The Odd Couple

Posted on Tue Apr 2nd, 2024 @ 4:17am by Chief Petty Officer Nevan Kayto & Petty Officer 3rd Class Grexx & Petty Officer 3rd Class Cormus Fletcher

1,174 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Side Plots
Location: Deck 20
Timeline: 1300 Hrs, MD -4, M:0

Kayto had finally taken time to go over his department roster, only to find a few days before his arrival a small compliment of his team had already been assigned, a couple of young men fresh into Civil Operations. The rest of his team roster remained open which seemed to be par for the course with the rest of their given situation. One was previously a field medic, the other spent time as a shuttle maintenance pilot before transferring over. An interesting pair to say the least, hopefully their attitude would be tempered but given their age and career profiles thus far, Nevan wasn't sure what to expect.

Tapping the chime on to the door of the pairs quarters, the occupants inside were definitely not expecting a visitor.

"Who could that be?" Cormus said. He slid out of the top wall bunk and set his plate of half eaten pizza on the couch. Grexx had been laying on it with his feet up and his jacket half off. "Hey, I don't leave my leftovers where you're relaxing."

Fletcher threw a dirty sock he found on the floor at the Bolian before hearing the door chime once more and finally answering it. The door opened to present one of the most clean cut and also one of the dorkiest looking dudes that he'd seen in a long time. His eyes darted to the mans collar seeing his rank. Cormus knew immediately who it was and paused for a moment. This guy looked like a total square.

"Nevan Kayto, I'm the NCOIC for Civil Operations. Petty Officers Fletcher and Grexx I presume." After a moment of silence he cleared his throat when neither of them responded, but remained at attention. So instead he simply entered their room with the door closing behind him.

"Standard enlisted quarters, stacked built in bunks..." The Betazoid looked around for a moment and sniffed "smells like...." and next turned to look at Grexx "old cheese in here. This room is a pigpen."

Grexx spoke up first "To be fair, uhm, Sir, we didn't know we'd have a room inspection."

Cormus rolled his eyes, which Nevan caught and turned towards him, getting only a few inches away from his face "Something wrong here, Fletcher? This is your mess, not mine. In fact starting tomorrow you're both on rotation for room inspections. You can help give the other NCO's a couple more mornings of normal wake ups."

Fletcher finally spoke "That's really out of bounds, Mr. Kayto. You know that Civil Ops doesn't get tasked with extra duties due to our schedule and responsibilities." He looked at the other man squarely locking eyes. Nevan didn't flinch and just stared right back before finally smiling. "Well I guess it's a good thing I'm you boss and I can make an exception to that policy any time I want." He then turned and made note of the rest of the rooms layout. It was pretty straight forward.

He'd entered through the door, there was a couch on the wall to the far side, the beds were integrated into the wall to the right, and a display screen on the same wall as the door he'd entered through. The empty wall to his left had a small table and a pair of chairs as well as a few photos and posters. The room itself had various odors, a couple of which Nevan decided to track down. He didn't bother to check either of their beds which were obviously not made, their comforters balled up on whichever end they'd chosen, along with their pillows. Their sheets looked like they'd already seen better days as well.

The two young men stood in the center of their room, frozen, as Kayto began to walk about. He looked at the table and saw a couple half eaten trays of food before walking over to the couch. Grabbing it by the corner, he slid it out and to say the least, was less than thrilled at what he saw. Along with various articles of soiled undergarments and socks, he found a plate of half eaten calamari and crab legs. "Good god. You two are disgusting. Who's is this?"

Cormus looked over at Grexx who stood there frozen, only to receive a sharp elbow in his ribs to bring him back into real time "Mine Sir" Grexx replied.

Nevan let out a sigh of frustration "Mr Grexx, if you call me Sir one more time I'm going to have you scrubbing plasma manifolds for the next six months. Unlike the two of you, I actually work for a living. What's apparent here is that both of you have mastered the art of living in filth, and from now on this will be nowhere near acceptable. If you want to live in squalor I'll have both of you busted back down to Crewman, you can return to squad bays and your previous ratings as well. Civil Operations isn't a damned cake walk."

"Aye Si-, I mean aye aye Mr. Kayto." Grexx replied.

"That goes for you as well, Mr. Fletcher"

Fletcher looked at Nevan for a moment and then resigned as well "Aye, Mr. Kayto."

Refocusing on the only wall that had any sort of decorum, Nevan walked over to it and began making note of what appeared to be family members or vacation photos and the like. One in particular however stood out to him. It was a beautiful woman with brown hair, a bit past her shoulders in an evening dress. She looked fit, maybe in her mid thirties. Thanks for the evening Grexx!! XOXO.

"Who's this?" Kayto asked.

Fletcher walked over "Some gal that Grexx here met on graduation night, they disappeared from the bar and he woke up the next morning with this left behind. Our blue friend here is a ladies man."

Grexx blushed and came over too "I never did get here name and....I don't remember much of the evening. I'd already had a quite a few drinks by the time she made her way over to me to be honest. Not sure why she'd leave an autographed photo but-" he shrugged "maybe I'll run across her again one day."

"Fat chance" Cormus replied.

Nevan took one more look at the photo and then turned back to the pair "Get this place cleaned up an start on rotation tomorrow. I want this place spotless, you're subject to inspection at any time. Stop leaving food out and clean up your underwear from the floor. The two of you have lived here a whole what, 11 days?"

"Actually 9" Grexx said.

Nevan shook his head and walked towards the door "Get it done, that's an order."

A moment later he was gone, leaving the odd couple behind to start picking up their mess. Grexx figured he'd make his way to the table and start placing things in the replicator for recycling. Cormus just climbed back up into his bunk and laid back. He'd get to his part later....

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