Joint Personal Log - Lt Waterhouse & Lt Atarah - "Superman Or Green Lantern Ain't Got A-nothin' On Me"

Posted on Sat Aug 9th, 2014 @ 4:00pm by Commander Amelia Waterhouse & Danielle Atarah

1,922 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: In the Dark

Amelia was making her way across the ship yards to head back to the Vindicator after her little talk with Admiral Malone. She wanted out of her uniform, and she realized transporter probably would have been quicker, but she also wanted a little time with her thoughts. Taking the long walk from the Ticonderoga to the Vindicator probably was the Most practical way to be undisturbed for any length of time.

"Oy!" came a shout from the corridor, sharp and clear across the metal walls. "Officer on deck! Prepare ye cutlasses and ye tri-corns fer inspection, laddies!"

Lieutenant Dani Atarah rose from her place on the floor — where she seemed to have been busy sorting out her bag — and grinned with amusement. Missing her golden jacket and covered with a fine layer of dust, she straightened, clicked her heels together and produced a sharp mock salute.

"It's not Friday," Amelia muttered softly, returning the salute automatically even as her brain was sorting out that she didn't need to. She'd been deep in thought, so that it was a familiar and feminine voice that was mocking her with piratey talk, not her brother who was usually the source of that sort of thing, took a little longer to process. She'd actually turned and was looking Dani in the eye before Amelia actually realized who she was looking at.

"Dani!" Amelia closed the space between them quickly, and scooped the smaller woman up in a hug.

Dani let out a winning snort at her friend's automatic salute. Triggering the automatic salute-response of random officers was an art — one she rather enjoyed.

"Ooph," she added from within the hug, but returned the gesture, "good to see you, Waterbucket."

"What have you been up to? Last time I saw you was Griffin, yeah?" Amelia let the smaller woman out of the hug, and finally noticed the layer of dust that was covering her friend. A quick glance downwards, and Amelia could see that some of it had transferred to her uniform. She made a face, and tried to decide if she should risk the Dani teasing for cleaning it now, or wait until she was likely to get in trouble for being dust covered to actually bother to clean it.

"Trouble, mostly," Dani smirked, only half joking, "I've been reassigned again now," she shrugged, and gestured at the pile that was her bags, as if that explains everything.

"Everything's in flux these days," Amelia observed with a soft frown. "I just got assigned to the Vindicator myself. I can give a hand with your bags, if you want. Where are you posted?"

"The Vindicator? Fancy. You either did something colossally awesome or royally screwed," Dani grinned and handed Amelia one of her bags, then picked up her jacket, shook it twice, and slid it over her shoulders. "So which was it? Is this a promotion or a punishment?"

"I volunteered to keep an eye on a weird little Ferengi woman who's now part of that ship's engineering team," Amelia explained, adjusting the bag on her shoulder and brushing away the dust on the front of her uniform. "In the process I found out I'd forged more of a friendship with Rochelle Ivanova while on the Griffin than I'd realized." Amelia wasn't sure what Dani would think if she admitted that it was partially because of Ivanova she'd volunteered for the assignment in the first place.

"Ah, yes," Dani picked up the rest of her bags, "you're awfully good at friendships," she gave her a snarky smile and walked down the corridor towards the Vindicator.

"So good as to tell that I've once again irritated you," Amelia returned, head tilted to the right as she followed Dani. "You didn't say what ship you've been assigned to." Dani was conveniently headed in the direction Amelia was headed, but it would be too convenient if Dani had had ended up on the Vindicator too.

Dani shrugged, "Does it matter, really? They're mostly all the same. Except for the people. Well," she gave Amelia a sideways glance, "some people. Anyways, I got to go wherever the big man says I go, which is what I do." She pulled on the strap of one of the bags to readjust it across her shoulder.

"The people are the important part, though the name of the ship does make it easier to call each other across subspace," Amelia insisted, moving up to walk next to Dani. "Give me another bag or two, just because you can carry them all doesn't mean you have to."

"They are," Dan nodded seriously, and then, quickly, smiled again, pulled the strap of two of her bags and handed them to Amelia. "Here you go Waterhose. Oh, be careful with that one, though," she pointed, a mischievous spark in her eyes, "those are my precious delicates. And my comic books, which are also delicate. And precious."

Amelia accepted the bags from Dani, slinging one over her shoulder, and cradling the one with the comics like a precious artifact. The temptation to open the bag and look what comics Dani had in her collection was strong, but Amelia didn't want to risk dropping the bag and harming any of the comics.

"If you didn't specify there were comics in there, I'd accuse you of not having anything delicate," she teased with a grin, even as she wondered what it would take to convince Dani to let her peruse and read.

"Are you suggesting I'm rough and rugged?" Dani snorted and flexed her arms. "I do work out. I even picked up some defens'y thing in the holodeck at the shipyards," her fists went up to her face and then shot forward quickly, one after the other, "bam bam. I got pretty decent, too," she added, with more than a trace of pride.

"You are a badass," Amelia returned, giggling. Boxing wasn't her thing, but from what Amelia knew of combat in general, Dani's form seemed legit. "I look forward to you kicking my ass, we'll call you Tiny the Tinkerer. Which shipyards were you at? Not Utopia Planitia?" Amelia assumed her parents would have said something if Dani had been posted there, but she had been in and out of undercover assignments since she left Griffin so she may have missed it.

"I am." Dani agreed proudly. The chances of her actually kicking the taller woman's ass were slim to none, but she wasn't gong to admit that. "Eh," she looked at Amelia and hid a smile, "you know. A shipyard. They're all the same, really, except for the people. Oh, look, we're almost here," she pointed at the airlock. "That's your ship, isn't it? What was it, the Vindicated? Gotta love ship names these days, they just get better and better."

"Vindicator," Amelia corrected, knowing full well Dani knew. She could play the straight woman if need be, though it was odd to be cast in that role. She bit back a quip comparing the ship's name to that of a sex toy. She knew Dani wouldn't be offended, but approaching the ship, there were other people around and Amelia didn't know who might be offended and higher ranking than her. "Is this where you confess you'd forgotten the name of the ship you were assigned until we came to be standing at the airlock?" Somehow within the tangle of Dani's bags that surrounded Amelia, her hand found her hip.

"Does The Vindicator vibrate?" Dani took the bated quip with a grin that exposed just how much she was waiting to make that joke. She had absolutely no problems with who might be hearing her. She snorted a laugh and pointed at her back pocket. "I could never forget this ship's name," she snorted a laugh and pointed at her back pocket. "My orders are in there. You and Ivanova are going to have to suffer my presence once again — like one big happy family with its adopted black sheep."

"She did vibrate when we hit atmo," Amelia couldn't help confessing when Dani was willing to crack the joke that Amelia wouldn't dare in uniform around people she didn't know. When no one reacted to Dani's quip, Amelia felt she was safe from official response. "Was a bit of a thrill from the XO's chair," Amelia added with a wink.

Dani stopped and looked at her friend. "Please tell me you know that because the XO told you..."

Amelia just smirked, she'd let Dani chew on that one a bit before she confessed it'd just been a matter of timing and necessity that had placed her in the XO's chair.

Dani stayed standing for a few more moments before running to catch up. That's one story she'd need to insist on hearing. "Here we are," she hopped the step into the airlock passage, her bags rattling. "So are we going to be in the same quarters deck, or are you all senior staffy on this boat?"

"Eh, I had my fill on Griffin," Amelia demurred. "I went running back to Intel's open arms after breaking up too many children's fights within my department and dealing with too much command staff drama. I've been mostly doing field work, but they start getting twitchy if you don't take the occasional light assignment, like a cushy ship job."

"Good, I was afraid for a minute that you went over to the dark side. It's awkward enough that I have an XO that I actually like on a ship I'm on. Though don't tell that to Ivanova, I have a reputation to maintain." She added, smirking, and stopped in front of the turbolift to pull out the PADD from her back pocket. "Let's see where they authorities put me. If it says 'the brig' we might have to continue separately."

"If you're in the brig, I can show you right where it is. My boss was cooling his heels down there for a spell. I'm starting to learn names in that department, and they part with a quiet respect at the gray of my uniform." Amelia grinned, leaning over to look over Dani's shoulder at the PADD.

"Gray uniforms?" Dani snorted and looked at Amelia from top to bottom, "I thought you were just dusty. Ah, not the brig. Deck 6," she pointed at her PADD and looked up at Amelia, "How far away is that from your place?"

Amelia skimmed the PADD's contents, and found the section with Dani's quarters assignments. She considered a moment, trying to pull up a mental map of the ship to see if she could picture it. "We're on the same deck, I can tell you that," Amelia finally said. All fleet ships only had so many things in common, and it was always the difference that Amelia struggled with when she arrived on a new ship.

"Well then," Dani grinned and offered an elbow. "Walk me home, Waterfountain, and if you're lucky," she grinned and called for the turbolift, "I might let you look at my comics collection."

"How is it you know just the thing to say to a girl to get her all excited?" Amelia returned, grinning from ear to ear as she rearranged bags so that she could take Dani's offered elbow.

Dani wiggled her eyebrows with a Bugs Bunny grin. "Come along, Pond, and see more of my many talents."

=/\= END LOG =/\=

Lieutenant Amelia Waterhouse
Infiltration Specialist
USS Vindicator

Lieutenant Danielle Atarah
Engineering Officer
USS Vindicator

 

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