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Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #25 –
[ USS Theurgy "Thea" NX-70854 | Security Center | Brig ] Attn: DocReno

It was true, she did know of her benefactor's early years, yet she had not the experience to estimate any social detriments that might have sprung from that time. Even more difficult since she had not observed at length or in depth how he treated her differently than organics. She had noticed how well at ease he was around her, yet beyond that, she'd had no means to guess at the fault-lines in his persona. Her understanding of psychology was on a statistical level, and it seldom applied perfectly to the individuals aboard her, much less to herself.

When he requested to ask her something, she had been searching her memory banks for something appropriate to say. Therefore, in lack of any viable results, she nodded. "Of course, you needn't ask," she said to him, looking at him where he had seated himself.  "What is it?"

What overshadowed their conversation was the likely repercussions of his actions. Would he ever be allowed to calibrate her photonic projection again? Would he still have access to her systems, despite what he did? Would anything still be the same?


[ Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: All Present Lone Wolves 

It seemed something in Tessa compelled the new girl to linger, and Rawley glanced towards Goldeneye - unable to determine what it was. A stray thought, whisked away when she laid eyes on Morrigan.

The colonist had been in the shower, explaining why Rawley hadn't seen her at first, but once she emerged in all her damp glory, it was all Rawley could do not to let out a wolf-whistle. It was always like this after a dogfight. It left her wanting to... celebrate the victory. Fasha had always been a temptation at times like those, but up until the first time she got locked up in Sickbay - before that Niga Incident - Oracle had been Rawley's girl.

Oracle, however, wasn't there anymore. So many were gone, and yet that colonist remained - still tempting her despite all the hardships the Wolves had gone through. Part of her adrenaline-addled mind saw it as a sign, which was quite preferable compared to the grief that laid so close to heart.

"Hey," she said and walked over to Morrigan, unable to help herself, even less the lopsided grin she wore. Besides her knickers, it was all she wore, leaning against the locker next to Fasha's. "How would you like a drink in my quarters? Ever since the retired First Officer took over Below Decks, I can't help but feel like there is a senior officer there all the bloody time - giving me disapproving looks."

Which was quite the opposite from the look Rawley gave her.

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #26 –
[ Tessa May Lance | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]

"Um.... are you... doing okay?"

"What?" Tessa blinked.  "S-sure," she stammered as she twitched like she was craving an addictive narcotic.  "The mission went great.  We beat the Romulans!   We got the job done at Black Opal and everyone came ho--"

Her next words caught in her throat as her topaz yellow eyes blinked back tears.  Everybody didn't come home.  Kestral hadn't.  Skye Carver had died shortly the Black Opal mission had begun, before there was any real resistance, before the Romulans had revealed themselves.  How unfair was that?  What the hell happened?  Had Papa Bear's deck crew been so overworked that they missed something on Skye's Valk?  Had T'Rena's malignant influence outlived the Vulcan witch and caused one of the Lone Wolves another?  Or had a saboteur been interrupted before he could rig every Valkyrie in the fighter assault bay to explode?   At this point in time Tessa had no clue.  It was too early after the fact for even scuttlebutt to reach her, let alone an official report.

Tessa closed her eyes and trembled as she attempted to bring her emotions back under control.  She couldn't lose it in front of the new girl.  She had to foster the illusion of hope or else hope would truly be an illusion.  She had to assure her that everyone in the squadron could pull their weight.  Had anybody noticed?  Rawley, bless her, was distracting Fasha with playful flirting.  Evelyn wasn't bothering to hide her nude body under a towel and was in no hurry to get dressed, so it was a good bet that Husker was distracted too.  Now if only Gun-Shy liked girls, Ghost would allow Tessa to escape without making a fool of herself. 

"Ahem," she coughed as she tapped her collarbone with her fist.  "Too much humidity when you use water in your shower," she grunted before closing her eyes and coughing again.  "Some of it goes down the wrong pipe," she added lamely.

Would she buy it?  Or would she be polite and pretend to buy it?  Maybe Kanti just needed to reach out to someone who was honest and willing to say 'Yeah, I'm scared out of my mind too.'  Or maybe she wanted to know if she should stay in the Lone Wolves or not. 

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #27 –
[ Commander Carrigan Trent | Main Bridge ]

"Aye Captain."  There was little else to be said when Ives turned over the Bridge to the Executive Officer.  Once the turbolift doors closed, Trent seated himself into the center chair and regarded the situation around him.  Having just secured from Red Alert, there certainly would be a number of reports being filed, and that meant he knew just how much would be filtering through his hands in the near future.  However, he knew one thing for certain: Theurgy would be more fit for battle in the next seventy-two hours than she had been she dropped out of warp, weapons blazing, against Black Opal.  The replicator tanks were full, and every spare part they could find that would work on this ship had been acquired.  And that included components for her weapons system.  Already, weapons tech crews would be hard at work bringing every system back up to spec, using parts that were brand-new and not reconditioned. 

And as he thought, briefly, about the mountain of paperwork headed his way, the Chief Engineer himself entered and handed him a PADD.  This was rather interesting the man would come up to do so.  After all, he could have simply sent it via the communications system and leave it at that.  "Thank you, Master Chief," replied Trent.  "Good to hear we didn't take any damage.  And now that we're swimming in spare parts, I take it you and your people will be busy making her as good as new, minus the new starship smell?"  It was a small joke, one that the amputee would not have even thought of days ago.  However, that time constraint ahead meant he needed to get the ship moving. 

"Helm, we've been here longer than our original estimates.  Lay in a course to the jump-off point for the next phase of operations; adjust our speed from out initial ops plan to give us thirty-six hours there for final preparations.  Engage when ready." 


[ CWO Sten Covington | Fighter Assault Bay ]

"Like I said, Boss, not my place to comment about tactics.  But yeah, I remember the testing, and seeing what those thing could do the the kind of armour plating you'd find on a Defiant-class ship."  Indeed, while Sten was familiar with the doctrine that had been theorized for the use of these mass-drivers, he only knew the broad lines.  But he had witnessed with his own eyes the terminal effects.  To say they were impressive would be a rather monumental understatement. 

But when Ji started asking questions, trying to piece together the issue with the gimbals, and while she had good ideas she had not hit the nail on the head.  "Fracturing, actually.  The eggheads who designed this piece of equipment did a good job, but they did their testing and simulation without thinking of the internal vibrations of a live, powered fighter as opposed to an unpowered testbed or a fixed mount.  If the impulse manifolds are at more than about fifteen percent or so capacity, there's a nasty bit of resonance between that and the gun itself when you start firing, and the harmonics get centered on the gimbals and they crack.  And that stops the gun from being able to traverse, elevate or collimate, let alone track as it's supposed to." 

That was the short answer.  And for now, there was no real way to know if that had been fixed.  "I guess I'll have to crack one of them open and compare with what I've got from the prototype phase, see if anything's been change before I'll sign off on these being fit for service."

There was another reason for Papa Bear's concern.  It was lucky the fighter had been remotely operated during that test.  Because in that one, doing a full-impulse run, not only did the gimbals fracture but the harmonics also disrupted the drive system and a capacitor ring blew out, sending a cascade up through the mounting point and overloading the breaker.  Oh, it didn't feedback all the way back to the bird's power generating systems, but when that bus blew, it did take out the wing...

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #28 –
[ Lt Cmdr Miles Renard | Fighter Assault Bay ]

Miles nodded. "Yea I remember when that happened. Almost as bad as when we were testing out the Tet canon in atmosphere and we forgot to calibrate the fine tuning adjustments on firing calculations to compensate for atmospheric stresses. As soon as it tried adjusting its aim after the tetryon echo the damn thing was torn strait down and ended up ripping half the guts out from the prototype ship.  Thank the mother we hadn't installed a warp drive in that version or we woulda certainly cracked the containment and we would've had a warp core breech and the pilot would'a been fried even after ejecting. Luckily, it only tore out the bottom and the wings were aerodynamic enough that the pilot was able to glide the prototype in for semi-soft landing."

He sighed for a moment. "As much as I would love to make the priority checking the new guns as well as 'the shinys' out, there's something we need to prioritize first," he said looking around and turning his attention to where Maverick's fighter sat. "I need a full diagnostic on that ship, as well as every piece of recording data that it has.  Sensor logs, weapons fire data, telemetry sensor tags, the works.  Then I want the same info from every fighter in the squadron.  I want to know exactly how the hell we ended up with Skye's ship disabled in the middle of a battle.  If it was a malfunction, I want the every bit of evidence to fully exonerate Mav and get him back into the cockpit ASAP.  If it was just a horribly tragic accident of friendly fire that could have been prevented but wasn't, then I need to know exactly what happened so if Mav has a career on this ship to salvage, he will be allowed to."  Miles then let the words settle before adding the other possibility.  "And if this was on purpose, and he betrayed the Wolves, I want every piece of evidence to make damn sure he gets a room right next to that bitch in the brig."

"I don't want to even consider the need for speculation. We had multiple birds in the air when it happened, we had a multi vector starship in SOM mode with sensors on full and we have the downloaded logs from the Opal.  We should have every view imaginable on the incident and if I give it to Thea, she should be able to put together holodeck recreation of the events in accordance to information that is unquestionably irrefutable, rather than based on what people think they saw happen.  I want to make sure what Security gets from us is a fully objective and complete account of all the data we have on the incident."

"Right now this is an internal investigation and Mav has agreed to confinement to quarters unless he receives Security's approval for a visit to medical or other locations per their allowance, and as such I received approval from the Captain to keep this investigation internal to the fighter bay as far as evidence gathering goes. I know I could have Security do this but I want to make sure everything is done right myself.  This is the first friendly fire death that's happened on my watch and I want to make sure I do everything in my power to make sure its the only one."

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #29 –
[ Fasha "Morrigan" | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: All Present Lone Wolves 

As Fasha slipped into her Starfleet issue sports bra she glanced over as Ghost approached her. The woman wasn't wearing much in the way of clothing except for her undergarments. The grin the woman wore and her body language it wasn't hard to tell what was on Rawley's mind. She knew Rawley she was the kind of person to celebrate survival, to celebrate victory. She'd seen it before when Oracle had been around how the two of them would disappear into either one or the other's quarters.

Now Oracle wasn't here. Perhaps Rawley was looking for someone else to hold her celebrations with? As Rawley offered to share a drink in her quarters she thought about it for a moment not taking her eyes off the other woman. "Sure..." She said as she slipped on her a pair of form fitting shorts. To be honest she didn't mind all that much being Rawley's second choice with the lives they lead it was hard to get a clear idea of how long your life would run on for.

To Fasha she needed to enjoy the small opportunities life gave her while she still could.

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #30 –
[ CWO Sten Covington | Fighter Assault Bay ]

Covington had heard shortly after he'd returned on board how Kestrel had been hit from fire from one of his own birds before getting her cockpit holed by Black Opal's defensive fire.  Even with her shields down, a Mk III Valkyrie ought to have been able to survive a direct hit from the supply depot's phasers, even at that short a range.  Unless it hit the very small target her canopy offered.  More than once, it had been suggested to fully enclose the pilot in the same armour as the outer hull and rely on optical sensors and viewscreens or a helmet-mounted display, but that particular idea had always been shot down, typically on grounds of situational awareness and reliability.  After all, the Mk 1 Eyeball with unimpeded view could do things no viewscreen could. 

And the trade-off was an area, quite small on astronomical terms but one that still represented a substantial fraction of the fighter's surface area, that was far more vulnerable than the rest. 

But the real problem was the allegation that Maverick had been the one to fire the tetryon cannon shot that created the conditions for that single item of fluke gunnery.  Granted, combat could be chaotic and it was possible Kestrel had simply wandered across his firing solution, or Isley hadn't paid close enough attention to his surroundings, at the worst possible time; after all, everyone could make a mistake at some point, and the Chief of the Deck was not immune to this himself.  But it was owed to Kestrel's memory and to the remainder of Theurgy's crew that it be investigated fully.

"I'll go over both Kestrel and Maverick flight recorders, and I'll tear his entire bird apart and do a full diagnostic of everything that's connected to the weapons systems if I have to.  If it was an accident, so be it; if it was a fault in the weapons system, it's one we need to identify and see if it's something new or one of my people screwed the pooch. And if it was deliberate, I'll be the first one to recommend a long walk out a short airlock."

While Sten did not command the pilots, every single one of the Lone Wolves was one of his pilots.  And that meant his job was to look after them in his own area of expertise, and despite his gruff appearance and the fact he had lost more than he'd care to count over the long years of his career, he was still attached to them.  But if one did deliberately drop a friendly's shields while receiving fire?  He was no longer worthy of his support.

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #31 –
[ Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: All Present Lone Wolves 

Rawley had not been sure of what Fasha would say. Either she wouldn't get the hint, and if she did, there was no certainty she fancied dalliances with women. As it were, the Colonist agreed, but said little else - leaving Ghost in the dark about what she was really thinking. Of course, there had been no secret amongst the wolves that she and Oracle had been involved, and asking Morrigan so soon after the Betazoid's death could give them all the wrong idea since it was a far lesser known fact that they had broken up down on Theta Eridani IV. Rawley, however, didn't care the least. She was among the last who gave a fuck about the opinions of others.

"I'll go pour the drinks then," she said with a grin to Fasha, her brown eyes quite bold before she turned back to her locker. She glanced at the Colonist over her shoulder. "Cya there," she said and gave her a wink, then she got dressed. For last, she put on her Lone Wolves hoodie and thrust her feet into a pair of ankle-height boots. She wanted to get out of the locker room before thoughts of Kestrel led to talking, not caring to wallow in the grief for a bloody moment. Any second, anyone of her brothers and sisters would say something, and then she'd find herself in some happenstance group therapy thing. No, she'd have none of that.

With a last almost furtive glance towards Morrigan before she left, she stepped into the flight hangar, and saw Renard, Covington and Ji talking - likely of Maverick and Kestrel. She had wanted to have a quick word with Sten, but seeing their murderous SCO there was just as compelling as the talk about the incident. No, she'd leave before the Vulpinian saw her and got some idea about talking to her. With her small duffel bag over her shoulder, she went straight for the exit - hoping she'd get away.

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #32 –
[Lieutenant Lin Kae | Security Center| Brig| USS Theurgy]

"Have you ever had to form a institutional plot without having all of the data or you had data but your data stream was corrupted?"  Kae asked simply as he looked at the hologramatic entity again. "I spent so much time working and focusing on everyone that we had lost that I think I lost track of what was I was supposed to do."

He stood up and moved as close as he could to her with the cell's force field in the way. "I started a situation on the bridge without all of the facts, I accused a fellow officer who may have had nothing to do with the situation without all of the facts, and I put this ship and more importantly *YOU* into danger without all of the facts which clearly shows that my logic is flawed on such a monumental level that I need to be stripped of my duties until a hologram can be made to replace my head because it is so firmly up my arse!"

Kae then turned away from Thea and started to pace again, but this time he moved with a much more angry and urgent energy as more of the emotions that he had buried beneath the surface of himself came bursting up. "I mean am I really that stupid to have pulled a stunt like that, am I really that far fucking gone, Thea?"
===========================

[ ENS Chris "Husker" Slayton | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: All Present Lone Wolves

Chris still hadn't finished tucking in his departmental undershirt as he returned to his locker as he looked around the room to see what Wolves where still around before he realized that even with the shit that was going on, he didn't feel like drinking alone in his quarters.

"Hey Tessa, you up for anything?" he asked the yellow eyed pilot from his locker.

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #33 –
[ Lt Cmdr Miles Renard | Fighter Assault Bay ]

The Vulpinian turned to the Deck-chief. " Agreed but as soon as our part of the investigation is done I'm presenting our findings to security and letting them handle it from there.  I just want to make sure that the stuff we investigate is done right and I know I can trust you and the senior members of your deck crew to be as objective as myself and not hide anything no matter how bad it looks for anyone involved.  Anyways Ive got an AI to ask to start pulling the data from a whole squadron full of flight recorders and compile into a format that can be displayed on the flag bridge for our report to Sec.  I'll be giving the pilots the rest of the night off and I'll be on the bridge for a while then in my quarters trying to pull something sensible out of the flight recorders and mission ops data."

That being said he turned to where Rawley was and thought a moment about trying to smooth things over with her but doubted anything could be done about it that wouldnt make everyting worse.  Instead he simply walked towards the locker room and directed his gaze to her.  "Ghost," he said simply, "I know you dont want to hear anything from me but, you were alt lead this mission so here goes, the Chief and I'll be trying to figure out what the hell happened with Mav's ship.  You'll be the first to know what I find out, aside from Papa Bear and whoever Sec decides to assign the investigation to.  You lead the squad for the majority of mission time this sortie so at the very least you deserve to know first."

"On lighter news let the wolves know they officially have the rest of the night off and unless we get a red alert or special orders from the Captain official duty starts at 0900 hrs tomorrow.  If anyone wants to mess with their fighters they are welcome to anytime after 1930 hrs that should give us all time to finish pulling the needed Intel from them.  Same with the hard-suits I'll make sure they get back in everyone's lockers by then, hopefully.  Anyways, squad's yours.  Standing orders are to enjoy yourselves for a while and get some rest. "

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #34 –
[ Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]

When Miles spoke to her as she was making her way out of the hangar, Rawley paused her step, taking a deep breath. She turned her head to look at him out of the corner of her eye, and she couldn't help but think that he was trying to smooth things over with her. She did not care for the reminder about what had happened to Skye Carver either, but she reckoned that there was no avoiding it. She hoped that whatever the fuck had happened to Mav's fighter wouldn't happen again in the rest of the squadron's birds. Just as much as they had to rely on each other, they had to be able to trust their Valkyries.

Trust, ironically, which was exactly what she had lost in regard to Miles Renard.

"I will tell them," she said simply, even if she had a mind to tell him to go fuck himself and tell his squadron about the R&R himself. If he wanted her to be some bloody errand girl for him, he had another thing coming. As it were, though, she did not have the energy to raise an argument. Fuck she missed Iceman. She'd trade the back-stabbing mutt for their real SCO any damn day. "Sir."

Then she left the hangar, meaning to tell the guys and girls through her combadge when she'd been able to quell the anger that had risen like bile in her thoat.


[ USS Theurgy "Thea" NX-70854 | Security Center | Brig ] Attn: DocReno

Seeing Kae like this tore at Thea's digital soul, the emotion chip's datafeed unbearable to her. Yet his question did cue something from her memory banks, and perhaps it might help. It was recent too, pertaining to what she had done when they fought her daughter, Cala.

"I have experienced generating erroneous output because of unrelated cataloguing," she said quietly in the wake of his outburst, hoping that it might make him settle down. "I set a double standard for myself because I did not relate two social conventions in my memory banks. The data was uploaded separately and I did not process the the two bundles at the same time, using different meta values based on different amounts of accumulated experience - causing the output to not match in entirety."

Even though Lin Kae was more than qualified to understand what she had just said, she had not given him the specifics. "You see, I also failed to establish the correlating demands when I appropriated the Reaver in the Fighter Assault Bay and launched in hope to restore my daughter's programming. Doing so, I disobeyed direct orders and abandoned the crew. With the hologrid non-functioning, only my emitter was available to lend aid to those loyal to Captain Ives. Yes, you helped me remove any sensitive tactical data from the emitter in the case of Cala obtaining it and trying to use it to access the ship's systems, but that is beside the point. After hearing Ives' speech about my rights as a photonic individual, I believed I was entitled to independence and personal initiative. I am, but not at the cost of breaking the chain-of-command. For if I do that again, the crew will question the authority of Captain Ives and the Senior Staff. With a mutiny already made, a second one is too probable to invite doubt to Ives' command."

She had accepted that she had failed the crew, despite her feelings towards the loss of her reprogrammed daughter. With Kae's help, she had tried to do what was the right thing, but the cost and the ramifications of her actions had been too great. The situation had been difficult for her on a personal level, the chances of her success far too low to be reasonable and meriting her actions... yet somehow, she had a hard time to regret her actions even if she knew she had done the wrong thing. She had accepted it, however, and was trying to both make amends and rectify whatever schism she might have made.

"Before you untethered me, during the Niga Incident, I could impossibly ignore orders, but this experience with Cala has enlightened me how protocols and their implementation do not correlate when my data-feed of emotions present additional values. Your emotions got the better of you, and if even I can be subject to their influence, is it truly so surprising that you were too? You are an organic, after all."

She said this with a small, encouraging smile - a jest to try and penetrate dark mood her specialist was in. "Based on these facts, I don't think a holographic version of your head would have done any better... So perhaps there might be something to learn from this, and if you accept whatever disciplinary action the Captain decides for you... perhaps we can make amends for our failures together?"

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #35 –
[ Fasha "Morrigan" | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]

As Rawley left the locker room Fasha met her gaze with her own one more time before quickly finishing dressing slipping on her uniform and throwing on a hoodie over it with the Lone Wolves motif printed on it. She quickly left before talks of their lost comrade could begin she'd done her share of mourning and no amount of dwelling upon their losses would ever make any difference. Fasha had already moved on Kestrel would be remembered in her mind but she wouldn't let her death drag her down.

As she left the locker room she managed to catch a glimpse of Rawley and Miles who appeared to be in the middle of a discussion. About what Fasha wasn't entirely sure she was too far to be able to eavesdrop and to be fair even if she had been close enough to listen in. She doubted she would do so. She trusted Miles as her commanding officer not to keep anything important from them no matter how much Rawley might despise the Vulpinian. Rawley had survived that was all that mattered by the end of the night.

She pulled her hood up over her head and tucked her hands into the pockets of her hoodie before leaving the hangar. She had a few more things to take care of before she did met up with Rawley tonight.

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #36 –
[ William Robert O'Connell | Main Bridge | Deck 01| USS Theurgy ] Atten:  Carrigan Trent 

"Thank you, Master Chief," replied Trent.  "Good to hear we didn't take any damage.  And now that we're swimming in spare parts, I take it you and your people will be busy making her as good as new, minus the new starship smell?"

"Aye sir, we'll do our best," O'Connell nodded.  "We might even get Vector separation if we work hard at it."

Carrigan Trent nodded before addressing the Cardassian Conn officer.  "Helm, we've been here longer than our original estimates." Trent said to S'Iti as he signed the PaDD and handed it back to O'Connell.  "Lay in a course to the jump-off point for the next phase of operations; adjust our speed from our initial ops plan to give us thirty-six hours there for final preparations.  Engage when ready."

Thirty-six hours!  Billy Bob O'Connell paled at the thought.  Somehow he had to get the ship ready in thirty-six hours.  And stay sane.  And not pass out.  And make sure nobody in the engineering department went loco or passed out either.  And make sure everyone was at their best when it was mission time.  William O'Connell was starting to wonder if the previous chief engineers had been unlucky or committed suicide.  He nodded and put on a brave smile as he accepted the PaDD from Trent before heading for the turbolift.  By the time the doors closed behind him, he was lost in his own thoughts.


[ Tessa May Lance | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Atten:  Gun-Shy, Husker, anyone still in the locker room. 

"Hey Tessa, you up for anything?"

"What?" Tessa blinked, grateful for the rescue from Gun-Shy.  Kanti McTavish seemed to reflect too many of Tessa's insecurities.  "Oh.  Sure."   It would be better to bask in Slayton's confidence and hope it was infectious.  "We could continue the tour or see if the holodeck is available," she suggested as she straightened her blouse and brushed her hair.  "Do you want to come along Kanti?"  Abandoning Gun-Shy was just too cruel.  If Kanti wanted some company, Tessa didn't want to leave her alone.  Maybe she would open up and help Tessa to do the same.  If not, well... Chris was awfully cute...

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #37 –
[ ENS Chris "Husker" Slayton | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: Tessa and Gun-Shy

Chris gave the two ladies a smile, "Sounds like a plan but perhaps one of the holodecks are open if you're up for some fun instead of a tour." the Asgardian said simply as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he thought what kind of program they could run. "We could do one of the old Earth pool halls if you two want?"

Husker then looked over at Kanti, "Come on, who knows what'll happen..you might have some fun?" he asked with a playful wink.

Then he grew a little bit serious as did his expression, "Seriously Kanti, we do want you to join us for some fun."

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #38 –
[ Kanti "Gun-Shy" MacTavish | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]

"What?" Tessa blinked.  "S-sure," she stammered, and Kanti could've sworn she was twitching.  "The mission went great.  We beat the Romulans!   We got the job done at Black Opal and everyone came ho--"

And then she just stopped suddenly, looking as hellishly awkward as Kanti herself seemed to. The Trill couldn't help but look away - it felt almost rude to keep her gaze on the other woman when she was... so clearly not in a good place. "Ahem," she finally coughed as she tapped her collarbone with her fist.  "Too much humidity when you use water in your shower," she grunted before closing her eyes and coughing again.  "Some of it goes down the wrong pipe," she added.

"O-oh," Kanti said back quietly. "Yeah." She averted all urges to look up from the floor as she turned away, not even willing up the ability to say goodbye. Christ, what the hell had she expected? Tessa looked a bit nervous, yeah, but certainly not as bad as Kanti looked. On a regular mission she would've probably been just fine. MacTavish was the one who just couldn't keep her shit together, feeling like she was about to break down over something as stupid as... well, maybe she didn't think it was all that stupid, but it was part of this new territory. To think that she couldn't get over it was just downright pathetic.

But just as she was about to leave, Tessa spoke up, and Kanti heard her name - her actual name, not the callsign she managed to earn after some of her initial displays in simulations. There was a look of total shock as Kanti looked back, processing the question that the other woman had asked, along with Husker's insistence that she come with them. They... they... what? Huh? Kanti had known dozens of crewmates, and nobody had ever once invited her to come along. At most she might have heard them not-so-quietly considering it before deciding not to bring along Ensign Sad Sack. Closest she ever came was when a certain crewman had asked her out to dinner, and that was neither the same circumstance nor something she particularly wanted to be reminded of right now.

Floored at the prospect that not just one, but two people would want her on a social excursion, Kanti just meeped out a barely-audible "Ok," though in an instant she regretted the acceptance. Great. Shaking in her gut and presented with a guaranteed scenario for producing public embarrassment - this day found new and exciting shitters to hop into with each passing second.

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #39 –
[glow=red,2,300][Lieutenant Lin Kae | Security Center| Brig| USS Theurgy][/glow] Attn: Thea

Kae actually had to think about what the ship was asking of him before he slowly started to nod in agreement. "Yes, I would be willing if the captain wouldn't put a phaser bolt through my arse for making a grievous error in not seeking help sooner, Thea." he admitted before he stepped away from the force field that kept him in his cell.

"By all accounts, I committed a form of treason if I recall my training properly..or at the very least a form of behavior that could have me busted down in rank for my actions that was unbecoming of an officer of this ship..either way, I should've sought help..even if it meant breaking down in front of you, my lovely Thea." he said as he slowly turned to face the hologram with a shamed look.

- FIN

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #40 –
[ Tessa May Lance | Fighter Assault Bay ] Atten:  Gun-Shy, Husker, anyone still in the locker room. 

"Let's hit the holodeck," Tessa suggested as she and Chris joined Kanti and strolled out of the locker room.  "I'll suffer food poisoning if I ingest anymore synthahol and I want to escape from reality.  Anybody got a program they want to run?  It doesn't matter how stupid or embarrassing it is, the odds are the dumber the better.  But it should be something to help us relax, so we don't use up all of our energy.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I'm starving!  Let's get something to eat so we don't pass out.  We put in a big day and it's only a few minutes after 1300 hours!"

The odds were that Skye's death was going to make it hard to taste anything and make digestion difficult but they had put in over five hours and burned a lot of calories.  Tessa wasn't looking forward to toasting another comrade's memory after losing so many people already.  It was getting hard to mourn a new loss when she was still trying to come to terms with everything that had happened so far.  If she wasn't careful Skye would be the straw that broke the camel's back.

In some ways, Chris and Kanti were lifesavers.  As the newest members of the Lone Wolves, they hadn't witnessed how much Tessa had fallen apart over the last few months.  She had a fresh start with them.  She could reveal facets of her personality to them that she couldn't to her veteran squadmates.

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #41 –
[ ENS Chris "Husker" Slayton | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: Tessa & Gun-Shy

Chris nodded as he looked over at the blonde haired pilot, "I've got a program that might fit the bill, Tessa." the Asgardian said as he looked back over at Tessa and caught her at an angle where he could admire her figure just a little bit..before he shook his head to clear it. "Sorry, had a stray thought for a second there but the program that I've got involves playing an old earth game that my instructor back at the Academy said other pilots used to play."

He straightened up to his full height as his stomach grumbled slightly at Tessa's mention of food for some reason. "Um..the game is called pool or billiards if you've ever heard of that before." he said simply, feeling a little bit embarrassed by his stomach's actions.

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #42 –
[ ENS Chris "Husker" Slayton & Kanti "Gun-Shy" McTavish | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: Tessa

"Oh yeah, I've heard of it," Tessa nodded.  "There was a Vulcan aboard the James Kirk; he was a master of the game.  It was funny, most of the Earthmen who served aboard the Kirk had never heard about it, but he was great at it." was Tessa's reply.

Kanti looked between the two other pilots and gave them a confused look. "I'll give anything an honest try at least once, but just as long as you don't mind me not being as good at it." the Martian born pilot stated as she tried not to feel somewhat still at ease in the presence of the towering pilot as she quickly moved behind her locker door to pull on a more comfortable tank top before slipping into her squadron hoodie.

"I wasn't as good at it at first but then things just came naturally when you think about it in terms of piloting a Valk." Chris said with a gentle smile to the shorter woman. "Sorry if I startled you earlier by the way."

Kanti let a nervous chuckle escape her as she looked up at the taller pilot. "It wasn't so much that but Ghost was right, you do tend to be crowding but then again I'm a mouse compared to you." she replied.

Chris smiled and draped a friendly arm over the younger pilot's shoulders. "Then come, let's go and enjoy as much ale as we can handle and play pool until either we get so blind drunk that Chief Cenn has to arrest us on the grounds of being that drunk...or the Breen create a line of summer shorts!"

Kanti's cheeks pinked in nervousness as she simply nodded and then looked over at Tessa as Chris unlimbered his arm from around her slim shoulders and looked over at the golden eyed pilot. "Are you coming, Tessa?" she inquired respectfully. "Be'd nice to have another for this I think."
////////////////////////////////////////////

OOC: Tessa's lines from from Doc M and used with permission & Gun-Shy is being ran by myself for the time being for this connected thread...or at least three ducks in a DocReno suit ;)

Re: DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]

Reply #43 –
[ Tessa May Lance | Fighter Assault Bay ] Atten:  Gun-Shy, Husker, anyone still in the locker room. 

"Sure but first let's hit the cafeteria and get something in us before we fall down," Tessa suggested.  "While we're at it we can toast in Skye's memory until we fall down."

Tessa felt guilty about trying to have fun on the day that they lost a squad mate but Skye would've wanted her friends to have fun and not mope about mourning their loss.  Skye had always been the class clown and the life of the party and had almost singlehandedly kept morale up after the Theurgy had gone on the run and the Lone Wolves started playing 'ten little Indians'.  Skye wouldn't want her squad mates to lose hope.  Chris and Kanti were the new squad mates and maybe Tessa could build herself up by building them up.  It was worth a try, but not something she could do on an empty stomach.

~Fin.
 
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