An Old Friend

Posted on Wed Feb 10th, 2010 @ 2:31am by Zander Whyte

Mission: Episode 1.1 - "Now Boarding"
Location: Orient Express Lounge
Timeline: MD03 0840

[ON]

Zander wandered quietly over to the man who stood by the podium at the front of the room. He had not seen his colleague for almost a year now but he knew for a fact that Christophe knew he was in the room. He nodded to the assembled senior officers who were no doubt having a conversation that would make Zander's ears burn with the promise of potential stories. He was beginning to get quite irritated at the other man's presence. Fair enough, he had very little interest in covering a story that was primarily just 'A ship was relaunched. Woo.' but despite that he was unhappy that the FNS had despatched another reporter to cover it.

"Christophe," Zander said quietly to the man, "Zander Whyte. I don't suppose you'll remember me."

"Ahh, Mister Whyte! Of course I remember you; you're one of the hack journalists that I passed over to get the Elyshan assignment. Just shows you that the cream always rises to the top."

Zander began to seethe as he stood looking into the preposterously self-satisfied face of a man who was not only half the journalist he was, but also doubly irritating to all and sundry.

"I suppose it must help being the son of an FNS Commissioning Editor though, eh?" Whyte sniped back.

"I had no help from my father, Whyte. Face it, I got the Elyshan assignment because I'm not only a better journalist than you but I know how to play the game." Christophe looked back at Zander with a level of derision usually reserved for finding a piece of animal excrement on one's footwear.

Zander had his rival exactly where he wanted him. He had read stories of Christophe's exploits on the Elyshan border when assigned to one of the long-range scout craft that the Federation were so fond of sending into their territory. Allegedly he had been so terrified during a skirmish that instead of trying to document the battle for the FNS, he had spent the entire fight hiding under a table in his quarters. Not only that but all of his reports from the frontline had been found to have been based on the opinion of one Operations officer on the ship to which he had been assigned. One, Brian Florence.

He was disgraced as a serious frontline journalist and had been sent back to Earth to be reassigned to more mundane duties such as this one. Of course, that was not the official FNS line. His father's influence had meant that the official story read of courage and heroism behind enemy lines and that he had been reassigned in order to protect him from being captured by the Elyshan government and forced to give up the "secrets" he knew.

Zander was lucky to have the inside line on him and be a couple of steps ahead in what was fast escalating into a cock-fight over who was the superior journalist. Eventually he turned to his rival and spoke in a quiet and measured tone. "You're quite correct, Christophe. I'm a joke compared to you. No-one can match the heroism you showed in reporting from those scout craft from behind enemy lines."

"Thank you, Zander. I knew you weren't all bad. It was a hard experience but I'm better for it. The information I managed to gather could bring down the Elyshan Empire for good. It's little wonder I was reassigned to a safer role."

"Oh, quite definitely." Zander replied, watching Christophe pack his equipment into a small flight case, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "How is Ensign Florence these days anyway?"

Christophe wheeled round and glared at him, his eyes seemingly ablaze with fury. "How... but... you... I have no idea what you're talking about, Mister Whyte."

With that, the in-joke of the Federation News Service turned and stormed out of the room with barely a nod to any of the senior officers who had allowed him in to film the proceedings.

Zander was approached by one of the Lounge's staff who had been watching the exhange with interest. "Is everything all right, sir?"

"Absolutely fine," Whyte replied, "It's all in the little victories, after all."

[OFF]

Mister Zander Whyte
Federation News Service Correspondent
Assignment: USS Pandora [NCC-83739]