Initial Investigations

Posted on Sat Mar 28th, 2009 @ 11:02am by Captain Elsie Halliwell

777 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: In The Dark
Location: Lane's Ready Room
Timeline: Current

Commander Lane sat at his desk in his familiar ready room as he leant over to grasp the cool handle of his coffee cup. Lifting the mug to his mouth, he inhaled deeply, savouring the rich, caffeinated aroma. His terminal flickered before him as Lieutenant Larkin's report deposited in his messages. Activating the article, his brow furrowed and locked with concern as his blue eyes read over the details.

"Commander Lane to Lieutenant Larkin."

Larkin had just stood to take a shower, and had left his communicator sitting on his desk. After a quick jog back across his room, he smacked his hand down on the device which still sat on his table. "Larkin here, sir."

"Could you report to my ready room, Kevin? It's concerning the report you have just filed."

"Uh, no problem, Commander. I'll need a few minutes to get dressed, but I'll be up there as soon as possible."

"No problem, Lieutenant. Lane out," he replied, closing the comm. channel.

Larkin quickly threw on his uniform, and made a bee line for the nearest turbolift. He wasn't quite sure why Commander Lane wanted to discuss the report, as he thought that it had been fairly self explanatory, but he hurried on his way to Deck 1 anyway. A few minutes later, he was stepping into his CO's office. "Commander," he said in greeting. "It's good to know that people are actually reading my reports," he tried to lead with a casual joke. "Was there something you wanted clarified?"

"Well, Lieutenant," he said in response, lifting his head up and fixing his eyes on his CSO, "not so much clarified." He motioned with his hand in front of him to the empty seat and nodded. "Please, Kevin, won't you take a seat?"

The Commander then arose from his chair and rounded the desk himself, passing around the back of the young Lieutenant, and stepped up towards the replicator, passing the massive windows on his left. "Coffee?" he offered, materialising a cup for himself.

"Please," Larkin responded, graciously accepting the beverage.

"I'm afraid I seem to have… depleted the supply of Harmony you issued me with last week, Kevin," the Trill said with a warm smile, passing a second cup of [[WHATEVER]] over to the man. "Once Mrs. Gray took to the beverage, I'm afraid there wasn't much hope for the stuff," he chuckled a little to himself, and a sparkle, one that had not been seen in several days, twinkled in his eye.

Sitting back down at his desk, he relaxed a little, took a draught of the acrid, thick liquid, and swallowed. But, as much as the Trill delighted in his CSO's company, this was not a social call.

"Kevin," he said, his voice was angled, yet non-threatening. "The report that you sent to me concerning the gel-pack system… worried me. Both Mr. Jackson and Ms. Sheedy had not noticed the issue, and, I have to say, neither had I. It may just be a peripheral problem that has naturally occurred after we left spacedock, but, I don’t know, I'm afraid."

The Trill leaned back into the rest of his chair, and then blinked hard. "Kevin, I want you to take point with this, if you could. With the bio-neural gel-packs primarily consisting of organic material, I think that you and Doctor Mabren should head up a little… investigation of your own and find out what has happened with them. We can call it an 'experiment', if you so wish.

Kevin considered the situation for a moment. "Commander, I'd be more than happy to run a few tests on the system, although it does seem a bit unorthodox for the CSO to be running them. Before we go any further sir, may I ask what you're thinking? You seemed to imply that the problems we've been having are more than just a few glitches in our systems."

The Trill inhaled deeply, and held the oxygen in his lungs for a few seconds. Expelling the spent breath outwards, he blew out the side of his cheeks in a sigh. "I just want all eventualities covered, Mr. Larkin. Just in case I'm missing something."

"Say no more, Commander. I'll get in touch with Doctor Mabren, and we'll run some tests on the gel-packs right away." He wasn't sure that he shared his CO's concerns; it's in a scientist's nature to be objective to the last, but he was more than happy to comply with Lane's request, if only to get involved in something akin to actual research for a little while.



Commander Coltan Lane
Commanding Officer

AND

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Kevin Larkin
Chief Science Officer

 

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