Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in XO Office - Sign my leave and don’t ask questions

Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in XO Office - Sign my leave and don’t ask questions

Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in XO Office - Sign my leave and don’t ask questions
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Lauren heard the familiar beep sound at 0400 hours. Unlike most on the Atlantis, she was not asleep. Lauren preferred the graveyard shift because it gave her time to pursue her side interests. The day shift had too many people stumbling into Sickbay giving her little to no time to do her thing. Reaching into her desk, Lauren pulled out her personal PaDD. It was a gift from Lt. Commander Jessica Teller and full of goodies that kept her under the radar. Aedan Teller had two sides and the non-OMAP CEO allowed her to do what she needed to do.

Lauren picked up a stylus as she clicked open the message.

Encrypted Transmission: Priority Alpha
Origin: [REDACTED]
Destination: Shan.Lauren@OMAPindustriesmedicaldivision

Stellar Coordinates: Sector 9.4472, Vector -3.118, Grid Ref: XZ-77.114.4
Celestial Marker: Fourth planet of the Ilythos Binary, designated Erevos-IV.
Approach Path: Align trajectory with pulsar beacon at RA 17h 33m, Dec -34° 15’.

Clandestine Addendum (cipher-layer key: Wright-09):
“Trust no transmission unless it bears his seal. When the constellations fracture into three, follow the silence—not the light.”

End of Transmission
Signal auto-purge in 12.3 seconds.

Lauren jotted down the information and read it again memorizing the important facts. The message was obscure enough no one would understand it but encrypted enough that it would appear odd if tagged. This was why it would be auto-purged. It gave her plausible deniability if discovered. Checking her watch, Lauren stood up and walked into the main area of sickbay. “I gotta run to the bridge. Comm me if anything comes up,” she said. Nothing was going to come up. Sick bay was dead and the few patients in it were being monitored by the nursing staff.

Jen was an early riser. This morning he actually took the advice of the doctor to not put too much strain on his knee. That meant he couldn’t do his corridor run with the backpack full of sand.. That said, that was likely how he caused his knee issue in the first place; he was not going to be outdone by recruits even if half his age and more. So, instead of being out running on the chosen random deck he had made his way to the bridge instead. Relieving the duty officer early he had sat and brooded. Getting older was not a desired state today. He was, thus, cranky.

Entering the turbo, Lauren brought up the senior staff roster. Seeing the XO on the bridge only made this easier. Taking the turbo to the bridge, the doors opened to exactly what she expected. The green command staff logging in hours when things were as dead as Sickbay. Jen was sitting in the command seat and Lauren walked up without a second thought. “Sir can I have a moment,” she requested. With everyone in bed, the ready room was empty and a perfect place to get the signature she needed.

Lauren Shan doctor.

The lift doors swished open. It was a single person exiting. He knew that from the sensory receptors from his antennae but didn’t turn about. He tried to take in the ‘music’ of the bridge. It was rather different from most of his career with weapons fire and detonations happening around him. His reverie was interrupted by .. his head turned. A doctor. Oh gods, did they put a transceiver in him in his last visit and he was getting checked up on for moving around too much too early? A slightly suspicious look crossed his features before he cleared it to a neutral mask. “Yes, doctor. Is there a problem?” He rose to face her, possibly anticipating going somewhere. There weren’t many physician visits to the bridge this early. She could have commed up if there was an issue. Was it the Captain?
- Jen, XO

Lauren watched him rise briefly distracted from her purpose for the visit. He had come in with a knee question. Marines and security rarely if ever called something a problem. It was a nuisance, a question, or if it was really bothering them the classic “just a part of the job.” Jen however was an old dog that knew a lot of old tricks. The way he rose was smooth with only a possible imperceptible shift of his weight to the more dominant leg to take stress or maybe it was her imagination. Command staff were the last ones into sickbay ever for pretty much anything. Still one did not pip off to the Dean before they were asking someone for extra credit. “No but I need you to sign this,” she presented the PaDD to him with the section that needed his signature enlarged enough to get his attention but not so large it was obvious that she was looking for him to sign the document. The majority of the document was filled out: Her name, the dates, but no location. “Unless you don’t sign it and then it is a problem,” she let out a small chuckle.

Lauren was a classic beauty but what was more attention getting was her wit and approach to life. She called things as she saw them and was a problem solver. Back on the Chimera she had earned the nickname the gassy doctor. This was not due to flatulence but her unique decision to flood a room with anestintine gas to take out a man holding a room of children hostage. While it had neutralized the man, it also knocked out all the kids. The CO of the was furious she did not wait for the counselors to try and talk the man down first but Lauren stood her ground stating that a few bumps and bruises were preferable to the alternative if the man detonated the bombs attached to room. This is what had brought Lauren to the Atlantis several years ago.

Lauren Shan doctor

Jen raised his brows and with it his antennae did a little skip of their own. Taking the PaDD he scanned it. Dates were within reason, certainly for her typical escapades. Unusual though was that she always went alone. After a time on board a ship which was like its own little town relationships developed and cliques and mutual interests were discovered and solo shore leaves evolved to pairs to even larger theme trips. Lauren was an enigma on this. Ever was she solo and rarely was she going to the same places. Some Jen was familiar with which might raise a brow or two in the group sharing of ‘what did you do on your last shore leave?’ Other places he wasn’t familiar with at all. Some he was. Some he looked up after out of curiosity and the term seedy would have been complimentary for it. She was cheeky, and in a marine’s mind, in more ways than one, and would have engendered a ‘what’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this’ line that is as old as the first bar.

“You missed a spot,” he said in a dry tone and glance that said with mild amusement that he didn’t think for a moment she ‘missed’ it. “Here,” he said, showing her that ‘destination’ had been missed. He wouldn’t have put it past her to show him the PaDD with her thumb over that spot.
- Jen, XO

Her initial reaction was to state that she hadn’t decided her destination yet but that excuse had been used often enough to possibly raise his antenna even straighter. She had also recieved a communication that while encrypted, it was not so encrypted that two minutes being run through the Atlantis’ intelligence computers wouldn’t crack it open like an egg. Lauren wasn’t too worried if they ever read it although it could make someone question why the message was so odd. There was also the unfortunate fact that all ships had flight logs. If she had her own ship, Lauren could wipe it but wiped logs tended to get commanding officers pants in a bunch. Lying was always best when it hugged the truth. This allowed for plausible deniability.

“Erevos-IV,” she said without missing a beat. There were a million planets in the galaxy and no one had ever heard of all of them even those in stellar cartography. Like every place Lauren visited, it was just on the edge of civilized society and cozied up to the Orion sector of space. Erevos IV was the fourth planet of the llythos Binary making ships coming and going from the area extremely hard to see before they jumped to warp. The term planet was a generous one. Erevos IV was a world of contradictions, glittering on the surface and lawless on the fringe. Starfleet controlled its three main cities which greeted those arriving to towering skylines, starports humming with order, and the sense that progress was alive and well. To most passing through, it looked like another success story of Federation stewardship. This success was overshadowed by the outlying mining towns with their colony type dinged metal buildings and run down, neon lit taverns. All the wealth of Erevos IV’s mines was split into above board corporations and less reputable companies. Smugglers moved their share of cargo in the shadows of the Federation ore haulers. Orion pirates found safe harbor in outlying ports getting lost in the commercial shuttles from the cities. It was a tale of two lifestyles: a Federation jewel glittering in the light, and a dangerous frontier just beyond the domes.

Lauren Shan doctor

Jen made another ‘face’ .. (think a wtf Clint Eastwood face) .. at the mention of Everos IV.

Internally Lauren cringed knowing that was not the face or reaction she had been imagining. Oh wow shore leave. Have a great time one version said in her head. Huh never heard of this place. Let me know if it is fun when you get back was another version. Kribs I need those reports and send a message to engineering to fix the replicators on level fifteen was a third possible version. While the wording didn’t matter really, what Lauren was looking for was a quick flourish of his stylus sending her on her way. The face spoke volumes. Every fantasy conversation she was having in her head blew away like a fart in the wind as her grandfather used to say. This was going to take more finesse than she initially planned.

Everos IV. Early in his career he was a sergeant and had been stationed on Everos IV due to its proximity to Orion space. At that time there had been a flare up in Orion activity and underworld shenanigans that had bubbled over and came to the attention of Stavros, the capital city and administration hub. He had been in one of the other cities, Bevan, which at that time had considerable construction occurring there. And with all that activity came mischief. Typically his missions were spaceborne relating to freighters and such. This ground work, being more his training, was welcome though he did come away with a scar on his back for it. While it had a lot of frontier attractiveness and feel which attracted the curious with its casinos and bars that played on the atmosphere, a step outside of that brought one into the more seedy frontier, from acceptable and fun to looking over your shoulder and not go alone.

“Let’s talk,” he said, motioning her to the ready room and a more private venue. “Ensign Kribs, you have the con. Call if anything comes up.”

Lauren kept the snarky Sure thing Dad comment in her head and out of her mouth. She needed him and sarcasm in this moment was going to serve no purpose. She followed Jen into the ready room as casually as possible. Lauren had been doing this for years to various command teams. Popping off into a litany of why Jen needed to sign the document would only end in failure. She had learned patience so she waited for the XO to speak first. Oddly enough, this more passive approach was out of character for her in the sense, Lauren kept a low profile on duty. That was unless she felt she had the moral high ground in a situation. If Lauren felt her patient’s needed something or a directive was just going to cause her department undo angst, she would come barging in like a bull in a china shop. She would also not leave until they threw her out or they accepted her point of view as fact. Today however, she waited calmly for Jen to begin his questions. Sometimes controlling a narrative was best done by answering questions instead of posing them.

When the door slid closed with a soft swoosh, Jen, still standing, said, “You pick interesting places to go. You know that system is Class C. Any Starfleet personnel going there must register more details than just the system for safety reasons. Accommodations. A daily check in with Stavros’ central office. Notifications if there is any travel outside of the tri city limits.” He paused.

His concerns were valid. The more inquisitive stare came from the man actually knowing her destination. Without knowledge of the place, Lauren could spin a yawn a mile long about archeology, interest in geology, or some other blasé hobby she didn’t actually have. Knowing that this was literary the fourth rock spinning around a binary star with little to know appeal was going to make the destination a harder sell. “Of course,” she said with an innocent expression. “That would be standard procedures for any shore leave. It was just me pulling two double shifts in a row in Sickbay. Lt. Cannon’s kid got the Levodian flu so I offered to cover his shift. Have you met his daughter. That kid is smart as a whip and funny too,” Lauren casually reclined on the edge of the table as they talked. “She is going to be a spitfire when she hits her teen years.” Most people tended to struggle to maintain an serious conversation the second it became intimate in nature. It was a simple trick one used in sick bay when someone came in seriously hurt. The social nature of sentient beings overrode the impulse to ignore what was said except with Vulcans. Vulcans were an entire different beast but Jen was an Andorian. His culture was based on social rules so hopefully there was something in the Andorian playbook which would force him to veer slightly off his intended conversational course.

“That has recently changed. A touring dignitary had wandered off and gotten himself kidnapped.” He smiled.

Nope. You are not falling for the chit chat approach she said silently to herself taking a sip of her coffee. Lauren was rarely if ever seen without a mug of coffee in her hand. Partly it was due to needing a boost during the day but the other part was strategic. It allowed her to hide the majority of her face. Eighty percent of communication was non verbal. The face gave away a multitude of information about a person’s emotional state. Anger, happiness, sadness, and humor: Any of these emotions Jen would read like a bloodhound on a scent trail if he saw them on her face. So she hid it with the mug . The XO was a good guy. Generally all her interactions with him were positive and pleasant. That did not man he was a push over. He was second in command and took that job seriously no matter how much fun he could be on poker or karaoke night with the senior staff.

“You don’t say,” she commented in a neutral tone.

“And you are going how do I know this?

“On pins and needles here,” she replied trying to keep as much sarcasm out of her voice as possible. A month from now, Lauren would find herself thinking back on this interaction and chuckle. Most things, even the unpleasant ones had a way of being funny days, weeks, months, or years after the fact. She watched his face as Jen spoke. He had a quiet sarcasm about him that was actually very appealing to her. He held all the power in the universe in this moment but was choosing to pepper the conversation with nuggets of humor as he causally held her PaDD like it was a sub sandwich with double meat he was not quite ready to deal with. She took another sip of coffee to hide the slight irritation she felt bubbling up inside of her. Jen was a nice guy but he was standing in her way making this task harder than it had been in the past. This was not the first time he had signed off on one of her sketchy leaves but that was probably because the hunks of rocks she was visiting were not so acutely in his radar.

“At one time I was stationed there and keep in touch with a now retired marine living there. He lets me know if there is any excitement going on. I think he wants me to visit. I always lose to poker with him and he has a penchant for gambling.” He then asked, “Where are you visiting?”
- Jen, XO

Oh that would be a barrel of laughs, she inner monologued the idea of having him as a traveling buddy. Stay…Stay Lauren imagined holding out a finger as she backed out of the room. Unfortunately, she had to be in the real world right now. “The Hilton,” she smoothly replied. There was a Hilton on ever planet, moon, rock, and nugget in the universe. “I am going to a rustic mining camp for a week. You know like one of those dude ranches on Earth where you get to pretend to be a cowboy for a week. Well it is like that but more Hi Ho Hi Ho off to find a diamond I go. I recently have taken an interest in geology and thought what the hell lets give it a go. If I ever get tired of being a doctor I could turn in my stethoscope for a pick axe.” It was a bold move to toss out this explanation however it was so probably unexpected it might give Jen a moments pause. There were a thousand different niche interests in this universe. Maybe this was one of hers and this was not Lauren’s first rodeo. Lauren always hugged the truth. “Would you like to see the internet brochure,” she asked sweetly enough.

Lauren Shan doctor

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