every time her annual service came up." The captain turned and moved to sit in his chair at the centre of the bridge, resting casually in it as he looked out towards the viewscreen. After a few minutes' pause, he felt the need to break the silence. "So, where is it that you call home then, Ensign?"

Mykel chuckled at the thought of the ship, on a beach towel, hiding on Risa. The smile dissolving at the question. Mykel looked back at the Capitan. "I was born on earth Sir." He said, hoping that was close enough to what the Captain wanted to know, seeing as "home" was never a place Mykel had had.

"Odd choice of words," Benjamin commented, picking up on the 'I was born' part of the man's statement. "You make the place sound almost clinical. Where do you consider to be your home, somewhere to go back to when you're on leave; where you grew up."

Mykel thought for a moment, attempting to think of a place..."I did enjoy visiting Yosemite National Park, when I was a child. I have considered visiting their on leave." Mykel sighed, deciding there was no reason to attempt to dodge the question any longer. "Other than that, I lived in orphanages until I was 17 Sir, so have never really considered a place to be 'home'. Not in the way you mean."

"I'm sorry Ensign," Benjamin said cautiously, feeling slightly embarrassed and awkward. "I didn't know that you were an orphan. It's not exactly all that common on Earth anymore." He paused, before moving forward, allowing his curiosity control of the conversation. "What happened to your parents?"

"Its quite alright Sir." Mykel replied, nodding in agreeably with the Captain. "There were only 6 of us, and 5 were adopted by the time I was 11." Mykel thought again about the question he had been asking himself for years. "I don't know Sir. They spent most of the year I was found trying to locate them. They eventually gave me the name Mykel Owen, after a blood test determined I was the descendant of Capitan Mykel Alexander Owen. A Starfleet officer from Kirk's days."

"When did you arrive at the orphanage?" Benjamin asked, feeling now that the Ensign at the helm had a very mysterious set of circumstances surrounding his origins. Surely if they could trace his blook back to Captain Owen in the twenty third century, they should be able to extrapolate through birth and marriage records who the young man's parents were?

"When I was two Sir." Mykel replied, looking back to the other man. "My closest documented ancestor died 64 years before I was born. Jean Owen, the Captain's great grand daughter.

"Does this Jean Owen not have any recorded children?" Benjamin asked, making a mental note to look into the man's history at his next free opportunity.

Before the Ensign could respond, the double-beep of the comm system sounded over the bridge speakers. "Captain Byrne, please report to Holodeck 3."

"On my way," Benjamin said, tapping his badge as he stood to leave the bridge, making a personal note to speak to continue the conversation at a later time. "You have the bridge, Mister Owen."

-------------------
Captain Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer

&

Ensign Mykel Owen
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Endeavour