Posted by Lieutenant Commander Roman Alden (Science Chief, First Officer) in Yeoman - Always Up Early

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman) in Yeoman - Always Up Early

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Roman Alden (Science Chief, First Officer) in Yeoman - Always Up Early
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Rand glanced from the goo lizard back to the snake contemplating. “What about a drawer? Built into the side? It would slide in and have a lock to stop them from pushing it open and a hinged too on the outside. So you could pull the drawer out and then lift the lid, drop the food into the drawer and close the lid. Then push the drawer closed and lock it. Then you don’t have to actually open the cage, or at least whoever is your assistant will be won’t have to. And it would give you some peace of mind when you can’t be here.” Rand looked at some of the other habitats guessing the rest were herbivores. She retrieved an empty container and waited for Alden to tell her what he wanted from what she was internally referring to as the nutrient cabinet.
Yeoman Rand

Roman nodded. It was a great idea, this he could not deny. But with all Rand’s great ideas, he was going to owe somebody in Engineering a lot of favors. And while any enclosure was being worked on, the animals would have to be transferred to a temporary enclosure - something he would certainly need to handle himself. “That would be an ideal addition,” he said, and he was thinking considering what Rand had said before, if he were unable to deal with the lab, safety precautions would be necessary, and it would be worth the favour to Engineering to add them.

Rand had been a yeoman long enough to recognize the look that passed across Alden’s face. “Cmdr, if I may? When you are ready to send in those engineering requests, let Randy or I do it. People tend to like favors for special projects, even if they are easy. And,well to be blunt, that’s why you have a yeoman. We know what favors to trade for and how much each of those favors are worth. And some things don’t need a favor traded, they are part of standard requests, and everyone knows I can recite regulations to a T. We’ll get your critters taken care of.”

So could Randy, of that Roman was confident - though he was fairly certain his own yeoman would object to being voluntold by Rand. “Then once I’ve got a basic schematic of what I’d prefer it look like and do, I’ll hand it off.” Whichever of the two ended up doing the work would need to be timely about it, and any of his lab assistants could attest to that.

“Once we get them to Engineering we’ll get a time table for you. Engineers can be finicky to work with. Fake time lines, over perfection, hurt egos, that sort of thing. I don’t want you to have to move any of them until we know for sure engineering is coming down here to do the work.”

Roman raised an eyebrow. “Not much faith in the Engineering team?” He said, a note of amusement in his voice. However, he appreciated the thought immensely. Moving the dangerous animals once would be difficult. Doing it multiple times might just be suicide.

Rand grinned and laughed, “Oh I have plenty of faith in them, Cmdr. I also have faith in their on perceptions of their worth and talent. Most certainly earned, but it works in my favor to understand how it works.”

“The Atariva mouse could use more. The seeds for him. Mushu is well fed for today…” He was mentally going through a checklist. The red snake was fed, the goo lizard had the food it needed within the enclosure, the mouse, the chinzilla was fed… He looked around the room double checking he hadn’t missed anyone.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand could have skipped to the Atariva cage, but that would have been undignified, so she walked. She grabbed a handful of seeds and gently opened the top of the cage. She put a seed on the floor and slowly pushed it closer, and then backed away, letting the little mouse get the seed without feeling caged, although watched. She made a trail of the seeds like before until the mouse was eating next to her hand. She looked away from the mouse momentarily having heard the door open and close, when the mouse got her attention again. It was sitting in her hand picking up the seeds and eating them. “Cmdr.” She whispered trying not to spook the little thing, “look.”
Yeoman Rand

Roman turned at Rand’s whisper, slowly. His mouse was in the hand of the yeoman, cautiously taking seeds from her and sticking them in his mouth. “He must like you,” he said, keeping his voice low as to not startle the mouse. It wasn’t as if Roman hadn’t ever tried to be friendlier with the mouse, but he’d had little success, partially due to having insufficient time to devote to the project.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand smiled, “He’s surprisingly heavy for his size. Or maybe it’s just the way I’ve contorted my arm.” Rand waited patiently for the mouse to finish it’s food. Then it sat there for awhile sniffing her hand, wrist and arm. It was a test of self control since Rand was ticklish on her inner wrist and whiskers and twitching noses are natures perfect way of tickling sensitive skin. Eventually the mouse curled up as if going to sleep. “Oh no no no. You are not sleeping on my hand. As cute as that might be, I have work to do.” She very carefully lowered her arm all the way down and slowly, she didn’t want to startle him and get bit, rolled him off her hand and onto the bedding in the cage. Then she closed and locked the lid before rotating her shoulder several times. “Thank you Cmdr. I’ve never held an alien animal before. It’s an experience I won’t forget.”
Yeoman Rand

“I quite hope it won’t be the last,” said Roman. As a biologist, his hope was to visit and see many alien worlds. And study the life upon them. Even if the mouse did bite, it would be little more than a nuisance, though somebody smart would treat it as any other animal’s bite and clean it. “Thank you for your work today. You’ve been quite handy,” he said. Perhaps he could’ve finished everything sooner, but he had to admit it was quite a lot of fun to show Rand the wonder of alien animals and plant life.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Did Alden just say he wanted her to come back? Well that was interesting. And he found her ‘handy.’ High praise indeed. “I admit I enjoyed it. I look forward to working with the Atariva Mouse. I can come early after my run or just after lunch each day. Which would you prefer?” Her schedule was odd, like most Yeoman’s schedules. But those were the times she was fairly certain she wouldn’t get called away.
Yeoman Rand

“Early will do, but you can always stop in later as well,” Roman said, fully planning on showing up at leat the first few times to supervise. Getting up early, while a pain, was worth it for that. After lunch there was no gurantee he’d be free, though once he was comfortable with Rand coming in alone, it really wouldn’t matter when. During lunch, there were certain to be other science officers about, in the morning she was unlikely to run into more than one or two people, not including himself. He was usually quite busy himself, between his duties as first officer, science chief, and not delegating enough of his other work. He felt like he never had time, which was unfortunate, for he had a myriad of hobbies to keep him busy, as well as self defense training to keep up on.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand made note of it, yes she makes notes of everything. “I’ll be here, and I won’t mess with the other animals.” Unless he told her to of course, but she figured that went without saying. The alarm on her watch went off again and she checked the time. The whole morning was gone. She’d loved it. She dropped the watch back under her tunic. She didn’t know if she was supposed to stay or not. He hadn’t said how long he needed her help. “I can have these notes ready by this evening. Unless you want them sooner. And the personnel reports, will probably take until tomorrow. There are a lot to go through.”
Yeoman Rand

He nodded. “That timeline will do. I assume that means you’ve got to go bring breakfast to the Captain. You may go,” he said. He had more work to be done, but much of it would be the more boring kind of science, looking at things with a microscope and taking notes, so it was probably perfect timing anyway.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand laughed, “No Cmdr. Randy took care of his breakfast, hours ago. It’s lunch time. I have to set an alarm or I forget to eat when I get busy. It’s 1230 hours, Sir.” So Cmdr Alden lost track of time, just like she did. A good piece of information to pass on to Randy. “I’ll get this to you in the evening reports.” She picked up the PaDD and with a last glance at the mouse, it needed a name, to see what it was doing, and then a glare at that nasty snake, she slipped out the door heading right back to her quarters to get caught up on what she missed that morning, type up the notes, and field questions from Randy for hours.
Yeoman Rand