Opening Up The Unknown Part 1.

Posted on Wed Jan 3rd, 2018 @ 5:47am by Lieutenant Selina Fenruse (*)

Mission: Mission 5 - Liberation
Location: Deck 8
Timeline: MD -05 09:00
2205 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

ON::

“So you are telling me that this bulkhead...” Selina smacked the wall a few times for good measure to prove her point about how the corridor just stops. “Has been here since this tin can was a medical evacuation vessel and no one thought before now to open it up not even the freaky guy with that collection? You guys are brave.” The Blonde was staring at the Chief Engineer and Science Officers with a visible amount of uncertainty about the plan to open up the area for the labs that they hoped still remained somewhere in this area. She had heard last time they had opened up an area of the ship and what had happened to the crew.

Braden shrugged without commitment "Not sure what bravery has to do with this, I am just doing what Rueben ordered done. I was told when coming aboard not to venture into unused parts of the ship so I did not. Rueben was pretty clear about his orders. I guess now that he has a fortune he is more willing to open up the ship to use it's real capacity?" Braden had no idea what the Captain's thoughts were, but he had said to do this so Braden was here. "I suggest we drill a hole so we can check the air for toxins and atmospheric pressure before making a bigger hole? What do you Engineers think?"

"From what I heard through the scuttlebutt the money has always been there. I just think Reuben has decided to keep the ship and you lot actually. You know making the best of a bad situation. " Selina looked at the Scientist before looked at the Cardassian and smiled sweetly, she could handle bitter men. "Not my first rodeo partner." She assured politely, her inner Chief Engineer and politician coming out as she looked him up and now. She shook her head and pulled down her welding mask to cover up her smirk.

Braden shook his head with a smirky grin. Well obviously the artifacts had always been there? The Captain had bragged enough about how clever he was in keeping them hidden. Braden was not sure why everyone on this ship had an attitude but he attributed it to the Captain's own personality. Leadership qualities tended to affect the entire crew. Plus Braden understood X-Fleet engineers, they were normally loyal to whoever was in command. It was no secret Braden did not think much of command here, so her attitude fit. He put his rebreather on as if the air was toxic he did not want to rely on medical to save him.

"You know Starfleet I am not bound by there rules anymore." She said having heard his thoughts like they were her own. It was her defence on this ship as she didn't know who to trust and who not to. "If you knew Reuben like I know him you would be a lot more respectful and less...less... I don't know what you are being but it isn't very nice." She had heard people talking about him and how he was to be avoided.

Braden shrugged "I don't care about his past anymore then I do my own. I have my reasons for not having much respect for him. I do speak in a respectful manner, mostly because he is the captain. So tell me something? You a vegetarian? I got along okay with Draia, we worked together on the garden and she liked steak. You see about once a week I get a grill out in the cargo bay near engineering. After my workout, I cook and well Draia had just started to join me before she left the ship." Braden laughed as he watched the air quality, seems anytime I start making a friend here they ship out? Maybe you should not get too friendly around me. That is unless you want to leave this 'fine' ship." It was easy for Selina to feel the deep-seated anger in Braden, it was just part of who he was. His neutral and normally quiet demeanor was a cover. It was easy to see why he countered any perceived aggression, verbal or physical. He sort of smiled when he glanced up at her, he wondered if she knew he thought she was very pretty?

Selina didn't start anything as she started to gamma weld a hole into the bulkhead. The baggy boiler suit hung off her slim frame as she moved to create a bigger hole to let the man have his way of checking air quality. "Um... not overly vegetarian but I don't eat a lot of meat." Even after years and years of growing up on earth and then ten years in Starfleet, she didn't eat much meat like most Betazoids. She shook her head at him, her blonde hair flying around escaping the braid she wore it in. "Look sarcasm about anything doesn't suit you," Selina said honestly raising her welding mask to look at him.

"The air is safe." Braden felt there was no good answer to her statement. She was entitled to her opinion and there was no way He was going to change. He began to remove the breathing mask. "So you are the Chief Engineer now. I imagine your past with the Captain puts you in good stead with him."

"No, I am not your Chief Engineer.” She didn’t want the role. "I am covering the Alpha watch but I ain't Chief...Gregnol just wants someone who isn't Jeassaho in the role." She could see why Reuben chose her over Jeassaho, the crew couldn't say he was playing favourites.

Braden laughed "as if anyone cared? Jeassaho might not like me for whatever reason but she was as good as anyone else? "Whatever his problems with Jeassaho are appearances are not likely high on the list?" He kicked the chunk out of his way he was cutting free and stepped through the hole. "So what do you want called non-chief chief engineer? Or should I just say 'hey you, Blonde?"

Selina laughed a little. "By the Deities, you are so far out of the scuttlebutt. He and Jeassaho are married at least by my culture not by human standards." The blonde laughed. "I answer to blondie but you might want to say it in a nicer tone or I will throw something in your direction and blame hormones. I've heard it is a justified reason for violence." She said simply thinking she could happily throw things at several people on the ship. Selina followed through the hole and sighed as the sharp edge caught her boiler suit.

Braden shrugged "I guess they are divorced or whatever then because scuttlebutt has her shacking up with some women in the crew?" Braden shook his head "I have heard women use hormones as an excuse for most erratic behavior." He moved into the area and began checking his tricorder for anything dangerous, radiation leaks or some sort of spore that might be still in here. "So Blondie are you married? Did you expect the baby, is it planned by chance? Lets talk about you, might as well unload some of that hostility on me." He glanced back smiling "not like I have a lot of buddies to share your deep dark secrets with anyway." His expression became serious though, "anyway, I do not tell tales and your secrets are safe with me. You might even feel better if you tell someone? I am safe to tell and I have nothing to gain either way. We are stuck here together and it might help kill some time?"

“Reuben was declared missing in action five years ago. I knew him when he had been brought to the Victory temporarily as the Security Chief until he became the XO.” Selina said knowing all about Jeassaho and Amelia, she had walked in on them in bed. Wasn’t the first time she had interrupted Kea but normally the other person was the big Russian who she knew she adored. “I think the human ceremony was a few days after Gregnol disappeared. Betazoid’s are different. We don’t see it as cheating, we don’t loose any love for our partner. I think it helps relationships it just isn’t for me… i…” Selina shrugged before she looked down at her ripped sleeve and rolled it up to her elbow.

“I am not married.” She admitted thinking about Tae more and more, she hoped the message had been gotten to him that she was safe and sound from where Intelligence had just scoped her up from Vacation. “You will appreciate how this all happened being a science man. This baby is the result of my mandatory contraception being unavailable when my ship got catapulted into an alternative future.” She said with a shrug, he was right he didn’t have anyone to tell and she needed someone’s view on the events that had happened on Earth dystopian future.

Braden decided not to ask, she would likely just throw something at him. He had to wonder how come the ship replicators ceased to work and how long she was gone. Then again accidents happened even in the far flung future.
"So your ship went into an alternate verse, I have heard of that of course. Never experienced anything of the sort myself. Want to talk about this alternate future? Was it similar to our verse?"

"They abandoned ship. We escaped in pods to dystopian earth." She said with a shrug. She couldn't say a lot about the circumstances of what had happened in the future to that alternative earth to make it so destulate. The woman slowly walked along the corridor holding her flashlight above as she thought about stuff.

Selina didn't say anything as she moved away from the group, she was angry and angry her wasn't a good idea around Nexx. She worried she might tackle him to the floor for just breathing right then and there while several Engineers had been killed in the fight to try and stop the Warp Core breeching. She rolled her shoulder a few times trying to get the feeling to return from twisting in her seat the whole descent trying to see the ship, trying to see if it had exploded but she couldn't see any sudden flash of light which was a good sign but who knew it might still be ongoing. She wanted to kick something but she wasn't going to show the outburst until she was by herself.

She ran a sleeve across her forehead not at all surprised at the blood and grime that appeared on her sleeve. For a moment she was relieved that she had worn the boiler suit instead of the uniform that morning to disconnect the cloaking device & jump drive, it would not only be warmer but it had allowed her more pockets than usual.

"So you were stranded in an alternate verse. What sort of place was it? Those type of cultures were varied but they all suppressed freedoms, punished some group of people as less then human, seemed to treat women in general as second class citizens, and mostly forbid technology. "The way back must be quite a story? Is that what you wanted to talk about?"

"It was the end of the universe." She said softly with a small shrug of her shoulders. It was quite a story, she could still smell the atmosphere from that Earth, a place that she had adopted her after her own home was destroyed. She closed her eyes as she tried to not get sucked into the nightmare that had been that place. "Estimates at 23 January 2564 placed the death toll at 2.79 trillion." She could hear the computer repeat over and over sometimes in her head. She knew thanks to the ship coming back had stopped that future coming to fruition, it didn't stop her being sad over the what ifs.

"I have been to places like that, felt like they were so far out there was no way back. I guess if I tried I could count how many civilizations have grown, flourished, and then ceased to exist. The Ionians come to mind readily. Still so many forgotten races, long dead with only their relics to offer clues to how they lived." Braden was checking rooms as he spoke almost absently. He figured if she wanted to tell him anything she would, for now she seemed lost in her own mind once more. "I guess it might be pretty horrible to live through those times though. I talked to a mar.. a man once who witnessed the destruction of a planet. Billions of lives ended in one moment. He was affected by the tragedy even years later. I have never witnessed the demise myself, just the ruins left behind." Some of this area looked like it could be restored without much trouble, other areas though would need a complete rebuild. "Lots of work in here for both Operations and Engineering I think?"

TBC:

Selina Fenruse
Engineer
SS Mary Rose

Braden MacCloud
Chief Science
SS Mary Rose