You're In My Seat

Posted on Mon Jul 13th, 2020 @ 7:39pm by Captain Cynthia Jackson & Lieutenant Xenia Windsor

756 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Mission 3 - Coming Full Circle
Location: Bridge

Ben was happily guiding Legacy towards Vulcan. They were almost there, just a few more hours. Cat had set the navigation points well. The only trouble that he was experiencing was that the closer they got to Vulcan, the more turbulent the flight was. He felt a presence behind him. Was it Cindy? He had promised her sweets on their very first meeting and they were right under his console as promised. And, after last night, well, sweets were the least of what he wanted to give her. He wondered what his ex would think of Cindy, or their child.

He turned around only to see a mysterious stranger. "Hello there," he replied with a stupid looking grin on his face. "What can I do for you?"

Xenia raised a brow. Did he not realize it was that time? She thought other stations switching out would have clued him in. Maybe he was new, after all, she didn't recognize him. "Shift change, Ensign," she said with a grin. "That's officially my seat now. By the way, I'm Xenia. You must be new here."

Turning around, Ben laughed. "You're funny. I'm the Chief Helm Officer, Ben Chiles." He reached under his console, "Want a sweet? I was planning on giving it to Cindy but seeing as you're not her...."

She was a bit in awe, positive this name had been mentioned in the recent conversation with the other department heads. She put it aside and donned a look of amusement as she leaned back against the helm console and crossed her arms. "Really? Do you know who I am? I feel like I've been left in the dark."

"I can't say that I recognize you," he apologized with a small shrug. "But, I must admit that I have not been doing much looking at other beautiful women lately."

"Ah ha," she replied knowingly. "Nice try." She grinned, but held out her hand. "I am Lt. Xenia Windsor, and I am here for the shift change." Her eyes shifted to his seat, curious how he would react.

“Well, Lieutenant, I would say that you have misread the duty roster, as I am first shift and just got here.”

"I could say the same. How about we pull up that roster and double-check?"

"I wrote the duty roster, Lieutenant," Ben told Xenia, slightly disturbed. He tapped some buttons and on the screen, plain as day, it showed "Chief Helm Officer, Lieutenant Ben Chiles" on the first shift.

She frowned a bit before turning to look at the display, where she frowned more. Clearly, it said "Chief Helm Officer, Lieutenant Xenia Windsor." She turned back to the man whose change in tone she had detected. "That's not what I'm seeing, Lieutenant," she said slowly. Up to now she'd been fairly playful in their banter, but she turned serious. "I believe you, but I see my own name on the display, and I think there's an explanation for that." She waited to see his reaction before continuing.

Xenia probably would not believe it if she did not see it with her own eyes but the display changed again to show two Chief Helm Officers, listing Ben's name first, as it was in alphabetical order. "This is...unusual," Ben, finally concluded. "There's two of us but only one Legacy. Certainly that can't be right."

Legacy jumped as it bounced over and through another set of distortions, causing Xenia to lose her balance. When she looked up from the floor, the seat was once again empty and waiting just for her. The bag of sweets also was missing. Slowly, she stood, looking around, until her wits returned and she slid into her seat. She brought up the sensors to see if there were any readings on the disturbance. Surely, whatever it was would give them some answers to what was going on. As she'd hoped, the sensors showed that time and space were distorted. But there were hints that there was something else going on: her readings showed that in some places two objects occupied the same space for the smallest of moments. She took those readings and transferred the information into a file before sending them to the Captain, and the Engineering team...better keep Science in the loop too.

The preliminary information seemed to support her earlier idea of curtains between realities shifting and fading, but others who knew better would confirm if that was the case. In the meantime, she had a ship to fly when the orders came in.

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