Two Ginger's Walk Into A Lab

Posted on Monday, 3 May 2021 - 4:05pm by Lieutenant Scarlet Rogers & Commander Soral & Lieutenant Alex Kingsley & Petty Officer 1st Class Siana Ilian

Mission: Operation: Neu Reich
Location: Science Lab | USS Standing Bear
Timeline: 2394 MD 03 - Evening

ON:

After Scarlet's reunion, she had got ready and uniformed to go meet Kingsley. It was strange being in a science department, but research, she supposed, was more fitting on science. That said, it had already been agreed that she would bounce between there, medical and engineering to best satisfy her study.

Scarlet found herself distracted by the actual things in the department. Her eyes danced about taking it all in and her mind wandered, considering the possibilities that held before her. The woman knew she needed to see Kingsley, but right now it could wait in favour of feeding imagination.

"...recalibration will have to wait until the sensors are fully repaired," Petty Officer Ilian explained as she handed the science chief an updated report, "but aside from that, I think you will agree the repair crews have worked a small miracle."

Miracle indeed... Following the battle at P'Jem, the science facilities on board the Standing Bear had been effectively wiped out. Since then she, along with a small team lead by Ilian had been stripping it back to the bear bones and salvaging what they could. Which had not been much. It had been a thankless task but one which had offered a distraction as the crew dealt with the losses suffered during the fight. Especially Chief Eyelaya. No matter what anyone may have thought of her, everyone felt her loss.

The ship, without question, been too quiet.

And so they had maybe taken too much cathartic pleasure in destroying already ruined equipment, venting some of that anger and grief. Word had spread and a few people stopped by in off duty hours to 'help'. It was perhaps the worst idea in the world, but neither the Captain nor Soral showed up to stop it and by the time they reached Star base 12, a crew of fitters and engineers was already on standby waiting to get to work.

"You worked a fair few yourself, Siana," Alex pointed out as she took the PaDD, scanned it and signed it off. "None of this would have been done so fast without your help, thank you."

"Like I said, I like to stay busy and the engineer in me hates to see broken things," Ilian smiled, dismissing the compliment. "If you are able to finalise the diagnostics, I promised to help with the test of the EPS relays and turbolift two is still refusing to stop on deck four. Or one. But call me if there any issues."

"I'll start them now," Alex promised before watching the Trill go. When they had first started tearing the place apart, she had not known what to make of the woman. To be fair, she was pretty sure Ilian did not know what to make of herself. Even now, a trip to a replicator seemed to be a traumatic experience of indecision to the point it was an unspoken agreement that when they were together, Alex would decide for them both. And when you got beneath all those layers of uncertainty and nerves was a brilliant mind. Any subject, Ilian could more than hold her own and often had this wistful look as if wishing for whatever days from the symbiote's past that it was remember in that moment.

Turning here attention back to the update she stepped into the main lab and stopped short. None of her small staff were due to be here for a few hours yet. "Hello," she offered, clearly surprised before she decided to hazard a guess based on the information that had crossed her desk just yesterday. "Lieutenant Rogers?"

Scarlet turned around and smiled asking, "lieutenant Kingsley?"

"That'd be me," Alex replied brightly as she rounded the workstation and offered her hand, "but honestly, Alex will do just fine. Welcome aboard! You are with us do some R&D work, right? Love the hair, by the way. Although jealous of it's complete lack of curls."

"Oh, I get this professionally done. The second I wash it, it goes full afro," Scarlet chuckled, liking the common ground. She then replied, "yes to the R&D. Thanks for saying yes. I won't be much trouble, I'll just keep myself to myself and run stuff by you and the engineering chief. Oh, and the CMO, of course. I know you're a small ship, so if you ever need me an extra set of hands for anything, let me know. I did start out in engineering."

"No problem at all," Alex assured her, waving away the thanks. "And I'll keep the offer in mind. Given the battle the ship went through, you may not want to shout about that engineering background. As you may have noticed, pretty much the entire department has been rebuilt - we even still have shipment stickers on half the equipment. Have you had a proper look around yet?"

"A little," Scarlet replied, "I assume I'll mostly be in my quarters studying."

"We have a lab adjacent to this one that we don't often use," Alex told her, "you are welcome to use it. My speciality tends to be more... hazardous so I use the biohazard lab and we pick up almost everything else in this one. It's up to you. Look, how about I go start the diagnostics running and when I'm back I can give you the official tour?"

"No worries, no rush," Scarlet replied.

"Brilliant, I'll be back in a five minutes max," Alex promised as she left the new arrival to wander around.

Soral had picked up lunch, he knew that Alex often forgot to eat. He headed to the lab and as he entered he was greeted by a few science people He waved and then stopped and looked around. The lab was progressing. Thankfully. He had to see Hamura next she he'd keep things brief. He looked around and then stopped short. His wife had straightened her hair? From behind it was long and shiny. It struck him as odd that she seemed a tad shorter then usual but he may have had her taller in his mind she was, to him at least, a goddess.

Walking over to where she'd just sat down he dropped the food bag, her favourites and some chocolates and then promptly dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "Hello my Goddess."

Scarlet jumped out of her skin at the contact and looked up blushing, timidly correcting, "I think you have the wrong ginger, sir."

Soral jumped back. "I...you are not my wife."

"You think?!" came the reply from behind him.

Soral jumped again. "Alexandra....I...did not realize..."

"Clearly," Alex retorted, leaning to the side so she could peer around him, "Lieutenant Rogers I am so so sorry. This is my husband, and the ship's XO, Commander Soral. Although I kind of hope you have met before this because this is not a great first impression."

She straightened up, her expression clearly one that screamed what the hell?!

"I...I made an error. Lieutenant...Rogers...you are on my meeting list for tomorrow." Soral's face turned a sickly shade of green.

His embarrassment was tipping her mood from angry to amused. "Should there be a chaperone?" she teased him. "In case of any other errors?"

"No...I … I thought red hair...I... lunch." He looked crestfallen. "I must leave." He hurried out the door.

"So -" before the words had even left her lips he was gone. Alex groaned as she spied the whole reason for him being here. Lunch. Crossing over to Scarlet she peered inside as she added, "I really am sorry. He is not normally like this."

Scarlet had been mortified to silence, her cheeks practically her hair colour, "I umm... I guess ginger is a rare hair colour on Earth. Its one hell of a coincidence. I assume his reason may be Vulcan related--" Scarlet waived her off, "Don't worry. I'm sure it now means if I need something controversial approving, I'll have a sign off from the XO."

“You can pretty much guarantee it,” Alex grinned.

"I guess my first task is to add 'Rogers' to the back of my uniform," Scarlet chuckled, "anyway-- tour, sorry."

“Yes, the grand tour!” Alex smiled. “Come on, I’ll even show you where Petty Officer Chan keeps his coffee machine. Make him your best friend…”