Daily Droll

Posted on Sat Jun 16th, 2012 @ 4:22pm by Lieutenant Markus Rubens [PNPC] & Ensign Lhamepha Kitonuh [Byrne] & Commander Jaeih Andorzai & Lieutenant Kalin Jerome & Petty Officer 2nd Class Sophie Blaise

Mission: Divisions
Location: Operations Centre - Deep Space 19

[ON]

Andorzai was beyond caring. His boots were scuffed and ruined and his uniform was still covered in the khaki-green dust that seemed to be thrown up by anything that one touched on Deep Space 19. They could send some janitors or something, he thought of Starfleet as he dusted his uniform jacket down, or a cloth.

Sophie was holding a couple of different padds, switching her attention between them. She was working on the latest communications with the Tholians. Communications was a polite word for it though. It usually contained a list of demands, inquiries, and general superstitions and accusations. Looking at some of the claims she chuckled, the Tholians obviously still didn't trust them, which was understandable, but some things were just a bit too much.

Rubens was starting to feel like he was an old hand aboard the station. His first real posting was as essentially a traffic warden for dozens of shuttles flitting about the station at Starbase 591, and even with the amount of activity occurring outside of the station at present and the refitting of the airlock docking connectors, the traffic around Deep Space Nineteen was nowhere near what he used to deal with at 591. He found himself wishing that something would happen to give his days a bit of excitement.

"Does anyone have anything to report?" Andorzai asked with an astonishing lack of enthusiasm.

"Same old, same old," Sophie replied. "They don't like us, they don't trust us and want to know as much as possible." She smiled, it was interesting to see how creative they occasionally got in their accusations. "They want some information about an energy drain that apparently happened in one of the upper decks. I guess Engineering or Operations were working there, but I haven't found the reason yet."

"I can just see the headlines in the FNS dispatches now," Andorzai said, returning a wry smile to the Captain's Assistant, "Tholians Pissed Off By Starfleet For No Valid Reason."

"And everyone will be shocked!" Sophie laughed. "You know, occasionally I think they just gather people once a day and see how much nonsense they can come up with now and have a good laugh about it. Or that they've hired someone old and very grumpy to find as much as he can that annoys him." She shrugged, "oh well, I still hope that they'll get used to this arrangement eventually."

"Personally, I hope they never get used to the arrangement and leave the station." The First Officer replied without a hint of irony. "The sooner we get the Tholians back behind their border, the more comfortable I'll be, that's for sure."

Sophie smiled, she was still optimistic when it came to their current situation. "On the other hand," she started to say, "if we can make this a success and show the Tholians that we're not as bad as they've always suspected, we might be able to improve our diplomatic relationship with them." She chuckled softly as she looked at the padd with complaints again. "Maybe just a bit, who knows."

"Tholians will always be Tholians," Rubens spoke up from his console, his voice carrying even less enthusiasm than the Commander's had before. "Unless we start turning into glowing crystals with the precision of a Cardassian and Romulan tailor duo, they're never going to trust us, or anyone else in the quadrant."

"Oh lighten up guys? I mean some of my best friends are Tholi-" Kalin spoke up, but then was cut short by the arched eyebrows of the rest of the crew. "Ok, I tell a lie, but honestly, they can't be that bad... Can they?" He had never really had a chance to meet many of them, since he spent most of the time monitoring the the changes in the separate areas of the ship. The last thing they needed was an accidental climate change, and Kalin's knowledge of the medical specs of patients helped when building the correct changes of the station. Unfortunately, this meant Kalin always either in the med lab, or against a system control monitor, with the engineers, checking to make sure there were no faults.

Sophie nodded. At least there was someone else as well who saw the things a little more positive than the others. "They can be pretty bad, I have to admit that, but I still think that things can turn out to be just fine in the end."

Andorzai smiled for what felt like the first time in about a week. He turned his attention to Rubens. "These kids and their enthusiasm, eh Lieutenant?"

Rubens frowned at his console as the readings on it began to change. "Commander?" he said, moving his head just slightly to the side. "I'm reading something strange. An energy build-up of some sort."

"It's some sort of weapons system!" Lhamepha reported, looking at her own readouts. "I'm reading thermonuclear discharges emanating from the station at random!" The lights in ops flickered. "The Endeavour, Antarctic and the Tholian ships are in danger of being hit!"