Lunch Break

Posted on Mon Feb 16th, 2009 @ 6:36am by

858 words; about a 4 minute read

ON:

Kevin Larkin stepped briskly from his office, heading in the direction of the turbolift. It was lunch time, and he was determined to get back to his quarters for his break before... "Lieutenant, I've got a few reports that you might want look over at lunch, sir." The Archimedes' Assistant Chief Science Officer, Warrant Officer Cren's voice caught Larkin before he made his escape.

'I swear, he is beaming to my location,' Larkin thought to himself, before turning to face the ever-excited Bolian. "Thanks, Cren, I'll be sure and take a look at those." The other man quickly walked up to him, his arms filled with about five PADDs.

"Well, here sir, I'll do a quick summary of the more important points," Cren manipulated one of the PADDs, and began commenting. "We've got some surveys going on in the Astronomical Geology Lab. Crewman Thrice is curious to see how many planets in the Antories system are capable of supporting the Larcote's unique climatological requirements."

"Yes, I remember signing off on that one." The Larcote were a race of beings with an extreme intolerance for most noble gasses. Very few planets that could support their life had been cataloged, and considering the rumors floating about that they might one day be joining Federation, it seemed a prudent line of investigation.

Larkin had started walking toward the turbolift again, and Cren had followed. The CSO was curious to see if the Warrant Officer would follow him all the way back to his quarters. He liked people with a generally sunny disposition, but Cren hadn't stopped smiling and carrying on like the happiest person Larkin had ever met since their first encounter. It was almost draining to be around him sometimes. He couldn't help but wonder if this was how he came off whenever he was excited about something.

"Oh! I thought you'd be especially interested in this one, sir." Cren shuffled through his PADDs. "Dr. Leeara was able to successfully grow one of your coffee-tea plant hybrids." Larkin raised his eyebrows, and took the PADD. "Apparently it only took her a few tries to get it right."

'Show off,' Larkin thought. "That's great. Have her do a few experiments to test the quality of the coffee and tea products it's capable of producing. I don't want to offer any of it to Commander Lane before we're sure that it's palatable."

"A most wise precaution, Lieutenant." Cren commented with a much-too-approving voice. The two men were already exiting the turbolift on Deck 2. Luckily, Larkin's quarters were not too far from the lift.

"Well, Warrent Officer, thank you for the summary," the CSO quickly brought their discourse to an end, as he took the remaining PADDs from Cren. "I'll see you in an hour."

Cren put on a ridiculously large smile, which caused him to almost completely close his eyes. "Have a nice Lunch, sir."

Larkin couldn't help but sigh a little, as the door to his quarters closed. He didn't dislike his assistant, but he was a bit much to deal with at times. "Computer, display all messages," he requested, as he sat down at his desk. There were several messages from the science staff, each proposing an interesting experiment, which he planned to sift through later. There was also a message from Ensign Carter, requesting that he report for his yearly psych exam. He'd been avoiding this. He'd found Carter to be pleasant company the other evening, but he'd been through so many evaluations since the Dragoon that he wasn't exactly excited at the prospect of another. He didn't think that the Ensign was planning on as in depth of a secession as Dr. Wilks always had, but he was, never the less, somewhat apprehensive about the affair. He sent Carter a message back. In it he asked what a good time to schedule an appointment might be; he hoped to delay the inevitable a little longer.

Larkin replicated himself a grilled cheese sandwich. They were an old Earth delicacy, or at least that was the way he saw them. Sitting back in his chair, he stared at a blank computer screen for a moment. "Computer, open file Larkin Omega 1." In front of him, a stream of seemingly endless numbers flew across the screen in rows of ten. This was all that Starbase 87's investigation team had been able to gleam from the shattered computer of the shuttle craft he'd been found floating in. Most had concluded that it was simply malfunctioning equipment that had produced the file, but Kevin wasnâ€™t sure of that. In the months after the incident, heâ€™d spent hours trying to find some pattern in the numbers, but this had never turned up anything. He hadn't looked at it in five months, but since his dream a few nights ago the CSO had made a decision. He was sick of being afraid of his unknown past. For better or for worse, he was going to find out what had happened to the Dragoon; he would know what had happened to him.

OFF:

Lieutenant JG Kevin Larkin
Chief Science Officer
USS Archimedes

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