Lab Rats Part 1: Where does this go?

Posted on Sun Jan 14th, 2024 @ 10:25pm by Ensign Dani Harper & Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik
Edited on on Sun Jan 14th, 2024 @ 10:30pm

1,002 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 0: Where do we go from here?
Location: Deck 17: Security and Intelligence Support Lab
Timeline: MD: -5 Days to Launch

[ON]

Ensign Dani Harper held the PADD in one one hand and with the other she tapped the back with her fingers, a little fidgety as she walked toward the Security and Intelligence Support Lab. She was more of a biologist, so she never spent much time in one, but the orders were pretty simple: unpack the crates and put things away. The diagram of where things went was on her PADD. She was sure the other two ensigns assigned to help had the same directions.

She stepped into the specialized lab on Deck 17 that was near their training facilities. "Hello? Anyone home?" She called out.

Hunter looked up, "Can I help you??" Hunter hadn't been on board more than a few hours so he knew no one.

She held up her PADD. "Ensign Dani Harper. I'm here to help get this lab squared away. My orders say there are some crates that need to be unpacked, cataloged, and then everything gets put away. Are you my partner?"

"Hunter Lloyd, I came in on the morning personnel shuttle." Hunter paused "I'm here as part of the intelligence department, I'm just an intelligence officer."

"Well, Hunter, nice to meet you. "I'm from the science department, and this is the Security and Intelligence Support Lab, so it looks like today you get to learn what equipment you have and where it goes," Dani said matter-of-factly.

"Ah..." Hunter smiled, "I was supposed to meet up with an Ensign Wilson."

"Oh hi!." a voice called out "Yeah that's me, I'm Ensign Rose Wilson, let me guess Hunter Lloyd and ummm..." pausing "Dani Harper?"

"Yup," Dani said a friendly smile on her face. "Kinda nice to be away from the main labs for a day. A little change of pace never hurt anyone. Should we get to unpacking?"

Rose looked around, "We should inventory it too, just so we know what we have and what we're waiting on, I mean setting up a lab and finding out we're missing key equipment am I right?"

"Yup," Dani confirmed. "Inventory and put away. My orders have a diagram of where everything should go. You guys both new?" Dani asked.

Hunter spoke first, "I got here last night, I've spent the last six months stuck in a basement at intel headquarters doing research until an assignment came open, how about you two?"

"I graduated three weeks ago, I got put on leave for two weeks then got called to board a shuttle headed to here, the rest is kinda well... I'm here," Rose said with some energy.

"Transferred here a couple of days ago because my old ship was leaving the sector. I'm going on two years now with Starfleet. You guys can stick with me. I'll show you the ropes," Dani offfered.

Hunter looked around, "When I got here I was really surprised that I was getting a Galaxy class ship assignment, most of my classmates got starbases or smaller assignments, but I guess that's starfleet for you."

"This is an old one. They dug it out of storage. The fleet just isn't what it was, and they can't build ships fast enough," Dani said with a shrug. "We are lucky for sure."

Hunter chimed in, "They still haven't figured out what caused that whole thing, I always thought there were safe guards to prevent things like that, shows how much more I have to learn at times."

"More likely they know and just aren't saying," Dani added, taking out some energy reading equipment and inventorying it with her scanner. "This goes under the far left counter," she said handing the device to Rose.

Rose taking the unit walked over too the far part of the counter, "That's a given, I still remember being in the common room in the dorms when that all went down, I thought earth was next."

Hunter looked up, "I was at the firing range, they had us safety all of our weapons when that standby alert went out."

"I was still at the Academy too," Dani said. "The worst part was not being able to reach my family. Apparently they were trying to get through for days and couldn't."

"My brother was aboard the Jacksonville, they were ordered not too enter the system incase they expanded their attack." Rose commented, "Based on what he could tell me they just hovered there and watched the live feed."

Dani stopped what she was doing and stood there in a somber silence. In a quieter voice she commented, "Maybe we shouldn't have been used for that. It always seemed a little strange. Like they could have feelings."

Rose was about to speak =^="Ensign Wilson you have a subspace message incoming."=^=

"Damn it!, I'll be back" she said as she ran out the door.

"Wonder what that was about," Dani said out loud. "Anyway, this box this full of diffusing equipment, and we need to scan it and it goes in overhead cabinet on that wall." Dani pointed to the cabinet she saw on her PADD.

"It's her brother over on the Jacksonville, they're at McKinley undergoing a refit after some action." Hunter said, "Up here?" pointing to the center cabinet.

"Yup, middle shelf," Dani confirmed. She carefully lifted the next set of items out of the crate with two hands and gently put them on the table. "Looks like you're getting a chemistry set. Let's leave this here for now, and when we find the rest of it, I'll show you how to set it up."

"Sounds like fun, did they ship up the field kits or are those on the next trip?" Hunter said.

"You can start looking in that other crate over there," Dani suggested. "I don't see any in here," she said as she kept digging through the crate she was working on and pulling more of the chemistry equipment.

>> To Part 2 >>

Ensign Hunter Lloyd
Intelligence Officer
USS Imperator

Ensign Dani Harper
Science Officer
USS Imperator

Ensign Rose Wilson
Security Officer
USS Imperator

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