Sneaking Poorly
Posted on Sun Sep 10th, 2023 @ 6:24am by Alika Mahone & Lieutenant Alan Harrison
1,218 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Pressure
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 01 - After the Meeting
The sight of a Mahone in engineering was not abnormal; not only did Kikua work within the confines of the area, but Luka made a habit of appearing when he knew his brother was supposed to be off shift. Despite any goofy habits the younger Mahone had, Kikua was just as hard a worker as his brother and was prone to forgetting the time, or to eat.
But this Mahone was an outlier. Dressed in an old, run-down version of engineering gold came Alika Mahone, wandering through the halls as if it was no big thing. She had made a point of not announcing her presence, on the off-chance that she was going to cause a hubbub. She had already resigned herself to being found out, but was surprised to find that no one seemed to notice the sight of her and her run down enlisted garb.
Maybe it was true; no one paid attention if you were low enough rank.
She was not cocky enough to think this would last forever. Instead, she covertly made her way to one of the various terminals, one she could access without sending a security flare. Suspicious as her activities might have been, she was on a mission. Luka did not play pestering big brother last night, or this morning, and Kikua was oddly mum about the whereabouts on their brother. Like he was hiding something. So, instead of sitting on her hands, she decided to find the one place she could sneak into and find at least something out. Little did she know that her time was running rather thin...
Alan stormed into engineering, preoccupied with the task at hand: finding Captain Mahone. He needed to scan those sensor logs for any trace of the Captain and he needed to do it yesterday. He ran straight to a terminal and began plodding away. Without turning his eyes from the display, he asked "Crewman, could you bring me a PaDD?"
It took Alika a beat before she realized it was she that whoever this was was talking to. She made a face, before rolling back in the chair to snag a PaDD from one of the various workstations about. "Here ya go, Sir," she stated, handing the device over, careful not to meet Alan's eye. Considering how many faces probably entered and exited, she assumed she would have gone practically unnoticed. Guess she wasn't that lucky.
Alan nodded in thanks and started tapping away at the PaDD. He began working on the sensor override request, which hopefully the Colonel would approve without delay. Without skipping a beat, he asked Alika, "This may sound like a strange question, but you haven't seen anything unusual around the colony lately, have you? Apart from the usual rowdiness in the entertainment district, of course."
"The wha?" Alika narrowed her eyes at the console. "Oh yeah, nah. After the bubbly bubblies, I think everything's been a little hunky dory." She paused, before adding a curt, "Sir." As she did, the console in front of her flashed with the message 'Access Denied.' She looked over at Alan momentarily, before shifting the message and working herself on another screen. " 'Less you count the uptick of Romulans I've seen in Free State-like garb. I think it's Free State. Haven't been able to keep up with current events."
Alan thought the response was a little odd, but figured he'd probably just caught the junior crewmember off guard with the question. "I see, thank you, crewman," he replied, "Say, I don't think we've been introduced. You must be one of the new arrivals, Crewman...?" he asked for a name.
While she did not freeze, Alika could feel the tension in her shoulders rising. Oh shit she thought, before tilting her head back toward Alan with a homely pleasant smile. "Crewman Aisha Macchi," she stated proudly. "The paperwork's been wild, having a hard time with the transfer. My quarters aren't even set up yet. Had to room with one of the other guys here. I arrived early and ready t'work, but with all the shuffle I got a whole week to kinda look 'round."
"Well, let me know if your quarters issue doesn't get resolved today and I'll pull some strings. A functioning Starfleet base can't have its engineering staff falling asleep on the job," Alan replied and then gloomily muttered, "especially not right now..." He prodded at a few more buttons on the PaDD to continue the search of the logs.
"Yeah the whole base is in a hubbub," Alika commented offhandedly, giving a frown at the screen in front of her. "What's going on? I feel like I missed a memo."
Alan gave Alika a knowing glance, "I wish I could say, but I've been ordered to keep the situation at hand hush-hush for the time being. I'm sure it won't be long before it's public knowledge though - but not before the rumor mill declares that there's a Borg assimilation fleet on its way at Warp 9 or something like that. However, what I can say is that we've got the situation under control as best we can and that there is no known danger to the colony." He glanced at his PaDD to check on the status of the search - still going.
An amused snort came out of Alika's mouth, before she shook her head. "I don't think the Borg are gonna be a problem out here, not with all these defenses." She pointed upward. "You'd think with all that we've got, we were guarding some best kept secret. But the only secret I've found so far is how many eateries we've got going on. Didn't know there was a poke bar here until I had my bro take me down there. Rumor mill isn't that bad is it?"
"You have a brother here?" asked Alan, "Starfleet?"
"Uhhhhhhh..." Mentally cursing herself, Alika cracked a wry smile. "Yeah! He uh... works here somewheres. Didn't tell me what though, he's humble as hell. Maybe too humble."
"Must be Intelligence then," Alan replied, "They tend to not like releasing any info about themselves." He laughed, not turning from the search proceeding on his terminal.
"Oh maybe. I'll ah - give him an ask when I see him later." She glanced over, narrowing her eyes at Alan. He seemed so engrossed in whatever he was doing that she felt like she could just slip away... "Well Sir, I'll let you get to it. I had someone tell me they would train me on the ground side reactor differences. Only working on ships is gonna make this kind of a learning curve."
"Thank you, Crewman," Alan quickly glanced a goodbye before returning to his work, "Let me know if that quarters issue isn't resolved soon." What an unusual individual... Alan thought, although most who ended up here seemed to have a quirk or two. He noticed the logs were about half processed - at least the chat had helped to pass the time and make him briefly forget his worries about Luka. That crewman did look at awful lot like the Captain... he thought again before realizing his mind was probably just looking for the Luka's face in every crowd.
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