Joint Personal Log - Lt Atarah, RAdm Waterhouse & Captain Diziara -

Posted on Thu Aug 7th, 2014 @ 5:06am by Commander Amelia Waterhouse & Danielle Atarah

3,344 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: In the Dark

The computer spat consonants, and Dani groaned at it, trying to avoid returning the favor with curses from ten different languages. Instead, she pulled the two PADDs from her back pocket and swiped them next to the screen, tapping furiously. The PADD connected, overrode the local interface, and blinked success.

"Good, English." She tapped her question on the screen. The interface wasn't any hacking tool. All it did, really, was supply a much better interface to the local Klingon computer. Text only interface. One that doesn't yell at you without any vowels.

The screen blinked and Dani snorted, memorized the route she will need to follow to get to her destination and disconnected her PADDs. She picked up her bag and walked down the hall.

Observation deck three was as any Klingon observation deck was. There were no concessions to comfort, such as benches to sit on. The view wasn't anything particularly nice to look at; it was a tactically advantageous view of one of the main approaches into the shipyards, in case view screens were taken off line during an attack. Sitting leaning against the bulkhead under the view port sat the silvery-blond Admiral and his Klingon-Trill wife. The only thing that pegged them as Starfleet were their combadges, his on his shirt and hers on a choker.

"I volunteered to lead a fighter squadron on the front lines," she said, breaking the comfortable silence. He turned his head slightly to look sideways at her. Sitting like this, their height looked to be similar, as most of her height was in her legs.

"This means I better go volunteer to lead a fighter group then," he returned with a soft frown. She growled, so he took her hand in his. "Do you think I'm going to let you risk your life for the fleet by yourself, Kitten?"

"I want you to stay safe in the shipyards," she insisted, leaning forward and drawing her knees to her chest. Corey laughed, and she glared at him over her shoulder.

"I know you know that's bullshit, just because they're behind the lines doesn't make them safe. They're a valuable tactical target, and the Federation knows exactly where we are. It was broadcast on an open channel when the empire welcomed us in." As he said this, he laid a hand on the small of her back, on the skin exposed by the gap between her shirt and jeans. "Lead a squadron here, protect the shipyards and me."

"And me," a muffled voice chimed in from the nearby wall, right behind a closed hatch. Metallic grinding sounds emanated from it, then a grunt. The external access handle rattled to the left, then right, then both in rapid succession, followed by another grunt. A stream of exotic curses accompanied what sounded like a frustrated pounding, and then a soft muffled sigh.

Both started at the voice from the wall. Diziara narrowed her eyes at it as her d'k tahg seemed to materialize in her hand, while Corey looked around as a flash of recognition crossed his face. He laid he hand on his wife's forearm.

"I think our hosts will skin you alive, if they catch you in there and you didn't forge yourself some believable maintenance orders," he said, moving towards the hatch. His sonic screwdriver came out of his pocket, and he aimed it at the hatch a moment. "I swear, Klingons always over tighten screws," he muttered, bracing against the wall as he grasped the handle. "Push on three. One... Two... Three."

"What, wait, no I--- ooph," the door flung open, and the engineer spilled out, her legs inside the tube, her upper body sprawled on the floor, her tool bag landing square on her chest. She grunted, patted dust from her jacket and coughed, looking between Cor and Diziara with a lopsided smile. "I always have believable orders." Maybe she'll change the ones in her pocket to declare she was doing maintenance to this hatch opening. It clearly needed it.

"Hello." The lopsided smile expanded to a full blown grin as Dani pushed herself off the floor and into a crouch, dusting herself off.

"Indeed you do," Corey conceded to Dani's insistence about the orders. There were a couple times he'd happened upon her, up to something he knew she shouldn't have been... But she had paperwork to back it, and there was nothing flawed about it. Never anything harmful, so he ignored it and played dumb. Once it had been pay back against a member of his team who had it coming. He'd seen to it an anonymous care package of cookies had ended up on her desk for that one.

"How long were you listening, little one?" Diziara tilted her head to the side, regarding Dani with a wary eye as she put away her knife.

Dani pushed hair off her eyes. "Long enough to hear you two argue about the best ways to get deeper into muddy waters," she shook her head with a shrug. "I wasn't snooping," her arms came up, "I swear. I expected to catch you on your way to dinner or drinks or... something else Klingon."

"I've been stuck in too many briefings, I needed to get away from people," Corey said with sigh. "And Diz doesn't always get authorization to launch and play with the fighter, so she gets restless if we don't leave our quarters."

"And I can't find a bar fight," Diziara sneered, "Conduct unbecoming an officer, the bane of my existence." She slumped back against the wall with a dramatic eye roll.

"We'll find a way to visit your brother on Qo'noS and leave the combadges behind when we hit the bar, Kitten," he assured her. "To what do we owe the pleasure of this visit from the great Lieutenant Danielle Atarah?"

"It's not that big of a bane, or you'd be shedding those ranks," Dani gave Diz a smarmy look and then looked to Cor, remembering the purpose of her searching for the two. "Well, it seems Starfleet, in its infinite wisdom, never really learns from its mistakes. I have a new assignment." She pulled the PADD from her bag and gave it to Cor, giving both him and Diz a suspicious look. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

After their rushed exit from Utopia Planitia, Dani, at least, was in assignment-limbo, waiting to see where the fleet will deem her most needed, and trying not to obsessively bog herself down with the realization that the place she'd actually be most needed is Earth itself. But now that she had the PADD, the actual ship on the orders were just too much of a coincidence to not suspect that someone may have had a role in helping it along; if not the fact she'd be assigned, then definitely the ship itself. At least it was a good coincidence.

"As long as he stays in, I'm better off as an officer now that he's an admiral," Diziara grumbled. "I'm not cut out for that ringleader of the socialite circus crap that an admiral's civilian wife is expected to be." As she complained, Corey held a hand out to her and she grabbed hold of it.

"The last time I influenced Pond's duty assignment, she didn't let me hear the end of it for months, so I've stopped meddling," Corey insisted, even as Diziara shook her head with a smirk behind his back. He accepted the PADD from Dani and skimmed it in that speedy efficiency most officers perfect before becoming brass. "Pond'll be happy."

Dani gave them both a sarcastic smile, "I guess I can live with that assignment for now. It's better than staying here," she gestured casually. "It will be nice to be able to eat things that have more than just consonants in their name," the smile switched again to her signature grin. "And Pond is a nice cherry on top of the proverbial poo," her smile faded to a thoughtful expression, "wait, that didn't come out right," she blinked and shrugged, "well, you know what I mean. You didn't tell her, did you? I'd like to be able to keep this for a surprise." In fact, Dani was going to milk this for all it's worth; If Amelia wasn't aware of her relationship with her parents, then Dani was going to enjoy playing the "intelligence oxymoron" role with her friend.

"We haven't even spoken recently. When she came out of cover again, Diz and I had been on our way here... And because I'm curious what you intend to do with it, I haven't mention our dinner dates," Corey explained.

"Weren't we due another letter when we left?" Diziara asked, and Corey directed a look at her. "She's smart, she's bound to have figured it out on her own by now."

"Good," Dani nodded in satisfaction; this had the potential of being incredibly amusing. Long-term, potentially. She liked that. "No need for her to know, unless she asks directly," she chuckled to herself. "Oh! I almost forgot. I have something for you two. It was supposed to be a present for when I left for Earth, but since the plans changed, I figured I'll give it to you now." She picked up her bag and dug through it, extracting a big box and a little box. She gave the big box to Corey and the little one to Diziara. "There you go. You should probably open yours first, Chief," she gestured, smiling.

Corey looked at his box with skepticism. He didn't think he'd done anything to warrant a prank from the spunky engineer, but you never could tell with this one... there was a good reason his daughter had been known to call Dani Bugs Bunny. Her pranks were usually pretty harmless, even if he'd done something to warrant it, but still he hesitated.

Diziara didn't wait for Corey to open his box, despite Dani's suggestion. When she pulled a little remote out of the box with a single button, she looked at it confused with her head tilted to the side. Corey raised his eyebrow at the remote, and finally opened his box. Inside were a pair of goggles, and he flipped them around to look them over.

"What's the remote for?" Diziara asked, looking at the goggles Corey held.

Dani smirked in satisfaction and gestured at the goggles. "Put them on first, chief."

Corey stared at the goggles, then stared at Dani, and then stared at the goggles again. Diziara sighed.

"If she's going to prank you, she's going to prank you... no point delaying it," Diziara chastised him, and waved the remote. "Besides, how else am I supposed to see what this does?" She pressed the button, aiming it at Corey. So he put the goggles on and started laughing.

"Meeee? Prank?" Dani protested with a grin, "never so obviously." She smirked. "You like them? I thought you would, see here," she pointed at a small flat panel on the side. "You can adjust the zoom levels, transfer into infra-red lighting, oh, and this one is an electromagnetic detector. That part's pretty useful for the 'tubes, let me tell you," she snorted a laugh and looked at Diz.

"Chief here was so excited with my new bio-gadgets," she pointed at her prosthetic eyes, which, ironically, she didn't like at all despite the small upgrades they added to her vision, "I figured I'd give him something less... well.. permanent." She grinned at Diz and gestured at the remote. "And that part's for you. Just, you know, to remind him who's boss. Click it."

Corey had continued to laugh, even as Dani explained the actual features of the goggles, and when Diziara clicked the button the remote again at Dani's prompting, he shook his head.

"No, I can't have them," he dutifully reported. Diziara snorted.

"What?"

"That flashes across the display whenever you hit the button."

"Can I change the message?" Diziara grinned widely as she asked this.

Dani smiled proudly. "Why of course you can. I figured you should determine the snarkiness of the given message yourself. Here, turn the remote around, there's a panel. See? You can add a message or change them. You can even use an external PADD and add a graphic message, like an embedded holographic image, if you want," she glanced at Cor and looked at Diz again. "I figured you'd appreciate that part in particular."

Diziara's grin spread wide, and the ideas started to turn in her head. "It would make your shifts interesting if I left easter eggs in there for you, wouldn't it dear?" She flipped over the remote, and fussed with the panel a minute, then looked expectantly at Corey. He shook his head, reaching into an empty looking back pocket, and retrieving a PADD which he handed over to her.

"I will get you back for this," Corey insisted to Dani with a grin and a head shake. "At least programming it'll keep her occupied when they won't clear her to launch the fighter. Thank you."

Dani laughed. "I'm sure you'll try, Chief. And you're most welcome. Consider it my goodbye present. My way to thank you two for suffering my presence for the past year."

"Don't think I'm above using my own daughter to get back at you," Corey mockingly threatened, even as he eyed her suspiciously.

Dani laughed harder. "Oh I dare you, dear sir. I dare you. But remember," she grinned mischievously, "you never know what else I put in those goggles."

"That, young lady, is a risk I am just going to have to take," he returned with a head shake as he crossed his arms.

"Sounds like a challenge." Dani nodded at Cor and looked up at Diz, but her smile teasing but not completely happy. She was wondering if this was the last time they do this. The last time they sit, happily, as friends, laughing. Maybe. Maybe not.

"You might want to keep an eye on this guy." Dani looked at Diz and gestured at Cor, her ego reasserting itself on top of the doubts. "He might be consorting with unsavory characters."

"He married one, helped raise two more, and happily adopted the extended family. I've been watching him since the day I woke up at the Academy," Diziara returned, smiling at her husband. He snorted in amusement, and smiled at her. "I think he's adopted you too, so welcome to the family."

Dani was momentarily taken aback by that, quite touched. She wasn't used to being... well... wanted. She recovered quickly, "you're just doing that to interfere with his promotion, aren't you?" Her face morphed into the Bugs Bunny grin. She hid her emotions behind it. She was going to miss this. Probably one of the only thing she'd ever miss in Starfleet.

"I've been trying to interfere with his promotions since we got married, but sssh, don't tell him. He thinks I've been cheering him along the whole time," Diziara stage whispered to Dani, leaning forward with a hand cupped next to her lips. "He's gunning for Vice Admiral, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep the ego in check if he makes it."

"Considering the fact he's an Admiral, your method seems to be a little flawed," Dani shook her head from side to side and chuckled. "You might want to consider a change of tactics."

"That's the problem, I also have my marriage to consider, otherwise bar fights, fucking on the bridge, streaking, talking back to superiors..." Diziara admitted with an exaggerated sigh. "And I hate to admit it, but his ass still looks amazing in that fucking uniform."

Dani blinked, stared at Diz for a moment with a startled expression, then, slowly, a smile of pure admiration spreading on her face. "The bridge. Wow." she leaned back to inspect them both, "you are my heroes."

"It was overrated," Corey dismissed. "Keeping the bridge clear without letting on what was going on took too much of my attention." He frowned, and Diziara grabbed his hand.

"We knocked it off our buckle list, and your record's still pristine."

"Oh, I'd have loved to have seen it," Dani blurted, the realized the implications of what she said and shook her head, "No, wait, no I wouldn't have. No offense," she added quickly, making a face. These were the parents of one of her best friends, after all, and that image felt like walking in on her own parents. "But I'm definitely adding that one to my TO DO list." If she ever has the chance to complete it.

Corey laughed. "Though I know you're crafty enough to figure it out on your own, I'll certainly share some tips if you'd like. Just keep in touch after you ship out. Who knows what wrong ideas I'll get if I have to depend on Pond and the fleet data base to keep me up to date."

Dani's expression darkened again momentarily, but she recovered, forcing a smile on her face. "I'll do my best," she promised, hoping she could complete this promise, at least for a little while. "We all know how accurate fleet data is," she teased, a tinge of sharpness in her voice. "You might want to use better channels for actual news updates, if this," she gestured in the general direction of the window Diz was leaning against, "goes on."

"About the only thing I take at face value in the fleet database is duty assignments and promotions," Corey returned, with a significant look at Dani. "Demotion to a degree, but the reasons are usually layered with politics that don't actually resemble reality, and are just a headache to find the truth within. I really rather just talk, but sometimes that's hard on an open channel."

"Isn't that why you and Amelia play solitaire?" Diziara asked, directing a look at Dani.

"Open channel," Dani muttered, snorting in dismissal, emphasizing the first word as if it was the most ridiculous concept she's heard. "Solitaire? Isn't that the card game you play on your own?"

"Tell Pond I said she should tell you about solitaire when you see her," Corey finally said with a sigh and a look directed at Diziara.

Dani gave them both an incredulous look. "Right. Playing Solitaire together. Sounds absolutely tantalizing." She shook her head and stretched, "Well. I didn't get much stuff from UP, but what I did get is important and should be packed carefully. I should probably get started on that." She pushed herself up from the floor. "You take care of your new gadget, there, Chief. You better not have a permanent replacement the next time we meet," she smirked, but looked at Diz for reassurance.

The look Dani got back from her wasn't angry, but it was certainly upset. The woman who had been joking and smiling most of this conversation had shut down again. The idea of Corey being injured, or worse, was certainly a raw subject. Corey noticed the silence where he'd expected a quip, and looked to Diziara.

"I'll replicate a case and they'll live in my pockets when I'm not using them," Corey insisted, moving close enough to Diziara again to wrap his arm around her shoulder. "You keep not getting caught, I know better than to tell you to stay out of trouble."

Dani gave them a long look and nodded slowly. Yep. She will miss this. It's amazing how fast some connections are made. And how dear.

"Always." She forced a wide smile before her expression could reflect anything other than her signature mischief, and gave the pair a mock, two finger salute. "Till next time," she bowed and walked away, hoping that was a promise she can keep.

=/\= END LOG =/\=

Rear Admiral Corey Waterhouse
Head of Fighter Design Team
In Transition

Captain Diziara
Fighter Test Pilot
In Transition

Lieutenant Danielle Atarah
Engineer
USS Vindicator

 

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