A Day in the Life

Posted on Tue Jul 23, 2019 @ 12:16am by Civilian Jason Haines & Lieutenant Alanna Wells
Edited on on Mon Aug 5, 2019 @ 11:08pm

3,560 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: DS5 - Various
Timeline: MD 10, throughout the day

ON

Most days, Alanna worked in her office or one of the science labs, but today she had errands all over the station.

On the one hand, she was grateful because she could do them all in the same day and get them out of the way. On the other hand, she was going to do a lot of running around.

So she started early, heading across the promenade to grab a fresh cheese croissant from her favorite bakery.

"Hello, Alanna!" Pierre, the French baker greeted her, coming out from behind his counter. "You are here early, mon frere." He took her hands and kissed her on both cheeks. "How may I help you today?"

"I'm good. Busy day today and I wanted to get some of your fresh croissants," she said.

"But of course!" He led her to the glass counter that faced the promenade. "But first, I have something new for you to try. fond du chocolat." He took a piece and held it up to her lips. "Try this. It is almost as good as making love."

She laughed. "I doubt that, Pierre." She took a bite and smiled. "Okay, that's very good, but still..." She blushed, not sure she wanted to talk about sex with the baker, even if he was a friend.

"So you have a young man?" the baker asked.

Did she? She wished, but he said he wasn't ready for a relationship. "There is a young man I like very much," she admitted.

"Well then, you must give him some of this." He gave her a small fond du chocolat. "It is best shared with a bottle of wine."

"Thank you, my friend, but I insist on paying for it. And for two croissants. And a bottle of wine, just in case." Although she doubted she'd see Jason any time soon.

"Very well. I am a businessman, after all." He led her inside so she could pay for her order and arrange for the bread and wine to be sent to her quarters as she didn't want to carry them around all day and walked out munching on one of her croissants.

====

Jason's day had started in the brig and then a conversation with his superiors at Temporal. It had not been a pleasant discussion. He bit into his breakfast, an apple which was all he had time for, as he hustled to his team's staff meeting, which he was late for. It was then that he caught a glimpse of Alanna. He caught the second kiss on the cheek the guy gave her and then the feeding of the chocolate.

'What the hell?' Jason thought as the two were smiling and laughing as they went into the little shop-mini-restaurant. Jason was rushing too much to notice the guy was the owner.

'What would it matter?', Jason thought to himself. With the standing orders he had from temporal, getting close would be cruel, to her and to him.

Continuing on, his mind still continued to wonder what that was all about until he got to the Intel office. His staff was chit-chatting when he came there.

His second in command said, "Glad you could join us sir."

Jason said, "Sorry", looking a little sheepish.

====

Alanna had an open box full of data rods and PADDs to take up to science. She walked around a corner and ran into someone, knocking the box and spilling the contents. "I'm sorry, she said, setting the box on the ground to pick up everything that spilled.

"It's entirely my fault," a male voice said. "Let me help you."

She looked up at the man she'd bumped into. He was wearing a suit and appeared to be a little older than she was. She smiled. "It was my fault, but I appreciate the help."

"My pleasure. My name's Brendan. Brendan Maxwell. And you are?" he began to stack PADDs into the box as he spoke.

"Alanna Wells." She reached for a data rod that rolled away. "Are you here on business, Mr. Maxwell?"

"I was, but I have some free time, if you'd like to show me around. And please, call me Brendan. I'd love some company for lunch."

She found the last rod and put it back in the box. "Thank you for the kind offer, but I'm too busy today. Lunch for me will be a sandwich from the replicator." She nodded to the box. "I have to get those loaded onto the computer and collated, then I have a dozen other things to do before I'm done for the day." He seemed like a perfectly nice gentleman, but she didn't want to encourage him. Even though Jason said he didn't want a relationship, she couldn't help the way she felt, and that meant she wasn't going to lead someone on for an evening's company. Plus she really was too busy today.

He stood and took the box from her. "I'll be heading out tonight, but I do stop by from time to time. I won't forget you, Alanna. And I will get a yes from you eventually."

She couldn't help laughing at his sheer determination. "I can't promise anything." She fell in step beside him as they walked to the turbolift.

"I didn't ask you to." He smiled down at her. "All I ask is the opportunity to try again." He stopped by the doors to the nearest turbolift. "Where to?"

"I'll take them from here. The lab is across from the lift." There hands brushed as he reluctantly let her take the box. "Maybe next time," she said. "Thank you again."

"Until next time, fair Alanna," he said, bowing to her as the doors closed.

====

Jason had, had, his first session with the counselor that Soran had ordered him to see. It wasn't a very productive session. There were only so many ways he could tell the counselor, "I feel fine. I don't remember dying and I don't remember anything about the day that I supposedly died on."

He knew the counselor didn't believe him. She had pulled out almost everything in her bag of tricks that she had to evidently pull out some long, forgotten memory. He didn't envy her. Until the Commander was satisfied, he would be going back to see her once a week. Like he didn't have enough to do.

He then he had met with the new Chief of Operations. He needed the man's help with an operation and he wanted to say hi anyways. It was always good to meet fellow department heads.

Next on his list of things to do was a joint inspection of cargo by Intel, Security, and Customs. There was a tip that a Ferengi merchant was bringing in baby gizka, a sub-species of tribbles. They bred just as fast as Tribbles, but unlike Tribbles, which were herbivores, the gizka liked meat and carried diseases.

It was then he looked up and saw Alanna and Brendan and their parting. Once again he grew a bit agitated. As Alanna walked away from the turbolift, he almost called out to her. He didn't as he was running behind. Plus, what would it matter? He couldn't give her what she wanted. Not now anyways, perhaps never. Shaking his head slightly, he took the next lift car disappearing into it before she might be able to see him.

====

Alanna was more than half way through her task of copying data rods and PADDs into the main science computer when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Care to take a break and get some coffee?" a male voice asked.

"Sorry, Pete, I'm too busy," she said, not bothering to look at him.

"But, Alanna, you've been at that for two hours now. Even you deserve a break."

His hand was still on her shoulder. She wanted to brush it off, but didn't want him to know that it bothered her. "I'm the boss, and I have to make sure this gets done and sent off before the end of the shift."

Pete's hand squeezed her shoulder. "Let me give you a hand. Then we can both take off early and have a drink."

That was more than Alanna was willing to ignore. She stood up and turned to face him. "No, thank you. I want to finish this myself and I don't want to go for a drink later. Can you please let me get back to my work?"

"You know, all work and no play makes Alanna a dull girl," His smile was flirty to the point of annoying.

"Pete, I'm not interested. Try someone else." She knew he'd asked every other unattached female in the department. When he could, he tried to get them to his quarters. She had no interest in spending any time alone with him, even for a drink in the lounge.

He just smiled. "Dream of me."

That was too much. She gave him a haughty glare. She didn't need someone like him causing trouble in her department. She'd have a talk with the XO about having him transferred off the station.

She sat back at her computer. If he touched her again, she'd have him charged with harassment.

=====

Jason finished the rest of his lunch with Lieutenant Tessaro and then went to the stellar cartography lab. While in the brig he had come up with a theory and wanted to run a few simulations. The arrival of the Andorian rebels and their Vulcan enemies was a concern. If the portal was only able to allow a few individuals through at a time, that was one thing, but if he was right, the portal would be a bit more fluid.

"Computer, lock lab", he said.

Once the computer beeped in compliance, Jason activated the simulator and brought up Pangaea and all the nearby space out to Xi'Cadia. It then took him another half-hour to load all the variables he needed for the simulation.

Over the course of the next hour, he ran his simulation ten times with different settings. Eight times out of the ten, he got the results expected. He would need to run the tests again expanding the variables to confirm things, but he was out of time.

Clearing the system's memory for the next person, he unlocked the lab, only to run into T'gan.

"Hello T'gan", he said barely able to look the woman in the eyes. She was the other half of his dilemma. "How are you today."

"I am well." She glanced at the lab and back at him. "May I enquire as to your reason for using the lab today? As far as I know, intel is not currently involved in any science research."

"I had an idea and wanted to see if my thoughts had any merit", Jason replied, trying to be as nonchalant as possible. "and I have said before, you would be surprised the science research that intel is involved in, even when you aren't aware of it."

She raised an eyebrow. "Might I be of assistance? Perhaps I could help you refine your thoughts."

"Well", he said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "I will need your help, eventually. I am not ready to present the idea yet, because I thought of a few more variables I need to add to my theory and my lab time is up. Once I do, I will come see you for sure."

T'gan wasn't so sure, but she nodded. "Very well."

Alanna had finished her work and was waiting for the computer to finish compiling the data. She decided to have a chat with T'gan about the portal site and headed down to the lab.

She was surprised to find Jason talking to the Vulcan. "Hi," she said, coming up to the two.

"Uhh, hi Alanna", Jason stammered. "Sorry, but I have to go. I have a meeting in ten minutes and need to run. I've already pissed enough people off lately and I don't need another senior officer mad at me. At this rate, I'll make Ensign again before I am 25. Thanks for the offer of help T'gan. I'll let you know when my theory is complete."

He smiled at them both and said, "Talk to you ladies later."

With that, he left looking like a dog that had made a mess on the floor.

He was definitely up to something. Alanna caught guilt, anxiety, worry... She watched him go, confused and worried herself. She turned to T'gan. "What was that about?"

"He was testing a theory," the Vulcan said.

"A theory, huh?" She needed to know what he was up to and the best way to find out was to have a look at what he was doing in the lab.

She walked into the lab and checked the computer. He'd erased his session. She looked at T'gan. "What do you know about this?'

"He asked me about the portal site a few days ago," she said. "He was interested in how the portals worked."

Alanna nodded. She went over to the computer and entered her command codes. "Let's see if it was backed up before he deleted it." As a precaution, Alanna had everything in the science labs backed up to portable databases with their own generators. That was in case of an attack or a power outage. Mostly to preserve ongoing experiments, but today it would hopefully show them what Jason was doing.

The backup was only partially successful, but she did have something.

She turned to T'gan. "From now on, let me know if Jason asks you any questions. If this involves our work with the portal site, we need to know. But only you and I. No one else is to know about this. Not unless it's necessary."

There were enough questions in the Vulcan's mind that she readily agreed. "In the name of science."

"Of course. This is research and it's classified." Then she pulled up the backed-up session and began to play it.

What they had showed them that Jason was doing temporal equations that revolve around the position of the portal structure in relation to the opening created and its size.

"We need more information," she said to T'gan. She sent a copy of what they had of Jason's session to her personal computer, made sure it was locked in both her computer and the backup files under her personal access, and then deleted it from the computer memory. "I don't know what's going on, but it seems to involve Pangaea and the portals, so it involves us. I haven't spent enough time with the shuttle. I think I'll start tonight. See what you can find about the temporal formulae he was using."

T'gan nodded. "This may turn out to be nothing."

"I hope so, but my instincts tell me otherwise." She wished Jason would talk to her about this, but she knew he wouldn't, and she couldn't tell him that she knew. She ran a hand through her hair. She was not much of a spy, but she was an excellent researcher, and this had now become her pet project. "Later. Right now, do whatever you were going to do in the lab. I'll touch base with you in a day or two."

T'gan nodded. When Alanna was gone, she began to look at solar flares over the past century to see if they had any impact on Pangaea and the station.

=====

Jason hadn't lied to Alanna about the meeting. Almost as if it were punishment, the meeting was the longest and most boring meeting he had ever been involved in. It was the weekly intel sector command meeting via sub-space. In reality, an electronic message could have covered 99.9 percent of the items.

He groaned as he left his office. As he did he ran into Petty Officer Tezak, the Tellarite who had first challenged him when he took over. Jason had called the man's bluff and since then, they had been working well together.

"You look tired Lieutenant", Tezak said.

"I am", Jason said. "It has been a busy day."

"Well, you aren't going to get less busy", Tezak replied. "I've been monitoring the Xi'Cadia situation. It has been pretty much propaganda on the home front, but recently there was one message that slipped out onto their public net. All it said was, 'Resist'.

"Lovely", Jason replied. "Just what we need, a potential civil war in the back yard. Ok, thanks. Keep an eye on that. I will try and get in touch with Captain Montoya."

He looked at the chronometer, it was 1600 hours. It seemed like the day had started ages ago.

"I'm clocking out for now", Jason said.

The Tellarite snorted with a nod as Jason left for the Promenade.

====

Alanna was finally done for the day, but before she went to the alien shuttle to play around, she needed to buy a few things.

She wanted to pick up some dessert. She was tired and she was worried about Jason. She was also worried about the portals and their recent activity. What frustrated her most was that everyone seemed to think she didn't need to be kept in the loop about the recent visitors, whatever Jason was doing with temporal intel, or even activity on Pangaea proper.

She was lost in thought and not payng attention to where she was going. Until she bumped into someone. "Sorry," she said, looking up to see Jason.

Jason had been mindlessly meandering about the Promenade. He blushed a bit when he saw it was Alanna.

"My fault", he said with a faint smile. "Trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up."

He ran his fingers through his hair and said, "I was thinking maybe a road-runner."

He was lying. She didn't know why, but he was definitely lying to her. "Or a coyote." That suited him better. A Wile E. Coyote.

He let out a 'pfft and said, "Nah, a P-sychiatrist."

He was surprised she got the reference as so few did.

"The coyote needed a better arms dealer."

He chuckled nervously.

"Only ACME delivered," she said. She wanted to ask him what was going on, what was making him so nervous, but she had a feeling he wouldn't tell her, that he would lie again. Still, she had to try. "What's going on?"

"Yeah, but you know they had to be run by Ferengi", Jason replied. "Shoddy product, no warranty, obviously no customer complaint process, but at least, as you said, they did deliver, promptly. And when you say what is going on, what do you mean? Are you referring to any thing in particular or just in general?"

She looked at him intently. "You know what I mean." Her own worry kept her from getting more than the loudest emotions from him, and they didn't reassure her any. He was uncomfortable about running into her. Was he regretting the other night? Was there another woman and he didn't want to tell her?

"It's work and it's complicated", he replied with a shrug. There was truth in the statement, but it was very vague and Jason seemed to become a bit detached from the moment. There was something more there, but it was hard to tell what.

She looked in his eyes, some of the hurt she was feeling clearly evident. "I'm sorry to keep you from your work." She stepped back so he could continue on his way.

"You aren't", he replied, not missing the hurt in her eyes. Perhaps it would be better if she distanced herself from him. "But, you asked what was going on and I have a lot to think about given orders I have and how I am going to make it all happen."

He paused and then said, "Look, I like you and you can do what you want, but you might want to think twice about hitching your wagon to my train. I know that right now I can't be what you want me to be and I don't know if I ever can be. More than likely you will get hurt."

There was a seriousness about him that went way beyond a 'It's not you, it's me speech.' It bordered on something dark.

She looked at him intently for a long minute. "At this point, I'm in too deep not to get hurt, whether I walk away now or later." He'd never made her any promises, but there'd been something there, under the surface, that gave her hope. "We don't get to choose who we fall in love with." She couldn't stick around and hear more about why she wasn't good enough for him, so she turned and walked away.

Jason couldn’t go after her, not after that. He felt like a complete jackass. After watching her walk away, he went and sat down. How did this all come about this fast? Jason closed his eyes and slowly shook his head. He heard his mom’s Irish accented voice as he did.

'I’ve certainly not raised you to act this dumb pup. Did you find more of your father’s stupid pills?’


[OFF]

Lt.(jg) Jason Haines
Chief Intelligence Officer
Deep Space 5

Lieutenant JG Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Five

 

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