Post 6

Posted on Fri Aug 1st, 2014 @ 5:14pm by Captain Christina Curtis & Commander Leo Carpegiani PhD

Mission: Begin with a Bang
Location: Stellar Cartography Lab, Discovery NX-04
Timeline: May 11th, 2155 - 0928 hours

The lab was quiet except for the hum of the environmental systems and the occasional muttering from its sole inhabitant. Leo sat at one of the outer workstations tapping away at the interface, updating a local file he had created to list all of the equipment that he did not find in the labs during his tour that morning.

Once he had settled into his quarters, he had jumped right into his new responsibilities with an inspection of all twenty specialist scientific labs, fourteen rotating research labs and he forgot how many scientific equipment storage lockers. After pottering, rummaging, cataloguing and rearranging for about three hours, Leo finished his inspection and grabbed some breakfast from the Mess. Rather than eating there with the three or four other crewmembers who were quietly eating by themselves, he took his pastry and coffee and headed up to Deck B to enjoy a working breakfast in the tranquillity of the Stellar Cartography Lab.

The breakfast was soon forgotten, going cold next to a half-drunk cup of frigid coffee over on the edge of the main stellar mapping display while Leo worked on his list. "Who thought it would be a good idea to leave without a sub-zero specimen collection unit?" he muttered in Italian; he often spoke to himself while he was alone and sometimes even when others were around. "Did they think we might not need that?"

"I'm sure we might need one at some point," said a soft but confident voice behind him, from the hatchway he had not noticed slide open. "But we've still got at least two weeks left until our launch date. I'm sure we can managed to rustle one up in that time." Christina had decided that she needed something to do after coming aboard this morning - other than read transfer approvals and refusals - but had been trying to come to terms with the fact that as the captain, she couldn't very well micromanage all of the engineering teams fitting the final systems into the ship. Thankfully, one of the reports she had already covered had mentioned that her science officer had already reported aboard, so she had decided to come and find him. "At least we can never leave without the stars to look at," she said, indicating the stellar cartography monitors around them.

Leo's head shot around in the direction of the unannounced stranger lingering by the entryway. He might have said something he shouldn't have, but his eyes went straight to the four pips on the front of her uniform. "Ah, Capitano!" he said, a warm smile crossing his face despite his mind raging at not finishing his list. He stood up and crossed to the captain with his right hand outstretched. "I did not hear you come in," he said, switching back to English. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Leo Carpegiani, your Science Officer."

"Pleasure's all mine, Commander," Curtis replied, taking the man's hand and shaking it firmly. "Can I call you Leo?" At his slight nod of agreement, she nodded her head towards the forgotten breakfast that sat near a collection of personal display pads. "Is our lack of a specimen collection unit really bothering you so much as to affect your appetite? Or has chef decided to let one of the dock workers cook breakfast again this morning?"

Leo furrowed his brow and glanced over at the breakfast-gone-cold. "Oh," he said, suddenly remembering its existence. "No, no no no no no," he shrugged and smiled. "I often do this, I'm sorry. I will start eating and then -" he clicked his fingers in the air, "- I will remember an important task I had to complete or I will be distracted with an engrossing passage in a journal article and I will just ... forget my breakfast. Don't worry, I usually finish it off sooner or later."

The science officer waved a dismissive hand in the direction of the meal and turned back to his work. "It is not just the sub-zero specimen collection unit, I'm afraid," he said. "There are many things we still need to come aboard before I can confidently call our research facilities fully stocked. Granted, it may be that they are en route to us right this minute and I am being too zealous wanting my labs at peak readiness, but I think you will agree, Captain, that it is better to be finding out now than after we have passed the Kuiper Belt." He looked up at Curtis with slightly raised eyebrows and a hint of a smile, clearly expecting agreement.

It was agreement that he instantly received. "Absolutely," the captain said, moving closer to take a look at the list Leo had been composing on his padd. "This is a ship of scientific exploration afterall - we can hardly fulfil our mission if we don't have the equipment for it. What are we missing?"

Leo handed her the padd as he said, "I have identified forty-two pieces of equipment that are currently not aboard the Discovery." He pointed to items listed on the padd as he rattled off, "No laser-induced breakdown spectroscopes, alpha particle spectrometers, mobile DNA sequencers, meteorological scanners ..." he shrugged, "the list goes on."

"Hmm," Curtis intoned as she read through the list, involuntarily mouthing the names of some of the more complexly named pieces of equipment. "Well, we do have two weeks left until we're scheduled to launch. It's certainly possible that most of this equipment is on the list of things still to come aboard. Still-" she looked back up and handed the PADD back to Leo. "I don't want us rushing to load everything last minute. Prioritise which of these you think are most critical, and submit a request to Command for them to be brought onboard immediately. I'll add my weight to it to make sure it arrives as soon as they can wheel it on to a transporter pad."

"Grazie, signora," Leo said with a slight bow of his head as he took the PADD back and placed it down on the console. He turned back to the captain, one other question burning in his mind. "Ah, Captain, if I may ask, is there any indication from Command about where we may be heading? It's a big galaxy out there, and it would be interesting to know which direction we are going."

"Unless they give us a specific directive, Starfleet's precedent so far is to go by captain's prerogative," Christina replied with a slight shrug. "I'll try to find a star to head towards when we leave if we don't hear anything from Starfleet in the meantime," she quipped.

Leo smiled, the thought of being part of a mission with free reign over where they explored stoked a sense of excitement and wonder inside him that made him feel like a boy again. "I will send you a list of highlights I believe you may find interesting," he said in a matter of fact way, allowing for no possibility of dissent from his commanding officer. He spun on his seat back to the console and created a new document, starting his list from memory and quite forgetting all about the captain's presence.