Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in When Paparazzi Hide in the Bushes

Posted by Ensign Kovan ch’Sirhc (Engineering & Communications Officer) in When Paparazzi Hide in the Bushes

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in When Paparazzi Hide in the Bushes
Posted by… suppressed (14) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Things had finally returned to normal on the Sentinel. People were healing, damaged sections of the ship were repaired, and despite all of that, with the Rand’s return to near full duty, even the chaos seemed to find some order. At least no one was willing to allow chaos into her perfectly ordered day. It was after Rand had made her morning stop on the bridge when the large daily packet of correspondence, orders, and news came through. Most was routine, simply needing to be forwarded to the correct person. However, before Kovan forwarded the news packet to the recreation room, the headline caught his eye.

WEST END STARLET TOOK TO THE STARS
West End Darling, Miranda Farquharson Spotted Amongst the Stars

Paparazzi

The only good part about working comms during the long stretches of space travel was the daily info dump. News from around the Federation and within Starfleet packaged together with fleet orders and personal correspondence. All necessary things to keep lonely star ship troopers entertained and connected to life back home when gliding through the blackest reaches of space. With the plus of Kovan being the first to know all the latest news and gossip. As the senior comms officer it was a simple matter to ensure he worked when the package arrived. There weren’t many privileges aboard the ship so Kovan will horde this one for as long as he wished.

Never did he ever expect his selfish narcissism to work in his favor than when he saw that particular headline while flipping through the news headlines. By accident he learned of Rand’s secret history as an actress. Which is also how he knew she would die of embarrassment if the rest of the ship ever found out. He blanked his screen before subtly glancing around the bridge. No one seemed interested in reading over his shoulder (something the crew would never attempt twice) and no one was close enough to accidentally read the screen.

Once ensured of privacy is opened the news story and got to reading. The brilliant and impassioned darling actress of West End. . . Who vanished from the spotlight at the height of her career. . . winner of the Globe Theater award. . . (Get to the point already). Many have speculated Miranda’s fate . . .(what, did they think she died mysteriously or something?) . . . while theorizing over her next career move. . . was spotted dancing under the stars with a Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome (Roman? He was alright looks wise. Far too leggy for Kovan’s tastes. And too serious. And that hair. Also too in love with Rand.) After some seriously intense investigation. . . . We’ve uncovered the man’s secret identity! (Was it really that secret?) Sir Roman Alden, Heir to the Alden Estates, Duke of Salisbury and the current commanding officer of the USS Sentinel (Kovan did not have the time to go into how wrong most of that was)

The article continued. . . Just how did these two steamy lovers meet? And what sort of juicy secrets does their illicit romance entail? (Kovan gagged internally while also vowing to never let Randy read this.) It was the last part, however, that captured Kovan’s full attention. Stay tuned, dear readers for the full expose in the next issue. Kovan mentally swore through his swear list and quietly quarantined the article to his personal PaDD and skimmed through the remaining news articles for anything related to Rand or Alden. When nothing came up he sent the package on and quietly paged a second comms officer to take over for him.

Kovan left the bridge and ultimately decided to bring the PaDD and it’s awful article to Rand.

Kovan

Roman was headed up from the lab, needing to check the bridge science sensors himself for something. He met Kovan in the lift and peeked at what Kovan was holding, catching something that looked oddly like himself. “What’s that?”

~ Roman

It was stupid but Kovan felt anxiety any time him and Alden were alone in a lift. Bad things happened when they shared a lift. This wasn’t about to be any different. “It’s. . . a news article I intercepted from the daily communique dump. It’s. . . it seems to be a paparazzi rag. . . about you and Rand.” Cautiously, like he was handing over a vial of dangerous chemicals rather than a PaDD, Kovan passed the device to Roman.

Kovan

It had only happened once, Roman would tell him. ,He took the PaDD and skimmed the article, face turning angry as he read on. “Those..” some choice words no one had ever heard Roman say found their way out of his mouth. “Don’t let Rand see this. And watch the future communications.” Roman made a face. “We’re about to get a lot more.”

~ Roman

Okay. Kovan had never seen this side of the XO before. He shook himself from his stunned silence, “Wait. No. We have to tell her! She needs to know what they’re saying about her. We can’t hide this forever and I’m not keeping secrets from Rand again.” He said, firm on the matter. He made that mistake once, and he will never make it again.

Kovan

Roman gave Kovan a very, very serious look. “She will stress herself into another cardio myopathy. She could make herself very sick. Get discharged. I cannot let that happen to her. We are on a starship, dozens of lightyears from earth. You control communications. Just don’t let her see that stuff.”

~ Roman

“It’s a popular magazine, the information is out there and being eaten up by the rest of the galaxy. She’s going to find out sooner or later. Is not better to tell her now in the safest way possible than wait until it’s out of our hands? Rand’s a big girl, she’s not some fainting maiden. And I don’t control every little thing that comes in and out of this ship unless you want to give me the authority to go through personal communique’s and messages.”

Kovan

Roman sighed and considered it. “Fine. Let’s ask Randy. But you are not showing her that right now. Understood?” Rand was absolutely a ‘fainting maiden’ when it came to the press. It would remind her of that day and she’d have a panic attack and… He had to remind himself to get a grip. He would take his own advice and ask Randy the best way to handle this. And if that was silence, then he would bribe Kovan if he had to.

~ Roman

Ask Randy first. Kovan could agree with that. Randy knew his sister best and he’ll know how to proceed. And if that’s silence. . . Kovan will deal with that problem when and if they get there. “Understood. . . Sir.” Kovan tucked the PaDD under his arm, and away from prying eyes.

Kovan

Roman redirected the lift back down to Deck 9 and headed toward Sickbay, stopping cold outside the doors, considering his options to proceed. He ended up calling Randy on his comm. =^= Alden to Randy. Meet me outside sickbay please. =^=

~ Roman

There was strangely no answer.

Kovan rolled his eyes. “Belay that Randy, we’re coming in.” Kovan quickly added in before suddenly shoving the XO through the open doors, “We’re not talking in the hall where anyone could walk by. Randy has a perfectly good office. Man up.”

Kovan

“No, no, no!” Roman hiss-whispered, putting the breaks on and digging his heels in. But Kovan had caught him by suprise and he tripped into sickbay, grabbing Kovan to avoid face-planting. Then he yanked Kovan toward the doors. “We can talk in my office. Let’s go. Now.” He said with an urgency not commonly seen from him.

~ Roman

“We’re already here!” Kovan snapped back, digging his own heels into the ground to maintain balance and keep the XO in place. “Isn’t this an urgent matter that we should discuss right away?” He whisper-hissed. “That’s why we came here, isn’t it?”

Kovan

“Randy will answer my comm call just as quickly and then we don’t have to look for him!” Roman said, keeping his voice low, gesturing toward the business of sickbay. “Let’s. Go!” He seemed nervous, still pushing on Kovan to make him leave.

~ Roman

“You’re as stubborn as a mule, you know that don’t you?” Kovan grit out before giving up and letting the XO push them out of the suddenly very quiet sickbay. They were attracting too much attention in there anyways because of Roman. “Tell Randy to meet us at your office then. Sheesh.” Kovan rubbed his hand down his face, suddenly feeling very tired. This was going to be a long day.

Kovan

“Rand tells me that all the time.” Roman grinned, letting out a long sigh of relief when Kovan let them leave. =^= Scratch that Randy, meet at my CSO office apparently =^=. “Come on.” Roman said, leading them both to his office. Then they waited for Randy.

~ Roman

=/\=Cmdr…” Randy sounded stressed. “Can I meet you later. I gotta find En Kovan and then Rand. No… Rand then Kovan.” Then they heard him muttering about where Rand should be right then. “Wait you’re on Deck 9.” The whir of the lift went quiet and then started again as Randy requested a new destination. “I have to check the rec hall.=/\=

Randy