Coffee Spills

Posted on Sat Apr 11th, 2020 @ 4:46pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Lieutenant Aurelius Davis & Lieutenant Samantha Leyton

Mission: Mission 2 - Fallout
Location: Deck A - Main Bridge
Timeline: Day 8, Month 1, Year 0 06:30
1382 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

It was not often that Beth felt a sense of achievement but as she walked onto the bridge carrying a huge flask of coffee, condiment and cups. It was the first batch of coffee thanks to the processes that had been done to convert the water and algae into something useful. She looked at Aurelius’ and offered him a cup as he rose from the Command chair having been Officer in charge seeing everyone else had been on the surface. “Coffee anyone?” She wondered.

"Those are the most wonderful words I have ever heard." He paused looking at Samantha. "But ladies first." He moved to take another chair out of the way.

Sitting at her post at the helm station, Samantha had barely heard the captain as she adjusted the port thruster control input. 'Hopefully, that takes off a half-second reaction time for the thrusters to fire up,' she thought, before realizing a pair of eyes were boring into the back of her skull. "Oh, sorry, I'd love some! Thank you."

Beth wondered if there was an issue with the thrusters got a moment but Samantha had not mentioned anything and Carter has not mentioned anything. “Here Lieutenant.” Beth passed the coffee over putting the tray down before sitting on the edge of the chair. “Are we in a stable orbit?”

"Yes, ma'am. We're in standard geosynchronous orbit of the planet," she said as she accepted the coffee. "I was just tweaking with the Port thruster control to try and improve thruster react time." She sipped the coffee and smacked her lips a couple of times and looked down at the beverage in her hands.

Aurelius couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. He knew Samantha was worried about how they were going to get home but she seemed like the type of person who would at least do her job well and have the ship running perfectly. "Thank you very much," Aurelius said accepting a cup of coffee from Beth with a brilliant smile. "Not much going on here naturally," He told Beth. "In fact, I've actually let myself get bored."

"Bored it a welcome change of pace," Beth commented on taking a ship. The landing parties had been gone two hours and nothing had been found so far, it was disappointing as much as it was peculiar, there should be some type of sign that Sloan was there. You could not just lose a man like that especially Sloan.

"Yeah, that's true. But something in between might be nice." He gave a half shrug and settled into an empty chair, clutching the coffee as if it was precious.

"I would settle with finding my Executive Officer unharmed at the moment," Beth stated as she turned her attention to the viewscreen. It was nice to see something other than purple if she was honest. Purple was all well and good but when everything was tinged with it, it was unnatural.

"We'll find him, ma'am," Samantha offered before taking another sip of her coffee. "So, this Algae Coffee isn't half bad. How did you brew it?"

He hadn't meant it like that. He opened his mouth to respond and then closed it again. He looked down at his cup instead, chastising himself for being so insensitive.

Beth smiled a little at then both trying to perk her up. It was kind of them to try and perk her up but it was her job and she needed to step up to the mark. “I know it is a matter of when not if.” She assured dipping on the sweet liquid. “It is the water from the surface with the processed algae. Nothing special really just our systems are fall and working.”

"Well Algae never tasted so good," Aurelius gave a nod, clasping the cup with both hands and breathing in the scent. It actually smelled mostly like coffee, the kind he used to wake up to in the mornings at home when he was a kid.

"See I told you, Lieutenant, I would provide the coffee." The Officer in Charge teased just a little thinking back on the conversation that had happened seven hours before.

"Uh, yes you did." He felt like he was blushing.

Samantha looked from Commander Leroux to Davis and noticed the slight redness in Davis' cheeks. 'Just got lost and those two are already hitting on one another,' she thought as she took another sip of her coffee. A sudden vibration in the ship caused an alarm to go off and lurch to one side, spilling the hot, liquid treasure onto her uniform before she spun in her chair.

Beth heard the noise a second before anyone else and clutch her chair tightly to make sure she did slip to the floor due sitting on the edge. "Report," Beth demanded pulling herself to her feet moving over to where Samatha was trying to get them steady.

"Damn, the starboard impulse engine reactor went offline," Samantha reported and she went through a restart sequence of the impulse engine, noticing the fact that their orbit was now slowly dropping from her readouts.

Aurelius's eyebrows went up when he nearly dropped his coffee.

A moment later, the starboard engine fired up and Samantha corrected the orbit, bringing the ship back into a stable orbit. "We're back in position ma'am. Engineering should take a look at the Starboard impulse reactor. I'd hate to have another hiccup like that when it's an emergency."

"Good job and no Engineering I am sure are fully aware that we have had a hiccup," Beth assured glancing back to the comms operator who was hastily talking to the Engineer on duty explaining the situation.

"Yeah, she's a bit temperamental, like most women I know." He grinned, fully expecting to hear back from both of them about that.

The remarks caused Samantha to look over her shoulder with a cocked eyebrow. "Oh really?" she placed her hand on the inertial dampener control, as the thought of engaging it, causing the ship to stop suddenly flashed through her mind before realizing it may not be the best idea with so many aboard. She then looked up at Commander Leroux. "Perhaps we could leave Davis on the planet after we find Slaon, ma'am?"

"Rather not. Morale Officers are in high demand at the moment." Beth assured as she moved back to sit and picked up her coffee gracefully crossing her leg. She smiled as she saw the daring expression on the woman's face that was quickly shot back and it made her happy to know she had chosen the right person to replace Aurelius. The woman had the thoughts but she did not act on them.

Aurelius set down his cup and put up his hands. "I'll try to behave myself." Actually, despite his worry over Beth and Michael, this had been the nicest day of the mission, just the three of them. These ladies were pretty nice company, he just wouldn't want to piss them off.

As things quietened down on the Bridge the communication terminal started to beep. "Ma'am... they think they have him but they are saying there are beings down there unlike anything they have seen before." The young operator said as Beth walked over to listen to what was being said.

"Well then," Aurelius said, offering to take Samantha's coffee mug for her. "I guess we better get back to work."

Samantha handed the cup back to Aurelius. "Thank you," She then turned to the captain. "Captain, permission to change my uniform?" she indicated to where the coffee spilled on her when the ship jolted.

Beth looked up from the communication console where she was waiting to find out what was happening on the surface. "Of course Lieutenant," Beth said quickly as a young Ensign stepped up to take the controls. She offered a reassuring smile to Aurelius hoping that the fact someone else was taking his place hurt him. It would get better with time she knew that she just had to find ways to get him busy.

OFF::

Lieutenant Aurelius Davis
Morale Officer
NX Atlantis

Commander Bethsabee Leroux
Officer In Charge/Chief Communications Officer
NX Atlantis

Lieutenant JG Samantha Leyton
Chief Helm Officer
NX Atlantis