Low Resolution (pre face changes)

Posted on Friday, 8 July 2022 - 4:08pm by Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt & Lieutenant JG Charles McCullen

Mission: Operation: My Unfair Lady
Timeline: Two hours prior to launch

IC:
Charlie tapped the edge of the PaDD against the surface of the workstation he was sat at as he frowned at the stellar cartography chart on the screen in front of him. The helmsman was having a bit of a dilemma, he had already taken note of several areas in the local vicinity that were potential hazards. There was a high-energy binary pulsar, a class-9 nebula, and a myriad of minor navigational hazards that had to be gone around, over or under.

The list of things, coordinates and notes had grown quite extensive, but there were a few areas of space that just didn't have the resolution he expected, and when he had asked the computer for more detail, he was told that he wasn't allowed to know. Thus his dilemma. Did he need to know what was there, or was he just curious?

An idea popped into his brain, displacing the fragment of a half-remembered chorus from a song he'd long forgotten, and he flicked the map to the side, bringing up the crew roster and scrolling down until he got to the grey of intelligence and tapping on the department head, bringing up the mostly redacted biography of Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt, Chief of Intelligence. Charlie hesitated, looking at the image of the woman on the screen and trying to get a read on her personality from the image alone, pushing aside a wave of unwanted social anxiety at meeting someone new and tapping the comm icon next to her name.

=/\= "Lieutenant Everhardt, this is the new helmsman, Lieutenant McCullen. I've you've got time, could we uh... could you come down to Astrometrics? I have some questions." He asked her, only realizing how cryptic that might have sounded after he had spoken.

Adrianna looked over to her comm badge on the bedside table. She was just finishing packing before her voyage. "I have an hour, maximum. I'll be there in five minutes."

True to her word, Adrianna was there not long after. She dumped a duffle bag at the door and walked in. The woman was in civilian clothes, but with her comm badge on. She rapped her knucke on the wall, "McCullen?"

Charlie turned at the sound of the door opening and then stood as the woman who matched the bio picture approached. "Over here," he called her, wondering at her civilian clothes and figuring she must have been off duty. "Sorry if I, uh... interrupted, anything."

Adrianna waived him off, "you did not, I'm on actually working, just needed something a little less Fleeter." She stepped forward, over her duffle to be near him, "what can I do for you?"

Charlie turned back to his console and transferred the image from his display to the large wall-mounted viewer. "I've been studying the area, trying to get a handle on local space before we head out." He told Adrianna, "but..." he zoomed in on one of the low-resolution areas, "there are a few areas like this, and the computer won't let me see what's under this, uh... fuzz, my security clearance is too low, I guess."

Adrianna cocked her head to the side a little, getting her bearings and thinking. "Odd," she quietly let fall from her lips. The woman reached over and put in her own security to see if that would make a difference, "can but try, right?"

"I figured," he told the intelligence chief, "that these were maybe, uh... classified, or something." It sounded stupid when he said it and he shook his head to hide the slight blush that crept onto his cheeks, "I don't know, but as helmsman, I gotta know if there are any navigational hazards in those areas."

"Perhaps, but I would suggest that this is not something of our doing. Cardassian space is very much a --" she paused trying to think of the words in standard, "what my father would call, a 'red zone'." The image cleared a little and Adrianna pointed to a spot, "after all, what person wants to see that?"

Charlie leaned in, then grimaced as he realised what Adrianna had pointed out. Not a navigational hazard in the slightest, but she was right. Nobody wanted to see that up close. He shuddered slightly, "I think," he told her, "maybe you're right. I don't need or want to see any of... that, thankyouverymuch."

Adrianna was unphased by the image. Years of seeing much worse, she supposed. She smirked a little, teasing, "spoil sport." She retracted her access so that the poor man could regain composure, "I hope you weren't planning on having food anytime soon. I know such images can cause normal people to --" She gave him a subtle expression to show what she meant.

Charlie was young, but he'd functionally been in Starfleet for pretty much his entire life. He'd been an acting cadet before puberty, and while there was still a lot he hadn't seen or done, what he did know well was composure. The ability to deal with and compartmentalize pretty much anything for a later date. He gave the lieutenant a lopsided smirk. "It'll take more than that to make me toss my cookies, Lieutenant."

"That's what I like to hear," Adrianna chuckled softly, before changing topic slightly, "with recent events, it would not surprise me if issues with security do arise, similar to this. Honestly though, I do feel that in this instance-- not all that's pixelated is gold. In fact, in this case, it's a little green, red and silver."

Charlie grimaced, "I hope not. I'm hoping for a nice, quiet mission. A bit of a shakedown, maybe. A little border patrol. Some light exploring." He told her, knowing full and well that a ship like this, a fast, cloak-equipped, heavily-armed warship, wasn't likely to be doing any of that. "But we'll probably end up hip-deep in some kinda trouble."

"Your ideal sounds rather boring," Adrianna bluntly commented, "where is your sense of adventure and love of a little danger? Is that not why you are here?"

Charlie frowned slightly, wondering what kind of person it took to make it into the intelligence field. Love of danger? It was his experience that a healthy fear of danger was what kept you and anyone with you alive and he made a mental note to try to never be in a dangerous situation where Lieutenant Eberhardt was in charge. The pilot considered his words, coming up with and rejecting several responses before settling on the diplomatic route. "Uh, well... I'm not... risk-averse, risk comes with the job." He told her, wishing for the hundredth time that day that he was more articulate, "but I have a, uh... a healthy respect for danger and I don't seek it out."

"My father always said: do one thing every day that scares you and when the time comes, you can conquer anything," she smiled, "I thrive under pressure and danger anyway. So always stand behind me."

Charlie didn't particularly want to dwell on the various things his father had told him. Most of them were about not living up to the McCullen name, or unfair comparisons with his older siblings. "My mother," he countered, "says that danger is like boot camp. Everybody hates it, nobody can avoid it if they want to succeed, and everybody that goes through it and doesn't wash out comes out stronger."

"Wise woman," Adrianna nodded, "on the positive, you keep persons, like myself, employed and, I must admit, I love what I do."

"My job is, uh... pretty clear cut. I fly stuff, and navigate, and make sure we don't crash into anythin'." He told her, "it's simple, and I kinda like it that way." He commented, "I guess you'd be bored out of your mind."

Adrianna chuckled, "I cannot do what you do, you cannot do what I do. This is why we are in different roles, but need eachother." She rolled up the sleeves of her top, feeling a little warm, "did you want me to keep the safeties on, or off for you?" She nodded her head toward the map.

Charlie stalled for a second, his brain rapid-fire flicking between one choice and the other. ~Don't wanna. Gotta. Nuh uh. Uh huh. But. Nope, gotta.~
The helmsman sighed as his duty overruled his desire not to be disturbed. "I need to know if there are any navigational risks in those areas," he told her, "I gotta check, show me the nasty."

"Almeno portami prima a cena," she muttered under her breath before reaching over and granting access. "You can turn the filters back on if it gets too much, either way. You'll need to ask the cap-ee-tan, though. I've got a quick job to do and then I'll be shipping out for a little while."

"All right, good luck with whatever you're off to do," Charlie responded, trying not to look too hard at the screen. The previously blurred areas of the map had been cleared, and pop-up images of what was there were displayed for all to see. Most of them were tame enough, a debris field or two, some gory remnants of war... but a few of them. Seriously, disturbing. "and thanks, I think."

"My advice would be "pretend it's slow motion fireworks," she said then cocked her head a little to get a better view, "except that one. That one looks more like metropolis meets playboy."

Charlie blinked. He didn't get any of the references Adrianna had dropped. He assumed they were references, and he wasn't having some kind of mental collapse instead. "Uh... yeah," he told her, sounding as confused as he felt, "all I want is navigational hazards."

"Just don't scratch the ship, it's just been painted," Adrianna shrugged, grabbing her duffle bag and throwing it over her shoulder.