Close Encounters

[Rachel E Garrett 0]

Midshipman Rachel Garrett

Assistant Engineer

Access Tunnel Specialist

Sky Harbor Aegis

 

Close Encounters

 

Midshipman Rachel Garrett peeled her palms away from her ears and wondered if she'd ever hear again. So far it had not been a very good day – her first aboard Sky Harbor Aegis – and going for the longest day record.

 

She had been working on the VIPs and Diplomats' Emergency Broadcast System for the last few hours and had it all installed and ready to go - or so she thought. Problem was, working on it at one end – the OPS console in the Control Tower – didn't necessarily mean it was okay at the other end – in the diplomats' quarters. The result of the test was a high-pitched screech as she'd never heard before. She wiped a hand over her face to gather her thoughts, thumped the side of her head a few times to clear the ringing that lingered in her ears, and sat on a box to think.

 

"Ok. So. The EBS isn't exactly working as planned. Actually it's not working at all. And it's really no wonder, 'cause this place is a total mess." She popped up to do a 360 and wander through what was essentially an empty shell. There were no walls, no doors, no reference points. And on top of it all for some reason Porter didn't understand the situation that she had fully explained to him a minute ago.

 

"Well, it's a mess like you'd have at any construction site," she reasoned, "so maybe it's not technically a mess. Maybe it's more of a controlled mess. Whatever. Dang! No wonder it squealed."

 

Cool view of Cardassia out the viewport, though.

 

Focus.

 

As she began to pick her way around piles of equipment and containers of debris, stepping over stacks of chips, and tools left by the demolition squad, Rachel spied what would eventually be an access panel, but the panel hadn't been installed, there was just a mass of chips, junctions and empty slots recessed in what might be called a wall if it had been finished.

 

Rachel frowned. How the heck was she supposed to make heads or tails of any of this? "Okay, we jumped the gun."

 

She tripped over a roll of insulation but quickly caught her balance, then turned to sit on it. "Before anyone does anything more we're gonna have to have some quarters to work with, or at the very least a wall or two more," she mused, flicking bits of insulation off her pants. Rachel was a hands-on, down 'n' dirty, look-at-it person, a visual learner her instructors liked to say. So get the specs – preferably on paper – and take a look.

 

Paper was nice. Rachel liked paper. She could draw on it, color-code it, shift it around and see the whole thing without having to page over, up, and around on a screen with a dumb stylus. But it seemed to take forever to get paper the size she wanted and finally she had to replicate it, using some of her valuable rep-allotment, doled out by Chief Omnipresence in miserly fashion.

 

But, oh well. It worked, and soon she was back in the construction site, paper on floor, shifting it this way and that to see what would be here and there when the thing was finished.

 

Uh oh. Rachel looked at the paper, then up at the site, then at the paper, then up at the site. Something didn't jibe.

 

Into the turbolift with the rolled-up blueprints under her arm – which she had to jiggle around to avoid the really hunky guy behind her. Her uniform flecked with deconstruction leftovers, her hair covered in dust, she figured that if she pretended she didn't don't notice him he wouldn't say anything and then there wouldn't be this awkward silence with her blushing and stumbling all over herself 'cause she didn't have a clue what to say especially when she looked like this.

 

Anyway, she had a job to do. Focus.

 

"Hi."

 

Oh, gees. She blushed, and as soon as the turbolift stopped she bolted through the half-open doors for the holodecks, entered, and heaved a sigh of relief. He was nice. She felt bad not talking to him, but….

 

Putting the previous situation behind her she pulled up a holographic rendering of the blueprints and stood there, mouth agape as it took form around her. Before her stretched 5,000 square meters of elegance that rivaled Louis XV's Palace at Versailles. Room after room of alabaster carvings, marble statuary, gold gilt mirrors, latinum fixtures, holowalls and holo-windows.

 

So that's what they did with her rep-allotment. Gees.

 

But it wasn't so much the elegance of it all, it was the sheer size. Dining room, sitting room, reception room, private offices, public offices, diplomatic quarters, spouses quarters, family quarters, assistants offices, assistants quarters, and . . . concubines quarters? Spa, hot mineral baths, recreational pool, tennis . . . waterfall?

 

How the heck did they figure they could fit all this into two decks if they had to make quarters for five major signatories and all the others that might come along?

 

"Uh. . . occupied?"

 

Rachel jumped at the voice that came from the holodeck entrance behind her, took a moment to catch her breath and then realized the voice and the face seemed vaguely familiar. Then her eye locked onto the symbol on his uniform and a spark of encouragement hit.

 

"You're an engineer. Did Ensign Coleridge send you?"

 

"Oh, so you noticed me this time?" His humor was lost on Rachel. She blushed again.

 

"Uh....sorry. I guess you were the one who said hi in the lift? I was . . . kinda busy. I mean…" she coughed, "…distracted. Sorry."

 

Get a grip, girl. "You're new here?" she finally managed. Clean uniform. Unmussed hair. Pretty good bet he was new.

 

"Pretty much. Been here less than a week."

 

"Wow. Me, too. I'm… Rachel. Rachel Garrett." She extended her hand.

 

"I'm Caelan. Caelan Fletcher." He smiled.

 

First Scott, now Caelan – maybe it wasn't going to be such a remote place after all.

 

Edited April 18, 2008 by Rachel E Garrett