Oops--My Bad

Posted on Tue Mar 29th, 2016 @ 1:26am by Lieutenant Commander Daniel Divaro & Lieutenant JG Kesiane Lisos

1,258 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Pathways
Location: Various Locations
Timeline: Current

It had been a long and tiring flight from Vulcan, but the shuttle carrying Lieutenant Kesiane Lisos had finally docked with the USS Hyperion and began unloading. Eager to get to her quarters for some much needed meditation, the agitated Betazoid/Vulcan set out at a brisk pace down the corridor to find her quarters, her duster variant duty jacket swishing hypnotically around her feet as she walked.

As Daniel walked down the corridor, his mind was definitely not on what he was doing. Rather, it was on what he had done--specifically the meeting in the arboretum between him and Lieutenant Val the night before. 'Damn...' he thought to himself, "...she was one absolutely hot woman,' He was so preoccupied in fact that he almost didn't see the petite woman walking in the opposite direction until he was right up on her. Quickly sidestepping to avoid a collision with her, he walked on past her, a bit irritated that she had interrupted his thoughts of Elan.

'Why don't you watch where you're going?' he thought to himself.

Kes' travel companion had been a chatty one, which had left her little to no time to meditate on the trip to Earth, so her patience was stretched to a tenuously thin thread. All she wanted was an hour, maybe two, to shower and meditated before reporting in to the Captain, was that so much to ask? But no, not even 5 minutes on the ship and already she was getting mentally heckled, causing her last thread of patience to snap.

"Do you mind?!" Kes blurted out as she turned on her heels to face the crass Engineer who had, in her opinion, completely ruined her day.

"Do I mind WHAT, Lieutenant?" he asked, unaware that his thought had been read by her. "Is something wrong?"

"You being you!" Kes retorted as if that was all the explanation that she needed. "You know what you did, I shouldn't have to tell you! Egotistical ass, telling me I should watch where I'm going when you were the one who nearly ran into me? I mean really!" She threw her hands up into the air, causing her balance to go a little off kilter; she staggered a step, but seemed other wise fine as she glared at DiVaro.

'Oh hell...' he thought. 'She can read my mind.' "I see..." he said after a moment, realizing that she had been able to read his thought. "And was my thought about you any more invasive to your privacy than your reading my thought was to mine?" he asked.

"I don't like hearing your thoughts anymore that you like them being heard," Kes replied with a pout. "It's not like I can help it, so get over yourself. Anyway, your thought was so loud and assertive, I thought it had actually been spoken aloud, and in such a rapid exchange how am I to know the difference?" Kes countered, turning to continue her trek down the corridor. She staggered once more, causing her long, loose braid to fall off her shoulder and swish behind her as she found her stride.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, Lieutenant..." he said. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

"Yes, help me find my quarters," she said as she looked around once more. "I know I'm on the right deck, but I think I'm a bit turned around. It is also possible that the specifications I studied on my way here may have included an error."

"Starfleet? Make an error? Perish the thought..." he grinned at her to show he was not being serious. "So where are you supposed to be?"

"Deck 3 Section 4A, if this is correct," Kes replied, looking at a small PaDD she pulled out of her pocket.

"Well you're on the right deck," he said. "And I think section 4A is just down this corridor. Oh, and by the way--I'm Commander Divaro, the Chief Engineer."

"Lieutenant Kesiane Lisos," Kes replied as she looked at her PaDD once more. "Okay, I already went down that way, but the rooms weren't labeled the same as what I've got here. This has to be an error! Where is room 4275?" She felt fit to strangle whoever published this schematic!

"It should be right around here somewhere," he said. "Unless they've numbered the quarters wrong."

"Should be and are are not proving to be consistent," Kesiane insisted as she approached a wall panel computer access, lighting the screen up to check the ships's database against the schematic. "Ha, I was right!" she said with a little grin. "Look here, the room arrangements are slightly different and the Arboretum is on the other side of the saucer!" She found her room, logged the error in the schematics, and then shut off the wall terminal. "I need to go down two more corridors," she said, then resumed walking.

An error like that should have been noticed during construction. As an engineer Daniel knew it and damned if he wouldn't file a report on it. "Wonder what other screw-ups those knuckleheads at Bureau of Ships Starfleet made?" he muttered to himself. To her he asked "Have all your personal effects been removed from the shuttle or do you need me to get someone on that?"

"The shuttle manager said he was working on it," Kes replied as she continued to look over the schematics as she walked. "And I don't think it was a screw up, well not really... It's the modular design, I think, the way walls are able to be moved to adapt the living quarters to suit the needs of the crew; I think some changes were made and they probably forgot to update the layout in the file."

"You could be right," he admitted. "But you would think they would at least have let the engineering department know."

"True, but there aren't any critical systems on this level and the layout in the ship's computer is correct... Once I've reported in with the Captain, I'll help you log the inconsistencies and double check that what's listed in the ship's computer is accurate," Kes offered as they neared her quarters. "Thank you for helping me find my room, by the way."

"You're quite welcome--and I'm infinitely sorry about our near-collision." he said. "By the way, what department are you assigned to?"

"Oh, sorry, Operations," Kes answered, pausing to stand in front of her door for a moment. "And I am sorry for snapping at you; it has been a long week and I really can't control what I pick up on. I was born telepathically aware and without the mental filters to close my mind to outside thoughts and you happened to catch me on a very bad day. I will do my utmost to ensure that further outbursts do not occur."

"You were well within your rights to react as you did," he said. "I should have been paying better attention to where I was going. And with that, if you need nothing else, I have to get back to overseeing the repairs on the science lab."

"Thank you Commander," Kes said with a slight nod, then unlocked her quarters. "I will see you around," she offered with a slight smile, then entered her quarters.

"Well if you need me you know where I'll be..." he said as he turned to walk away.

OFF:

LtCommander Daniel Divaro
Chief Engineer
USS Hyperion

Lieutenant (jg) Kesiane Lisos
Chief of Operations
USS Hyperion

 

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