The Ransacking

[knlwtchr 0]

Having been relieved from command on the bridge, Ensign Andrea Knlwtchr found herself running down the corridor towards her quarters.  A thousand thoughts were running through her mind as well.

 

'The holodeck is gone.  All programs are gone.  Everything saved is gone.  I couldn't save it...I couldn't.'

 

'I hope I saved it...'

 

Rounding the corner now, Andrea slowed her paces significantly.  Several officers gave her a concerned glance as she nodded, embarrassed.  The red faced ensign picked up her pace again, but only to close the short distance to her quarters quickly.

 

The Counselor tapped the console at her door and stepped into the doorway.  She made a b-line for a compartment over her bunk.  Pushing padds and her personal medkit aside, she blinked and paused.  Andrea closed the compartment and headed for her bedside compartment.

 

"Not there either.  Oh man.  I don't have it.  Oh man, oh man, what am I going to do..."

 

Picking up the pace now on possibilities, Andrea began to search every nook and cranny of her quarters.  She began pushing clothing aside in drawers and shoes out of the way in closets, looking in every possible place her new most prized possession could be.  Not there.  Here?  No, not there either.

 

Where could it be?

 

Then here eyes fell upon her uniform jacket.  With nearly a bound, the hopeful ensign grabbed up the jacket and checked all the pockets.  Withdrawing her hand from the last pocket, she produced a small diskette labeled "Holographic Father Messages: Backup".

 

Andrea exhaled with relief and fell, seated upon her bed.  She thought she had lost them.  She thought all her saved images of her father would have to remain in her memory.  She thought she would never replay her favorite messages of her best friend again.  But that wasn't true, and she held the proof of that now in her hands.

 

Ensign knlwtchr held the diskette close as if it were the last candy bar in the galaxy and thanked the Lord.  She carefully returned it to her jacket pocket and hung it up.  

 

Regaining composure now, Andrea turned from the closet and headed for the exit.  As her quarter's doors slid open, one of the officers she had met before had just started down the corridor in the opposite direction.

 

"Are you going to make it, Ensign."  The smiling Lieutenant did not wait for an answer, but continued on.  Andrea watched him disappear around the corner and sighed.

 

"I am now."