Searching the Stars

Posted on Fri Jul 15th, 2022 @ 3:51pm by Caeda & Endia
Edited on on Wed Aug 9th, 2023 @ 10:02pm

Mission: Adventures of the ISS Terror
Location: Stellar Cartography
Timeline: Date 2371-5-20 at 1000
1535 words - 3.1 OF Standard Post Measure

The Stellar Cartography lab aboard the ISS Terror was a busy place as the science teams most closely oriented toward scanning the stars for answers to all of their questions were hard at work under the direction of their chief, Lieutenant JG Jen Mei. The woman sighed, standing by a console near the side of the room. She was far away from Terra and her homeland of China. She was far away from her fathers power, influence, and help. She would have to survive like the rest of them.

He hated the waiting game. He hated the feeling of floating in nothingness just waiting for something, anything to happen. Good or bad. There was a restlessness that had started to permeate the ship. They were seventy years from home. Seventy years from their families - seventy years from the safety and power of the Empire. People were either handling it the best they could, or not at all. For Markus Belikov though, it was the feeling useless that was eating away at him. He and his people needed something to do. With this in mind, he had decided to take a walk down to stellar cartography just to see how they were progressing on that very goal. He stepped through the doors and looked around, moving to keep out of the way but attempting to quietly glean information from the consoles inside without making a fuss.

Since the room was relatively busy, Mei didn't notice the new arrival as she typically would. She was generally quite observant and took note of little things; small details. Her father said those were the keys to real power. Mei wasn't sure she wanted power, real or otherwise.

"We need to make use of the additional power while we still can." she said, her voice gentle but carrying over the sounds and beepings of consoles and the dull practical chatter of the blue-uniformed people in her charge. "Status of those sub-sectors."

"Seems Subsectors 1-7 are completed and 8 and 9 are still in progress. Six ships have been pinged as being potential cargo-haulers." said an enlisted man, handing Mei a PADD.

"Well, it's a good thing this is a high-commerce area." she responded simply, leaning against a bulkhead and taking a look at the data. When Mei was going through puberty, the girls in her boarding school had started to make fun of her for her rather plump shape. It had spurred her out of he intellectual pursuits and into the gym. Now, with a slim waist, a fit build, and a shapely body, she felt like she was in the wrong body. When she was done, she handed the device back to the man and seemed, in that moment, to get completely lost in her thoughts.

Belikov had continued to stand there quietly, listening and watching and quietly musing to himself had he been an intruder, all of these people would be very dead thanks to how engrossed they were in their work. One of these things was not like the others. Though that was his job to worry about in the end, not theirs. When she seemed free, Markus finally walked over toward the striking lieutenant in charge of the gaggle. "Lieutenant Jen?" He called to her quietly. His voice was smooth as silk and his presence was powerful, but not oppressive.

"Hmm?" she asked absently, being shaken out of her deep thought. Her dark eyes focused on the Chief of Security then and lingered before she spoke again. "Oh, Lieutenant Belikov. How may I help you?"

She stood up straight, removing her back from the wall and looking at him straight on; confident, though she didn't feel it.

Markus simply smiled an easy smile, giving the woman her space while his eyes remained respectfully on hers. "I don't mean to intrude. I am just a bit restless so thought I might come down here to check on your progress locating potential vessels to raid." His eyes searched hers and he continued to stand in an easy way, trying not to betray any of the restlessness he was feeling about the current situation.

"There are several solid candidates." she answered, her face a mask for her feelings. Like many of her people, she wasn't particularly expressive, and that was often a benefit for her in the fleet since she was quite sensitive. She waved for the Lieutenant to follow her and walked over to the half dome that made up the astro-metrics display. Together, they traversed the long catwalk that led out to a circular platform in the center of the domed space. With her fingers on the console, her eyes scanned the 3D rendering of the sector surrounding us, several points along its black expanse dotted with blurry ship icons and registry numbers issued by the computer. "Pick a dot, any dot, Lieutenant. There's no telling what we might find, but I suppose we must start somewhere, isn't that right?"

He had followed her without protest, making sure to give her a respectful distance. As she brought up the display, he stepped away from her and began to walk around it while she spoke. Markus was happy to hear that there were a number of ships to choose from; in fact most of the crew would be happy as well. They needed this. They needed to feel Terran again. He leaned in and poked at one of the random dots not too far from their position. “This one.”

Mei’s eyes moved toward the ship he had indicated. With a motion of her fingers, she cued it up on her list and the computer responded by moving the entire field in that direction. The image was quite grainy and it was far from a clear picture pulled together from several different kinds of sensor data.

“From what we can tell, the hull configuration is akin to a freighter. It’s large, likely being 3 or four decks. Clearly the people it’s from take their trade very seriously.”

“It would seem that way, yes.” Markus leaned in and smiled at the grainy image. Righting himself, he moved back over to Jen and stood close to her but not oppressively so. “What do you think? Does it seem like a good choice or do you see anything that might be better?”

She checked the console again, cycling through the other options. After a few seconds, she shook her head.

"I don't see anything in here with any more promise. If you want my opinion, I think we would do well to start with this one and hit hard...show them what the Empire is all about. After that, we should let a portion of the crew depart with the freighter." she cleared her throat, leaning her head back a bit. "To establish a reputation."

“I think that’s an excellent idea. I’d make sure you include it in your report to the Admiral.” He said with a charming smile on his handsome face. It was something he probably could have taken and pitched for himself, but Markus seemed to not be inclined toward doing such a thing. “Great work, Lieutenant. Care to get some lunch?”

"Do I want to? Me?" she asked, looking confused underneath her typical stoical expression. Of course she had been asked out before, but seldom was it by a fellow officer. Her stomach jumped up into her throat. Though, perhaps she was overreacting. After all, he might just be hungry. "As in you and me going for lunch?"

She was not showing her substantial intelligence.

“Yes.” Markus replied, a bit of amusement in his eyes and he had to wonder if she was reading into this. “Just lunch. I thought you might be hungry after all this work you’ve been doing and might want some different company than those you’d usually be around.”

Inside her chest, her heart was pounding even harder now than before; more from embarrassment and awkwardness than anything else. He was handsome and seemed quite welcoming, but she found herself shaking her head before she could put her mind together.

"We're very busy down here, Lieutenant. I can't leave." she said, her voice wooden and stoical, more like a Vulcan than a Terran. As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt sour, but she didn't know what to do.

“That’s fine.” Markus replied and gave an easy smile. He obviously wasn’t put off or angered by the rejection. “If you change your mind let me know, otherwise maybe some other time. I won’t keep you from your work anymore and look forward to your official report. Thank you for indulging my curiosity.”

"Of course. You're welcome down here whenever you want...need..." she paused, blinking several times, her face even more neutral then before. She was going to be single forever; she could feel her mother shaking her head from across the galaxy. "Goodbye."

Markus couldn’t help but chuckle softly and shake his head. “I’ll see you around, Lieutenant. Don’t be a stranger.” With that, he turned and left the room to go find something else to occupy his time.

OFF