Intergalactic Men Of Mystery - Part 2

Posted on Sat Aug 31, 2019 @ 2:26am by Lieutenant Jason Haines & Lieutenant JG Erich Hartmann & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Lieutenant JG Brianthe Oaxaca

1,687 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Promenade - various
Timeline: MD 13, 2000 Hrs

[ON]

Previously...

The Teutonic gentleman leaned in closer to the lady. “You mean this shameful display only escalates? I pray we don’t make it onto FNN.” He said, meaning the Federation News Network, the UFP’s top news station.

Brianthe grinned.

Jason's stomach growled a bit and he said, "I believe there is a table at La Panini's waiting for us."

...Now The Continuation

"Then by all means, let's feed your little monster." Alanna grinned. "I wouldn't want anything to spoil my nefarious plans."

Jason knew she was talking about his stomach, but he turned to Erich and said, "Are you going to let her insult you like that? I mean everyone knows you are a monster, but little? Heck, I saw you scare an Ensign just yesterday. You are what, at least an average sized monster at worst."

“I accept no addendum short of Gargantuan, sir!” Erich retorted.

Jason laughed a little and started to lead them to turbolift at a relaxed pace.

Brianthe rolled her eyes. "I told you they get worse."

Once they were all in the turbo-lift, Jason said, "Promenade, level 4."

There was a beep of compliance and the turbo-lift started its descent and then all of a sudden there was the sound of metal grinding on metal and then the turbo-lift came to a jarring stop. The primary lights failed, and they were bathed in the blue of the emergency lights.

The sudden stop had caused Jason to bump into Alanna. He smiled at her briefly before speaking.

"Sorry to break character, but I think this is where you are up Erich."

Hartmann tapped his chest pocket with his thumb, as one might do to thumb strike a bass guitar. Under said pocket he had tucked his comm badge. It tweeted in response. “COO* to Ops.”

"Ops here, chief. What's up?"

“Turbolift...” Erich looked at the plaque proclaiming the lift’s designation and safety specs. “...14 has stopped without command input; any clue why?” Erich’s terse tone and spartan words made him wince internally; it was the language of the Reserves, to conserve language and be as efficient as possible. He’d have to work on that.

"No clue, chief. We'll send a team right over."

Hartmann was perturbed that his team did not have the answer. It of course was not their fault, but it annoyed him regardless.

"Roger that. Hartmann out."

"Coo?", Jason said quietly with a smirk. "Is he a pigeon?"

Alanna put her head against his shoulder to hide a smile. "Behave."

"What?" He whispered. "Innocent question."

"If Erich is the pigeon, what does that make Brianthe?" she whispered.

"Keeper?" , Jason suggested quietly.

"You need a keeper," she teased, still keeping her voice low enough that only Jason could hear.

Brianthe looked at the two whispering at the other end of the turbolift and rolled her eyes. Personally, she thought they were cute together, but she wasn't going to tell them that. She also didn't want Erich to feel left out, so she went over to stand beside him. "Too bad we can't just transport out of here." She raised an eyebrow. "Or can we?"

“We could, but they prefer to see if they can get the lift moving again, then it’s physically hauling ourselves out via the ladder, THEN they’ll use the ‘Porter. Safest options first and all that. Besides, think of the scandal when the four of us crawl out of here all dirty, sweaty, and exhausted; they’ll say we conducted activities that make Arista look like a nunnery.” The Teutonic Officer replied with levity.

Brianthe chuckled. "No, we mustn't have that." She smiled at Erich. "Then I leave this in your capable hands."

"I'm down with scandal", Jason quipped. "Although dinner sounds better. Do your repair teams deliver take-out Erich?"

“Not unless you order rare coil-spanners and electron decouplers au juis.” His friend quipped back.

"Wow, I have not had electron decouplers au juis since my academy days", Jason replied with an 'mmmm'. "Takes me back. Anyway, any idea of how long we are going to be in here or should we start playing a thousand questions game?"

“No idea.” Hartmann admitted. “But if hurry, we might make it to a million questions.”

"Ok, I'll ask first the first one", Jason said. "Brianthe, which holo-vid would rather watch if you were a kid, 'Rolly Polly Tiger and Her Kitten Friends' or 'Jimmy the Flying Frog?'"

"If those are my only choices, I'll take the tiger," she said. "What about you? What was your favorite childhood vid?" Brianthe asked.

"Well, when I could sneak over to my friend Terry's, we would watch Keylin, Master of the Galaxy", Jason replied. "My mom hated holo-vids, so it was hard to develop any favorites. I was at the mercy of the ones my friends liked."

"I generally did not watch holovids, so I am not familiar with that one," Brianthe said. "What about you, Erich?" she asked.

“Growing up in New Berlin, on Luna, we had German ones as well as standard ones.” He answered. “My favorite was Unser Freund Fred, or ‘Our Friend Fred’, it was about a talking frog who was a farm with other animals. Fred was always the Everyman, the rooster always cooked up schemes, and the old horse was the wise sage.”

"I'm not familiar with that one," Brianthe said.

Jason looked at Alanna and said, "And you Alanna? What did you grow up on?"

"Nature." She grinned. "I spent most of my childhood playing in the woods or reading. I only really watched fairy tales, so all of these are unfamiliar to me. we lived in a small colony until I was a teenager."

"Which one?" Hartmann inquired.

"Catalan Colony," Alanna said. "It's a forest planet in the Catalan system. I was outdoors when I wasn't studying, so I missed a lot of the kid vids."

Jason smiled looking at her. He was impressed with himself as he remembered it as Alanna had told him the first day they had met. Given how much had gone on the past few days, remembering this detail was a significant victory for him.

"So, who has the next question?", he asked.

"I do," Alanna said. "She turned to Jason. If you could do anything you wanted as a career, what would it be?"

"Oh, most likely a beach bum on Risa, giving some scuba and sailing lessons", he said.

Looking at Brianthe he said, "What about you, lady Brianthe?"

"Hmm." She had to consider that for a moment. "I'd have my own place somewhere. A large garden for visitors and tea parties, perhaps. And a place inside for meals and entertainment where I could dance and tell fortunes." She knew what kind of work went into that. "Maybe only tell fortunes on weekends."

She turned to Erich. "And you? What would you be?"

“This is my dream job, for it allows me the pleasure of your company, my dear.” The German said with a dramatic flair.

Brianthe laughed. She doubted the veracity of his comment, but she was charmed by it, nonetheless. "You are a scoundrel, but I like you. Yes. I, too, am glad that I am here."

"I'm afraid to move in here", Jason said. "because that was so smooth, I think the floor is slick now."

He looked to Alanna and said, "Your turn."

"I can't compete with that," she said, shaking her head. "I'm the boring one. If I wasn't doing this, I'd be teaching somewhere and taking students on digs during the summer. But since I did have the choice, I am quite happy to be here now."

At that moment, the turbo-lift lurched and then continued its journey down to the lower promenade deck. Jason extended his hand for the others to get out first.

"I do hope La Panini’s, is ok for everyone", Jason said.

"It sounds perfect," Alanna said. "As long as your boys’ night out can handle some gatecrashers."

"What do you say Mr. Phoenix?", Jason said. "Do you think the agenda has room for an amendment?"

"Didn't we already decide this?" Brianthe asked.

"Don't blame me", Jason said. "It would be rude not to provide your counterpart an answer to her question."

Brianthe slipped her hand into the crook of Erich's arm. "Be a gentleman and take me away from this."

Alanna just laughed.

"See", Jason said to Alanna, taking her hand. "There is harm in asking."

"Sure," she teased.

Hartmann whispered to the lady now joined to him on the arm, “There’s nowhere on this station you couldn’t hear those two cavorting.”

"I believe you're right," she whispered back. "It's positively scandalous." The wicked twinkle in her eye proved she thought nothing of the kind. In truth, she was amused by the other two and thought it was high time they admitted they were in love. At least, it looked like it to her. "So, Mr. Phoenix, care to play chaperone?"

The German returned the twinkle with one of his own. “So long as you are there to soothe my troubled brow when they start reenacting Vulcan Love Slave.”

Brianthe grinned. She liked this man's humor. "Of course. After I throw something at them. Perhaps a cascade of marshmallows?"

Hartmann winced. “No good; they just use them as part of scene 12: The Encounter...uh...not that I’ve seen it.”

Dinner was reasonable. The atmosphere was a little more 'family' oriented than their current approach to the night though. Once they finished and paid, Jason led them to a new dance club that had only recently opened. It was called Live as there were no holodecks, no virtual entertainment, just live music, real drinks, and dancing.

"Shall we?", Jason asked.

...To Be Continued

[OFF]

---
Chuck Finley, Private Eye, a.k.a. Lt.(jg) Jason Haines
Chief Intelligence Officer
DS5

John Phoenix, Spy First Class, AKA LT JG Erich Hartmann
Chief Operations Officer
DS5

Baroness Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Five

Ensign Brianthe Oaxaca
Femme Fatale and Botanist
Deep Space Five

 

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