Lt. Larry Rongside "Settling in"
Lieutenant Rongside
JMC Blue Dwarf, Science offices
Space date 31/8/2100
0900 hours
Larry made one final revolution in his chair at his irritatingly slow and
lifeless rate before coming to a halt to look as his desk. Perhaps there
was more to this job. Was he supposed to be doing something? He had spent
his entire working time twirling in this chair and gathering a great many
things to flush out the airlock. Is this the life of a chief science
officer? Who cares?! It's working out fine!
The door flies open to reveal the energetic Ensign Cauty. Great, just what
Larry needed before his hundred and twentieth spin for the morning. Cauty
looked extra lively and motivated on this particular morning, it was a
conscious effort for her to control her breathing and her eyes seemed to
dart about quickly. She was in what looked like jogging attire and beads of
sweat were formed on her brow. Larry sat quietly and waited.
"Lieutenant," Marlene chirped before gulping air, "I was out for my morning
run and I thought I would check in for information on any new developments
or points of research I may have missed in my time off- before my shift
actually starts."
Larry's mind convulsed, sputtered, and finally came to a rest. What,
exactly, was this girl's problem? Not only was she interested in the
happenings in this science department, she went out of her way to find out
what was going on.
"And what's with this running thing?" Larry asked aloud before realizing
that his mouth was projecting his thoughts. He looked around the room to
see if anyone heard it- luckily the desk lamp didn't have ears and the
filing cabinet was pre-occupied so Marlene was the only recipient of his
words.
"It's a great form of exercise," Marlene answered, slightly stunned by
Larry's question. She gave him a sideways glance, "You know, you look as if
you could benefit from a little exercise yourself."
Not since his days at the academy had Larry been threatened with physical
exertion. The thought scared him. "I exercise..." Larry stated, beginning
to twirl in his chair once more. "You see?"
Marlene rolled her eyes.
"How is your latest assignment going?" Larry asked, his face almost showing
a hint of concern and caring.
"My assignment, getting you a coffee maker," Marlene stated, a strong edge
of disgust in her voice, "has been thus far unsuccessful."
Larry leaned over his desk and looked to the bottom of his empty mug. "I've
noticed."
"Sir," Marlene said, "If you don't mind me saying, I feel that this assigned
task is far below my qualification and does not fit with my duties as
assistant science officer of this ship."
Rongside shrugged. "You're assisting the chief science officer, aren't
you?"
Marlene huffed with contempt. "I'll speak with engineering again.
Lieutenant Smegg still hasn't answered any of my messages."
Larry smiled blankly at the thought of coffee as Ensign Cauty left his
office. The nearby computer console screen flashed with note of an incoming
message. Larry looked at the monitor for a moment, sighed heavily, and
finally decided that dismissing this would not be worth his time because the
messages would eventually pile up and the whole ordeal would snowball into a
catastrophic event involving the computer being flushed from an airlock. Or
perhaps ignoring this message was best after all...
The message was something about Phil FeBuggure, a new crewman, wanting to
meet with the chief science officer. Larry began to forget the message
until he remembered that he is the chief science officer. He instead
replied to the message with a simple "OK" in the message body. That should
do it.
Perhaps meeting some of this crew wouldn't be a bad idea. After all, once
Larry's belongings were free-floating in the vacuum of space, he would have
to turn to the belongings of others for airlock flushing fun.
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