As You Were

Posted on Sat Sep 30th, 2023 @ 7:13am by Cadet Senior Grade Naltar Jerane & Cadet Senior Grade Leyha Vaas

1,203 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: **ARCHIVED** 1 - Cruising through the galaxy
Location: Hallway, Deck 10, USS Stardancer
Timeline: MD01 2000 Hrs

Leyha saw him from a mile away. Well, not exactly a mile away, but the Cardassian operations chief's scaly ridges were visible even from her position about fifteen metres down the corridor - even if he were hunched over performing maintenance on something beyond the wall panel in front of him. She had never seen a Cardassian in the flesh before, only in pictures in her history textbooks. She had to admit, he was a fair bit more good-looking than the scraggly man Starfleet had somehow decided to put in their textbooks as a prime example of his species. Weird.

"Well, hello. Fancy seeing you here..." Leyha greeted him with a flirtatious smile as she neared him, just a few metres away. Patrolling alone meant that she could afford to go off on small, short-lived tangents without anyone noticing. She had the top of her shirt partly unzipped (for her comfort, these collars were tight!), offering a taste of what lay beyond... "I hope I'm not being too disruptive..."

Naltar was arm deep in the wall, part of the panel had been removed and he was bust decoupling an ODN relay. The third one on this deck they'd found that was fried. He wasn't sure whom out there was talking to him but he removed the spanning tool he had held between his teeth and stepped back from the wall, seeing the young woman. His sleeves were rolled up and he had been sweating some. Which he loved the warmth but was annoyed the ship wasn't in better shape. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Good-looking and well-built. Not bad at all, she thought to herself, smirking as she paused in front of him with a hand on her hip. "No, not really. Just saw you from afar and thought I'd come say hello." Leyha replied, tucking strands of long brown hair behind her ear. "Cardassians don't often show up in the Federation after all, let alone on a starship." She stepped closer to him with a low chuckle. "I'm not here to arrest you, don't worry. I just saw an unusual good-looking someone and thought I'd introduce myself." She added with a tiny smirk on her lips. "What's your name friend? Name's Leyha."

He raised an eyebrow and let out a deep sigh. He had work to do and this young lady stopped by just to interrupt him without much real purpose. If this was off shift then he likely would've been in the mood for any sort of games, but with the reports his team brought back to him that afternoon, he wasn't going to be getting much sleep in the short term for certain. "Naltar Jerane, Cadet Chief of Operations. Would you mind taking a step back, I need some room to work here. In case you haven't noticed, this ship is closer to belonging in a scrapyard than being suitable for a rescue mission. Shouldn't you be making preparations for that? Wherever it is you work. I know you're not one of mine or I'd be writing you up right now."

The Trill paled considerably, and she took a step back, seeming much more embarrassed and sheepish than she had coming in. "The preparations are done, I'm just on shift, I- uhm- sorry for interrupting. I think I'll just go." Dammit. She'd just interrupted a head of department at his work. Stonily, she turned around and began to walk off down the corridor with her head low. Half of her expected to be called in for a nice, long chat about professionalism within the hour - and possibly booted off this ship as a consequence. And all she'd wanted was a little fun.

"Shift for what? I didn't dismiss you yet cadet. Come back here and tell me what team and section you're a part of." The audacity didn't sit well with him. First she interrupts him, then she just leaves. While she wasn't his to punish, as an acting senior officer, he was going to provide an on the spot correction.

Yep, definitely going to get thrown off the ship. She'd have to go back to her quarters, pack her bags and possibly cry when her shift was finished. Leyha spun back around and froze in place. "I'm on the security training detail. Beta shift." She said, as evenly as possible. Her eyes felt wet. Here it comes, she thought. "Sir." She added. It felt better that way. More appropriate. Maybe then she wouldn't have as big a hammer brought down on her head. Or not. What wishful thinking.

He studied the look on her face for a moment, taking note of what her likely emotional status was. As if she'd been caught trying to steal a cookie from the jar and now was working towards tears and pity to get out of being held accountable for her actions, to avoid the likely consequences. He wasn't buying it.

"Do you really think walking up to someone on board that you don't know in such a fashion is the safest thing? We're going up against pirates soon and in the event they or any other intruder gets on board and disguises themselves to blend in, they'd easily get a chance to take out one of our security officers who's job it is to be patrolling and protecting myself and others such as the members of my team that are working and unable to remain as vigilant while we work to put this ship back together. What kind of training have they been doing for security personnel at the academy? I know I'm just an engineer, but I find it hard to believe that's part of your course work unless they're now teaching the open seduction of senior staff in the corridors."

"It's not. Sir. I apologise for my actions." Leyha swallowed thickly. 'Dear Mr and Mrs Vuut, I'm sorry, but I won't be coming back an officer'... she could just see the words being typed out on her PADD now. "I- I was just trying to say hello, and- I admit that I should've been far more professional." After a short pause she added, "What would you like me to do to correct this?"

"Your corrections aren't for me to decide, I'll leave that up to the Chief of Security. Now, if you need something from Operations, I'm all ears to hear what that may be and assign priority as well as the appropriate members of my section to assist you." He'd be filling out a report that simply contained the facts of this interaction. The opinions and conjecture he had of his own wouldn't be noted. Opinion was useless against the way of truth.

"No, sir, not at the moment. Will that be all, sir?" She asked, stony-faced - well, as much as she could manage with the ugly ball of emotions pushing against her ribcage, anyway.

"I won't keep you from your duties then, you are dismissed Cadet Vaas. As you were." He turned back toward the wall and reached back towards the conduit that had been fighting him for the last hour.....

 

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