Is This Seat Taken?

Posted on Fri Aug 21st, 2020 @ 3:24am by Lieutenant Arev & Commander Elias Walker

812 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Mission 3.5 - Some R & R
Location: Crew Lounge

Eli walked into the crew lounge with the latest Comms packet which had just come through. He fancied a change of scenery than his office to go through the latest packet so he headed to the crew lounge. He grabbed himself a coffee from the self serve area and looked for a table to sit. He noticed Lieutenant Arev sitting by himself reading.

He headed over, “Mind if I join you, Lieutenant?” He asked.

Arev had never been a social individual in general. Life events made him withdraw more. He did realize that when the XO of the ship asked to join your table, it was unwise to refuse. In his current predicament it would be even more so.

"Not at all Commander", he replied standing up.

“Thank you.” Eli said, giving the science officer a respectful nod. “Reading anything interesting?” Walker asked as he sat opposite him.

"Yes", Arev replied. "The temporal data that is coming in, is fascinating. It is rare that one gets to study such live data in regards to temporal phenomena."

“I can imagine.” Elias replied genuinely interested. “You’ll probably gather enough information to keep you busy for a while and maybe write a paper or two on the phenomena.”

"Perhaps", Arev answered. "However, I do not like the intrusions into privacy that actions such as publishing discourse on one's work brings.

“Still, having ones work published is a great achievement. I’d love to publish a paper on a new species’ language but I just need to meet the species, do the leg work on figuring out their language and then write the paper.” He said with chuckle.

"In your field, I would think that it would be much more difficult for this achievement, despite drive and best efforts", Arev said. "Given the vastness of space, encountering new species can often be sporadic."

“Tell me about! I’m really hoping our next mission has some exploring. Could do with working on something interesting rather than these comm packets that gone through with everyone’s comm traffic from home. I’m happy to sort through it but I’d like something a little exciting every now and then.” Elias replied with a chuckle.

"Understandably", Arev replied. "Being on a ship of exploration with nothing to explore is counter productive and morale impacting."

Arev thought about the time on his first assignment. He had been stuck in the labs with not much to do than catalog test results run by higher ranking officers. It was quite dull to say the least.

“Indeed it is. But we wear the uniform and do what we are ordered to by the powers that be. I can still hope for something fun in the near future.” Eli said with a smile.

"With respect", Arev said. "Hope is a lazy man's approach to life. One must strive to make what one wants become a reality and not leave it up to an emotion that rids one of responsibility if things don't go their way."

“That looks good on paper but I can’t tell Starfleet Command where to send the Legacy, so hope is all I have.” The Commander replied with a small smile.

"No, but you can speak with the Captain about your aspirations", Arev said. "You can also do research on various aspects of languages of different races highlighting their similarities and differences, you can do research on the core elements of language which is the sound wave, as well as scanning for areas of space that seem to have unusual qualities that could have elements that could impact sound and languages and ask the Captain to divert the ship temporarily. Even now in our current circumstances, you could try to see if there are changes in area harmonics during a time shift. Just as a few examples."

“I’ve already spoken to Captain Jackson. She wants a more scientific driven mission so it seems my desires will have to wait.” Eli replied as he considered what the Lieutenant had said. “However, doing some research on the core elements of languages isn’t a bad idea. I hadn’t looked at it from that prospect before.”

"Well, sound is an aspect of science", Arev said. "I will make sure to make notes of any regions that might be of particular interest to you. There is no reason we both can not achieve our goals at the same time."

The Science Officer was correct, “Very true, Lieutenant. I’ll be happy to work with you if you manage to find anything of particular interest.”

Arev gave a nod and, "It is only logical to help each other. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go to my lab to test a couple of theories."

“Of course, I have some work to do myself.” The Commander said with a nod.

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