Waning Scirocco

Posted on Tue Aug 14th, 2018 @ 8:35pm by Lieutenant JG Jasper Noakes
Edited on on Tue Aug 14th, 2018 @ 11:59pm

1,654 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission -1 - Prologue Posts
Location: USS Scirocco, Ensigns' Quarters, Earth Orbit
Timeline: 2261.164 0714

Blessed sleep. Jasper's eyes closed with the kind of muted ecstasy when face meets pillow after a very, very long day. He smiled blissfully: Noakes had the room to himself. No snoring roommate. No running afoul of the Tellarite's irony-smelling, blood sausage-like favorite dinner. Or whatever the closest synthesized equivalent the food synthesizers could manage. No charming Tellarite women who thought his bunk was the couch. He breathed in his scent in the pillow, mumbling mine to himself. Noakes lifted his thin butt up off the bed long enough to undo his uniform pants, then push it down over the rise and fall to his thigh. Then he pushed an ear back into the pillow and closed his eyes, "Fuck it," he muttered. He was too tired to get undressed.

A Helmsman could sense things about his ship: and before Jasper was totally adrift to sleep, the oscillation of the deck plates at low warp evened out. Groggily he blinked, looking out the window. They were cruising at low impulse. A blue orb, the heart of humanity, dominated the dorsal third of his window, its sphere swooping up. Jasper cocked his head some: many Humans on the ship would be looking fondly out the window right now. It was their home. They'd stare over its ultramarine blue oceans, the green coasts and the gradual browning as the eyes moved inland. They might feel at home for just a moment. It wasn't Jasper's home though. Oceans were supposed to be nearly black, and trapped under the darkest, bluest ice you could imagine. And the world was supposed to be white, striated and cratered with turquoises and tans. A giant world, spinning, polar gunmetal grays creeping into equatorial wheats, beiges and burnt sienna, was supposed to dominate every inch of the sky.

But really this bed was home. This ship was, as near as made no difference. So, then, Jasper was happy those Humans from Earth felt the same feelings he felt by laying on his pillow, in this roughly 2.5 meter by 2.5-meter room.

The comm bonged gently, a hollow sound over the speakers, "All hands we are on final approach to Earth. Delta Shift can officially stand down. Begin Alpha Shift. Beta Shift standby. Eligible personnel can request shore leave from their supervising officers. Supervisors please submit all personnel performance reviews to Lieutenant Commander Savaraleh and Chief Cormak by twelve hundred hours. That is all."

Jasper hugged his pillow, deciding to wiggle his butt to try and get his trousers off the stark white of his underwear. He reached back and used his thumbnail to scratch at the very top of his crack. He was almost asleep again when the higher, shriller personal chime of his viewscreen startled him awake. He muttered, rubbing sleep out of the corner of his eye as he sat up. He used his pillow over his lap as a block. As the screen swiveled toward him, Jasper combed back his untamable curls with a rake of fingers.

The man on screen, when it blinked in cool, bright white color, had a long and cleanly shaven face. His eyes were dark, his hair thinning brown. "Jasper I'm sorry if I woke you up," the man said, though his tone wasn't particularly. It was a social nicety.

Noakes half-shook his head, "No problem Sir. I was only getting ready."

"Ah," the man smiled which bent thin creases in his long, lined cheeks. "Could you come to my quarters for a moment?"

Noakes blinked, fighting through the grog, "Uh, of course sir. Is there something else besides my evaluation?" The man pouted out his lip in that twist of dismissal, mouthing silently a "Nah."

"No, nothing wrong. My office in five minutes please." Noakes nodded at the man's insistence, mumbling assent and his screen went dark. Jasper got up and refastened the clasp of his trousers, then pointed his toes into each of his boots. Tugged on and settled on his feet, the youth eyed his badge. He weighed putting it on, knowing the badge meant he was officially on duty, therefore officially target-able for any question, need or request. Soon the ship would be swarming with engineering staff and the short refit of the Scirocco would begin. Jasper didn't fancy playing tour guide so he left it, heading through the doors, arms swinging with a casual gait.

His mind probed only briefly at what he couldn't control or know: why did Lieutenant Royden need to see him? He had no answers. And as he shifted into the turbolift, turning around so he could face the door, he still didn't. He shared the space with a Saurian and another Human in an active interplay about something scientific. Holly or Evelyn might've understood: it was all scientific techno-babble to Noakes. He was off first, smiling as he interposed himself between them with a soft, breathed, "Sorry," for cutting off their chatter.

The door hissed behind him and he counted doors on the left. One, two, three, four. Starboard side. He looked upon the cool gray cast to the door and read the name, "Edmund Royden, Lieutenant." Noakes pressed the door key.

"Ensign Noakes, sir," Noakes said in the space the computer allowed for.

"Come," the voice of the Welsh offered, and the doors eased open. Royden was readying himself for his shift on the bridge, tacking on his badge to his left breast. Jasper stood easily, a sort of calm at attention with his arms behind his back. Royden eyed the youth, one eye squinting. "What're you still doing here, Jasper?"

Jasper couldn't help but raised brows in shock, "You-"

"I mean what are you still doing aboard the Scirocco?" Royden clarified. "Stand at ease. Or..." he gestured at about Jasper's hip level, "Easier than you are now."

Noakes narrowed one eye then the next in a look of confusion, brows flexing creases at the broadness of his nose ridge, "Sorry? Sir? What?" He fought chuckling around his own confusion, lilting the end of his what with a squeak of his uncertainty.

Royden sighed, his chest puffed, and he picked up a PADD. It sung a sharp then flat tone, "Noakes, Jasper F. Ensign. Psychological profile suggests exceptional skill in three-dimensional visualization and abductive reasoning in navigational crises. He displays unusual insight and imaginative solutions in difficult to navigate space." Royden lowered the PADD enough to stare at the suddenly fidgeting youth who seemed to think his uniform sleeves were too short or too tight around the wrists. "Dr. Hanu contends that Noakes' personal psychological profile is of an officer who is lacks ambition despite his strengths. In the opinion of this counselor, Jasper F. Noakes is likely to waste the skills he does have and is unlikely to take opportunities put before him." Royden dropped the PADD to look at the boy and then dropped the PADD with a clatter onto his desk.

The older male put his hands on his hips, "Why, Noakes?" Noakes couldn't place the accent, but reckoned it was British-ish.

"What do you mean exactly, Sir?"

Royden ahemed, his doubting brows raising a single, untrimmed one. "Why haven't you applied for a Chief position of your own yet? The Scirocco is about to go through three months of refit. Did it occur to you this might be a good chance to apply for a role with more authority?"

Jasper's eyes drifted away as he glanced brushing fingers over his tricep, then he tucked them under his armpit. Normally when people chastised him, he shut down and brooded. He at least understood what Royden was trying to do here. He tried a smile on his slight overbite, incorrigible. "It didn't, sir. I'm sorry. Scirocco goes to some epic places, ey'ye? I can't beat that. And you pulled me off routine duty around Jupiter, so I finally started seeing something. I figured I owed you a few years."

Royden tilted his head, "Starships do tend to go out and explore. And Captain Holloway technically brought you on board. I was just the messenger."

Jasper was left hanging on that one, unsure of what else to say. He felt like it was edging toward a lecture even with Royden's normal goodwill. The man walked around to the youth, showing then that he easily towered over the short Jovian by five or six inches. Jasper tilted up enough to look at the lined and creased face of the man in his fortieth year.

"Time to go, Jas. There's a new ship in drydock that'll be christened in about three weeks. It's called Legacy. Constitution-class. You know, like the Enterprise?" Royden stopped there and watched that peculiar gleam cross the youth's normally phlegmatic eyes. It was like waving a drug in front of a junkie. "They need a Chief Helmsman. If you don't apply, I'm submitting your name myself. Dismissed."

"Sorry what?" Jasper was still catching up at hearing, Constitution-class and like the Enterprise.

"Dismissed. Stand down. Go to sleep? Read a book. Those off-duty choices? Because I am late for my shift and that Vulcan gets irritated when I'm tardy." Royden breezed by him, the doors to his quarters swishing open. The Lieutenant clapped the edge of the door, leaning in, "Think about it, Noakes. Seriously. You don't need to spin your wheels on Earth for three months. Captain's name is Jackson, Commander Cynthia Jackson. Look her up, she was on the Defiant..“ Royden pointed a waggling finger at the youth, "I better see your name on her list of potential candidates. Otherwise I'm lodging my boot up your tight little arse."

Jasper blinked slowly as the doors hissed shut. It was dark in Royden's quarters- which had to be almost half again as large as his own.

What just happened?

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