Gossip Girls

Posted on Friday, 28 May 2021 - 7:00am by Lieutenant Scarlet Rogers & Lieutenant Alex Kingsley

Mission: Operation: Neu Reich
Location: Science Department
Timeline: MD12

Within the last twenty four hours, engineering and operations crews had descended upon the heart of the Standing Bear's science department. The equipment damaged by the overload had been removed, hopefully for repair rather than recycling, along with scorched section of carpet and small sections of the ceiling. The end result was that a void seemed to dominate the centre of the room, while smaller empty spaces showed where other displays and consoles had been stripped out. Beyond that the smell of smoke still managed to linger, although it was far less noticeable now than when the Chief Science Officer had first arrived.

But at least main power was back on.

After having a massive breakfast to appease an appetite that was deserving of someone ten times her size, Alex had been unable to put it off any longer. She needed to see the damage for herself but had managed to curb her curiosity until word had come through that engineering had declared it safe and had done all they could for now. A full report would come in due course, confirming what could be salvaged and what was beyond repair. New carpet and ceiling panels were being replicated which would be installed as soon as possible.

Which was good, since every time she looked up at the missing section to the conduits and cables normally hidden from sight, all she could imagine was a deluge of spiders descending from on high. She shuddered at the thought.

Scarlet wandered in a little later having had an amazing night with Ryan and then lunch. It didn't matter about the call right now. It was clear she was walking on cloud nine. She looked around. She sighed contently and then saw Alex, "at least the coffee maker didn't fry." She gestured to the replicator.

“Very true, although I asked for coffee and it came out looking like a new life form made of sludge. I don’t recommend it,” Alex warned, before grinning, “although I’m sure the damage it would do to your arteries would warrant a visit to a certain doctor…”

Scarlet blushed and giggled, "this may very well be true, but unlike yesterday, I'm sure he'd send in virtual Patch Adams."

“Patch who?” Alex asked curiously.

"The temporary EMH," Scarlet replied, "he's a replica of a movie character from the 20th century. I think 20th. He looks exactly like him. He's quirky but he's not got the same personality."

“Oh…” Alex mused, “I didn’t know we had a temporary EMH. Makes sense though. What with Emerick… you know.”

"I'm working on it," Scarlet encouraged, "it's weird. We just make the things, we don't see how... 'human' they become. It's nice... Weird, but nice."

“Might not want to say that too loud,” Alex mused. “AI and sentience, I mean. Not that I think Emerick was on the verge of a murderous rampage or anything! It’s just a delicate subject.”

Scarlet nodded, "the sentient ones are the most fascinating though. If I can get Emerick back as he was prior to deletion, I'd love to see the code changes from his initial install."

“Just make sure nobody back home sees those changes or they’ll order his deletion,” Alex advised her.

"Oh gawd, don't worry about that," Scarlet waved her off, "as far as they're concerned we restored him to a factory reset in any event." Scarlet paused a moment and opted to ask a question she didn't really want to know the answer to, "how's your husband after we... I... vomited on him?"

“You look terrified,” Alex laughed. “If anything I think he’d happily give you a medal for helping me out of here. Don’t worry, you’re forgiven, I’m sure of it.”

Scarlet chuckled a little, it eased the nerves, "I genuinely thought it would be the quickest I'd ever been fired."

“It could have gone either way,” Alex admitted, “but don’t worry, I wouldn’t let him fire you. It was pretty messy though… was it the blood?”

"Blood and puke," Scarlet replied, "I dropped out of med school in the first week because of it. I can't even manage my own, which is a pain because I'm so accident prone."

“Good to know,” Alex nodded. “Good thing you have guaranteed house calls for those accidents.”

Scarlet blushed, "that I do, indeed. I won't complain about those house calls either. Though his mother might."

“His mother?” Alex repeated, one eyebrow raised in a move her husband would have been proud off. “She doesn’t approve?”

"I met her by mistake this morning," Scarlet replied with a sigh, "I don't know why, maybe a computer glitch, but Ryan wasn't home and the call answered itself. Not a great first impression, safe to say. Think she saw far too much of me... If you catch what I mean."

"She didn't!" Alex laughed, "on the bright side, it can pretty much only get better, right?"

"Yeah... Sure... My boyfriends mum saw my bum sounds like a Doctor Seuss spin off," Scarlet groaned, "on a plus side, Ryan now knows how truly insane I am."She paused, "speaking of which, why is there no elevator music in the turbo lift?"

"You want elevator music?" Alex asked curiously. "Like in a shopping mall kind of thing?"

"Everytime I get into a lift, my head plays elevator music. It has recently come to my attention that it's been my head playing the music and not the lift. So now I feel they all need music," Scarlet chuckled, "I installed it at the San Francisco hospital... Took way to long before anyone realised. The CMO didn't realise for maybe four months."

"Four months.... wait... what music was playing in your head?" Alex asked curiously.

Scarlet blushed a little but chuckled, "it's called 'the girl from ipenema'." She hummed it, knowing that a lot of people knew the tune not the name.

“I’m not sure how the crew would handle lift music,” Alex mused. “It would be a good experiment though to see what impact it had on the mood of the crew… not that I condone using the crew as test subjects.”

There was silence for a moment, but Scarlet was grinning, "I mean... You're a scientist... I'm doing research... It would be a shame to miss out on an opportunity to learn more about the humanoid psyche."

"I'm not a psychologist, now if they had some random disease, I'm your girl. Need to cure an outbreak, right up my alley. The human psyche is messed up in general, I do not want to mess with it even more. Lieutenant Vali might. Although she probably has enough on her plate with the new job."

"That mean I can't install the music?" Scarlet teasingly pouted.

“It means,” Alex mused, “that I need proper coffee. You can always put it on the ship bulletin board, see if people like the idea? A small ship like this, you don’t wanna be getting on everyone’s bad side. And if they say no, you can always wear headphones and listen to your own music?”

Scarlet nodded, "I'll do that, but anonymously. Don't need everyone thinking I'm crazy." Scarlet grabbed a PaDD and started writing the message.

"That's half the fun, have you read those boards?" Alex challenged. "I think most of those accounts are Ensign Meul just trying to wind up Soral with crazy complaints. I mean, how can tomato soup from a replicator have too much tomato?! And the one from 'crewman crooner' saying that the waste recycling unit is singing Sweet Home Alabama off key?! I mean really..."

Scarlet hadn't read it, but now she'd sent, anonymously, the request for elevator music, she was reading the other 'suggestions'. "Sick of engineering not allowing us to paint quarters with tartan paint..." She read out and looked to Alex, "I mean, I admit to being nuts, but this is changing where the bar is for waaaaay lower."

“Just don’t read the gossip column,” Alex advised. “It can get out of hand.”

"How so?" Scarlet asked trying to find it, "Oh gawd! OH GAWD! Seems our doctor is love sick - careful doc, we don't want another break up!"

“I told you not to read it,” Alex laughed, shaking her head.

Scarlet groaned and turned her PaDD off, "I don't think I will read anymore. I've never been into gossip, especially the anonymous kind. It's invasive and accusational." Scarlet paused and went back to the topic at hand, "I hope we get music. Even as a trial."

"As long as no bagpipes are involved, I don't mind," Alex assured her. "Give it a day or two and see what people think, then go from there."

Scarlet nodded and grinned, "promise! Only light samba, no cat killing."

OFF