Alone in a Full Room

Posted on Fri May 3rd, 2024 @ 9:23pm by Ensign Mercy Mourne & Ensign David Kipling

Mission: Contagion
Location: Mess Hall
Timeline: Day 366 - Lunch
2022 words - 4 OF Standard Post Measure

David grabbed his tray and looked for a seat. The Mess Hall on this Atlantis wasn’t any different than the one he was used to. Simple, serviceable décor, just like the rest of the ship. There were some small flourishes of decoration that he couldn’t quite place but the rest was what he liked to call “Starfleet standard.”

He scanned the Mess Hall but didn’t see any faces that he recognized. He was just reconciling himself to sitting with a group of strangers when a foursome left a table to his right. David pounced on the empty table. He wasn’t an extrovert, per se; it was just complicated…

I mean, this isn’t even my universe, some small part of his brain reasoned.

David instantly felt regret. This universe’s Atlantis had done alright by him and his crew. The few crewmembers he’d interacted with so far had gone out of their way to include him and try to make him feel welcome. But somehow their overtures, which David was sure were genuine, had highlighted everything David had lost.

David gently shook his head to clear his thoughts and forked a bite of salad into his mouth.

I’m just going to eat and head back to my station, he told himself.

Just as David shovelled some salad into his mouth a shadow fell over him. Mercy Mourne, with typically excellent timing, had chosen that moment to make her approach. "H-hi, sorry, uhm, is it okay if I sit here?" She had chosen the table precisely because raucous conversations and senior officers gave her indigestion. This guy, whoever he was, seemed like a safer bet. She had a round, open sort of face, polite smile fixed on it, and somehow between collecting her food and going to sit, she had managed to spill some dressing on her sleeve uniform sleeve. The teal colour indicated she must work in the science department. She moved around to the opposite side of the table, standing awkwardly while she waited for him to respond.

David felt a presence at the table and looked up, mid-bite, to see the Science ensign standing there.

She’s talking to you, genius he told himself.

He quickly swallowed the bite and then nodded, placing a hand over his mouth for modesty’s sake.

“Uhm, yeah…of course,” he finally choked out.

“Sorry, I was lost in thought…didn’t mean to make you stand on ceremony,” David offered as Mercy sat down.

"No need to apologise, really. I am the one interrupting your nice quiet lunch." Mercy gave the engineer a grateful nod and stiffly settled in her seat, biting back a pained groan which would make her sound older than she was. Because of her height she had to slouch a little to get comfortable. She grabbed her fork so she could push her food around a moment, she was about to shove the first bite into her mouth when she heard an echo of her grandmother from her childhood. 'Manners Mercy, they will get you further than those fancy new impulse engines.' Flushing slightly at her rudeness she cleared her throat and gave the Ensign opposite her a polite smile.

"I'm Mercy, I mean Ensign Mercy Mourne, science technician. It's nice to meet you." She then finally allowed herself a healthy bite of her food.

“Where are my manners,” David said, almost to himself. “I’m David Kipling, uh...Damage Control Specialist,” David said, returning the polite smile.

“I don’t think I’ve met you…uhm…are you from this universe or…uhm…well, the other one, I guess,” David asked awkwardly.

Mercy shook her head in between bites in response. "No, I don't think we have, but then I tend to stick to the science labs mostly." She chuckles self-deprecatingly. "But if you need some data crunched, boring paperwork filed or a weird sample stored, I'm your gal." She blinked a little.

"And, well, as far as anyone can be certain, I'm from this universe. Although with everything that's been going on, some days I begin to wonder if any of this is real, you know?" She then rubs her sore neck and winces a little. "Sorry a bit stiff, I can never quite get the angle right on some of the equipment. So what does a Damage Control Specialist do when they are at home? Are you the one stopping us all going boom or is it the other way around?"

David smiled, forked another bite of salad and then nodded at Mercy’s rubbing.
“You know, I had a pulled muscle other day and I went to Medical. Told Doctor Avira about it and she fixed me right up,” David said.

He nodded as he listened to Mercy’s question about Damage Control. He smiled…Mercy had a gentle humor about her that he instantly liked.
“Well, kinda…” he started. He paused to take a sip of water and then went on.
“We patch up the ship anytime something happens - combat, bad driving, giant space monster rips the hull plating off..you know…” he said chuckling.
“I started off as just an Engineer but then I had the chance to transition over to DAMCON…uh, I mean Damage Control. So, it sounded more challenging…and I went for it,” David explained.
“What about you? Do you specialize in a science or all of them or…how does that work,” he asked, pushing aside his salad for the moment.

Mercy listened with open curiosity. “Oh I wouldn’t want to bother the Doctor about anything, I just need to figure out how to fix the chair that’s at the microscope station. I sometimes think ships were built for people up to 5’ 10”. Any taller than that and you find yourself forever slouching.” She rolled her eyes good naturedly.

“Oh no, no specialism really, I’m a technician so I mostly just fill out the paperwork, catalogue samples, assist with research. Things like that. At University I specialized in Exo-botany, with a side of Archaeology. Nothing glamorous, I like digging in dirt and working with mycelium, moulds, fungi and lichen, that sort of thing.” Her eyes lit up a little as she mentioned mould.

“Most people just see them as a by-product of rot, but they carry the building blocks of everything. Did you know fungal networks carry signals across vast forest networks?” She suddenly seems to remember herself. Poor man, he was kind enough to let her sit with him, and now he was getting a mushroom lecture while he ate.

“Sorry I get carried away, I haven't had much chance to look at anything like that lately. Besides it’s not as exciting as what you do, or as useful. DAMCON makes it sound like a rock band or something. Bet you find yourself busy a lot of the time. Do you like it?”

“Oh, don’t stop on account of me,” David stammered awkwardly. He’d been genuinely interested in Mercy’s talk of mushrooms and the like.

“I don’t know anything about mushrooms…except that I don’t like them on pizza,” he chuckled. “But I could see how fungal networks could teach us about digital networking,” he went on. “Ah, DAMCON is just puzzle-solving with high stakes,” he blushed.

“A lot of times, it’s just a matter of putting the right piece into place at the right time,” he explained confidently.

“I think everything everyone does on this ship, or for that matter any ship, is really useful,” David confided. “Sure, Command puts us in place, but if the Captain or XO didn’t think you were useful - they’d change things up, wouldn’t they,” David posited.
“By the way, I could swing by and help you with that chair,” David offered, picking absentmindedly at his salad.

“I’m not assigned to Engineering or anything but I can work with tools and my hands,” he said, spearing a radish with his fork and crunching on it.

Mercy laughed, the sound bright and easy. As awkward as she could be it seemed like she relaxed more and more as they talked. She nodded enthusiastically.

“More mushroom pizza for the rest of us.” She gives him a teasing grin. “No accounting for taste. But even if you are wrong about pizza, you are right about the digital networking thing. I had a professor who once said there was nothing we can invent that the great experiment of the universe hasn’t already had a crack at. Fungi teach us how the universe connects and exchanges information, plus they form evolutionary relationships. There are some orchids that can only grow if their partner fungus is in the soil. Some people think Science is grand or cold and analytical, but I guess I like mycelium and such because they are anything but.” She gives a slightly embarrassed shrug and then takes another enthusiastic bite of her meal.

“If you wouldn’t mind, I’m sure that chair could use some puzzle solving, although it’s pretty low stakes, I would owe you one if you managed to fix it.”

"It wouldn't be any trouble," David explained, setting down his fork after finishing his salad.

"By the way, feel free to take all the mushroom pizza," he said with a playful smile.
"Being a vegetarian limits my pizza choices, but I draw the line at mushrooms," he added.
"I mean, who decided to put fungus on food anyway?" he continued with a chuckle, trying to keep things light with Mercy.

“Seriously, though - Medical can help with the muscle strain. That’s what they’re there for, after all,” David said, a note of concern in his voice.

Mercy speared a mushroom from her plate and popped it in her mouth. “A genius, that’s who. Mushrooms are great!” She then laughs a little, nearly choking and having to quickly sip some water. “Woops, wrong pipe.” She chokes the sound out as she held up a hand to forestall any further worry.

“I’ll consider popping down sickbay, but really, it’s just a little stiff. It’s not life threatening or anything.” She then looks down at her plate, now empty and she finds herself strangely disappointed. “I guess if I’ve finished lunch I should get back to work.” She then glances at him. “Although I enjoyed your company, how about if you fix my chair I will treat you to another free lunch?” There was a dizzying moment where she felt like a kid in the playground asking if someone wanted to be her friend.

“Kip,” David said with no preamble. When he detected a note of confusion on Mercy’s face, David went on.

“My friends have always called me Kip; my mom insisted on David, but Dad and all the others just called me Kip,” he explained. He took a steadying breath, hoping his nerves and emotions didn’t show too much, then nodded and smiled.

“And, I’ll fix your chair for the going fair price of lunch,” he said, abruptly switching the topic.

“But - no mushrooms…to eat, that is. I could stand to hear about them a bit more but not to eat.” He stood up and began to gather his and Mercy’s dishes, praying his mother saw that he had finally remembered his manners.

Before he could disappear with their plates Mercy smiles and got to her feet too. “Kip, pleasure to meet you. My friends call me Merc. Only my mother really calls me Mercy, actually she calls me Mercy Anne. But I prefer Merc.” She straightened her top, and finally noticed the salad dressing stain on her sleeve. “Bloody hell, not again.” She shakes her head at herself. “Catch you later, feel free to swing by the secondary science lab when you fancy saving me from a permanent crick in my neck.” She chuckled and then bounced out of the room with a wave, bumping into a table as she went.