I Know

Posted on Wed Oct 27th, 2021 @ 12:59am by Ensign Noah Balsam & Lieutenant Irynya
Edited on on Fri Nov 5th, 2021 @ 11:05pm

Mission: The Place of Skulls
Location: Main Bridge
Timeline: Mission Day 26 at 1915

[USS Sojourner]
[Main Bridge]
[1900 Hours, 4 days before arriving at The Place of the Skull]

"Iry?" Noah's voice was small, aimed toward his almost rise-less chest. "I mean..." He looked behind him. The sound of silence was cut with Bridge noise: a rhythmic triple chime and a lovely warp hum. Yet from his position on the starboard side of the lower Bridge, whispering was hard. Noah Balsam had been tapped to give the Operations Management crew some relief after days of short resources, repairs and exhausted personnel. Operations Management was, by no stretch of the imagination, a comfortable position for him. His orders had been simple: don't blow anything up. Sit there, "for insurance purposes." When a request comes in from a department, defer to the requesting department head, or else a Line Officer on the Bridge.

So far three requests had come in- access to the subspace array by the Yeoman Pool, which apparently was an hourly request that was almost never ignored. Noah sweated through the second: both Stellar Cartography and Stellar Dynamics wanted access to the lateral array as the Sojourner was finally within long-range sensors of the Betreka Nebula. Both requesters were of equal rank. Noah had had to call on the officer of the watch for a decision. The winner was Stellar Dynamics.

The third request was a resources transfer from the Botany Lab, which had suffered sample failures from the damage caused by the asteroid drones. It was a last-ditch effort to save samples by planting them in the small Arboretum. It was deemed reasonable.

So it was ironic, on some level, to Noah. He was sitting in a seat- albeit one he really had little knowledge, comfort, or power over- regarding resources and what he'd heard that morning. The strangeness led to Noah using some of his programming skills to see if it had any validity- and it did. And his heart sunk when it did. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

He wasn't sure who to go to. The ship's counselor? Doctor t'Nai? His superior? Irynya herself? He'd waffled all morning to the point of distraction when the first beep for resource request had finally startled him into a decision. He'd spent the rest of the shift trying to get up the nerve to say something.

The console before him beeped- Noah's brown eyes swept the bow of the console and honed in on the cause. It was a listening post requesting a transponder identifier code. "Lieutenant," Noah said more loudly. "I-I have a listening post wanting our codes? Do I just, um, s-send it?"

Irynya looked up from the helm controls, eyes darting across to Noah then quickly back to her own console. She tapped a quick course adjustment into the space, adjusting for optimal movement at warp. It was an easy shift, truth be told. Monitor their course, adjust when appropriate. The rest of the time she had been running drills on her console in an attempt to not study Noah where he was seated next to her on the bridge. "Is it one of ours?" she asked.

The stick bug-like cadet shook his head, "N-no it's a Klingon signal. They-they just sent a second challenge."

She nodded, eyes shooting back over to him again quickly and scanning his face. "Send them. It's just for keeping track of who is passing through the area. I doubt anyone is actually looking at it and it's more likely to raise alarm bells if we don't."

Noah nodded. His eyes dropped. His fingers fell over the Ops controls and swept over them. But, with bite bitten, the controls squawked at him and his concentration turned into a furrowed brow. "Oh come... juh-just send the transponder code..." he sighed. "Retrieve transponder from the navigation and identifier kernel..." his console beeped, "Route through broadband... send." The console beeped- and squawked again.

"I think I need help Lieutenant," Noah said.

Iry frowned and stood, coming over to stand behind Noah. Carefully she leaned over his shoulder, brushing her ponytail back down her back when it fell forward, getting in the way. Quick fingers reached around, tapping his console.

"Try now," she said, "You were using an expired code. You need to renew the transponder code in the nav kernel before sending or it'll yell at you. Should work now."

Noah blushed with a nibble. "Oh..." he said. His fingers moved. He shifted the new series of symbols over to the transceiver and pushed it as the listening post sent its most urgent, squawking call yet. "Iry... can I-I ask you one more thing?" He asked softly enough that it stayed between them. "I-I mean Lieutenant... sorry."

She hadn't stood back up yet, opting to stay on his level while he adjusted and pushed the update out. She had been just about to stand before he spoke, feeling awkwardly aware of their proximity and realizing that he was unaware of any of the things going through her head. She fought back the urge to create distance, though, at his question, picking up something in his voice that gave her pause. "Go ahead Midshipman," she said, eyes not leaving his console as though she was still studying something there.

Noah almost lost his nerve. It was faltering. He swallowed in his pale throat near Iry's face. His fingers shifted to monitor the exchange of transponders. "W-why... um..." He sat back into the chair- which was more comfortable than the chairs in the computer core. He folded his fingers in his lap. "W-why are you using the Enlisted showers..." His dark eyes searched his friend's- and then he lost his nerve and they dropped to a single amber key on his assigned console.

The pilot's expression fell, uncertainty and panic warring across her features. She was still, eyes glued to Noah's console as if it was the most important thing in the world. Questions ran through her head. How did he know? Had she slipped up somehow? Did someone report her? If so to whom? Dr. t'Nai? And how, if someone had, did Noah know? Had he reported her unusual behavior? Her chest started to get tight as panic started to win the war of questions.

"Noah," she said, her voice coming out strangled, "I... I can't talk about this here."

"I just need to know you're OK..." Noah impulsively blurted. He recovered himself. He was, after all, speaking to a person of vastly superior rank, on duty, on the Bridge. He'd chosen a poor moment. His chin tucked. "Y-yes Ma'am. Later, I understand." His shaky hands reviewed his controls.

The panic was still in control, she could feel lit like it might crawl up her throat, but Noah's reaction was enough to ground her, at least for a moment, as a shot of guilt ran through her. She reached her hand back over him, then as if she were pointing something out on his console, and quickly set her hand on his, squeezing lightly before making up an excuse to move it elsewhere. It was odd enough to be touching him, but she didn't feel like words were going to be reassuring enough. She wasn't even sure words would matter. She couldn't, in that moment, tell him she was ok and that knowledge gave fuel to her panic. Working hard to get her expression under control she finally spoke up. "See me after your shift and we can discuss that information. Ok Midshipman?" she said, her voice quavering, but hopefully clear enough that no one would notice.

Not waiting for his reply she returned to her station, tightening the fingers of her left hand around her thumb and digging the fingernail into her palm--a last-ditch effort to disrupt the spiral. It didn't work. Rapid fingers tapped at her console, bringing up the time and a small countdown to the end of her shift. 43 minutes and 17 seconds. She blew out a long unsteady breath. She just needed to make it through 43 more minutes.

Noah looked on as the Lieutenant brushed away and back to her post. He singularly focused on his console for the next forty-three minutes.

A backpost by:

Lieutenant Junior Grade Irynya
Acting Chief Flight Controller

Midshipman Noah Balsam
Systems Specialist