New Faces, New Friends

Posted on Thu Mar 4th, 2010 @ 7:44am by Commander Earlond & Ensign Velia Moretti

Mission: Episode 1.2 - "A House Divided"
Location: Main Shuttlebay
Timeline: MD01, 1100

Since Velia's appetite hadn't surfaced by lunch, it seemed like as good a time as any to do some exploring around parts of the ship that she'd not normally visit in her daily duties. Her first stop was the shuttle bay; while she wasn't a huge fan of the smaller flying machines, it was always interesting to meet pilots. They made Velia feel just a little bit better about her own attitude.

"Can I help you?" came a voice from behind Velia.

Velia turned to get a good look at the owner of the voice. He looked ... well, average. "Not necessarily," she replied. "I was just doing some exploring."

"Aren't we all?" the man asked. "I'm Lieutenant Drake Lexon, shuttle pilot." He held out a hand.

"Ensign Moretti," Velia took his hand and gave it a firm shake. "Shuttle bay is a little less lively than I imagined it would be."

Drake shrugged. "It's usually more lively," he said. "But we just finished our maintenance checks, and most of them are on lunch break."

"Are you new to the Pandora?" In the past the pilots Velia had encountered were kind of jerks, in her opinion. This man didn't seem to be cut out of the same cloth.

"Somewhat," Drake said with a frown. "Why are we cutting cloth?"

"What?" Velia didn't think she'd been talking aloud. Wonderful. She took a good hard look at Drake's eyes. Not black. "If you're not a Betazoid, what are you?"

"What?" Drake asked distractedly.

"What. Are. You." Velia narrowed her eyes at him. "It's rude to read people's minds uninvited."

"I'm human?" Drake suggested. "Don't worry, though. If I see a Betazoid, I'll pass the tip on."

'Well aren't you helpful' Velia thought with a sneer. "So you are new to the Pandora then?"

"I always try to be as helpful as possible," Drake agreed with a smile.

"Well you're failing miserably." Velia frowned, her forehead forming an indentation between her eyebrows. "Do you have something against answering questions you're actually asked?"

Drake frowned. "What do you mean?" he aked.

She spoke slowly now, enunciating clearly so he could read her lips. "When. Did. You. Join. The. Pandora?"

"Oh, I just came on recently," Drake said easily. "What about you?"

"I transferred over from the Tethys with a lot of the crew." Velia didn't hear any sounds that anyone else had arrived back from lunch and she was debating on whether to stay or continue on her exploration.

"If you're staying, I could show you around," Drake offered.

Just the idea of following this strange little man around made Velia feel exhausted. There was an upside for learning about the Pandora though, so she complied. "Okay."

"What's the upside?" Drake wondered as he started across the flight deck.

"It's good to know where things are." At this point Velia was no longer interested in making small talk. She disliked mind readers and he could say what he wanted, Drake Lexon was most definitely not human.

"Well, this is obviously the Main Shuttlebay," Drake said. "Here we've got all the active shuttles, though we do keep some in storage elsewhere."

It had never occured to Velia that they make keep spare shuttles elsewhere. "Where else?"

"There's an area above here we use to store shuttles we aren't currently using," Drake replied. "That way, the main flight deck won't get cluttered."

Interesting. "How many?"

"Shuttles?" Drake asked. "Well, we have six standard shuttles, along with a Delta Flyer Runabout and the AeroWing Runabout. But the AeroWing isn't stored here."

"I see," Velia tucked the information away in the back of her mind. One never knew when it would be useful. "So what else do you flyboys have around here?"

"Not much, I'm afraid," Drake said, looking slightly disappointed. "I would have brought my fighter, but there wasn't room. These shuttles are a bit slow for me."

"So where'd you have to leave it? Your fighter, I mean." Her earlier irritation with him was slowly ebbing away. She'd had less pleasant encounters since she'd been aboard the Pandora.

"Probably locked up," Drake said automatically. "I mean that as a joke, obviously," he added quickly. "It's back at Starbase 386, I believe."

Velia raised an eyebrow at his quick follow up. "You don't seem like the joking type," she told him honestly.

"I can joke," protested Drake. "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

"You can't be serious." Velia shook her head. "To get to the other side."

"Oh, is that why?" Drake said, looking genuinely surprised. "I never knew that...."

"Then why were you asking?" Velia eyed him warily. Drake was just getting stranger by the minute. Maybe it was about time to wrap things up here. Shuttle bay smelled kind of funny anyway.

"What smell?" Drake sniffed. "Oh, that. That's just the shuttles. You get used to it after a while."

Okay that was enough. "Mr. Lexon. Thanks for the," thankfully short, "tour." Velia considered him a moment before turning to leave. "You really should get some help with that intrusive thought collecting you do. Not everyone will appreciate it."

"Intrusive?" Drake said. "What do you mean? I'm not trying to intrude..."

Velia waved her hand in the air and kept walking toward the exit. She didn't really care if he was trying or not, she was uncomfortable with it. He'd be one of the few people she would actually suggest going to see the counselor to.

"Hmm...the counselor," Drake muttered to himself. That might not be a bad idea. Turning, he headed for the opposite exit. Hopefully, he could catch the counselor when she wasn't busy.

END


A Post By

Lieutenant Drake (NPC)
Shuttle/Runabout Pilot, USS Pandora
(Played by Commander Earlond)

and

Ensign Velia Moretti
Intelligence Officer, USS Pandora