Let's Steal Luggage!

Posted on Fri May 28th, 2021 @ 4:32pm by Ensign Elegy Nascimento & Commander William Gerhard

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: The Caelestis - Residential sector
Timeline: Day 165 - 8:30 hours
1905 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Clutching his hand-scanner like a defensive talisman, Ensign Elegy Nascimento crossed the threshold into yet another sleeping quarters compartment. Unlike any of the others, Elegy asked, "Do you..." --taking a sharp intake of breath, Elegy narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his nose-- "...smell something, Lieutenant?" To his eyes, the compartment was identical to many of the others. As the overhead lighting came up, the room appeared spacious and sparsely decorated with dramatic, architectural pieces of furniture. But his eyes could only tell him so much. The Chief Science officer dropped his eyes on the display of his scanner, and hoped the device might answer his question too.

William entered after Elegy and watched with slight amusement as the science officer proceeded to make his way around the room with his scanner thrust out like a priest performing performing an exorcism. Before his promotion, William had kept mainly to himself unless his duties required him to interact with the senior staff. He was still familiarizing himself with his fellow department heads, though he mainly silently observed.

William slung his plasma rifle around his shoulder and pulled his scanner from his pocket. The alien ship still made him feel uneasy, and not finding any evidence of the phantom from previously only heightened his unease. He clicked open the scanner and switched it to search for forensic data, "Is there something specific I should be smelling?"

Sniffing the air a couple of times, Elegy scrunched up his nose when he couldn't quite place the scent, nor its source of origin. He glanced back over his shoulder at William, and he replied, "It's hard to say until we learn more about this crew's culture. It's... sour; maybe vaguely sweet." Elegy shrugged as he crossed the compartment towards the stairs. With his free hand, he straightened the strap on his carrying case he had started to fill with alien chachkies he would take back for the science team to study. "Could be perfume, or food, or a scent-encoded record of data for all we know," Elegy said.

William had been following the readings from his scanner. He had detected some possible residual DNA patterns and his scanner had brought him to one of the walls in the kitchen area that appeared to have a door. He raised one eyebrow when he heard the Ensign's response to his question, "Scent encoded data? That would be a first for me." He then pressed a button next to the door which proceeded to his open. Inside the small closet appeared storage containers. Given that he was in the kitchen area of the room, William deduced that this must've been a pantry of some kind. He scanned the containers and realized that there was some spoiled food inside them. William decided against opening one to make sure seeing as how he had not faired well the last time he had been exposed to putrid food.

"I think I found what your smelling. Given this area looks like the kitchen, I think I found the pantry. There's some spoiled food inside it. I'm guessing whoever was aboard this ship before hadn't heard of a refrigeration system," William said to Elegy.

Closing the distance between them, Elegy stepped closer to William and took a look inside the pantry. "Before?" Elegy asked with only a little bit of healthy scepticism. "Maybe this was left here by Lexi's mystery man," Elegy said. He reached in and took a couple of food items that looked better-sealed than the rotting fruit. Elegy tucked them into his satchel to bring back to the ship for study. After all those weeks of studying the Vrav algae, Elegy had discovered there was a lot to learn about a people by what they ate. "Lieutenant Darru said he saw someone too," Elegy added, "but we haven't been able to locate any sensor records to identify life on this ship."

"Perhaps," William replied a bit skeptically. The fact that the previous search had not turned up any evidence of a "mystery man" only added to the odd feeling he felt aboard this strange ship. William knew that the answers lay with the AI, but so far it wasn't being very helpful. "This whole situation gives me a bad feeling," he said more so to himself. He made his way over to the living area to see if he could find anything else that could shed some light on the mystery.

Following William into the living area, Elegy diverged from the path to climb the stairs into the sleeping loft. "That bad feeling you're getting, Lieutenant," Elegy said. He hesitated for only a moment, but his curiosity was plain. "Do you suppose it's better or worse now that you're the armoury's department head?" Elegy asked. It was something they had in common: their recent promotions, come so unexpectedly, due to the unpredictable nature of such an unplanned deep-space mission. Even as Elegy padded his way to the upper level, the high ceilings and open plan meant he could still see William with ease.

William pulled out his hand scanner and used it to sweep the living area in a grid pattern. His scans yielding no results as he expected. He did think it was curious that this one room had contained rotting food, yet the others he had searched did not. "Worse," he replied to the question asked. "Then again i always get bad feelings in situations like this. But since i am the new Armory Chief it is enhanced since its my responsibility to keep the ship safe," he said.

Starting his own search of the sleeping loft on one side of the room, Elegy pilfered through a closet. Like in many of the sleeping quarters, he found the same standardized jumpsuits, but in this closet, Elegy also found a dress. The colour was vibrant, and after running his hand down the length of it, the texture felt distinctive on his fingertips. Elegy folded the garment over his arm and dropped it into his satchel; something else for the science team to study. "What does it mean to you to keep a starship crew safe, Lieutenant?" Elegy asked, calling out to William. Crouching to the floor of the closet, Elegy starting rifling through a few small cases. "We're out here in the cold. Surrounded by void," Elegy remarked, somewhat sadly. "Safe sounds like an impossible proposition."

William closed his scanner and replaced it into his pocket. He had found nothing as expected. He made his way over to one of the couches and sat facing the door way. He kept his plasma rifle at the ready in his lap. "Space is an unforgiving place, but that doesn't mean it is an impossible task to ensure that those we meet out here in this void don't harm any one. It is my job to keep those who would do the ship and crew harm at bay so we survive, now more than ever," he replied, "Just because it might seem to be an impossible task to you doesn't mean I take my job any less serious."

Crouching to the floor of the closet, Elegy ran his hands over an object that looked like a small guitar, made from what were plainly synthetic polymers. The stringed instrument looked much like an autoharp, with no protruding neck and a body in an angled A shape. He plucked at a couple of the strings, pleased by the sounds they produced. "I hear you, Lieutenant," Elegy said, but he was speaking to William, acknowledging the point he had made. "Your commitment to our safety is plain to see, and hugely appreciated at that," Elegy added. He tucked the autoharp into his satchel and he rose to his feet. As he moved to descend the stairs, Elegy asked, "How would all of this" --and he opened is arms wide-- "compare to what you imagined when you enlisted in Starfleet?"

Elias looked over as he hear a noise and saw Elegy begin to descend the stairs. He then stood up made his way over to the exit into the passageway. He looked around at the room again as he thought over Elegy's question, "To be honest the only thing I was imagining when I enlisted in Starfleet was if the food would be better than prison rations." He looked over with a slight grin to see how Elegy reacted to his statement. Not many people he had served with were aware of how his enlisting in Starfleet was an alternative to time in prison.

As much as Elegy's open-mouthed stare communicated his surprise at the admission, there was a light behind his eyes and a curl to his lips that expressed delight. "You were facing pri-son?" Elegy asked, hitting the last few consonants hard in eager fascination. Having grown up in an artists' commune, on a colony world, any features of organized government beyond Starfleet were a novelty to Elegy. As Elegy crossed the compartment to join William, he asked, "How did you find yourself in that situation?"

William looked over at Elegy and noticed his intrigued look. He still wasn't used to the look people gave him when he shared that part of his past. William had worked hard to put that time of his life behind him, and he was always uncomfortable for people to know that fact. He didn't want to be looked at as a second class person just because he had made a stupid mistake in his past. "Only a few people know that i had trouble with the law in my past, and only two people know the circumstances surrounding that incident," he said trying not to sound too rude. "I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to keep the rest of the story to myself for the time being. It's not a particular subject i enjoy retelling," he said with tinge of regret creeping into his voice.

A pregnant pause filled the space between them as Elegy made sense of how the ineffable energy in the compartment had shifted. Elegy nodded vaguely at first, and then he said, "As you wish, Lieutenant." Feeling a pinch at his shoulder, Elegy fidgeted with the strap of his satchel, where it had become twisted, until it smoothed out.

William nodded and began to make his way into the passage way before stopping and looking back at Elegy, "I would appreciate it if you would keep that story between us."

Before he moved to follow William, Elegy affirmed, "I won't tell a soul. I promise." He looked at William, looked right at him, and then he strode into the passageway to join him. Offering a slight smile, Elegy retorted, "As long as you don't tell anyone I only enlisted because I thought I was signing up for the Starfleet marching band."

William looked back at Elegy and smiled a bit himself. He offered his hand out to Elegy, "Deal." He then waited a bit and asked slyly, "Don't tell me, trombone player right?"

Shrugging dramatically, Elegy turned his eyes to the overhead panels, as if this were one more secret that couldn't be divulged. His pantomime only lasted a couple of seconds. Elegy outstretched his hand and he shook the one William had offered him. With a slight tilt to his head, Elegy replied, "Yes, among other things."