Travel Time

Posted on Thu Jun 29th, 2017 @ 3:07pm by Captain Tim Williams & Counselor Melony Taylor

Episode: Conference on Berengaria
Location: Federation Scout Ship - En-route to Berengaria

"Did you know that apparently you're supposed to pronounce Berengaria as bear-fen-Gar-ee-ah?" Tim asked, his feet up on the console as he flicked through data on a PADD. "I mean, who comes up with these words that don't sound anything like they way they're spelt?"

Tim and Melony were both sat in the cockpit of the ship that they had borrowed for their trip to the conference on Berengaria. Given that Tim wanted to spend as little time away from the Highlander as possible, he had called in a favour and borrowed a Federation Scout Ship for the trip - larger than a runabout, the ship had a more powerful warp drive and was capable of higher speeds than most small craft were. The ship was currently flying on auto-pilot at high warp towards their destination.

"You know I gave you that PADD, I was also the one who wrote out a few key things for you on it." she said already begining to regret bribing him with Dragons just to get him to leave the ship, and he'd been sneaky enough to get a faster ship, now he'd actually have to go find some Dragons to keep him away.

"There's also a few things on some of the lectures you have to attend. Starfleet Command instructed me to set a dragon on you if you don't go to them," she added.

Tim grumbled at that. "I still don't see why Starfleet makes us go to these conferences every few years. I mean what could have changed in the field of personnel management skills since the last one I went to? People are still just people, and I've been working with them almost as long as I've been working with machines."

"Yeah because we never figure anything new out, just like engines never change I mean ships still fly for as long as I've been on them anyway." She paused; sarcasm was clear in every word. "Look don't mess with my field and I won't mess with yours, there probably isn't anything new for you but you've not been to one in four years. I don't know how you dogged it for so long." She finished quickly.

"My usual tactic is to try and annoy whichever attaché is trying to get me to sign up for one of these conferences until they give up."

"Anyway enough about the conference. I'm curious as to what got you so hooked to engineering that dragons almost didn't pull you away. So care to enlighten me?" She asked, genuine curiosity in her question. 

"Well engineering was about the only fun class in school for me," Tim answered, putting the PADD to the side on one of the consoles. "And after we started studying twentieth and twenty-first century motor vehicles and I could get into a holodeck and get my hands in to start working on the engines, I was hooked. You know, before I joined Starfleet I actually used to work in a local garage; fixing up small shuttles and ground vehicles and the like."

Melony smirked "So it just boils down to pure curiosity on how things work then really," she said almost absentmindedly "That's kind of the reason I'm so hooked to psychology; I like figuring out how people work, and I know all the biology stuff thanks to my mum so looking at why we all act differently even with similar brain structures was too interesting to pass up."

She paused as an evil idea came into in her head to try and unnerve the Captain. "Besides cutting up peoples brains just to figure it out wasn't really allowed," she said looking at Tim to gauge his reaction.

"You know, I had wondered why the maintenance crews on deck fifteen kept on reporting people going missing. I figured Chef just kept on trying to poison them," Tim replied, unfazed. A thought flew across his head however, and he look over at her in mock suspicion. "Wait... this trip isn't just a ruse so you can cut into my head, is it? Because I can tell you now, there's not much up there aside from technical manuals and bad jokes."

Melony was delighted to have Tim playing in to her little joke. "Well you got me Captain, there is no conference or dragons I just want to cut out your brain, because you know I'm sure you have a few prank ideas up there too," she shot back, rummaging through a kit bag and pulling out a laser tool. "Hold still now," she said trying to hold back her laughter taking a step towards him.