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Side Sim: Back in the Borrowed Science Labs

Posted June 27, 2020, 5:46 p.m. by Ensign Iyun Riani (Scientist) (Silke Fahl)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Achilleas Petrakos (Chief Science Officer) in Side Sim: Back in the Borrowed Science Labs

Posted by Ensign Iyun Riani (Scientist) in Side Sim: Back in the Borrowed Science Labs

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Achilleas Petrakos (Chief Science Officer) in Side Sim: Back in the Borrowed Science Labs
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Achilleas was at one of the lab tables reading a PaDD and generally being fidgety. He had the picnic basket and chilled food stuff from the last holodeck outing on the table next to him. He had been waiting for Ria’s arrival to her shift to give it back. He had been getting looks from some of the various NE’s and would just give them a grin and a shrug. He had no idea how to explain it or the underlying complications behind it. While he knew her shift hadn’t even started yet, he kept checking the time and felt jittery.

CSO Petrakos

Considering that Riani always arrived a few minutes early for her shift, it wasn’t long till the scientist walked into the lab. While she was usually fairly calm while on duty and definitely a lot less anxious than most any other time, it would probably be pretty obvious that that was not the case today. While walking into the lab , she was twisting the end of her long braid around her fingers behind her back. And she was chewing on her lower lip.

Spotting Achilleas, Ria couldn’t help but smile shyly and tenderly at him before she noticed the basket and her expression turned confused and even slightly worried. All the way to the lab she had been wondering how she should greet him and had almost decided upon a simple ‘hello’. But the sight of him (and that basket) wiped her mind blank and all she managed to say was, “Sir.” Her voice was a little stiff and feeling the blood rush to her face, she quickly looked down and hurried over to her work station. Only to instantly have a bad conscience. She could kick herself. Yet with all those NEs in the room she didn’t know how to rectify the situation.

~Ensign Iyun, Scientist

Achilleas was frozen on the spot and not sure in any way of how to proceed. Did he walk over and talk to her? Should he bring the basket over and give it back? Would it be wise to wait for the end of shift and catch her on the way out? What would be the best approach? Steeling his resolve he stood up and grabbed the basket before walking over to Riani’s work station. He set the basket down by her seat before he said, “Ensign, thank you for letting me borrow your picnic basket. I really enjoyed having the use of it and included some chilled food with it. Do please be sure to not let it go bad.”

Ria looked briefly up and tried to convey with her eyes how sorry she was for not saying more when she had entered the lab. She then looked down at the basket and said, “You’re welcome, Sir. And thank you.”

He walked back to his spot a little awkwardly. He wanted to say so many things beyond what he did. So many thoughts and feelings wanted to come out of him, but what was appropriate to say and what wasn’t? Where was the line? Until they had a chance to see the Captain and ask for permission to be together they had to be careful and professional. This was doubly so while they were working.

CSO Petrakos

After Achilleas had returned to his work station, RIa tried to focus on her work. But all the while she felt her mind drifting, which resulted in a few mistakes during the simplest tasks. Something that wouldn’t happen under normal circumstances. It weren’t mistakes that would cause any problems and she managed to catch them on her own, but it made her feel upset that she couldn’t focus. Wasn’t that the evidence that relationships with someone you worked with weren’t a good idea? Or was she just so scatterbrained because no one could know that they liked each other?

It was quite a while later that she rose from her desk and walked over to Achilleas under the pretense of wanting to show him something. After clearing her throat softly so she wouldn’t startle him in case he hadn’t seen her coming, Ria asked, “Could you have a look at this, Sir? Maybe we could go through it together? Something doesn’t quite seem to right.” She knew exactly what was wrong with her calculations, though, as she had put a deliberate mistake in it towards the end to have a reason to talk to him. And maybe - if she was brave enough - sneak a private word into the conversation as well.

~Ensign Iyun, Scientist

“Oh of course.” Achilleas said before taking the calculations and started running through them. He was surprised at the mistakes he found though as some of them were very elementary for someone of her caliber. He looked up at her with confusion clear on his face. He wasn’t sure if she was feeling off or not well and that made him concerned. “What a… what seems to be the problem?”

CSO Petrakos

Moving a little bit closer, Ria pointed at a line of the calculations and said, “This doesn’t seem to add up.” For a brief moment she teetered on the verge of saying something else and for once actually found the courage inside her to do so. Leaning in even closer and trying to ignore the tingly feeling in her body, she whispered, “I can’t concentrate. I’m sorry. Can we talk? Later? In private?” In her normal volume (that was still softer than most people’s) she continued, “This shouldn’t result in a negative value. I don’t know why it does.” And in a whisper, “I made this mistake on purpose. I’m sorry.” As she said that, she pointed out the line she had been talking about a moment before. But what she hadn’t noticed was that there were a couple more minor mistakes throughout the calculations.

~Ensign Iyun, Scientist

“Ah, I see what you mean, yes. This definitely doesn’t add up at all.” Achilleas responded first at a normal volume before continuing at a whisper, “No don’t be sorry. I’ve been trying to figure out how to talk to you all shift.” He coughed then pointed at a section of numbers, “This was supposed to be calculated using an inverse logarithm.” He shifted back to a whisper again, “I would welcome talking in private as soon as we get the chance. I don’t know why I brought the basket here, but I just couldn’t bring myself to bring it back to your quarters uninvited.”

“Oh, of course,” Ria replied with a small frown that was more play acting than anything. “I should have been able to figure that out myself. I’m sorry.” She then added in a whisper, “After our shift is over?” She wished they could talk earlier, but it didn’t seem wise to take a break at the same time. And clearly they couldn’t talk with other people around them.

Achilleas nodded in response to her question,

He made some quick corrections to all of the miscalculations he could see before holding the PaDD back to Riani. As she reached to take it back, he touched her hand gently and smiled up at her. “I hope this helps Ensign. They were easy mistakes to make so don’t beat yourself up over them. You’re one of the smartest scientists here but it’s okay to make mistakes.”

CSO Petrakos

As their hands touched she felt as if electricity was coursing through her, starting in that hand. “Thank you, Sir,” Riani replied and turned slightly pink because of the compliment. “It definitely does help. I should get back to work and I don’t want to keep you from yours either.” She then turned on her heels and headed back to her work station, hoping that the rest of the shift would pass faster than the first part.

~Ensign Iyun, Scientist

The rest of the shift didn’t seem to go any quicker than the rest had, at least to Achilleas. His work load was thankfully small as they were still in starbase and that made him feel less guilty over not being especially studious at his tasks. He spent a lot of his time reading new science publications, but was mostly caught himself looking in Ria’s direction. Why was he so distracted lately? Of course he liked her a lot and would want to spend every waking moment with her, but he recognized that these very excitable feelings would calm down and so would he. He doubted that it was going to be anytime soon though, though despite his rational mind telling him that she wasn’t going anywhere and they would have time. It would be much easier if they could be open about it, but that had to have its time and place for it and certainly not here.

CSO Petrakos

As her shift neared it’s end, Riani found herself simply staring at the PaDD in front of her without taking anything in. Instead she wondered how to proceed. Should she just leave at the end of her shift and hope he would follow? Should they leave together? Both options didn’t really feel right and equally suspicious. In the end she glanced briefly towards Achilleas as she left the lab when her shift was over. Once outside she kept on walking, hoping that he would follow in a few moments and that he’d manage to catch up with her. She had thought about waiting outside the lab. But they weren’t the only ones whose shift ended now.

~Ensign Iyun, Scientist

Achilleas watched Ria leave look towards him as she left. He forced himself to count to ten before he stood and moved to follow. Though he got sidetracked on his way out by some random questions, and grabbing the basket Ria had forgotten again, he was as quickly out the door as he could reasonably move and not seem to be rushing. He came across her a bit less than halfway to her quarters.

“Ria!” Achilleas called out while he walked quicker to catch up. He came to a stop with easy arms length but made no move to be intimate with her, he couldn’t yet while they were still in the open. “I’m glad I caught you. You forgot the basket again. Do you want to drop it off at your quarters first? Then I was thinking we could go back to mine to talk, but only if you were okay with that.”

CSO Petrakos

Turning around at the sound of his voice Riani couldn’t help but smile tenderly and then looked slightly embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I’m such an idiot. Thank you for carrying it after me,” she replied; avoiding both rank and name while hoping that she wouldn’t sound standoffish, yet formal enough that people wouldn’t bat an eye. If anyone was even paying attention to their conversation. “You are right, I better bring it right to my quarters so I don’t forget it somewhere again. I’ll catch up with you afterwards, if that is okay?” She would have like to walk with him, but felt it might draw too much unwanted attention. As for meeting in his quarters … she wasn’t fully comfortable with that, but it seemed to be their best option. So she took the basket and hoped Achilleas wouldn’t be upset.

~Ensign Iyun, Scientist

Achilleas nodded and smiled, “Yes, that’s okay with me. Are you feeling hungry? I could prepare a simple meal if you are.” He seemed to be oblivious to her discomfort at his suggestion. He honestly wasn’t even thinking that his quarters might somehow be more intimate than when they were hugging and wet in a cold river on the holodeck.

CSO Petrakos

Ria simply shook her head and after smiling timidly at Achilleas for a short moment, turned on her heels and headed towards her quarters. Once there she let herself fall onto her bed, relieved that her roommate wasn’t there to ask awkward questions. She lay there for quite a while. Afraid to go and afraid not to go. And as always worried about what other people might think and that they were breaking regulations. She didn’t want to get kicked out of Starfleet. Especially not so soon after her graduation. What would her parents say? Yet it was also clear to her that pretending like nothing had happened in the holodeck didn’t work out at all. The mistakes she had made today were minor and all of them had been caught. But what if tomorrow they weren’t? So grabbing a PaDD as an alibi from her nightstand, she left her quarters and a few minutes later arrived in front of his. There she stood for a couple of minutes, fidgeting an d drawing a couple of confused glances. If she didn’t do anything soon, someone would ask what she was doing there. And then what? So clutching the PaDD to her chest with one hand, she pressed the chime with her other.

~Ensign Iyun, Scientist


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