Find and Seek

Posted on Sun Mar 23rd, 2014 @ 1:44pm by Captain Tim Williams & Ensign Leon Kingson

Episode: Orphans
Location: USS Highlander - Various
Timeline: MD05 0935hrs

[USS Highlander, Bridge.]


Leon had said good bye to Lieutenant Hawke a few minuets before, and began his search for the captain. It was not going as planned. The captain was not in the ready room, and no one on the bridge had seen him yet. It was still early, and the captain was probably having a lie in, so he decided to wait. He would come eventually.

But after a few minuets Leon had an idea. The captain was an engineer at heart. What if he had gone down to engineering to inspect the works there, or even to do bit of early morning maintenance? It was the sort of thing an engineer would do, and he had red that the captain was an promoter of 'improvements'. The ship was still in dry-dock, so anything the captain would normally be expecting would likely have been undone.

He made his way to the turbolift and spoke clearly into the audio input.
"Deck Ten: Main Engineering." The turbo lift shuddered as it went down.

[USS Highlander, Captain's Quarters]

Pulling his uniform jacket over his shoulders, Tim stared out past his faint reflection to the landscape of Cestus III expanding out from beneath his - and the ship's - feet. The horizon was obscured by the earthworks which surrounded the shipyards, but even with that, and the signs of yard machines and workers flitting about, it was a pleasant view. Even so, it made Tim feel as though he was on vacation - the true view that he should be getting out of this window was of stars, with perhaps a nebula, planet or distant sun at the edge of his vision as the ship orbited. Hopefully such a view wasn't going to be too much farther off.

Zipping his jacket shut, the captain grabbed his combadge and headed out of his quarters, ready to start the day.

[USS Highlander, Main Engineering]

To Leon's disappointment, there was no sign of the captain down in engineering. The crew there were very helpful pointing out where he may be.
"Try the warp core."
"Maybe astrometrics? If we're moving out soon, he'd probably like to get an idea of where we're going?"
"Could be sleeping still? I know that's what I'd like to be doing."
"If he's not up on the bridge, you check with med bay."
"Holo deck?"
"What this early? Nah, He'd be in his ready room for sure!"

"Okay, thanks, I'll have a look round there then..." An exasperated Leon quietly departed from the still arguing group of engineers. You know, if he is busy, then I'll have breakfast first. Having taken the early morning shuttle, he had not the chance to eat breakfast; eating soon after waking up had never agreed with him. By now, he was positively famished.

[USS Highlander, Corridors, Deck 2 Section 4]

Strolling through the corridors of his ship, Tim nodded at the few personnel he saw heading in the opposite direction. "Ensign. Lieutenant. Crewman." If he had of known the people he was passing, he'd have used their names. Unfortunately, there were so many new faces aboard - almost all of them were, in fact - that it wasn't even a case of not being able to remember their names; he simply didn't know them. Once again, he vowed to himself that he was going to work on remedying that situation.

[USS Highlander, Some where on the ship...

At this point Leon was was really feeling hopeless. Not only could he not find the captain, but e couldn't find himself. He thought he was heading back to the Bridge, but the corridors though otherwise.
"Computer, where am I?"
"Ensign Kingson is currently on-board the USS Highlander."
"Okay. Good start, 'Where'?"
"Ensign Kingson is currently on-board the USS Highlander."
"Specify?"
"Deck eight, section three."
"Okay, and where is the closest turbo lift?"
"Deck Eight, section one."
Leon sighed.

"Great, that's-" He spotted a lone crewman walking the in the opposite direction, and immediately broke off from the computers conversation.
"Oh, hey! Hi, I'm Ensign Kingson. I just transferred here. Listen, could you help me? I've got no idea which way to go, and I'm starving. Could you tell me how to get to the mess hall?"

[USS Highlander, Mess Hall]

At the time that Tim entered the mess hall, most of the day shift crew were already working at their assigned tasks. Tim usually joined them in waking much earlier in the morning, but felt no need whilst the ship was on the surface, and procedures in general were more relaxed. Even so, there were a few from bravo shift eating their breakfasts, and there were a few from the gamma shift finishing off their own days before turning in for some sleep.

The mess had long ago been converted to remove the wall of replicators and instead replace them with a small kitchen. Whilst the Corps of Engineers had returned the room back to its original state, Tim hadn't reclaimed his captain's mess (he had never been one for eating separated from his crew), but he hadn't taken the time to restore the kitchen yet. It would be a simple enough change to make when he did decide to do it, but until they had someone to actually cook the ship's meals, it made more sense to keep the replicator units.

"Hmm... I think... pancakes and syrup, and an Earth coffee... white and sweet." The replicator started churning to materialise his order even as he finished his sentence, producing a large plate and a Starfleet emblazoned mug with his breakfast.

Leon walked onto the Mess Hall, and immediately went over to one of the replicators. "Oh thank God...Earth tea, strong but white, not decaf. Toasted, bacon sandwich, vegetarian with fried egg. Oh and butter. And a glass of orange juice. " The food materialised in front of him. He rubbed his hands together, and gathered up his breakfast.

He looked around and saw another officer currently eating pancakes. He made his way over and smiled. "Hello, do you mind if I sit here?" He motioned to the seat opposite, oblivious that the person he was looking at was the very man he was searching for. "Ensign Kingson."

"Go ahead," the captain said, indicating the seat across from him. "Tim Williams," he answered to introduce himself.

"Ah. Hello sir. Actually, I was looking for you." He looked guiltily as his half eaten breakfast. "Well, I was looking for you, but then I realised you might be busy. So I took the liberty of resolving problem number two. Hunger. It seems to have worked it's self out though doesn't it?"

He reached out to give the captain the PADD containing his transfer orders.

"Ah, I'm guessing your my new ops officer then?" Tim asked, taking the PADD but setting it aside to check later. He knew that Starfleet had assigned him an ensign for the post, though it wasn't until now that he was able to recall the name. "Leon, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's me. Ensign Leon Kingson, at your service. I'll probably begin working this afternoon, after everything is on board. Any special requests you'd like me to do before I begin regular work?"

Tim shook his head as he finished chewing his fork-full of pancake. "Just get yourself settled in," he said once he had swallowed. "There'll be plenty of time to get into the flow of things around here. Take it easy." Tim knew and could - just about - remember how eager he was on his first assignment, and saw a lot of the same energy emanating from this guy. The ensign who tracks the captain down at breakfast and asks for extra work in the same sentence as reporting in.

"Will do Sir." He paused.

"It will be good good to serve under you sir. My friend Steven Troyle, had you for some of his engineering classes, back at the academy. I was assigned to a separate class I'm afraid, he mentioned your hands on approach to learning and constant cheerful attitude. I'm sure it's going to be an interesting experience working with you. "

"Ah, Troyle," Tim said, instantly remembering the laid back student who had been in his class during one of the two years he had been forced to teach while the Highlander was being practically reconstructed. "From what I remember, he was very fond of explosions. Except for when he had a hangover."

"Yup. That just about sums him up. 'Never drink and blast' was his motto. I'll need to give him a call in a few days. Let him know how things are settling in here. Check up with him and few others too...

"Well...Hopefully all my stuff has been brought aboard by now. I'll see about moving all my things around, and take a look at some 'important systems'. Set up a few holosims, and give this bird a proper look around. Oh and I'll check out the Head Ops office. I've never had an Office before." Leon stood up respectfully, having finished his breakfast, and made to move away. He turned back to the captain.

"Sir." He nodded respectfully. "I'll see you on the bridge."

"See you on the bridge, Leon," Tim agreed.