Delusions Aplenty

[Laehval tTemarr 0]

Delusions Aplenty

By Erein J’stal Lill t’Ditsy

 

 

Erein J’stal Lill t’Ditsy was extremely relieved when the Enarrain finally came to claim her chair. Commanding a ship, even when at dock, had been extremely hard work, especially with crewmen on her watch like t’Moxy who did not appreciate her obvious skills. Though she’d only served watch once a day on each of the days that the RES Talon had been docked, it had seemed like an eternity. The only respite for her was when their new Ops officer had come aboard.

 

It had taken her a few minutes to place the name, but once she recognized Koga S’Bien for who he was, she couldn’t help but stare at him. To have such a celebrity on board was a true honor! She had followed all of tr’S’Bien’s Ke’Veshrek matches, taping the Holovids after he won his very first Academy Championship and had been hailed as a prodigy. Until very recently, her room had been peppered with several striking Holographs of him in various manly poses. When he had retired and disappeared from view, she had turned her attention to one of the other fighters and soon all of his Holovids had replaced Koga’s.

 

Now, however, Koga was within reach! She could watch him do all of the little everyday things that she had only dreamed about: the way he ran his fingers through his hair, the way he pressed the buttons at his console, the way his muscles flexed beneath his uniform when he moved, the way he winked at her. He had winked at her! She had nearly fainted right then and there! It was a dream come true!

 

She would be working side by side with him on a daily basis now. She was certain that she could come up with all sorts of reasons for her to be on the bridge. There were always consoles that needed updating and repairing and programming. Engineering Daise t’Temarr always assigned the menial chores to her anyhow. The more redundant and boring the task, the more likely it was that t’Ditsy found herself on the duty roster. She had never minded. She tended to daydream while she was working anyhow, and she discovered that her body could do many repetitive jobs without her brain being involved. Perhaps the Enarrain would even consider her earlier idea of becoming a part of the bridge staff! That thought was most exciting.

 

Being an Engineer, she could also access Koga’s schedule in order to better track his movements. If she planned carefully, she could always be in the right place at the right time. She could even track him through the ship to find out if he was dining in the mess hall! The thoughts and ideas kept coming, which was quite abnormal for her. Usually she found it difficult to concentrate in order to formulate any sort of plan.

 

Her scheming kept her occupied while she was in the lift on her way down to Main Engineering. It wasn’t until she stepped foot into the room that her thoughts finally returned to the present. Something was very different about Engineering. It took her several minutes to realize that there was no one working.

 

That is extremely strange. There is always someone working. Wasn’t everyone due back from their shoreleave? She had thought about going on shoreleave, but she had no family and no one she particularly wanted to visit. Though she could have probably met someone at one of the resorts, she had been too interested in watching Koga once he’d come aboard the Talon. He is worth a dozen shoreleaves. I can watch him for hours without getting tired. I wonder if we have any of his old Holovids on file.

 

Moving to one of the consoles and totally forgetting about the fact that she was alone, she accessed the computer database and pulled up as many pictures of Koga that she could find. Several of those in the databanks were duplicates that she’d previously owned, but to her delight, she found that the Talon had downloaded over two dozen others that she’d never seen. Why doesn’t anyone else recognize him? Someone on the station was a big admirer, or else these wouldn’t have been batched with the latest data transmission. She sent every picture she could find to her quarters to be developed later and spent the remainder of her duty researching every speck of information she could find.

 

And so it was that Engineering remained empty save for one lowly Erein that didn’t notice the huge green bloodstain on the floor, never questioned the chaotic remnants of the fight that had been, and remained oblivious to the fact that all of her crewmates had been beamed into the brig. Had she gone with them, she most assuredly would have noticed.

 

There were no pictures of Koga in the brig.