Posted by Ensign Ashlyn Trenton (Security Officer) in pre-sim Hard Work Pays Off

Posted by Ensign Sharah Fayth (Doctor) in pre-sim Hard Work Pays Off

Posted by Ensign Ashlyn Trenton (Security Officer) in pre-sim Hard Work Pays Off

(snip)
Ashlyn chuckled softly remembering most of the staff that was on the Challenger back in their cadet flight days. “I keep in touch with NEnsign Bough, he’s still the third shift lead for security, I can get most of anything to go through him and let him know you’re trying to sneak up on Rainns. He’ll help you out secuirty side at least. You’ll have to reach out to your doctor and nurse friends though, I don’t know them as well. I’m sure between the three of them, he’ll be very distracted. Ooo, I could reach out to Tandra, she might be okay for helping!” Ashlyn thought about it some more and remembered the incident where the engineering team was playing with the sensors and driving security nuts. “Okay, so I know someone in every office that could really make things hard for Rainns to notice you even showed up. I bet I could get McMorran to help too.” Ashlyn was quite surprised she still knew so many people still on the Challenger.

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

“I’ll get in touch with Mika, Nurse, and Doctor. I’ll see what they can do.” She hopped down again moved over to her computer console. “Do you think you can contact the rest?” After making several calls and the snickers of the med staff on Challenger, Sharah had her part set up. She turned to Ashlyn and saw she was still on the comm. She moved to the replicator and made dinner for them. She set the food on the table and got them both something to drink. Usually they would eat perched up on a tube or platform, but they were both busy at the computer.
En. Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn didn’t wait long, as soon as she had the opportunity, she sent off messages to NEnsign Bough and Lieutenant McMorran about Sharah planning to surprise Lieutenant Rainns. Ensign Bough was the first to respond. “That shouldn’t be a problem, we have a couple of cadets that don’t get along and keep trying to show each other up. It’ll be easy to get them caught up in an incident that’ll keep Rainns busy all day. Might result in someone headed to sickbay though, they really do get that bad. It’ll be fine though, nothing Rainns hasn’t done before. Then of course there are all the reports and checks that we can hand in. We’ll just say we’re having an off day and decided not to compile them all into a single report like usual. I’ve even got a good medical chems going missing mystery he can work on. Got a few addicts on board that had already ended up in the brig, but it was missed that they had a problem and were stealing from sickbay.” Ashlyn felt bad about the craziness that was still going on during the night shift but was glad he could participate.

The next day Sharah got a message from Challenger, but not from Joseph. It was from NE Nurse “Hey Sharah! So I’ll be working Alpha and Bravo shift when you come in. NE Doc will be here for Alpha. We’ve got the schedule worked so you can hang out in one of the private patient room for a couple hours. NCrewman, you remember you worked with him on Gamma shift. He’s on board too, so if you get really delayed or get here early. And don’t worry, NO CADETS know about this. Even the ones you worked with who haven’t graduated yet. They can’t keep a secret.” NE Nurse claps her hands rapidly, and in a conspiratorial tone, “I am so excited! Rainns is such a good officer, but he just hasn’t been the same since you left.” From the background Sharah can hear NE Doctor. He sighs loudly in frustration, “Oh stop with the gossip! You wouldn’t know one way or the other woman. You don’t ever see him except in passing. And if Sharah is coming to surprise him I’m sure they’ve kept in touch. She’ll know how much he does or does not miss her. Stop filling her head with pointless gossip!” NE Nurse pouts, “Okay so he’s right, I don’t know. I’m a hopeless romantic, I can’t help it.” Sharah laughs as the transmission ends. Joseph is never going to forget this if she manages to pull it off. He’ll get his payback and it will be much more spectacular than anything she’s managing. She’d been very careful not to tell him anything about her research or her trip.

The night before she was leaving she sat down, took a deep breath and calmed her excitement. She looked tired, and she was, she’d been trying to get everything ready for her departure and finish the work she had in sickbay and the arboretum. “So we’ve been slow as far as medical goes, and that’s always good. As my usual need to stay busy I started cleaning the labs and auxiliary sickbays and everything is out of date or not working. So I may not get to message you the next few days. We’re going to be very busy. We can’t leave this to get done. Some of the medications are out of date too. There really isn’t much else to tell you tonight. I miss you and I hate that I probably won’t get to write to you, but it’s doubles for at least a week to get all the work done. I love you, Imzadi.” Sharah ended the transmission and made sure it sent. She turned to Ashlyn and grinned. She won’t be able to send any messages on her way, because the metadata won’t say Europa it will be the names of her different transports and that would give it away. “Think he’ll buy it?”

En Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn wasn’t saying much, she was finally feeling the impact of her friend leaving and had been a little distant trying to get used to the idea. Ashlyn shook her head at her friend’s inquiry, “We’ve got scheduled exercises with the Genisis and Merrimack, let him know that will keep you busy. If he gets suspicious and looks it up, you’ll at least have an actual event to back it up. Oh, and I didn’t tell you about it because it’s supposed to be command crew only, I just happen to notice the PaDD on Abrams’s desk and she forgot or doesn’t know I’m pretty observant. Make sure you encrypt your message and mark it with verification code RX71, it’ll be a bit misleading for Rainns, but it’ll keep the usual eyes out of it.” Ashlyn waits a moment for the inquisitive expression to really settle in before giving Sharah an explanation. “RX71 is a comms insider notation to identify ‘private’ conversations between SOs. So make sure you attach a photo of some plants or something, otherwise, the file size will be suspicious. Instead of reading the message, they’ll run an algorithm that will look at the message for them so you can have your privacy. As long as you don’t mention mission numbers or command names, the algorithm won’t key on your message. As long as you don’t send more than one of those a month, that’s how you can keep your conversations private. Otherwise, there is someone reading them.”

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

Sharah blushed, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to need RX71, but it was sweet the Ashlyn gave it to her. And so Ashlyn to try and embarrass her. But she knew her friend was sad and Sharah was too. “I’ll keep that in mind, for when I need it.” She got up from her desk where she’d been sending her message and climbed up to her favorite perch. “Hey,” she said looking at Ashlyn. “You know it’s not that long. It’s going to be a crazy fast 4 months. It won’t be bad. And you’ve got that paper to write on all this craziness you’ve been contemplating to help me. It will be good for your application file. And keep practicing with Zarath so you can keep Nox out during your sessions. And you can call me any time you need to. I know I’ll be on double shifts the whole time I’m there, but I’ll answer as fast as I can, okay?” She was full of excited energy for the coming months. “So you want to go run some parkour or do something else?” She had time. She left early the next morning, but she was already packed and all her projects on board were wrapped up as well.
En Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn sighed, it wouldn’t take her four months to write a paper on information protection protocols and security vulnerabilities. What would take four months is convincing Abrams that this wasn’t a critique of her activities but an educational thing. However, it didn’t matter how Ashlyn looked at it, from Cassidy’s point of view this paper would be a relative slap to the face of inadequacies in standard practice. The best option was going to be taking it to her first to work out a cover for such holes, then presenting it as a list of changes. Significantly less impactful, but also significantly less insulting to the Chief of Security. Who also happens to be a crush for all the awkward that is. Zarath is always pleasant to spend time with, even when doing the harsh mental training, it’s still pleasant to be around someone who is willing to teach despite not being in their prime to do so. As for Nox, Ashlyn was having a hard time convincing her that she isn’t some kind of deviant as anytime Ashlyn’s mind wanders, it usually involves people she knows and her mind isn’t exactly quiet about it around the psychically endowed. Instead, all she could do was give her best friend a hug. “Honestly, spending the last few hours chasing after you just seems more cruel than it should be. Let’s just stargaze and zone out for a while.”

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

“Hey, I know that look. You can’t defeat yourself before you start. Isn’t that what you kept telling me when you first started teaching me parkour. Don’t check yourself. That’s setting up for failure. You have to just do it. So write the paper, ask Lt. Abbrams for help. Tell her your goal and ask her to let you see if you can find areas for improvement and then write a paper about that. Then that will lead to more. That’s how I got started, and now look where I am. You’ll get there. Zarath will even give you tips. He knows all about that stuff.” She saw the look on Ashlyn’s face, it was the look she always got when thinking about her sessions with Nox. “If you don’t like her, there are other personnel that are qualified counselors. There are no regulations that say you have to see that head counselor on board. That’s your right. Just like it’s your right to ask for a different doctor.” There were times that Sharah wished she had a psychology degree so she could help Ashlyn, but she didn’t. And she’d told Ashlyn over and over again that Nox can’t use anything she hears telepathically and that Nox can’t listen, it’s against medical ethics. She has to have permission and if, like Sharah, she picks it up anyway there wasn’t anything they could legally and ethically could do with that information. So what if Ashlyn was attracted to people? There was no law saying you couldn’t find everything attractive and fantasize about it. Ashlyn rarely acted on it, especially since they had come on board. She’d really learned to curb that for more appropriate times and she was a shinning example of what a security officer could and should be. She sighed and nodded at Ashlyn’s suggestion. She turned and stretched out on her stomach so she was staring out the window of their room.
En. Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn climbed onto the same pipe but laid back on her back to stare out the window upside down. “When you’ve understood the scripture, throw it away. If you can’t understand the scripture, throw it away. I insist on your freedom.” Ashlyn casually stretched and rolled toward Sharah with a big grin that told of much mischief going on in her head, the Conference being dreadfully quiet. “I knew who I was this morning, I’ve changed a few times since then.” Ashlyn relaxes on the tube and just stares out the window, content with her moment.

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

Sharah shook her head. She was going to get Ashlyn a copy of that book while she was gone and maybe the movie too. Although the atmosphere in the room was slightly sad it was also comfortable and peaceful. And that’s why they made such good roommates for each other. The conference was quiet and calm tonight, much more so than it had been when Sharah first met Ashlyn all that time ago on Challenger, in the gym, at a Mok’bara class. They stayed up chatting until late, much like college roommates often do. The next morning before Ashlyn left for duty, Sharah hugged her friend good bye with a promise to let her know how successful she was in sneaking on board behind Joseph’s back. When her shuttle arrived she grabbed her bag and headed out. The trip took a few days and the change in different ships left her mentally worn out, but she arrived on time, in the middle of Alpha shift to Challenger.
En. Fayth, Doctor