Posted by Ensign Ashlyn Trenton (Security Officer) in pre-sim Hard Work Pays Off

Posted by Ensign Sharah Fayth (Doctor) in pre-sim Hard Work Pays Off

Posted by Ensign Ashlyn Trenton (Security Officer) in pre-sim Hard Work Pays Off
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Sharah had settled into a steady work rhythm over the first months on Europa. The redesign of the arboretum went well and she had added the project to her working portfolio. Her work in sickbay was improving her already impressive skills by leaps and bounds. Working with Dr. Zarath was an amazing opportunity that Sharah was extremely grateful for. Not only was she becoming a better doctor, but he had helped her learn new techniques for controlling the noise and her gift. She was having limited success with them, but any success was better than where she had been.

She spent at least half a shift, if not more, in the arboretum every day. As she had discovered on the Galileo all those years ago, working with the plants soothed and calmed her. It was good place to loose herself for a little while every day. She had been working hard on examining the chemical and mineral compositions of the different plants. Those that added to her research, she planted samples in the small medical garden bed. She continued to work on her research, expanding the list of ‘folk remedies’ and adding more scenarios and injury types to the holo program.

This particular day she was hard at work during Bravo shift. She was inventorying and cleaning the auxiliary sickbay on deck 4 and battle sickbay on deck 9. She was testing equipment, placing broken/malfunctioning equipment in a box to be fixed, checking dates for medicines and doing general cleaning. It kept her busy, and Sharah didn’t like to be idle. While she was working a message came through for her, from the Academy, marked with priority. She went over to the console to read it. She couldn’t believe it, her face broke into a huge grin. She closed the message and finished her shift. Then she headed back to her quarters.

She walked in, practically bouncing. “Hey Ashlyn! Guess what?” She sounded ecstatic and excited.
En Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn spent most of this time in some form of training with Lieutenant Abrams and the rest of the security team, in sessions with Lieutenant Nox working through her traumas or on her mental defenses, or in Trenton Park which had become more popular as the program grew. Her duties had, as Abrams said, rotated to keep things fresh and interesting on the ship. The only time Ashlyn didn’t care for it was when the schedule changed and moved her to another shift, forcing her to have to remake the Trenton Park schedule. Nothing that she voiced, of course, just some internal frustrations while she had to contact her class to talk about the reschedule that would be sure to not exclude anyone. Most of her on the job training time was spent reading manuals and reports, going through the motions of restraining techniques, phaser range and hand to hand combat.

The sessions with Lieutenant Nox were…stressful. They made a great deal of progress taking apart the events that made Ashlyn who she was which only seemed to generate a gap between the Ensign and the Counselor. Going into a meeting with her meant having to relive terrible memories, explaining in detail the things that happened, or screaming in her head to keep the Counselor out of her more private thoughts. While the Counselor always said her inner thoughts were just thoughts, Ashlyn always felt judged for them in her presence and was glad to be done with the session at each conclusion. Afterwhich she would either go to the holodeck and spend time in her Trenton Park Program, go into the Jefferies Tubes to get away from people, or hide in her quarters until Sharah could come and comfort her.

Today, however, wasn’t one of those days. She had just been put back on a schedule that coincided with Sharah which meant that she could spend off duty time with her best friend. That was always the best, sure it wasn’t a romantic relationship but it was still almost always great fun. She had been released for the day early so she could adapt to her new schedule and was only moderately tired. She sent off a quick message to Sharah to let her know she would be in the room earlier for the schedule change and wanted to celebrate with popped corn and conversation. Ashlyn was equally excited when the doctor came into the room and responded in kind. “Joseph got a promotion and is being restationed here? No, wait, you won a bet and have some extra replicator rations? Oh, even better, Joseph wrote you a letter and is coming to visit on his next vacation?” While the first and second suggestions were meant to be a tease, Ashlyn was pretty sure the third option was more likely.

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

Sharah was excited that Ashlyn’s schedule was back Bravo shift so they could hang out more. And she had some extra replicator rations because she’d skipped some meals while she worked. A very bad habit of hers. She stepped over to the replicator and got the biggest bowl the unit could make of pop corn. She passed it up to Ashlyn.
They always celebrated with popcorn when Ashlyn’s schedule rotation came back around. “Although all three of those options sounds AMAZING and if Joseph was coming here, I don’t think I could have waited till the end of my shift to tell you.” She bounced up the ‘platforms’ to the top of a Jeffries tube and settled on to it, still bouncing on her perch. “I got a communique from SF Academy. I’m being temporarily assigned there to defend my research! And if it passes I’ll be helping create a new first aid course!” Sharah has been working since they boarded Challenger on this. It’s beyond a passion at this point, and more than an obsession. The initail results from her own personal research were promissing. The time at Academy would expand the range and number of people. “AND I already checked. This is temporary, my main assignment is still here, so this will still be my quarters so you won’t have to share with anyone while I’m gone.” Sharah had made sure of that, she wanted Ashlyn to be able to continue to have a place to relax and feel comfortable. She was going to miss Ashlyn. “And I have a 4 to 5 month time line. So I won’t be gone too long.”
En. Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn was genuinely excited for Shara, sure she was going to miss her friend but she would be back. It’s only 4 to 5 months and she’ll have the room to herself so it wont be a problem. “That’s awesome! I’m glad that all that time you put into it was worth it. I’ll take care of your plants here unless you plan to take them with you?” Ashlyn wasn’t the best with plants when they first met but Sharah’s obsession had grown and latched onto Ashlyn enough to put in the time to learn how to at least help take care of the plants in the room. Thankfully only one died because Ashlyn thought she hadn’t been watering it enough and ended up overwatering it. She made sure to replace the plant as soon as she was able to and has since not had any problems with the plants. She still prefers parkour over gardening though and will drag her friend with her into the holodeck if given the chance. “When do you leave?”

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

“In a week. I’ll take my bonsai with me. It’s always gone everywhere with me and I think I would feel a little lost without it. But the others can stay here. If it’s too much I can plant them in the Arboretum before I go. OH! And they already sent me my travel schedule. LOOK!” Ashlyn hadn’t been wrong. She had a four days of travel on Challenger. “Do you think I can manage to get on board without him noticing? I mean it’s already approved, but someone from security always checks the incoming and outgoing personnel lists.” She grabs a handful of popcorn from the bowl and begins to munch on it.
En. Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn grins, she likes a little mischief from time to time and a chance to get at Rainns just doesn’t happen all that often. “Given how often they get personnel lists, he’d notice your name right away. However, your name isn’t required, just a rank and serial number. So the question is, how much do you want to hide from him? I can make a few easy adjustments that would make you nearly invisible as long as he’s not looking for you specifically.” While the ships are different, their systems are identical and Ashlyn’s own chance to play with the systems made it easy for her to develop methods to counter them or make someone less obvious. She could probably write a paper on it if she could find the motivation to.

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

Sharah grins, “I’m sure he probably knows my serial number. I mean he’s obsessive about having all the information he can, but I doubt it is something that would jump out at him. According to this,” she taps the PaDD with her orders, “My transport will meet up with Challenger in the middle of Alpha shift. He’ll be on duty. And I have the lock code to his quarters. I’d love,” she blushes a little, “to be sitting on his couch when he gets off duty.” She grins mischievously. “I would love to be able to sneak up on him like that. Especially since he’s managed to do it to me on more than one occasion.” She grabs another handful of popcorn and then bounces down and back to the replicator to get drinks and then comes back, climbing back up again.
En Fayth, Doctor

Ashlyn pulled up a Jefferies Tube map of the Discovery Class ship. “This is something I discovered pretty early on which is why I requested that we not have the quarters across the hall. There is a Jefferies Tube access behind one of the wall panels, so you can get into the room without needing the security code. Using the code may alert him so it wouldn’t be a surprise. Going through the tubes though, he’d never see that coming.” Ashlyn then brought up another PaDD with a collection of clothing that resembles more ‘nightwear’ than anything you would use in a public room. “I’ve had some fun with a few designs, I’ll give you one of your choosing to wait for him in. That will really throw him off his balance. It’s like some of those bored conversations with the other security members, ‘what would you do if you came into your quarters and so and so was waiting for you?’ kind of thing. I’m sure you can imagine was my answer was most of the time.” Ashlyn pulled up another bit of data on her console, “I can even make you a sensor mask that would log your arrival, but run a kill loop that would cause a failure to report it. That gets a bit close to being on the wrong side though.”

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

“Well, I won’t need the jeffries tube. As long as I don’t put the wrong code in 3 times the system will ignore it. And before you ask how I know, he told me. After I collapsed when I got sick, he set it up. That way if something happened I could find or wait for him there, rather than wandering down the security deck instead.” She looked at the clothing files and shook her head strongly several times. “Nope, I appreciate the offer, but nope nope nope.” She looked at the sensor mask and shook her head again. “No I don’t want to cross any lines. I just want to surprise him. I can get into his quarters, I just need to get on the ship without him realizing it’s me coming on board.” She turned and laid across the tube, legs hanging off one side, and her arms over the side and laughed.
En. Fayth, Doctor.

Ashlyn gave off a teasing huff, “You’re no fun, but I understand and will only change the name to the serial number. He’ll know it’s you though, and you know his policy is to change passwords and command codes every six months right? That’s just basic information security.” Ashlyn flicks some of the popcorn into the air to catch in her mouth before offering to launch some at Sharah. “Besides, he’s probably already aware that you are coming and has a romantic candlelit dinner waiting for you in his quarters already. He’s not without his own connections, in fact if you give me about three hours I could tell you what those connections are and how best to bypass them.” Ashlyn laughs at herself, “Sometimes I have to wonder if I’m not the villain here. Hiding, bypassing security, deep observation protocols, and infosec habits. You’d almost think I’m stalking him.”

• Ensign Ashlyn Trenton
  Security, USS Europa

“Could you get one of the shift leaders to approve it. They can do that. And then it wouldn’t really pass his desk, so to speak. Besides it’s only been a couple hours. If he knew, he’d already have called me to make sure it was true. And you ARE stalking him. There is more than one member of the conference who is determined to make him pay if he breaks my heart.” She grins. “Yes he does change it, but I have my own code. And I have the new one too. The likelihood that I would ever use it is slim, but he updates that as well and tells me.” She laughs and tries to catch a piece of tossed popcorn in her mouth and fails. “OH you know we might be able to get NE Nurse or NE Doctor to help. They would love to help with this little project. Especially since NE Nurse kept making excuses for him to come to sickbay because of me while I was sick. She’s pushy.” She laughs at the memory though.
En. Fayth, Doctor